This page exists to collate articles I have written about various trips over the years. Nothing here is recent (even if recently written), so nothing here belongs in the blog. I just felt that these articles should be online, even if nobody ever reads them without my actively directing them here. There’s no javascript, neither on this page nor in the articles; no tracking, no ads. Read, or read not, as you please.
The travel accounts were usually written episodically, that is, as a series of linking web pages, for a still-born web site. For present purposes I am reworking each into a single page and publishing it when I think it’s cohesive enough. There’s quite a few to do, and I don’t rule out expanding old ones or writing new ones to fill gaps. Indeed, as part of revising them for this project I already discovered sections in some of them that were never “finished”.
These are very long reads. Several run over 60,000 words, book length. Longer pieces include logical section and chapter breaks to make reading easier. I give each an approximate read time, based on 200 words per minute. You have been warned.
List updated 4th September 2024
2009: Bushfire Season
- A rather shorter than expected stroll on Victoria’s Great South West Walk.
20 minute read, 3,900 words.
- Wellington, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Poverty Bay, Taumaranui, Whanganui River, New Plymouth, Auckland.
45 minute read; 9,200 words.
- Devonport, Overland Track, Hobart.
30 minute read; 5,500 words.
- Christchurch, Picton and Marlborough Sounds, Wellington, Gisborne, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane.
30 minute read; 5,500 words.
- England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium.
1¾ hour read; 21,000 words.
- China, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal.
~11 hour read; 130,000 words.
- Nine days on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, five of them on the Great Ocean Walk, from Apollo Bay to Warrnambool.
35 minute read; 6,900 words.
- Egypt, 2006 Solar Eclipse, Dubai.
2¾ hour read; 33,000 words.
- Anzac, Mediterranean Turkey, Greek Islands, Peloponnese, Gallipoli, Troy, Istanbul, Singapore.
3¾ hour read; 45,000 words.
- Paris, Marseilles, Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Naples, Rome.
5½ hour read; 66,000 words.
- Five days along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road on foot, from Apollo Bay to Peterborough.
21 minute read; 4,200 words.
- Round the world via Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Lake Placid, New York, London, and Paris.
2½ hour read; 27,000 words.
- Italy and the Vatican, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.
5 hour read; 60,000 words.
- The Overland to Adelaide, the IndianPacific to Perth, by bus up the Western Australian coast to Kununurra then down the middle to Katherine and Alice Springs, the Ghan to Adelaide and a plane home to Melbourne.
40 minute read; 8,000 words.
- An Easter spent looking around the old Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat.
17 minute read; 3,400 words.
- New York, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Chicago, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, San Francisco.
2¾ hour read; 33,000 words.
- Coober Pedy, Uluru, Darwin, Kakadu, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney in 15 days by bus.
55 minute read; 11,000 words.
1988: Easter at Emerald
- A stay in Emerald, east of Melbourne.
18 minute read; 3600 words.
- A stay at Pittwater Hostel, north of Sydney.
13 minutes read; 2600 words.
- Four rides in the wilds of New Zealand’s North Island.
1 hour read; 12,000 words.
- A hitch-hiking jaunt through NZ’s North Island — with divers excitements and adventures and a surpise end to my wanderjahr.
33 minute read; 6,500 words
- A hitch-hiking jaunt through NZ’s South Island — with divers excitements and adventures.
50 minute read; 10,300 words
These may be incomplete, and have significant display issues and typoes.
2010: Strange Roads, Part II
- Gallipoli, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia; this preview 6,400 words, a 22 mins read (main draft currently 71,000 words and growing).
These aren’t online here yet. Some are “available” kinda sorta, just not here. It’s a list of things I have enough to work with in order to write or update them. I may add new ones, from any date, to the list. I may publish things, from any date, that aren’t in the list. Some never may appear. The list is by date order of event; they may be written and published in any order, as my muse takes me.
- A weekend away exploring Victoria’s second city, Geelong; planned
- San Francisco, the Carolinas, and New Orleans; planned
- Down the middle of New Zealand’s North Island, from Reinga to Whanganui-a-tara; planned
- Via Frankston, Sorrento, and Queenscliff; planned
- Staying at Sovereign Hill; planned
- Los Angeles, the Carolinas, Washington, New York, and New Orleans; planned
- Glamping in the Northern Territory; planned
- Three weeks in Sri Lanka; planned
I have visited 45 countries since 1981. To count a country as visited, I need to have legally entered the country, not just transited an airport. My current country of residence doesn’t count. Thus Singapore first apppears in 2005, though I transited Changi during earlier trips, and New Zealand and Australia switch in 1986 when I permanently moved from one to the other. I list them here by order of first visit. “…” indicates multiple trips, though not necessarily every year
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Australia | 1981, 1983, 1986 |
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New Zealand | 1989, 2003 … 2015, 2022 |
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USA | 2000, 2003, 2014, 2017 |
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Canada | 2000, 2003 |
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Italy | 2002, 2004, 2007 |
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Vatican City | 2002, 2004, 2007 |
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Greece | 2002, 2005, 2007 |
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Turkey | 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010 |
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Egypt | 2002, 2006 |
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UK | 2003, 2008 |
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France | 2003, 2004, 2008 |
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Monaco | 2004 |
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Singapore | 2005, 2012 |
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UAE | 2006 |
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China | 2007, 2010 |
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Russia | 2007 |
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Ukraine | 2007 |
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Hungary | 2007 |
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Croatia | 2007 |
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Syria | 2007 |
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Jordan | 2007 |
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Lebanon | 2007 |
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Iran | 2007 |
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Pakistan | 2007 |
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India | 2007, 2008 |
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Nepal | 2007 |
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Ireland | 2008 |
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Belgium | 2008 |
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Georgia | 2010 |
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Armenia | 2010 |
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Azerbaijan | 2010 |
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Kazakhstan | 2010 |
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Kyrgyzstan | 2010 |
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Uzbekistan | 2010 |
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Afghanistan | 2010 |
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tajikistan | 2010 |
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Hong Kong | 2010 |
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Macau | 2010 |
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Vietnam | 2010 |
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Cambodia | 2010 |
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Laos | 2011 |
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Thailand | 2011 |
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Malaysia | 2011 |
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Indonesia | 2011 |
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Sri Lanka | 2020 |
At this rate I don’t expect I shall ever rival the great globe-trotters — but then, I travel for pleasure, not trophies.
I once had some vague notion of dashing into odd countries along the way just to up my score, but then I read a book titled An Absolutely Outrageous Adventure by fellow Kiwi, John Bougen (ghost-written by Jill Malcolm, published by Penguin). This detailed a 2002 quest with his mate James Irving to visit every country in the world in 167 days, help the children, and get in the Guinness Book of Records for the most countries visited in a single trip. They succeeded in their itinerary, missing only two countries, and had an amazing time — but reading the book made me realise that spending a few hours someplace just so you can say you’ve been there is a very dubious accomplishment, unless you take it to John’s lunatic limit. There’s no point my taking it to that limit because John’s already been there and done that and, anyway, it doesn’t look like the sort of “fun” I’d enjoy.
So I settle for cherry-picking the places I most want to see, stringing them together in fun itineraries, and racking up pleasant memories to mumble over and cherish in my old age, which is now near at hand.