World Adventure

May 2017 - March 2024
From New Zealand to San Diego in a year. The adventure of a lifetime.
Currently traveling
  • 111footprints
  • 28countries
  • 2,502days
  • 690photos
  • 3videos
  • 73.7kkilometers
  • 54.1kkilometers
  • Day 1

    Here we go, New Zealand!

    May 14, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    World here we come! First stop Bali. Final destination San Diego. Who knows where we will travel in between. We will miss you New Zealand. #whitandreasadventures

    I can't believe how small our bags are! Andreas' bag is 7kg and my bag is 8.4kg.Read more

  • Day 2

    Kuta Beach, Bali

    May 15, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After 19 hours of travel, including an eight hour layover in Sydney, we made it to Bali! We were both super tired when we exited the plane and had about a 10 minute taxi ride to our hotel. The guide books say that there is only one reputable taxi company you should take while in Bali, Blue Bird taxis which are light blue and have a little blue bird logo on the side. Easy right? Wrong. Battling the sticky tropical heat, we withdraw about 500,000 rupiah ($60 NZD) and BAM we are bombarded. Swarms of hawkers see Whitney's pasty white skin as if it's a neon sign blinking "tourist!" Suddenly every counterfeit taxi driver in town was following us around trying to give us a 'very cheap price.' We said no about five times to each driver but they just kept following us no matter how much we ignored them. Talk about persistent. Within our first two minutes of being in Bali we also got offered to "smoke the special stuff" and it wasn't an isolated incident. To avoid all this chaos we ran out of the airport and eventually settled for an illegitimate taxi with a driver that appeared trustworthy! When we finally got to our room with all our organs, Andreas and I shared a long hug and thought "what did we get ourselves into." This is going to be a big adventure!Read more

  • Day 3

    Seminyak, Bali

    May 16, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Following on from a great first day on Kuta beach, we traveled up the coast to Seminyak. Here we spent our time walking on the beach, swimming in the warm ocean, exploring the shops, eating delicious acai bowls, and drinking ice cold beers on the beach at sunset.... we could get used to this! In Seminyak we stayed at our first party hostel and partook in the festivities that evening. I think our eyes masks and ear plugs will come in handy on this adventure.Read more

  • Day 6

    Canggu, Bali

    May 19, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Canggu is amazing! It's a tiny laid back beach town with surfers everywhere. We finally decided to rent a scooter and it was such a good idea. 50,000 IDR for 24 hour ($4.50 NZD)... what a deal. Andreas got to use his mountain biking skills on the tiny cobblestone roads and in the crazy traffic of Bali. We are pretty sure there are no road rules and whoever sticks their nose in first has the right of way. Needless to say, I was very happy riding on the back. Andreas has been encouraging me to drive but I don't think I'm ready yet. Filling the scooter up with gas is an adventure in itself. You get it on the side of the road out of Absolute Vodka bottles and it's about $0.60 (NZD) for one liter. I wonder how many people have acciddently drunk it.

    One evening while in Canggu we drove to the nearby Tanah Lot Temple to watch the sunset. The place was packed because every tourist in the area does it but it was very beautiful. We've been hanging out with a French girl, an Italian girl, and two Egyptian guys. We all went to a beach party and plan on meeting up later on down the road.
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  • Day 10

    Ubud, Bali

    May 23, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We spent the last three days in Ubud, the hippie capital of the world. More importantly, we have finally seen monkeys and they are crazy! They jump on your back and undo zips to get into your bag for food. One of them stole my banana and another peed on me! Some other highlights from Ubud were taking an awesome yoga class at the famous Yoga Barn, waking up at 2am to hike Mt. Batur for sunrise (although it was foggy), checking out the rice fields, and drinking Luwak coffee (Luwak's poop it out and they call it a cat poochino). We also met a group of cool Americans and have started traveling with them.. next stop Gili T for some relaxing beach time, partying, and SCUBA diving. Bring it on!Read more

  • Day 11

    Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

    May 24, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We took a ferry from Bali to the tiny magical island of Gili T. There are three Gili islands in total. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the Gili islands so it feels like we have been transported back in time - horse drawn carriages, bumpy dirt roads, and bicycles everywhere. The island has turquoise blue water and is surrounded by coral reefs. We went snorkeling and saw sea turtles everywhere. Andreas spent three days getting his SCUBA certification. I joined him his last day for a refresher course and for his last dive. We went down to 18m to check out a pier that sunk 20 years ago. We saw lion fish, cow fish, scorpion fish, and a manta shrimp. There were even bikes down there. We are still traveling with our squad of Americans. We also found out that all the water on this island is desalinated (although it is still a little salty) and the whole island is run on generators - electricity can be a little shotty. Next stop Gili Air!Read more

