Aotearoa Adventures: The New Zealand Travel Podcast

Penzy Dinsdale works in expedition medicine, from Antarctic ships to Everest Base Camp. She shares her 48-day traverse of Fiordland, the sequel to her 85-day Southern Alps journey, which together complete a full South Island traverse from Farewell Spit to Slope Point, a goal she has had since university. Penzy talks about packrafting the lakes and fiords with strangers-turned-friends she met online, crossing Centre Pass in 100kph winds, losing her inReach at Stevens Falls, and being invited aboard a yacht in Dusky Sound for a hot shower and crayfish. She reflects on building a career around adventure, setting a deadline to make a big trip happen, and still processing what finishing it means.
Thank you so much for tuning in and coming along for the ride. If you love the show and enjoyed listening, please take the time to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. I would also love to connect with you, so send me a DM on Instagram, leave me a voice message and I can’t wait to see you next time. Until then, keep adventuring :)
Follow Penzy on Instagram: instagram.com/penzyd/
Penzy's photography: southerlystormphotography.com
Follow Abigail on Instagram: instagram.com/abigailhannnah/
Follow Aotearoa Adventures on Instagram: instagram.com/aotearoa_adventures_

Shalane Hopkins is an author, speaker and coach based in Otago, originally from Canada. In 2010 she walked the length of the country on Te Araroa, more than 3000 km from Cape Reinga to Bluff, before the trail had officially opened. She shares how she walked it with friend, a backpacker she had known only four days, carrying a map and compass instead of GPS, on a tight budget. Shalane talks about the culture shock of tramping, a week of rain through North Island farmland, a bout of giardia, and helping with the Christchurch earthquake recovery in 2011. Fifteen years on, she reflects on her memoir One Step at a Time, scaling a big goal back to the next step, and learning to stop making herself small.

Thank you so much for tuning in and coming along for the ride. If you love the show and enjoyed listening, please take the time to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. I would also love to connect with you, so send me a DM on Instagram, leave me a voice message and I can’t wait to see you next time. Until then, keep adventuring :)

Follow Shalane on Instagram: instagram.com/shalanehopkins
Get Shalane's memoir One Step at a Time: shalanehopkins.com
Follow Abigail on Instagram: instagram.com/abigailhannnah
Follow Aotearoa Adventures on Instagram: instagram.com/aotearoa_adventures_

Nick Thompson is a squash court engineer from the UK who builds all-glass courts for events like the New Zealand Open. Since 2022 he has returned almost every year, tagging on extra days to explore New Zealand and leading him to run Great Walks in a single day. He shares about that first year, running the Tongariro Northern Circuit on brownies alone and landing in hospital with an electrolyte crash, plus the Kepler and Queenstown Marathon. Nick talks about a 60km day on the Abel Tasman, and returning in 2025 for a slower, family-led trip. He breaks down his solo Hump Ridge Track push, where a missed signpost added 21km to his day, finishing in the dark. He reflects on hitting the ultra wall late in the day and the raw, vulnerable headspace it brought. Nick share about how New Zealand quiets his mind and is a place he loves revisiting.
Thank you so much for tuning in and coming along for the ride. If you love the show and enjoyed listening, please take the time to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. I would also love to connect with you, so send me a DM on Instagram, leave me a voice message and I can't wait to see you next time. Until then, keep adventuring :)
Read the Blog: www.abigailhannah.nz
Follow Abigail on Instagram: instagram.com/abigailhannnah/
Follow Abigail on TikTok: tiktok.com/@abigailhannnah/

Nick Thompson is a squash court engineer from the UK who builds all-glass courts for events like the New Zealand Open. Since 2022 he has returned almost every year, tagging on extra days to explore New Zealand and leading him to run Great Walks in a single day. He shares about that first year, running the Tongariro Northern Circuit on brownies alone and landing in hospital with an electrolyte crash, plus the Kepler and Queenstown Marathon. Nick talks about a 60km day on the Abel Tasman, and returning in 2025 for a slower, family-led trip. He breaks down his solo Hump Ridge Track push, where a missed signpost added 21km to his day, finishing in the dark. He reflects on hitting the ultra wall late in the day and the raw, vulnerable headspace it brought. Nick share about how New Zealand quiets his mind and is a place he loves revisiting.
Thank you so much for tuning in and coming along for the ride. If you love the show and enjoyed listening, please take the time to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. I would also love to connect with you, so send me a DM on Instagram, leave me a voice message and I can't wait to see you next time. Until then, keep adventuring :)
Read the Blog: www.abigailhannah.nz
Follow Abigail on Instagram: instagram.com/abigailhannnah/
Follow Abigail on TikTok: tiktok.com/@abigailhannnah/

To mark four years of Aotearoa Adventures, the tables turn and Abigail is interviewed. She shares her story, from growing up in India and moving to New Zealand at 18 to the 2020 South Island road trip in a 1990 rust box van that first opened her eyes to life on the road and made her world a little bigger. Abigail shares about struggling with depression, and rebuilding her identity. She talks about quitting her corporate job to build Feijoa Social, then the next two and a half years without a fixed address, moving between van life, overseas trips, house sits and kayak expeditions. She reflects on holding plans loosely, why a non-traditional life is possible at any stage of life, and the advice that made the Slow Paddle happen: put a date in the calendar and tell people.

Thank you so much for tuning in and coming along for the ride. If you love the show and enjoyed listening, please take the time to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. I would also love to connect with you, so send me a DM on Instagram, leave me a voice message and I can’t wait to see you next time. Until then, keep adventuring :)

Follow Aotearoa Adventures on Instagram: instagram.com/aotearoa_adventures_Follow Abigail on Instagram: instagram.com/abigailhannnah/