Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand & Fiji

Christmas Eve I flew from Boston to LA to Honolulu. A few days on Waikiki, then the big one: Jetstar to Sydney — the longest flight of my life at over 31 hours gate-to-gate.

Sydney was a homecoming, even though I’d only been once before. The Park Regis in the city centre, then south to Adelaide and Port Lincoln for the main event: cage diving with great white sharks. The water was freezing, the sharks were enormous, and the adrenaline was unlike anything I’d experienced. It remains the most intense thing I’ve ever done voluntarily.

Back to Sydney, then up to Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef. Four days on the coast, snorkeling over coral that looked like it belonged in a nature documentary. Then Auckland, New Zealand — the Ibis Budget, because by this point the budget was getting creative.

Fiji closed the trip. Nadi, the Tanoa International Hotel, a few days on the beach before the long flight home through LA. Twenty-six days, four countries, two hemispheres, one shark cage.