All Big Day Trip blog posts
Windy Welly
by sam - 21st Apr 2017Our final city of this holiday was Wellington, more famous for being windy than for being the capital of NZ. Its at the bottom of the North Island, we came ...
Wine and Sandflies
by sam - 20th Apr 2017There is a shipwreck on the beach where we are staying in Motueka that is amazing! Its called the Janie Sneddon, built in Scotland in 1901 and was beached in ...
Abel Tasman National Park
by sam - 18th Apr 2017Two days near Nelson in the Abel Tasman National Park were lovely. Most of the National park is not accessible by road so there are water taxis and other ...
West Coast and Kiwi birds
by sam - 17th Apr 2017Adam loves Kiwis, the birds, not the fruit...he hates the fruit, except for his teddy Kiwi Fruit, Kevin, he bought a couple of years ago in the North Island. ...
Glacier viewings
by sam - 16th Apr 2017No decent wifi and technical issues with the blog site providers (that cant be sorted on live chat with the the patchy wifi!) mean we are a bit behind and ...
Haast Pass to the west coast
by sam - 14th Apr 2017**LOTS OF TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PROVIDE OUR WEBSITE HOSTING THAT THEY CANT SEEM TO FIX, so we cant use any apostrophes or inverted commas ...
Wanaka
by sam - 13th Apr 2017Dull dreary morning in Wanaka early morning, but it turned better as the day went on, as usual here... 4 seasons in each day!
We had a lazy ...
Queenstown to Wanaka
by sam - 12th Apr 2017Moving on from Queenstown today to Wanaka. It's a smaller lakeside town, known locally as the less adventurous sister. It's only about 75km away over the top ...
When in Queenstown
by sam - 11th Apr 2017When in Queenstown it would seem rude not to join in some of the awesome activities available...well at least that's what these adrenaline junkie children of ...
Queenstown LUUUGGGE!!
by sam - 10th Apr 2017We got to go on a luge again! We did this is Rotarua in the North Island when we came over 2 1/2 years ago, and all loved it, so we were really excited to ...
Milford Sound
by sam - 9th Apr 2017We're staying in Te Anau, the last town on the only road into Milford Sound, it's not actually that far distance wise between the two, but the road is windy ...
Chocolate and Rocks
by sam - 8th Apr 2017The kids have loved this campsite, all the old bikes trikes and balls around with the sea views and plenty of space to run round, it's not the fanciest of ...
Yellow eyed penguins
by sam - 6th Apr 2017Half an hour back over to Lake Tekapo, we found the Tekapo Hot Springs, glacial water, heated and overlooking the beautiful lake... It was still drizzling so ...
Tramping in the Hooker Valley!
by sam - 5th Apr 2017Beautiful early morning sunrise coffee on the deck of our house, then after driving the length of Lake Pukaki we arrived at Mount Cook Village to tramp (NZ ...
Springfield Donut
by sam - 4th Apr 2017Longest drive of the trip today. It took about 5 1/2 hrs in total plus a couple of stops. The SH1 south of Kaikoura re-opened at 7am, which was going to be a ...
Kaikoura whales and dolphins
by sam - 3rd Apr 2017Early start this morning, but that was no problem, as having gone to bed at 8pm we were all up by 6am. The drive to Kaikoura was going to take 2 hours, but ...
Christchurch - debris and wizards
by sam - 2nd Apr 2017We landed in Christchurch at 9.30am after a beautiful sunrise and views of the snow-capped Southern Alps crowning through the cloud- stunning welcome to the ...
Straight flight to New Zealand
by sam - 2nd Apr 2017As requested we are keeping a journal of our trip again. If you don't want to get automatic notifications sent to you this time then feel free to unsubscribe- ...
Well??
by sam - 6th Jan 2015So, one last blog from me, mainly to say Thankyou for taking the time to read our website posts and either comment on them, or message us privately to chat ...
Hobbiton
by adam - 4th Jan 2015This is about our trip to the Hobbiton movie set.
