Today I; Did 5 pull-ups in a row for the first time (with technique so bad it looked like I was hauling myself into a tree to escape an alligator but heyho) Ate 7 Lindt balls in 20 minutes to celebrate the fact that I hadn’t eaten any Lindt balls in 8 weeks – BRAVO Had voffee (virtual coffee) and …
Set & Forget – Investing just got easier
Check out Part 1 of my investment series in collaboration with Sharesies here Just like anything, instilling responsible financial habits in both ourselves and our kids takes both time, patience and practice. As I mentioned last month, we began contributing to the boys’ savings accounts as soon as they were born, setting up automatic payments of $10 per week and …
Parenting and Ice Cream: When simple things are the best remedy
I inadvertently taught myself a good lesson this week; despite my best intentions not to work on Monday’s as Nix is home from kindy, I found myself a participant in a continuous string of phone calls for over an hour, whilst I madly multi-tasked, wrote a difficult email I’d been dreading and stressed about the next deadline. This was not …
Recipe for Summer – Fruit and Ice Cream
Waitangi Day is the line in the sand when it comes to New Zealand summer I reckon. The big stuff all happens ‘Pre-Waitangi’; the massive 6 week school holiday kicks off for the kids, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, road trips, tropical cyclones…………. Come Feb and the return to school – ‘Post-Waitangi’ summer kicks in. It’s just my opinion but …
Summer like a Kiwi – What happens above 23°
January marks the second, ‘official’ month of New Zealand summer. We Kiwi’s are comfortably settled into the annual, seasonal slow-down we look forward to every year. The kids have chilled out after the excitement of Santa’s visit, Mum’s everywhere have celebrated ‘un-decking the halls’ and returning Christmas to the boxes in the garage and everyone sadly mourned the last slice …
Heating your home: 5 things you need to know
In came the rain this week as well as some low temps around the country. I’ve got a sore throat and am in full hibernation mode so keeping our house toasty and warm is #1 on my list of priorities throughout the day. I had no idea what temp we should be maintaining our house at – but it’s a …
Family Travel Blog: 48 Hours in Tauranga
Earlier this month I was stoked to have been invited to compete in the first-ever Choice Hotels #ChoiceNZTravelgrammer2017 competition against 10 other NZ based Instagram Influencers. We were despatched to 10 stunning and varied locations around NZ with the goal to ‘do the regions proud’ and snap up a social media storm across Instagram. Cool right?! I hadn’t spent any …
Family Travel – Hamilton, Balloons Over Waikato
This weekend away in March was amazing! We ditched Auckland and had an epic three-day family adventure in Hamilton. Our itinerary was co-ordinated by Hamilton & Waikato tourism and was so good I’ve decided to share it step by step in case anyone wants full details on how to max out three days with your kids, in a super-fun city …
Family Travel – Four Days in Napier
After a pretty manic end to 2016, Dave and I had absolutely no inclination to plan an extended, extravagant summer holiday with the kids. There was to be nothing involving chilly-bins or tents, no road trips, no car/boat combo packed to the hilt….. Some years that stuff seems easy, is easy, this year we just couldn’t manage it. What we …
Explore Queenstown Like a Local
Despite my sensibilities saying otherwise, packing up the kids and heading to Queenstown the Monday before Christmas was a genius idea – a trip I’m keen to repeat each December as a respite from the madness that is Auckland during peak retail season. Trading the domestic duties of home for hotel life at the Crowne Plaza for a couple of …