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By keef and annie hellinger, Aug 1 2017 06:08PM A brief summary of the key highlights of our trip travelling with friends on the Big Trip Holiday 2017 A brief summary of the key highlights of our trip travelling with friends on the Big Trip Holiday 2017 Arrived (1st time) in Auckland from Sydney, Overnight then Cook Isles, Walk, Wait, Agapanthus, Arrived (2nd time) from Rarotonga, Cook Isles. 3 days central area, harbour, wharves, ferries,coast to coast walk (for C&A) , Maritime museum, murals, tepid baths,Britomart, Queens wharf, Quay st, Federal St, Churches, slopes,Hobson west marina, Masters games, Wynyard quarter, amazing architecture,Fish market, Heritage landing, North Wharf, Sarah, Pier 4, Rangitoto, Volcanic explorer tour,Summit views, Motutapu, Lava, Sunshine, Day out in Devonport, The Arcade, Esplanade Hotel,Victoria Road, King & Queens parade, various reserves, Mount Victoria, Clarys, Haircut, Hauraki gulf, Auckland art gallery, Maoiri paintings,The body laid bare exhibition, Joseph at the Civic, Collecting vans at Richard Pearce drive, Mangere, Auckland, Extra hidden costs, Orewa, Beach, Man with tourettes, Orewa beach,Countdown/Pac-N-Save/New World,shells, historic Puhoi, Twin coast highway, Mangawhai heads, Ruakaka beach, Whangerai, Hatea river, Town basin, glassblowing, canopy bridge, Tutikaka, Matapouri, Kawakawa, Ohua, Okiato, Russell, Hundertwasser, Hangi,Clapham clocks, Waterfall , Manawoara, Rawhiti, wetlands, marae, Waimarama bay, Bay of Islands, Historic Russell, pier, boat ramps, ferries, sunshine, exotic sub tropical plants, Tapeka point, Rocky bay reserve, Weka, Paihai, Water taxis, Waitangi, Whangaroa, marlin, wharfs & jetties, Volcanic plus, 90 mile beach, Twilight beach, Tapotupotu bay, DOC, Tyres R Us, Kevin the AAman, Cape Reinga, Lighthouse, Te Paki reserve, Old Kahina tree, Views to die for, Te Paki sand dunes, Broadwood, Kohukohu, Hokianga ferry, Twin coast highway, Rawene, Opononi, Aria-te-aru reserve, South heads, historic Dargaville, meeting up with C&A again in countdown car park, Donelly crossing, loggers, fab kiwi trees, Kaiwaka, farm stay, outside loo with a view, C&A visited lake Kai Iwi on the way to Dargaville, we did east coast, they did west coast, remet Whakapapa village then Wellington, Kaipara coast sculpture park, Helensville, Ginger crunch railway cafe, flat whites, Railways, Thames, Coromandel peninsular & Forest park, Wharf, Ferry, Shelly beach, Colville, Horse, Wahine, Music festival, Buddist retreat, Port Jackson, gravel road,Top of coro, Mercury bay, Tairua, freedom camping, waves, rain (lots),fishing off rocks, Waihi beach, Katikati, murals, Mount Manganui, Pilot bay, Marine parade, Motuotou & Moturiki islands, boysenberry icecream, Papamoa beach, beach street, strelitzia,Maori sculpture, bluebiyou restuarant, chalets, sunshine, relaxing, fun, chatting to guy from england , Pikowai, Pacific coast highway, Te Puke, Thornton, Whakatane, 2 islands, Smokin' volcano, Edgecumbe floods, Mt Edgecombe, Galatea road, sickly horse, Lunch at lake Aniwhenua, autumn colours, Hydro electric dam, Kopuriki, Road only just opened due to floods, Murupara, Maori funeral, Forests, Lake Taupo, Reids Carving, Breweries, Fooderies, Outrigger boats, Tourist info, icecream, Lake lookout, DOC site, Free, Tongariro views, sunsets, fishing boats, great sleep, cold at night - getting so, 5 mile bay site, Motuoapa bay, licorice (spelling haha!) cafe, flat whites, black swans, novelty VW cabins, Desert road, Turangi,National Park, Restuarant (not this time), Tranz Alpine station, Whakapapa village, rain, meeting up with C&A again at the dump station, Visitors centre, Cafe coffee, snow, Chateau Tongariro, Taihape, Gumboots, Spooner hill road, sheep, cows, Gentle annie pass, Moawhango, views to die for, Rangitikei river, Silverdale historic bridge, Valleys, Mountains, Hastings , 1930s architecture,Queens & Railway St, Westermans, Clock tower, Te Mata peak, Ocean beach, Waimarama, Blue cod, Fish & chips St Aubyn st, Surfers, