Nick Tilley
Its all happening. The Adventure is under way... Yes, its true- My friend Cory and I have quit our jobs, and have left the comfort and security of the US to embark on an adventure of global proportions. We left for New Zealand on June 17th, and one 24-hour trans-Pacific flight, a few cancelled bus trips, and 3 hostels later, we finally made it to our first destination- Queenstown, NZ, on the South Island in the the land of the Kiwis. Mountain biking, bungee jumping, jet boating, canyoneering, snow skiing, rock climbing- Queenstown has got it all, and claims to be the outdoor adventure sports capital of the world (Or so Ive heard...). Think we'll fit in...? The plan is to get a job now that we have an apartment in Queenstown, stay here through the Spring (Late Nov.- early Dec..), and then move on to the next stop... Where will that be, you might ask? Ill let you know when we figure it out, but the general itinerary is 5-6 months in NZ, 5-6 months in AUS, backpack through Thailand and SE Asia for a month or two, and then have jobs lined up in Beijing by the time we get there for the 2008 Summer Olympics... How all of it plays out is yet to be seen, but we've at least gotten step one (Get to Queenstown) knocked out. The rest, well, therein lies the adventure... Anyway, needless to say, we're psyched to finally be here. Now the fun can really begin... Stay tuned.Not Just Another JAFA
Travel Blog Posts
June 3rd 2008
Sooo, it has been TOO LONG since I’ve posted anything to this "blog", and now Phase III is officially underway (Cory, Fede, and I are living in Sydney, Australia for the Aussie Summer, but more on that later...), and TONS has happened since my last post (Which covered the time I spent in Cambodia, in May- I know, ridiculous...), but I’m STILL going to do my best to try and get things up to speed before the summer here really gets underway. The photos may do most of the talking, but still, its better than nothing, and it will at least give you an idea of what we've been up to since then. So, without further ado... The blog continues! After Fede and I wrapped things up in Cambodia, we flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok ... read more
June 3rd 2008
A quick run-down on our time spent in Cambodia: Fede and I were only in Cambodia for 8 days, I believe… We had a rough idea of what we wanted to see and how long it would take to see everything, so we went ahead and bought a flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok for the 13th of May, knowing that we had to meet up with Cory once he had arrived on this side of the world. This would give us 8 days to see the sights in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, the two main destinations in Cambodia. Obviously, there are other places to go- other places that sounded really cool, actually, but since Cambodia is the least-developed country in SE Asia, it is much harder to get around than the others we had ... read more
June 3rd 2008
You know you’ve been traveling through SE Asia for a while when the sight of a herd of bighorn cattle meandering along the side of the highway unattended doesn’t even draw a second glance. It’s the norm now- Standard Operating Procedure. Strange, but true. That’s where I currently find myself- crammed in a minibus on a highway in northern Malaysia, heading from the Paradise that was the island of Perentian Kecil towards the tea plantations and exotic gardens of the Cameron Highlands on the interior. I’ve got a few hours to kill, and am using Cory’s computer to try to get at least the written part of a long-overdue blog entry completed along the way. Who knows when I’ll ever get to post it- along with pics- but at least it’s a start… Obviously, if I’m ... read more
April 15th 2008
Ok, so I last left you after our trek through the jungles of Northern Thailand. Here we are in Vientiane (The Loa capital), a couple of weeks later, finding ourselves right square in the middle of the Lao New Year celebration. It has been an incredible couple of weeks in Laos- 2 harrowing bus rides, a brush with French colonialism in Luang Prabang, doing backflips with Buddhist monks at a local waterfall, a couple of surreal days “tubing” in Vang Vieng, a wander through a massive cave, and now 3 days trying to avoid getting unnecessarily soaked during the Water Festival that is the Lao New Year tradition. An unbelievable experience, for sure… We’ve got a few hours before catching our flight to Hanoi in Northern Vietnam this afternoon, so I thought I would try to ... read more
April 2nd 2008
