Travels in New Zealand and beyond, going back to 2003!
We had our first public holiday to celebrate Matariki this year, a celebration of the Maori New Year and an occasion we have enjoyed marking for years, but this year we had a public holiday to really make the most of it! It’s a time for coming together, reflecting on the past year and planning…
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…
Patuna Chasm is a place I’ve been aware of for years and finally got around to visiting! Having admired photographs of Patuna Chasm for a while, and hearing rave reviews from anyone that’s ever visited, I was hoping my high expectations wouldn’t be let down. I had no need to worry! This incredible walk, through…
Happy New Year! I have to say I’m feeling very fortunate to be living freely in New Zealand at the moment. Writing about all our freedoms seems a little unfair when so many people around the world are struggling with the Covid-19 Pandemic, facing lockdowns and huge restrictions on normal day to day activities. I…
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,…
In a time when international travel is off the radar I’m finding an increasing number of my friends posts on social media are nostalgically looking back on holidays from the past. One of our last trips overseas was in February this year, just before the pandemic forced borders around the world to close. We travelled…
Autumn is fully upon us here in New Zealand. The temperatures are still warm and the days mostly sunny, just noticeably shorter. Like most of the world our country is currently ‘in lockdown’ as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our surf boards and other wet play gear is all laying redundant in the garage,…
It was my Mum’s 73rd Birthday recently, but she wasn’t aware – and hasn’t been for a few years now. Alzheimer’s disease has robbed her of knowing there are different days in a week, let alone knowing what day her Birthday is. Nevertheless my dear Dad had a cake ready for her, cards from family…
Queenstown Marathon had been on my ‘wish list’ for a while. I’m a sucker for a scenically beautiful running event and when it’s also located in a beautiful tourist town, that has heaps of other wonderful activities, I’m sold! I signed up for the Queenstown Marathon early in 2019, giving myself plenty of time to…
One night in early 2019, in a haze of (a few too many wines) optimism, I decided to sign up for the Tarawera Ultramarathon – held in February each year. I also signed up for the Queenstown Marathon, which was held in November 2019), but that’s another blog post and was a great ‘warm up’…
We are half-way through 2019 already and so much has happened, but I’ve been too busy, living and loving it, (and side-tracked by Instagram and Netflix, ahem!) to write about it – so, before this year runs away on me all together I’m going to have to write this catch-up post. I continue to be…
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…