Trip Reports
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.
I hate that I have to say it, but: No “AI” stochastic parrot was used in the creation or editing of these articles. Everything here is entirely the work of my own hands. My main text tool is Notepad++. I use Paint, Gimp and Zoner Photo Studio 14 (Free) according to need to edit images. That’s it.
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 have discovered and completed or expanded sections in some of them that were never “finished”.
These can be 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.
1985: Tewai-Pounamu
- A hitch-hiking jaunt through NZ’s South Island — with divers excitements and adventures
50 minutes read; 10,300 words
- A hitch-hiking jaunt through NZ’s North Island — with an unexpected ending
13 minutes read; 6,500 words
- Four cycle-touring trips in NZ’s North Island - From Te Aroha to Coromandel, to Waiuku, to Rotorua, and to Wanganui
61 minutes read; 12,100 words
- A stay at Pittwater Hostel, north of Sydney
13 minutes read; 2,600 words
- A stay in Emerald, east of Melbourne
18 minutes read; 3,600 words
- 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.
- An Easter spent looking around the old Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat.
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; BOOK LENGTH.
- Round the world via Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Lake Placid, New York, London, and Paris.
2½ hours read; 27,000 words.
- Five days along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road on foot, from Apollo Bay to Peterborough.
21 minutes read; 4,100 words.
- Paris, Marseilles, Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Naples, Rome.
5½ hours read; 66,000 words; BOOK LENGTH.
- Anzac, Mediterranean Turkey, Greek Islands, Peloponnese, Gallipoli, Troy, Istanbul, Singapore.
3¾ hours read; 45,000 words.
- Egypt, 2006 Solar Eclipse, Dubai.
2¾ hours read; 33,000 words.
- Nine days on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, five of them on the Great Ocean Walk, from Apollo Bay to Warrnambool.
33 minutes read; 6,800 words.
- China, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal.
~11 hours read; 130,000 words; BOOK LENGTH.
- England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium.
~2 hr read; 21,000 words.
- Christchurch, Picton and Marlborough Sounds, Wellington, Gisborne, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane.
30 minute read; 5,500 words.
- Devonport, Overland Track, Hobart.
30 minute read; 5,500 words.
- Wellington, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Poverty Bay, Taumaranui, Whanganui River, New Plymouth, Auckland.
45 minute read; 9,200 words.
- A rather shorter than expected stroll on Victoria’s Great South West Walk.
20 minute read, 3,900 words.
These may be incomplete, and have significant display issues and typoes.
2001: A Geelong Weekend
- A long-forgotten weekend in Geelong, Victoria’s second city, in February 2001, including a steam train excursion to Queenscliffe. Draft version only.
- Gallipoli, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia; this version, more or less complete as far as Nga Trang in Vietnam, is 49,000 words (main draft is 70,000+ words, still growing).
This is a list of things for which I have enough to work with in order to write or update them. They aren’t online here yet. Some may never appear. Some are already “available” kinda sorta, just not here. I may add new ones, from any date, to the list. I may publish things, from any date, that aren’t in the list. The list is by date order of event; they may be written and published in any order, as my muse takes me.
2006: Chasing my footsteps
- Digging out my New Zealand youth; planned
- A few days in Brisbane; planned
- A quick visit; 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
- A brief return to New Zealand; planned
Since 2020 I have largely been a homebody. We squeaked in our January 2020 Sri Lanka trip by taking direct flights between Melbourne and Colombo. Then Covid slammed the door until I made a short NZ trip in 2022 for family reasons.
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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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 at hand.
Updated 01/05/2026