THE VAGABOND FAMILY BLOG
Market day at the old town Cromwell
What a lovely little market- which we just about survived - gone are the days of a relaxing family stroll around a market place, and I don't and will never take Isla to a supermarket !. We went as a family and I managed to get some nice fresh produce while Paul looked out for Isla. Luckily she was distracted by what seemed like every dog in town ! Yes all lovely lovely dogs - and what a lovely lovely day ! how many times [...]
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Don't forget you can also follow us on Instagram for more regular updates and short video's of what we're up to from day to day vagabondfamily.nz Although our webpage here has more detail in it we don't blog quite as often - so just flick between the 2 for best insight and updates. Thanks the Vagabonds.
Lake Wanaka and Hawea
We spent a few days enjoying this particular area- we've found it even more wild than before, as in, a lot less people, traffic, or housing around, so very quite and natural. It was actually my Birthday and I felt like finding a quite little spot to just hide from the world. The girls spoilt me with crafts and homemade gifts and Lola kept surprising me with Birthday treats - starting with breakfast in bed with freshly squeezed orange juice (named princess potion ) together [...]
Heartfelt thoughts from the Vagabond family to those dealing with Covid times.
As the new year 2021 begins, we the vagabond family would like to take this opertunity so share a thought - We understand that for most of in the world, including New Zealand, the year 2020 has been a very difficult one. Right now it feels so surreal that we can still continue our trip and project plans here in NZ. We feel grateful to be here and pretty much covid free, but still we hope that one day we'll be able to visit our [...]
The Old Town of Cromwell and Lake Dunston
The Old town of Cromwell is a small street full of history, as in the 1980's an generating dam was built and the old original town of Cromwell flooded, creating lake Dunston. Some of the buildings were relocated stone by stone to where they are today, still holding onto its the historic charm and open to the public to view. There's a small museum, couple of cafes, boutique shops, and couple of art gallery's all inside the original building that have been relocated to form [...]
Glenochy village and the Glenochy animal experience farm.
Together with friends we were visiting in Queenstown, we left for a long weekend in Glenochy, following the most amazing lakeside road north with snow on the peaks, on such a hot day it was just magic, leading to the tinny village at the north end of the lake Wakatipu. We spent time with friends, hanging with all the kids, swimming, paddle boarding and visiting the very sweet Glenochy animal experience farm -.Isla has such an affiliation with animals- well I think we all do [...]
Queenstown
We've recently been spending time in the Otago Southland area, just bouncing around lake Wakatipu. As most know Queenstown is the sportsman's adventure playground of anything you can imagen, from Skiing, White water rafting, bungy jumping, parapenting, or just boat outings or jetboating, well that might have suited us, but to be honest most of it's beyond our girls ability or our budget ! Although we do try and spread the love a little to support some businesses of course - especial now with less [...]
Living with PWS and Anxiety while on the move.
As time goes by I'm going to try and give you a true in site as to how we make living with anxiety, on the move, work for us all. As you may know most people with Prader Willi syndrome also have varying degrees of anxiety. We've read that change would be hard - and it's so true, especially for Isla. As she's developed through the years she's become more aware of what's going on around her, therefore more concerned and anxious about general day [...]
Cromwell – the home of our “Roaring Meg” log burner in our bus.
Well I have to talk about the birth place of our wonderful tinny fire, so we were on a beeline for Cromwell to meet John at his workshop where he builds these awesome log burners. So on arriving to lake Dunston, near Cromwell, we first had a swim as yu do, and then John joined us for dinner at our bus, right on the lakeside. After many phone conversations over the design details of our burner and flue we felt like we already know him. [...]
Lawrence and our bus radiator rebuild
On Leaving Our friends place in Kakinui we headed down to Dunedin, but only 20 minutes out of town our engine overheated. We did the usual pull over thing and had a quick look. Well, this is right up Paul's street - in a jiffy Paul could see that a seal on the radiator had come loose causing it to leak and in turn engine overheat. we topped it up with a few kettles of water, and were back on the road in no time. [...]