Wow – it’s already 2017, and I can’t believe how fast 2016 went! What a year for The Girl With the Map Tattoo. I spent the entire year exploring New Zealand from literally top to bottom. I gained hundreds of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter followers, grew my blog readership, and even made the jump from…
Category: reflections
new zealand: a year in review
It seems like only yesterday that I landed at Wellington airport, a bright eyed traveller with dreams bigger than Stewart Island, ready for a year in New Zealand. I was picked up by my new flatmate, and his dog, and thus began a new life in a new city, a new country, over halfway around…
an open letter to new zealand
this is the hardest post I’ve ever had to write Dear New Zealand, I’m getting on a plane soon, and unlike Rachel, I can’t get off. My god, how badly I want to be able to get off that plane. How do I begin writing about you? Thank you for being spectacular. Thank you for…
my top fifteen NZ moments
As my time in New Zealand finally draws to a close (cue sad music here), I wanted to take some time to look back on the last year and share with you some of my favourite moments of the last fourteen months. This country is incredible. I think I have seen almost everything, driven on…
music as travel memories
I was having a conversation the other night with my manager at work while we were waiting for the last stragglers to leave. We were chatting about all sorts of random stuff when this song came over the Spotify. “…I wasn’t expecting that…” I groaned and laughed at the same time: this same manager had…
a series of important events
It crossed my mind during the Brexit polling and the recent US election (both of which I followed live from down here in NZ) that a LOT of unique and important things have happened over the course of my lifetime. My generation has seen more good and bad things thanks to the invention of social…
travel essay: bittersweet feelings on leaving dunedin and more
“The time has come, the walrus said, to think of many things: Of shoes–and ships– and sealing-wax– Of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot– And whether pigs have wings.” // Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland This post has been very hard to write. I’m sitting in my flat kitchen for the…
travel essay: to all of my travelling friends
To all of my travelling friends, You know who you are. And I am so LUCKY to have you. We met in a bar. In a hostel. On the train. In a plane. In the airport. On a boat. On The Boat. Through a friend of a friend of a friend. On the trail. We…
reflections on a life with travel
During my recent blog switch over, I spent a lot of time going through older posts and either reworking them or turning them into drafts to play with later. Since this blog dates back to 2008, there were a LOT of posts to go through. In rereading them, I noticed a theme: while chronicling my…