Once again I find myself in a familiar position, remarking how another year has come and gone.  If you remember, last year I wrote about all of the unbelievable places I traveled to in 2016.  By 2016’s last day I was single, spending my birthday and the new year in a hot place for the first time, and excited for the unknown.  2017 has been a process of meeting myself on the deepest levels.  The best euphemism I can devise is that I learned a few significant things about the “real world” and the people in it.

I found love in wine, pre-loved clothing, exchanged books, long dinners, and someone with whom I am finishing 2017 and beginning 2018.  Even in the hardest of times, I have been constantly surrounded by the most beautiful, caring souls who all made me feel like the luckiest girl in the entire world.  I am grateful for 2017’s opportunities to live in New Zealand for a second year as well as visit three new countries!  Let’s review!

January

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand
• Raglan, New Zealand

February

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand
• Auckland, New Zealand

March

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand

April

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand

May

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand
• Tongariro Alpino Crossing, New Zealand

June

• Backpacked through Vietnam from North to South starting in Hanoi continuing to Sapa, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Phuc Quoc Island

July

• Continued backpacking through the south of Vietnam in Can Tho, the Tra Su Forest, and Saigon
• Singapore

August

• Waiheke Island, New Zealand
• Auckland, New Zealand
• Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

September

• I said goodbye to my life on Waiheke Island and all of the wonderful people there
• San Francisco, California
• Connecticut aka home sweet home
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Jamestown, Rhode Island (for my first half marathon!!)
• Foxboro, Massachusetts
• Vermont

October

• Jumped head first into an east coast USA road trip! Burlington (VT), the woods of New York, Gettysburg (PA), Ashburn (VA), Washington DC, Charlottesville (VA), Charlotte (NC), Charleston (SC) and back up to Connecticut… then back down to Virginia to work for two months

November

• Ashburn, Virginia
• Alexandria, Virginia
• Leesburg, Virginia
• Home to Connecticut for Thanksgiving
• Dover, England
• Canterbury, England
• The Cotswolds, England

December

• Though we based ourselves in Coventry, we rented a car for two weeks and drove every which way from the center of England including… Stratford-upon-Avon, York, Birmingham, and London
• Hay-on-Wye, Wales
• Home to Connecticut for Christmas, my birthday and the New Year!

In 2018, we move back to the Southern Hemisphere and other side of the world.  This time, it’s a brand new country to which I have never been!  Stay tuned.