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Traveling around Cambodia with Max and a teeny bit of Thailand. Was such a strange time. Very overwhelming, and in a lot of ways was the opposite of New Zealand if there is such a thing... The temples were beautiful, and I met such interesting people.  We started off in Siem Reap, and had quite bad jet lag, then made our way down slowly via Phnom Penh, Kampot, Silhanoukville, Otres and then Koh Rong island finally. I think my favourite place was Kampot because there were lots of interesting places to explore on the motor bikes and it was a lot more laid back and less in your face than the big cities. We went to explore this old abandoned casino on the top of Bokor Mountain, which I found really interesting. It was so hot there and I struggled with that, especially in the cities, but once we had got down to Otres we stayed on a beach for ages and went swimming everyday and it was a nice break from the heat, I made a hula hoop and taught this little girl how to hula hoop and left it there for her to have. We stayed in wooden or bamboo huts most of the time in Cambodia. To get to Koh Rong Island we got a boat from Silhanoukville which took nearly an hour, and then we stayed in different places there. It seemed like the place where all the cool kids went, and there was a lot of partying. There was some beautiful beaches to explore there. I went through a jungle which I saw some monkeys climbing in trees, and then down some massive rocks half climbing, to get to this very secluded beach, it was gorgeous! I went to a festival on one of them which was a 4/20 festival.. was really nice! It was lovely to be able to swim in the sea and listen to music at the same time. Then at night time I only had a couple of sips from one drink and I felt really ill, and I ran through the woods and through the town back to where we were staying and was so sick for 3 days and couldn’t eat or keep anything down for ages. I thought I was going to die from dehydration! If max wasn’t there to get me clean water I dont know what I would have done! I lost so much weight. Then when I started to feel a bit better Max got sick. I felt totally trapped on this island because there was very little medical care on the island, and to get back to the main land we’d have to get on a boat at the right time and I’d heard Cambodian health care wasn’t the greatest. Luckily I had tablets for various things and we both came out of it eventually! Then we made it back up to Siem Reap, and through to Thailand, to get to Bangkok which is where we flew home from to London Heathrow. Bangkok where my lovely aunties met us and we drove back to Bristol! It all felt so surreal to be with family again back on British soil! It was so lovely to be away, and exactly what I needed. I realized as soon as I got back home that I need to go away on another adventure again so my next plan is to save up money with my new job at home, and then next summer/spring time I am going to travel around Europe! I expected to settle into home life straight away but it took ages for me to adjust to it all, so lovely to see my friends again and I have been working in different festivals this summer which has been really fun! I have realized I much prefer living outside and not in a house.. and I don’t need as many possessions as what I’ve got to have a happy life! And my close friends have remained my close friends which shows me I have some lovely people in my life, and I feel way more confident about myself and my ability to adapt! I would love it if everyone goes and has their own adventures wherever they want because you can do it!

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We arrived in Wellington, spent some time with my Cousin and her husband there which was lovely. Was so nice getting to know them! Then we slowly made our way around, did the Tongariro Crossing which I loved so much! We eventually ended up in Raglan, which was our final home for the last month in New Zealand. We found a farm to work on, sold the van, and then we lived in a caravan on the farm, and did lots of gardening and relaxing. It was quite a lot hotter up here which was lovely! We met up again with my friend from home and he lived on the farm in another caravan too right up until he had to go back home to Britain, which was a similar time to when we had to leave. Raglan is a surf town, which is right by the beach, it was a very laid back kinda life style here! We ate lots of vegan sushi whilst in the north island, found out it’s very easy to make when you don’t have a lot of stuff to cook with! Everyone that we lived with there was working for accommodation, which is ideal when you dont have much money. I really enjoyed it here, it had a similar feel to the land I lived on in Albert Town. We both decided the next place to travel would be Cambodia, which would be like an extended stop over on the way home. It was beginning to turn to Autumn by the time we were leaving and I was in the mood to chase the sun and I’m glad I did! The last photo out of these I’ve uploaded was taken on my last night in Raglan and New Zealand. It was the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen still.. and I did have a cry. I loved my time in New Zealand, it was a big move for me that I needed, and I would love to return to New Zealand one day and it has left me inspired for my next moves! We flew out of Auckland, went to Hong Kong, stopped over in Kuala Lumpur, then landed in Siem Reap in Cambodia for the next part of this big adventure!

