Recently a friend returned from an overseas wedding where he met a girl. Instantly smitten, he's already racked up huge cellphone bills keeping in touch, and when his friends checked out the rest of the country after the festivities, he stayed on with her until he absolutely had to fly home.

This is not a blog about holiday romances (although if you've got any stories, spill!) His experience got me thinking about the leaps of faith we make when we travel. Often a chance encounter can open up the most amazing possibilities - it all depends on how you react.

My parents instilled the 'stranger danger' mentality in me from a young age, so when travelling I tend to be on constant alert for scary men ready to lure me into dark alleys and mug me - or worse. While it's definitely a good thing to be on your guard - this is the reality of the world we live in - I have to remind myself that not everyone is a worst case scenario.

A few years ago I travelled around parts of Europe with a couple of friends. Before we left I noodled around on a social networking site, asking locals from a couple of Italian cities where was good to visit. A boy from Ravenna who'd happened to have visited New Zealand instantly offered to show me around and have us to stay if we wanted. After much debate as to whether or not he was a psychotic axe murderer we accepted.

We kept in touch via email as my friends and I worked our way across the continent and eventually the big day came - we were to meet him (and his girlfriend, a good sign he was not in fact a serial killer) in nearby Bologna for dinner one evening before meeting in his home town.

The relief we felt when meeting a perfectly normal-looking guy and his lovely girlfriend was only equal to the hilarity when they confessed they were just as terrified of meeting us.

A wonderful week exploring Ravenna with our personal tour guides ensued. We got to know the area far better than if we had stumbled around on our own and also had the chance to visit outlying areas by car.

We went to a rock 'n' roll disco and a water park, visited a countryside fair run by the local Communist Party and ate fresh-baked custard bombolone (donuts) at 4.30am, before collapsing gratefully into a comfy bed (his, vacated for us) and later chowing down on his nonna's delicious cuisine.

As we travelled further down the country he and his buddies met up with us in Florence and Rome - and again, the experience was invaluable. He and his girlfriend even visited New Zealand the following year and we attempted to repay the hospitality.

Travelling can be like a labyrinth - so many options, so many different paths and pitfalls and hidden gems. Trust can get you a long way.

On our first evening in Madrid we were trying to fix on a good place to have dinner. We seemed to be on the main tourist drag - every laminated menu we saw was a fixed price, bland offering, with prices that scared our backpackers' budgets. While we peered in window after window, a gentleman with an American accent took pity on us. He said he'd lived in Madrid for 12 years, and told us to follow him if we wanted a good, authentic place to eat.

As we followed him through some twisty alleyways, with no idea which way was back to our hostel, we hoped we'd made the right choice. After all, what was in it for him? But when he led us to the door of a snazzy wee tapas bar, refused our thanks, and continued on his way, we realised our leap of faith had paid off big time.

Similarly, a remark to a colleague that I was heading to London with my boyfriend last year netted us free use of her mate's fully-tricked out bachelor pad during our stay. We were totally humbled by their generosity.

If you're travelling and a stranger makes you a generous offer, be ready to take a chance. Before long (and here's where I get cheesy), you may find they're not strangers any more, but firm new friends. And if I'm ever in the position to offer a lost soul a lifeline, I hope I'll be just as kind.

Have you ever taken a wild chance while travelling? Share your stories below.

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