The Awesomecation: A Brief Overview

In a normal year, a trip across New Zealand, with stop-offs in Marlborough Sound for wreck diving, Akaroa for chilling out, Wellington for jazz festival, and New Plymouth for Len Lye sculpture seeing, plus two of the best movies I've seen in ages (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and HUNGER) and one of the most amazing, entrancing failures I'll ever see (WATCHMEN - I mean every word of that as a compliment, and could go on for ages about it), travelling with my good friend Jonny, would be a great vacation.

But this is the Year of the Awesome, and therefore that is the prelude.

Tomorrow I fly to Australia for the Awesomecation, with my friend Ransom (who I met in Portland and now lives in LA). It looks roughly like this, with the caveat that part of the nature of the Awesomecation is leaving room to find out awesome things on the ground rather than overplanning and not having room for unexpected awesome:

11 March - W
arrive in CAIRNS
get over jet lag

12 - 14 March - Th - Sa night
stay in PORT DOUGLAS
go diving

15 - 16 March - Su - Mo
CAPE TRIBULATION
exploring beautiful coastal land, more diving?

17 March - Tu, 18 March - W - TBD
exploring inland Australia - Tablelands? Outback?

19 March - Th
return to CAIRNS fly to -> BRISBANE
(just a brief overnight so we're well positioned for next day flight)

20- 25 March - Fr - We
fly from BRISBANE -> ESPIRITU SANTO, VANUATU
diving, snorkelling, beach lounging, caving

26-27 March - Th-Fr
fly to -> TANNA, VANUATU
see another island! volcano! cargo cult! more!

28 March - 1 April - Sa - Th
PORT VILA, VANUATU
to the big, action packed island! not even sure what we're doing, too many awesome options - figure it out as we go.

2-3 Apr - Th - Fr
BRISBANE
in the evening. day or two in Brisbane to rejoin civilization, check out a zoo, chillax.

4 Apr - Sa
AUCKLAND
back home! for real!

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reports and general Internet connectivity will be scarce, I assume. Will post virtual postcards when I can, and will try to set up some auto-publishing on some retrospective posts on some of the awesome activities that I've enjoyed this year tonight.

Take care.