In July 2009, Nicki and I sat in Windsor Great Park, eating scones 
and drinking tea, and talked for the first time about going travelling together, just weeks after we had met. 9 months on and that talk has resulted in so much. At the moment this blog appears, we will touch down in Heathrow at the end of a World Trip, made up like this.
We travelled 78000 Km in 154 days, covering 14 countries in 4 continents, with 19 flights.
This included our trip to Greece to enjoy my Dad's 70th Birthday
party in Corfu – so the country list is Holland, UK, Greece, USA, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.
My favourite city was probably Buenos Aires – a buzzing place with so many facets to it, new and old, and a sense that as a tourist, you could feel the way the people live. We both loved New Zealand, but neither of us really want to pick a favourite country – everything has been great in its own way.
We stayed in 61 different accommodations.
Highlights include; a hostel in Peru where the ceiling fell down on us
; a hotel in Tahiti where it was so expensive we couldn't afford breakfast; excellent self-catering units in New Zealand and Australia where Nicki cooked fantastic meals and I made us beans on toast; a tent on the Inca trail which filled with the smell of my feet (industrial strength after 12 hours hiking and no shower possible...); generous friends giving us a homely place to rest; the eco-resort on Fraser Island; and a boiling hot, screamingly noisy 6 nights in a hostel in Buenos Aires.
My favourite accommodation was the charmingly simple and cheap (16 Euros per night) place in Bangkok – unexpectedly lovely, run by sweet, gentle people.
We ran 49 times...
Both of us run regularly at home, and we did our best to keep this up. There were periods where it was just not possible – like in Peru, where the altitude made it too difficult. Or in Australia,
where it was so incredibly hot at 8am that I had hyper-ventilation after losing litres of water in a 30-minute run.
Our favourite run was in Gorda Springs, a 7am start with the sun coming up over the Pacific Coastal Highway. It started a memorable day – after our run, we sat and ate our breakfast on a cliff looking over the ocean, saw huge seals on the beach, raced down the coast to the Stones and Michael Jackson, and finished the day among the Human Zoo that is Venice Beach near LA at sunset. Wonderful.
...walked 19 times...
These walks were as long as a 7 hour, 23km burn through the Abel
Tasman country park in New Zealand; or a 6 hour tramp to the volcano crater on Easter Island; or a similar length hike up a beautiful mountain in Maine when the leaves were still an amazing colour. They were also as short as a boiling 35 degrees 1 hour meltdown up the lookout in Port Stephens, AUS; and a 1 hour walk up the hill in Cuzco, only to find ourselves lost as the rain poured down.
The most memorable was in Taupo, NZ – we started with the small cultural museum and along the way saw bungee jumping, Zorbing in the park, hot springs by the river and a dramatic waterfall at the end. The variety of scenery and the way the locals enjoyed it to the full totally helped us fall in love with New Zealand.
...and trekked 4 days along the Inca Trail.
It was hard! The first day was a gentle introduction, the second a rude awakening. The third was just hard work as the rain was
relentless. And the fourth day was a gift, a repayment for what we put in as we came down to the site of Machu Picchu in the sunshine and saw it in every possible bit of its glory.
That third day afforded us one of the moments of the trip. We'd stopped keeping up with the other walkers in our group, tired and wet and wanting each other's company and nobody else's. Suddenly, a window of sunshine opened up between the clouds above and the mist below. We sat on an Inca stone step together and ate a mini-picnic of cereal bars and biscuits shaped like animals, bought from the old ladies along the way. It was a little blessing to be able to see the mountains after a day and a half of solid rain.
There were 19 boat trips.
These varied from an overnight cruise on Milford Sound in NZ, to a 30 minute tempestuous ferry journey from Sydney to Manly. One time it was a one-hour ferry journey from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay. Another time, it was a half day dolphin watching tour in the Bay of Islands, a trip up the river to see crocodiles, or a 20 minute trip from Hong Kong island to Kowloon.
Perhaps the most impactful was a tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York. Seeing the sunset with the statue in the background is an image I will never forget.
And we hired 5 cars, 4 bicycles, 2 scooters, a buggy and a 4x4.
Our favourite car was Dumpy, the Nissan Sunny with bags of character and no power for driving up hills.
All along we marvelled at the wildlife.
A Possum on our porch; Lorikeets eating Nicki's orange cake; Koalas wisely perched in Eucalyptus above; Kangaroos hopping in the fields; Alpaca in Peru; stray dogs in every city; elephants in Thailand; crocodiles cooling my blood with fear;crabs and jellyfish on the beach; an Iguana on the doorstep.
But the best of all has to be the Kookaburra, a bird with a mohican haircut that makes a noise like a monkey.
And so to “the real world”.
Our lives move on to new phases, having had an amazing set of experiences together and the unique opportunity and gift of time
to step back and think about what we really want in our lives. We both have plans for what to do next, and we'll move on purposefully with those plans.
