Time is ticking along, and it seems that my plans for the big trip are evolving weekly. Ideas and experience keep flooding in as I talk to random people. Turns out everybody loves to talk about their experiences travelling!

I was planning on having Bangkok as my initial destination but then my cousin Peter informed me that his brother is now living on Ko Samui, an island off the southern peninsula of Thailand. Once I looked on a map I figured it make more sense to start in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and head north rather then travel the peninsula twice.

Then I had a long Skype chat with a friend who spent 16 months travelling the world a couple years ago. Chris strongly recommended that I start in Indonesia, so after some more thinking decided that I'd start in Bali. Island hoping across Indonesia and Malaysia seemed like an amazing way to get to Thailand.

While talking to Craig, who is going to join me for the beginning of the trip, we hatched the plan to add exploring some of Australia to the beginning of the trip. So many people have talked about the amazing diving through Asia that it seemed like getting PADI certified would be a sensible thing to do. So with that in mind thought we'd start in Cairns, spend a week or so getting certified and doing a live aboard dive trip of the Great Barrier Reef. Then spend a couple of weeks driving to Darwin and from there hop a plane to Bali.

In the middle of all of this it looks like I've got a job offer to do a week or so consulting in the States. I'll be hitting San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City in a whirlwind few days and then possibly to Las Vegas for NAB. While this will provide a welcome influx of cash, it means that leaving is postponed until mid-April.

I thought that was probably about as much as plans could change, but now James has just told me about an epic adventure that friends of his are cooking up. Apparently a mate moved to Nepal and has been doing charity work there. They are now in the process of organising a charity tuk tuk trip from Nepal to Amsterdam! Sounds ridiculous(ly fun), the only gotcha is that they are hoping to leave in June and I'll have barely made it to Thailand by then.

I'm loath to pass up a oncer, but it would mean shuffling plans around considerably and probably doubling back later. Still I said I was going to travel with as little of an agenda as possible to be open to whatever opportunity arises!

Decisions, decisions ...

I keep forgetting that we aren't all connected to the same hive mind and am surprised when friends don't know that I have left Weta (again). Everybody asks why I chose to leave, and the answer is simple. Despite the fact that I adore my job, doing it left me with very little emotional energy to do anything else. I realised that for most of my adult life, work really has been my life. For a long time that was fine because I loved my work and was happy to make it my life. However with each passing year that compromise has seemed less acceptable. With "Avatar" wrapping up, and especially now that I'm single again, it felt foolish to not take a punt and try something different.

Of course this leaves the question of what exactly is the next step, and honestly the answer is that I don't know. What I do know is I've been talking about travelling the world for longer then I can remember. As a kid, shuttling between California and New Zealand with my parents, I remember idolising the scruffy hippy kids that I'd see congregating in the corners of airports. Over the last <gulp> twenty years I've ended relationships and quit jobs to head off on this journey more times then I care to count. Yet I always allowed life to pull me back before the final plunge. The time has arrived to stare the dream square in the face and either plunge in … or get over it.

What I do know is that I'll be spending the next couple months in Wellington enjoying summer and the company of friends. Then around April I'll be heading off towards Southeast Asia. My destination? The cheapest flight that gets me to Southeast Asia, I'm guessing Bangkok but hope to be surprised. From there I intend to slowly make my way westward. Since I'm not in a hurry I intend to stop for as long as I like and enjoy everything which seems worth savouring. I'll be avoiding planes and will instead travel by foot, bicycle, motorbike, boat and bus as much as possible. After exploring Southeast Asia I hope to make my way into China and from there to Tibet, down through Nepal and into India. After that I really have no idea, I suspect my initial travel companions will have headed for home by then so I'll be properly on my own. Then depending on how comfortable I am in my new traveller shoes, Africa or Eastern Europe seem the most likely choices.

I've been saying that this is going to be a years trip but really I have no idea. More realistically it'll end when I: get sick of it, run out of money, find something I don't want to leave or end up back in New Zealand.

Between now and the I hope to keep the new travel section of this updated with what I learn and experience along the way.