If there’s one thing spending this year travelling has taught me, it’s how lucky I am to come from New Zealand. Not America, not the UK, not even Australia, but tiny wee Aotearoa at the bottom of the world. We’re a rare bunch, us kiwis, and rarer still in South America. In fact, most people we met on the continent didn’t even know where NZ was! We got used to saying ‘circa Antarticta y Australia’, which would result in some vague head scratching and nodding. In one case, the penny dropped with a Bolivian couple we had made friends with, who promptly asked whether there was money to be made importing cocaine to a country like NZ and would we be interested in a business deal.

Um, thanks but no thanks!

In the last few years, I had often found myself wondering whether New Zealand really was the bee’s knees. Would Joel and I be happier with a life somewhere in South America? Perhaps Costa Rica? Maybe even in a small town in the Rockies in Colorado? And, after visiting all of these places, the answer is a resounding no.

Brazil was a geographical mind bend, but we couldn’t speak Portuguese to save ourselves and the g-stringed locals made me feel like an ugly duckling. We loved the history and exoticness of Uruguay while not being so shook on how the locals didn’t get out of bed there before 3pm. When they did, they walked around like depressed zombies.

Brazil was a mind-bend in every way

Argentina was also rather flat and depressing; but we loved the tiny mountain town of La Cumbrecita and could have potentially shacked up there. However, Argentina’s floundering economy would have dropped our hourly work rate to the equivalent of about 50c NZD. Not to mention all that glorious, cheap Malbec – I would have turned into a raging alcoholic in no time.

Mmmmm, Argentinian Malbec

Bolivia was incredible to visit (salt flats! volcanoes! death road! mountain climbing!) but would be horrific to live in. Crazy high altitude made me feel like I was a chronic smoker and the noise, abject poverty, and dodgy underbelly ruled this country out. We probably could have become coke smuggling millionaires here, but we weren’t too keen on that avenue.

The landscapes of Bolivia and Peru were magic

Peru – Cusco especially – was the country we loved the most. Old Incan ruins combined with ornate spanish architecture, some friendly people, crazily diverse sights and yummy food had us sold from the start. Some of our best memories from the entire trip come from Peru. But it was still dirty, dishonest and dangerous – there was that same underbelly as Bolivia, and Peru felt like a place you would go to visit and not live.

Peru was our favourite country

Ecuador was never a contender. Again, the people were a little hostile (especially in the Amazon) and while we loved the mind blowing nature of the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon, Joel got the worst food poisoning of the whole trip there. Quito was freezing, dirty and dangerous – it didn’t come close to the city of sails!

The Galapagos Islands & the Amazon were highlights

Colombia had lovely people and the best coffee in the world, but it still had somewhat of a hangover from it’s notorious king pin drug dealing reputation. And that reality still remains to a large extent, without the charismatic godfather figures and car bombings. It’s a young country, still clawing itself out of that ‘world’s most dangerous’ stigma, but it didn’t steal our hearts.

By the time we got to Panama and Costa Rica, we were pretty travel wary, and neither country knocked our socks off. We did love playing in the waves and surfing everyday at Santa Catalina, and the Panama Canal is truly impressive to see up close. After a while, the heat, mugginess, crime and the floating ghetto that was Bocas del Toro got to us – and made us wonder why so many Americans chose to become expats in this part of the world. Each to their own, we thought, smugly taking off on the runway while tightly clutching our Kiwi passports!

We were a little travel wary by the time we got to Colombia and Panama

After the trials and tribulations of America del Sur, we were looking for some first world goodness, so we headed north to the States. We chose to base ourselves from Boulder, Colorado, a largish town at the foot of the Rockies known for it’s trail running, mountain biking and health conscious hippies. Perfect!

But even those elements didn’t make us want to live here. It’s a great town, don’t get us wrong, and we’ve loved the month or so we’ve been here, but it’s a little bit funny. Funny as in…just not us. The American culture has been wonderful to experience, but it’s not somewhere I want to live. Being told my accent is “SUPER CUTE” every 5 minutes doesn’t help Boulder’s cause. However, if I could take their Whole Foods store and network of mountain biking trails home with me I definitely would.

Not even Aspen, Colorado compared to NZ

I’m not saying Auckland, New Zealand, is perfect, because no place is that. It’s hard to get ahead for a young couple like us. There’s traffic problems, huge taxes, immigration issues and property prices are through the roof, not to mention a government that is playing our sheepish masses like a fiddle. We’ve just passed the Trans Pacific Partnership, we’re dumping 1080 in our forests and two litres of milk costs nearly 6 bucks. But, you know what? These problems are tiny compared to what we’ve seen overseas. Guys, New Zealand (in our opinion) is PARADISE when you compare it to the places we’ve been. We’ve even gone so far as to compare fancy pants Aspen, Colorado with Wanaka or Queenstown – and NZ is still the no brainer! Sorry Aspen, but we would definitely take a season pass if you’re offering.

If this year of travel has taught me anything, it’s that I’m pretty bloody lucky to be a New Zealander. I feel a sense of privilege to have seen such a broad snapshot of the world around us, and being able to come home to New Zealand at the end of it all is an amazing thing.

And – surprise! – that’s exactly what we’re doing. Coming home. Next week. Joel and I have itchy feet – itchy feet to get our businesses cranking, go hiking in the Kaimanawas, enjoy BBQ’s with family/friends and devour kiwi meat from our local Seaview Butcher. I want to get into triathlons, go surfing at Raglan and UNPACK MY BAG FOR LONGER THAN A WEEK, dammit! It probably sounds like we’re looking at our life in NZ with rose tinted glasses, and in a way, we are – but I really hope that this year of travel makes us so much more grateful for what we have at home than we were before.

P.S We’ll still do lots more travel missions in years to come – places like Africa, Turkey and Bhutan are high on our list! We’ve even discussed going back to some of the places in South America we loved (hello, Cusco). But for now, I’m rather keen to hang up my pack.