round the world with my family
join us on our family gap year
The first half of our New Zealand road-trip took us from Christchurch to Te Anau, including an amazing visit to see penguins on the Otago Peninsula. The weather has been very kind to us so far, despite the fact that we are heading into late Autumn and snow is visible on higher peaks. What's more,... Continue Reading →
Rather than skirting around the details, I intend to give you a full rundown of our twelve days in a campervan at the bottom of New Zealand. This may be useful if you’re ever thinking of planning a drive around the lower half of the South Island. Or tedious if you are not. The driving... Continue Reading →
The coast road from Nelson to Christchurch is currently closed, due to a combination of last year’s earthquake and this year’s recent cyclones. So instead of stopping off at Kaikoura, as originally planned, we diverted onto the Lewis Pass and headed for Hanmer Springs. The drive over Lewis Pass was stunning, with seemingly endless mountain... Continue Reading →
The 5-hour drive along SH1 from Waikite Valley to Wellington was reasonably uneventful, mostly passing through a series of open plains and dairy farms. We did manage to find another amazing NZ playground for the kids at Levin, which made a good pit-stop towards the end of the journey when the kids were starting to... Continue Reading →
After some fun on the beach in the Coromandel, our next stop was a dairy farm in the Waikite valley, just south of Rotorua. I thought the girls might be disappointed leaving the beach behind. As it turned out, this was their favourite week of the trip so far. Waikite Valley Our new surroundings reminded me slightly... Continue Reading →
round the world with my family 