I’ve struggled with getting trips written up this year, often not tackling them till well after the fact and ending up having to back share them. Some trips, while awesome, are still not written up! So, I thought, lets at least do a summary of this year and some of the amazing and awesome adventures we have had (because we’ve had a lot).
Where there are posts, I’ll link them so you can read more. Where there aren’t yet posts, I’ll try to come back later and link them once written.
January
Starting the year in the Hawkes Bay heat, we abandoned our tent site at a managed campground a day early as we were just exhausted from how loud it was. Mr5 got to go on a 4wd adventure with my uncle and he loved it.
We then headed out to Castlepoint for a long weekend, which included swimming in the surf for the first time for Mr5.
February
We stayed close to home all month. A couple of daywalks for me, lots of trips to the bike park, and an attempt to watch some amazing planes at Wings over Wairarapa (the big plane we wanted to see had technical isssues so didn’t arrive).
March
Our first truly massive adventure – Mr5 and I flew over to join Mark in Melbourne for the better part of a week. We had an amazing time, did lots of touristy things, spent loads of money, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I actually really liked Melbourne this time, compared to when Mark and I did our honeymoon there and it just seemed like we were marking time there waiting to go on to Tasmania. We also had a weekend at the ski lodge.
April
Another big month – Mr6 did his first Great Walk, hiking two of the three main days of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. We then sent him to Christchurch to go kayaking alongside the track for three days.
Later in the month we popped out to Castlepoint for a weekend.
May
I had two quick weekends away – one for the Hawkes Bay Marathon weekend (I ran the half marathon in just over 3 hours) and the other to put in the bulk food at the ski lodge in preparation for winter.
We also enjoyed a kids night tour at Zealandia that was Mr6’s birthday present
June
A cold and damp month spent mostly at home. Mr6 was invested as a Kea, we went to Jumperama, and we watched the Matariki fireworks from Wadestown Hill.
July
School holidays meant more travel – this time a week at the lodge (wet and no snow, compared to 2018’s masses of snow), followed by a week in Rotorua. We did the luge, dinner at Stratosfare, the Redwoods Tree Walk, and made several visits to Kuirau Park.
Later in the month, Mr6 and I had a weekend at Castlepoint with my parents
August
After taking the tramping club families to Battle Hill for lunch cooked on a fire (an annual tradition), and enjoying an Adults-Only weekend at the ski lodge, we had our biennial trip to Queenstown for some southern skiing. Another amazing visit, with great snow conditions at Cardrona and pretty mint weather.
September
At the very end of the month, we returned to Queenstown and picked up a campervan to start a truly epic and amazing holiday.
October
The month opened in Milford Sound and only continued to shine. We road tripped via Lake Hauroko, across to Dunedin, up to Moeraki Boulders and back to Queenstown. We picked up friends there and hit up the Rakiura Track Great Walk on Stewart Island.
The month rounded out back at the ski lodge for the long weekend, where the snow had already largely departed the lower slopes.
November
I headed to Melbourne again for a girls weekend to celebrate a friends 40th birthday and had an AMAZING time. Holy wow, kid-free travel is good, but kid-and-husband-free is even better!
December
All quiet on the travel front until school finished. We celebrated the start of summer holidays by heading up to Castlepoint again for a long weekend, did a ride on E-Bikes out to Pencarrow Head one afternoon, and went up to New Plymouth to explore and camp.
Explorastory 