Monday 1 June Another dramatic sunrise awakening - fabulous fiery sky 💛🧡❤️💜 When you’re on the road, King’s Birthday and other holidays don’t resonate as much as when we had 9-5 jobs - just another day - which was just how we treated this Monday! Pottered around then hit the cycle trails in a big loop - into Kaiapoi, along the Waimakariri River, through The Pines, past Woodend Beach and out to Pegasus then back along an inland route. Got buzzed by a speedy boat on the Waim

Sunday 31 May An amazing pinky red light crept into Banjo as we woke around 7.30am - looking out of the window, the sky was on fire, the clouds glowing orange, scarlet and gold against a bruised grey blue backdrop. Looking away from the sun, the colours were softer, pinks and lilacs - all so beautiful.💛🧡❤️🩷💜. Later we were treated to some funky monochrome skyscapes... not a lot of sunshine sadly. We chilled at Banjo in the morning then grabbed a quick lunch and hopped on

Saturday 30 May Cloudy but surprisingly balmy kinda day - we pottered around doing bits and bobs in Banjo and marvelling at how warm it was… double figures when we woke and almost T-shirt weather when the sun popped out. Headed over to New Brighton late morning for a wander along the pier and down the beach. Turned out to be surprisingly chillier out on the exposed coast as the wind was quite strong - especially along the pier. Walking out along the pier was lovely - looking

Friday 29 May Josh has Fridays off so we decided to all go out for brunch in Rangiora then hit the op shops. Ella recommended Fresca Mediterranean and it turned out to be a great call. Great brunch menu and some fabulous cabinet food - and they serve Tea Total as their tea brand which is just delicious! Had a lovely brunch - Bolognese on toast for Louis, phenomenal panettone French toast for Ella while Josh and I shared pizza puff bites and a loaded croissant - yum! 😋Then w

Thursday 28 May After our late night, an early alarm as Banjo was due at Vanari Caravans NZ for her 20,000km service and a spot of warranty work. We packed an overnight bag to stay at Ella & Josh’s place as the work was due to take a couple of days and headed out into the mist across Christchurch to Sockburn where the new Vanari dealership & workshop is just opening up. We're not used to rush hour traffic - it was a shocker getting over there! And not improved by the mist &

Wednesday 27 May With Jez in Auckland and Abby working hard in the Moho, Louis and I knuckled down to some admin & blogging then put on our gumboots, filled a couple of buckets, grabbed cloths & a sponge and set to work cleaning the outside of Banjo. Previously we’ve always used the big truck wash on Greywacke Road but whilst it is great for an overall clean, it’s hard to get the fiddly bits done, so we decided to do it by hand instead. It’s not perfect, but we did remove abo

Tuesday 26 May Another lovely morning in Kaiapoi - blue skies and autumnal cool temperatures. Abby was working and Louis & I tried to emulate her dedication by doing some admin & social media. Midmorning we headed into town so that Louis could swim and I could get a long-overdue haircut. Having experienced too many dodgy haircuts in my life I wasn’t taking any chances so had asked Petra who did her hair as it’s always on point. She put me in touch with lovely Wendy who runs S

Monday 25 May A beautiful golden if slightly misty dawn at our favourite Ōtautahi Christchurch POP - Treehouse Retreat in Kaiapoi. My stone collection which I left in March was still happily ensconced on the fence post - with a few cobwebs - glowing in the morning sun. Louis was feeling crook so stayed in bed, while I popped into Kaiapoi central to sort out dropping off rubbish & op shop donations, buying food supplies and collecting my prescription. Then back to Banjo for a

Sunday 24 May Our days in Ōtautahi Christchurch are often largely functional - so many chores and appointments to catch up on, and a lot less exploring & adventuring. Sunday was no exception - Louis wanted a swim and I had bags & bags of laundry 🧺 to do. Ella was working at Stella & Gemma so we scooped up Josh to hang out with us in Rangiora, hit the SPCA op shop and have lunch in & around our chores. Only fair as 40% of the laundry was his & Ella’s - their water supply has

Saturday 23 May Surprisingly quiet morning - just a distant sound of clucking, crowing and quacking from Lesley’s chooks and ducks. We decided to leave early and press on to Ōtautahi Christchurch to see the kids and the hoodlum hounds. Opened the door to find Holly quietly waiting by a ball for another game of goalie-catch! We threw some delicious fruit peel and veggies over the gate for the goats and Grunty the pig who were most grateful. Our hosts had gone out for the day

