We’re sure (to the naked eye), that this trip could appear to be a spontaneous getaway to celebrate a couple of birthdays and Mothers Day in the same week. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ducking, diving, weaving and planning like crazy is how we could afford to do an overnight trip from Dunedin to Queenstown with meals and activities. Fairly sure we planned 99% of it months ago. We worked out the cost of petrol, parking and the effort involved in a...

It has just occurred to me that exactly 3 years ago (13 June 2014), I waved goodbye to Sydney and James and headed into the great unknown for a six week solo trip around Scandinavia and the start of our international housesitting adventure. Thankfully the six months apart 'flew' by (not). Now look at us. Down in the southern hemisphere for around four and a half months and then we will hit the road to Belgium (week), France (week), Ireland (3 months) and, in news...

We visited Queenstown for the first time almost 12 years ago for our wedding in a stone chapel on the shores of Lake Hayes. We fell in love with the place as we flew in that very first time and the pilot gave us the scenic tour as we came in to land. Back in the day (actually around 12 years ago), we still booked travel the old fashioned way - a brochure with nice pictures. If you arrived in the place and reality was half as good as the pictures in the brochure -...