7th Heaven

By now, I should be well acquainted with the Land of the Long White Cloud.

One of my favourite things about traveling is the excitement you get when you arrive in a new country (or continent for that matter!). Even after backpacking through Europe for 3 months, every new country brought the anticipation and excitement of the unknown - "How's your French/German/Spanish/Italian/Greek?". It's a feeling that never gets old. (However, waking up and asking "What country are we in again?" gets old. But not entirely in a bad way.)

I have the book "101 things to do Before You Die", and while some of the things are just plain stupid ('Get backstage and hook-up with a Rockstar'), a number are definitely do-able. While, I may not be able to 'visit every country in the world', I'm sure as hell going to try. But I'll also settle for meeting the simpler version, 'visit every continent'.

So, my trip to New Zealand marks my 4th continent (North & South America, Europe), leaving Asia, Africa and Antarctica. Obviously Antarctica will be the most difficult, but you can bet on me going, despite my utter disdain for the cold. Why Antarctica? Why not? Think about how few people actually go there, about how crisp and clean the air must be because there's no pollution. Sure there's a huge hole in the ozone above it, but soon enough there will only be 6 continents to visit. So one day, I want to be able to say that I was fortunate enough to have visited the 7th continent.