  • Day 18

    Gili Air, Indonesia

    May 31, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    After a 20 minute overcrowded public ferry ride in the 32 degree heat, we arrived (sweating) to Gili Air. This island, known for its "chill factor" and accessibility to psychodelic mushrooms, is the smallest of the three Gili islands and takes about 26 minutes and 54 seconds to run around (we know this because I did it). We had to walk for about 10 minutes from the ferry to our hostel 'Bedadang' which was located on the opposite side of the island. True to the island's reputation, we were offered magic mushrooms several times during this 10 minute walk. Our hostel's rustic island theme (grass huts, palm trees, mosquito nets) was accented by a mushroom shaped swimming pool which was awash with flashing colours after sunset. We were still travelling with our USA contingent so most evenings we would head out as a group to get some cocktails and the cheapest meal we could find. Whitney and Alli (a girl in our travelling group) sought out the infamous Gili Air swing for a beautiful picture in the dying light while I proceeded to use the hostel table tennis table to assert Kiwi dominance by thrashing Max (a guy from our group) who suggested he might have some talent for ping pong (current score 8 - 5 to me). We now head to the Island of Lombok, known for its waterfalls, trekking, and surfing.Read more

  • Day 20

    Lombok, Indonesia

    June 2, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌬 31 °C

    Our group took the "public boat" from Gili Air to Lombok. It costs about $1 and was packed full. A scary but cost-effective way to travel between islands. In Lombok we stayed at a hostel that served free banana pancakes 24/7 by a friendly man named Abdul. Our first day we explored the nearby town of Sengigi and stumbled upon a really nice resort. We decided to splurge and eat there... great decision! The food was Italian, and equivalent to the dishes I tasted in Italy. We decided to explore the grounds after our meal and found the private villa part of the resort. This included a 'lazy river style' pool and complementary coffee and muffins bar. As there was no one around, we spent the rest of our afternoon swimming in the pool, drinking coffee, and eating muffins.... until they asked for our room number. With some quick thinking and apologizing (from the staff to us) we got out of there without any issues. Because it was so tasty, we ended up eating dinner at the resort and watching the sunset.

    The next day we were ready for adventure. We rented four scooters between the 7 of us and set off on a waterfall hunt. Apparently there was a waterfall 30 min from our hostel and we set off into the mountains to find it. Our paved road soon turned into mud and rocks. At some points I had to jump off the back so Andreas could make it up the steep muddy hills. The locals were cheering and laughing at us as we rode by; it was clear that not many tourists came this way. As no one spoke English this far in the mountains, we had to show people the Indonesian word for waterfall on our phone and they just kept pointing up the road. Finally we parked our bikes and a little girl (about eight years old) in a pink shirt ran up to us. She didn't speak a word of English but grabbed my hand and pointed forward. We did what any normal person would do... we followed her! She was wearing flip flops about four sizes too big and started moving quickly through the jungle (we all had to hurry to keep up). We soon realized we were on an advanced trek following a small child that spoke no English. After about an hour of hiking we found our majestic waterfall and it was pretty spectacular. We paid the little girl with a half a pack of Mentos and the equivalent of $1. Happy that we didn't get eaten by a cobra or have our organs harvested, we hiked back to our bikes and started our ride home. Lombok was quite the adventure... next stop Uluwatu!
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  • Day 23

    Uluwatu, Indonesia

    June 5, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We had quite an adventure traveling from Lombok back to Bali. Being on a tight budget, our group decided to take the four-hour public ferry from Lombok to Bali for about $5 (NZD) rather than the fast one-hour ferry which cost about $20; of course this was a mistake. While the public ferry did arrive to port on schedule, our boat had to queue in the habour for about three hours before it could dock. Needless to say, our group were less than impressed when we finally made landfall at 6pm. We then travelled by shuttle for about two hours to Uluwatu where we discovered that our reserved airbnb did not exist... sigh. By now we were beginning to see the humorous side of our day's misfortunes and held it together long enough to book nearby accommodation. We stayed the evening in a hotel that had clearly seen better days and moved to better lodgings in a better location the next morning.

    We spent the following three days visiting Uluwatu temple where monkeys stare unwaveringly into your eyes as they snap the sunglasses they just stole, lazing (and paddleboarding) on the overcrowded yet picturesque Padang Padang beach, and watching professional surfers cleave their boards in two on a 10ft shallow reef-break. As our final day in Uluwatu drew to a close, so did our time with our travelling companions who all dispersed to various corners of the globe. It was time to end our journey through Indonesia and make our way to Singapore!
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  • Day 27

    Singapore

    June 9, 2017 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    With our first country down and 1/12 of our trip complete. We said goodbye to Bali as we flew to Singapore. We were pleasantly surprised by the bustling metropolis. Singapore is extremely modern, well organized, and clean! The extensive subway system makes it very easy and cheap to move all over the city.

    Andreas and I spent three days exploring the city. We ate at a Michelin star dumpling restaurant for cheap. We explored the cloud forest (enjoying the AC), the botanical gardens, and the sky gardens. Singapore is an orchid lover's dream as we saw hundreds of different beautiful species. We spent one morning on a free tour of China town and visited Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist temples. The Buddhist temple had "Buddah's tooth" and was encased in 370kg of gold. That evening we did a five hour push-scooter tour of the city visiting two spectacular light and water shows. Our group definitely turned a few heads when we scooted through restaurants, malls, as well as up and down escalators. Next stop: Malaysia
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