All blog posts by sam

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Windy Welly

by sam - 21st Apr 2017

Our 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 ...

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Wine and Sandflies

by sam - 20th Apr 2017

There 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 ...

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Abel Tasman National Park

by sam - 18th Apr 2017

Two 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 ...

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West Coast and Kiwi birds

by sam - 17th Apr 2017

Adam 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. ...

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Glacier viewings

by sam - 16th Apr 2017

No 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 ...

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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 ...

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Wanaka

by sam - 13th Apr 2017

Dull 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 ...

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Queenstown to Wanaka

by sam - 12th Apr 2017

Moving 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 ...

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When in Queenstown

by sam - 11th Apr 2017

When 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 ...

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Queenstown LUUUGGGE!!

by sam - 10th Apr 2017

We 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 ...

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Milford Sound

by sam - 9th Apr 2017

We'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 ...

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Chocolate and Rocks

by sam - 8th Apr 2017

The 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 ...

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Yellow eyed penguins

by sam - 6th Apr 2017

Half 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 ...

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Tramping in the Hooker Valley!

by sam - 5th Apr 2017

Beautiful 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 ...

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Springfield Donut

by sam - 4th Apr 2017

Longest 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 ...

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Kaikoura whales and dolphins

by sam - 3rd Apr 2017

Early 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 ...

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Christchurch - debris and wizards

by sam - 2nd Apr 2017

We 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 ...

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Straight flight to New Zealand

by sam - 2nd Apr 2017

As 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- ...

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Well??

by sam - 6th Jan 2015

So, 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 ...

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Hollywood!!

by sam - 3rd Jan 2015

Last 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 ...

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More rain in Oahu

by sam - 2nd Jan 2015

We 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 ...

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Pearl Harbour and celeb chasing

by sam - 1st Jan 2015

We 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 ...

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Active Volcano time

by sam - 30th Dec 2014

Yesterday 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 ...

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Rest, relaxation and, er, gastroenteritis

by sam - 28th Dec 2014

We 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, ...

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Plantation Island

by sam - 26th Dec 2014

We 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 ...

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Tropical Christmas

by sam - 25th Dec 2014

Merry 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 ...

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Fiji time

by sam - 24th Dec 2014

Yesterday 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 ...

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Bye bye Betsy, Hello Auckland

by sam - 22nd Dec 2014

So 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 ...

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Tongariro National Park

by sam - 20th Dec 2014

Today 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 ...

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Taupo

by sam - 19th Dec 2014

Might 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 ...

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Shells, hobbit holes and cyclones

by sam - 16th Dec 2014

The 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 ...

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Another week, another time zone!

by sam - 15th Dec 2014

So 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 ...

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Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

by sam - 13th Dec 2014

About 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 ...

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Kroombit Outback Cattle Station

by sam - 12th Dec 2014

We 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 ...

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Townsville, Whitsunday Islands and beyond!

by sam - 9th Dec 2014

We'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 ...

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Cairns to Townsville

by sam - 7th Dec 2014

What 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 ...

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Sydney to Cairns

by sam - 6th Dec 2014

Early 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! ...

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Blue Mountains

by sam - 5th Dec 2014

The 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 ...

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G'day Mate

by sam - 4th Dec 2014

We 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 ...

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A Palace and 2 Temples

by sam - 3rd Dec 2014

Yesterday 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 ...

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Mae klong railway market

by sam - 2nd Dec 2014

The 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 ...

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Pinch and a punch from Bangkok

by sam - 1st Dec 2014

Moving 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 ...

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Elephant world

by sam - 30th Nov 2014

Today 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, ...

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7 tier waterfalls and bridges over the River Kwai

by sam - 29th Nov 2014

Busy 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 ...

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Arrived safely in Kanchanaburi

by sam - 28th Nov 2014

Wow, 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 ...

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Packing!

by sam - 20th Nov 2014

I'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 ...

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Why and where?

by sam - 12th Nov 2014

It'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 ...

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