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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: The River Rush
06.02.2020 Day 101 & 07.02.2020 Day 102 (0km) It was really difficult for me to decide to take an extra rest day. I had planned on spending the sixth writing and catching up on work, but not the seventh. Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked (aka typing up my blog). A weird pain had also taken up residence in the side of my foot, forcing me to limp around town when running errands. With the majority of my friends having departed on the fifth and sixth, I was keen to get going and try to catch up. It was nice having an extra day,…
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Te Araroa: Nelson Lakes
31.01.2020 Day 95 (29km) Today was possibly one of my favorite days on the TA thus far. We strolled out of St Arnaud around 8:30 in the morning and followed the trail as it meandered past the lake and up the river. The path was never steep nor difficult, just a lovely walk in the forest. Initially, the tranquil waves of the lake provided the melody of motion. This was eventually replaced by the constant sigh of the river. We stopped on a grassy bank to sun ourselves as the wind kept most of the sandflies at bay. Then later we dropped our packs and took a short detour down…
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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: Northern Trail Magic
1.11.19 Day 12 (0km) My body was so grateful for a rest day. I slept in, resupplied, and hung out in the hot tub at my hostel, Centabay. It was definitely worth the extra day of walking to take a break in Paihia. Although the town was smaller than Kerikeri, it was absolutely beautiful, with beach views and the calming hush of waves. 2.11.2019 Day 13 (17km Kayaking, 15km hike) Today was magical! I had heard about trail magic before I started the trip, people going out of their way to be kind and help arriving when you need it most. Well, today was my first experience with it. On…
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Te Araroa: Ninety Mile Beach
21.10.2019 Day 1 (12km) The mild weather and gentle breeze made it the perfect day for hiking. After a quick photo at the iconic Cape Reinga marker we followed the dirt path through knee-high bushes and down the cliffs overlooking the place where the Pacific and the Tasman Sea intermingle. My smile was as wide as my face, and if my face had been larger, the smile would have grown to accommodate it. Everything I had heard about the beach was bad. People dreaded it as much as the plague, or so it seemed. From where I was standing, however, I couldn’t conceive why. The earlier tides had…
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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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The Final Chapter
There had been two different groups to visit the Grampians while I was living at the hostel Landing Pads in Melbourne. I didn’t manage to go with either party and was excited Looci and I had elected to end our holiday with a couple hiking days there. The delightful heat we had enjoyed thus far had vanished, replaced by a cold, biting wind. Still as we climbed the rocky terrain to Hollow Mountain, I built up a sweat. The trail was a clearly marked dirt track, at least for the first five minutes. Then it gave way to stone steps; after a while it was difficult to determine whether there…
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My Favorite Beach in Oz
If ever there was a time when I felt like I was in Oz, it was driving through the south of WA (Western Australia). Bright yellow flowers blanketed the hills, leading us towards the Emerald City…or in our case Esperance. With time running faster by the day, we skipped the vineyards south of Perth and cut east. Esperance was a quiet town with pretty sea views and a prim shore park with all the markings of a progressive city. We spent the day at the park overlooking the bay, under the picnic table shelters. People flowed in and out, visiting a collection of resident food trucks. Looci worked on some…
Insights and Stories Through the Eyes of a Wanderer
