Travel

We woke up early at 6am, had a quick breakfast, packed, checked out and took an Uber to Wilderness Motorhomes near the airport to pick up the Camper. We arrived at Wilderness just as they were opening and spent the next hour checking out the Camper. We decided to hire mountain bikes as they did us a deal - we’d dismissed it before as too expensive. After the paperwork formalities the lady showed us around the Camper. So many buttons, cubby holes and features! The kids couldn’t help themselves in pressing as many as possible all the time. The automatic step was the most popular and continues to be deployed and stowed several times on each entry and exit - that may get tired quickly. ...

The children woke up hungry at 4:30am complaining that they hadn’t had dinner. I plied them with an apple and sent them back to bed. They reemerged at 5:30am and we sat down to a breakfast of Croissants and fresh fruit which I’d bought the night before. Whilst we were getting ready to go out the kids invented “Mum Bucks” ™ which they could earn by doing good deeds with an initial exchange rate of 1000 MB to 10 NZD. That later changed to 100 MB to 10 NZD and they diligently kept up earning their MB’s throughout the day both ending with 9 MB each. ...

The adventure begins. We had a lie in and a leisurely breakfast, finished the packing and took a Taxi to Heathrow at 11am. We had a delicious lunch at Heston’s The Perfectionist Cafe, a glass of champagne to celebrate and off to board the plane. We flew Air New Zealand Economy to Auckland via LA. The first leg of the flight was 14 hours to LA and seemed to pass by quickly. A movie and food but mostly trying to sleep. I bought some Bose noise cancelling headphones at Heathrow duty free which made an amazing difference to comfort levels on a long haul flight. ...

Our bags are packed, we’ve planned the route, watched the YouTube videos of how the camper works and we’re ready for 28 hours in the air. The adventure starts tomorrow!

Our latest family adventure is a road trip around New Zealand for 3 weeks. We’re hiring a camper and off to make some family memories. We’re all super excited, New Zealand looks stunning and we can’t wait to explore. We’ll be flying into Auckland via LA, spending 3 weeks touring and then flying out of Christchurch back to to the UK via Auckland and LA. Our intended route below sees us arriving in Auckland, touring the North Island and crossing to the South Island early on Christmas Day morning. ...

During our family beach holiday to Mexico we took the opportunity to visit Chichén Itzá, something I’ve always wanted to see - we weren’t disappointed. As part of the trip we also had the opportunity to swim in Cenote Hubiku which was great fun. Chichén Itzá Cenote Hubiku

Breakfast in the hotel again of bagels and coffee. Mad French-Canadian woman is still there chatting away in ‘French’ to strangers. We checkout and drive along Haight Street to the park and try to drive through the park. It’s mostly closed because of the women’s marathon today and so we head down to the water front but that’s closed off too! We drive back up the park and cross over it on the main road and down the other side. This time we still can’t get right up to the front but we can drive south next to the sea which is the direction we want to head. ...

Breakfast in the hotel of bagels and coffee. Strange French-Canadian woman lurking about and talking to people in French. (Except Di tells me, that her French is terrible, so no idea what’s going on there…) Over breakfast we decide to walk into downtown as it’s only 10 blocks away. We end up walking and talking for 10 blocks in the wrong direction! Thankfully it’s a nice day so we turn around and had 20 blocks in the other direction. ...

wake up at 8.30am, pack and take photos outside the cabin, locking ourselves out of the cabin in the process. The girl at reception gives me another key to let us back in. (Guess they are used to it as the doors are very easy to accidentally lock) Walk down to the main lodge for breakfast. Di has smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel with fresh fruit and I have poached eggs on English muffin with fresh fruit. Both delicious so we share. ...

Get up around 8am and head for the breakfast buffet with our luggage after completing the automated checkout. After breakfast we pick up the car from the self park garage and head for Death Valley, driving through the mountains constantly trying to find a radio station that lasts more than 5 minutes. We arrive at Death Valley and take photos of us with the car next to sand dunes and then stop a bit further in at Stovepipe Wells for soda, souvenirs (obligatory fridge magnet) and a rest stop. ...