I Love To Travel
I live in Auckland, New Zealand which is along way away from anywhere, but that has stopped me dreaming of travel. Anywhere is just a plane ride away!
HOW THE TRAVEL BUG STARTED
My parent had both travelled to Europe in their 20’s so as a kid I heard these amazing tales of travel to far off lands and I knew I wanted to see more of the world than just little New Zealand, down under.
At the age of 8, I got my first taste of international travel on a family holiday to Fiji. My first chance to see a different culture, I was hooked. It was another 8 years before I got the chance to board an international flight. This time it was to Australia, not so exotic but still a chance to explore another country.
In my twenties I spent 6 weeks in Canada and USA. A year later I was off for 3 months to England and Europe. I have since been back to Cananda and USA.
I have been back to Fiji since, while also exploring other Pacific islands such as Tonga, Cook Islands (Rarotonga), and Niue. I have done numerous trip to Australia and I’m still finding great places to explore.
2025 is a big year of travel for me. In Feb it kicked off with a ski strip to Japan, one week skiing, one week sightseeing. May saw me renting a motorhome with my brother to USA to explore national parks, with a few epic hikes.
I have a 5 week trip to Europe for a river cruise in Germany and a Croatian island cruise.
I just love travel and I love doing the research and planning for a trip, the planning is half the fun. To me travel is about the history of a place, the people and their culture, food, and scenery. I am far happier in budget accommodation if it means I can spend more money and time out exploring.
Combining two hobbies
MY LOVE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Capturing and documenting my holidays was encourage by my parents from that first trip to Fiji. It is something that I still love doing even today. I still write a travel a diary every day that I am away. It is a great way to keep those memories alive many years after the event.
I love photography and what better way to capture the colours of travel. On return from any trip I compile a photo book as I have always loved looking at printed photos and there are only so many images you can hang on the wall.
As my photography skills improve, my travel plans are becoming more and more influenced by the places and people I would like to photograph. More reason to do the research and planning before booking anything.
Also as the photography skill improve so does the size of the camera bag increase. It is always a dilemma when packing, what to leave in and what to leave out. Other than my tripod which has to go in my check luggage I limit myself to the 7kg cabin allowance for my camera gear. That way I don’t get weighed down with extra luggage that all has to carried my me. My resent trip to Japan proved this point as we had to drag bags up and down stairs in the railway stations which would have been impossible with anymore than my day pack, containing camera gear and my one suitcase.
One thing with being a photographer when travelling is that you are always looking for the light or that different angle before capturing your image. I feel this has made me more observant and I appreciate the finer details that most people miss.
FOR THE LOVE OF
PHOTOGRAPHY & TRAVEL
I hope I can inspire you to travel and see more of the world.
Remember travel opens your mind and makes you more interesting!