Into the Jungle… Ok, so Fede and I are back in Chiang Mai after a 3-day/2-night adventure in the jungles and mountains of Northern Thailand. What an experience… It was incredible. Honestly, we had some misgivings about it all when we set out on Monday- felt the tour company was giving us the run-around, weren’t sure we were getting what we expected, happened to get placed in a group where no one else spoke English (More on that in a second…)- but we made up our minds to make the most out of it and have a good time, and that we surely did. It turned out to a great time, and exactly what we were looking for (Save the group not speaking English, of course…). The short of the long story of the 3 days… ... read more
March 25th 2008
North island Express... Greetings from Chiang Mai! Fede and I are currently in Northern Thailand, enjoying a break from the insanity that was Bangkok and preparing for a 3-day trek through the hill tribe villages in the surrounding mountains. Ive actually found an internet cafe with reasonable connection speed, so am going to TRY and update the blog to the best of my ability while ive got the chance. The computer is fighting back though- its giving me trouble trying to tranfer my pics over from my camera. Well see how it goes. Its going to be quick- lots of photos, and bullet points to go along with them. Soooo, hold onto your hats... Last time I posted I was arriving into Wellington on the ferry from the South Island. Wow- that seems like so long ... read more
March 19th 2008
Okay, so Ive spent the past 2 and a half hours in the internet room here at the hostel Im staying at in Auckland tonight- uploading pictures, transferring videos, sorting all of my North Island pictures out, working on updating the blog, trying to back everything up- and it turns out it has been all been an exercise in futility. The computers have crashed on me- not once, but twice- effectively erasing everything Ive uploaded, edited, written, and transferred. The computers here are set so that they dont recognize outside disk drives, which has made backing anything up impossible, even if they werent shutting down every five minutes. Unbelievable. 2 and a half hours of slugging through it, and Im literally right where I started. Now I only have 34 minutes of internet time left (Its ... read more
Wet and Wild in Abel Tasman
Published: March 6th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Abel Tasman National Park » Marahau
March 6th 2008
Hello everyone- just going to try and get a quick update in while I’ve got the chance. Its amazing how fast things happen and how much accumulates over just a few days. I know I’ve only been gone from Queenstown just over a week, but it seems so much longer!! Anyway, after leaving Kaikoura, I took the bus North, through Nelson, eventually ending up in a “town” called Marahau. Not really a town as much as it was just a strip of a few buildings and a couple of places that barely passed as hostels… I had booked a 2-day kayaking trip through Abel Tasman National Park, and Marahau was the launching point for the expedition. I spent the first night there at a place called the Park Café, where it was Locals’ Open Mic Night. ... read more
Wild Discovery in Kaikoura...
Published: February 27th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Kaikoura
February 27th 2008
Ok, well, I’m going to experiment with how to keep the blog up while on the road- so far so good. I prob wont be posting as many pics as the past several posts have had, but will pick out a few of the best to try and give you an idea of what I’ve been up to. Anyway, here we go... Man- it has been a LONG day... I guess that’s what happens when you have to get up at 430AM to catch a boat. Alas, that is how my day began, with my alarm going off waaaaaay too early, and me trying to swat the sleepwebs from my head as I attempted to gather my thoughts (And courage...) to go swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura... I arrived here yesterday, after quite a melancholy ... read more
Summer in Queenstown...
Published: February 18th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown
February 17th 2008
Hello everyone! Just a quick update on things here before a slew of pics from an incredible summer spent in Queenstown… One week left. ONE WEEK! I cant believe it! Its crazy- on the one hand, I feel like my time here has gone by so quickly, while on the other, I feel like I’ve been in Queenstown for FOREVER. Keep in mind that I was supposed to have left last November, but due to circumstances with Cory and everything else, decided to stay on. Spending the summer in Queenstown has worked out better than I could have imagined. It is an amazing place in the summertime. It is an amazing place in general… But now, things are drawing to a close. I still don’t think it has really set in that I will be leaving ... read more
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