I'm a proud and passionate Kiwi who loves sharing my homeland with visitors. After living and travelling internationally for much of my life, 7 years ago I decided to return to New Zealand and start my own travel company offering visitors to New Zealand the types of authentic experiences I had elsewhere in the world. I’ve lived and taught English in Japan and Hungary, backpacked through inner Mongolia, China, and South East Asia, and hitchhiked through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, where I accepted generous invitations from locals to stay in their homes. What a gift it was to travel in those countries and experience that hospitality at a time when it was safe to do so. Those authentic experiences with locals shaped my outlook on life, broadened my perspective on the world, and instilled in me the power of connections with other people, cultures, and places. I still love to be awed by new people and places, to be inspired, energised, and challenged in my thinking and perspective on the world, and to make deep connections with people who I wouldn't have otherwise met. All this is the power of travel and why I love being part of this industry.