My top 10 Instagram posts

My top 10 Instagram posts and the stories behind them

Constant lockdowns and strict travel rules make the travel blogger game pretty tough! I recently took a trip down memory lane and decided to work out which of my Instagram posts were the most popular (by Likes).

It was a really fun thing to do in lockdown (Auckland has been in a strict lockdown for over two months because of the Delta strain) and I always get so happy looking back through old photos. People criticise younger generations for living life through a lens but honestly, I don't care. I'll never stop because I have a terrible memory and looking through old pictures makes the good times come flooding back. I wasn't too surprised by the ones that made an appearance in the top 40ish (I found every post that went over 300 likes first, out of curiosity, then weeded out the top 10 from there).

I should probably give the caveat at the start that a lot of these photos were not taken by me. As a solo female traveller, you have to rely on the patience and grace of others to make your ideas come to life. As awkward as it can be to ask a stranger to take your photo, it's that or you're never in them. So I've just learned to deal with it and try not to be too awkward!

Here are the top 10:

10. Somewhere in the Greek Islands

Photographer: Liam

This one comes with an epic story and I'm surprised that its the only one from this trip. When I was travelling around Europe in summer 2018, I got an email from my old Flight Centre boss asking if I wanted to do an influencer trip with Topdeck around the Greek Islands. Who would say no to that?! Luckily I didn't have much more than a rough plan for that month, as it was later than I had originally planned to stay so next thing I knew, I was on a plane to Mykonos. There's a full blog post about it here - https://thelostgirls.club/blog/2018/8/greek-islands-with-topdeck But this photo was taken by a friend I made on the trip, Liam, with his GoPro and a underwater dome. I've wanted one ever since!

9. Trevi Fountain, Rome

Photographer: Random tourist

Another from my European summer of 2018. Rome was a bit of a struggle for me, I was not coping with the months of hot weather and hostels with no aircon. The daily gelato wasn't quite cutting it. So I did most of my sightseeing first thing in the morning. It was a great tactic for avoiding the heat, queues and other tourists, specifically tours. I went to the Trevi fountain at 6am I think it was, and that was such a good decision. I think having terribly puffy eyes was a small price to pay since there were only maybe 10 other tourists around and I was able to get a few photos with nobody else around.

8. Te Henga Walkway, near Bethell's Beach

Photographer: Nattaya from New Zealand

The only story behind this was Natt and I wanted to get some cool content of the wonderful, wild west coast of Auckland. We had fun climbing trees and bush-whacking to get the shots and Natt is such a talented photographer! I think a good 5 or 6 of the shoot photos were in the top 40, including this bonus photo below of me being the Mother of Drones (we were deep in the throes of GoTs hype at the time).

7. Ljubljana, Slovenia

Photographer: Unknown fellow female traveller

When I was working in a hostel in Croatia I decided to go for a little weekend trip to Ljubljana and boy was I delighted! It is such a gorgeous little city with so much character and I was stoked to get this cool photo taken by another solo female traveller. Thanks girl! I don't really know what it is about this photo that makes me smile but maybe because the whole trip was just so pleasant.

6. Cloud 9, Fiji

Photographer: Sara from New Zealand

When my flatmate and I were working in radio, we did a trip to Fiji for Springbreak. It was basically a few days on a small island in Fiji of partying. It wasn't really something I would do again but it was a fun experience at the time. Sara scored us a free trip to Cloud 9 which is a floating pontoon out near Cloud Break surf spot. The blue skies of this pic are definitely on trend for Instagram but I think the only reason this one did so well is that the sunglasses I was wearing at the time were from a really popular Aussie brand. Back when tagging brands got you lots of attention! The whole trip was awesome though!

5. Positano

Photographer: Kim from New Zealand

I was pleasantly surprised that more photos of my face made the top 10 than photos with my butt! This is only one with my derrière in the top 10, although it featured a lot in the top 40. I used to be really embarrassed by it but have since learned to embrace it. But moving on, this photo was taken at the gorgeous Positano, and I'm surprised that more of my photos from there didn't feature higher too. I was stoked to meet Kim in Sorrento in a weird hostel/hotel hybrid and travel along the Amalfi Coast with her. It was great to have another kiwi to chat with and she was a willing and skilled photographer, both our Instagrams were blowing up after that trip!

4. Gannet Rock, Muriwai

Photographer: Me

I was actually quite surprised that this one did so well. I'm not a photographer by any stretch, but I do like to think I have an eye for it so I make do with my limited skills and get by. But this photo of Gannet Rock, overlooking Maori Bay on Auckland's west coast is not your typical "Instagram shot". I actually love the mood of it, according to the caption it was taken before a hungover Sunday surf, and the fact that a photo without my usual bright blue background did so well. I'm giving another special mention to the photo below taken in Helsinki on a snowy evening for the same reason. It's actually one of my favourite photos taken by me and I was sad it didn't make it to the top 10 because I'm really proud of it. But this list is dictated by Instagram Likes so it doesn't really matter anyway!

3. Rome

Photographer: Nicole from Singapore

OK "Helsinki on a snowy evening" is my favourite photo because it's a good photo but this photo is one of my favourites because of the story behind it. I think social media trends are pretty icky and the #followmeto one always made me gag a little so I decided to take the mickey. If you don't remember, a few years ago every single female traveller was holding her boyfriend's hand (or not even her boyfriend's hand, I've seen people use dummy hands) as she dragged him along to some beautiful destination. Yeah, yuck. So I did that with an ice cream because ice cream is the love of my life. No joke though. Anyway, not long after that, some random account tagged me in their photo. Some dude had photoshopped his own hand into the photo, and he'd done that to a bunch of the photos that used #followmeto which was pretty creepy. You can see his masterpiece below. People are weird.

2. Cebu, Philippines

Photographer: our lovely tour guide

My trip to the Philippines with Natt was just EPIC. I'll gush about it until the cows come home. I was working at Flight Centre at the time and we actually didn't get great travel perks all the time, but every now and then a really cheap industry deal would pop up and Natt was the only one brave enough to jump on board and come with me (they have a few troubles with terrorism and there were some warnings about going). This photo was taken by the guy who lead us on a canyoneering trip through the Kawasan falls, what a champ, he took so many photos for us! At the end of the trip you can do a little raft trip that goes underneath those falls and it looks so serene! But when you''ve got the rush of so much water pounding on your back, it actually kinda hurts. And the more we cried out, the longer the guy stayed under it, he was a bit of a sadist. It was so much fun though, even for Natt with her sunburned back!

1. Fiordo de Furore, Amalfi Coast

Photographer: Me

Another shot proving the beauty of the Amalfi Coast! Kim and I jumped off our bus at Furore to visit this cool little "fjord" beach, that was later visited by the King of Content, Sam Kalder. We put it on the map first though! I actually walked up behind and the abandoned buildings behind the beach to capture this one and it really blew up my phone, it was shared so many times! It was a really cool stopover, we had lots of fun taking photos of us flipping our hair in the water and jumping off the walkway on the side. Not from the bridge like Kalder did, but still.

Hopefully one day we’ll all be able to travel again and make new memories!