about me

I can remember the exact moment I got the travel bug, in January 1988. It was in the bazaar in Fez, Morocco. The sound and sight of snake charmers, the smell of leather and dust and garlic snails, the pitched voices and extended hands of the touts all swirling around me and something clicked in my head – it was culture shock and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Yes, hard to believe now, but there once was a time of travel before laptops, internet, iphones, indeed before mobile phones. A time where we would sit down at dusk with a cold beer (there are very few places in the world where you cannot find a cold beer when you need one) and write our travel diaries. So on this site I will be writing about my travels now, and also sprinkling in tales of yore, dragged out of my travel diaries that have lingered in the bottom of the drawer.

Top ten things to know about Vicki

• Nationality – New Zealand – Aotearoa – land of the kiwis and hobbits.
• Lives – Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia – seduced by sand, surf and sun.
• Has also lived – London, UK for 10 years from ‘87 to ’97 – a great base to travel from.
• Pays the bills – as an accountant in the corporate world, mainly startup/tech companies – and enjoys it way more than you might think.
• Redhead credentials 1.- born boringly fair headed, tending to shades of yellow, once kindly described as strawberry blonde by a loving Nana, embraced the bottled bright red in my early twenties and never looked back.
• Redhead credentials 2. – thousands of freckles – although they almost disappeared when I lived in the sunless UK for ten years, now back with a vengence.
• Redhead credentials 3. – can display a fiery temper when required, so do not talk to me before my first caffeine of the morning.
• Number of countries visited so far – 77, if the borders would stop changing it would be easier to keep track.
• Favourite past-time – traveling.
• Favourite things to do while traveling – eat & drink& walk (not necessarily in that order)!