Author Archives: Chadharrison

We’d continued our theme of good luck with the weather on this trip, and with another week of sun forecast things were looking up for the often wettest part of any NZ trip. Apparently they’d had a terrible Christmas and New Years in Fiordland with major flooding, endless rain and paths and huts closed butContinue reading “Fun in Fiordland…”

Our two favourite places (if you haven’t guessed!) are beaches and mountains and we’d had plenty of stunning beaches so now time for some stunning mountains and a visit to Wanaka and Queenstown. We spent two nights camping at the lovely Albert Town campsite near Wanaka which is how campsites should be, right by aContinue reading “I am a mountain, I am the sea…”

So after some great adventures on North Island we caught the Interislander ferry over to South Island. I had billed this as awesome, amazing, Scotland on steroids etc so was hoping it would live up to my hype! We opted for an early start to have plenty of time at the other end and thisContinue reading “Golden sands and blue water…”

Em and I had both read up on the famous Tongariro Crossing and we were keen to get up into the volcanic mountain landscape and see it for ourselves, it didn’t disappoint either despite the crowds on the route as stunning views in all directions. We had a very different experience too as I optedContinue reading “Taupo, Tongariro, Taranaki &Whanganui (try saying that fast!)”

After a slightly silly diversion via the Waitomo Caves we reached the strong Sulphur smells of Rotorua – great campsite near the lake unless you value your children more than I do – hazards at every turn, with scalding steam in the bushes, boiling water rivers, violent boiling mud behind the tent and so on!Continue reading “Rainy Rotorua, a very volcanic Christmas!”

Leaving Auckland for the last time felt great after too many days here, and once the 36 hours of rain had dried up it was onto the Coromandel peninsula, easy one to skip as looks like a dead end but you’d be missing out, it’s packed with fun things to see and do, first jobContinue reading “Coromandel Chilling,Caves &Raglan Rides…”

Kia Ora to New Zealand! So we finally made it after an even longer long haul flight to Auckland, this time via Fiji which is recommended as a stopover as they entertain you with live music and free flowers in the transit lounge…. Normal service resumed as we just squeezed our mountain of luggage intoContinue reading “Sweet as Bro!”

Defrosting the car in Bedfordshire blue skies we wrestled with our twenty pieces of luggage (!) and headed to Gatwick on the train, excitement starting to build…. Turns out this was the best way to get a mountain of luggage and three small children to Gatwick, as station staff and check in staff at NorwegianContinue reading “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey….”

Well as the saying goes all good things come to an end, and after a very busy week packing up the house and cleaning out the mountains of kids toys the sun finally set on our time in Scotland. We said our farewells to our lovely home in Brewery Close and set off South toContinue reading “End of an era…”

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde. This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.