When I was 15, I wrote a small, five item travel bucket list. At the top of the list was Antarctica. Twenty years later, I have completed the list, more than ten years after I ticked off the other four items. So, it was with an enormous amount of anticipation that we embarked on our trip to the seventh, and final, continent. Arriving on the seventh continent Our tour was the 18-day expedition cruise dubbed the ‘Penguin Safari’ with Quark Expeditions, a reputable leader and operator in polar expeditions. »

A little more than a year ago we arrived in Tassie with a plan to live here. Not a very concrete plan. We’d bought a house without seeing it: a small, post-war home that had been meticulously renovated by the previous owners. And painted a delicate shade of blue. We knew almost nothing about the northern Hobart suburb we’d be living in. We weren’t sure how long we might stay, or whether we would like it. »

As time passes and the seasons change, so does the Amazon river. In the wet season, the river can be ten times wider in places than it is in the dry season, and over time, the mighty river carves new paths, creating new bends and washing away forest, and in previous paths devoid of vegetation, new forest begins to emerge. Like the changing river, so does our experience of travel. We oscillate between discomfort and pleasure, between serendipity and banality. »

Our small plane took off from the runway at East Air terminal at Cairns and climbed up into the clouds which were obscuring the view of the reef below. But not long into the flight, the clouds began to dissipate and it was revealed as hundreds of little islands and atolls scattered along the coast in the sparkling turquoise sea. View from the plane Viewed from above, the repeating slices of reef stretching south to north at regular intervals looked like grains of rice lined up on a turquoise field. »

The Larapinta Trail is a 223km trail across Tjoritja - the West MacDonnell Ranges - in the Northern Territory. The trail is made up of 12 distinct sections which can be hiked over 10 or more days. However, I booked with Trek Larapinta to do a six day walk during which we’d walk the six hardest, and most stunning, sections of the trail, experiencing the arresting landscapes of semi-arid central Australia. »