Well I’ve officially put in my leave request at work now. With potentially 4 months off work it is better to get in early on these things not only for the expected time that a long service leave request will take but to enable advertising and sufficient handover for my backfill. Things are coming together and I’m forging ahead with planning and logistics. This trip has been in the making for a few years now and started to really take shape as I budgeted and put money aside each week. To date I have daily living expenses covered, have all my gear and now just need to save for the flight across the ditch. It’s been great reading class of 2014-15’s blogs as well. The really fast walkers finished in late Feb and others are just finishing now. All blogs have been informative on gear choices, route conditions, timings and tid bits on where to find much needed good coffee, beer and food along the way.  I have a good idea on how long this journey will take and have a starting date in mind. I’ll start off from Cape Reinga in the 2nd week of Novembe 2015.