But for us it was the perfect opportunity to take our 10-month-old girl away for six months of backpacking around South America.
The most common question before we left was "have you completely lost your mind?".
Somewhat unsure of the state of our sanity ourselves, we took the plunge anyway and within our first 24 hours had evidence both ways.
We had a charmed arrival in Chile, being whisked into the priority customs queue as well as being given a larger hostel room in Santiago because of having a baby, so figured we were away laughing.
But when the confusion of jetlag woke Emelia in the middle of the night and she screamed for three hours before we could get her back to sleep, we were feeling a tad less positive.
Fortunately the hostel was set in a beautiful old stone building with shutters that created a pitch-black room, so we all slept in until 9am (which anyone who has had a 10-month-old will know is a miracle).
Santiago was a great place to find our feet in South America.
We spent a couple of days in the simple pleasure of discovering what a beautiful city it was, which included coming across the zoo on Cerro San Cristobal (a steep hill in the central city, accessed by a funicular rail line).
Yielding slightly on our normal play-it-by-ear approach, we thought with a baby we should organise our first few nights, so had flights booked to Mancora in the far north of Peru.
We knew very little about it, but after a couple of flights and a bus ride we arrived to find a small surf town clinging to the side of an enormous dusty brown desert.
Although the town was a little rough around the edges, the appeal of a morning surf was magic - glassy waves, fish jumping out of the water, little brown pelicans skimming across the waves, and even a couple of whales surfacing.
Mancora was also an introduction to the reactions sparked by a fair-haired blue-eyed baby in South America. .
Typical were the 10 giggling teenage girls who shyly asked for a group photo.
Then more boldly insisted on their own photo each, which was fine until about the fifth one, by which time the excited squeals were overwhelming poor Emelia.
Many people told us they'd never seen a baby with blue eyes, and it truly felt like being celebrity minders sometimes ("Photo time is over folks: the baby needs a nap").
She made for a fantastic icebreaker and we loved having so many people keen to chat to us, despite the language barriers.
With the rainy season coming, we decided to head south towards Machu Picchu.
On the way we found one of our favourite cities, Arequipa.
Its buildings of white volcanic rock are beautiful, especially the Santa Catalina convent, which takes up an entire block.
The convent has an unusual attraction too, which appealed to our love of good food - the nuns make excellent cakes.
It isn't just the nuns who do great food in Arequipa either.
We managed to find good three-course "almuerzo" lunches for as little as a dollar (although guessing the meaning of some words led to being served pig trotters on one occasion).
Our next destination was Machu Picchu.
We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4.45am hoping it would live up to its huge reputation.
All of a sudden we came round a corner and the most awe-inspiring view of the ruins opened out in front of us.
It was even more special being able to practise walking with Emelia in a place like Machu Picchu.
We managed to snap a photo for her 21st birthday - a nappy change among the ancient Inca ruins.
From Peru we spent several weeks in Bolivia, with highlights including La Paz, the world's highest capital, before heading north to Ecuador to find an appropriate spot for Emelia's first birthday.
Vilcabamba, a beautiful valley in the south of Ecuador, renowned for sublime weather and the longevity of its residents, turned out to be the perfect place.
Our main requirements were easily met - a fantastic apple cake became the birthday cake, and we found no shortage of people for a party.
With little kids everywhere and general mayhem, it was just like any first birthday, except we hadn't known any of the guests more than two days.
Heading up the coast to the small surf town of Montanita, we found more of all the things we loved about South America.
The brightly-coloured buses blaring Latin American music, with chickens, kids and elderly women to keep Emelia entertained.
Extremes in weather, from bucketing rain in the night to baking sun drying everything in the morning.
And fantastic food, like enormous and tasty shrimp empanadas from one restaurant, barbequed corn with pesto butter and parmesan from a street stall and divine apple crumble cake from a third place - good enough to have all over again the next night.
The defining part of this trip, though, was undoubtedly taking our baby girl.
We had time to share her growing-up moments in amazing settings, making for unique experiences we'll treasure forever.
• When not travelling, David King, Bec Johnston and Emelia live in Wellington.
