Q&A: Kiwi working abroad talks about his experiences travelling all over the world

Hunter Norton, a beekeeper from New Zealand has always travelled in his off season. Beekeeping can only be done in the Summer so when it gets cold he decided to spend his vacation travelling the world, usually by himself.

When asked about his experiences travelling alone, all over the world, he spoke about how he’s seen beautiful things, but doesn’t necessarily recommend it.

What is your favourite place you’ve travelled and why?

My favorite place that I have been is probably London, because I always wanted to go there when I was growing up and actually getting to be there felt pretty surreal.

What’s the most underrated place to travel to?

I’m going to say Rarotonga, which I think a lot of people in the northern hemisphere wouldn’t know about. It is a small Pacific Island off the coast of New Zealand and it’s just like our luxury version of Hawaii, but a lot cheaper and a lot more accessible.

What’s your favourite part about travelling?

I think just seeing new culture is an experience that you can’t get if you don’t travel, so seeing different architecture or different roads or driving on the wrong side of the road or something like that you can’t get unless you go to a different country.

What advice can you give to people who are planning to travel alone?

Make sure that you’re prepared. It’s something that is pretty individual and you pick up little things that suit you the more you do it. I’ve had some instances where I wasn’t as prepared as I perhaps should have been. And when you’re travelling alone, you’re in a different country. You pretty much have no safety net, so just making sure that you’re prepared.

Do you recommend travelling alone?

I- do not. I have done all my travelling alone and I’m someone that likes to be by themselves anyway. I thought that I, by travelling alone, would just be able to do the things that I wanted to do. But I find that you encounter some problems or I have at least, like motivation or things to do, and definitely loneliness and homesickness also play a role.

What’s your favourite part about working abroad?

The the culture thing becomes more real. So when you’re on holiday and like I said, I was in London, you go and see the London Eye and you’re like “oh, that’s cool. I’ve seen that on TV” and you hear people talking in a different accent or they’re eating different food and you’re like “oh, this is interesting”, but it’s still a gimmick and an experience that you have for a few hours or a few days or however long you’re in that space; but when you work and live in a different country, it’s the little things like now I’m an Oilers fan and I see how much it means to the local population and the little phrases and, learning people’s favorite spots to eat and stuff like that. You get to see a lot more of the culture, in a much more intimate way.

What was something you weren’t expecting about traveling?

Something that I wasn’t expecting about travelling… I think maybe the loneliness. I went into it quite confident and I was in a situation where I was set up to travel and also in a situation where I thought I should be doing it, by myself. I remember being overseas and thinking that I was going to have all these new experiences and I’m in a new country, so everything’s gonna be fun and different. But you’re still just the same person in a different country. Nothing, nothing really changes.

What are the most overrated places that you’ve been to?

Definitely New York City. It’s something, being from New Zealand, that is portrayed in movies and TV shows and and on the news and everything like that growing up. It’s definitely very romanticized. The most succinct way that I like to describe it is you go to the Empire State Building and at the bottom of it there’s a Chipotle restaurant and the pervasive capitalism in New York is unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. Also, when I went there, it was a 40° record-breaking heat wave and it’s stunk. There’s vents that I don’t know what they blow. But it smells like sewage and there’s trash everywhere and it’s loud and noisy and scary and it’s just a really abrasive place.

Photo by Dana Andreea Gheorghe

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