It’s time for everyone’s favorite post of the year: my WORST travel moments of 2024! I’ve already shared my top travel experiences of 2024 (there were a lot of them!), but it’s important for me to share the ups and downs. Travel content is often a highlight reel. I’m grateful to be alive and physically well, but life isn’t perfect and I had some rough times this year. These are my worst travel moments of 2024.
A scary car accident in Twizel
After rolling my car last year in Australia, I hoped that would be the worst of it. Unfortunately, in June I was involved in another near-death car experience in Twizel, New Zealand. My friend was driving myself and two other girls to work in the morning. We hit insane fog and visibility dropped – she slowed down, but as she drove across the bridge, we hit a nasty patch of black ice and spun off the road. The car ended up about three feet away from the edge of the lake – if we’d have spun into the lake or rolled onto the rocks, all of us would have died. Thankfully, we were all uninjured, although the driver did hurt her knee. She also thankfully had insurance, which paid out when her car was written off.
But for me, it was a deeply stressful and traumatic experience. I was scarred from my car crash in Australia, just 8 months before, and a second near-death experience just a couple months later (more below). I spent the next two months fighting off panic attacks every morning on my way to work. I despaired when the weather was bad and the road was foggy with no visibility, when the temps dropped below freezing overnight and I knew the road would be icy. It was really difficult for me mentally and emotionally, this trauma coming after two others. Not driving and not being the one in control was also difficult for me – it was hard for me to get back in the passenger seat when I couldn’t control how slow we drove. My work actually paid for me to have several counseling sessions which I found super beneficial. The last step will be for me to get back behind the wheel and drive that bridge myself – which hopefully I’ll do soon once I get a car!
Another near-death car experience in January
My second scary incident with cars came in January, as I was driving from the Grampians to Port Fairy to start my road trip along the Great Ocean Road. I was driving country backroads, as per the usual, and going the speed limit (100km/hr). A white van blew through their yield sign, did not give way to me, and nearly T-boned me. I saw the van just in time to slow down and veer across the road (thank god there were no other cars coming). As it was happening, my only thought was, “I’m not going to walk away from this one.” Luckily the other driver stopped in time and didn’t crash into me head on. Our vehicles ended up about two feet apart.
I was really shaken up. I almost died, again. I honked my horn, they pulled into a layby to stop driving, and I actually just kept driving. I didn’t feel like getting out of my car to scream at a man alone in the middle of nowhere was a very safe thing to do, and I knew if I stopped that’s what would have happened. The adrenaline got me to Port Fairy where I took a moment to breathe, unclench, and message a couple people. If you are driving, please PLEASE be aware of your surroundings and drive cautiously!
A punctured tire in Mt. Field
Have you ever driven 16km up an unsealed road in remote Tasmania, only to get out of your car to realize you have a puncture in your tire and you are alone without any phone signal to call for help? Yeah, that happened to me. I went into panic mode immediately. The car park I was at had a few cars, but no one else there. I didn’t know what to do, feeling immensely isolated and vulnerable. I had a spare tire in my car, but I don’t know how to change a tire (please, can someone teach me!). I also don’t think I could have gotten the spare tire out of my car on my own, because of how my bed was set up. I started to panic.
Luck was on my side. 10 minutes later, a big 4WD shows up and I waved them down. It was a nice German couple, who miraculously had a tire puncture kit and an air compressor. They fixed my puncture for me in just a couple of minutes! I was nervous the repair wouldn’t work and I’d come back to a flat tire – they told me they were doing the same hike as me, and that they would wait to check my car after the hike, to make sure the repair worked and I didn’t have a flat. If I did have a flat tire when I came back after the hike, they told me they’d help me change my tire. After an epic day hike on the Tarn Shelf Circuit, I came back to a normal-looking tire; the repair was fine.
I thanked them profusely when they got back to their car. It was one moment, of many, where I experienced the real kindness of strangers. (And don’t worry, I did get the tire professionally repaired at a tire shop two days later!)
