The Best Way to Celebrate Getting NZ Residency...

...is to leave NZ and go travelling for 4 months!!

Yup, it's official. I've got my NZ residency!! It came through about 2 weeks ago, and I have until August 4th to get the residency stamp in my passport, so I'm heading off glob-trotting until then! And I leave tomorrow :)

I've had a bit of an issue with my passport... I sent it off to the Thai embassy a couple of weeks ago to get a Thai visa put in it, allowing me to be in the country for up to 60 days. You CAN automatically get visitors visas, but going in by land (as I will be) entitles you to only 15 days, and by plane (meaning I'd miss out loads of stuff I want to see on the journey up into Thailand) allows 30 days. As I didn't want the limitations of having to leave Thailand after 'X' amount of days to get the visa renewed, I figured I'd be proactive and get the extended visa in advance. This was a bad decision.

Unfortunately my passport won't be arriving before I leave. It's been with the Thai Embassy for over a week, but because they've had so many NZ and Thai public holidays recently, it didn't get sent to me before they closed on Thursday. I received a voicemail yesterday (Friday - they were meant to be closed, but I guess someone was working), saying that because I hadn't sent a stamp for $2.80 allowing them to deliver my self-addressed courier envelope to a rural location, they couldn't send it. I desperately tried to get in contact with someone there, but only got automated messages saying they were closed. I emailed every address I could find to try to get through so that I could pay by credit card, but no joy. I felt blue.

There's no possible way to get my passport before I leave tomorrow, and I thought that I'd have to change my flights to next week... But then I had a passing thought. I didn't think in a million years that it would be possible, but upon checking (and re-checking and re-checking) with NZ immigration, it turns out to be ok:
Having a US passport allows me to travel out of NZ on my US passport! Then I can have my British passport sent out to me in KL, enabling me to travel into Thailand using the visa inside it! PHEW!!! I really thought that because NZ had no record of me coming into the country on my US passport, that I couldn't leave on it. But apparently I can! :o)

So I'm now packing my bag for the flight. Thinking back to when I was packing for the first time, 1 1/2 years ago, I'm sure this pack is lighter with much less stuff. But there's still a heck of a lot... but I genuinely think I'll want it all...

This was then (2010):

And this is now (2012):

So what are my plans over the next few months? Well I have 12 weeks in SE Asia, which will probably be split up as follows:

• Malaysia - 2 weeks. Most of this will be spent in Kuala Lumpur waiting for my passport, and then heading to the Cameron Highlands, before heading up to:
• Thailand - 1 month. No plans of where to go, except to meet up with some friends who are there for the Full Moon Party. Then cross over into:
• Laos - 1 month. No plans. Then down to:
• Cambodia - 2 weeks. And if I have time, I'd like to travel along the Mekong Delta into:
• South Vietnam for a few days before flying back to:
• Malaysia and catching my flight to the:
• UK - 9 days. I'm so excited to see my family and meet my nephew! Then I go to:
• USA - 1 week. Going with my mum to spend time with her as go to a family reunion, then I travel back to:
• UK - for a few hours, before catching a flight to:
• NZ.

That's my vague itinerary, but I still have no idea of what I'll be doing in these places. I've got a couple of Lonely Planets to look through (which are HEAVY!). My current hopes are that I'll stay away from too much western culture, and immerse myself in the Asian way of life. I want to learn about Buddhism. And increase my personal perception of what the world is, learning about others' spiritual beliefs and mindsets - hopefully this will help me with the contining formulation of my own beliefs. I said in one of my first blog postings that one of my reasons for travelling was to find out what I believe. I'm happy to report that I'm getting there :o)

I leave in the morning (as long as what the embassy told me is true and I can actually travel out on my American passport - fingers crossed!), and arrive in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow evening (after an 11 hour flight)... I'm not sure what to expect from it, but am really looking forward to it! Hopefully I'll update my blog more frequently than I have been, but I can't promise anything!

So that's what I'm currently up to. When I get back from these travels, I'd like to work in NZ for a few months and then head over to Japan in November for a ski season. Exciting times lie ahead! I'm so happy - it's amazing how plans can change. This time last month I was just plodding along in Wanaka. Now I'm a NZ resident, about to embark on a massive adventure around South East Asia!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again... thank you life :o)