Wanderlust Has No Age Limit (and Yes, I Can Still Outdance You in Ibiza)

10 Jun

Let me start with the obvious: I wouldn’t trade my son for a Eurail Pass and a backpack.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t secretly long to see the world in my twenties - when my friends were jetting off on their OE and I was learning how to change nappies and mixing baby formula on zero sleep.

Luckily, social media wasn’t a thing back then. I wasn’t being bombarded with curated sunsets from Santorini or Bali beach clubs at golden hour. Out of sight, out of FOMO.

Fast forward a couple of decades (and a lot of life), and now? Travel is a dream fulfilled. It’s the chapter I always imagined, just with better luggage, deeper purpose, and a damn good travel partner (Rik, you legend).

Where it all began…

Bali was our first love, close enough to New Zealand but different enough to feel like we’d entered a new world. Then came Europe, and wow. Rome moved me in a way I didn’t expect. The history, the art, the passion in the people, it was raw, rich, and intoxicating. Standing in the Colosseum, I felt the weight of time, the echo of stories long before mine. It was a powerful contrast to the quieter history and culture I’d grown up with in New Zealand. Paris, on the other hand, stirred a different kind of emotion, beauty, elegance, and that indulgent joy of simply being alive.

One of the most meaningful moments of our travels was visiting Rik’s extended family in the Netherlands, aunties, uncles, and cousins he missed growing up in New Zealand. Watching him reconnect with his roots, hearing stories around kitchen tables, and seeing where he came from... it brought a sense of belonging that can’t be captured in photos. It was healing. It was homecoming.

Ibiza, on the other hand, was pure joy, wild, alive, and unexpectedly soulful. Dancing under the stars, surrounded by people half my age, I didn’t feel older, I felt alive. There’s something powerful about reclaiming the kind of fun you didn’t get to have in your twenties… and doing it with full presence (and better shoes).

Then came New York at Christmas. It was more than a holiday, it was a celebration of life after breast cancer. Ice skating beneath the Rockefeller tree, post-surgery and radiation, wasn’t just ticking off a bucket list dream. It was a declaration: I’m still here. I’m still dancing. And I’m only just getting started.

Travel, Reimagined in This Season of Life

Travel feels different now, richer, more sacred. I might be 50, but I feel 25 in spirit (and on most days, in energy too). Staying fit and healthy isn’t just a lifestyle choice; it’s the key to our freedom. Rik and I see travel as part of our shared purpose, to explore, to connect, to soak up the beauty and stories this world has to offer while we’re strong in body and spirit.

We’ve swapped the backpacker hostels for Home Exchanges, a beautiful way to live inside a place rather than just visit it. Cooking in someone else’s kitchen, shopping at their local markets, saying good morning to their neighbours, it gives you a sense of how life is really lived around the world.

And wherever we go, our ritual remains the same: a local food tour on day one. It’s the fastest way to understand a city, through its flavours, its stories, its people… and occasionally, a very generous local wine pour.