Back in 2019, I had this idea for a grand tour of Australia. A two month trip, covering all the highlights from Perth in the west to Sydney in the east, from Melbourne in the south to Cairns and Darwin in the north (and not forgetting Uluru in the middle), visiting friends and family along the way. A once-in-a-lifetime adventure before we get too old to do it.
The plan was to take the trip in spring 2022, the year of our 60th birthdays. Then, in early 2020, Covid-19 hit and the world became a very different place. Masks, travel bans and lockdowns brought the world to a standstill as we did what we could to limit the spread of a deadly virus and protect those most vulnerable to it. With Australia and New Zealand being amongst the last places on the planet to open their borders and lift their restrictions, for a while it seemed as though it would never happen but, eventually, in 2022, they began to gradually ease those constraints and it became a possibility again. No worries (as they say in that part of the world) we’ll give it a while to settled down and we’ll go in spring 2024. Time for a replan.
Over a few months that original plan was to undergo many replans (what can I say, I’m still a Project Manager at heart) as my research surfaced more ideas, leading to new must-dos to fit in, with each iteration resulting in a few things being cut out in order to accommodate a stopover in Bali and a cruise around New Zealand (sorry Perth and Darwin). Finally I got to the point where I was happy that I had an itinerary that packed as much as possible into the time and cost available.
It was then that our lovely daughter Megan and her partner Francis announced a plan of their own - an April 2024 wedding! So, the travel plans were pushed onto the back burner again, but this time for a happy reason. No problem, we’ll go in autumn 2024 instead. Time for another replan.
Shifting everything back by 6 months (not wanting to sightsee in Australia in their winter) the new plan was formed. We were leaving the UK on 1st October, returning 1st December. Flights booked. Cruise booked. We even bought a shiny new case. Then, in March 2024, a couple of weeks before the wedding, I got the result of a PSA test I had done “just to be on the safe side”, which Indicated a high chance of prostate cancer. Not the result I had been expecting. Several scans and a biopsy later it was confirmed. Australia would have to wait. Again. It was starting to feel like fate had decided it was not to be. But fuck fate. And fuck cancer.
During the months leading up to my treatment, mainly as a distraction and to keep reminding myself of the exciting things I had to look forward to when that treatment was finished, I refined the itinerary one final time. Out went the cruise, as I didn’t feel it was enabling us to do justice to New Zealand, with a 2 week tour taking in both north and south islands replacing it. Autumn 2025. A 4 week course of radiotherapy later (followed by a good result from a post-treatment PSA test) and we’re good to go.
So here it is. The final, final, version. 66 days: Bali, Australia and New Zealand. Bring it on.