OE Mark III

November 2, 2005

New Zealanders love to travel. We head north because we can't head south: the penguins won't have us. (Incidentally, it was an Antarctic explorer, Sir Vivian Fuchs, who came up with a great travel quote: "If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well enough to travel.")

A wonderful New Zealand tradition is called OE, which stands for Overseas Experience. We usually do our OE when in our 20s. We pack our bags, head for Europe, and spend the next few years mixing casual work with backpacking. Then we come home, take out a mortgage, and settle down.

An appealing new variant of OE involves returning to Europe as a middle-aged couple for a month or two. This is done as soon as the kids are old enough to be left behind in New Zealand.

Lacking a spouse, I can't do OE Mark II. So I've decided to do the next best thing: I'm taking the kids. Think of Chevy Chase in "European Vacation." That'll be me. Gulp.

We leave in a couple of weeks. The idea is simply to have an adventure - a few weeks of shared experiences to bind us together, experiences to talk about 30 years from now.

I'm telling you this so you understand why you won't be hearing from me for quite a while. Expect to receive the next issue of BEYOND THE GRAVY in February.