Embarrassing Travel Stories

December 2018

#GratitudeAndTea

Embarrassing Travel Story

OMG [Laughs] where do I begin todays Blog and the amount of embarrassment I was feeling after traveling =)

Let's begin with with the journey after traveling through Bali, Indonesia for nearly two months. Wow hard to believe it, but I just finished another month traveling around the North and South Island of New Zealand, Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud). During this month in New Zealand, there was a nine-day hall in my travels that I explored the South Island. Road Warriors we were... [smiles] with a friend I met from Holland, tattooed head to toe invited me along for the road trip. Of course I known him longer then three days prior to traveling [Laughs].

As soon as our feet hit the ground in Christchurch, we drove to and explored Maruia Hot Springs, visited amazing families in Mapua that hosted a wicked evening of good food, good laughs, and good company. Oh I have to mention we met this gal from Motueka at the Mapuia hot springs who we invited to camp out in our Air BNB drive way. Safe to say we ended up going to Motueka for the market, and YESSSS best vegan food ever! Yummm my mouth waters reflecting on that market feast.

Next we hit up Golden Bay Takaka Te Waikoropupū Springs, Tata beach, after a day of soaking in the sun and a swim, we took the travels back up along the sides of the mountain and back down. And when I say adventure, this route was exactly like a crazy scribbled line on a piece of paper, intense, nearly reminded me of driving the coast of Big Sur, California US.

Next we hit up Lazy Cow Backpackers in Murchison before taking the drive down the west coast. A beautiful coastal drive along the South Island with our starting point at Charleston. Okay just a heads up that there are a lot of miles to cover before coming across public washrooms, needless to say, squatting behind a bush was not in my travels [Laughs]. Still not as embarrassing!

Charleston we stopped as Pancakes Rocks, then to Hokitika, stayed in Kokatahi and returned to carve pounamu at Bonz & Stonz Carving studio. At Bonz & Stonz, we purchased Jade stone and carved our own Pounamu and wow I went hundy here, carving for five and half hours straight.

Next we traveled to Franz Josef Glacier for the night and this place was amazing. Witnessing the sunrise with the glaciers, wow, huge note, glaciers are most visible first thing in the morning before the sun hits the mountains and the steam rises, 6am-10am.Out of pure luck we also stopped down this road where we were able to witness the sites of Joe Glacier and the view is like a huge frozen river (similar to a tsunami) coming down between two mountains.

Off to Queenstown, stopping to see the blue pools and eating the most expensive fish dinner in Queenstown, don’t always believe what you read on Trip Advisor. Seriously Trip Advisor.. spending $200 for selfish and still hungry afterwards is not worth giving good reviews! (says the Canadian who lives on the Atlantic Ocean). I mean I am coastal Mi’kmaw woman, so my perspectives are slightly or hugely skewed. In all seriously we made up for this by home cooking a fish feed in Oamaru.

After driving inland across from Queenstown to Palmerston, well the views there were goats and trees, and the beauty of sites just seemed to be off in the distance that took ages to approach. After Oamaru we traveled back to Christchurch.

My friends following along my adventures, welalin – thank you! I am grateful for you, and choosing to maintain an Attitude of Gratitude continues to lead me to seizing the moments. Lets recap, the fun parts of traveling are road trips to site see, meeting new friends, engaging in stimulating conversations, random adventures, and embracing the embarrassing moments [Laughs].

Two months and two weeks of Hostels, Backpackers, Hotels, AirBN's and resorts, well I couldn’t believe it. The embarrassment of my traveling, well OMG but we discovered lice eggs, live eggs in my hair (swears the F bomb) that is caps, cause I could scream! [Laughs]. So with embarrassing moments come laughter, for me anyways [Laughs]. The humour of getting lice in my travels at 33 [Laughs]. You've been warned, yes! And those following me along my journeys' on Snap Chat, well ya’all saw my posts and probably were all scratching your heads, and if your reading along now, with go ahead, scratch your head [Laughs] cause I am scratching just editing this [Laughs].

My recommendations for the best head treatments are: coconut oil, lice and egg treatment, or simply tea tree oil mixed with lavender and apple cider vinegar. Don't experience any embarrassing moments in your travels, pack special oils for your head to prevent lice in adveance [Laughs].

So yeah, age 33 traveling and discovering lice eggs in my head is AHHHH embarrassing but no shame in my game. I was pumped for the head treatments and well after being in Bali, having a wet head from swimming everyday, beach bumming, and seeing majority of New Zealand, it was nice to exfoliate, care and nature the scalp [Laughs]. Spoil alert, I did not save any videos or pictures of me cleaning my scalp, so you won't see any of that [Laughs].

Okay friends, that’s just one embarrassing story of my travels. I am sending heaps of positive vibes and gratitude, thanks for clicking on my blog, hope this read made you smile, laugh and possibly got your scratching your head.

Ashley R.