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Pompeii
This Throwback Thursday posts took place during one of my favorite trips. It was my first time in Europe and I was travelling with my best friend, who was the ideal travelling companion. This story takes place on the very first day in Italy. May 2015 It was our first day in Italy and with only a thirty-minute train ride between us and Pompeii, the ruins of a city once drowned in the ashes of the volcano Vesuvius, we knew exactly how we wanted to spend it. After a complimentary breakfast of Nutella croissants, espresso, and orange juice, we hopped (literary we were bouncing) onto a train south. Little to…
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Te Araroa: A Hiker Christmas
23.12.2019 Day 64 (19km) After yesterday, I wasn’t sure I could handle another hike. Yet, like I’ve done multiple times over the past couple months, I got up, put on my rotten, damp clothes, and started walking. I was going to be meeting up with my friend Will to hike part of the Around the Mountain track. He had already completed most of it, but had to miss a section due to weather. Initially, I had planned to do the entire circuit, but the forecast had turned on me. There was something quite unappealing about hiking alone, on Christmas Day, in the pouring rain. The track was well maintained out…
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Te Araroa: Running From the Rain
10.11.2019 Day 21 (22km) We took out time this morning getting a lift back to the trail, stopping along the way for coffee. It was an easy yet difficult day. Difficult due to the amount of road walking, which kills my joints; easy in regards to the flat terrain. Dom and Nadia were staying with a friend in Waipu, whereas I was hiking on to Waipu Cove. It was the first night that I would arrive somewhere and not know anyone, which I found quite refreshing. A group I had heard about but never met happened to be staying at the campsite as well: Kate, Will, James, and Alex. We…
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Te Araroa: The Days Before
I knew I would meet people along the hike; I just didn’t expect to meet someone thirty minutes after leaving the airport. The Department of Conservation (DOC) center closed at 17:00, and since I was leaving the next morning on the 7:30 bus to Kaitaia, I had to make it that day. Rather than stop at my hostel and drop off all my gear, I rushed across town to the quay. The center was empty save for a couple booking tickets to a tourist town on the east coast. I hung around patiently until a woman came out from the back to assist me. While we were processing my payment…
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Australia: Looking Back
On my flight back to California, I spent my time alternating between blogging and watching Star Trek: Discovery. When I attempted to write this post, I realized that I couldn’t, as, to quote one of my favorite shows, I was “emotionally compromised.” I had held it together pretty well, shedding a few tears while making a farewell Facebook post, but when the first boarding call came over the speakers I broke down. The crying didn’t stop until we were in the air and I managed to lose myself in SciFi. Travel is difficult in countless ways. There are those of us, however, who find the pros outweigh the cons. Australia…
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Unsealed Roads
2WD accessible, unsealed road, that’s what the map said. It had neglected to mention, bumpiest ride of your life, will destroy bookshelf and rip down most of your ceiling. Kakadu had been one of the top spots on my places to visit. Per person it was forty dollars for a seven-day park pass or forty dollars for a fourteen-day pass (not a typo), and in the dry season most of the sites were accessible by van…in theory. We had spent the previous night at Nitmiluk, a neighboring National Park, in a place called Leliyn (Edith Falls). Leliyn was one of the last havens to swim safely, as most of the…
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The Great Barrier Reef
Diving just wasn’t in the books for me. Initially, I had considered doing my PADI certification in AUS, but what if I spent all that money and couldn’t go through with it? The truth was, I still had anxiety from my dive in Colombia at El Oceanario. So, I would settle for snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. From what I had been told, the experiences were quite similar; some people claimed there was more to see while snorkeling anyways. Sarah had recommended the Coral Sea Dreaming; as she had done the same tour a few months earlier and had a wonderful experience. Neither her nor Looci intended to accompany me…
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El Oceanario
Spoiler: my next post is going to be about diving in the Great Barrier Reef. However, I think it’s important to give a bit of back story regarding my diving experience prior to the GBR trip. Hopefully you enjoy the chaos, stress, and emotion to follow in this blog. April 2014 Normally, I write my blogs in past tense, retelling events how they once happened. However, when I first arrived on the island I was very stressed and wrote to escape some of the anxiety. I feel that these “in the moment” entries provide a more accurate representation of everything. Night 1 I feel like crying. When I arrived, no…
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Crikey Mate
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not always the biggest fan of zoos. In general, I find them inadequate to the emotional and instinctual needs of the animals. Though there are a few that are doing a thing or two right; one of which was the Australia Zoo, brainchild of Steve and Terri Irwin. The zoo was originally started by Steve’s parents, though then it was a much smaller scale and focused predominantly on reptiles. Today the zoo is huge, includes an animal hospital, and focuses its efforts on conservation, rehabilitation, and education. The exhibits are designed to enrich the animals, including an entire island where lemurs run wild. The only…
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My Precious Holiday
There was someone sleeping in my bed! I had managed to find my way to the Airbnb, in the middle of the night, without a functioning GPS, and there were no beds left. At first, I just stood there, not knowing what to do. I tried to connect to the wifi with the password I had been given; only the wifi wasn’t working and I didn’t have a New Zealand sim card yet. I was stuck. Should I sleep in the car I had hired? Could I get a fine for that? Besides it was quite cold, and I didn’t have any sort of blanket. The guy trying to help…
Insights and Stories Through the Eyes of a Wanderer
