Currently travelling...just joined CS and excited to host travelers as soon as am home!

You'll meet an outdoorsy traveler who seeks out wilderness adventures but also local culture, music, art, and ecology. Love meeting locals, making new friends and sharing conversation over a cuppa tea, dinner, an ice cream, or a bike ride, etc. Life filled with laugher, music, fresh air, and random new experiences makes me tick.....

Before Wellington, NZ I was "living the dream" in small mountain towns of Montana and Colorado...stunning scenery and beautiful people but really I had a very sheltered life with very little opportunity or exposure to cultural differences. Living and working in a small country with such diversity as New Zealand the past 2.5 years was an eye-opening and life-changing experience. With friends from all over the world, life is that much richer. Now visiting more of NZ and then travel onto Oz and ndonesia and SE Asia. Would be great to share travel ideas :)

More on me: fresh mountain air or salty sea air rejuvenates my soul when I'm outdoors......I'm someone who will hike to catch the sunrise, loves to sleep on a sailboat under the stars, swims in refreshing alpine lakes, loves the serenity of sea kayaking long distances or just sitting by the crashing sea at the shore, will flyfish for hours, falls asleep reading in hammocks, studies maps for the next road trip or wilderness adventure, eats local and seasonal whenever possible, makes raw pumpkin pie, quinoa salads and kale green smoothies but still not vegan...love venison, lamb, elk and seafood! Food foraging is fun - wild spinach etc.

Living green as best I can and love learning about innovative eco-living. But otherwise I'm open-minded about most things and will give most new things a go.
Eager to live in a yurt rather than square walls around me...round space is very calming :)

My dream is to sail around the world some day.....or even lovelier would be to combine that with a speech therapy program for needy communities around the globe with a traveling program :)

I love helping people - whether it be communication help, or other random volunteer opportunities I come upon.

Favourite animal: sea turtles

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Experiencing a place more like a local than a tourist ...that "human experience", which I have found to be just as captivating as epic adventures into the wild.

And so it seems traveling overseas is really not all about ticking off bucket-lists for me; it's about the people (including children) I've met and what they have taught me through authentic interactions. If our paths cross, I look forward to learning about your story and weaving into it :-)

As mentioned above, really look fwd to hosting travellers when I return to the U.S.

Interests

Camping
Local foods, seasonal foods, farmer's markets
Organic gardening, permaculture
Flowers-wildflowers and cut flowers
Live music gigs
Music festivals - Telluride Bluegrass Festival and WOMAD (World Music and Dance Festival) are favorites
YURTS!
Water adventures: kayaking, SUP, sailing, flyfishing, swimming, snorkelling with turtles, rafting, and ducky kayak trips
Mtn adventures: mtn biking; hiking/backpacking/'tramping' as the kiwis call it; skiing of all kinds & bqckcountry trips; trail running
Making a fire, followed by a good book and cup of hot apple cider
Hosting dinner parties
Making sushi!
Documentaries, comedies, international film festivals
Hot springs
Cultural festivals
and ceremonies
Horseback riding
- on the beach?!
Rivers
PILATES
Eco-villages
Kirtan
Book club

• animals
• arts
• culture
• books
• documentaries
• music festivals
• festivals
• film festivals
• dancing
• dining
• seafood
• cooking
• vegan
• yoga
• pilates
• running
• meditation
• partying
• clubbing
• gardening
• boating
• flowers
• reading
• traveling
• music
• live music
• world music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• equestrian
• fishing
• hiking
• backpacking
• kayaking
• camping
• scuba diving
• sailing
• skiing
• snowshoeing
• trail running
• swimming
• cartography
• ecology
• tourism
• volunteering
• beaches
• lakes
• rivers

Music, Movies, and Books

Books -
In the Heart of the Sea
Endurance
Kontiki
Mutiny on the Bounty
Faraway

Movies -
Whale Rider
Finding Joe
Pirate Radio
A River Runs Through It
Cosimo & Nicole (Italian film festival)
Life Aquatic
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Almost Famous
What We Do In The Shadows

Nothin like a good live band or the nostalgia of music from a great road trip aye?!
I'm pretty open-minded musically, but a few favorites in the genres of bluegrass/folk/Irish/indie come to mind.....

John Butler Trio - Ocean, Zebra
Dispatch - Elias
Mumford & Sons - Winter Winds, Awake My Soul
Rusted Root - Welcome to My Party
Lumineers - Hey Ho
Jerry Garcia Band - Shady Grove
Gillian Welch - Wayside
Patty Griffin - Rain
EmmyLou Harris -Stay, When You Say Nothing At All
Yonder Mountain String Band - Half Moon Rising
Phish - Farmhouse
Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros - Home
Sam Bush ~ Howlin at the Moon
Kirtan

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spent one summer in the Caribbean taking teenagers on 3-week sail training/scuba trips. As captain, I was the one on 'deck watch' while the whole crew dove in places like the Dutch island Saba with sharks and manta rays at night. They had a blast! But I would have been screwed if pirates came and boarded the boat! Ha ha.

...Memories of adventuring through the volcanic jungle, clearing trails with a machete in service projects, 'battening the hatches' for a cyclone, navigating in the fog, the company of playful dolphins and turtles, carefully clearing port Customs with 14 passports, and minding cheeky teenagers!! Good times in the tropics :)

Teach, Learn, Share

Happy to share about sprouting seeds, beans, and microgreens (sunflower shoots, green peas).

I practice Pilates and am happy to share.

Local knowledge about community events, special places, and interesting people in the town would be great - cheers!

Sharing the creation of healthy food/art/yoga/music

Happy to help around the house, with gardening, other projects, reading to the kids (if you have kids).

Would love to hone organic gardening skills and love any wisdom you may have!

As a speech therapist, happy to offer ideas to help your kids with their speech/language development - just ask me!

Sharing meditation practices -yoga nidra (relaxation yoga), Feldenkrais, qi gong, chanting, meditation if that's part of your life

I do dishes, tidy, help out where ever needed

What I Can Share with Hosts

Positive energy, help with cooking, tidying.

Sometime soon I will be back in Montana. Formerly a hiking guide for Glacier Guides/Montana Raft in Glacier National Park in the summers, so I know the park pretty well - and MORE THAN happy to host you and take you on a personal tour when you visit the "big sky" of Montana! Hopefully take you out rafting and fishing as well! Montana is also full of wonderful, friendly people and community events.
In the winter, come ski at Big Mountain (Whitefish Mountain Resort) or go out in the woods cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Or are happy to tell you great hot springs spots....or whatever your peronal journey entails!

Countries I’ve Visited

Bermuda, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Italy, New Zealand, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin (French part), Sint Maarten (Dutch part), United States, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, United States, Virgin Islands, U.S.