Tweet Just about three years ago, I was driving from Franz Josef on New Zealand’s West Coast to Queenstown in a rusty, old, 1986 Toyota campervan. As I arrived in Queenstown, I viewed the emerald blue waters of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains for the first time. It’s a stunning sight, and one that [...]

Tweet What follows is a guest post from a fellow Yank and friend who until very recently called New Zealand home. Jeremy has spent months exploring New Zealand and was based temporarily in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown. He’s crossed the ditch now to Australia, and I look forward to one day again sharing a Black Shag with [...]

Tweet I often wonder how an Iowa born and bred boy like myself could develop such a passion for the mountains. Needless to say, snow-capped peaks aren’t a common sight anywhere in the midwest, and this is certainly true in my homestate of Iowa.Yet after two years of living in a mountain-town on New Zealand’s [...]

Tweet It’s now been a full week since my first experience paragliding in Queentown, New Zealand, and I am still riding a high. Paragliding. In layman’s terms, paragliding is running off the face of a mountain with a parachute strapped to your back. It sounds incredibly dangerous, exhilarating and addictive, and after going on a tandem flight with [...]

Tweet It’s been a whirlwind five weeks since leaving New Zealand that has seen me on 11 different flights, two long-distance buses, a road trip from Iowa to Illinois, and a cargo ship up Chile’s West Coast. I’m writing this quick update after again returning to the Land of the Long White Cloud – New Zealand. [...]

Tweet If you follow me on Twitter or stop by this travel blog very often, you’ll know one or two things about me. First, you’ll probably know that in the past six months or so, the frequency of my posts here at Backpackingmatt.com have dropped significantly. A combination of a 9-5 day job that consumes [...]

Tweet Dear Twenty-Somethings in America, You’re not moving around or across the US – at least this was the case made by Todd and Victoria Buccholz in a New York Times essay on Sunday. Why? For a number of reasons I suppose. The Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson questioned their points in an article on TheAtlantic.com today, [...]

Tweet When I made the decision some months ago to stick around New Zealand for longer than I anticipated, I did so for a variety of reasons- a fantastic circle of friends, a good job opportunity, an unbeatable lifestyle and a New Zealand bucket list that seemed to stretch from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Perhaps [...]

Tweet When I first decided to come backpacking in New Zealand, I never expected to find a temporary home in the Land of the Long White Cloud. New Zealand seemingly has this effect on many – especially my current home of Queenstown. This bustling little resort town tucked into the Southern Alps seems to be [...]

Athens, as of late, thanks to the atrocious international reportage, conjures up images of rioting pensioners alongside hooded youths, baton wielding fascist policemen and you can almost smell the teargas and hear the cries of the people with raised fists. Yes, riots do occur – the Greeks are, luckily, not a nation to take things lightly and moan about things, yet do nothing about them. However there is more to this capital city than what is portrayed of late.