2016 was supposed to be a quiet year for me. It was supposed to be a year in which I knuckled now, got a real adult job again, worked on being a real adult and was all responsible like. Well the universe pretty much laughed in my face, throw a handful of glitter at me and kicked me out the door.
2016 was a year of wonder, travel and adventures. To wrap up the year with a side of glittering happiness here’s a bit of a wrap up of the wonder that was 2016.
A year of unexpected travel.
At the end of 2015 I had one trip booked in – Myanmar. That was it. This was supposed to be my one epic adventure for year with the rest of my time being spent as a serious 9-5 corporate adult. Then the universe travel glitter started to fall, I packed my bags and off I went.
My adventures took me across to;
Raja Ampat (Indonesia)
Myanmar
New Zealand
The Philippines (twice)
Falls Creek, Australia
Sydney.
Taking myself and my blog seriously
Pushing through the sprinkling of unexpected universe glitter I started to take myself and this blog a lot more seriously. No longer was this just my creative outlet and a way to explore the world. Seemingly the universe was ok with this as offers of work have steadily increased this past year. The highlight being invited on three international familiarisation trips.
I’ve slept in some really weird places
When you travel around a lot you don’t get too fussy about where you sleep. Cleanliness and safety being the top two priorities. Anything above that is an added bonus. Well this year I got the luxury, deluxe super special added bonuses.
Mongolia Ger in the high country of Victoria, Australia
Shoe box room in Hsi Paw, Myanmar
Silo in Little River, New Zealand
Beach bungaloo in Raja Ampat. In the mornings dolphins swum by just saying hello.
Luxury big fluffy towelled accommodation in Manila – Shangri La at the Fort, Discovery Primea, Raffles.
I became a beach babe
I’m usually more of a read a book on the shores then a splash in the water beach babe. This year saw me snorkelling in the Philippines and Raja Ampat. When you’re off exploring tropical islands you can’t avoid trying to become a mermaid and spending hours in the water. This also resulted in my loosing two bikini tops somewhere along the way when packing/unpacking.
Eating all the things!
Travel and eating go hand in hand. I never like to say no to food when travelling. It’s important to keep my strength up. I ate a lot of food in some great places.
And I drank a lot of coffee around the world.
No instant coffee happening here my friends. Thankfully where ever I went there was some fairly good coffee to be found.
New friends
One of my favourite parts of travelling is the friends that you make along the road.
Travel Massive madness
This year I took on a larger role as a chapter leader for Travel Massive Melbourne. Which led me to an adventure in Manilla and throwing a massive party at Raffles, Makati for TBEX attendees. Thanks to the 250 odd people that came along to party.
I bought an Instagram hat…
And learnt a lot of other really valuable things. Travelling with other bloggers/content creators on trips gave me a great chance to workshop with other like minded people. I can’t thank everyone enough for the time we got to spend together talking away.
A big ass Thank You
To everyone who’s come on an adventure with me.
To everyone who’s signed up to our museletter.
To everyone who helped me get to the places I was going.
To the airlines who did and did not always get me to where I needed to be.
To the universe for throwing glitter in my face and making me be the shiniest unicorn I could be.
Thank you to James for being a stay at home dad to the pups, being an Instagram husband, early morning airport drop off/ pick ups, packing my bags when I was off doing stupid things and not at home packing properly.
What does 2017 hold for James and I?
I have no idea. Who really knows. I can only hope that the universe has another handful of bright shiny glitter to throw our way. We do have a few adventures up our sleeves. We’ll be exploring more of Australia to start of with. Including a road trip around the east coast of Tasmania. Then hopefully we’re off to South America to explore for a few months.
Shameless plug! If you would like to work with an Australian based, adventure and coffee loving travel blogger then please do get in contact with us. We’re currently assessing and accepting offers for the first quarter of 2017.
There’s a few pipe line projects coming up that I can’t wait to share with you all. Until then keep on being fabulous, bright, shiny, travelling unicorns.
xx
Jean & James
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Jeanette
Founder, Principal Blogger & Coffee Drinker
Coffee Lover | Travel Blogger | Horse Rider | Adventure Racer | Donut Dame. Generally nice lady-enjoys wine, indie movies & random dance parties in my tent.
WOW! What a year you have had. So many adventures. I look forward to seeing more of your Australian adventures as we are from the Hunter Valley and plan to discover more of our country with the kids.
I definitely lol’d at “bought an Instagram hat”. I think that’s the one IG cliche that I haven’t yet succumbed to… but maybe 2017 will be the year? anyways wow I loved reading your recap. it seems like like you had quite the 2016, and I’m sure the next year will bring even more glitter and adventure!! 😀
You have been to all the places that I want to go! Did you dive in Raja Ampat? How expensive is the place?
Wow! Those are some exotic places! I really want to go to Raja Ampat! Did you dive there??how expensive is it?
Spontaneous, unexpected travel is some of the best! I’m so jealous of your 2016 adventures–I’m hoping to visit the Philippines again in 2017 myself. I gotta say, I’m super impressed with the accommodations you’ve stayed at this year though. A shoe box room and a beach bungalow?!?! SO LUCKY!
It looks like you had an amazing 2016! It goes to show, you never know what the year has in store for you.
It looks like you had a really adventurous year. Some of the places you travelled to this past year, I really would love to visit some day. New Zealand has forever been on my list of places I’d love to travel to. Here’s to your 2017 and whatever it may have in store for you 🙂
Sounds like a great year full of adventure and travels! I love the beach photos and I definitely consider myself a beach babe too! Don’t you just hate when you misplace something? Especially if it’s something you liked to wear ha! Did you eat that fish head? Or is that just how you took the photo lol? If you did, you are very brave haha! Working with Travel Massive sounds like an exciting opportunity. How did you end up doing that?
What an amazing year! I too have traveled a lot more than I expected this past year, and hope to top it next year. Can’t wait to see where 2017 takes you!
This is amazing! I love that you started off with only one trip and ended up taking a ton! Your blog is awesome so congrats on working your ass off and getting noticed in the travel blogging world! 🙂 I would love to work with you one day!
Hey, it’s you again! I knew I recognized your voice. You’re hilarious as usual. I love the list of places you slept in. Keep at it 🙂
Ha ha ha thanks
This is so awesome, it’s amazing how even though things turn out not how we planned, they can turn out to be so much beautiful and to places we never expected to be!