Blog 1

Published Dec 23rd 2018

Before I can launch into any posts about my favorite (and least favorite) trips and tips, I feel it’s only right to introduce myself, my philosophy and the reason I love to travel so much.

Being a young girl from New Zealand, I know how fortunate I am to live where I do. My family and I are all lovers of travel and due to this, we have always gone on vacations. For as long as I can remember, while all my friends would stay in Wellington over the holidays, we would be out exploring our beautiful country or flying off to exotic places. I am so lucky to have my upbringing and to have the opportunity to travel as much as I do, and I hope that this blog will help to share my experiences in travel to further educate others and to influence their journeys. 

I’m sure everyone visiting this site loves to travel just as much as I do. But why do we love it so much? What is the appeal? Surely the long-haul flights and uncomfortable nights in a dodgy hotel room have put people off by now. Why do we keep coming back for more? 

To me travel is addictive. Once you have a taste for it, you start to see the world in a whole new way and you don’t want it to stop. We are so used to the familiar. We know where we came from, we know where we live. Ask me any day, and I will be able to describe to you the exact way my street looks. I can tell you where the telephone poles are positioned and what colors adorn the doors of my neighbors.  I can tell you (or at least try) what it smells like, what the people look like, what noises cry out in the night. I know my city better than anything else and I’m sure you do as well. We find comfort in that. When things are familiar to you, you instantly feel at ease, a sense of relaxation you can’t get anywhere else. For the most part, you feel safe.

It’s when we step out of our safe-zone, when we go somewhere new that we really travel. Everything seems different. The things that you barely noticed at home, the parts of your subconscious, you now notice in detail. The water tastes different, not like your water but new, foreign. The air is fresher, the rivers are colder, the food is cheaper and the people don’t look like the people from your city. In a way, traveling is terrifying. You are leaving your safe home, and venturing into a new world. A world that is completely different from the one you are so used to. But we find comfort in the familiar, and no matter where you travel, there will always be a piece of home there.

The same cafe as the one at home, the same types of houses, the same sheets, the same sense of community. In these small things, we find peace. When traveling you begin to see pieces of yourself in that country. You affiliate yourself with the attributes of the area. That’s the beauty of traveling, no matter where you go, how far away, you are never that far away at all.

I love to travel because it’s new, because it’s exciting and because I always find a new part of myself in each destination. In Vanuatu, I learned to relax, to stay stress-free and to let time pass. I let go of my itinerary, written out to the hour and just let myself embrace the culture, the new lifestyle of living. In Bangkok, I learned how to explore. I experienced a fast-paced, always moving place, where something was always happening. Somehow, because I have traveled, I can live both a fast-paced and a slow-paced lifestyle. Travel shapes you into who you are. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Travel teaches you patience, it rids you of greed and selfishness, it allows you to step into the lives of someone else for a day.

Those streets you walk down, the houses you pass – those are someone’s homes. The cafe you stopped at to grab a coffee is someone’s whole life – their career, their passion, their everything. The unfamiliar faces you passed as you went for an evening stroll are someone’s family and friends. The house you stopped to admire as you walked past has people living in it. How incredible it is that we can go anywhere and experience a taste of another life. To temporarily step into another culture, another community and feel what life is like on the other side of the world.

We love to travel because if we didn’t travel, we would only ever know the familiar. We would never expand our perspectives, never push our boundaries. Our world, our views, our ideas are limited to a single path, influenced only by those around you. But when you travel, this changes. You meet people who change your opinions, you see things that make you realize how fortunate you are, you gain an educated opinion on everything. Exploration is in our human nature.

Go, travel. Whether it’s to a neighboring city or thousands of miles away – travel is limitless. Adventure is waiting for you. I hope that I never stop traveling, that every day becomes a new journey. That’s my philosophy.

Why do you love to travel? What makes travel exciting for you? And why do you keep coming back for more? Let me know 🙂 

By Rebecca Hutt xx