After 6 months, 18 countries, 8 flights, 3 ferries, a Trans continental train ride, countless buses (overnight and otherwise), 4 days of trekking and too many fear inducing taxi rides, it's all over, we're home! It has been an absolutely amazing experience, sometime tiring, other times frustrating, but always an adventure. My feet are already itchy for the next journey!

Santiago possibly did not get the respect it deserved from us. It's quite a lovely city, though fairly spread out, with plenty of historic buildings, a lively night scene and a very European vibe. Unfortunately, other than the 4 hour walking tour we made ourselves do, we were terrible tourists. Turns out somehow I'd managed to book a hotel in one of the more affluent areas right next to the biggest mall in Santiago, a terrible coincidence I'm sure. Made it very easy for us to shop, see movies and eat. We figure we will be back one day to check out Patagonia, another chance to be better tourists.

Now I know many of you will laugh at this, but after 6 months of traveling we were fairly exhausted. It's not like we were just sitting on the beach, drinking mojitos all day everyday, though that does sound amazing (and we did do a bit of that in Brazil). We were constantly on the move, 7 nights in both London and New York were our longest stays, and often doing so by long distance bus. This of course means constant repacking of backpacks that seem to be getting smaller. Then there's always trying to find your hostel, the task of not getting ripped off / robbed and dealing with languages that are not your own. I was excited to head home (though the restless half of me wanted to keep traveling!). Having a Christmas in Melbourne and new years in Sydney with family to look forward to definitely helped.

Our flight home with LAN was just how I like them, uneventful. Arriving back in Adelaide it was so nice being the ones that had friendly faces to greet them, after 6 months of just being random faces. The imminent ritual burning of my backpack was also dancing around my mind.

In hindsight quite honestly I don't think there is anything about our itinerary I would change. Yes we covered a lot of ground, but we saw, did and experienced so much. Plus we met some great people. There were so many highlights it's impossible to pick one, however there are definitely places and experiences that stick out in my mind; the grandeur and history of Moscow and St Petersburg, seeing the Northern Lights in Norway (not to mention the rest of the stunning country), finding my favourite musical of all time in London (Matilda) and showing Emmett around the city I love, relaxing in Iceland's Blue Lagoon, spending a week in vibrant New York with money to actually enjoy it, paragliding over the vast city of Medellin in Columbia, completing the trek to magical Macchu Pichu, a BBQ lunch with gauchos in Argentina and pretty much all of Brazil. All the stressing, planning and saving was more than worth it! The fact Emmett and I completed the trip without even nearly killing each other was pretty impressive too.

Arriving home in the new year I have to admit I had already begun to think 'what now?', 2012 was so unbelievably amazing, it's set the bar way too high for 2013. Then I got quite the surprise. Obviously Emmett thought the fact we didn't harm each other (much anyway) was pretty significant too, he proposed and I said yes. So looks like 2013 has something going for it already. Now to plan the next trip (much easier than a wedding from what i hear), so many options; Sri Lanka, the Silk Road, Iran, Alaska, Patagonia, the gorillas of Uganda, Burma................. Decisions, decisions. Guess I'll need to work on my very sick looking bank account first!

Well thats it from me, wishing you all a very happy new year, filled with all the good stuff.

Thanks for reading :)