We got to Hobbiton and parked up. We had lunch and me and daddy had a bacon and egg bagget. Then ...
My best things
by lissy - 4th Jan 2015On our trip, we went in Betsy, the campervan, and it was called Bouncing Betsy, because she was so bouncy! I sleeped with my brother called Adam, we sleeped ...
Hollywood!!
by sam - 3rd Jan 2015Last night we flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles. We only had a 6hr flight so had no idea what the kids would be like on arrival, and had a back up list of ...
More rain in Oahu
by sam - 2nd Jan 2015We were supposed to have one last big trip in Hawaii, whale watching in the Pacific Ocean with a bit of dolphin swimming afterwards. It was something we were ...
Pearl Harbour and celeb chasing
by sam - 1st Jan 2015We have flown 45 minutes back to the island of Oahu for our last few days of the trip, to our last accomodation, a cottage in Ewa Beach, just outside ...
Active Volcano time
by sam - 30th Dec 2014Yesterday was awesome! We booked a helicopter tour to fly over the active volcano on the Big Island, pretty much the only reason we came the extra little ...
Rest, relaxation and, er, gastroenteritis
by sam - 28th Dec 2014We had a great 48 hours of chilling at Plantation Island...loads of swimming, watersports and sunbathing, until the last evening when J had stomach cramps, ...
Plantation Island
by sam - 26th Dec 2014We had breakfast early at Beach Cocomo,and then said our "motheys" (goodbyes) and headed to the marina at Denarau to get the boat to Malolo Leilei, a small ...
Tropical Christmas
by sam - 25th Dec 2014Merry Christmas to all our lovely friends and family from sunny Fiji!!
We have had an absolutely glorious day on the beach; it's not been ...
Fiji time
by sam - 24th Dec 2014Yesterday we flew from Auckland to Fiji where we will spend christmas :-)
Fiji is made up of 333 islands, we are staying on the Coral coast of ...
Bye bye Betsy, Hello Auckland
by sam - 22nd Dec 2014So yesterday we bade farewell to our Betsy, (the campervan if you haven't read previous blogs!) it was quite emotional... Although, between a bugger up with ...
Tongariro National Park
by sam - 20th Dec 2014Today we took the scenic route from the South of Lake Taupo, where we were staying at Tokaanu, to Waitomo where we are staying now. This was primarily to get ...
Taupo
by sam - 19th Dec 2014Might have guessed we had no useful wifi where we've been staying, and are now currently "freedom" camping in a glorified lay by right on the edge on Great ...
Shells, hobbit holes and cyclones
by sam - 16th Dec 2014The plan for an early start on the Waihi beach to get the best shells after the tide went out, did not quite go to plan, we did go there early...just on ...
All the different animals
by lissy - 15th Dec 2014When we were in Australia, we saw loads of different types of animals. We saw koalas, and one was called tinkerbell. And we saw kangaroos, and we feeded them. ...
Another week, another time zone!
by sam - 15th Dec 2014So today we flew from Brisbane to Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. We are now 13 hours ahead of UK time.
We were quite sad to say bye ...
Holding Koalas, feeding kangaroos and deadly snakes!!!!
by freya - 14th Dec 2014On Monday, we went to the Billabong Koala sanctuary in Townsville, it was one of the best days I have had so far on our trip. Because Lissy absolutely loves ...
Australian outback cowboy school
by adam - 14th Dec 2014Australian outback cowboys
A couple of days ago we went to kroombit park, in the Australian outback and the staff tought us how to be cowboys.
Elissa first blog- dictated verbatim
by lissy - 14th Dec 2014Elissa first blog, dictated exactly.
Hello everyone, this is Elissa and this is my first blog.
At the moment I am sat on a plane to ...
Hervey Bay and Fraser Island
by sam - 13th Dec 2014About 400km from the outback station is our next pit stop, Hervey Bay. We are staying 2 nights in a place called Sanctuary Lakes and have a nice spacious ...
