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.

[Sebastian Fiedler]

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…

[Sebastian Fiedler]