Interests & Adventures

A glimpse into what keeps me feeling alive.

Much of my spare time is spent outdoors. I’ve always been drawn to movement, challenge, and wild places, not for the sake of adrenaline, but because they demand presence. What some people might describe as risk, I’d usually describe as calculated adventure: the kind that requires judgment, preparation, and a healthy respect for what can go wrong.

Motorbike adventures

Through university, motorbikes became one of my favourite ways to see the world. A couple of trips stand out in particular: riding 110cc postie bikes from Perth to Brisbane along the southern coast of Australia, and crossing 5,000 kilometres of India in 20 days on a Royal Enfield.

They were uncomfortable, chaotic, and occasionally ridiculous, but also deeply clarifying. There’s something about travelling slowly, carrying very little, and being exposed to the elements that strips life back to the essentials.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea fed a different kind of adventurous instinct. I spent time kitesurfing and sailing, but the experience that has stayed with me most is Kokoda.

I’ve done the track twice. The first attempt ended when my father, who was in his sixties at the time, injured his knee after we tried to do it in a single push. The second time, I completed the 96 kilometres in one 40-hour effort, including sleeping on the banks of the flooded Goldie River just a couple of kilometres from the finish line.

It was brutal, but those kinds of experiences have a way of stripping things back and reminding you what you’re capable of.

Zimbabwe

Living in the bush in Zimbabwe drew me into trail running, partly as a way of staying fit, but mostly as a way of feeling more connected to the landscape.

Running out there sharpened my awareness. It meant adjusting routes around elephant, paying attention to fresh tracks, and staying alert to signs that hyena or leopard had crossed not long before me. It turned exercise into something more immersive and more alive.

I ran the Zimbabwe Skyrun four years in a row, with one especially memorable edition being a 75km race done less than a day after getting back from COP28 in Dubai.

Paramotoring came later. I initially told myself it was a practical way of keeping an eagle eye on anti-poaching scouts and livestock herders across the project area. In truth, I mostly did it because it is one of the freest feelings I’ve ever known.

Timor-Leste

Since moving to Timor-Leste, I’ve fallen in love with freediving.

It’s hard to be anything but fully present when you’re dropping vertically into the deep blue on a single breath, only to turn around and make it back to the surface before you run out of air. I’ve come to love that combination of calm, discomfort, focus, and surrender.

Reading

I’m also a regular reader, though writing this all down has made me realise I may spend even more of my spare time outdoors than I thought.

A few books that have stayed with me:

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
This helped affirm the way I think about money, spending, investing, and the fact that financial decisions are rarely just about numbers.

Amphibious Soul by Craig Foster
Beautifully written, and a reminder of the value of being connected to nature.

Beloved Land by Gordon Peake
I read this before moving to Timor-Leste, and it gave me a much richer understanding of the country’s history and what has shaped it.

Breath by James Nestor
I stumbled across it while getting into freediving, and it opened my eyes to how powerful breathing can be for health, calm, and performance.

Juice by Tim Winton
A confronting reminder that climate change is not some distant issue. It is going to define the conditions of our future.

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman
One of the first books that made the scale and speed of AI feel real to me.

James Wolfensohn autobiography
A book that opened my eyes to what can be done with a single life, and to the possibilities of thinking bigger.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
I read it as a 17-year-old, and it stirred something in me about living a bigger, more examined life.

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
A strong nudge toward taking justice, faith, and the way we live a bit more seriously.

Closing line

So yes, I do read. But in honesty, I probably still lean more toward salt water, dust, altitude, and open space than slow hobbies.