I’ll come back and add the details later, but for the time being I wanted a place to remind myself of all the great “small world”/”seven degrees of separation” stories and random coincidences I’ve had over the years:

  • Randomly bumped into Jim Bellett outside a hostel in Canmore in the middle of winter, years after we had first me at Gallipoli and on a yacht in Turkey in 1999.
  • Joining the dots between Simon Crease and Sarah “Malaria” Treadwell at Pickwicks Pub in Baden when Simon first started work at ALSTOM.
  • Giving a tour of the Haas School of Business to Letitia Midmore, who I used to know when we lived in Baden, Switzerland 4-5 years previously, but had lost touch with each other.
  • Being assigned to the same beginner Spanish class in Buenos Aires with Louise Phillips, who I’d met a couple of years previously in Melbourne through a mutual friend Ros Beadle.
  • A commenter on this blog turned out to be an Aussie we met at the hotel bar in Pyongyang, North Korea.
  • Will Johnson sitting on my jacket in a NYC West Village bar at 3am in the morning, when he was meant to be in the UK and I was meant to be in SF.
  • Walking into a random pub in central London for a pint on a winter’s day to find my mate Ian Summerside (English, but living in Florida at the time) dressed and ready to be best man at a friend’s wedding in the Tower of London.
  • Recognizing Alexa Freese amongst the crowd at the SF Oktoberfest in Fort Mason, years after we’d first met in Zurich.
  • Spotting my old army mate Mick Russo in the Air New Zealand lounge at Melbourne airport some 15 years after we last saw each other.
  • Being paired to climb the Matterhorn with the same mountain guide I climbed in the Alps with some 8 years earlier.

So much for promises!  I sadly STILL haven’t updated this site since I last promised it waaaaay back in April 2009.  I’ll blame it on the fact I’ve been a busy boy (as always), but I have to admit that I’ve become more likely to post photos on Facebook than here.  I’ve now set things up so that any blogs published here will also be posted on Facebook, so that should incent me to continue my postings here.

Since I last wrote I’ve done a bunch more travel (again, as per usual), and hope to get some photos up from these adventures:

  • Afghanistan: Kabul city and surrounding area, Panjshir Valley, Salang Pass & Tunnel
  • UAE: Dubai
  • India: Delhi, Gurgaon, Goa, Panaji, Kerala, Kochi, Cherai Beach, Kashmir, Leh, Manali
  • New Zealand: Auckland
  • Cook Islands: Rarotonga, Aitutaki
  • Mexico: Oaxaca, Tulum
  • Switzerland: Zermatt, Baden, Zurich, Flueli-Ranft, Melchsee-Frutt, Berner Oberland, Bern, Klausenpass
  • Germany: Munich (Bain World Cup)
  • China: Beijing, Great Wall
  • North Korea: Pyongyang, DMZ/Panmunjom, Kaesong, Mount Myohyang
  • Malta: Valletta, Rabat/Mdina, Marsaxlokk, Gozo, Victoria, Dwejra, Comino
  • Spain: Madrid, Camino de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela
  • Panama: Panama City, Bocas del Toro, Isla Bastimentos
  • USA: Maui, San Francisco, Rugby (Olympic Club), Russian River Valley, Houston Thanksgiving with Family, Tomales Bay, Seattle NYE, Lake Tahoe, Boston, NYC

Updates to come soon… (hopefully)  Cheers!

Hiking above Zermatt with the majestic Matterhorn across the valley, Switzerland, August 2010

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Rarotonga

Aitutaki