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We were picked up from LAX by Chase, my good friend from high school. When we arrived at his apartment in Irvine, his fiancé Miguel was making enchiladas, which we greatfully ate for dinner – we hadn’t received much food on our delayed flight and although I generally lose my appetite while traveling, Travis was… Continue reading USA Chapter 1: Up the West Coast

From the Milan Malpensa Airport we took an overnight Flixbus to Nürnberg. This was mostly an OK trip, although we had a layover in Verona from 9-11pm which involved just sitting on a sidewalk on a random street while other flixbusses came and went. We also had passport control done at 4am on our way… Continue reading Doing the Rounds – Visiting Friends and Family during the Holidays

I’m sitting in the Milan Malpensa Airport writing this blog – we’ve just returned the car and are waiting for our overnight Flixbus that will take us to Germany, and I finally have some time to write and sort out pictures. But I’ll start from the beginning. After we got our bindings mounted, we headed… Continue reading 15 days of Skiing, lots of driving, and even a day of walking

Faff is a Kiwi word for doing (usually) necessary things that take longer than you want them to. Think cooking a nice meal, putting on your shoes and packing your bag while tramping, or going grocery shopping. Our next 3 days were a whole lot of faff. In Milan we rented a car. A car… Continue reading Faff, Faff, and more Faff; or How to Sleep with your Skis in a Station Wagon

After our exploration of Rome, we headed to Florence, where we checked into an 18 bunk room in a hostel with a creepy older man who never left the room and appeared to spend all day jerking off. At least the hostel had hot water and a functional kitchen! Florence is a beautiful city, and… Continue reading Italy and Oopsies

Traveling always involves significant preparation, and this time was no different – I had a running to-do list that ranged from packing up our room to sorting out what clothes I was taking to cooking dishes that would use up the last of our food. Chris and Zeean, Travis’s parents, came down the weekend before… Continue reading Singapore and Rome – the Journey Begins

I’m just over a week out from leaving New Zealand for a while to go traveling, so these are exciting times! Since my last blog I have done two big tramps, finished up my job, and finalized our travel plans for the next few months. After some discussion, my work contract was extended from the… Continue reading On the Road Again – Tramping and Traveling

It has been a long since my last blog, and though I have some big updates, not much has changed in my day to day life. I am still working at Rāpaki – it is planting season now, so every week we are putting as many trees as we can manage into the ground. We’ve… Continue reading A Big Visa Update, A Visit to Australia, Learning to Ski

I’ve been back at work at Rāpaki for well over a month now, and it’s been really nice overall. I still come home exhausted many days, but am ready to go again in the morning after a good night’s rest. We start planting soon, but up until now work has been really varied: we do… Continue reading Work at Rāpaki, a Funeral, and a North Island Roadie

It’s been about 2 months since my last blog update, but in that time some big changes have happened, although while I’m writing this my life looks about the same from the outside at the moment. To begin with, after I got back from Stewart Island, I was back on the job hunt. I was… Continue reading Major Life Update: Moving In (!), New (Old?) Job, Staying???