In the last school holidays we took the kids on a mini getaway. We caught the car ferry early in the morning and headed straight for Waitomo Caves (link) before heading to Taupo for 3 nights. One of the major drawcards for our kids was knowing they could spend a day at De Bretts Waterpark…
Over the summer holidays we completed our first overnight hike as a whole family. My husband and I have done a lot of multi-day hikes over the years using tents and a year ago he took our eldest daughter and her friend on a multi-day hike staying in huts but having all three girls on…
Last weekend I took my almost 9 year old daughter to Wellington. I had made a promise to take her away somewhere this year, just the two of us. She is my middle child and I don’t get a lot of time alone with her so this was pretty special. Neither of us have spent…
Hard to believe we have been home from our big hiking trip for 2 weeks and I have only just found the space to sit and write about it! My husband turned 50 earlier this year and as part of his “year of 50” he wanted to walk one on the New Zealand Great Walks….
Dear Jacinda I am an Aussie girl who these days is proud to call New Zealand home. As New Zealand is still new to me I don’t have a huge sense of investment in politics, who the Prime Minister is and so forth. But simply as a woman, and a mother of three daughters I…
Let me introduce you to the amazing Motu Maidens! (Motu = Island in Maori) a group of Mums who are very inspiring. Recently I blogged about returning to a sport I competed in before having kids, Outrigging. Here in New Zealand they call it Waka Ama and my husband and I recently joined the local…
This was our first full summer holiday living on Waiheke Island and the first few weeks were filled with visitors. It was wonderful to see so many friends and family but it was also quite exhausting for us all. I realised that we hadn’t built in any real downtime for the family and so 4…
I am blessed to live on an island filled with amazing walking tracks. They follow the coast, cut through vineyards, lead you to waterfalls or just help you cut across a hill. I love heading out to explore new tracks, either alone or with the kids. The Waiheke Walking Festival starts on the 19th November…
One of the first thing my kids asked me when we moved to New Zealand last December was – “Can we go to the snow now?” With a three kids in tow, and our youngest being only 3 years old, the idea of trying to do a whole week at the snow and skiing felt…
The team at Her Collective have just published an article I wrote for them called ‘Let my child fall’. It is all about the differences the kids and I are experiencing since moving to Waiheke Island in terms of what they are allowed to do at school. We are so in love with the freedom…