Travel Wishlists and 2018 Plans - January #Travellinkup

As I write this, we have nothing planned. Nada, zip, zilch, nothing. And that's really exciting. 2017 was the first year that we actually (accidentally it must be said) ticked almost everything off our wishlist, so who knows what 2018 might bring...

2017 was awesome, travel-wise...

7 Things I Adore About The Festive Season.

For me, the festive season kicks off at the end of October. It's when my birthday is, and signals the beginning of two months of celebrating life.

There is Thanksgiving, Diwali, Guy Fawkes, Hanukkah, Christmas AND New Year. What can I say, I'm an equal opportunity celebration kinda gal (and are lucky enough to have a diverse range of friends to celebrate with!)

Magical Train Journeys Around the World - A Few Of My Favourites.

It may be a cliche, but sometimes the journey can be just as astonishing as the destination.

I love catching trains. The ease, the ability to wander around whilst speeding through the countryside, the sweeping corners, the friendly people dispensing hot tea, staring out the windows for hours as the world chugs past, generous luggage allowances and the whistling engineers with grease smudges in their eye and rosy cheeks.

Travel Companions - the #TravelLinkup

Travelling with people often tests relationships. Exhaustion, delays, mistakes, lost luggage, scary situations and worst of all, very early mornings where you can’t find good coffee.

But, when you find friends and loved ones that you can travel with, hold them close. Or just steal their passports so that their diaries are all yours. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to trial a few different levels of closeness; from travelling to America and sharing an apartment with a Kiwi lady we really didn’t know all that well, to turning up on the doorsteps of friends who have moved countries and abandoned me. You know who you are.

10 things to do in Wellington, New Zealand

The capital city of New Zealand is my spiritual heart (I fell in love whilst at university there) and with more cafes per capita than any other city in the world, it always feels like home. Walking down Wellington streets, my mind overlays so many memories - and I'm always amazed at how after a decade I still know how to get around without a map. I suspect it is indelibly etched on my heart.

I could actually suggest a zillion different reasons to visit Wellington, but for me, the most important ones are my brother, sister-in-law, two rosy cheeked nephews and my best friend (who I managed to also get to see up in Auckland!). Even if you don't possess such filial ties, Wellington is a brilliant city.

Travel Fears - the August #TravelLinkup

It makes sense, right, that instead of running through queuing passengers, I would rather be sitting in lounge or near the the airport gate, coffee/cocktail in hand (delete as socially acceptable to the time period).

Being late. That's one of the fears I have whilst I tiptoe around the cities of this world. Obviously with any choices we make in life there are serious fears and scares, but this is one that I can usually control when it comes to travel. This is especially true with long haul flying.

My travel journey - beginning in Singapore #travellinkup

My first ever taste of travel was probably the craziest if I'm honest. I had decided - despite only ever taking 2 internal NZ flights in my life - to pack up my life and move to the UK. On my own. Only knowing one person on the other side of the world. At twenty years old. So, so many things could have gone wrong.

To temper things slightly, I booked a week layover in Singapore between the long haul flights crossing the planet.

Expat Life: Giving my London home a touch of New Zealand #travellinkup

How on earth do you define home as an expat? I've said before that London has my heart but New Zealand is my soul (whereas my appetite is totally multicultural) as a throwaway Instagram caption, but actually it's more true than I gave this unconsciously summoned phrase credit for.

I guess this post could be subtitled 'how to make home a home, when you move your home to a new home a really long way away'. Which would be an achingly long subtitle.

So, I decided in a moment of New Zealand caffeine fuelled inspiration to share 5 of the ways that I celebrate my New Zealand roots 12,000 miles away from where they began. Putting the Kiwi into London effectively!

Eating my way around the globe - the May #Travellinkup

I have to admit that I struggled with this month's travel linkup topic suggested by the gorgeous Binny (ironically over a meal!) It wasn't for lack of options, but the overwhelming choice - which is also the delicious problem about travelling. Whenever I get asked "where do you want to go next" I automatically panic blurt "everywhere."

When she suggested the intriguing topic 'If travel was a menu, what would be your starter (short haul), main (long haul) and/or dessert (a place with a lasting impression)' our creative juices began to sizzle. I decided to revert to foodie blogger mode, and huddle around the knife, fork and spoon combination that has served me so well in the past. Quite literally.

The Scarlet Hotel, Cornwall: A sumptuous seaside spa stay

We arrived just as the sky turned ink blue over gentle waves. Stopping the car in the middle of the deserted road we rolled down the window and simply swooned at our cliff top view. Below us the beach stretched out, softly hugging the foam crests of the incoming tide. (And then we instagrammed because you can take the bloggers out of London...)

 Disclaimer: We were very relaxed guests of The Scarlet Hotel but all of our blissful enjoyment and thoughts were very much our own...

We navigated the curving road around, heading further and further away from the surfing epicentre of Newquay and with one last hairpin bend worthy of Top Gear slow motion panorama, we found our home for the evening. Snugged into the cliffs, the Scarlett Hotel is a peaceful retreat, hiding away from the clanging updates of the world.

Cornwall Roadtripping: St Michael's Mount #travellinkup

inspiration

ɪnspɪˈreɪʃ(ə)n/

Middle English (in the sense ‘divine guidance’):
via Old French from late Latin inspiratio(n-), from the verb inspirare
 

1.The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

2. A sudden brilliant or timely idea.

3. The drawing in of breath; inhalation.

Our recent long weekend in Cornwall provided all three of these definitions of inspiration - quite literally. A small but mighty peninsula to the southwest of England, Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon over the River Tamar, Cornwall has human history dating back to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods.