But for now, I look at the pictures, read a few stories and think back to the card that started it all, and a phrase that has never been truer.
and drinking tea, and talked for the first time about going travelling together, just weeks after we had met. 9 months on and that talk has resulted in so much. At the moment this blog appears, we will touch down in Heathrow at the end of a World Trip, made up like this.We travelled 78000 Km in 154 days, covering 14 countries in 4 continents, with 19 flights.
This included our trip to Greece to enjoy my Dad's 70th Birthday
party in Corfu – so the country list is Holland, UK, Greece, USA, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.My favourite city was probably Buenos Aires – a buzzing place with so many facets to it, new and old, and a sense that as a tourist, you could feel the way the people live. We both loved New Zealand, but neither of us really want to pick a favourite country – everything has been great in its own way.
We stayed in 61 different accommodations.
Highlights include; a hostel in Peru where the ceiling fell down on us
; a hotel in Tahiti where it was so expensive we couldn't afford breakfast; excellent self-catering units in New Zealand and Australia where Nicki cooked fantastic meals and I made us beans on toast; a tent on the Inca trail which filled with the smell of my feet (industrial strength after 12 hours hiking and no shower possible...); generous friends giving us a homely place to rest; the eco-resort on Fraser Island; and a boiling hot, screamingly noisy 6 nights in a hostel in Buenos Aires.My favourite accommodation was the charmingly simple and cheap (16 Euros per night) place in Bangkok – unexpectedly lovely, run by sweet, gentle people.
We ran 49 times...
Both of us run regularly at home, and we did our best to keep this up. There were periods where it was just not possible – like in Peru, where the altitude made it too difficult. Or in Australia,
where it was so incredibly hot at 8am that I had hyper-ventilation after losing litres of water in a 30-minute run.Our favourite run was in Gorda Springs, a 7am start with the sun coming up over the Pacific Coastal Highway. It started a memorable day – after our run, we sat and ate our breakfast on a cliff looking over the ocean, saw huge seals on the beach, raced down the coast to the Stones and Michael Jackson, and finished the day among the Human Zoo that is Venice Beach near LA at sunset. Wonderful.
...walked 19 times...
These walks were as long as a 7 hour, 23km burn through the Abel
Tasman country park in New Zealand; or a 6 hour tramp to the volcano crater on Easter Island; or a similar length hike up a beautiful mountain in Maine when the leaves were still an amazing colour. They were also as short as a boiling 35 degrees 1 hour meltdown up the lookout in Port Stephens, AUS; and a 1 hour walk up the hill in Cuzco, only to find ourselves lost as the rain poured down.The most memorable was in Taupo, NZ – we started with the small cultural museum and along the way saw bungee jumping, Zorbing in the park, hot springs by the river and a dramatic waterfall at the end. The variety of scenery and the way the locals enjoyed it to the full totally helped us fall in love with New Zealand.
...and trekked 4 days along the Inca Trail.
It was hard! The first day was a gentle introduction, the second a rude awakening. The third was just hard work as the rain was
relentless. And the fourth day was a gift, a repayment for what we put in as we came down to the site of Machu Picchu in the sunshine and saw it in every possible bit of its glory.That third day afforded us one of the moments of the trip. We'd stopped keeping up with the other walkers in our group, tired and wet and wanting each other's company and nobody else's. Suddenly, a window of sunshine opened up between the clouds above and the mist below. We sat on an Inca stone step together and ate a mini-picnic of cereal bars and biscuits shaped like animals, bought from the old ladies along the way. It was a little blessing to be able to see the mountains after a day and a half of solid rain.
There were 19 boat trips.
These varied from an overnight cruise on Milford Sound in NZ, to a 30 minute tempestuous ferry journey from Sydney to Manly. One time it was a one-hour ferry journey from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay. Another time, it was a half day dolphin watching tour in the Bay of Islands, a trip up the river to see crocodiles, or a 20 minute trip from Hong Kong island to Kowloon.
Perhaps the most impactful was a tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York. Seeing the sunset with the statue in the background is an image I will never forget.
And we hired 5 cars, 4 bicycles, 2 scooters, a buggy and a 4x4.
Our favourite car was Dumpy, the Nissan Sunny with bags of character and no power for driving up hills.
All along we marvelled at the wildlife.
A Possum on our porch; Lorikeets eating Nicki's orange cake; Koalas wisely perched in Eucalyptus above; Kangaroos hopping in the fields; Alpaca in Peru; stray dogs in every city; elephants in Thailand; crocodiles cooling my blood with fear;crabs and jellyfish on the beach; an Iguana on the doorstep.
But the best of all has to be the Kookaburra, a bird with a mohican haircut that makes a noise like a monkey.
And so to “the real world”.
Our lives move on to new phases, having had an amazing set of experiences together and the unique opportunity and gift of time
to step back and think about what we really want in our lives. We both have plans for what to do next, and we'll move on purposefully with those plans.But for now, I look at the pictures, read a few stories and think back to the card that started it all, and a phrase that has never been truer.
It certainly was a glorious ride.
