This page exists to collate articles I have written about various trips over the years. Nothing here is recent, 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 more than a dozen 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've already discovered a section in one of them that was never “finished”.
These are very long reads. Several run over 60,000 words, novel length. You have been warned.
1989: North of Capricorn
- Coober Pedy, Uluru, Darwin, Kakadu, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney in 15 days by bus.
55 minutes read, 11,000 words.
- New York, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Chicago, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, San Francisco.
2¾ hours read, 33,000 words. No pictures.
- An Easter spent looking around the old Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat. Subject to later expansion.
17 minute read, 3,400 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.
- Italy and the Vatican, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.
5 hour read, 60,000 words
- Round the world via Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Lake Placid, New York, London, and Paris.
2½ hours read, 27,000 words
- Paris, Marseilles, Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Naples, Rome.
5½ hours read, 66,000 words
- Anzac, Mediterranean Turkey, Greek Islands, Peloponnese, Gallipoli, Troy, Istanbul, Singapore.
3¾ hours read, 45,000 words
These may have minor display issues and typoes.
2006: Dark of the Sun
- Egypt, 2006 Solar Eclipse, Dubai.
2 hours 10 minute read, 26,000 words
Yeah, these aren't online here yet. They're “available” kinda sorta, just not here.
2007: Strange Roads, Part I
- China, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal; ~92,000 words
- England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium; ~19,000 words
- Christchurch, Picton and Marlborough Sounds, Wellington, Gisborne, Te Aroha, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane
- Wellington, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Poverty Bay, Taumaranui, Whanganui River, New Plymouth, Auckland
- Gallipoli, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia
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.
Updated 26/04/2024