Name: Courtney Crow

Age: 32

Occupation: Professional Photographer and Online Publisher

Favourite travel destination?: Australia, because it has so much to offer.  You can travel through all kinds of diverse landscapes including the Outback or tropical rainforest and Great Barrier Reef.

Worst travel experience?: Knock on wood, I haven’t had any nightmare travel experiences yet. Every adventure has been exactly that; a great adventure!

Best tips for beating jetlag?: Just go with the flow. Change your clocks over before you get off the plane and when you get there just pretend like nothing’s changed.  Also, get sleep on the plane and drink plenty of water.

What is the one thing you don’t leave home without?: I never leave home with out my noise cancelling headphones.  They are so great on the plane and really help you sleep which helps with the jetlag. Also, flip flops (thongs) – they are essential!

Do you stay in touch with people while you’re travelling? If so, what is the best way to do this?: I try and stay in touch as much as I can and using the computer  is the best, and cheapest, way.  I use a MagicJack to make phone calls over the internet and Skype works well, too.  If I have to use a land line, phone cards are the only way to go. But, I also like to blog about my travels on www.ExplorerGirls.com, and send everyone in the family the link so they can all share in my experiences with me.

Best meal you’ve ever had while travelling?: I still remember the black beans, white rice and plantains in Costa Rica.  It might not sound like much, but the purity of the meal and the price was sooooo good!

Best kiss?: Hmmmmmm, there was that boy from Canada in Costa Rica, too. We kissed in a tree house he was living in on the beach.  In Costa Rica you can squat anywhere along the beaches, so lots of people go there and just camp for free.

Best/scariest/funniest drive?: The best drive I have taken is  through Monument Valley in Utah/Arizona over in the US.  It is soooo beautiful there, like stepping back in time.  The scariest drive might have been ascending to the Remarkables in New Zealand.  We were in a tour bus heading up to the ski field on this massive mountain and there are no guard rails. The funniest would have to be road tripping with girl friends on surf trips up and down the East Coast of the US. Us girls had soooo much fun laughing, singing and telling fun stories!

What has been the big WOW moment of your travelling life?. What has taken your breath away?: I call ‘the moment’ Eyes Wide Open – the moment when you stand there with your eyes fully open, so big, just sucking it all in! I’ve had this moment several times while travelling; watching the fireworks go off over Sydney Harbour Bridge at the Closing of the Sydney Olympics, riding on the Peak2Peak from Blackcomb to Whistler Mountain, looking out my hotel room on the cliff side of Santorini in Greece, seeing Monument Valley, diving the Great Barrier Reef, observing the aftermath of a Category 5 Hurricane in Belize, jumping off a 109m cliff over the Shotover River in Queenstown on the Canyon Swing, seeing a Glacier for the first time in NZ … I just hope I see many, many more!

Image caption: This is a picture of me from the top of Santorini in Greece. It is such a beautiful place with amazing people! Our hotel room was somewhere on the cliff just behind me. I took so many pictures walking around there that day!

Courtney Crow is a seriously adventurous woman and is the creator of www.ExplorerGirls.com