Home sweet home

It's the end of an era.

I am sitting in my mum’s lounge with a cup of tea and CNN blaring in the background. Tui keep flittering past the window to gorge themselves on the flax flowers out the front, the birds are going berserk, shrieking as the sun bursts through the breaks in the clouds, sweeping by in the high Wellington wind. This is home.

Our days have been filled with reunions and surprises, as we decided early on to keep our return secret so we could scare the crap out of our loved ones. Nice eh!!

We've managed to do so with Dad and Wendy, who we scouted straight away on the way through town from the airport - a testament to the village like size of Wellington; then arrived home to a dinner party at Mums where I freaked my brother Brett and my lovely Grandma; and since then have continued to spring our friends daily. It's been fantastic and there are still a few people to get around but I hold out little hope for the gossip wheel to keep our return secret for much longer.

So it's over, no more UNESCO World Heritage Sites, world wonders, culture shocks, hostels, backpacks or lengthy transits. This had become our lifestyle and our job over the last eight months, as it was 24-7, planning, prepping, doing and enjoying. Undoubtedly, it's been the most amazing experience of my life and I will always be thankful to Andy for planning and undertaking it with me.

The best decision I've made was to do it. My life savings are gone and substituted with a rather large visa debt but I am enriched with a huge wealth of experience and knowledge about the 22 countries we visited, about the world, and about myself. Personally it has grown me, in my sense of self, my values, and taught me truthfully my strengths and weaknesses.

It was a whirlwind tour of sorts, despite the length of time we were away, the fact we were always moving, never working a day and having had so much to see in every country. It was hard at times to decide what to see and what to skip as its impossible to do everything, but when torn we would remind ourselves of how amazingly lucky we were to be in these places at all and that we can’t see everything, so if we truly want to see these things we will return one day.

Our mantra was that this trip was like a world tasting platter. Arranged as a taste test of everywhere we have always wanted to go, it would provide us with a better understanding of the realities of these places and would serve as an experience to learn where we enjoy the most, where we didn't enjoy and where we want to return and travel more extensively in the future. This was the perfect type of travel for me as prior to this trip I had not travelled much and had little idea, really, of what I would prefer as I had little to compare it against.

It's hard to know yet the outcome as it is all so fresh and still filtering through, and we are so happy for the beauty and culture of home, but currently what sits in my mind is the Caribbean, Central America, and India. We loved Guatemala which has led to an interest in the entire Central American and Caribbean region, and unfortunately as India was always to be in monsoon season when we were able to go we couldn't visit it on this trip. Regardless it is a place that requires more time than we could have given it. Asia of course is high on our list to return to as it is beautiful, easily accessible from NZ and holds the lovely Rachael Lowe, Andy's sister, in Cambodia one of my favourite countries. And finally Europe is also top of mind as it is so rich, stylish and historical, we love it and will no doubt return there too. So pretty much everywhere is a goer, I should've known, it's rare I don’t try and enjoy a little bit of everything on a platter!

We met some amazing people on the road who will forever be in our memory and hopefully we will see again one day. I must say too, thanks for all the love and support we received from home, it always brought a grin and much gossip to hear from you.

Travel in the 21st century is such bliss, I shudder to think of the same trip fifty or even twenty years ago: no internet; no skype; no short haul flights; and in many areas no roads or access at all; and loads of dodgy overland travel. It would have been a dangerous, long, lonely and hard road. The reality now is that home is an internet cafe away, and if a country is not in conflict it can be travelled. The tourist market is one of the biggest consumer markets in the world and is protected as such. Travel in most regions is quite easy and many of the harder to travel countries have tourist police due to the government’s desire to protect its industry.

In eight months we suffered little more than a cold and the travellers tummy, nothing was stolen and we had little trouble. So I implore you, if you have the desire to travel go and do it, on your own terms, wherever it is you have always wanted to go, pick a goal, do your research and go.

