About Me
My name is Tom. I’m a traveller, filmmaker and adventurer from New Zealand. For more than a decade, I’ve been trying to build a life that feels right to me — following curiosity, taking on challenges, and documenting the places and people I meet along the way.
Why I Love Adventure
I grew up in New Zealand, and I think the desire to see what was beyond the horizon has probably always been there somewhere. I never had a master plan for my life, though. For a long time, I simply followed the path that seemed to make sense — work, money, a house, responsibilities and all the things you’re told you’re supposed to want.
Eventually, I realised that having a life that looked good on paper didn’t necessarily mean it felt good to live. I wanted to travel. I wanted to experience more. And, more than anything, I wanted to find out what life might look like if I stopped making decisions based entirely on what I thought I was supposed to do.
That realisation changed everything.
How I Got Started
I started travelling seriously more than a decade ago, eventually selling my house, leaving behind a fairly conventional life and setting off without really knowing where it would lead.
I spent years travelling and backpacking, and along the way I walked the Camino de Santiago across Spain. That journey had a bigger impact on me than I expected. There was something about spending weeks walking, carrying everything I needed and having very little to worry about beyond the day in front of me.
I came home from that trip knowing I wanted more experiences like it — the kind where you start something as one person and finish it having learned something about yourself.
Since then, I’ve sailed oceans, travelled through some incredible places and taken on challenges that, at times, probably made more sense in my head than they did to anyone else.
And that's where this all really began.
Why I Document These Experiences
At first, I simply wanted to remember what I was doing.
Then I realised that I really enjoyed sharing it.
I’ve always liked telling stories, and filming gave me a way to bring people along with me — not just to show them the places I visit, but the reality of being there. The good days, the difficult days, the people I meet, the mistakes, the unexpected moments and everything in between.
I’m not trying to tell anyone how they should live their life. I’ve never believed that what works for me will necessarily work for someone else.
But I do think there’s something valuable in seeing someone take a chance on themselves and finding out what happens.
So I document my experiences as honestly as I can. Sometimes they’re exciting. Sometimes they’re frustrating. Sometimes I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.
And I think that’s what makes them worth sharing.
My Journey to Today
Today, this has grown into something I never really imagined when I first started travelling.
I’ve spent years travelling around the world, worked as a captain and delivered boats across oceans, and built a life around the things I genuinely enjoy doing. More recently, I set out from the Rocky Mountains in a canoe and spent three years making my way more than 5,000 kilometres across Canada to Montreal.
I had never even canoed before that journey began.
There were plenty of times when I questioned what I was doing. There were difficult days, lonely days and days when the easiest option would have been to stop. But there were also moments I’ll remember for the rest of my life — and, perhaps most importantly, thousands of kilometres of conversations, friendships and unexpected acts of kindness from people I would otherwise never have met.
That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned along the way.
The places are incredible. The adventures are memorable. But it’s the people you meet and the life you build around those experiences that really stay with you.
I don’t know exactly where this path will take me next.
I’m quite happy with that.