Charley's Christmas Adventure in Lapland

This month we spoke to our reader, Charley Bartlett, about her working abroad experience last year in Lapland. Charley worked as a coach guide for Canterbury Travel giving holiday goers a wonderful experience on their search for Santa over the Christmas period. She told us that the highlight of her experience was “the opportunity to work in the artic circle as well as going on husky and reindeer rides”.

“I chose to work abroad to gain experiences with other countries that aren’t my own. This was so I could learn about new cultures and make connections with people around the world.”

Charley also completed a three month stint volunteering in Burkina Faso in 2018. Here she worked with a charity that advocated the rights of people living with disabilities. Her volunteer role included raising awareness in the local community through school talks and group activities as well as helping to make the community more accessible for those with disabilities.

As an avid traveller, Charley takes every experience she can to jet off to experience a new country. She has plans to do the working holiday visa in Australia as an opportunity to experience a long-term work contract abroad.

Although her current plans are taking her to Australia, we asked her what her bucket list destination is and she said: “the top place I would like to visit is Nepal as I would like to do the Annapurna Circuit Trek. It’s an experience I would love to take the challenge of and a culture I’d like to learn more about.”