The Beginning

26/02/2025. I left Auckland full of optimism, adventure and anticipation. This then turned into nervousness, overwhelment, and a small sense of regret. However, like everything, this didn’t last forever.

My final few hours in Auckland were spent having breakfast with my family and Lance, before flapping my wings across the Tasman. The arrival into Sydney was smooth and seamless. Taking a direct train from the airport to the CBD was something my little kiwi brain almost couldn’t comprehend.

After dropping my bags off at my hostel, I meandered aimlessly through the bustling streets of New South Wales’ capital – something I will be doing a lot on this trip. Sweating through my shirt in the hot Australian sun, I took in the sights, sounds and smells of Sydney with the highlight being One Martin Place, an intricately orante neo-classical building.

As I walked purposelessly, a twinge of panic flowed through me. What the fuck am I doing? I’ve quit my stable post-grad job and left behind my friends and family and my whole life in my hometown to be alone in foreign lands. For what? To gain a “purpose”? Okay, granted Australia isn’t that foreign but still! They have light rail and a metro that seems pretty foreign.

This feeling ebbed and flowed throughout the rest of the afternoon as I contemplated where to have a beer. In the end, I went back to the hostel and washed off the sweat that had been accumulating for three hours. The hostel bathroom was pretty shit, but still served its purpose.

I decided to walk the opposite way from the city for dinner and found a place called Cicerone for dinner. It was billed as “Roman” and had a picture of Cicero (who it was named after), so I thought that sounded up my alley. A puttanesca pizza and a beer later, I found myself drinking a pint of Guinness in some pub to keep myself awake. This surprisingly had the opposite effect, so I wandered back to the hostel for an early night. 19,000 steps and 14.3km walked. Day one down, who knows how many to go…