Travel

We woke up early after a good nights sleep and took a swim in the lake before breakfast which was really refreshing. The water was the perfect temperature and crystal clear, the views amazing and it was the perfect way to start the day. A breakfast of fried egg sandwiches in the camper followed by a bike ride along the edge of the lake in the sun shine. We admired the holiday houses which back onto the lake - maybe we’ll come back one day. The track turned to gravel and sand after a few KM which made it hard for Alex to ride. We turned around after 2.5km and returned the way we’d come. ...

Woke up at 6 to the sound of the waves and the sun rise - an amazing place to wake up. Breakfast all together in the van and then the kids went to play on the playground while we prepared the camper. Refilled the fresh water tank, emptied the grey water tank on the grass in front of the site. Diana and I took a walk along the beach - stunning. ...

We woke up late, it had been a long night. First Alex fell off the bed with a bump, he couldn’t remember in the morning, then the Bluetooth speaker we’d been using that evening ran out of batteries and started beeping which then seemed to be followed immediately by the loudest dawn chorus (The birds, not Bella) I’ve heard in a long time. It sounded like a flock of birds had descended on the van. Needless to say, we woke up not well rested. ...

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. ...