Meet Maureen & Roger from So Many Places! So Little Time!
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Welcome to another installment of my travel blogger interview series! Today, I’m happy to introduce you to Maureen and Roger from So Many Places! So Little Time!
Hi! We’re Maureen & Roger from “So Many Places! So Little Time!” We are a couple of kiwi nomad New Zealanders with a great passion for travel. When we became ’empty-nested’ in the late 1990s, we sold our business, rented our home, and started traveling in earnest!
Since then we have visited over 70 countries and lived and worked in Oman, Bahrain, South Korea, and Australia, and completed numerous house and pet sits in England, Geneva, Australia, and New Zealand. We have taken cruises in the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Transatlantic.
Interesting in keeping up with Maureen & Roger’s adventures? Follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram!
How long have you been blogging for? Why’d you decide to start a travel blog?
We started our blog 18 months ago. We had just returned from a trip to Great Barrier Island out of Auckland, New Zealand.-Not to be confused with the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
This has to be the best-kept tourist destination secret in New Zealand and we thought the world needed to know more about it.
This coincided with the fact that we were recently semi-retired and thought that we had plenty of time to put together a travel website. How naive were we?
Do you have any tips for new travel bloggers/aspiring travel bloggers?
Find the best course or courses on SEO and complete these before you even start. We are still struggling with some aspects of this.
What’s one thing you wish you knew before you started traveling?
You REALLY don’t need or want to take all those clothes, travel accessories etc. Believe us-the lighter your luggage or backpack the better your travel experience will be. And we mean- really light.
Wherever we go, we will only travel with a carry-on roller bag and lightweight day backpack. Try lugging a suitcase or heavy backpack through the London underground, and you’ll find out what we mean.
Why do you love to travel?
We love the adventure and excitement of seeing new places and experiencing new and different things (especially food!), meeting new people, and learning about other cultures.
What’s your best and worst travel experience?
There are so many many best travel experiences-
We are completely addicted to train travel in Switzerland in the winter.
Living and working overseas in South Korea, Sultanate of Oman, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Australia were brilliant.
There are too many “bests” to list. We LOVE all travel!
There are no worst, but Roger (the Bag Carrier) has never forgotten this experience.
We were teaching English at a university in South Korea and some of our students were showing us around the local markets.
They handed Roger a skewer of barbequed meat. It looked good, and Roger said it tasted fine. The students then informed him it was a dog!!!!!!
Do you prefer solo travel or traveling with other people? Why?
We don’t mind solo travel or traveling with other people. It probably depends on the type of trip.
We found that when solo traveling we met more people and got invitations to events or places that wouldn’t have happened if we’d been in a couple or in a group.
People are much more inclined to approach you if you are on your own.
What’s your favorite place you’ve ever been to? Why?
We have so many fond memories of so many favorite places. Gruyere in Switzerland-charming little medieval village and the best castle we’ve ever visited and the cheese! Iguazu Falls in South America-we were expecting a very commercial place like Niagra Falls and it wasn’t anything like that.
Honfleur near Paris with its great market set around the port. Naphlion in Greece for a real Greek experience. Ashford in Kent, the UK where we had a great house sit experience. Tioman Island in Malaysia for a very lazy beach holiday-white sands, no people, warm blue water.
And so the list goes on!
What’s your biggest travel tip?
That old saying- “Pack half the clothes and twice the money!”
Is there one specific thing you like to do, see, or buy in every place that you visit?
We collect fridge magnets. Great to bring back memories of a cold dismal day at home. And we like to check out the local supermarkets and food markets and look for items of interest.
Is there one particular food that you’ve tried while traveling that you loved? What food was it and why do you love it so much?
French baguettes are superb. Pork pies in the UK. We can’t find any baguettes or port pies that taste anywhere near as good in Australia or New Zealand.
Quick Questions
Plane or train? Train every time!
Hotel or hostel? Hotel- now past the hostel days. Need some of the extra comforts like a good bed!
City or nature? Both! Possibly slightly nature over the city!
Popular site or off the beaten path? Off the beaten path
Suitcase or backpack? Suitcase- it’s an age thing! We’ve done the backpack days!
Fast travel or slow travel? Slow travel
Professional camera or iPhone photography? iPhone photography
Warm or cold weather? Don’t mind but don’t like extremes!
All photos used throughout this post are courtesy of Maureen & Roger from So So Many Places! So Little Time!
