Dan's Adventure

Following my post about being screwed over by World Nomads due to their handling of my insurance claim following my hospitalisation in New Zealand, the General Manager of World Nomads, Chris Noble, posted a comment stating that he would investigate my claim for me.
Chris contacted the underwriters in the UK and came to the conclusion that they had, in his opinion, made the correct decision to not send me back to the UK based upon the wording of my insurance policy. In his correspondence with me however, it transpired that …

When choosing travel insurance you want a company that you can trust will provide you with assistance when you need it the most, one that is easy to make claims with whilst abroad and one which will be quick to help. I chose World Nomads, firstly because they were recommended by Lonely Planet and secondly because so many other travel bloggers have recommended them. Unfortunately I made a bad choice.
I have spent close to three weeks in Auckland City Hospital following an ankle injury the result of which is a …

During the last eight months, the longest that I had spent in any one place was ten days on Koh Tao in Thailand when I was learning to dive, that was true until I arrived in Auckland. In total I have spent just under three weeks in Auckland and I haven’t actually seen any of the city. I arrived in the evening, checked into the hostel and then got on the bus to Auckland City Hospital where I have spent a total of 17 days.
It all started at Mount Cook …

Maori statue, Kaikoura, New Zealand.

After a very long bus journey from Byron Bay I finally reached Sydney, my last stop in Australia. I don’t usually like big cities, but I really enjoyed spending two days wandering around Sydney.
King’s Cross

Bars, clubs and strip clubs fill the streets of the sleazy King’s Cross.
The Rocks

The Rocks is the site of the first European settlement in Sydney. The narrow streets that once housed factories and warehouses are now filled with markets and pubs aimed at tourists.
Sydney Harbour Bridge

I had considered doing the bridge climb, but at almost $200 …

Today I turned 28 so to celebrate I decided that the best thing to do would be to throw myself out of a plane. Packed tightly into the tiny plane we climbed up to a height of 13,000 feet where the door was flung open and Scruffy (my instructor) slid us towards the exit. After a few seconds of posing for the camera on the wing Scruffy rolled us over the edge and we started to free fall. Unlike a bungee jump or a roller coaster you don’t get the …

Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand’s south island is one of the best places in the world to see dolphins and whales. Both visit the coast line year round which has led to Kaikoura becoming a popular place to go on whale and dolphin watching trips as well as swimming with the dolphins. At 6am it was pretty damn cold and still pitch black, but the three of us knew that it would be worth it. We set sail as the sun began to rise and we were …

Fraser Island on the east coast of Australia is the world’s largest sand island. Everyone that travels the east coast makes a trip to Fraser Island, either on a tour or with a self drive 4 wheel drive vehicle. Hervey Bay is the start point for tours, whilst the majority of self drives start from Rainbow Beach, just a little further down the coast. After hearing the horror stories of the self drive option (getting stuck in the sand, vehicles flipping, weekly helicopter rescues to name but a few) I …