Fiji Travel Journal Part Three: Binkies, Babes and Bathtubs

(Psst, need to catch up? Here's Part One: Donuts, Margaritas and Waistcoats, and here's Part Two: Airports, Adoption and the Kindness of Strangers) There are some women who travel very well. Their bags have little compartments in them. They carry spare pens. They have little bottles of water to spritz their faces. These women plan…

Fiji Travel Journal Part Two: Airports, Adoption and the Kindness of Strangers

Catch up with ‘Part One: Donuts, Margaritas and Waistcoats’ here! Thursday 20 September I wake up. Head fuzzy. Where am I? It’s dark. Ohmygod. There’s a woman. Right there. She’s tall. Thin and tall. She’s staring at me. Watching me sleep. Seriously, where am I?! Who is this stranger?! Is she going to kill me?!…

Fiji Travel Journal Part One: Donuts, Margaritas and Waistcoats

Wednesday 19 September I wake up with that excited Christmas-morning feeling. We leave for Auckland today, then Fiji tomorrow! Unfortunately, my fervor is offset with a nagging feeling of anxiety, as I’m convinced that I’ve forgotten to pack something vital, and check that my passport is in my bag at least six times before I’ve…

The news feed of my homesick heart

Dear Facebook, We need to say goodbye. No, not forever! Come back, don’t pout! I’m sorry. I should have worded this better. I’ve never been good at this sort of thing. What I mean to say is, we need to take a little break. I’m going to Fiji in a few hours, and part of…

Preparing for international travel

Despite the fact that I’m leaving for Fiji tomorrow, I haven’t even started thinking about packing. You’d think that a child of divorce would have this stuff down pat, right? Every second weekend was spent at Dad’s house, so surely I’d be able to get the necessities into a bag with minimal fuss? No. My…

The morning after

Slowly, reality comes, seeping in the edges of the world. Ok. What’s going on? Who am I? Female. Kate. Yes. My mouth tastes like a sock. Do I want to open my eyes? Not really. Compromise, just one? Ok. Eyelid prised open. Is this my bed? Good. Am I alone? Thank god. Where is my…

Expanding one’s mind through travel

They say travel broadens the mind. They say that meeting new people and having new experiences can fundamentally change who you are. I’m not sure who ‘they’ are, but I imagine ‘they’ are intelligent, worldly types, who wear jewellery fashioned out of Nepalese tree bark, while they drink obscure teas and pepper conversations with stories of…

Childhood dreams and stripper snubs

When I was little, my first and greatest ambition was to grow up to be a mermaid. Maybe it was my deep love of splashing around in the ocean, ending up as wrinkly as everything in my t-shirt drawer. Maybe it was my deeper love of avoiding chores in favour of floating around. Or maybe…

European women I met briefly that changed my life: part one

Part One: Ooma During my illustrious career as a recorder player in the primary school orchestra, I had gone on many field trips to nursing homes to perform. As there wasn't a lot of responsibility involved (the recorder a hollow tube that makes blasting honk noises, it is hardly like I was First Violin), I…

An apology to people who found me through a Google search

I love WordPress. This isn’t a desperate attempt to get featured on Freshly Pressed (though seriously you guys, I’ll bribe whoever to get on that page, and I’m barely joking). ...now that I’ve squashed any chance I ever had to get Freshly Pressed by typing that sentence (though seriously you guys, I’ll delete the bit…