Matt Down Under

Two years ago in early February I arrived in Tasmania. I had been planning to stay for a couple of weeks and now I am starting into my third year, so far with no plans for leaving. A lot has happend during the last year, exciting things, disappointing things, adventures and travels. Here’s a short recapitulation of 2009 with an outlook on what’s planned for this year.

2009

2009 began with sour legs for me since I had only just returned from the Overland Track days before the turn of the year. A few days later I returned to work, at that time I was still with my previous employer, my first office job in Australia. It was a job that I started with very high expectations but it quickly turned into frustration, my personal philosophy in terms of strategy and work quality were fundamentally different to the management’s. In the end it simply didn’t work out and we decided to part ways. It was a helpful experience though.

By the time I left I had already been applying for new jobs for quite some time and once again I was lucky. Only a few days later I had a new job in a much better environment, this is were I am still working now. In fact I just committed to staying until at least the end of 2010, we’re a great team.

Between getting the new job and actually having the first day at work there was almost one week so I spontaneously decided to spend a few days in Freycinet and walk the Peninsula Walk. I had a wonderful time with beautiful sunshine and beaches.

A few weeks later I got more reasons to be happy, my new visa was granted. I had spent more than half a year preparing the application, hunting down documents, attending tests and examinations and in the end I received a working visa until 2012, it was probably one of the happiest days for me.

Around the same time I saw an ad on Facebook announcing that Amanda Palmer, the former singer of the Dresden Dolls, would be playing a concert in Hobart, unbelievable. But she really did it and it was great.

In April we had several public holidays around Easter so I took a few additional days off and decided to walk the South Coast Track in Southwest Tasmania. I had less than two weeks for preparation but everything went fine and it was an amazing week. When I returned I was disappointed and relieved to be back at first, I had really struggled with horrible track conditions. But today when I look at the photos again, I think it was a beautiful week.

After the South Coast Track, I spent the following months focusing on work, it was winter in Tasmania and I preferred to spend the cold months in a warm heated office rather than with outdoor activities. At some point I began working as a freelance developer in my spare time, as a side job to earn some additional money. But after a few successful months I stopped taking on new projects - I simply noticed that it took up all my spare time and I started to feel burned out. More time for recreation and my own projects was needed.

In September I bought a bicycle and started going mountainbiking in Wellington Park almost every weekend, there is a large network of tracks and trails that make it a fantastic experience for bike riders. A few weeks later it was finally warm enough to think about going camping again, and another public holiday approached, so I used a long weekend for a bicycle trip to Bruny Island, not far from Hobart.

Cycling to Bruny Island was pretty cool, even though I had to carry a heavy backpack on my bike. Bruny Island was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been so far, I watched a whale playing in the water, met great friends and had a fantastic and sunny time.

In November I went to Melbourne for a weekend to see Pearl Jam. It was the biggest concert I’ve ever attended with 45.000 visitors, a great experience. While on the mainland, I visited Frank and his family in Geelong, not far from Melbourne. Frank had been a follower of my hiking activites ever since I wrote about my Overland Track preparations back in 2008. Later he hired me as a developer for a couple of smaller web projects, but we had never actually met in person before.

The year ended with fireworks - but not in Sydney, I was in Germany in my hometown. After two years in Australia I visited friends and family in Germany over Christmas and New Year. First I traveled to Thailand, spent a few days there and from Bangkok I flew to Frankfurt, later to Singapore and back to Australia.

Outlook for 2010

I don’t expect a lot of job-related changes in 2010, even if sometimes I deeply wish to spend more time outdoors. It’s such a shame I spend every day in my office while the sun is shining outside, sometimes I wish I could have a career change, computer work is tiring. I’d love to do something outdoors like bushwalking guide, working on a boat or something like that. I’m always looking back to my job as a treeplanter, it was amazing to be out in the forests every day, breathing fresh air and simply having physical activity.

But I understand I would need some additional skills like first-aid or certain licenses, so I was thinking of spending 2010 trying to collect all sorts of additional qualifications through courses at Adult Education Tasmania or something like that, and next summer I could look for an outdoors job. Not sure how realistic that is, maybe it’s wishful thinking. But sometimes I really dislike what I’m working - this has nothing to do with my company, they’re awesome, it’s simply that I don’t like to spend all day in front of computers. It feels like I’m wasting the best time of my life.

So I try to keep my eyes open for opportunities, but since I committed to staying with my current employer througout the year, it’s not the time for hasty decisions anyway. We’ll see what happens. In a perfect life I would work outdoors from October to March and have an office job from April to September.

Hiking-wise I am currently planning my next long trip. I don’t know yet when it will happen but I’m hoping for end of February / beginning of March. I’d like to see the Southwest National Park again, but this time I can imagine walking north, South West Cape and Port Davey Track, 14 days in total. I think it would be fantastic. I bought new boots and gear and I’ve already started preparing my backpack. More on this soon.