I’ve been traveling since I was seven. My mother was ill and I was packed off to a holiday in Ireland – from our home in Scotland at the time – I don’t remember the holiday – but I do remember the excitement of catching my first flight – unaccompanied! I must admit over the years the romance and excitement of planes has worn off a bit but I still get excited showing up at the airport at the start of a new adventure.
I’ve been to every continent except Antarctica – and that’s on the list. I’ve traveled solo and with friends. I’ve traveled with a partner. I’ve stayed in flea-pit hostels and luxury hotels. I’ve used travel agents and booked my own trips. I have bought almost every major travel guide on the planet and used most of them.
Travel is my passion – but it has never been my career. Though I became a geologist at least partly because I was hoping to get a trip to the Antarctica research station my School had access to - didn’t quite work out though (couldn’t be bothered with the PhD). Geology took me to some remote corners of Papua New Guinea and Australia – and yes there is a very good reason that some places are “off the beaten track” – not all of which are good. Retraining I deliberately chose a field which was in high demand so a) I would earn good money to fund my travel habit and b) would be easily enough be able to get another job if an employer didn’t understand my requirement for 2-month holidays. Computing did fulfill its side of the bargain but in the end the boredom of doing something that I grew to hate was too much.
These days I work in the back bedroom, in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, with easy access to the airport and the world. I work in my pajamas when I feel like it. I’m a writer, developer and promoter of websites about various topics – but travel is still my passion – and that’s why I developed my Lis’s Travel Tips eBook series.
