Days not Homeless: 5 Years, 341 Days ...and loving every second of this alpine adventure!
Tour Aotearoa Facebook Updates
February 16th - Kerikeri, NZ All set for a 6am Sunday departure from Cape Reinga to Bluff. A little over 3000km from the top of New Zealand to the bottom!TA Pre DepartureFebruary 20th - Cape Reinga Lighthouse, NZ The beginning at Cape Reinga a little over 48 hours...
Rediscovering Great Britain
We find more and more that when speaking with fellow travelers the response when asking about which country they've seen the most of, their home country is never top of the list. I've probably seen more of my adopted country than I have of my home land. Due to...
Essential Items Only
Stuff, junk, clutter and crap accumulated over the years has made us the happiest of people. Did I just say that? Over the past four years we've found that living without mountains of stuff is far less stressful, far cheaper, and allows us to be wherever we want,...
Hong Kong Layover
Flying to the end of the world for the second time this year was always going to be a drawn out affair, made even worse by departing England instead of the US. Flight prices seemed lower than flying from the US which surprised me, so much in fact that I allowed my dad...
One Goes Global to Denmark
Unexpected, traveling alone, and little time for preparation, Denmark wasn't on the agenda. I needed to get to England for personal reasons and only being a week out flights were not looking cheap, especially when traveling with a mountain bike. I had to be creative...
Birmingham Hip Resurfacing or Bust
With a good amount of trepidation we headed north towards Madison, Wisconsin, on this occasion for my second bout of hip surgery. My decision to go ahead with further surgery was prompted by the rapid decline of my right hip - hiking was resulting in more and more...
Lobsters and Potatoes, or Fish and Chips
An island of coastline and roads, Prince Edward Island was our final stop on this leg of our Canadian tour. Neither of us had any real reason for heading over to Canada's smallest Province, other than to see what the capital of Charlottetown has to offer. Due to where...
The Land of 120,000 Moose
PENDING... Dates June 29th – July 11th 2016 I think that with trial and error both my photography and website design are getting progressively better so hopefully these newer, better quality images will inspire you to get out there and travel. Click HERE to see more...
Saint-Pierre & Miquelon by Fatbike
Had it not been for the Century Travelers Club neither of us would have heard of this little slice of France in the northern Atlantic. Listed under the North American countries/ territories heading this turned out to be the last of our places to visit within that...
Cape Breton Island
Home of the Cabot driving trail and ferry departure point to the province of Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island is renowned for its Celtic influence, art scene, and amazing coastline. It was here we got to camp at one of our top ten all time campsites at Meat Cove, be...
2.3 Mile High La Paz
La Paz, sitting in a bowl at an altitude between 3.200 and 4.100 meters, is the highest capital city in the world surrounded by the high mountains of the altiplano, specifically triple-peaked Illimani. Behind Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it is Bolivia’s second largest...
14 Hours from Chulumani
Our final destination in the La Paz region was Chulumani. It was spent with drunks, downpours and delays and it certainly did not go the way we anticipated, but it ended up being much more fun than we ever imagined! We planned to head to Chulumani the weekend of...
Huayna Potosi, Mission Accomplished
From the moment we arrived in La Paz and being able to see Illimani from our apartment window, I wanted to hit the hills again – it's been six years since I summited Huascaran in Peru with some friends and I was hungry to get back into thin air. Illimani, at 6.438...
Coroico and the WMDR
It's already our second weekend in La Paz and time for an adventure! The North Yungas Road, suitably titled “Worlds Most Dangerous Road” or WMDR for short, is a renowned downhill mountain bike ride and formerly the only road through the mountains from La Paz to...
Condor Trekkers
One of the top activities to do while visiting Sucre, Bolivia is the trek to the Maragua crater with a visit to the dinosaur footprints. We decided to use Condor Trekkers, a non-profit organization that distributes its profits back to the community and relies heavily...
