A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

I sit here, basking in what remains of the beautiful day that Auckland has laid on for me, reminding me not so subtly what I will be missing out on. I just went through an Auckland winter, then spring, and now as the temperature is beginning to rise, I transit to the cold far north of Europe. One could almost feel sorry for me, but for the fact that I did this by design. Next time I'll do the Northern Hemisphere in the summer, and thus skip winter for a year.

I leave tonight just before midnight, and have a 12 hour flight ahead of me to Shanghai. After that will be a 7 hour layover, before heading to Frankfurt (another 12 hour flight). I do predict that within the decade, there will be suborbital passenger service from Sydney to London (or similar) that will take all of an hour or two. Till then, it's hurtling through the stratosphere in a tin can.

I'm sitting here, wondering if I've forgotten anything. Not so much that I won't have it - I can always buy almost anything I forgot - but because my pack is depressingly full, I'd rather not discover more things I should have packed.

In my defence, a large volume, and not inconsiderable weight is occupied by my fire trade goods and the suit jacket that I will be needing on the cruise (and will hopefully use elsewhere!). Unfortunately by the very nature of the my travels, my backpack will really only get fuller. My medication does take up some volume as well, but not as much as the other things.

So in a few hours, I set out to conquer the world. Lay on, Macduff!

Location: Auckland
Temperature: 19°C