It’s hard to believe that Graham and I set off on our big adventure a year ago today! It almost feels like it was a lifetime ago, but at the same time feels like only yesterday that we were hopping on the first train of many at St. Pancras station. Life in Wellington has been great and we feel really at home in our cute little house! We survived a New Zealand winter, which is pretty important and we’re looking forward to exploring NZ in the Spring and Summer.
There were some amazing moments throughout our trip and its really hard to pick out highlights. We visited countries that have been at the top of our travel wish list like Japan, Russia and Vietnam, travelled the longest railway journey in the world, dipped a very cold finger in the world’s largest freshwater lake, climbed volcanoes, cycled around islands, drank banana wine, explored Vietnamese caves in kayaks, swam in bioluminescent water off the coast of Cambodia and then to top it all off we set up a whole new life in NZ!
In total, we travelled approximately 20,370 miles (32,782 kms) in 141 days across 16 countries. We visited around 47 cities/towns/villages on our way and attempted to order food in multiple languages as we went (thank goodness for Google Translate). Our mode of transport was mainly train, with the occasional flight in the second half of the journey and a couple of ferries thrown in for good measure 🙂 I have over 4000 photos on my phone and goodness knows how many more on Graham’s camera! And rather importantly, we didn’t kill each other, and both realise that we are extraordinarily grumpy when tired, hungry and in need of a shower. Here is a little compilation of selfies, in case you forgot what we looked like!!
It has been nice to settle down and to get back to normality for a while, but we’re also looking forward to more adventures here in NZ, where there’s so much to explore. We’re back in Ireland and the UK for Christmas, which will be very different from our eco-Cambodian adventure with no electricity last year, but can’t wait for all the Christmas festivities that we’re used to! We’ll pop up the odd blog post or two when we’ve explored our new home, but currently, brunch, coffee and running are keeping us very busy….as well as sometimes working!
Xx -F
Travel in Trainers 