Geo: -25.5469, -54.5882An early start this morning, up at 7 for breakfast at Windsor in Rio and check out. At check out we were delighted to find that our rescheduled Mozio airport transfer was waiting for us. We were encouraged to find that he appeared to speak fluent English. Alas, that seemed to be just a well rehersed introductory speech - "Good morning sir, pleased to meet you. Ill be happy to transfer you to the airport". Every subsequent question was answered with "Non comprohendo". Oh well, he seemed a nice fellow, ran fewer cars off the road than standard, and had us to the airport with time to spare. Check in for our domestic flight from Rio to Iguazu was relatively quick and painless and we boarded our flight on schedule by 10.30am.Alas, a large ... read more

Geo: -22.9035, -43.2096Whilst we're staying in comfort by the beach, today we ventured out to "Favela da Rochina" to explore the other side of Brazillian lifestyle and culture. There are many Favelas spread out around the city of Rio. Essentially, a favela is a densely populated urban slum. Today we'd visit the largest of them all. We'd head off by open jeep, by tour at around 9am. There were 9 of us in total, including a couple from Luxembourg, Leicester, Scotland and Germany.What an experience it was. We wandered along the streets, through narrow alleys, staircases and marketplaces. Being a Sunday, people filled the streets, buying and selling, drinking beer, pushing wheelbarrows, pumping out urban beats, watching the world go by, chatting with friends or going about their daily business. Suffice to say that generally, housing ... read more

Geo: -22.9035, -43.2096We woke in Auckland at 9am on Thursday the 3rd of March. We arrived, in Rio, eventually at around 12.15am on the 'morning' of Friday the 4th. Between the hellish flights, incidents, negativity, transfers and overall deflating and morale sapping experiences between, we'd been 'awake' (excluding fatigue microsleeps) for around 35-40 hours. Now generally speaking, the whole point of this blog is to be positive and record and share fond and memorable experiences. This particular entry I expect, will be the one exception to this rule. For the most part, Ill look back fondly over this blog, likely make dozens jealous of the locations, sights and experiences detailed within, and hopefully encourage others to follow suit and embark on travel adventures of their own. Not based on this entry. In short, the last 36 ... read more

Geo: -36.8474, 174.766We touched down in Auckland around 2pm local time (2 hours ahead of AEST). Delays aside, that was a breeze of a flight. Im not sure how many flights Ive been on but that was my first time on an A380. Smooth sailing all the way, roomy and just 3 hours duration. We grabbed our bags, found a skybus to the city and got our packs on for the first time. Oh so satisfying. After gathering our bearings from the busstop we had a short walk to our first accomodation at Barclay Suites where we would spend two nightsFirst stop. First honeymoon-themed success (presumably). I mean we didnt kick in the door and make honeymoon themed demands. We did humbly mention on our accomodation bookings that it might have been our honeymoon. Stop one ... read more

Geo: -38.0592, 145.409I proposed to Natalie at Milford Sound in New Zealand in November 2014. Now its just a few days until our wedding day down at Wild Dog Winery in Warragul. It's going to be an awesome day to share, and I'm looking forward to it.This however, is not a wedding blog. Our wedding isn't the only thing we have to look forward to. One week from today, we'll be on a plane bound for South America. It's really the last continent (excluding Antarctica which will have to wait) that we've yet to really explore, with the exception of a day in Colombia. People often pay a fortune for a wedding, for a couple hours, for just one day. Rather than do the same, we've picked a smaller venue, (attempted) to keep the guest list ... read more