Harewood House, West Yorkshire - March Travel Linkup

Many moons ago, I tripped Up North to spend a weekend with my favourite purple-hued American and her sweet boy (look, not all my friends are bloggers but the best ones definitely are or were, there's something about scribing on the internet that makes for interesting people) and feeding our dual-obsession for all things English history, we packed the car for a road trip to one of her favorite spots.

Before you roll your eyes and click off yet another post about a gorgeous stately home that features heavily in dream home pinterest boards, let me just say: Humbolt penguins, a man carrying a lion on his shoulder, flamingos and pygmy goats.

(Psssst scroll to the bottom of the post for the travel linkup widget!)

There we go. That got your attention didn't it?

5 of my most hilarious travel bloopers - February Travel Linkup

Our blogs often share the glossy end of the travel experience - our favourite photos, moments and of course, only ever the best scenic views accompanied with a dewy glass of wine. But how about those times that everything isn't quite so peachy?

 

On our wedding day(s) we laughed at the stuff that went wrong, knowing that we'd look back fondly at the silly things that slipped out of our control, and only last year we went out for a civilized brunch and ended up traipsing for nearly an hour through a muddy bog, before emerging onto the edges of a luxury golf course looking guilty. I suppose this is where the 'adventures' part of my blog name comes to the fore - and of course that little narrating voice in my head perks immediately up, preparing the story to come.

Travel memory wishlists and plans for 2017 - January #Travellinkup

Really, the only difference between the 31st of December and the 1st of January is only a ticking movement of a clock's second hand and the boom of explosives lighting up the air but it feels so poignant, so heavy with expectation that we all feel the need to mark it some way, as if we will be new people as soon as that hand judders to a stop.

Happy New Year! It's the next year of our lives. Let's make it memorable!

The boy and I have never really all out celebrated New Years - we don't fancy shelling out extra for overhyped, packed bars heaving with merrymakers, we don't really set resolutions and we have occasionally just gone to bed early or lost ourselves in a movie overlapping the years.

11 things I hate about Christmas and the festive season

As time has gone by I've discovered an inner festive-elf that delights in fairy-lights, delves into the Christmas decoration box as soon as humanly possible (I'm usually only allowed to start putting them up on the 1st of December by my Grinch, and that's only once we've listened to "Lonely This Christmas" by Mud) and revel in the new and old traditions that we've established over the years - especially the picking up of Christmas ornaments as we traipse to different cities. Amongst the branches hang miniature dutch clogs, an Irish fairy, teeny Kiwis, Football baubles and a German angel who crowns our decorations with a fair few others.

But, I was never a Christmas fan. There, I said it. When I was a teenager I’d go out with friends on Christmas Eve celebrating the season (a bit overmuch to be honest) and Christmas Day would be a bit of a struggle, especially when my hyper excited family would bounce on my bed at 6am - a crazy thing to do even at the best of times. #Bahhumbug

A perfect... birthday and a #travellinkup

30 years old. I am now officially 30 years old.

I'm fairly sure I'm the only person on the planet who isn't freaking out about reaching such a milestone at the age, but there we go, I'm not.

Instead, I used the excuse to extend the usual week of festivities around my 36-hour birthday into a fortnight (along with an amazing 2 week holiday we have coming up shortly!). It's 36-hours long with the time difference in New Zealand - an exclusive benefit to the expat lifestyle - but with the lovely, lovely friends and family around me, what can be a homesickness trigger was actually a whirlwind celebratory champagne, fantastic meals and a secretly organised long weekend in a beautiful European city.

3 of the most unique places we have stayed... #travellinkup

Beige walls, a bed with a anonymously hues coverlet, random art on the walls and a TV in the corner. Every hotel in the world has all of the above with changes fractionally appearing as the research gets better and the budget gets increased.

But, there are 3 places to rest our weary travellers heads that made so much more of a memory mark. No, not the marble-lined luxury French wine chateau, the London city skyline we didn't want to close our eyes against, our floating hotel or even the Bee terrace at St Ermin's hotel.

5 of the best meals I've ever eaten - September TravelLinkup

Over the years we have been lucky enough to enjoy meals in some of the most wonderful places. Aftternoon tea at Claridges, breakfasting like lords in a Bordeaux Chateau, dinner at the Ritz, feasting on a bento box near Mount Fuji, lunching at Le Manoir, brunching with glorious London views, drinking 'arctic whiskey' under the Northern Lights in Tromso, eating cake in Vienna and so many more brilliant experiences (not to mention a few restaurant reviews along the way).

But...

...there is one place I'm happiest. As an emotional cheeseball at the best of times, I can often be found grinning away tucked somewhere behind a table full of the people I love - and it doesn't matter where on the globe we are. It is almost always the highlight of any trip we make anywhere in the world (the only exceptions are the countries where we can’t stalk visit anyone which are few and far between).

Eating & drinking in Bordeaux

Bordeaux seems to be going through a renaissance. 10 years ago it seemed to be a grimy port town that people knew of mostly for the ruby red elixir that makes the town infamous. With a mayor who realised the tourist cash they were missing out on, he set about rejuvenating the city and promoting Bordeaux as a destination within its own right.

In my limited experience of the world, I feel it's safe to say that the French live, breathe, eat and drink. And possibly not in that order of importance. Following that train of thought, it would be a little remiss to blog about the lovely Bordeaux, and omit sharing our favourite places that we imbibed. As a tourist armed with the internet, I can't pretend to be any kind of authority, but after 4+ years of blogging and calling myself a foodie I do know what I like.

5 lessons learnt as a travel addict - #TravelLinkup

If I've learned anything over the years, it's that I have so SO much more to learn. There will always be another trick, another hack and somewhere new that will pop up luring us away from home.

But over the years, we've tried to apply a few hard learnt lessons to our future fun.