Mr S had his birthday at the beginning of May, so I pulled out all the stops and booked us on a trip to Kapiti Island. Kapiti Island is a tranquil island bird sanctuary and one of New Zealand’s most accessible nature reserves. It’s a unique visitor experience in a predator-free paradise and access is … More Two go to the Secret Island
I’ll start by saying that we had an awesome weekend. We went on a boat trip over to Somes Island, a predator-free scientific reserve in the middle of Wellington Harbour. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed a picnic in the sunshine – it was wonderful. So I wasn’t really expecting to come crashing down … More Christmas to Kiwimas
It’s taken me a while to transfer my first bike touring experience from my head to my blog – probably because the emotional scarring has only just started to dissipate and the memories are slightly easier to look back on. For those that don’t know, bike touring is a multi-day ride, when you take everything you … More Bike Touring: My first experience…and my last?
When we first decided to move to New Zealand, we thought about all the many aspects of the move: missing our families, being so cut off from the rest of the world and, if we wanted to deal with earthquakes. As you can read in my previous post about this, it wasn’t something that we … More When the Earth moved: NZ earthquake, Nov 2016
Welcome to part one of my South Island diary! Don’t worry, there are only two parts, so you’re not in this for the long haul. Our family came to visit in August and we planned a Road Trip Extravaganza around the South Island and tried to cram as much into one week as we possibly … More South Island: Part One
I’m in a state of happy euphoria right now, for three reasons (I want to yell “My reasons are threefold!” but this isn’t a Dickens novel, so I’ll just get on with it). It is gorgeously sunny outside with clear blue skies Mr S and I have been together for seven years, so we’re celebrating … More Letting the outside in
I’m getting quite into this exercise lark now and popping along to the gym a couple of times of week. Everyone there is friendly and I can wobble about on the machines and in the classes without any judgement. I was lucky enough to win a personal training session on the gym Facebook page – … More 111 Emergency
I was looking back through my blog posts today and realised that I haven’t updated you all on my friend making exploits. And it got me thinking about how it’s going here, are we ‘settled in’ and when you start to call a new place your home. And I had a realisation about the friend … More How do you know when it’s home?
My attempts at friend-making have continued over the past couple of weeks with varied results. I think the most interesting encounter I’ve had was in the McDonalds across from my office (I know, how am I supposed to stop myself having a Big Mac EVERY DAY?!). I was treating myself to breakfast (cinnamon cobblestone and … More Friends and other animals
In my 33 years on this earth I’ve met and befriended a few people. Some people who I know will always be part of my life, no matter the length of time between our catch ups, some people who I ring when I want to drink tequila and some work colleagues who made every single … More How to Make Friends…
The Adventures of Sazmo 