Follow the Journey

They are all together and ramped up to begin this epic adventure ahead. Lord of the rings references have already begun which is a good sign that this group is made for each other! Wish them well for their trip over the vast pacific. Until next time… In Wellington!… Read More

Avi and Lauren here, welcome to our first blog post! We are hoping that everything is going well for you with packing, preparing, and feeling mentally and physically ready for our semester. We are here in Portland preparing for our amazing upcoming adventure. All of the folks at Carpe have been eagerly preparing our lessons, plans, games, and all the other fun amazing things that we are looking forward to… Read More

As we began our outback tour on December 3rd, the final full week of our trip commenced. As per usual, it was a week full of laughter, endless fun, and great memories. We spent the whole week doing group activities so we were able to really appreciate each individual member of the Walkabout family and close the trip with beautiful memories of being together as one. Ryan and Cheridyn, our… Read More

After four long educational days, most of the students are now SCUBA certified! The first two days we had classwork and practice in a pool, then for the third day we headed over to Fitzroy Island and did couple of beach dives. We stayed at the resort on Fitzroy for one night and got to enjoy the luxury of a real hotel. For dinner we all put on our nice… Read More

On November 25, Walkabout celebrated Thanksgiving. It started out with some intense debate; we quickly found out that everyone’s Thanksgiving traditions are wildly different. Some people have the classic turkey, some make lamb or tofu. Some people need gravy or there’s no point in celebrating, others feel the same about rice. Some of us start our “dinner” at 2PM, some people eat as late as 7PM. Of all things, all… Read More

This week our family got seperated in half an we each went to different areas to do conservation volunteer work with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers of Australia). I think we were all in agreement that it was weird not being together with a huge group of 12 all the time. Just from the excitement and smiles and hugs when we finally reunited, it was clear how much we missed each… Read More

After our four hard days of work at the conservation project the fam reunited to spend 3 amazing days in beautiful Noosa. It felt so good to be back with the rest of the group. Time has been flying by and we cant believe theres only 2 weeks left. After being seperated from half the group for four days we all realized how much we are going to miss eachother… Read More

Odds are Jay wears a bra at dinner at the Murai Odds are Ben wades through a murky pond at Sheila’s farm Odds are I wear a tiger hat around Auckland Odds are Rebecca wakes up Ryan and Cheridyn in the middle of the night to say she had a nightmare Odds are Morgan sprays all the perfumes in the duty free store on herself in the Fijian airport on… Read More

This past week was our second week living in the rural Fijian village of Nasolo. After completing our community service project of revamping their community hall, we had four days where we were able to learn more about the activities and jobs that make up their every day life and build strong connections with members of the village. This week included activities like prawn fishing, weaving, going to their private… Read More

This past week was an interesting one. It was the week of our free travel where the students are able to decide where they want to stay for the duration of the week. I am still not quite sure how, perhaps we have a little leprechaun following us around, but we were able to reserve an amazingly beautiful house right in front of the beach! Our own little island of… Read More

Exerpts from my journal while in the village! “You know how you never actually use all the ink in a pen. You either lose, replace, or break it before hand. Well, I have succeeded in finishing the ink in, not 1, not 2, but 4 pens. I only brought 4 pens with me. Thank goodness I still have the pen that Cheridynn gave out as a scavenger hunt prize back… Read More

The sun has been shining for hours by the time you wake up. It’s 7:00 am. “Yadra Nana and Tata!” (good morning host mom and dad.) Tie up the mosquito net, grab some toilet paper and head outside to the bathroom. Check for frogs and other mellow creatures making shelter in the concrete cubicle before getting down to business. Afterwards wash your hands with antibacterial soap in a sink or… Read More

ut After a few bus rides, a hostel stay, and a four hour ferry ride, we have arrived to our village, Nasolo! We rolled up driving through their grass and sat around in their community hall for the welcome ceremony all wearing our new fancy sulus. None of us were accustomed to any Fijian words or traditions yet but we all sat around fascinated of what I think was a… Read More

The Bay of Islands were so beautiful and some of us went kayaking or just chilling on the beach. We had an awesome dinner for our last night in New Zealand. We didn’t do too much for the 2 days that we were there so it was nice to have a break after working at the farm for a week, but we all had fun and some good quality time… Read More

Bula bula! 2015 walkabout group has wrapped up our month in New Zealand. We made it safely to Fiji! We are all ready for tropical shorts and flip flops weather. We arrived yesterday in Nadi then took a short van ride to our hostel in New Town. The city is very unique and not like anything I have experienced before. I love the island vibe and all the positive energy… Read More

Kalie, Ryan, and I (Syd) got a chance to go fishing with our farm contacts. We went out on this tiny little boat and the water was really choppy. Once we finally got out far enough, we cast our lines and started catching fish almost instantly. We caught a bunch of KaWe and some Red Snapper as well. Ryan and I were doing great but Kalie wasn’t having much luck… Read More

This past week living and working at Sheila’a organic farm has been unbelievable. When we arrived on Monday, we were welcomed to a beautiful property by the wonderful Sheila. Her and Anne have been so generous with their land and time and I know our whole group appreciates what they’re doing for us. Our first two days of work were spent on Anne’s farm, completing projects like chopping up wood… Read More

Being a wwoofer(willing worker on an organic farm) has been an amazing experience so far. I have a new respect for all farmers because the work is surprisingly challenging, gross, and energy consuming. The mornings have been lots of hard work and the afternoons have consisted of lots of pool and ping pong. My first task this week was a two-day job at Anne’s farm. Jessie and I partnered up… Read More