Those of you who know me well know I'm a bit slow on the uptake for certain technologies (ok, ok ALL technologies ;).
Only a few years ago did I finally give up my "dumb" phone with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard (which I still miss) and invest in my first smartphone. It was a big change, and I was skeptical of the whole thing. But one app won me over: Instagram.
I love Instagram. I think it's such a smart app in the way it's visually driven -- as we all are -- and location-centric. With one app, I can see pictures of people doing cool things all over the world and pinpoint exactly where they were when they took the photo. Super neat.
Before moving abroad, I used Instagram primarily to share photos of our family and the kiddos with a very small, select group of people. I still do this.
But I also use it now as a research tool to find cool places for our family to visit in New Zealand . And, even better, I use it to connect with people who have been there to get insider tips.
For instance, the other day I posted a photo of Mission Bay here in Auckland.
Mission Bay is a very famous seaside community, with ritzy restaurants and boutiques, a beautiful park and incredible beach views. Standing on the beach, visitors are front-and-center with Rangitoto -- the grand volcanic island that sits off the coast -- and can clearly see the Sky Tower and the city skyline. It's a cool place.
So, in my Instagram, I wrote something like, "Wow, Mission Bay is awesome. I hope to go back this weekend with the family -- minus Moses since it's a dog-free beach."
Luckily, one of my local connections saw this post and replied something like, "Hey, check out St. Heliers Bay just up the road. Beautiful beach and dogs are welcome!"
So we did. And he was right. St. Heliers is an amazing little community that's right on par with Mission Bay -- minus the crowds and plus the dogs. We had a really fun day exploring it (as you can see in the little video I made of our visit ;).
Had my Insta connection not reached out, we still would have had fun exploring Mission Bay, but poor Moses would have been left out. And we might have never learned of this other great destination just a mile away.
I now follow a TON of New Zealand-based travel accounts. Every day I'm seeing pictures from incredible places all over the country. I save those that I'm really interested in visiting, pull up the location on the map to scout out how far away it is and sometimes reach out to the person posting for more info.
I find this to be the best way to seek out travel info -- even beating the old tried-and-true Google -- especially at a local level. I don't know if you could plan a whole trip based solely on Instagram, but for the kind of day trips we do, it's perfect.
So that's my #notsponsored ode to Insta :).
And I'm sure all you techies out there are already on to the next latest and greatest app. Feel free to let me know what it is so in 5 years I can adopt it ;)
And now, here's a photo of St. Moses on St. Heliers beach.
