My annual reflection on the hits and misses on the blog, what was popular, and what wasn’t… This was the quietest year on the blog since I started it in 2014, only publishing 56 posts compared with more than 140 a year between 2016 and 2019 due to far less travel. I still got slightly more visitors this year than last, but fewer than 2019 and 2020.
For the first time since I published it in 2016 New Zealand Great Walks Ranked wasn’t my most popular post. New Zealand tramps (multi-day walks) ranked just beat it. The post compares 29 multi-day hikes, though I have another five to add it to when I update it this year.
These two posts got over three times the visitors of my third most popular post, Tour du Mont Blanc v Walker’s Haute Route, which got double that of North West Circuit – Highlights and things learnt.
These were followed by a pair of posts on New Zealand tramps – Routeburn Track and Hump Ridge Track, and a pair on the Tour du Mont Blanc – Tour du Mont Blanc – Stages 3 & 4 Refuge Robert Blanc to Rifugio Monte Bianco, and Tour du Mont Blanc – Stage 2 Refuge de Tré la Tête to Refuge Robert Blanc.
The most popular posts published this year were Welcome Flat Hut, Sky Waka and Skyline Walk, and Dunedin.
A call out to the least popular posts published this year, starting with South West Coast Path – Porlock Weir to Lynmouth. This surprised me as it was a particularly scenic walk, and a bit different from the New Zealand hikes I usually write about.
A post on Geneva from travels back in 2015 didn’t generate much interest either.
The next few little seen posts were from my trip to the UK in July – Chiddingstone Castle, British Museum, and Penhurst Place.
This year I’ll be moving from posting weekly to three times a fortnight and potentially more frequently. A month long trip to Nepal in November 2022 was fascinating and photogenic, summer was a good time for more exploration around New Zealand, and I’ve got some big travels planned for 2023 when hopefully travel is less stressful than it was in 2022.
