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LATEST POSTS

Alone at Christmas - stories from expats and tips for loneliness

How People Stuck Abroad are Spending Christmas in 2020

December 15, 2020 Cassie Mental Health
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ADHD Q&A - answering your questions about my life and struggles as a woman with ADHD

My ADHD Q&A – answering your questions about living with ADHD

December 11, 2020 Cassie Mental Health
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Exploring Rangitoto on a day trip

Things to do in Rangitoto Island on a day trip

December 9, 2020 Cassie New Zealand
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Things to do in Piha

Things to do in Piha on a day trip

December 5, 2020 Cassie New Zealand
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The best things to do in Mangawhai, New Zealand

Things to do in Mangawhai on a Day Trip

December 2, 2020 Cassie New Zealand
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How to cope with sensory overload on the road - my top tips as a neurodivergent traveller

How to deal with sensory overload on the road

November 30, 2020 Cassie Mental Health
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HOW TO TRAVEL WITH ADHD - my top tips!

How to solo travel with ADHD

October 23, 2020 Cassie Mental Health
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The best things to do in Hamilton and Raglan on a day trip (from Auckland)

Hamilton Gardens & Raglan Day Trip (from Auckland)

October 16, 2020 Cassie New Zealand
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Mornington Peninsula - best places to visit

Things to do in Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

September 6, 2020 Cassie Australia, Melbourne / VIC
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Best Day Trips from Melbourne, Victoria

September 3, 2020 Cassie Australia, Melbourne / VIC
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Hi, I’m Cassie! I began travelling at 27 and haven’t looked back.

Since arriving alone in New Zealand in March 2020, I have situated myself in Auckland where I have been working full-time.

Alongside sharing my favourite North Island destinations, you can also find guides for destinations in Australia, Japan, Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and The Balkans.

Although I don’t advocate travel at this time, I hope my earnest posts on everything from solo backpacking to mental well-being on the road, will help prepare you for trips in the future.

Keep safe out there everyone.

What's the worst and best flat you've ever lived i What's the worst and best flat you've ever lived in?  Every share I lived in from the age of 18-30:  1
Lewisham (London), UK
Landlady complained the flat was dirty because we didn't dust the light switches and there was a spider down the side of the washing machine. Was constantly awake for 48 hrs at a time during the next few years... chronic insomnia. It's a blur.  2
2 girls kept making 2 of the others girls cry + there was a gap between the wall and floor and spiders would constantly scuttle from the gap and underneath my bed. Also, this is the first place in which I experienced sleep paralysis. Yay  3
cosy, dreamy, cats, and candles basements. Accidentally starting a fire and losing my most precious belongings was the second most traumatic thing that happened here.  4
East Ham (London)
cockroach manor
slugs, cockroaches and mice lived here in their masses along with no wifi, heating, or non-mouldy toilet seats. We got chips from mcdonalds (because otherwise cockroaches got in our food) while streaming tv in the street cuz otherwise the only entertainment we had was my flatmates decades old Barbie CC-Rom in which Barbie sang a really sad song about Home and we sat there, clutching our knees, terrorised by the cockroaches and dreaming of moving.  5
Lewisham
I slept on the sofa most nights because I was scared of the mice
but I was so so grateful to be someone who could afford to move out of flat 4  6
Walthamstow, London
Spent evenings with my bestie dreaming of our - by this point - over decade old plan of seeing NZ one day (ploop)  Bonus round
spent 4 months on a sofa-surfing tour of London because I couldn't afford rent. Living out a backpack ain't always fun, my friends.  7
Blackheath, London
Me mate let me use his PS4 cuz I never grew up with gaming & I was trying to save money and hag nothing else to do 💝  8
Melbourne, Australia
Great flat, but it's a shame about the flatmate drama which is far to disturbingg to tell, sorry.  9
Sydney
I moved about a lot in this time but it didn't matter. Sydney was Sydney.  10
#Auckland, #newzealand
My female flatmates are nice& lots of Windows 🥰  11
Same building
Moving this wkend
💛🙏
Where is your FAVOURITE DESTINATION for a girls tr Where is your FAVOURITE DESTINATION for a girls trip
Or place to go with a best friend?  The 13th February is a day. And this very important day is also known as Galentines Day. (It's only the greatest day of the year!) 
And it may no longer be that day but eh. I had work to do.🤷‍♀️  Sadly, we can't celebrate such a momentous occasion with our best girl friends this year, since we're all stranded across the globe/country from one another. Boo.  But I've been boosting my mood by dream-planning where I'll next see me mates (even though it might be years away). I've been helped in this mildly pointless yet still glorious endeavour by some super talented female travel bloggers.  With their help, I've curated a list of the best girl's trips destinations around the world. Or, um, 'Galentines Getaways', as I like to call them. Cuz I am lonely and miss cuddles and I JUST WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING CUTE OK?!  *inhales more chips to take the pain away*  To read more of our FAVOURITE GIRLS TRIP DESTINATIONS head to my blog to read the following posts:  - Best girls trip destinations around the world (LINK IN BIO)
- Best girls trip destinations in Europe
- Best girls trip destinations in Australia  And let me know your dream girls trip destinations below too!  Soz lads, but I promise you'll be invited to all our pillow-throwing, makeover sleepovers [lol] as soon as intersectional feminism has cured gender inequality. 😉 Plus, you know, none of us can actually hang out with any of our besties anymore anyways so don't take this too seriously pahaha.  *I was meant to post this yesterday but got distracted by the snap lockdown... we know snap lockdowns can happen anytime though so it's not too much of a shock*
Wildflowers or waterfalls? ☺️ Hey friends. So Wildflowers or waterfalls? ☺️  Hey friends. So, the last couple of weeks have been a wee bit stressful. Sort of. I mean, nothing too anxiety-inducing to be fair. Well. Eh. One of my flatmates is getting deported (see ya) and myself and the other lovely flatmates found out we have to move because the apartment is being sold.  My Brazilian flatmate and I will now be moving in with a Columbian and French couple. I am so appreciative of my current flatmate because found us a flat in the same building just a few days after we got the notice! I just hope we can get the key on the weekend... At the moment we have to move two weeks on Tuesday and she owns all of the furniture, so it would be stressful to do it on a work night. 🙈  Anyways
I do feel more in touch with what goes on in the world by being friends, colleagues and flatmates with so many different nationalities. With the news being so USA and UK dominated much of the time (including international news headlines), I worry I would miss out on a lot of important events without them. 
Sometimes, flatmates and friends have even been kind enough to translate their own headlines for me, which is great patience on their part  Come to think if it,
I have lived with flatmates who grew up in
(*only including people I lived with for 5+ months)  The UK, America, Ukraine, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand, Brazil, Peru, Japan (and after the next move) France and Columbia.
This list actually seems very small when I consider how many countries my colleagues and friends are from... Anyways, It's not something I've never thought about before, & most of these were back in the UK (before I went travelling at 27). So possibly something i took for granted. But I'm definitely grateful for it and the way the openness of friends has helped me have a clearer picture of the world (alongside the efforts I would also make in my own time).  Aside from super short term or non official stays,
how many nationalities have you lived with? How do you feel about this experience?  👕sustainainable t gifted from @lyb_apparel  #hunua#hunuafalls
#Auckland#visitauckland
#aucklandnz #purenz
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