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After leaving Albert Town and saying goodbye to everyone, we traveled up to the north of the south island of New Zealand slowly. I loved seeing all of these new places and staying in a different spot every night. We started off with a German girl and went to Milford Sound with her which was so gorgeous!! Then we moved on and eventually got up to Nelson to meet with a friend of mine from home and stayed outside his family house. We did lots of climbing with him, went to one of the crustiest festivals ever in the Cobb Valley, it was kinda like being back home again with the level of crust there, but everyone spoke funny, and the music consisted mostly of psytrance or trance. I am partial to a bit of psytrance, but I dont understand just trance... need the psy. Then after this ended, the three of us went to a festival for 7 days which was such a crazy experience, and well needed. It was alcohol free.. lots of people taking acid there, and doing yoga and meditation, and there were loads of workshops to do, lots of learning going on, and I left the festival feeling really really good.. which is not the usual feeling after a festival back in the UK, usually one feels like half a human after a british festival. But I actually felt like a new Smelen after this one. It was called Luminate and I recommend it to anyone! Then we got back to Nelson, stayed there for a little bit and did some more climbing, I was getting more confident, and then we got a ferry up to the North Island.. where the adventure continues!

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Here’s a jumble of photos from when I lived in Albert Town, and some from a trip to Glenorchy, not far from Queenstown. It’s the best place I have ever lived and I miss it dearly. We just lived in a van, but we shared the land with other like minded people, and we shared a communal kitchen with them, which had a tree growing around it, which was solar powered and open. We had chickens, a stream running, lovely trees to sit in, a bath which needed to be heated up with a fire.. which took all day but it was worth it to be looking out at all the greenery! There was a swimming hole which was in the other field, which I began to swim in everyday to get over my fear, and it really helped me! I made some great friends living here and in Wanaka. I really want to find another place like this to live in one day, or to own somewhere like this, I was truly happy being outside all of the time! It felt really good to be in tune with the sun and the moon.. I don’t think you get the same feeling in a house at all, because even when it’s dark or cold we have lights and heating, and in a house there’s so much space to put all of this stuff that you don’t even need! We spent Christmas with some really awesome people and my Scottish friend cooked us up a feast. It was a really hot day that day, and we went for a swim afterwards in the Wanaka Lake! Was very bizarre to be away from family and have such a hot climate! It made me very home sick, but it was so lovely. After we had both saved up a fair amount of money it was time to sadly move on from Albert Town to the next adventure!

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My adventure to New Zealand! I flew from London Heathrow, to Hong Kong, to Brisbane and then to Queenstown. It was 30hrs of travel.. I hadn’t slept for possibly 40 hours by the time I got to Queenstown because I just couldn’t settle whilst flying alone, I was on edge. I had rescue remedy stuff with me to take for my nerves and then I left it on the Hong Kong plane because I was in a tizz getting off the plane in a hurry. There was a lot of turbulence on each flight and I had to spend a lot of time convincing myself that I wasn’t going to die. I chatted so interesting fellow solo flyers which was a nice experience. When I got to Queenstown I was in such a daze, when I went through customs I was asked by some man if he could film me for his documentary which I agreed to. After my bag was scanned and all that jazz, a lady asked me if I’d brought anything illegal into the country with me which I was sure I hadn’t.. She pulled out an apple and then told me I was to be fined $400.... I was so embarrassed especially as I was being filmed. Then I went through and there I saw my Max, who I hadn’t seen for nearly a year, I couldn’t quite believe it, it felt like a dream and he looked so angelic, he gave me a massive squish which I’d been longing for and thinking about for a stupid amount of time. Then we drove to Wanaka, and we shared a house there for a few months with a lovely bunch of people, a crazy guy who is the Canadian version of Max, a Scottish couple, and a Kiwi lady! I spent my first week exploring the town and meeting new people whilst getting over my horrific jet lag. I got work in a hotel soon after getting there so I could save up money, they asked me to run a small hotel for a few weeks for them which I did alone and successfully! We got a van together and made it nice to live in and then we moved to Albert Town just outside Wanaka to live on a friends self sustainable plot of land, with a few other people which was gorgeous! I arrived in New Zealand with not much money so I worked for a while so I could save up enough money to travel around and not have to work again for my time there. It was the end of their winter and turning into summer time so I’d arrived at the best time I think.

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These are some pictures of where I started my travels in France! I had just finished my degree, and I’d had itchy feet for so long I was desperate to get away, I went to Bristol the day after I had handed everything and completed everything in uni, spent some time with my two aunties, then we got the ferry over to La Havre in the north of France, and then spent 3 days driving down to Pelvoux St Antoine, in the Alpes in the south to visit my Brother and his girlfriend. I hadn’t seen him for ages and it was lovely to see him! They live in paradise. Within half an hour we were taken to do some via ferata which I’d never done before. We went through a gorge, high above creamy ice cold glacier water, it was easy to do but a total mind fuck because it feels so unnatural. I spent a week there and fully unwound after a lot of studying. Then we drove back up, got the ferry, and back to Bristol where I spent two days preparing for my biggest adventure yet.