Travel Blog Biography

Amelia Norman

Amelia Norman spent a large proportion of her childhood travelling the world, and vividly remembers complaining about it much of the way: there was the eyebrow-raising tantrum in the Montreux market at age 3; the defiant disrobing in Bath (note: not in the bath), aged 4; falling asleep in a plate of Bangkok noodles, aged 8; and the disgusted indignation that only a 15-year-old can muster at "yet another boring glacier" in Alaska.

But somewhere along the way, she inadvertently swallowed the travel bug...

Nowadays, Amelia is much more likely to subject her travel companions to exhaustion and cultural over-exposure than public displays of mutiny, as she actively absorbs each destination, notepad and camera in hand.

Whilst travelling took some time to grow on her, writing has always appealed. Amelia shot to literary fame in her home town of Twizel when, at age six, she re-wrote Little Red Riding Hood for a school project. Promptly shuttled off to the Principal's office to display her excellent work, Amelia was congratulated on her use of the word 'cunning'. Her story was mentioned in the school newsletter and 'published' (with a typewriter, stapler and author's original illustrations). Naturally, the publication was limited edition.

After such a roaring start, Amelia's literary career was expected to slide. But, at the last minute, she enrolled in a Bachelor of Media Arts (Communication) and the National Diploma in Journalism at Hamilton's Waikato Institute of Technology. Whilst the vertiginous heights of Twizel Area School fame would be near-impossible to reclaim, Amelia was presented the Doris Henry/ESU Award for excellence in writing (2002) and the Waikato Times Award for excellence in journalism (2003).

Thus far, Amelia's career has seen her interviewing Kiwi musicians and adding full stops to student complaints as a university publications editor; discussing milk solids per litre with North Island farmers as a rural journalist; making fantastic coffee in a bagel shop as a foraying freelance writer; and learning everything there is to know about exterior cladding as a writer for Homestyle Magazine.

Now, (finally) Amelia is successfully combining her passion for travel and writing as content editor of www.fourcorners.co.nz and travel blogger for Yahoo!Xtra.