Time is literally flying away on me and blog writing is very neglected these days, but we are all well here and can’t believe our lovely Christmas and New Year festivities were three months ago! Spring and summer has raced by and now we are on the cusp of autumn here in New Zealand. Since […]
With the days dark and short here in New Zealand we jetted off for some warmth and sunshine in the Cook Islands, just a three to four hour flight from Auckland. We have never visited any of the Pacific Islands and it was with great delight that we touched down on the runway in Rarotonga, […]
The last week of January, before the start of a new school year, we drove up from Wellington to the central region of the North Island for a week’s holiday. We’ve holidayed in this area many times over the years and never tire of the endless outdoor activities on offer in the most beautiful natural […]
Here in New Zealand the holiday season dawns with the first blooms of the Pohutukawa and Northen Rata trees, their bold red blooms create a swathe of red alongside roads, along the beaches and in gardens and parks across the country. In Wellington the blooms are accompanied by festive flags, fluttering on flag poles throughout […]
From a sea-life safari and massive water slide to a historic house and gardens, here follows more snap shots from our week’s holiday in north-east Cornwall (for the first post, of beautiful coastal walks, click here!). Boat Trip with Padstow Sealife Safaris Early in our stay the forecast across the country was for extremely high […]
We left Fleet in Hampshire early on Saturday morning, joining the A303 and waving to historic Stonehenge as we drove on the stretch of single carriageway through the World Heritage Site at a moving pace (which was good, considering it was summer, sunny and often known to be a stretch of road that can see […]
I’ve been back in New Zealand for just over two weeks and came from record breaking high temperatures and dry conditions in the UK to the wettest winter on record in New Zealand and hundreds of slips all around Wellington. Earth is on a scary path of more extremes and it is frighteningly noticeable. I […]
I finally enjoyed the opportunity to fly to Melbourne to visit the city where our oldest is now living and marvel at the creative, bustling hive that it is. There are more people living in Melbourne than the whole of New Zealand, so my initial response to arriving in the central city was one of […]
On occasions, like right now, I feel the need to dump down where we’re at on this old blog, which I started in 2003 (long before social media platforms came into play!). I often wonder why I keep this blog, but then my husband and I will start talking about some memory or other and […]
With the global pandemic of Covid-19 raging on and New Zealand’s borders still shut the hashtag #DoSomethingNEWNewZealand is being banded about on social media. New Zealanders are exploring their own country more than ever before. As a family we’ve holidayed in the South Island of New Zealand on multiple occasions, particularly around Wanaka and Queenstown, […]
The last leg of our six week trip away from New Zealand was spent in Japan. None of us, in our family of five, had ever been to Japan before, and we were so excited to get our first taste of the place (food being a much anticipated delight, as well as the culture, historical […]
After our epic holiday in Canada, enjoying plenty of snow action, we were definitely acclimatised to northern hemisphere temperatures by the time we landed in England on the 18th December. It was the first time – in nearly twenty years – that we’d be in England for Christmas and the first time, ever, for our […]
We landed back in New Zealand on the 16th January, after an incredible six weeks of travel. The first part of our adventures started in snowy Canada, which were simply magical and so much fun. We landed in Vancouver, on 7 December, and drove north-east, straight to Sun Peaks, some 407km / 235 miles. It […]
The suitcases are packed, filled for six weeks of travel in the northern hemisphere. We are forgoing a chunk of our southern hemisphere summer to journey north for a festive winter and time will be spent with family and friends. It’s the first time our three daughters will have experienced Christmas in England, like the […]