Thailand is everything I thought it would be: hot, humid, insane traffic, friendly people, amazing temples, scam artists, tiny streets, unfamiliar tastes and smells, long train rides, cheap food, hard beds, unbelievable sunsets, and best of all: an adventure every day.
I arrived in Bangkok, a little shell-shocked, five days ago following an 11 hour flight from Auckland. I stayed at Shanti Lodge Guesthouse in Thewet, and I highly recommend it.
After a somewhat ambitious walk to Khao San Road and back, I crashed hard and woke 12 hours …

Sorry for leaving you all on such a down note, the last few weeks have FLOWN by and I am now in Thailand. A quick recap:
My friend Amy flew over from Australia (where she was visiting from the US) and came with me up to the Northland. We went to Whangarei and Tutukaka (on The Perfect Day boat trip to the Poor Knights Islands — fantastic!) and Paihia (where I took the highly recommended AwesomeNZ Cape Reinga day trip) together before going separate ways.
Whangarei & Poor Knights Islands day trip
Paihia …

Today hasnt been the greatest. I think Ive reached a point in long term travel that I wasnt expecting to reach, or even had on my radar as being something that I would eventually encounter. I feel like Im just done with this particular phase of the journey and am eager to move on to Thailand. Its not that I dont love NZ, bc I do, or that Im not sad to be leaving. I just feel that right now things are not flowing smoothly and Im feeling frustrated on …

I’ve been back from Australia for a few weeks now, but have been finding it really hard to sit down and write my thoughts and experiences on the things I’m doing. I guess that is a sure sign that I’m having a good time!
Before Kiwiburn, there was Rainbow Serpent. I had gone last year with Stephanie, Alex and Tim. This year, Steph and I had a new and fantastic crew to run with. Our experience this year could not have been more different than last years — where in 2009 …

Many years ago I learned about the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth; each one corresponding to a cardinal point on the map, a selection of human emotions and its genders, the seasons of the year, a rainbow of colours and a vast array of gods and goddesses from a multitude of humanity’s faiths. The elements, it would seem, represent all of humanity and the thoughts and realities that each of us can create or experience.
Until now, my only Burning Man experiences were Decompression parties in Toronto. Wildly spectacular, …

Woah. How did I get so far behind on my posts? I must be out having too much fun, I’ll tell you what! I’m currently in Rotorua, one week into my North Island Tiki Tour. Ive been to Oz and Rainbow Serpent and back, and to Kiwiburn, NZ’s regional Burning Man event. I have lots of stories to tell, so sit tight. I’ll try and get them written up for you soon! I have lots of exciting and interesting plans in the works, 2010 is shaping up to be my …

When I was a kid, a good chunk of my summers were spent up at Fraser Lake Camp near Bancroft, Ontario. While it was a Mennonite camp, it was also awesome with lots of fantastic activities to keep our pubescent minds safely (okay maybe not-so-safely considering some of the goings-on) occupied: sailing, canoeing, archery, arts & crafts and possibly best of all, horse back riding. Sure, they were more ponies than horses, but when you’re a kid a pony is a horse, and that’s all there was to it. I …