The Big 2-5

I am officially 25 years old! Over the hill! On my way to 30! OK I'll stop there before I freak out too much! On a brighter note of having a birthday, you get birthday presents! Perfect timing to get some last minute freebies for your trip! From my amazing parents I got a travel wallet, travel flask, travel pillow, some spending money and 2x 'large' micro fibre towels (the quick drying ones) even a large is quite small so take it out of the packet and see how big they are before you buy them - these have been most reccomended to me from people that have already travelled so I will see what all the hype is about soon! I also received spending money from my brother and his girlfriend (who has been amazing with travel advice having spent 9 months travelling alone around Europe!) and a Kathmandu voucher from a friend which was handy! So I went along to Kathmandu and found a toiletrie pack that hangs up in the shower and thought that would be really convienient, saves taking everything in and out of a plastic bag and stacking your body wash etc around you, now all my toiletries will stay in one place in my suitcase AND the shower - success!! So next stop is my birthday / farewell drinks this Saturday which I am really excited for (but also a bit sad as it will be the start of the goodbyes...) but I guess theres no perfect time for that.... Will update after the weekend!

$$ Saving $$

O the joys of saving. At first I didn't know if I was going to put a deposit on a house, buy a new car or travel but I knew I wanted to invest in something this year. I have been saving for nearly 8 months now and when I say saving I really do mean SAVING. I moved home and started putting 3/4 of my wages away each pay leaving just enough for petrol and some spending allowance. Over time you realise just how much you don't need that daily coffee, or that delicious pack of sushi for lunch, that awesome night out with your friends (you will be going out in Europe soon enough after all!) The biggest inconvenience for me was constantly saying to my friends 'I can't go out, Im saving' or better yet 'I can only go out local and I'll just drink water.'

I worked out that in 8 months I would have saved around 13-14K and it will all most likely get blown in 3 months by the time you book your tour / flights / accommodation / buy food / activities etc it all adds up. Again I am very fortunate to have my whole extended family over there so I don't have to worry about the accommodation side of things until I move to London where I only have a few couches to crash on for a limited time... (this is where the rest of blowing my money will come in - getting set up in London!) Another tactic for saving was consulting my two travel buddies before any purchase, if I got two yes's I could buy. You begin to crack after 8 months of practically no shopping.... so its important to have people to keep you in check and remind you of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...

Also annoying things will pop up, like only needing your car for 6 more weeks, having your first car crash ever in that time (not my fault btw!) having your W.O.F expire and having to pay $300 to get it back on the road just for 4 weeks and then having your registration run out 2 weeks prior to leaving. All inconvenient, all require your hard earned money that you 'could' have saved. You do have to get to the point where you just cannot stress out about every single penny - you just have to do the best with the money that you have and accept that things still do cost, even when your saving.

Travel gear - what to take?

Depending on how your traveling, there are a lot of blogs that will help you decide what is right to pack for your journey / the best luggage to take. I decided to buy a suitcase with wheels and I got it on sale for $110 from $240, its boring and grey and I really wanted the gorgeous purple one but the grey one was 1.8kg lighter and had a strong frame inside where as the purple one did not, some things have to be sacrificed for a more efficient journey! For carry on luggage I am taking my laptop - only because I am a graphic designer and need it for work - a back pack from Kathmandu that I got on sale for $50 from $130, its great quality and has lots of pockets which comes in handy so you don't have to have all your money / valuable things in one section of your bag (incase of pick pocketer s in Europe) and a big puffa jacket. It may get annoying with the jacket but I figure it will double up as a small duvet on the Top Deck bus tour. I am also taking a travel pillow as Nikki just landed in London and highly recommends it! In regards with what to pack, after my tour I am going to post my pre-tour list with an edited version on what I actually used / didn't use. Should be interesting!

