I have been working for Prestige Travel for 2 years. I started working in Travel after spending ten years working and travelling around the world including 18 months each in Australia and New Zealand.

In Australia I spent all my working time in New South Wales including on a farm, a restaurant in a beautiful beach town and in a ski resort. Before, after and between these jobs I did a lot of travelling around the whole country and since starting work in the travel industry I have been very lucky to have multiple trips back to Australia to visit some of the amazing locations I didn’t make it to first time around.

In New Zealand I spent all my time working in the South Island between Tekapo and Queenstown but travelled around as much of both islands as I could while I was there.

New Zealand is my favourite destination as it has incredible and unique scenery, wildlife, people and food and it is all in a relatively small and easy country to travel around. I particularly love the area around Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook for its beauty and peacefulness.

In my free time I really enjoy going for peaceful walks in the countryside, but in contrast to this I do enjoy a night out in the city for a visit to a good restaurant, brewery or wine bar. My wife and I travel as much as work allows and we love holidays in the UK with our dog or trips further afield exploring new parts of the world. We often visit places that chef Rick Stein has been to on his tv shows!

Favourite memories

“In Lake Tekapo I have great memories of walking home from work at night and gazing at the stars. The area is a dark sky reserve and has such clear skies it is a great place for star gazing.”

“On a trip to the Northern Territory last year I was staying at a great property near Nitmiluk Gorge. I got up early to go for a short hike to a viewing area to get a view of the gorge at sunrise which was incredible, and just after sunrise I watched a crocodile swimming down the centre of the gorge. I was the only person around and it was very serene experience.”

“I have been lucky to have some amazing wildlife encounters during my travels. I have seen Orangutans in the wild in Borneo, surfed with Dolphins in Australia, hiked alongside Bears and Moose in Canada, swam with Whale Sharks in Western Australia, been Great White Shark cage diving in South Australia, dived without a cage with Nurse Sharks in New South Wales, swam with Turtles on the Great Barrier Reef and trekked to see Mountain Gorrilas in Uganda. There is one wildlife encounter I rate higher than all these others and that is swimming with Sea Lions on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Sea Lions actively approach you and are incredibly playful, they really do want to play with you and are interested in interacting with you. They are such graceful, beautiful creatures. Anyone who enjoys playing with dogs should add this to their bucket list!”