Selling my car in Australia
I’d planned and budgeted on the assumption of getting a certain amount of money for my car at the end of my time in Australia. I thought I’d be able to sell it for $5500, or at least $5000. Selling my car in Australia was one of the worst experiences I’ve had. I haven’t felt so physically sick from stress since my marriage ended in 2020. Dealing with bots and scammers, the ruthless Facebook Marketplace message games, setting up viewings, and desperately trying to sell my car was a huge mental and emotional drain. Five months without any major problems, and 10 minutes before the first viewing, my car wouldn’t start!!! I couldn’t believe it. I became convinced there was something seriously wrong with it, and became absolutely desperate to get rid of it before I had to leave the country.
I ended up selling it to a young German couple at a significant loss. This had a knock-on effect, as my trip and future plans in New Zealand were planned and budgeted around getting about $5000 back for my car. Selling it for $3500 meant I was missing a big portion from my New Zealand trip budget. Thankfully, a friend decided to join me for the trip in NZ, and we split rental and fuel costs. But I honestly don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t have come with me. This was a big lesson learned: don’t make life plans and budgets based on something that isn’t guaranteed.
Rental vehicle problems on my New Zealand trip
I was excited to rent a campervan in New Zealand, if only to have a working fridge! Unfortunately, the Jucy Crib campervan that I rented had many problems. The vehicle we received was old (2004 or 2006), with over 300,000km – I’ve never seen a rental vehicle with mileage that high! There were exterior marks on just about every single panel of the vehicle, half the snaps didn’t work on the curtains, and the sink pump was extremely sticky/difficult to use. We accepted all these things because it took so long to pick the vehicle up, and we were sick of waiting when we’d paid for a day with the rental. The brakes overheated coming down the mountain road from the Remarkables, and I nearly had a panic attack; we pulled over and had to wait over an hour for the brakes to cool down enough to drive down the mountain. The final kicker was when one of the sliding doors stopped working – the doors were automatic, but even turning this off, the door wouldn’t open. Jucy took over 6 hours to call me back after I called to report this issue.
Luckily, we were able to bring the vehicle in to their depot in Queenstown. We pushed them to give us a new vehicle, as we didn’t trust that this vehicle wouldn’t have some other kind of malfunction and the rental was for 35 days in total. They finally gave us a new vehicle, which was much nicer and without some of the interior problems as the first one. Unfortunately, after a few days we realized the fridge wasn’t working. The number one reason I booked a campervan in New Zealand was to have a fridge, after my year-long, fridge-less Lap of Australia! I was so disappointed and it really did affect our trip – if I’m spending that money on a rental vehicle, I expect everything (fridges and doors included) to work! They offered us a reimbursement, which I refused and asked them to reevaluate their amount. They did, offered a higher amount, and I accepted the refund. However, I wish I hadn’t have had to deal with the stress of this on the trip in the first place.
Planning my France/Europe trip
Most of my reasoning behind my trip to France and Europe this October was to visit friends. I’m very used to traveling solo, where I make all my own decisions and plan my travel accordingly. While I’m so grateful for the people I got to see, it was a really difficult and stressful trip to plan! Coordinating dates, checking transport options, waiting for people to respond, and very VERY last-minute plans – it was extraordinarily stressful for me. It was well worth it to see my people, but if I do a long trip like this again where I’m coordinating with multiple people’s schedules, I will plan it differently!
Sandflies in New Zealand and mosquitoes in the BWCA
Traveling isn’t all fun and games… sometimes it’s horrific bug bites that cause you constant agony. I had my first experience with sandflies in New Zealand, and I have to say I was horrified. After my experiences with the flies of Australia, I thought I could handle anything. That was until the tiny strip of skin between my legging and my sock was bitten constantly by sandflies. My ankles were full of scabs from scratching bug bites. Hokitika Gorge was amazing, but my main memory was getting bites all over the backs of my hands and fingers as I took pictures. It was horrendous. I was again eaten alive by bugs, mosquitoes this time, on our family canoe trip to the Boundary Waters this summer. I was covered in bites, mainly on my legs. It was so bad, and made me miserable.
