Buying Boots, Making Decisions

One week ago, right before Dave and I watched a few Good Keen Kiwi Bachelors in an alpaca-herding contest at the agricultural field days, we reaffirmed our decision to stay in New Zealand through the end of the year.  We would work on various organic farms for the winter before returning to Tuateawa for a third program in September.  For a lot of reasons, neither of us was very excited about the plan, but we both felt confident that we could "live with it."

Before we left field days, I decided to buy a pair of good Skellerup steel-toed men's size 6 work boots.  My hiking boots are on their last legs (heh), and stepping in cow pies and dropping hammers on my feet is far more pleasant when I'm not working in sneakers.

There's a proverb that says the best way to make a difficult decision is to flip a coin.  In the second the coin is in the air, you know, in your heart, how you want it to land.

Buying those work boots was like flipping the coin.  As we were driving back to Tuateawa, the van bumping and screeching on the dirt roads snaked around the hillsides, I imagined myself wearing those Skellerup steel-toed men's size 6 work boots for six months.

I whispered to Dave, "It's time to go."

And so, we're going.

...To Auckland on Saturday, July 3...

...To Sydney, Australia on Monday, July 5...

...To Darwin, Australia on Tuesday, July 6...

...To Singapore on Sunday, July 11...

...and to Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday, July 14.

It might seem like not enough time in Australia--only a week! it's an entire continent!--but I think of this as less  an exercise in "doing" a place and more an exercise in slow travel.  In other words, we'll be on the move for about 10 days, making our way from New Zealand to Indonesia, where I imagine we'll stay for the duration of our 30-day visa (unless we don't).  Why Indonesia?  Because I know only two people who have been there (one stayed on Java for a month; the other visited when he was 5).  And why not!