Welcome

In September 2015 I said goodbye to family and friends and set off on a long overdue cycle trip. My plan was to ride across Asia, from Russia, to Hong Kong and beyond..

In total, I was away for just over nine months. It was an amazing journey, but, more than that, it was the day when I stopped looking to others for liberation and took my life into my own hands.

I returned to New Zealand in June 2016, sick and broke, but empowered. It was a reluctant retreat and a hard transition, but I felt like the journey had only just begun.

Don’t Believe The Hype was conceived as an alternate travel blog, a place to explore and expose trendy travel concepts as marketing buzzwords. But the realities of independent travel are the realities of life in your own skin. And so, it remains relevant, much more than a faded postcard of halcyon days long since past.

From the time I cut the umbilical cord, to my adventures across Asia, my deep depression back in New Zealand, eventual compromise, and my unwavering commitment to stay on a difficult path, I’ll write about it here. If not right away, then once I pluck up the courage to face my inner demons.

I hope that, by being honest, I can dispel some of the myths around adventure travel and encourage you to live out your own dreams.

The Tour Diaries contain daily entries from my 2015-16 tour of East Asia. Alternatively, head offsite to TrackMyTour to read an as-it-happened micro blog of my 2019 tour through India and Nepal.