Kia Ora, hello! My name is Madeline, I’m 22 years old and I’m currently living abroad in the United Kingdom. I was born in Aotearoa, New Zealand, which is where I’ve spent all my life.
After completing high school during the Covid-19 pandemic, I originally planned to take a gap year to work and travel. However with the New Zealand borders still closed, I ended up choosing the university route, though unsure of what career pathway I wanted to go down. I studied at the University of Otago in Dunedin, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Psychology. However, by the end of my time at university, I wasn’t ready to go straight into a 9-5 job. I still had the itch to travel, and decided to give myself a couple of years to travel and work overseas before I ‘settle down’.
I left my home in Aotearoa in July 2025, and as time has passed, I don’t have a plan to go home yet. I’m not sure what the next few years will look like for me, but I want them to include a lot of travel, exploring and experiencing new places, learning new things in all kinds of environments and cultures, and I want to try my best to document these years in this blog.
I’ve always enjoyed keeping a diary or journal, and I hope that putting some of these stories and entries online will help others to see the world and all of its wonderful culture, architecture, nature and experiences.
I had millions of questions before I left home, and I made a lot of mistakes that although I wish I could have avoided, maybe someone else can learn from them. My hope is that this blog will answer some of those questions and give some advice that I wish I had been given.
Happy travels!
Madeline 🙂
Life Across the Globe 