The moment we've all been waiting for....

So months of planning, changing plans, freaking out about price of airfares, finding awesome airfares, researching tours, accommodation & other activities... it all comes down to this... 2 sleeps to go! Unfortunately I wasn't upgraded to business or premium economy for my flights to Vancouver but I have managed to change my aisle seat in the middle of the plane to a window seat for my Vancouver to Auckland flight on the 18th September which I am happy about.

Ok so the itinerary goes a little something like this:

3rd Sept - Brisbane to Vancouver
4th Sept - City Snapshots Tour of Vancouver
5th Sept - Free Day - Aquarium & Grouse Mountain
6th Sept - Day trip to Whistler
7th Sept - Laundry (very important!) and Hamlet at Bard on the Beach (can't wait for that one!)
8th Sept - Cruise begins
9th Sept - Cruising the Inner Passage
10th Sept - Stop - Icy Strait Point
11th Sept - Hubbard Glacier
12th Sept - Stop - Juneau
13th Sept - Stop - Ketchiken
14th Sept - Cruising the Inner Passage
15th Sept - Cruise ends.  Transfer to Victoria
16th Sept - Butchart Gardens & Butterfly Gardens tour
17th Sept - Free day - wander around Victoria Harbour
18th Sept - Begin the long journey back to Brisbane
19th Sept - Flying
20th Sept - Auckland to Brisbane

So there you have it.. not much detail I know but that is pretty much how my time is gonna be spent.

What am I looking forward to the most?

• Seeing the Hubbard Glacier for sure!
• Finally getting to Victoria
• There is a bit of a possibility that we may see the Northern Lights on the 11th (http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Alaska/2013/09/11).  This website shows the Aurora forecast for while we are on the cruise and the 11th is a good possibility if we have a clear night.  Now THAT would be a tick on the bucket list!

I'm still not as excited as I think I should be but it is slowly coming.  I think because I know tomorrow at work is going to be so full on that I won't have time to think about that fact it is my last day for nearly 3 weeks!  I guess it will come to me tho... I am looking forward to the trip and being somewhere different tho :)

I love it when a plan comes together.....

So this time in 50 sleeps I will be sitting in Auckland airport waiting for my connection to Vancouver after a 3.5 hour flight from Brisbane.  After about 6-7 months of changing plans, ditching things, being convinced it would be a good idea to do something else and playing out loads of money, I finally have my itinerary set in stone...

On the 3rd Sept I will be departing Brisbane for Vancouver via Auckland on Air NZ and spending 5 nights in this Canadian city.  I hope to head up to Grouse Mountain, go to the aquarium, see a Hamlet play at Bard on  the Beach and roam the streets of Vancouver.  Then I join my friend, her husband and young child on a 7 day cruise up the inside passage to Alaska where we will be viewing glaciers and hopefully whales & the Northern Lights (if we are REALLY lucky).  From there I head to Victoria for 3 nights to take in that beautiful part of British Columbia before heading back to Brisbane on the 18th Sept.

My plans have changed and changed again.  I was originally going to go via Christchurch so I could spend at least part of my mum's birthday with her but unfortunately airfare prices being what the are, it was a little too expensive to do that.  So I am going to send her a HUGE bunch of flowers instead and now because of the prices of flights, I actually get 4 extra days in BC so I get to spend more time in Victoria rather than doing just a day trip from Vancouver!  So I guess all in all it has worked out quite nicely - well for me anyway.. those at work will have to suffer without me for a few extra days... Which it looks like they will have to do for my next year's holiday too :)  But more on that later...

I am really looking forward to this holiday.  I have heard so many good things about Vancouver, Victoria and the cruise we are doing too.  None of these places are really places that I MUST see or go to but I am looking forward to getting away and doing something different to the norm.  I still need to decide what (if any) tours I am going to do in Vancouver but I think for Victoria I am just going to do the hop on hop off bus and also just booked a tour out to Butchart Gardens - which by all accounts is a must see place!  In Vancouver I really want to go to the Aquarium and I have just purchased my ticket to go see Hamlet at the Bard on the Beach in Vanier Park... can't wait for that one!!!

I have also just booked a day trip to Whistler - I wasn't going to but then I figured.. if I didn't then I would probably regret it and when am I going to head back there again??  Anyway, it's done now so I can't take it back :D  Other than getting hop on hop off tickets & the aquarium, I think everything has been paid for!  So that's a bonus... all my money now can go towards spending money .. I am looking forward to this very much!

When did that happen?

Just read over my last post and it mentioned that there was 7 weeks till my cruise... ok well as of tomorrow - there is only TWO WEEKS!!!!  Holy Moly time has flown.. although it didn't really seem like it at the time.

I think I am pretty much organised, just got to get insurance but other than that every thing is done.  I just need it to be now!  I am so over work at the moment and the constant "I need help", "I need things to do", "Have you got a minute, I just need you to stand behind me for 20 minutes whilst I write an email that I am going to send you anyway" that comes my way.  I sometimes wonder if anyone there thinks I have anything better to do than wait on them hand & foot

But hey.. only 15 sleeps will my first holiday of the year.  Very excited!  I have booked a shore tour in Lifou to take me to the other side of the island.  No one else has booked on so it will definitely be some "me" time.. and the other people who booked the same tour of course :)  Since I have never been to a South Pacific Island, I really have no idea what to expect - I know that "technically" NZ is a South Pacific Island but you know what I mean.

I wish I had some exciting news that has happened over the past 5 weeks (really didn't think it had been that long, but there you go), but unfortunately nothing exciting has happened - oh wait, I became and aunty for the umpteenth time just before Easter, so that's exciting.  But nothing that has happened to me... Hopefully when I write again I will be able to share some exciting news & photos :)