This site has become my backpack on the web and if you have made it this far, you’re doing well – most people would have gone to look at cat videos by now. 

I was travelling for quite a few years before I started writing for Lonely ( can read more about how I became a Lonely Planet author on this page.) My first trip was to Japan with a friend where we became English teachers and from there I never really looked back. So 15 years, 90 countries, five continents and three backpacks later, I’m still going strong. I’m a survivor of three bus crashes, a shipwreck, malaria and marriage. I’m a bit like a weed – not so pretty but hard to kill.

After that I settled down for a bit and wrote  Roam: the art of travel which was published by HarperCollins in New Zealand. (You can read about Roam: the Art of Travel on this page.)