This category hasn't seen an entry in English for some time. I think it's time to fix that.
I now have all my plane tickets for the trip (apart from the rather boring Nice→Paris and back). Here's a rough approximation of my whereabouts in the next three months.
Let's start from Paris, on the 6th of September, with a flight to Montréal, Canada. I'll then wander around for about three weeks, focusing on visiting Québec and maybe New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with possibly a trip to Ottawa and Toronto (which I only briefly visited during/around Debconf 2). Expected highlight: maybe I'll go see the wales.
September the 28th, flight to Mexico City. Slightly more than a week in Mexico, so I'll probably fall for the most obvious tourist traps. I plan on visiting things though, not lying down on beaches. No real plan yet, since a potential co-traveller is still very much that: potential. I hope I'll be able to escape Mexico City and visit some nicely precolombian site.
6th of October is when I leave Mexico and fly to Japan. This is the longest stay I'll make (almost four weeks), since I really loved that country when I was there (internship in 1998, then holidays in 2001). I'll most probably have a co-traveller for part of that stay. He's never been to Japan yet, which means I'll be unable to avoid spending a few days in Tokyo and another few in the obligatory Kyoto-Osaka-Nara triangle. I don't mind too much, since they are nice places to see after all, and there's going to be some relaxed travelling in-between (not the Shinkansen, in other words). And then, when my friend flies back to France, I'll have almost two more weeks to go to exotic new places I've never been to before. Like, Kyushu and Shikoku. No precise plans yet, either. Expected highlight: everything, but I'd like to both spend some time (more probably, money) in Akihabara, and see some more traditional places (I'm toying with the idea of staying a day or two in the temples around mount Koya-san).
That leads us to the 2nd of November, and a flight to New Caledonia, where I'll only stay until the 5th, so I'll probably run around, but not very far from, Nouméa. I'm glad my digital camera is reasonably fast in taking pictures and doesn't require much manual fiddling.
On the 5th of November, I'll take a plane to Auckland, New Zealand. I have two weeks to spend there, so I'll probably stay on the North Island, in order to take time to see the sights. I'll try to cover a reasonable part of it, though. With any luck, I'll go swim with the dolphins (and my sister will hate me with hateful jealousy — oh well, "too bad").
Then comes the trick: on the 20th of November, I'll fly back to New Caledonia, for obscure reasons linked with frequent flyer programmes. If things go according to plan, my previous stay will have been a reconnaissance stay, and I'll be able to schedule things for the second one to happen in a more or less organised way. I'm told New Caledonia is a lovely place for a first experience in scuba diving, so I'll see if I can take that opportunity.
And then it'll be the 26th of November, and I'll be on my way home, just in time to catch the northern hemisphere winter. I may not spend too much time enjoying the rain and cold, though, as I assume I'll have hundreds of pictures to sort, annotate and organise. And several hours of DV tapes, too, out of which I'll have to make a video report on a DVD if I want to avoid lynching by my friends and family.
That is the current plan. It's rough enough that things should go according to it, but it doesn't mean much.
Oh, yes, it does: it means I'm growing terribly excited as days go past.
