We had a lovely couple of days in the Puglia region (the heel of the boot of Italy) visiting pretty towns and villages and beaches with warm, clear, turquoise water, and continuing to sample the delights of Mediterranean gelato! Another beach…another chance to leap off the rocks! Monopoli was a lovely town with large, interesting […]
Continue ReadingWe had heard such good things about Croatia but the beauty of Slovenia and the kindness of its people was always going to be a tough act to follow. Croatia’s rise to tourism-stardom since its independence from Yugoslavia (and the resulting Yugoslav Wars) was rapid. In the course of twenty years it went from a […]
Continue ReadingCrossing the border into Italy in the evening, we were pretty thrilled with our first Italian Park4Night spot, right next to this very old village that is currently being restored. We loved our time around the lakes and rivers of France so decided to head straight to the Italian Lakes in the north of Italy, […]
Continue ReadingNathan, Michele and Enzo generously agreed to let us take their campervan to Europe so we flew to London to pick it up. We had 2 nights in London and used the time to catch up on sleep, washing and Formula1. We also fitted in a very British activity – “Proms in the Park” at […]
Continue ReadingWe had a brief stopover in Istanbul on our way back to Europe from Africa. We’d had an overnight flight from Cape Town with little sleep and found the heat of the day a bit of a shock, so we didn’t push ourselves to see or do too much. These were a few of our […]
Continue ReadingFrom Maun, Botswana, we had two reasonably big drives to get to the eastern entrance of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP). This ‘Peace Park’ was created in 2000 as Africa’s first national park that straddles two countries (Botswana and South Africa), and borders a third (Namibia), with an aim of creating an enormous conservation area (over […]
Continue ReadingAfter leaving Etosha, we had three nights to make our way leisurely towards Bwabwata National Park and the Zambezi Region. Two of these nights were our last wild camps for a while, 1 of which was next to the Kavango River, which is the border between Namibia and Angola in this area (the river is […]
Continue ReadingOur next stop was Spitzkoppe, a group of beautiful granite peaks rising out of the Namib Desert. We have an awesome GPS in our vehicle but for some reason it took us on a totally wild route to get to Spitzkoppe via some rough tracks through the wilderness. Our vehicle coped well and ‘Jungle Man’ […]
Continue ReadingA small selection of our favourite animals…from the little guys, to the birds, to the antelopes, to the big guys, to the always-around guys, to the highly endangered black rhino! And a few of the funny ones…
Continue ReadingOur flight from Heathrow took us via Istanbul to Cape Town. Our flights from Istanbul to Cape Town return are one of few flights not included in our Round The World tickets, as it allows us to return to Europe after Africa (one of the rules of a RTW ticket is you cannot return to […]
Continue ReadingLogan’s brother Nathan, Michele and Enzo (and their kitty cat Daisy) live in a beautifully renovated house in Hoyland. The last time we saw them was in New Zealand and the kids were 3, 7 and 8 – they’re now nearly 10, nearly 14 and 15. We were all looking forward to spending time with […]
Continue ReadingMy Nana (on Mum’s side) was born in New Zealand, but all of the generations of her family before her were born in Shetland. My Great Grandmother, Minnie, her brothers and sisters, her parents and her grandmother all came to New Zealand on various voyages in the early 1900s. They had all been born and […]
Continue ReadingTo actually leave Europe, we caught an overnight train from L’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre. Despite the name, L’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre train station is not actually in Andorra but is over the border in France – and there is no public transport to get there (and Uber coverage is patchy at best). People will helpfully tell you “there used to be […]
Continue ReadingAndorra is beautiful but with days and days and days that cycled from raining to hailing to snowing, with the odd bit of overcast and a tummy bug for Lucas thrown in, we had a lot of inside time! We were glad for an apartment with enough room to stop us going crazy, large windows […]
Continue ReadingWe hardly scratched the surface of what Spain has to offer, but we made the most of our time there and (as it turned out) were extremely lucky with our timing. We picked up a campervan in Seville – a MUCH smaller campervan than we’d had in Norway with barely room to swing a cat, […]
Continue ReadingWe spent our final evening in Frankfurt at the annual Spring Dippemess – a fair that dates back to the 14th century, celebrating its 679th Anniversary this year!. Each ride or attraction had its own entry fee (between 4 and 8 Euro) so the kids had to make decisions about what rides they most wanted […]
Continue ReadingWe are currently in the south of Spain so we decided to take a 1-day excursion to Tangier, Morocco. Quite by accident, we went on a Friday, a sacred day of Islamic prayers and time with family and friends. It was also Eid al Fitr (the end of Ramadan) on Wednesday and Thursday, so Friday […]
