We are Hannah and Chris – we met 13 years ago in New York while travelling around the USA on a Trek America tour, got engaged in front of Ayers Rock in Australia then got married in York in England. We love to travel and have done a lot of international travel together since we met back in 2007. We spent a few years living in London, before moving to Melbourne, Australia where we currently live.
Hannah: I’m originally from Yorkshire, England and have always loved to travel, having lived and studied in the South of France, worked in Germany and done many overseas holidays, before deciding to do a Round the World trip in 2007. It was on this trip that I met Chris in the US, and came to Australia for the first time, spending 6 months travelling and working in Australia on a Working Holiday visa before heading back to the UK (with Chris in tow!) for 4 years, We then moved back to Australia, with me as a permanent resident, and we have lived here in Melbourne for the last 9 years.
Chris: Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, I had never really been interested in travel until deciding to take a break and head to the USA solo, on a 9 week Trek America trip, starting in Los Angeles making my way to New York through the northern states, before heading back to Los Angeles through the South. It was my first international trip and halfway through in New York, I met Hannah. For the last 10 years I’ve has worked as a Planner in retail at major retailers in Australia and England all the while travelling as much as possible, trying to at least visit somewhere new each year.
Meet Archie, he is our 6 year old Border Collie X Labrador dog who has decided to come along our journey with us. He is a very cute and extremely clever dog who is absolutely food obsessed and is happiest when he is out and about on a walk or even in the car with his head out the window.
Archie joined our family in 2014 when he was just 10 weeks old and a little bitey terror. Thankfully, he has grown up to be an incredibly loving and chilled out dog who loves when we are all together.
We couldn’t imagine doing the trip without him and while it will certainly have it’s challenges travelling with a dog, we can’t wait to take him on walks in new and exciting places.
We’ve always had doing a lap of Australia on our bucket list and planned to do it sometime in the future when we had more time. As we love to travel and were always trying to visit somewhere new internationally, we never really spent a huge amount of time exploring Australia. The events of 2020 and the impact of COVID around the world fast tracked our decision to take a year off, stay put and explore the beautiful country where we live.
We had a big Europe trip planned and booked with Hannah’s family to visit Greece, Croatia and the UK before it was completely cancelled due to the COVID pandemic worsening. Melbourne spent most of 2020 from March to October in lockdown with one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world as the city fought the COVID outbreak. We spent most of the year working from home, saving a ton of money due to not being able to leave the house, it was then the conversation of a lap of Australia started and slowly became a reality.
With the likelihood that there will be no international travel in the near future, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to see Hannah’s family anytime soon. It’s therefore a great opportunity to instead spend time exploring the country we live in, whilst also supporting the Australian tourism and hospitality industry and the many small businesses who have been impacted by the pandemic.
