The wrong desert
At age 24, I hit the road with two of my closest friends to travel and explore India. Naive, overly confident, wide-eyed and on a fresh-graduate/backpackers budget: we were the perfect cliche. I have always struggled with travelling purely for sightseeing and ‘witnessing’ cultures – I wanted to find a bit more purpose for this trip.
Learning to put myself first
So many years ago, I made plans to travel alone in Asia. I was very excited to do this and also a little bit nervous. I thought it was a challenge to plan and do everything by myself, but I really wanted to do this. And then came my wonderful friends and family, just being
Look out for one another
In August 2018, I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time – the biggest open-access theatre festival in the world. My love affair with theatre was still quite fresh, or let’s say I never really went to any sort of theatre festivals. In Berlin, I had started going to plays by myself,
A place where no traveller ever stops: the in-between
He stood in the doorway of the compartment in his police uniform, my passport in his hands. I smiled at the top of his stiff hat. He was taking a while and finally he looked up at me shaking his head. A cold sensation dropped into my stomach. Smile gone. Without really knowing what was
Triple Step
Bouncing, bubbling, boiling with laughter, unabashedly unapologetic when a beat is missed, a foot stepped on. Look around and everyone is doing the exact same thing. This is what learning Lindy Hop and living in a new language felt like. My first week of French summer in the streets of Toulouse – the romantic greetings,
Old Woman Hut
Late summer, Central Otago. Weather Gods are frowning. Project team has retreated to Dunedin. Just the car and I. Feeling adventurous. Maps are unfolded. Mum wouldn’t like the thought of me tramping alone. Quick stop in Roxburgh for a pie and a chance to decide not to. Will it be lonely? I’m rarely lonely on
A flight best forgotten
My first trip, with a child, was to England in 1975. My husband, Dennis, had been selected to be on a naval course in Portsmouth and these courses can take anything up to 11 months and 3 weeks. Their policy was that wives and families were not paid to travel and live together on an
Me and my monkey mind
I had this idea of travelling by myself for a few years. But one of my biggest fears before going was actually to travel with me and my monkey mind! What if I feel sad? What if I’m not motivated to do anything? What if I start diving in my dark places? Usually, when this would happen
Traveling with Kinetosis
Professor Tillman was animatedly explaining the worst offenses elderly drivers obliviously commit when they are unfortunately too old to drive but believe they still can. Stories such as, dragging a body they have hit all the way home only to notice as they slowly step out of the driver’s seat. Given my already ingrained fear
A Friend In High Places
I was growing tired of all these complete strangers coming to me in tears. It was January 2010, I was in Berchtesgaden, Germany, at a German Alpine Club conference. I was standing at a desk, in front of a placard with beautiful pictures of New Zealand emblazoned all over it. Stones and driftwood from our