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A normal girl living her biggest, messiest dreams.

Get to know me

As seen on

These are my unfiltered adventures, musings and stories.
I talk about birds, coffee and overcoming personal fears too much.

60
ish countries
7
continents
10
odd years
Find me on or or I'll email you!

My recent adventures

New Zealand for foodies – where to wine and dine in Central Otago

Central Otago is one of New Zealand’s best hidden-gems for foodies

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20 photos that will inspire you to visit the Waikato, New Zealand

It’s actually the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. I’m serious.

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The raw and wild power of the remote Auckland Islands

This subantarctic island is home to some of the most amazing wildlife on earth

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More adventures from the blog

My favorite stories

All the mean, nasty and godawful hateful things people say to me online

Guys, why do people troll on the internet? Why are blogger hate comments ...
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Solo and single in the most romantic place in the world

How glossy and polished is the travel industry today? Well, I suppose it's ...
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A broken robot: the face of a burnout

My whole life I’ve always been told that my face reads like an ...
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More inspirational stories

Where I screwed up big time

That one time I crashed a scooter in Bali

A week ago I found myself upside down in a ditch full of ...
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Getting Naked in Istanbul

**Warning this post borders on the TMI, but I thought it was too ...
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This might be my funniest story of all time

Guys, the funniest thing happened to me the other day. Now, I know I ...
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More confessions
World Map
Iceland
New Zealand Road Trip Part 1
New Zealand Road Trip Part 2
Australia
Spain
Canada
Finland

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youngadventuress

American in New Zealand. Cynical but kind. Nature frother & #birdnerd. Friend of kākāpō and the girl with the whales 🐳 it’s all on my blog ⬇️
Instagram post 2182288782858131000_146164422 Memories from an amazing day after the @thetravelbootcamp exploring the braided rivers around Glenorchy by jetboat with an awesome squad of ladies ❤️ @dartriveradventures . #jetboat #dartriver #glenorchy #queenstownnz #queenstown #newzealand #nzmustdo
Instagram post 2181640316188384334_146164422 Meet my new favorite bird - the lilac-breasted roller 😍 what a stunner of a bird! . I saw plenty of these beauties while on safari in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and I was instantly mesmerized by their beautiful plumage and colors. After all, cerulean was always my favorite crayon growing up, and it’s a shade of blue I’m still drawn to today 🤣 . Before heading back to Africa, I knew I wanted to bring a big and proper telephoto lens to shoot the wildlife after seeing all of @laurenepbath’s amazing animals shots from Zimbabwe where she runs photo tours. . Using the lighter @olympus_au OM-D system this year, I knew I had to get my hands on their 300mm telephoto for Africa (equivalent of a 600mm focal length), and she did not disappoint guys! A totally manageable lens and weight, I was able to capture photos of the most amazing creatures in Botswana without being bogged down by gear. . #olympusinspired #olympus #breakfreewitholympus #botswana #okavangodelta
Instagram post 2180813168544336203_146164422 Here’s an embarrassing story. I had been living in New Zealand for a year when I was down in Riverton on a girls surf trip. I met a couple of local paua (NZ abalone) divers and was chatting with them when I said something along the lines of how crazy a life to just dive for shells. They stared at me and laughed! Paua divers dive for the shellfish meat, which sells for about $130/kilo and gets exported mostly to Asia. The shells are just a cheap byproduct from it 🙈 A year of living in New Zealand and I had only see the shiny blue shells for sale in tourist shops, and I had never seen paua on a menu, even though it’s an iconic kiwi seafood. What the hell! . The past couple of years, as my travels grow and evolve, I’ve become more and more interested in food and flavors, and experiencing places and the land through local food. But what about where I call home in New Zealand? A question that has been on my mind for years is a complex and divisive one - why does all of our best produce and food get sent overseas? An island with no fish, how ironic! . New Zealand is an island nation with an abundance of farms, wineries, and seafood, why is it that I can find New Zealand wine cheaper in London than in Auckland? Why does an avocado grown here cost $5 or I can’t even get the best grade cherries that grow right next door here? Hell, I can’t even afford the famous New Zealand lamb! If I want the best quality produce, I either have to grow it myself, catch it myself or know someone and barter for it. Maybe I’m just naive but I think a place as special as New Zealand with so many amazing ingredients should look after feeding it’s own people well before sending everything it produces overseas. . In my dream world I grow everything I need and can catch what I want to eat, but let’s be real here. That’s not gonna happen for a while. Obviously this foodie conversation is complex and nuanced, and it’s people’s livelihoods, but at the end of the day, a small nation with amazing natural food resources should be able to feed itself well first, right? . @eat.newzealand #eatnewzealand #kiwi #newzealand #nzmustdo #raglan.
Instagram post 2179509595898400127_146164422 I know I’m a bit late to the party but congrats to the hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) for winning @forestandbird’s New Zealand Bird of the Year 🎉 . Y’all know your girl loves a penguin and a plucky underdog, so I was stoked to see the rarest penguin in the world grab some much needed recognition. Guys, if we don’t do much now, the hoiho will be gone soon. The Māori name hoiho means 'noise shouter', referring to their shrill calls and shrieks, which makes me love them even more. . With only a few thousand penguins left in the world, these guys are very endangered and will likely becomes extinct on mainland New Zealand in the next few decades, as they suffer from habitat loss and predation by cats, stoats and weasels here. Hoiho also suffer from human interaction and loss of food supply as we overfish the seas too. The odds are against them but I believe we still can make a difference #naturefrother #savethepenguins . #hoiho #birdoftheyear #dunedin #yelloweyedpenguin #dunedin #nzmustdo #newzealand
Instagram post 2178049745683429449_146164422 Summer dreams of holidays by the pool at my favorite spot @mahuwhenua in Wanaka ❤️ . #wanaka #lovewanaka #mahuwhenua #nzmustdo #newzealand
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Who is Young Adventuress?

Hi, I'm Liz, and I got my first taste for traveling when I was 16 years old. On my own, 12 years and 50 something countries later, my wanderlust has only grown and the list of countries I want to visit longer. After living in Spain for the past few years and returning home for a stint, I then quit my job and moved to New Zealand and I've been here ever since. Follow my misadventures as I wander, eat, and photograph my way around the world

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