Two years ago, I left New Zealand with a camera and a sense of adventure. One year ago, I wrote this list of the most interesting moments of my journey up until that point.
Now that I'm back on the bottom of the world, my travels seem a world away. And I guess they are. But that hasn't stopped me from compiling a new list of the best moments of my second 12 months away.
100 days on the road. 29 countries. 1 Olympics. 5 new bucket list ticks. First 5 professional blogging gigs. 1 court appearance.
And there were so many highlights it took ages to link to them all:
Fireworks over red square ● Tobogganing in Norway ● Sleeping on a houseboat in Amsterdam ● Roadtripping the south of France ● Dancing with Bulgarian Gypsies ● Island paradise in Islas Cíes ● Santorini. Enough said ● Relaxing on Sail Turkey ● Olde Hansa, the medieval restaurant in Tallinn ● Jokulsarlon, the iceberg lagoon in Iceland ● Climbing Mt Sinai ● Spending a night in the desert
I considered putting "vomiting in a tube station in rush hour" on here, but decided that wasn't really a highlight...
Now that I'm home, next year looks exciting in a completely different kind of way. I'm working full-time in a job that pushes all the right buttons, and studying part-time towards that degree that's always eluded me. I'm going to be in print for the first time - writing an article for a travel magazine. Plus I'm going to be both an uncle and a best man again. So, true to form, there'll be no sitting still. I've no time for that.