Travelling is an addictive thing that leads to more and more roads and for me brought a strange reality of how huge and varied the world is, and yet how small and the same it is in many ways. Oh and guys, I must finally say, that we did it all in jandals

Peru = Alpacas, altitude and ancient ruins = ace

We loved Peru. It´s another slice of the international pie with a very distinct flavour, coca.

Coca is the plant from which Coca Cola built it´s empire and the cocaine industry also flourishes, but before all this abuse it was and still is an important ingredient in the Andean culture religiously and practically for altitude sickness and pretty much all other ailments you may have right up to childbirth. And now it´s an important part of my daily ritual in the place of my long love, coffee. I´ve been drinking 2-4 cups daily to the joy of my numbed mouth and soothed heart.

The altitude of Peru was fine initially apart from some heart thumping moments walking up the hill to our hillside hostel in Cusco and around Machu Pichu. The coca tea helped too but after the first week of extreme altitude and crap hostel's and the coldest weather we've faced bar topless bus tour in Paris, I´ve finally succumbed to my first cold of the trip. Bums. So here I am sunburned from Machu Pichu with a cold. Will the irony ever cease.

Machu Pichu was mystical, surreal and grand. We missioned up at 5am to make the first bus and arrived at 7am, disappointed to find that there was no 2 hour hike up as we thought but a gate straight in. Our guidebook was rather misleading and my sleepless anxiety of a early morning hike in the altitude was all for nothing. It took me a while to realise this however as when we first came through the gates it was so misty that I couldñ´t see jack apart from some rather large rocks and several alpaca mowing the lawn.

Felix our German comrade since the Galapagos Islands suggested we climb Wayana Pichu first, the peak at the end of the complex, as it´s a great viewing point and only allows 400 people up a day. Great call. We were some of the first 10 people up that morning and were in the best spot possible to see the mist clear.

Surrounded by the huge jagered peaks of the Andes, with mist flying upwards like water flowing against gravity in the growing morning sun, we climbed the steep stairs, with the help of steel rope, fighting off the strain of the altitude that was causing our hearts to thump and breath to leap from our lungs. It´s not a great distance but at that altitude its hard going. The only grace is that we did it at 7am and not at 10am like the second 200 people in the heat of the morning. Oh dear, they were actually moaning as we skipped past on our way back down!

Thankfully, the beauty of the ruins, the exotic lush alpine forest, the sharp crown of mountains, silver shining rivers 1000 meters below, the buzzing hummingbirds and slowly clearing teasing mist forced us to stop every few minutes to take snapshots and just breathe it in on our way up. A good thing so we didn't burst our hearts under the strain.

As we climbed the mist would briefly part and the image of Machu Pichu would flash past us, a second later swallowed up again. The higher we got, the better the angle and clarity became until we were at the top of the hill, sitting on huge grey boulders at the far edge of the ridge, in silence, watching the ruins reveal themselves. It was pure serenity. We sat there for two hours enjoying one of the best views of my life.

A 600 year old, geometric, organic, jewel of mans creation in the natural crown of the Andes, Machu Pichu is mesmerising. After the mist cleared, and the small cloud ribbons fell away from the peaks, the sun burst through the sungate on the opposite side of the mountains and sent a ray of light directly across the valley striking the main complex of the ruins directly. Think Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc, the scene with the light ray in the cave marking the spot on the mimi city, but on a huge and real scale. If we had been down there we would have seen the light burst right through the three windows, a sacred temple through which the sun's rays pass illuminating the "Sacred Plaza" beyond. All proving how well the Inca designed the city around the movement of the sun and stars.

It´s an amazing structure built around the astronomy of the region. The site is believed to be selected because of its position relative to sacred landscape features—such as its mountains, which are in alignment with key astronomical events that would have been important to the Incas.


Deservedly a world wonder, we spent the day exploring, and went away grining ear to ear, dehydrated and exhaughsted with about 700 photos up our sleeves (plus video). I´ve managed to get it down to just over 400 keepers but thats as far as I can get it.

Damn world wonders!