The Mountain that Eats Men
Thankfully it didn't eat the ones that toured the Candelaria mine in Cerro Rico recently! Cerro Rico, meaning ‘Rich Mountain’ in Spanish and looming above Potosi in Bolivia, is the primary reason most tourists visit the highest city in the world at 4.067 meters above...
Sniffing Cochabamba
Not sure why we came here, something to do with visiting a friend and it being half way between La Paz and our next stop, Sucre. Rumors abounded of the city being unsafe with very few tourist attractions so what better time to arrive than 11.30pm and your...
Mosquitos, Ants, Sandflies, and a Tick!
The town of Rurrenabaque, known as the gateway for all Bolivian Amazon adventures was a last minute decision, preferred over heading to Chiles San Pedro de Atacama for a week. Andrea was still on vacation from work for another six days and we knew our destination, the...
Salt Flats Tour : Part 2
Hopefully you’re still reading this blog and we haven't bored you yet! We have seen so much on this tour and are so lucky to have spent it with a great group of like-minded travellers. The number one thing Andrea wanted to do in South America was the Salt Flats and...
Salt Flats Tour : Part 1
We thought we had found the number one adventure in South America, the 5 day “W” Circuit hike in Chile, but we’re thinking the Salt Flats, beginning in Tupiza, Bolivia and ending in Uyuni is by far the best. Sitting in a 4WD for 8-10 hours a day and sleeping on slabs...
Un-touristy Tarija
I’ve learned at least one thing on this trip – I prefer to be in smaller towns than in big cities. Before leaving for South America, I was begging Wayne to let us have at least 4 weeks in Buenos Aires. The thought of being in a big city with so much to do was very...
Santa Cruz or England?
If it hadn’t been for the suicide drivers and the bamboo scaffolding I would have been mistaken for thinking I was back in England. From the moment we arrived at 3am on Sunday morning to our departure 5 days later we never got a glimpse of blue sky, nor did we get to...
Never trust a Greek
South America borders are not the cheapest places for Americans due to Visas and reciprocity fees and without prior planning they are also not the easiest to cross. We've already been hit with $160 for a Brazilian Visa, $160 reciprocity fee for Argentina, and more...
Southern Pantanal
After our extended stint in Bonito we once again headed to the Pantanal, only this time in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. I missed out on driving the Transpantaneira road in the north and didn’t want the same to happen with the Estrada Parque in the southern...
Flying Thieves
Now that I've signed up for La Ruta, the 3 day mountain bike race from the Pacific to the Caribbean in Costa Rica, I have to start learning how to ride a bike again and gain some level of fitness! Most of the tourism places in Bonito rent mountain bikes and after...
Bonito Bonito
It’s hard to travel because you always feel like you’re on vacation and with that mentality you tend to eat and drink more than normal and are lax about working out. Well, this has finally caught up to both of us – Wayne is losing weight and I’m finding it! We are...
Northern Pantanal
When you think of animals and wildlife in South America, specifically Brazil, you automatically think of the Amazon. We thought so too until we looked deeper into Brazilian attractions and found an area called the Pantanal. We would have really missed out if we had...
Ironman Brazil
Andrea and I slept as best we could at the Montevideo airport on Thursday night, a first for both of us. Our flight to Porto Alegre, Brazil was scheduled for a 7am departure, arriving at 8:45am. We both fell asleep as soon as we took off and when we woke up we...
Around the coast to Chuy & Chui
Up until this point we were a bit disappointed with Uruguary. Colonia was awesome, but Punta del Este and Montevideo had both been disappointing for us. This is when it all started to change! We rented a '”toy” car from Montevideo and started our drive to La Paloma...
Uruguay, the first week
Welcome to the mate capital of the world! People are drinking this stuff like crazy – they carry their mate cups with a thermos full of hot water all day long. Mate is a very social drink with “rules” for sharing. I tried it once and I’m sure I broke all the rules of...
