Your eyes do not deceive you – the blog is finally here!

For those of you that don’t already know me, I’m a Kiwi kid from Aotearoa New Zealand with a love for travelling, backpacking, outdoor adventures and photography. I’m naturally drawn to unique, off-beat parts of the planet (my first backpacking trip took me to Greenland) and I like to learn about the culture and history of the places I visit.

I love slow, immersive, experiential travel, and have taken several extended backpacking trips across six continents (Antarctica is high on my bucket list)!

Oh, and I’m also both a procrastinator and a perfectionist, and this blog may have been ‘in the making’ for, you know, a decade or something…(!)

What’s my travel style…?

I gravitate towards off-the-beaten track destinations, and places with epic wild spaces where I can hike, explore and bask in nature (thanks mum and dad, all those hikes we were dragged along to as kids paid off)! I try to incorporate outdoor adventures into my travels as much as possible – I’m not the fittest, fastest, or most intrepid traveller in the world, but I’ll give most things a go.

I see travel as a learning experience, and enjoy exploring the culture, history and context of the places I visit. I guess I’ve always liked to learn ‘stuff’ and travel is an unlimited well of knowledge!

I definitely have backpacker roots, so am always on the look out for a good deal, but these days I’ve come to appreciate a few more creature comforts and don’t paying a little extra for quality, unique, ethical and sustainable experiences, or to support local communities.

I love pre-travel research, but try not to plan trips down to the last detail whenever that is possible (but this gets harder the less time I have away), as spontaneity in travel is one of my favourite things – unexpected discoveries on the road are the best!

Where have I been…?

I’ve slept under the stars in the deserts of Iran and Morocco, in a tent in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan, and on a boat in a cabin the size of a coffin from Colombia to Panama.

I’ve hiked up to the Roof of Africa, travelled overland across Central Asia, climbed an active volcano (or two), walked on glaciers, come face to face with amazing wildlife, dived some of the top dive sites in the world, and gotten lost in the sprawling backcountry of Greenland.

Just don’t ask me how many countries I’ve been to, I don’t actually know off hand (nope, I don’t like ‘country counting’).

When I’m not travelling…

When I’m not travelling – and sometimes when I am – I’m doing doctor stuff. Up until the pandemic, I was specialising in travel medicine and general practice (aka family medicine). These days, I’ve pivoted into public health medicine.

So much of what I’ve seen and understood through travel; about privilege, socioeconomic and political circumstance, culture and environment, links through to health and medicine through the specialty of public health medicine.

In many parts of the world, the reality of ‘birthright lottery’ really smacks you in the face, right? You may see some of that popping up on this blog, where relevant to my travels 🙂

Along with travel, my favourite things include hanging with my sweet dog-baby, sketching, and buying way too many plants.

What you’ll find on this blog:

• travel stories spanning six continents (eventually, the seventh will come), from the perspective of a (mostly) solo female traveller! I like to write narratives and stories about places and experiences, with essential tips thrown.
• highly visual stories with lots of high quality photography (at least I think so)! A picture can never quite capture the magic of being somewhere in person, but I aim to showcase the places I’ve been as best I can.
• inspiration in the form of highlights and recommendations from over a decade of adventures around the world – travel blogs have been a huge source of information for me when planning adventures, so hopefully I can pass it forward!
• a heavy focus on outdoor adventures, especially hikes. I’m not a super hardcore, bushbashing, off-the-grid tramper – actually, I’m 75% lazy and hate exercise hah! – but I like to spend time in the wilderness and believe it is for everyone.
• a tendency towards slightly off-beat destinations and experiences, such as over-landing Central Asia, studying and living in East Africa, visiting Greenland and climbing active volcanoes in dubious locations.
• history, culture and background of the places I’ve travelled to, because travelling is about learning!
• a smattering of stuff related to travel health, medicine and public health, where it relates to the places I’ve been and things I’ve experienced.

Currently dreaming about…

I don’t have a true bucket list, because it would basically read – ‘go everywhere’, but I do have periodic obsessions with places that bump them quickly to the top of my wish-list. Right now, the places I’m dreaming about most for a post-pandemic jaunt are:

• Nordic Europe, especially Finland. I’m obsessed with the ice and snow, the tykkylumi, the impossible language, and the concept of ‘Everyman’s Right’. I’m also dreaming about hiking Norway, canoeing Sweden, revisiting Iceland and Greenland, and exploring the Faroe Islands.
• Alaska and Canada – especially because this trip was planned and booked and then derailed thanks to COVID-19.
• Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni and Chile’s Atacama Desert.
• Pakistan and Tajikistan
• Antarctica (always).