Friday 22 May A few chores in Ashburton in the morning, out on the bikes to save unhitching Banjo. Accidentally fell into Sallies in town and came out with a bike pannier full of goodies including two dresses and a duvet cover set. On to Kmart to get their bargain moisture absorber products for the winter in Banjo, and back via Triangle Espresso for a couple of sweet treats! Loved the cool Hakatere mural we passed, and I got to say hello to Khan as Louis popped into Triangle

Thursday 21 May A quieter day with a lovely coincidence. We treated ourselves to scrambled eggs for breakfast & the use of clean flushing toilets just metres away from where we parked up at Mayfield Domain then packed up, refuelled at the McKeowns, said hello to a curious horse, admired the untimely Halloween decorations & headed to Ashburton, just half an hour away. A quick trip round Kmart & Woolworths, then I headed to Liquid Laundromat with a bulging basket of dirty laund

Wednesday 20 May Waking at around 7.30am I pulled down the blind an inch or two to see what the day heralded - to be greeted by a flood of soft pink light. I popped my head out the door and stood there mesmerised by the glorious sunrise which cycled through pinks, peaches, lilacs and blues until the sun settled high in the sky around 10ish. I love the pair of ducks swimming across the lake for added interest. Louis popped out to throw up the drone to capture some of the glor

Tuesday 19 May What a wonderful day - I can only apologise for the enormous photo dump… it was so special I couldn’t stop taking pictures! It all started with a freezing dawn, and weirdly got colder as the sun began to rise, and a spooky mist spread across Lake Camp and then peeled back to reveal a glorious morning. As I got up the cloud to the south of the lake dropped and drifted across the water as two black swans swam serenely into the mists; the east side cleared first

Monday 18 May The frost faded away overnight and it was a tad damp as we woke - misty clouds hanging low in the valley and golden sunlight on the far peaks. We also found we had acquired a new neighbour overnight… with acres of campground to choose, they had parked up in our turning circle, about 10m away from us! Maybe we just look safe & welcoming! Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours 🎶 Had a lovely chat with Paul & Margaret (another Invercargill escapee - maybe t

Sunday 17 May As predicted - it was a frosty, cold night - probably the heaviest frost we have seen this year. We have the luxury of a comfortable queen bed, down duvet and extra blankets, plus a diesel heater we can switch on remotely if it gets too cold; further along the Waihi Gorge DOC Camp there were 5 hardy souls from CHC sleeping in tents!!! The son, Jake was apparently wearing 3 pairs of socks and still couldn’t feel his toes! ❄️🧦🧦🧦❄️ Had a lovely chat with them a

Saturday 16 May Despite going to bed around midnight with temperatures still comfortably above zero - we woke with cold noses and frost on ELLAMY’s roof. Taking advantage of our powered site at Peski, which also supplies water and encourages you to dump grey water on their hedgerows I had a lovely long shower, washed my hair and spent a while battling the hair-dryer! It was unusual to be here with so few others - in the summer & early autumn months there are usually around a

Friday 15 May Another one of those nights that descended to negative temperatures - even thicker frost than the previous morning. The grasses were frosted and sparkly, the mud was frozen solid and even the puddles were capturing bubbles below their icy surfaces. The sun crept up behind the hills opposite and lit up the mountains behind us, then popped over to shine down upon us, melt the frost and cause the lake to steam - it was stunning. Then suddenly it was as if we were

Thursday 14 May Despite Yahoo suggesting the temperature overnight would be around 6*C, we both woke early with cold noses, Louis hopped out of bed and checked the thermometer which declared the outside temperature to be -2*C! Diesel heater on and we got an hour or two more of sleep. When we got up around 8ish there was a heavy frost outside and clear skies overhead. The Razor Kayak was completely iced over and the sun was gently turning the hills behind us a beautiful gold

Wednesday 13 May So lovely waking up and popping out to see the Silverstream Clydesdales in the morning - Lottie was straight over for her scritches & a smooch then mum Emily came to see what she was missing out on! We watched some of Eurovision (first semi final from Austria, reported on by Rylan and Angela Scanlan for the BBC - saving Graham Norton for the big final on the weekend!) while we packed up & then left at 10ish as there were new visitors showing up around noon.