It has just occurred to me that exactly 3 years ago (13 June 2014), I waved goodbye to Sydney and James and headed into the great unknown for a six week solo trip around Scandinavia and the start of our international housesitting adventure. Thankfully the six months apart 'flew' by (not). Now look at us. Down in the southern hemisphere for around four and a half months and then we will hit the road to Belgium (week), France (week), Ireland (3 months) and, in news...

We visited Queenstown for the first time almost 12 years ago for our wedding in a stone chapel on the shores of Lake Hayes. We fell in love with the place as we flew in that very first time and the pilot gave us the scenic tour as we came in to land. Back in the day (actually around 12 years ago), we still booked travel the old fashioned way - a brochure with nice pictures. If you arrived in the place and reality was half as good as the pictures in the brochure -...