This is also posted on my soon to be popular travel blog: Feet to the Earth.

Packing is probably one of the worst activities you can willingly put yourself through, other than moving. Unfortunately, I’m doing both at the same time. I’ve boxed my life up into a suburban garage and at the same time tried to make sure that everything I’ll need for the next four months can fit into a backpack and carry-on bag while complying with Air New Zealand’s weight and size restrictions.

The significance of this trip hit me only as I was finally finishing my move. I quit my job and am taking a volunteer position taking care of a cabin in the backwoods of a New Zealand national park. I’ll have until May to figure out what I’m going to do next. I think unemployed is what I’ll be doing next.

Despite what I may have written about Long Beach and Southern California I’m going to miss it. There’s a lot of cool people doing some amazing things but it’s only four months. Think of where you were in September. For most of you I’m sure not much has changed since then. May will be here before I know it and I’ll miss the mountain.

My brother has done something very similar to this more than once. I’ve already seen this story play out. Coming back home, seeing nothing has changed, telling the same stories over and over again and finally getting back into society. I’ve spent the past month trying to wrap up my life in Long Beach but that is impossible. It became kinda tedious, having to mentally acknowledge that there was going to be a hard break from everything I’ve known.