In February I had the pleasure of taking a small ferry to Matiu/Somes Island, in the middle of Wellington’s harbour. Matiu/Somes Island is a predator-free scientific reserve. It is also a historic reserve with a rich multicultural history. I took my youngest daughter with me, and joined a group of Wellington Home Educators. It was a beautiful […]
It’s been a busy weekend here of ‘spring cleaning’ in Wellington, New Zealand. The children have been busy playing with their neighbourhood friends, leaving hubby and I with plenty of time to sort out, declutter, get the garden ready for summer and so on and so on… however, it hasn’t all been work and no […]
This beautiful reserve is such a special place and we feel very fortunate to live close by. As we climb up to the incredible viewpoint, over the Cook Strait, Wellington’s harbour entrance, Lyall Bay, and beyond to the South Island of New Zealand, we always feel like we are miles away from civilisation (when in […]
I’m a great believer in gentle exercise helping to heal the body and a few weeks back, when my ten year old daughter was fighting off a long lingering chesty cough, with a dose of antibiotics, I took her out to explore a Wellington trail we’d not explored before. The walk, located in the hills […]
Just over a month has passed since I ran my fourth half-marathon, around the bays of Wellington. This is such a fun, community supported event, with Cigna Insurance as the principal event partner. The event’s charity partner is the amazing ‘Achilles International New Zealand‘ (a 100% volunteer organisation), that supports Kiwis with disabilities to participate alongside able-bodied […]
The weather in Wellington this summer school holidays has so far been very kind to us and it’s been perfect for getting outdoors and exploring the copious number of regional parks, town belts walks and nature centres. Having my parents to visit, all the way from the UK, has been an extra motivator to get […]
It’s been well over a month since I last blogged, but Instagram has been a constant online ‘fix’ and brought back a few memories from the year with the ‘Best of nine’! The end of 2015 came around so quickly, with our three daughters finishing a great school year in early December (in a flurry […]
Last week, after dropping the girls off at school, I drove back to the south coast, with my dog on my lap, and decided, on the spur of the moment, to do a walk I’d often thought about doing, but hadn’t yet got around to doing. I wasn’t best equipped. I really should have taken […]
For the first year, in many years of parenting, hubby and I got to do our own thing on Halloween this year! Having spent the Saturday decorating the drive-way with cobwebs and chalk drawings… My hubby and I left the children (two of them, the third was staying over night at a friend’s house) with […]
Wellington is known for its wind and it’s something that I have a love / hate relationship with. It can make me feel alive and refreshed, or knocked down and eroded like a well worn cliff-face. It takes stamina to live in Wellington and a mental strength that I don’t always have. Before we had […]
It’s been a fortnight since school started back for my three daughters and that’s freed up some running time for me! I’ve had some beautiful runs on Wellington’s south coast, even a half marathon out to see the winter colony of New Zealand fur seals at Red Rocks, beyond Owhiro Bay, along the Pariwhero Track. […]
It’s been two weeks since we returned from our fabulous hols in Singapore (more blog posts coming on that trip!), and we’ve been so busy settling back into ‘Term 3’ of the school year – especially with the man of the house away, on business, for a week and a half. He was working in […]
Oh my, what a day of weather! In Wellington, today, it was almost possible to forget it was winter altogether. The sun shone gloriously and the calm air let the warmth shine through, without the usual wind chill factor bringing it down. The tide was super high and the waves rolling in, from far out […]
The seagulls flock together at dusk, thankful for a calm evening, after a torrid week of storms. On the high hills, of the greater Wellington region, the wind catches on the cliff edge, strong enough to lean into and imagine one could fly. In the Botanical Garden of the capital city the deciduous trees beckon […]