A British adventurer has overcome sea sickness to complete his around the world trip relying only on the goodwill of people using social networking site Twitter.
Paul Smith poses in New York in a picture posted on his Flickr page.
Paul Smith aimed to travel to Campbell Island in New Zealand, the opposite side of theplanet to his home in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 30 days.
In the end he fell just short -- reaching Stewart Island at the foot of New Zealand's South Island.
There was not another boat to the more southerly Campbell Island -- a UNESCO World Heritage site -- until November.
During his trip Smith visited the Netherlands, France, Germany and the U.S. -- where he was given a free flight to New Zealand -- and had his photo taken with Hollywood actress Liv Tyler.
He also raised more than $7,000 for a water charity. His self-imposed golden rule was that he could only accept offers of travel and accommodation from people who use Twitter, a micro-blogging service that allows people to "tweet" what they're up to (or what they're thinking about) in 140 characters or less.
Smith was also banned from making any travel plans more than three days in advance and has to leave each location within 48 hours of arriving.
In his latest updates, he reveals a battle with sea sickness on the crossing to Stewart Island.
"Oh god, I'm rocking back and forth. Still got motion sickness. Curse you, Stewart Island!
"Yesterday's ferry crossing was calm according to local, but it managed to turn me inside out."
Smith, who was flying out of New Zealand Tuesday, has more than 11,00 people following his progress on his Twitter page on which he has posted 1,300 updates this month.
What do you think about it??
-- Edited by Lindsey.Breeding. on Tuesday 31st of March 2009 06:03:44 PM
aww nice this man is from the TOOOOOOOOOOON. Whats with all the animosity for twitter? So he did something unique and He also raised more than $7,000 for a water charity. what did he do wrong? Good for him, utilizing twitter like that.
hahah he totally does look like a creeper. me and john dont know what twitter is or understand it. but good for him, money for a charity. thats rewarding
you of course can't go to twitter directly to find out because it's blocked at school, but there's lots of good info here: http://tweeternet.com/
and here's a summary:
Twitter
Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message. The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called Explore for external and third party tools that interact with Twitter and a new visualization tool called Twitter Blocks.
-- Edited by MrsCavalluzzi on Friday 3rd of April 2009 05:39:47 PM
__________________
Lego, Cav (the Lego brand name was derived from the Danish expression "leg godt" - play well - and lego also translates in Latin as "I study" or "I put together"...really, one of the world's most perfect words!)