y Travel Blog Year in Review for 2011
What an exciting year its been for our travel blog and us personally with the birth of our second daughter.
Although we didn’t travel as much as we hoped, we had so many great things happen and life is moving along. It is not where we want it to be just yet, but we are that much closer. We are gaining momentum and have some awesome things going on behind the scenes.
We thought we would recap the year highlighting some favorite moments…
January
We raised money to help relieve those affected by the Queensland floods and I wrote my most commented post yet, a retort to a really false review of y travel blog.
The reviewer was a little insulting to travelers, and my response ended up being a good review of our travel experiences around the world.
February
I was revived by Micheal Buble, we went hot air ballooning over the Hunter Valley in NSW, and enjoyed staying at the unique Sydney YHA the Rocks.
Hot air ballooning over the Hunter Valley
March
Kalyra met her surfer girl idol at the LPC Surfest and we finally did the beautiful Bondi to Coogee beach coastal walk in Sydney.
My new blog Mojito Mother was launched and I announced just why the world had suddenly turned sideways for me.
Bondi to Cooggee coastal walk
April
What an enjoyable month this was spending time on the Gold Coast at Dreamworld with my parents and having media passes to attend the Byron Bay bluesfest. A must go to festival when you are in Australia.
It was our blog’s anniversary and our 9 year wedding anniversary so we shared 31 things we’ve never told you.
Ben Harper up close at Byron Bay Bluesfest
May
We started our travel podcast this month. We shared our 9 tips for travel blogging, our saving tips for world travel, and explored more of Sydney.
We also attended the launch of the Great Crusade for the Rugby World Cup which started our relationship with Ogilvy PR and Qantas.
at the Great Crusade launch
June
We shared 11 places we could live around the world, announced our ultimate travel adventure that we are working on doing, and discovered Cockatoo Island in Sydney.
July
Caz presented a tele-seminar on travel blogging at an online conference.
We shared a list of 36 travel blogs to follow and 5 working holiday stories on our podcast that had one listener almost crash her car twice, she laughed so hard at our experiences.
We also revealed 12 things to do in Sydney on a budget.
August
What a magical month this was.
Our precious baby Savannah was born!
Savannah
September
When Savannah was only five days old we took the girls to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. Craig left us for two weeks while he went and had an amazing time as one of the Official correspondents on the Qantas Great Crusade campaign for the Rugby World Cup.
I revealed my secret travel fear and spoke on a panel about blogger/brand relationships for Digital Parents UNPlugged. Craig and Kalyra both had a birthday.
Craig in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand
October
We spoke about our travel blog’s success at Darren Rowse’s Problogger conference in Melbourne.
We were also invited by Tourism New Zealand to speak about travel blogging at the Australian Travel Writer’s conference and do a tour of Rotorua and Auckland, which we loved! I celebrated my birthday in Sydney
Enjoying our visit to Rotorua
November
I flew down to Melbourne to attend a bloggers Brunch for Australian women bloggers. We were selected as a finalist for the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards and were told that I would be flown over to Kuala Lumpur for the red carpet affair.
Craig’s sister got married and we were all part of the bridal party and had an amazing time. We went sailing on Sydney harbour on a magnificently restored tall ship.
Sailing on Sydney Harbour
December
We spoke on another panel about blogger/brand relationships. We went back to the beautiful Gold Coast and enjoyed at day at Sea World and Movie World.
I flew to Kuala Lumpar and experienced the amazing Asia Pacific blog awards dinner.
Caz in Kuala Lumpur for the blogging awards
In Summary
This past year has been a combination of travel, blogging assignments, and precious family times.
Looking ahead to next year, we are totally focused on getting back on the road in a BIG way and bringing you lots of travel stories and inspiration from around the world. We hope to be announcing some very exciting travel plans very soon.
Thank you for your support and encouragement throughout the year.
Please leave a comment or question in the comments section down below…
Caz
Caz Makepeace is the co-founder of y Travel Blog and has been traveling and living around the world since 1997, first solo, then with her husband, and now with her two daughters. Don't miss her 9 best tips to help you travel more. Follow her on Google+
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25 comments on “y Travel Blog Year in Review for 2011”
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Hi! We’re Caz and Craig…
Our blog is about helping you to get inspired & informed to go travel, & travel more often Read On
Looks like you guys have clocked life! Very impressive, I am expecting you to own your own country in 2012
i love that idea Wayne! There would be lots of beach bumming and coctail drinking in our country.
Wow. What a busy schedule and amazing success during 2011. You guys are an inspiration to all travel bloggers. Keep up the great work in 2012. We’ll all be watching !
Thank you so much! We love what we do and helping others. it is what we are all here for.
Sounds like an incredible year for you guys personally, professionally and family-wise! Here’s to an even more adventurous and successful 2012!
We hope so and to you and Dan as well! I’ve been loving your adventures this year, I’m sure you will have some great ones next as well. Hopefully we can meet up
I feel like not enough of those photos have you guys (or Caz, in particular) holding some booze!!
i think you are right! We’ll have to change that and ensure that this coming year has more booze pictures!
It was great to find your blog this year and I have really enjoyed following your travels and experiences. Thank you for what you do and for inspiring others like me to do the same.
Thanks so much Anne- and it always our pleasure. We love helping others. Hope your New Year will be a great one!
I’ve very much enjoyed being part of the yTravel Blog community and following Makepeace family fun and events. All the best in 2012!
Thank you Cathy! And we have enjoyed you being a part of it and all you have shared with our community. I hope we get to meet soon. Have a great 2012
Sounds like a fun year for you, guys! Wish you more luck, safe travels and health to your girls in 2012!
Thank you! We are hoping to get back on the travelling road and show our girls why the world is so great. We hope you have a rocking 2012
Your girls will love it, for sure! Happy New Year to all the family
You guys are awesome. Here’s to an ever better, brighter, healthier nd happier year full of travel and adventure for the Makepeace family in 2012!
Thanks so much Bret. It has been so great meeting you online and we appreciate all your support. I hope we can meeet up one day and our girls can hang out with your daughter. She sounds like a joy!
Huge, huge year … well done Caz and Craig xx
Thanks Nikki! it has been so great meeting you this year
Another awesome year! Hope you meet you guys in Oz or some other part of the world someday. Would love to introduce your girls to mine.
we’d love that Gaye! We are always looking for play mates for the girls- they would be so stoked
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful year! Looking forward to hearing about your plans for 2012!
Thank you! All the best for your 2012
Hope 2012 is as successful for you as 2011 was! Thanks for all you do, especially encouraging all of us newbie bloggers.
It was nice to stumble on your blog and I have actually enjoyed following your travels and experiences. you guyz are really awesome.. hope you will rock in 2012.