Julie Woods has visited the seven wonders of the world, smelt whisky distilling in the highlands of Scotland, heard Big Ben chime 12 noon while standing on London Bridge, eaten Margherita pizza in Italy and touched the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
But the blind Dunedin woman says her trip to Samoa this weekend will be the most momentous of all.
The 49-year-old said she will turn 50 on February 1, and Samoa would be the 50th country she had visited in her lifetime.
‘‘This adventure all began in 2009 when we travelled to Paris to attend the 200th birthday of the inventor of braille, Louis Braille.
‘‘On the way home, we travelled through Egypt and Jordan, including a visit to our first wonder of the world - Petra.
‘‘I was really nervous going through Egypt and Jordan, but I had such an amazing time. I learned to push through my fear.''
Since then, Ms Woods and her husband Ron Esplin have ‘‘knocked off'' their first dream of visiting the seven wonders of the world, with visits to countries including China, Italy, Croatia, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Peru, Brazil and Cuba.
Last year's ‘‘bucket list trip'' took them away for 107 days, to 20 countries including Russia, Canada and Japan.
The trip lifted Ms Woods's tally of countries, considerably.
‘‘Last year, we clocked up another 20 countries, so we went from 29 to 49 countries. It was then that the goal magically appeared.''
With one more country to go, and her 50th birthday looming, she chose Samoa as her dream birthday location.
Ms Woods said when she went blind in 1997, she never imagined that one day she would visit the seven wonders of the world, let alone travel to 50 countries by the time she was 50.
‘‘One of the things I'm grateful for is my blindness because of all the opportunities that it has brought my way.
‘‘That includes everything from travel, to refereeing the nude touch rugby and speaking engagements.
‘‘I've been and done more things since 1997 than I did before I went blind.''
