Who Am I and Why a Blog?

If 50 is the hill, then I am over it (only slightly) and I am mother to two little ducks.

My name is Kez and I love to travel near and far.

As an outgoing introvert who doesn’t party or drink much, this isn’t going to be a blog about hitting the bars in exotic locations. After a day of travel and sightseeing I like nothing more than to retreat to my hotel room after dinner for some quiet "recovery time".


I do love food – mostly the eating part, with the cooking part as a means to an end. I am one of THOSE people who take photographs of their food.

I don’t have a glamorous instaworthy bikini bod and I’m not a fashionista. I’m healthy but not very fit.

The travel bug first bit me back in 1987 when I was invited to travel to China with a group of relatives – aunts, uncles and cousins about my age and younger. My paternal grandfather was born in China and we were embarking on a family pilgrimage to the ancestral village along with some other sightseeing.

My first overseas trip: After growing up in rural Victoria, Hong Kong was a bit of an eye-opener! I expected it would be busy and built up like Melbourne, but this was way beyond anything I could ever imagine. The crowds, the traffic, the high-rises, the noise, the smell! It was all a bit overwhelming and after a few days in Hong Kong, I couldn’t wait until we left for China.

At least in China there was a bit more breathing space. It was very exciting for a green 20 year old to be visiting places like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square before it became synonymous with sadness. Then after a few weeks of constant touring in China, with the persistent noise and greyness, I was looking forward to getting back to the relative cleanliness of Hong Kong!

Since then I have been fortunate to travel to the UK and parts of Europe with my parents, visit New Zealand and Fiji twice, go back to Hong Kong and Macau again, visit Australian friends living in Cambodia, visit Thailand and Singapore, tour Vietnam from top to bottom, and live for a year in Saudi Arabia.

I recently undertook an exercise in developing my core personal values and some of the words that rose to the top like the cream on milk were curiosity, open-mindedness, personal development, challenge, adventure, gratitude, simplicity, and appreciation. Travel feeds all of those values. Challenge and adventure sound grand and difficult, but they don’t have to be. Adventure could be as simple as finding your way by yourself in a strange city to a restaurant for dinner. Challenge may be eating dinner in a restaurant by yourself, or mustering up the courage to try a few words of a new language.

My travel bucket list includes walking the Camino de Santiago before I turn 60 and taking my kids on a holiday of their choice before they decide they’re too old to travel with Mum anymore. My son Mitchell and I are booked to visit China together in September and will celebrate his 16th birthday on the Great Wall.

I hope I never lose that wide-eyed excitement I had as a 20 year old on my first overseas trip. And I hope I can pass that sense of wonderment and curiosity on to my two little ducks.

Why a travel blog? Over the last 12 months I participated in a community leadership course and one of the key messages was to find opportunities and purpose that align with your passions. I love to travel and I love to eat. The ISFJ in me loves the research and planning. I love the excitement of getting on a plane and going new places. Closer to home and more budget-friendly, I also love getting in the car and hitting the highway or the back roads. And I love getting outdoors and bushwalking locally.

My current 9 to 5 job situation may  change depending on the outcome of the next federal election (I work for an MP) so now is a perfect opportunity to explore a new path and reinvent myself.

Through this blog I hope I can encourage and inspire other mother ducks, "over the hill" or not, to strike out either with their ducklings in tow or solo, to places near and far away.