By the seat of their pants

Simon Spinola and Samantha Jones were restricted to a single bag each when they left the United Kingdom on their round-the-world ticket.
With their packing options severely limited, and facing nearly a year’s worth of travel, of course their first choice was to take . . . guitars?
“I kind of made the decision that I needed a guitar more than I needed a few more pairs of shorts,” Spinola laughs. “It’s a hobby of mine, playing the electric guitar. I’ve played for a couple years now and I find it quite relaxing.”
The two are seasoned pros when it comes to travel but even they found it daunting to contemplate budgeting for a trip that won’t see them home in Cardiff, Wales, until December.
Asked if organizing such an expedition would normally involve massive pre-departure preparation, Jones said it would have, had they bothered to make the effort.
“When you sit down and think, what do I need to plan for, it all becomes so impossible,” says Jones, who has a degree in Film Studies from the International Film School of Wales.
“Knowing that we would never be able to consider everything, we just didn’t really consider anything. It was like, let’s get as much money together as we can and see what happens.”
She says their flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants approach has, to date, worked well for the couple on their other world travels.
“We figured it’d be better just to come here and see what happens,” she says.
When they aren’t snorkelling or learning to dive, Jones hopes to work on screenplays, having decided that writing is her favourite aspect of filmmaking. To date, between experiencing cyclone season and a tsunami warning, the only plot points her Cook Islands visit has conjured up are all about survival.
“It’s certainly been eventful so far,” she says.