Alright… I am just getting ready for the next leg of this trip. Spent some fabulous time in Sydney, ACT and in the South-East of NSW. Now, off to Christchurch, NZ, for some critter-free holidays on beautiful South Island.
Rock pools at Burning Palms Beach in the Royal National Park, NSW (shot yesterday in the late afternoon)
I am in the middle of my preparations for another longish trip to New Zealand and Australia. Tonight’s heavy rain here in Nürnberg makes the prospect of diving into spring and early summer in the Southern Hemisphere even more attractive. And… I do need a break and re-charge my batteries again. I can feel that.
This time I am renting out both my apartments in Nürnberg and Vienna. Quite a hassle … but also an interesting exercise. It kind of forces me to sort through my stuff and see how quickly and painlessly I can tuck away my belongings and leave my home-bases to someone else. Economically this all makes perfect sense, of course. Rents are currently my biggest cost item… so, finding someone else to move in while I am gone allows me to set up a pretty decent travel budget.
The overall trip will be kicked off by attending ASCILITE 2009 in Auckland. Followed by a two-week car trip exploring the Northland region. Around Christmas a hop over to Sydney will bring about a reunion with Anne and Stephen Bartlett-Bragg (its about time guys!)… and hopefully some fireworks in Sydney harbour. Then, some trip in South-Eastern Australia, before flying from Sydney to Christchurch to start off on another car/camping trip in the upper parts of South Island. Possibly some hiking in the Abel Tasman national park. Finally, a flight to Auckland… and then from there back into the Bavarian winter.
Time is flying… and all of a sudden the trip downunder is just around the corner. The recent cold that put me into bed for a few days certainly added to the feeling that I am running late now with preparing and organising things accordingly. Oh, well…
On the other hand there is a growing feeling of excitement to actually go down to New Zealand (and possibly Australia) again. The trip will start off with attending the ASCILITE 2009 conference in Auckland where I will run a symposium titled “Cascading Change: The role of social software and social media in educational intervention and transformation” with Rob Fitzgerald, George Siemens … and others.
As usual, not all colleagues who contributed to the original proposal will finally make it to the event. However, I think this will be an interesting session… even with a smaller group of contributors. More on this in the next few days…