Twitter traveller falls short of travel goal
Ferry Online Travel News 02/04/2009
A UK journalist was not able to reach Campbell Island, in the sub-Antarctic, by his own deadline.
Making it as far as Stewart Island, off the coast New Zealand, Paul Smith travelled half way around the world relying on the generosity of fellow Twitterers.
The Briton had targeted Campbell Island as his ending point, but was unable to make the crossing in time to meet his self-imposed 30-day travel limit.
During his travels, Smith would accept offers of travel assistance and accommodation only from other users of the social networking and micro-blogging website.
In his latest Twitchhiker blog, he commented that onward momentum began to wane when he reached New Zealand’s South Island, but that he had had "ceaseless support" from other Twitterers until then.
Smith wrote in his blog that the biggest obstacle he encountered was the lack of mobile phone coverage and Internet access in parts of New Zealand: "On a land mass the size of England and Wales, with just one 50th of the population, a cast-iron communications infrastructure simply isn't necessary. Where I did find internet access, it was often decrepit to the point of useless.
He added: "So I wasn't able to push my message as hard as I wanted to in the final days of the project."
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