The joy of Temples
by adam - 13th Dec 2014When we were in thailand , we saw about 100,000,000 temples. In thailand there religon is Buddhism.
The temples are big and incredibly fancy ...
Kroombit Outback Cattle Station
by sam - 12th Dec 2014We spent yesterday, last night and today until lunchtime in an outback cattle ranch in the Kroombit National Park. The farm we stayed at is 10,000 acres of ...
Townsville, Whitsunday Islands and beyond!
by sam - 9th Dec 2014We've been staying in Airlie beach for the two last nights, in a petite cabin with non-working wifi, (why is wifi that doesn't work so much more annoying than ...
Cairns to Townsville
by sam - 7th Dec 2014What a lovely chilled day. We had a bit of lie in and had our free pancakes for breakfast at our hostel in Cairns then got packed up and left. We are ...
Sydney to Cairns
by sam - 6th Dec 2014Early start this morning to catch our 9am flight to Cairns, and drop back an hour in time this time. All very smooth and easy, and loved our Tiger aeroplane! ...
Blue Mountains
by sam - 5th Dec 2014The Blue Mountains is a huge mountain range outside of Sydney. We got the train today from Sydney, 100km to Katoomba to visit the Three Sisters and the ...
G'day Mate
by sam - 4th Dec 2014We landed in Sydney at 7.50 this morning. We have jumped forward a further 4 hrs, so are now 11hrs ahead of GMT, but amazingly the kids still don't seem to ...
A Palace and 2 Temples
by sam - 3rd Dec 2014Yesterday was out last day in Thailand. We decided to sightsee Bangkok, again with as much local transport as possible, partly for our own ease of movement on ...
Mae klong railway market
by sam - 2nd Dec 2014The Mae klong market, also known as the Risky Market, the folding umbrella market and the Train market, has been on my bucket list for a long time. It's not ...
Pinch and a punch from Bangkok
by sam - 1st Dec 2014Moving on day today :-/ Took a Tuk-Tuk from our guesthouse, before breakfast to avoid the crowds and unforgiving sun, up to the official Bridge over the River ...
Elephant world
by sam - 30th Nov 2014Today we went to Elephant world, which despite the slightly naff name, was the most spectacular place! The foundation was set up as a home for retired, ...
First Day, Waterfalls and Death Railway!!!
by freya - 30th Nov 2014Despite the sweltering, tropical weather here in Thailand, not everything is regretful, as I didn't really want to come here before now. When we disembarked ...
Elephants
by freya - 30th Nov 2014Last week, when we were in Thailand, my family and I all went to Elephants world. It's where you get to learn all about elephants, and how to look after them. ...
7 tier waterfalls and bridges over the River Kwai
by sam - 29th Nov 2014Busy morning with only time for toast and luke warm river water, sorry, I mean coffee, for breakfast. Picked up at 8am for a trip up to Erawan national park ...
Arrived safely in Kanchanaburi
by sam - 28th Nov 2014Wow, that was a long day but well worth it already! It seems like a heck of a lot longer ago than 28 hours that we left London. Getting to the airport, getting ...
Getting close now
by freya - 26th Nov 2014Yay!! Yesterday I had my last day of school! I feel like a baby bird leaving its nest for the first time. Even though I am going to have an astonishing trip, ...
Driving up to London
by adam - 26th Nov 2014*added to blog site very late after the draft paper copy was missing for days..!
Hi I'm Adam and I am writing this first blog. I am curuntly in a ...
Packing!
by sam - 20th Nov 2014I've been asked a lot of times this week if we have packed yet....um, no! I have done trial pack for both me and the girls and there are lots of little piles ...
Nearly holiday time!
by freya - 12th Nov 2014Hi everyone, this is my first blog and it is going to be all about the big 6 week trip my family and I are going on soon. I have just found out that I have ...
Why and where?
by sam - 12th Nov 2014It's just under 2 weeks til we set off, I can't actually believe it's going to really happen! J and I have talked about visiting/moving to Australia since we ...