Mary Jane Walker

Mary Jane Walker is a travel writer and photographer from Aotearoa New Zealand, based in Queenstown and Auckland.

Her passions in life are travel and adventure, and she has enjoyed plenty of both, having been to 123 countries so far.

Just lately, Mary Jane has ascended the pyramids of Mexico and Central America, and visited New York City and Los Angeles, before she headed to China, Thailand, where she helped for a week at an orphanage on the border with Myanmar, and Malaysia.

She calls herself a maverick, because she never preplans her travels!

Mary Jane sat down one winter to write about her travels in a book, but found she had so many it wouldn’t fit into just one. So, what was one book has now turned into 22 — and counting!

Her book awards and mentions include:

A MAVERICK NEW ZEALAND WAY: Finalist in the Travel Category, International Book Awards, 2018.

IRAN: MAKE LOVE NOT WAR: Finalist in Travel at the 14th National Indie Excellence Awards (USA, 2020)

THE NEGLECTED NORTH ISLAND: 2021 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards Bronze medallist in Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Rim – Best Regional Non-Fiction. Also judged 'Best Antipodean Cultural Travel Book 2021' by Lux Life magazine.

Mary Jane has also published more than 400 blog posts on her website A Maverick Traveller and on her Medium publication of the same name.