All girls together
Travel-loving women share their favourite memories from all-girls trips
LORNA SUBRITZKY COAST My most memorable girls’ trip was at 19 — my first overseas holiday and the first holiday I’d arranged and paid for myself. My friend Nicki and I decided to take advantage of the threemonth summer break from uni and headed to Perth, where my brother lived. It’s hardly a culture shock heading to Australia, but there were several differences from hometown Wellington that struck me immediately: the heat (42C one day), the bugs (those giant cockroaches are something else) and drive-through liquor outlets (plus a younger drinking age than we had then). Perth is such a beautiful, welldesigned city with a fully integrated public transport system and divine beaches — I fell in love, figuratively and literally. A Canadian boyfriend with a motorbike and two helmets meant I explored the city and the wider state thoroughly, and a summer job in a convenience store meant I met so many locals that I felt completely at home. With one more year on my degree, I reluctantly returned home with determination to return at Lorna Subritzky
ATHENA ANGELOU FLAVA Take a trip to the Eastern coastline of Kenya’s second-largest city, Mombasa. I did; with about 10 girls I’d never met, from California. It was an invitation of a lifetime that had females from all ethnic backgrounds walking the white sands of Mombasa Beach (or taking a camel) while getting a sun-kissed glow, waking up to a sunset that stretched as far as the eye could see and jet skiing at the Tamarind Village overlooking the picturesque Old Town Mombasa. It was never a place I’d think to travel to; my friends often hit Thailand, Bali, or the Pacific Islands, but they knew how to party just as hard, if not more. Though the travel was long, it’s well worth it once you’re flying high above the Masai Mara, home to Masai lions, Tanzanian cheetahs, zebra and