As promised, here are the two travel scenarios in detail. Both begin and end in pretty much the same way, so I'll start with what they have in common.

Starting in New Zealand

The plan is to fly in early October, around October 8th, from Hamburg to Auckland, New Zealand via London and Singapore. The journey will take almost 2 days, plus there's an 11-hour time difference to deal with. Once there, I'll have a rented camper van waiting for me - ideally on the same day, but at the latest the next day. I want to get the van right away so I can head straight to the nearest beach and just relax. I'm guessing I'll be pretty exhausted and cranky after those long flights.

The next day, I'll meet up with Sam, who's in charge of getting SIM cards for both of us so we can coordinate when and where to meet. The SIM cards will also let us share GPS data and send Twitter/blog posts via email from time to time.

For the next 14 days, we'll casually explore both islands in our motorhomes. We'll need to take a ferry to cross from the North to the South Island at some point.

My 14-day journey will end in Christchurch, one of the largest cities on the South Island. While Sam will continue her camper van adventure for another 26 days, I'll return my van in Christchurch. I might spend an extra day or two exploring Christchurch on foot before heading to Australia.

In January, I plan to take the bus from Sydney to Melbourne. The ticket costs about AU$100 (around €85) for the nearly 1000km journey, which takes about 12 hours. I'll make a stop in Canberra for a day or two to explore the cultural attractions.

I'm thinking of staying in Melbourne for one to two weeks to visit the Twelve Apostles cliffs and see the wild penguins. Though I suspect two full weeks might be too long for me.

After Melbourne, I'll fly to Perth and spend a few days there. Perth is supposed to be one of Australia's most beautiful cities. I plan to buy a camper van there and, after some final safety checks, drive the 2,500km to Adelaide.

Most of this journey will be along Highway 1 on the south coast. Along the way, I'd like to visit some of the many (hopefully beautiful) wineries and whiskey distilleries, and maybe even work at some of them if possible.

Adelaide is another key stop on my itinerary, partly because their zoo has pandas! If necessary, I might look for work in my field there and stay for a few weeks. If the camper van proves reliable and I can find one or two travel companions, I'd like to drive through the Outback via Alice Springs (Uluru) to Cairns. I've also mapped out an alternative route along the east coast via Sydney and Brisbane to Cairns, but I'm really hoping to make that desert-to-rainforest journey.

Near Brisbane, there's a training farm that sounds really interesting. If I haven't found another training farm by then, I'd like to complete my farm training there. And if by chance there happens to be an interesting farm job available somewhere, even better! I'd especially love to work with horses if possible.

The plan is to be back in Sydney by the end of April.

The Return Journey and Beyond

During the last weeks/months of my trip, I'll start looking more seriously for new jobs in Europe. Once back in Sydney, I'll sell the camper van and start preparing for my return journey. This includes sorting out my Australian tax return, closing any unnecessary bank accounts, and taking care of other administrative tasks. If everything stays on schedule, I plan to fly back to Hamburg at the end of April 2013.

I hope to find a good job pretty quickly after my Australian adventure. I'm not ruling out applying to my current company again - after all, I do enjoy the work here, and Ireland is absolutely beautiful. Alternatively, I'd be happy with positions in Hamburg, Rostock, Vienna, or generally in the mountainous regions of German-speaking countries - as long as there's good train or flight connections to visit family.