After months of planning, I can’t believe this is actually happening. Five of us will first travel from all over the US to meet in San Francisco, to leap over the Pacific and spend a week in New Zealand and then on to the Great Gathering in OZ. Members of the gang include myself, the photographer Edward Badham and three models – Vassanta, Claudine and Rebecca Lawerence. For me, the adventure begins a week before this when I meet Vassanta at JFK coming back from a visit to her homeland in Russia. I can’t believe that in two weeks time she will have traveled from Russia to NYC to New Zealand and finally to OZ…phew…jet lag city. During the week in NYC, we shoot together on a Long Island beach, hook up with Rebecca and have a send off party with some mutual friends. I’m so busy with trying to wrap up all the loose ends, that I don’t even pack until a few hours before leaving…..hope I don’t forget anything
When we arrive in San Francisco, it’s Claudine’s birthday. She arrives with a birthday tiara and we provide the wine for a pre-flight celebration and meet and greet. Now it’s off to New Zealand. From the time we leave NYC until we reach our final destination in Nelson, NZ, we will have travelled  for 30 hours straight, including a 3 hour ocean ferry ride from the North to South Island in New Zealand!!! See ya on the other side of the world!!!