‘Czech Marco Polo’ Bohumil Pospisil talk by historian Dr. Martin Nekola

The half-forgotten Czech globetrotter and adventurer Bohumil Pospíšil (1902–1974) travelled through dozens of countries during a five-year expedition in the late 1920s. His astonishing journeys—covering more than 160,000 kilometres—read like an adventure novel. Along the way he filled dozens of notebooks with observations and recorded the world around him in thousands of photographs, capturing landscapes, architecture, rituals, celebrations, conflicts, and everyday life across multiple cultures.

Pospíšil’s final stop was New Zealand, where he spent almost a year and married Elizabeth Shannon of Dunedin. The couple returned to Prague in 1931, where Pospíšil worked as a freelance journalist. Three years later, however, he moved back to New Zealand permanently. In 1936 he published the well-received book Wandering on the Islands of Wonders, describing his new home. He lived in Auckland until his death in 1974.

Pospíšil’s personal archive was later donated by his descendants to Dr Martin Nekola, a Prague-based historian specialising in Czech communities abroad. Drawing on this remarkable collection, Dr Nekola has set out to restore Pospíšil’s place in history. This illustrated lecture, featuring rare photographs from the archive, brings to life the extraordinary story of a Czech explorer who made New Zealand his home.