Our Daily Companion Coffee This is a blog for the animal lovers, those that want to hear about happy life’s for furry friends who have suffered and the incredible people who volunteer their time and skills to ensure animals are cared for in the local community. We spent four nights at Chill Out Village in the small sea gypsy town of Ban Lampho surrounded by nature, wildlife and rescue animals. It was the most soul filling, rewarding time meeting the 3 dogs and 13 cats that called the village home during our stay, the number of residents fluctuates depending on who gets adopted or if someone new joins the family. Located about 20 minutes from Krabi’s Ao Nang Beach it felt like we were miles away from everything in the best way possible. Olly-Ang Driving along small village roads we initially wondered how our time in the back of beyond would be, with questioning looks from our driver we arrived to a welcoming committee of barking dogs alerting staff someone was at the gate. After a warm,...
Travel is our happy place, a time we can be together to experience different cultures, new food and just be together without the pressures of 9 to 5 life.
We took Hugo on his first overseas holiday to Melbourne, Australia when he was 18months old, unsure how travel would be with a toddler we planned a pretty loose itinerary but Hugo absolutely thrived!
The smiles and giggles as he explored the museum, watched street performers, splashed in the water at St Kilda beach and just soaked in all the surroundings ignited something in us to show him more of this wonderful world. However not long after returning home to NZ the world was hit with Covid and future travel plans were put on hold.
Exploring St Kilda Beach
Our first stop once things opened up was the beautiful island of Rarotonga in April 2022, Hugo was now 4 and travel felt like a whole new experience all over again.
Raro was the trip that changed things for us. We swam with turtles, rode bikes, sipped on fresh coconuts and enjoyed all the wonderful things you do in a tropical paradise, it left us wanting more.
October 2022 we visited Fiji, again a short flight from NZ and gave us more confidence to travel with a child so why not go further?
April 2023 we kicked things up a notch. A trip to the other side of the world with a 5 year old and it was absolutely incredible. A 24 hour stopover in Singapore, 5 nights in Amsterdam, 5 nights in Paris, 5 nights in London and another 24 hour stopover in Singapore on the way home.
Heidelberg Castle, Germany
September 2023 we took a parent's only trip. It was flying visit to Europe with a few nights in Switzerland before a week long cruise down the Rhine River with Avalon waterways, thanks to Jasons connections as a travel agent we were offered a massive discount which made this experience achievable for us. There are no words to explain our breathtaking and flawless this trip was, I may have to go through the memory banks to write a separate blog on that 😉
March 2024 I took a trip with my Mum. 3 nights in Singapore, a 10 night cruise with stops through out Thailand and Vietnam ending with 3 nights Hong Kong.
December 2024 we had the trip of a life time to take in the magic of our first ever white Christmas! Canada will forever be one of my greatest travel memories, we spent time in Montreal and Quebec City before flying into America to visit family in San Francisco then met friends in Los Angeles.
Magical White Christmas in Quebec City
March 2024 we spent 3 stunning weeks in Japan. This was possibly our busiest trip yet, we visited 7 locations over this time but still wanted more.
Now you would think all this would be enough to satisfy the travel bug but it just seemed to make things worse, every time we returned after being away we would all come down with the post holiday blues. Within days we were back in "routine" wake up, get ready, go to work/school, come home, cook dinner, homework, maybe get a hour together then off to bed, wake up and repeat. Surely there is more to life than routine and survival to pay bills?
We all loved who and how we were when we had time together, the little things like venturing through the supermarket in a foreign country to choose our snacks together somehow seemed special as its something we just don't have time for in our "routine" life.
One Saturday night after Hugo had gone to bed, we were watching travel vlogs and drinking wine (a common occurrence for us lol) and talking about all the places we want to visit and show Hugo.
Light bulb moment!! We had an idea...... Why don't we just do it? Let's sell everything and go!
This idea went from dream to planning stage very quick, the more we spoke about it, the more we wanted it. We looked at all options, involved Hugo and asked him many, MANY times what he wanted.
October 2025 our house went on the market with flights held to leave NZ in January 2026. After 10 days on market we had 3 offers.
The week before Christmas, Jason and myself finished work, Hugo finished school and we moved out of our family home we had lived in since July 2017.
We wanted to change our existence and do what makes us feel alive, so we did. We feel calm, excited and ready, we know it won't be all sunshine and rainbows and some days will be tough, that's ok, we are doing it so we can look back without regrets and know we gave it everything.
We made it happen and it's so fucking freeing!!
Make sure to check out our YouTube video and subscribe to follow our journey, we would love to have you along for the ride!
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