The pair, who went to Bomaderry High School together, had been planning their trip to Central and South America for two years.

This included Wright working seven days a week, across multiple jobs, and Findlay studying full-time at the University of Wollongong, while also managing a bar, just to save enough money for their big trip.

"We wanted to visit South and Central America because we had been to Mexico about three years ago and absolutely loved it," Wright, who has also travelled to Bali, the US, China, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia with her partner, said.

"South America has so many beautiful places like Patagonia, the Amazon, the Galapagos Islands as well as many beautiful hikes.

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"We were also trying to visit all of the wonders of the world and South America has two - Machu Picchu in Peru and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil."

When the Shoalhaven couple, who at this time never heard of coronavirus, flew out of Sydney in January, they intended to be abroad for at least 18 months - with the first stop being Brazil.

They spent two weeks in Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro, before exploring places like Iguazu Falls, Patagonia and the lakes district in Argentina - as well as bike riding around and tasting wine at Lujan de Cuyo (Mendoza).

"When we first started to hear about it [coronavirus], we had family and friends messaging us asking how it was over there as back home all the supermarkets had no toilet paper but we hadn't felt or heard anything in Argentina," Wright said.

"We weren't concerned at this time and it wasn't until Saturday, March 14 where we really started feel it in Argentina.

"We got back to our hostel from a big day of hiking in El Chalten at about 9pm.

"We asked the guy working at reception if we could organise a lunchbox for our hike on Glacier Perito Moreno the next day, he told us that it has been cancelled and all the National Parks had been closed.

"We didn't understand and asked why - he told us because of the coronavirus.

"This was the first we felt it and it was pretty scary because we didn't know what was happening.

"The next day there were so many backpackers sitting in the common area, all stressing about what to do because everything started to shut down overnight.

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"We met a couple from the United Kingdom (who are sadly still stuck in Argentina) and two Australian guys who owned a van.

"Together we all tried to figure out what was the best thing to do.

"All of the buses were cancelled to other towns, so the Australian guys offered to give us a lift across the border into Chile with them.

"We had a five-day W trek (at Torres Del Paine) booked for March 19 in Chilean Patagonia, so we were going to Chile anyway.

"It was very lucky we got a lift with them because the border closed the day after we crossed and we could all still be stuck in Argentina with our other friends."

As lucky as the pair were, this was only the start of 10 of the most stressful days of their lives, as they tried to organise a flight home to Australia.

"When we crossed the border into Chile, I emailed the company who we had organised the W trek with and they said it was still all good to go ahead, which we were stoked about - this trek is something we had both been looking forward to for years," she said.

"We went out for dinner with some people who worked in the Torres Del Paine National Park and they told us that all National Parks in Chile will be closing tomorrow morning.

"This really started to worry us because everything seemed to be closing around us and we hadn't any accommodation booked because we were supposed to be hiking for the next four nights.

"We were in Puerto Natales and all flights to Santiago had been cancelled from this airport, including ours.

"I started to stress because we couldn't get back into Argentina and there are no roads to this part of Patagonia through Chile because it is cut off from the northern part of Chile by water.

"The closest airport after Puerto Natales was Punta Arenas, three hours south."

Thankfully the couple started chatting with six other Australians at their hotel and managed to jump in their private transfer to Punta Arenas the next day.

"Busses to Punta Arenas at this point had also all been cancelled," Wright, 22, said.

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"We quickly booked the next flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago which was on March 20 - which proved to be the last flight on that route.

"We went to go get lunch the first day we arrived in Punta Arenas and everything was closed - it was like a ghost town.

"All the shops had been boarded up with wood.

"When we got back to our hotel, we found out there was a riot against all tourists to make them return home.

"There was also a regulation that people weren't allowed to leave their homes/hotel/hostel from 10pm to 8am - there were police and military officers in the streets making sure people were not breaking the rules or going outside without a reasonable cause.

"While we were at the hotel waiting for our flight to Santiago, we booked a flight home on March 27 - this flight was then cancelled a few days later but thankfully we were able to book another flight for two days earlier."

On March 20, the pair headed to the airport for their flight to Santiago.

"We waited in an extremely long line for three hours that wasn't moving," she said.

"We don't speak very good Spanish, so it was hard to find out what was going on.

"It turns out our flight had been overbooked and we weren't getting to Santiago that day - they didn't offer any refunds or rebook our flight.

"The next flight to Santiago wasn't until March 22 - an extremely overpriced flight we booked and waited in our hotel room for."

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During this ordeal, because the pair didn't have a SIM card to contact the Australian Embassy, Wright's mother Julia Harrison had to liaise with them from her home in Bomaderry.

"My mum back in Australia called [the Australian embassy] for us and they said that we were doing everything right and that there wasn't much else to do but wait," she said.

"One thing they did tell us was flights from Santiago to Sydney would be grounded from March 31 - making us more nervous about getting home, before flights were cancelled."

It was at this time the Chilean government made contact with Wright, asking for their travel plans and urging them to get home as soon as possible.

"On the night of March 20, we got to the airport four hours before our flight, to make sure we were there first in case it was overbooked again," she said.

"There were so many people sleeping and living in the airport because of all the cancelled flights but luckily we were able to get on the flight to Santiago.

"We stayed in a hotel near the airport and stayed there until our flight home on March 25 and 1.50am.

"We were watching the departure board online of the Santiago airport and kept seeing flights to Sydney being cancelled and just hoping ours wasn't - thankfully it wasn't.

"We arrived back in Sydney at 6.15am on March 26, where it took us three hours to get a medical check and get through customs."

The final journey from Punta Arenas to Sydney, via Santiago, took close to 20 hours.

"We felt relieved when we finally got on the flight back to Sydney," Wright said.

"It had been a really long and stressful 10 days but we were also quite sad - we had planned so long for this trip and it got cut extremely short.

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"But we are grateful to be home safe."

Upon arrival home from their trip, which was also supposed to include Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico, the pair have been locked in self-isolation.

"Self-isolation has been OK - it's quite lonely and boring but we have each other to annoy," Wright said.

"We are at my dad's apartment in Sydney, so we don't have a backyard, just one balcony.

"The hardest part is not leaving the apartment to go for a walk outside but after our two weeks, we will be able to go back home to the South Coast and go outside safely to exercise."

As they are in the home stretch of their self-isolation, Wright has had time to reflect on the differences between Australia and South America, in the way they handled the coronavirus epidemic.

"The lockdown measures in Australia are nowhere near as strict and have been introduced more gradually," she said.

"In Chile and Argentina, everything basically shut down overnight - more than two weeks ago.

"Ecuador and Peru shut their borders first and the other countries all followed along relatively quickly, which is why there are so many people still stuck in countries in South America.

"We got really lucky we left Argentina when we did - we were supposed to leave the day after but that would have been too late."

While saddened to have cut their trip of a lifetime short, the pair, who are just happy they are home safe, intend to return Central and South America when they can and finish their adventure.