James Kemp

Mr Leeds United

Hey all, i'm James from the extremely talented sporting nation of New Zealand. I'm a world explorer, who has raised funds for this expedition by working in Finance for a few years. Since conquering the Middle East and alot of Europe on my way to the UK, I have settled in London for the time being to earn some pounds to fund even more adventures back over the English Channel into Europe, South America and generally anywhere that takes my fancy.

Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure............







Travel Blog Posts


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Mr Leeds United
January 28th 2012

After Christmas, I had been in Auckland a whole two weeks, so obviously it was time for a break. Luckily I had Kirsty coming over to visit from Australia for her first ever trip to NZ. After chatting to her so much and not seeing her since June last year, it was great to finally see her again. We started off with a bit of a tiki tour of Auckland, but unfortunately the weather didn't play it's part and she didn't get the best view of what can be a truly beautiful city when it wants to be. After New Years, I had planned a road trip for us and we headed down country - thankfully in much better weather, and had our first stop in Thames. We wandered the town but generally kept it fairly ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
December 9th 2011

Arriving back in London after our epic weekend in Copenhagen, there was no chance for a rest as I had a mere 3 and a half weeks left of my time in London! In that time I had organised plenty of catch ups with people who I might not see again for ages, and a lot of tying up loose ends. One of these was doing my final Hapkido grading up to Brown Belt, which I passed. I also managed a quick trip away with Hannah as we went up to check out Warwick Castle. We were extremely lucky as the weather was superb - crystal clear blue skies in November! We wandered around the town of Warwick first then walked around the Castle, watched a hawking show and I had more laughs at Hannah's expense ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
November 12th 2011

For my final European trip (for now), Clay, Kim, Meg and I headed off for a short weekend away in Copenhagen, or as Kim preferred to call it, (use the Borat voice) Copen High Five! Yes, she is South African. It's not her fault. Our trip started with an ultra red eye flight on the Saturday morning. Yes, we planned it this way as we knew we would all have been out partying on the Friday night to the early hours of the morning. We turned up to the airport half delirious with lack of sleep and over the weekend we only got worse! We landed in Copenhagen and just managed to avoid the wrong train that would have taken us to Sweden. Thankfully we eventually made it into the centre via a fantastic bakery and ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
October 29th 2011

Usually with my trips overseas, I aim to get back on the Sunday night to maximise time abroad, but on this occasion, I arrived back on Friday morning. The first reason was that I moved into a new flat for my last 8 weeks in London. The second, and more important reason was that the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final was on Saturday morning. I met up with Renee, who was visiting London, and headed bright and early to the bar to witness one of the best All Black performances in my memory - and against Australia no less! A World Cup final beckons..... After a week of catching up with friends, Sunday morning arrived and I, like more than 1,000 others was at the Walkabout at 7am to get a prime spot for the World Cup ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
October 11th 2011

Leah and I were up early as we spent the day watching the beautiful German countryside fly by as we headed from Berlin down to Koblenz, our starting point for the Rhine River cruise. We arrived in here in the mid afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we headed out to explore the town, which to call it sleepy would be an understatement. Little did we know this would be well beaten over the next few days. We headed down to the river and caught the gondala over to the other side and got some very dramatic sunset pictures and randomly explored a small farming expo, which was held in the castle grounds. After this, we headed back into town for dinner and found a place that served up a delicious schnitzel for me, and ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
October 7th 2011

Rather than subjecting ourselves to another night train, we flew into Berlin, also partly so we could be there for a Friday night as we had heard Berlin has some of the best night life in Europe. We got in a bit late (and a bit exhausted after our last few nights), so only had a quiet drink before calling it a night. The next morning coincided with the first two of the Rugby World Cup quarter finals. Leah, who has outed herself as a true Hibernophile (a lover of all things Irish - yes, I googled that) and I got up far too early to head to the pub for the game and Leah left devastated after Wales pulled off an upset to beat Ireland. We didn’t stay for the England vs. France match but ... read more



Poland: Craic in Krakow

Published: November 29th 2011Europe » Poland » Lesser Poland » Kraków
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Mr Leeds United
October 5th 2011

Next stop on our Eastern European trek was back to Krakow, which after this trip, has firmly cemented itself in one of my top cities in Europe. This night train was quite luxurious – we had it all to ourselves and it even provided breakfast, water and more room. We woke and stumbled out of the train still half asleep and it took us a few seconds to realise Clay was standing there looking at us with the same bleary eyed expression. Clay (who’s nick name became ‘Ray’ for.... well, I’ll let him tell his own story on that one....), after getting lost in Germany trying to get to Prague, managed to make his way to Krakow and was on the same train – though not in quite as luxurious conditions as we were. We braved ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
October 3rd 2011

When you last left this exciting (and seemingly never ending) adventure, Rachelle was in the enviable position of sharing a night train cabin with 5 men. Would she survive? Would she come out with a ring on her finger? In the end, she did better than Leah and I as they all disappeared in the middle of the night for various destinations, leaving her to a peaceful night’s rest while our cabin was not quite as quiet. It turned out the Asian guy was a snorer. Leah was not impressed, and in her drunk state, her tact was at a even lower level than usual and she had no hesitation in screaming out at him to shut up. He was scared enough to comply and I can see why.... Soon into our trip, we found out ... read more



Germany: Oktoberfest

Published: November 22nd 2011Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich
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Mr Leeds United
September 30th 2011

Finally! D-Day had come! D for Deutschland, Drinking and Day of seeing Leah! We jumped on the train and arrived into Munich almost the same time as Leah, who had been visiting castles for the day. After a reunion that resembled a scene from one of those cheesy American movies, we headed to the hostel, dumped our stuff and headed straight away into Theresienpark, the site of Oktoberfest. We had a quick walk around before choosing a tent where we managed to scrape in one stein before they stopped serving. We also met several locals who loved us. They took us under their wing and showed us several secret places and gave fashion advice to Clay and Leah on ‘proper’ (ie. Not touristy) t-shirts and hats to wear. Eventually we said good night and after a ... read more



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Mr Leeds United
September 29th 2011

By this stage, I was already counting down to seeing Leah and getting to Oktoberfest, but I still enjoyed Vienna. The buildings were pretty amazing, especially the Schonbrunn Palace where we headed the next morning. It used to be the home of the Habsburg’s when they ruled Austria, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The interior was pretty impressive and although I usually get bored quickly with the audioguides, it was all pretty enthralling. After we wandered around there for an hour, we headed out to the garden. Wow! They would need more than a couple of gardeners to handle that! We headed up the back to a random monument and fountain thing for photos then made our Way back via a maze where Clay and I had a race against the girls. The guys won. After we ... read more






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