Stranded?! The story of why I have been MIA. PS: I miss you!

in #travel7 years ago

It's like coming home to be able to type this post here and connect with you all after such a long time of being away.

My poor computer must be feeling incredible lonely as I was unable to charge it for almost my entire journey in the camper van! (More on that later...)

A couple of months ago I got myself all rattled (yes, I posted on it) about the volcano threatening imminent doom in Bali, where my home is. Time passed and the skies stayed blue, the earth stopped shaking (as much) and everything seemed like normal. Life goes on.

Here's a little sample of what's going on that's causing these change in travel plans, thanks to Time magazine's photo

volcano bali.jpg

Time came for a switch up in routine and I ended up on a plane, flying South to NZ for some following up with a life I started down there not so long before Bali stole my heart.

If you've read my posts before you might already know about my camper van, Samwise (name from LOTR origin, yes, I am a nerd) ... see, Samwise had a little bit of trouble being alone for so many months and some rats decided to start a party inside him.

While I was in Bali falling in love with the sunshine and writing to you all about it, Samwise was getting frisky with some ratty individuals who were having a blast ripping through my personal belongings.

That's life. Loss is all part of the plan so I moved past the hurt in my chest of losing my possessions and flew back to NZ to help see Samwise through his darkened days.

After Samwise was in tip top condition, I decided to take him for a spin through the South Island of New Zealand (the beauty of that country is just unbelievable, feels like a dream!)

van sam.jpg

So, for the last 5 weeks, I have been playing hookey, running around with Samwise, bathing in ice cold glacier waters...

me bathing 2.jpg

Sleeping on beaches...

me beaching.jpg

And eating delicious vegan meals from fresh veggies I picked up along the way and made in my tiny little van kitchen...
food van.jpg

Unfortunately/fortunately electricity was not part of that situation.

My plan was to fly back to Bali after my trip but see, Mother Earth had another plan and with her rocking and rolling, the volcano started going off, causing my flight back home to be canceled.

Samwise was switching owners (thankfully because this time I was not about to leave him alone!) That meant that I could either stay with some friends in NZ and wait it out (which I would have done) but, my dad was coming to see me for Christmas and his flight was also canceled so that meant basically a repeat of mom coming to HK, and I was not going to have another crazy story like that.

With that, we booked flights into Bangkok.

me elephant (1).jpg

So, now my friends, I am in Thailand with my dad, running around yet again waiting to be able to go back to Bali but also wanting to experience the lovely, fun, beautiful country that I am blessed to be in!

That being said friends, I might not be able to be back to normal and definitely cannot take on the contest right now, but I can get some amazing stories to share with you and get this I will be staying in hotels with wifi and electricity so someone slap me if I don't check in here and there at least ;)

I miss you!

Sending you love!

XO,
😘


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You are radiant in these pictures. I can totally see that you had a brilliant time.

This is my absolute favorite picture of your post! You give me the travel bug!

x

Hahaha that was SOOOOO COLD! Everyone was laughing at me! But, I did get some cool promo shots for my friend's new product so, it was well worth the brain freeze ;)

YES! That's what I was wondering. There is ice everywhere. How many seconds did you stay in the water??!

I had to go light the fireplace after seeing the photo of the bath in the water with ice! Brrrrrrrrr
Thanks for sharing your journey. Good photos and post, congratulations.
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Hahaha I don't blame you! That was absolutely freezing but at that point in my trip I was getting quite used to cold waters, wanting to swim in all the beauty of them ;)

I love sharing these journeys I think everyone should be able to see our beautiful world and I am so happy to share :)

Thank you for the kind message and the appreciation, I posted another one of the adventures today with tons of photos if you're interested in seeing more of NZ :)

Thank you for your kind reply, your support is greatly appreciated, thank you!
Your blog has been added to my feed! :-)

Glad to see you back, we missed you too! Amazing photos, enjoying following you adventures 💜

Hey @lolzwithlisa <3 Thank you! I am happy to be semi-back ;) still on the road but now I can at least charge my computer haha I have so many beautiful adventures to share with you! I have an incredible amount of photos o go through ;) <3 I posted some amazing shots of a town I was in with incredible blue waters if you want to see more of NZ <3

Great to hear from you.... Thailand is not a bad place to be stranded hehe. Hopefully see you in Cambodia or Bali soon xxx

@amy-goodrich I am loving the Thailand weather, I bet you have the same/similar sunshine and heat! <3 We are working out our plan of wanting to be home for Xmas but also wanting to avoid the volcano! It would be so amazing to meet you in person <3

Yep nice weather here... loving kep. Cool ocean breeze. SR can be hot!

So glad you love my county! I love seeing people enjoy it, and it gives me more motivation to explore it more myself, I know there are some stunning places in NZ. Also Samwise is an amazing name for a van. Have fun in Thailand <3

@kaykunoichi, I miss NZ so much already, it's such a paradise! I took thousands of photos of everything so I will share them with you so you can see your wonderful country! You are so lucky to live in such a pristine, incredible place! So much of the world's nature is being destroyed! I just wrote a post today about Tekapo, I just LOVED it there! Have you been to it?

Samwise looks like as loyal a friend as his namesake, even after rats!

Hahaha he totally was/is! I know the new owners of him are going to have a grand time! I miss him already! He was such a loyal comrade ;)

Welcome back, I hope you had a wonderful time. So far it appears you have and have plenty of stories to catch us up on. :) look forward to them all!

Hey beautiful! <3 Thank you! I am not quite 'back' yet but hoping to be more back than these campervan days of no internet ;) I hope you're doing well my dear, we will have to catch up soon <3

how it is right now? are the people not allowed to go to Bali because of the volcano ? We was December there and it was quit nice. But lot of raining that time... Good post @heart-to-heart

I am not there right now but my brother is! He decided to book a flight in with an airline that was still operating. He says it's lovely except for the constant smoke and fumes that drift in the wind. My flight was operating from an Australian company so they canceled my flight in. I am hoping to be able to get back for Xmas though if everything stays alright :) I would love to hear about your time in Bali!

I love NZ!!!

Me too! It's such a gorgeous country! I filled up a lot of memory cards with tons of photos so I will keep sharing don't worry ;) I just posted a new one today about Tekapo, I don't know if you've been but if you haven't you have got to see those photos!

Wow, really amazing!!

NZ is so beautiful! I took over 3000 pictures haha so I will continue to share them here! I just posted another blog about a wonderful town Tekapo! If you like these pictures, you'll LOVE those! :)

ok great! going to check it as well :D

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