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London Festivals and Street Art
I know I’ve traditionally posted throwback posts on Thursdays in honor of the whole “Throwback Thursday” idea. However, I’ve decided to do away with that tradition and give some love to the other days of the week. Since I am currently still in London, due to COIVD restrictions and I haven’t done much other than work. I’ve decided to do a series of posts about previous visits to London, the first of which I now present to you. Cheers! June 2015 The story of how we got the tickets goes something like this: While teaching a high school art class I received a text from my best friend Shannon. It…
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Acclimating to New Places: When Moving Becomes Normal
I’ve always been astounded at how quickly one can acclimate to new places. Forget about jet lag and travel fatigue. I’m talking about that familiar feeling you get once you’ve grown accustomed to a place. The first time I left the US was in 2012. I moved to South Korea on a yearlong contract to teach English. Although I had traveled quite a bit within the US, I’d had never been to a foreign country. Not even Mexico or Canada—and I’m half Canadian for goodness sakes! After a couple of months in Korea, it became my life. It was almost as if nothing existed before that, although obviously it had.…
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Road Trip: The Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon
This post is the first part of a two month road trip I took around The States. September 2017 I got the family discount, even though I wasn’t exactly family. Ross and I had known each other since we were ten, having moved to Big Bear the same year, and given each other shit for our entire acquaintance…so in a way we were absolutely family. I hadn’t been to the Grand Canyon since I was three and didn’t have the keenest memory of the experience. In fact, I remembered absolutely nothing other than a story mum told about how I nearly gave her a heart attack by climbing up the…
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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 Storm That Ends All
Te Araroa: The Storm That Ends All 22.03.2020 Day 146 (16km) Thank goodness it was a short day, because the wind was howling as we walked a pebbly beach towards coastal farmland. One of my gaiters came loose, allowing the tiny rocks to fling themselves into my shoe. With the temperamental weather, I wasn’t keen to stop and remove them. After our final climb of the TA, which was only a couple hundred meters up to a viewpoint, we descended into Riverton’s residential neighborhoods. Alex had booked us an AirBnb, which was so lovely that within a few minutes we decided to reserve it for another day. The weather was…
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Te Araroa: Final Forests
17.03.2020 Day 141 (32km) If my pace matched the time estimate in the trail notes, I would arrive at the hut at 9pm. There was nothing appealing about arriving that late. Not to mention the temperatures had been dropping over the last week or so and I was not keen to lose the use of my hands to the cold, which was a common occurrence on the TA. After leaving Te Anau I planned to push several big days in a row, cause to be honest I’m over tenting. It’s gotten colder and I don’t want to deal with a wet tent in the mornings anymore. However, in order to…
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Te Araroa: Storm on the Horizon
13.03.2020 Day 137 (38km) I really love it when things just work out. My original plan had been to hitch out to the Kepler Track two days in a row and do day hikes on either end of the circular track. Upon arriving in Te Anau, I discovered that Aliss had a similar but far superior plan. Her friend Amy was driving down from Wanaka. They were going to start early and hike as far as they could then back out. This eliminated time required for hitching and the risk of having to walk back if no lift could be found. The three of us set out in the wee…
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Te Araroa: Over the Saddle
18.02.2020 Day 113 (27km) I’ve sat here for five minutes staring at my journal, smiling, and vainly attempting to conjure the words to describe today. It began with an overbooked shuttle, which resulted in us having to be dropped off 10km shy of the trailhead and forced to take an “alternate route.” The driver assured us, “Oh, it’s faster and better than the normal TA route.” Then I heard him mutter under his breath, “I think it’s still a marked track.” After a few hours of walking along an ugly, rocky riverbed, we came to a jumble of trees marking the alternate trail. To say the track went straight up…
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Te Araroa: The Part Between Two Rivers
12.02.2020 Day 107 (20km) It could have been a very long day if we hadn’t gotten a lift, but let me go back to the beginning. We had a late start from Hamilton Hut, having not one, but two morning coffees. The plan was to camp at a free site, not too far down the trail, then have a long walk along a rural gravel road the following day. Valley strolls and mild river crossings were the theme of the track, allowing us to keep a good pace and walk next to each other for ease of conversation. Unfortunately, we arrived to find the camp extremely lacking. None of us…
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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,…
Insights and Stories Through the Eyes of a Wanderer