A horrendous flight journey via China to get back to New Zealand
It was a long journey – both distance and time – to get from Europe back to New Zealand. I finished up my trip in Andorra, and then spent several days traveling overland to get to Amsterdam – a bus from Andorra la Vella to Toulouse, a train from Toulouse to Paris, and a bus from Paris to Amsterdam. Then, I spent 11.5 hours on an overnight flight from Amsterdam to Guangzhou, a nine-hour layover in Guangzhou (my VPN didn’t work, so I was not only exhausted but extremely bored), and then another overnight flight of 11.5 hours from Guangzhou to Christchurch.
I’m exhausted just reading that! It was extremely stressful to begin with, as China Southern had canceled my flight to Christchurch, and promptly ignored all of my email communications. In the end, I called them and they changed my flight to depart one day early, so I didn’t have to spend 57 hours in Guangzhou. But the extremely long journey, back-to-back overnight flights, two days of eating airplane food, and the Chinese layover with no access to any apps (besides Duolingo) wrecked me. It was SO much cheaper than the next option, but I’m not sure I could ever do it again.
Constantly plagued by technology woes
This is definitely a first-world problem. But throughout this year, I feel like I have been having constant technology problems. My phone is always running out of space, and I’m regularly having to delete photos and videos to make room for more pics. My laptop is running out of space, too – the majority of my photos live on my hard drives, but I have the best on my laptop. My backup system for my blog hasn’t worked, and no longer syncs with my Google Drive. After switching to GA4 in June 2023, I can confirm that my Google Analytics is messed up, and not collecting the correct data. I’m running out of space on my Google account, so I’ll need to upgrade from 200GB to 2TB (!!) as I have too many photos/videos backed up. My phone screen is still ridiculously cracked, 1.5 years after my car in Australia. I finally got my laptop battery replaced when I went on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters, fixing a problem I should have done 1.5 years ago, but never could be without my laptop for that long. I am not a tech person, and all of these things drive me insane. I don’t want to just throw money at the problem, but I want to fix a lot of them and I’m not sure how I can do it on my own, when I have so many other things to do be doing.
Falling in love again and not getting to be together
While I put “falling in love again” on my top travel experiences of the year, I do feel that it needs an entry in this post, too. While I’m so grateful that this person came into my life, and that we got to spend a brief, wild, adventurous time together, it was been one of the most emotionally challenging experiences I’ve had. I touched on it in my Business Insider article – we live in different countries, and neither of us are moving. We also aren’t on the same page about our views on kids, and these are two major obstacles that have no solution.
So, unfortunately, we mutually decided not to pursue a relationship together. I have shed many tears about the situation; I have wallowed in self-pity, feeling that it’s so unfair to finally meet someone amazing I’d want to date, and not get to even have a real relationship. It’s not easy, and it has been a very difficult part of my 2024. There are no hard feelings between us, and I like to think we’ll always be friends. But part of my heart just aches wishing that things were different. I know it’ll get easier with time, and it has over the past few months. But it’s still hard sometimes.
Saying goodbye to friends and family
While 2024 has been so amazing for me to meet up with friends all over the world, and to get to see my family again for six wonderful weeks, it came with inevitable goodbyes. And they felt especially painful this year. If I’ve learned anything from solo traveling the world long-term, it’s that there’s nothing better than being in the physical presence of your friends, family, and loved ones. The highs are so high, and the lows hit so hard. It’s always especially difficult for me to say goodbye to my family when I don’t know when I’ll see them again. The joy of reunions was so wonderful, and saying goodbye and leaving was so difficult. I can’t count the number of hugs I’ve given, holding back tears, putting on a brave face when my heart felt like it was breaking. I’m so grateful to have seen so many of my people in person this year, but having to leave was hard, every single time.
So there you have it – all the worst travel moments of my 2024! From more car crashes and vehicle woes to emotional challenges, it hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies. Life is full of ups and downs, and I’m thankful that these were the worst of it; as always, it could have been much worse. Here’s to the next year of adventures!
What were your tough travel moments of 2024?
