We are a family of dreamers from Sydney, Australia who have decided to take a year out of our lives and see the world.  What’s that saying? – “travel is the only thing that you buy that makes you richer”, well, we live by that.

We’re that couple (now family of four) that are always dreaming.  One week it’s – why don’t we move interstate, live on the river and open a fish and chip shop.  The next -let’s move to the burbs and buy another house.  Let’s start on online business selling bean bags. Let’s write a blog.  How about lets give up our jobs and travel the world for a year with the kids.  Well we finally had to commit to something so why not it be the latter.  Over the last few years I have been working for what I believe the best travel company in the world in the best job of my career. So why give that up?  We decided it was now or never and if we were ever going to do it, this was the year.  Piper (our eldest daughter) will start school in 2017 and at that stage we will move out of our cool inner city pad (peace out Erskineville) into a more family friendly house in the burbs.

 

So a few months back, we broke the news to our friends and family that we were flying the coup (I’m sure they probably thought…just another thing that will never happen!). I got comments from friends like ‘how can you want to be together 100% of the time’, ‘Won’t it be hard work’, ‘how do you have the patience to travel together”.  I then told them the kids were coming also.

We had discussed just taking 3 months off or travelling around Australia but then decided if we were going to do it, we would do it big.  We would leave in February and be back in December visiting probably around 20 countries across 3-4 continents.

A bit of history on us.

Erica, my wife, the mum is 35.  Ez as we’ll call her grew up with some pretty good travellers as parents (when they were 23 they  bought a double decker bus and drove round Australia).  After finishing school, she completed a Bach of Marine Science (which included a year abroad in Miami, busting out some serious moves on the spring break D Floor).  That’s 14 years ago now…for the last 12 she’s worked in travel.  Tour guide, travel agent, operations and systems analyst (or something like that)

 

Brett, that’s me, the husband, the dad and I’m 40.  I get called Masso, just like my dad. I grew up with a love of the world, always wanting to know the capital of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), the flag of Albania (red with black doubled headed eagle) and where the 1920 Olympics were held (Antwerp, Australia 2 silver and 1 bronze medal).  I like sport, so I did Sport Science at University (let’s be honest I was more into the Uni life that Uni itself).  I did the typical year or so overseas, living in Edinburgh, backpacking Europe before coming home and deciding I wanted to work in travel.  That was 13 years ago. I’ve been a travel agent, sales rep, operations manager and product leader.

 

The Kids

Piper is 4 1/2 and a beautiful soul. She’s the curly haired performer who loves her sister, cousins, grandparents, strangers…anyone! She’s a little bit of a playground stalker, loves meeting new friends.  She is creative and likes to draw, paint, dance and talk to fairies.

Evie is the 2 year old rough nut.  She picks on her big sister, looks like her dad, has a huge smile and doesn’t mind the occasional cry.  She’s a clever little poppet – counts to 10 in Spanish,  can tell a mean knock knock joke and loves going to Greek restaurants.

So where are we heading?  Currently our itinerary looks something like the below…however we are open to some change

Feb 7th – Sydney – Auckland – Buenos Aires Baby!

February – Argentina

March – Chile, Brazil

April – Spain, France

May – Italy

June – Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Greece

July – Greece

August – Romania?, UK

September/October – USA

November – Cuba, Caribbean?

December 12th – Los Angeles – Auckland – Sydney