Catching the Magic

Two Brits in Aotearoa bringing up three little 'Kiwis'. Our children: Our future. Haere Mai!

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Month: October 2012

A Friday by the pool in style – living the dream!

October 28, 2012September 12, 2014 BritMumInNZ 2 Comments Holidays

We hired a cabana by the pool for the day and lapped up the sunshine, swimming and friendly service. Since it’s off peak here we had the pool mostly to ourselves for the day and, as my nine year old daughter rightly said we were, ‘living the dream’! I felt like an Egyptian Queen (albeit […]

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Things I’m Loving… whilst keeping my head shifting time zones

October 26, 2012October 26, 2012 BritMumInNZ 3 Comments Holidays, Loving & Not Loving

I’m sat in the dark in a lovely villa in Santa Barbara and the clock tells me the time is 3.30pm on Friday 28 October. The computer I’m typing on is still set in UK time and tells me the time is 11.30pm on a Friday night. Over in New Zealand, where we are destined […]

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Goodbye England – leg one of our return to NZ complete (thank goodness!)

October 25, 2012October 26, 2012 BritMumInNZ 2 Comments Holidays

Our taxi swept us away to London Heathrow at midday yesterday. The emotions of saying goodbye were quelled with the thought of ‘Chicken’ Grandma & Granddad visiting us in New Zealand, almost ten weeks to the day of our departure from England. As we made our way from the taxi, laden heavily with baggage, a […]

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Autumnal fun in England this past week

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012 BritMumInNZ 1 Comment Holidays

Our time in England is drawing to a close. Tomorrow we chase the sun to the United States, where we’ll spend four nights in Santa Barbara, before journeying back home to New Zealand. In the week and a half we’ve been here the autumn leaves have really started to turn in earnest. The trees are […]

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PRICKLES | Lyrical Sunday

October 22, 2012October 22, 2012 BritMumInNZ 4 Comments Holidays, Lyrical Sunday, Sarah, Writing

I’ve temporarily shifted hemispheres and seasons – from spring to autumn – from New Zealand to England. I’m walking country lanes untrodden by my feet for many years. I’m finding treasures I used to know so well – seasonal markers of the year in England. On Saturday I came across a sweet chestnut and it […]

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Silent Sunday

October 22, 2012October 22, 2012 BritMumInNZ 6 Comments Holidays, Silent Sunday

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Things I’m Loving…. Special times with old friends & family

October 19, 2012 BritMumInNZ 4 Comments Holidays, Loving & Not Loving

Nearly a week since we landed in England, all the way from our home in New Zealand, with a couple of nights stop over in San Francisco. There’s been no need for big ticket attractions, as simply shifting from spring to autumn in a matter of nights – and wooden houses to brick – is […]

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A poem to old friendships – Old friends are like gold…

October 18, 2012October 19, 2012 BritMumInNZ 1 Comment Sarah, Writing

Yesterday I caught up with one of my dearest old school friends, today I’m visiting a friend I lived with at Southampton University, who now lives in the beautiful, historic city of Winchester. There are so many old friends I’d love to see in the short week and a half we are here in the […]

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Old – The Gallery

October 18, 2012 BritMumInNZ 4 Comments Holidays, photography

I’m here in England after five years away – there is so much ‘old’ and I’m loving it! Old are the photographs in my parents house… Of generations before. Love this old photograph of my Grandma and her sisters (she was one of seven!). Old is the land and the marks of history left upon […]

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Impressions of ‘home’ after five years away from the UK

October 18, 2012 BritMumInNZ 2 Comments Holidays

I feel like a tourist. Every brick home, red telephone box, pub, thatched cottage, red robin, squirrel and deciduous tree, turning with the autumn tide, make me want to grab for my camera. Holly bushes, berry laded bushes for the birds through the winter, acorns littering the garden – I am seeing autumn in England […]

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NZ to UK, via San Francisco stop-over, with three little Kiwis

October 16, 2012September 12, 2014 BritMumInNZ 5 Comments Californian Adventures 2013-2014, Holidays

It’s been five years since we’ve done the long-haul flights from our home in Wellington, New Zealand, to the UK (and having just done it, I now remember the reason why we left it so long before doing it again, it’s bloody hard work!). It had to be done though. With the talk of us […]

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Fishnets – Lyrical Sunday

October 15, 2012October 19, 2012 BritMumInNZ 2 Comments Lyrical Sunday, Sarah

Latte Junkie posted a photograph as the inspiration for this week’s Lyrical Sunday. I found myself sat in ‘Players’ restaurant, at the end of Pier 39, in San Francisco writing the following poem. My two year old was asleep in the buggy next to me, whilst my six and nine year old had a wonderful […]

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Out of here!

October 10, 2012October 10, 2012 BritMumInNZ 4 Comments Holidays

I’m going to be living every minute of life to the max over the next three weeks (and sleeping when I can). They’ll be little time for blogging so I’m hanging up my dressing gown (which is what I mostly blog in!) and taking off on a bird in the sky. Up to Auckland on […]

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I’ve discovered what fuels those surfers at Lyall Bay…

October 8, 2012October 8, 2012 BritMumInNZ 1 Comment Sarah

After months of hearing about Ekim Burgers, via my friend ‘Latte Junkie‘ (who frequently makes the half hour plus drive from Upper Hutt to the orange caravan at Lyall Bay, on Wellington’s south coast), I finally sampled the goods. The moment the home-made tomato-cumin relish, drizzled on a cup of chunky wedges, entered my mouth […]

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Welcome to the ramblings & photographs of a British expat Mum living mostly in Wellington (aka *coffee capital of the world*), New Zealand, since 1997.

This blog is a way to preserve sanity whilst raising children, capture the magic in the chaos, and share tales with family, friends, fellow parents and expats.

Along with my British born husband we have been bringing up our three Kiwi born daughters in the land of sheep, kiwi fruit and fine wine, since 2003 (with a brief 16 months living in Santa Barbara, California - where we home educated our daughters). We both first landed on New Zealand soil in 1996 (hubby) and 1997 (myself) - as fresh graduates from the UK wanting to live and work overseas... our 'OE' turned into something a lot longer and more life changing than we could ever have first anticipated!

Thank you for stopping by (if you would like to know more visit the 'About' page!).
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Recent Posts

  • Walking the Paekākāriki Escarpment Track February 1, 2021
  • Patuna Chasm | A river walk like no other! January 24, 2021
  • One week into 2021 January 10, 2021
  • Festive greetings from Aotearoa! December 23, 2020
  • Term 4 and winding down to the last days of school for 2020 December 1, 2020
  • ‘HELLO’ November 24, 2020
  • A spring holiday in Wanaka and Queenstown’s outdoor playgrounds! November 1, 2020
  • End of Term 3! October 2, 2020
  • Before the pandemic! ‘Six’ the musical in Sydney September 26, 2020
  • I miss her, Mum, even though she’s not gone. July 23, 2020
  • Our ‘bubble’ of 5 million has done it! June 9, 2020
  • Reflections on coming out of seven weeks of lockdown in New Zealand May 13, 2020

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