Continue ReadingDespite adding 2 extra weeks to our Scandinavian adventure, we lingered longer in places we loved and found ourselves running out of time to get back to Frankfurt. Sweden and Denmark deserved way (WAY) more time than what we gave them but we fitted in as much as we could and enjoyed the time we […]
Continue ReadingFor the past 4 weeks we have been driving a “Family Luxury” campervan through Norway in winter. ‘Crazy’ I hear you shout, perhaps, but there are always two sides to every coin, even the Norwegian Krone. Our reason for being here at this time of year is to view the northern lights (Aurora borealis) and […]
Continue ReadingOur last days in Norway were spent in the Tromsø area, the busiest place we had been for a couple of weeks. One day we had a go at cross country skiing on the cross country ski trails in Tromsdalen Valley. Logan and Lucas took to it like ducks to water and Zara picked it […]
Continue ReadingOne of my non-negotiables was to hopefully see the Aurora borealis (northern lights) and is actually the whole reason we even had Norway on our itinerary. I say ‘hopefully’ because the northern lights are a natural phenomenon and there is no guarantee of actually seeing them. To increase our chances, we had done a lot […]
Continue ReadingThere was a dusting of snow overnight in Trondheim so it was a fresh blanket of white – perfect for a hike in the hills. We did a very Norwegian activity of hiking to a “warming hut” – a wee stop for solbærtoddy (hot blackcurrant), hot cocoa, and cinnamon scrolls! This hut was called Grønlia […]
Continue ReadingNorway, you beauty! More than everything we had hoped for and dreamed about! So much so that after just two days in Norway, we decided to extend our time in the campervan (therefore reducing our time in Portugal and Spain later on) by 2 weeks. This meant we could slow down and take more time […]
Continue ReadingOur first stop in Denmark was Billund. Billund is the home of the original Legoland but it is currently closed until mid-Spring. To satisfy Lego fans in the off season, they opened Lego House in 2017 – an indoor Lego playground filled with 25 million Lego bricks! Wow! It is such a cool place! The […]
Continue ReadingAvengers Assemble: Flight Force Best ride of all. Really, really fast (0-91 kph in 2.8 seconds), loops, corkscrews, drops and more, but not bone shakingly terrifying. The first time we went, the start freaked us out but the times after that we knew what to expect. Similar to Hyperspace Mountain but with a bit more […]
Continue ReadingWe flew back from Costa Rica for one last weekend in New York. It was an overnight flight so we started the day with a GINORMOUS diner breakfast in Midtown Manhattan and took in the last sights we wanted to see in that area. We bussed back to the Gargiulo’s for a feast of “Joey’s […]
Continue ReadingOrganising a year of travelling takes a lot of planning to work out where to go (taking into account everyone’s non-negotiable sights/locations), when to go, and what order to do everything. But sometimes, decisions are made a bit more randomly. We don’t need visas for Europe but can only spend 90 days out of every […]
Continue ReadingNew York! Wow! We had such a special time! We were so lucky to stay with our dear friends Amy, Joe, Phillip and Mary Grace (and their sweet doggie Holly) in the beautiful village of Greenwood Lake in upstate New York. Amy and I met when we did our Masters in Marine Science in Dunedin […]
Continue ReadingWe left Jasper thinking it would take us 4-5 hours including stops to drive to Lake Louise…and once again we were pulling into our accommodation in the dark! Time and time again, we underestimate how much joy we have when we are out in the wild – finding reason after reason to linger a little […]
Continue ReadingOur first full day in Jasper was declared a rest day…except the weather was lovely so we took a raincheck on the rest day and had a full day of adventuring instead! The kids were up for it so we set off for Maligne Lake Road, well-known for having regular moose sightings. We kept a […]
Continue ReadingZara spent some time in the Terrain Park determined to make the landing….
Continue ReadingWe left Castle Mountain bound for Cranbrook – not a destination per se, but a good stopping off point to break up our driving days. We had some insider knowledge of places to visit on the way and we enjoyed the drive with some very pretty scenery and sightings of bald eagles. The next day […]
Continue ReadingWe arrived into Calgary and to our hotel at close to midnight, but were still greeted by a super kind manager who offered us cookies, cold water, and all sorts of advice to aid us in the errands we needed to complete the next day. Lucas said “Wow, Canadians are so friendly” multiple times in […]
Continue ReadingWe left Wellington as a party of 9 – the Akers, the Hayes and Mum. The kids were stoked to have their cousins to hang out with to pass the inevitable “hurry up and wait” hours in airports and to “Seat Chat” to on the plane. Our first stop was San Francisco and we arrived […]
Continue ReadingIntroducing the Akers Family… four intrepid Kiwis travelling the world. As a family we have decided to take 2024 off and simply travel the world – continually travelling East from New Zealand until we get back. Zara, the youngest is 9 years old. She loves hanging with friends and exploring the world, both inside and […]
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