Make up, glorious make up

So before you head away to Europe you want to stock up on all of your make up and body products right? Wrong! Thanks to extensive knowledge from my fellow traveler Kate on buying products from overseas, I have been educated in how much CHEAPER everything is in the UK. An example of this is MAC make up, a foundation in New Zealand can set you back $60-70 easy and in the UK it will only set you back 19 pounds (at the current exchange rate thats $39!) Kate also discovered that face wipes that cost $9-10 here will only cost you $4 NZ in the UK. So try and get by with what you have and just buy what you need on arrival, look at online food shopping sites such as Sainsbury's and see what you can really save on before you get there.

Entry 3: Jabs & medications

So I went to the doctor to get a list of things that I need before I leave such as hay fever tablets, anti-nausea, anti-'upset stomach' tablets, any pills I take everyday - stock up cause you may find yourself paying more once you land in a foreign country! Since I haven't had jabs since school the doc said I should get the flu jab, typhoid jab, hep A and hep B jab. On that day I got typhoid and the flu jab and was hit with a $130 bill, who knew they cost THAT much? Then I googled it and you only really need typhoid when you travel to places like South East Asia and I'm going to Europe... you have to pay $50 just to get tested to see if you need Hep A and B then pay a further $90 per jab!!! Shocking and depressing when you are saving every penny you earn - this is the last thing you want to happen just before you leave. I have decided not to get the Hep A and B after reading up online, the only one I would get is hep A.... however you are meant to get the jabs at least 4 weeks before you go for full protection and I leave in 3! Something to note for the future....
My friends and I have also been taking vitamins just to help fend off any bugs!

Entry 2: 24 days to go!

I should have started this blog a while ago but better late than never I guess! I want to start off by saying that if you are thinking of doing your OE but don't want to leave your friends and family, JUST DO IT! I will be missing out on milestones in my friends lives like seeing them get married, have their babies (all of this seems to happening the one year I decide to leave!) but I realised that if I stick around to watch my friends live their lives then I won't get to live mine. At 25 years old I am single, have no mortgage or children - basically no responsibilities and seeing as I am approaching the big 2-5 in a few days (quarter life crisis anyone??) I thought its now or never.

Initially I was going to take the plunge alone, having travelled around the South Island in 2010 with Stray Travel (highly recommend! Picture above is from that trip) I saw just how quick you make friends for life on the travel bus, I went on shy and quiet and left as probably one of the loudest and craziest (I'm glad my friend Deborah who I went with cannot comment on this!) Anyway, that was until my Mum had dinner with my friend Nikki's Mums that I hadn't seen in quite a while only to discover that Nikki also had the same travel plans as me, like the exact same even down to what months we wanted to leave. So that was that, from then on we emailed everyday talking about our adventure and planning the whole thing over and over - as you do! Then one of Nikki's friends decided to hop on board for the move and my good friend Kate decided to come and travel for a few months also. The months that followed were full of trial packing lists / booking flights and all accommodation / booking the Grand European with Top Deck (13 countries in 28 days), resigning from work which was really daunting but it has to be done... creating a new CV and portfolio, sorting all medications / jabs (this will be in detail in my next entry) applying for bank accounts, working out the best way to use money over there (still figuring this out) getting info on National Insurance numbers - of which I will update how I get on with this and most importantly, travel insurance! I got a great deal with Southern Cross Travel Care - read the fine print and make sure that it covers items such as laptops IN FULL, not just market value etc. I am fortunate to be a British citizen as well as a New Zealand one but the visa process for working overseas is quite daunting so definitely get onto that asap if you are wanting to work abroad. That's all for now :)

Kia Ora!

Hi there! My name is Steph and I have created this blog to document my big OE! After arriving in New Zealand at the age of 7 with my Mum, Dad and big brother from England in May 1993, (here I must mention that I am half Scottish thanks to my wonderful Mother!) I am now a Kiwi kid and all of us have never gone back (I know, crazy right!) I have been dreaming of this OE since I was 16 but decided to get my qualifications first so I would always have something to fall back on. One diploma and degree in graphic design later as well as 2+ years working experience as a graphic designer at a well known NZ home wares company, I am finally on my way back to see my family and friends left behind so long ago, travel around Europe and settle in London to gain some overseas work experience... watch this space.....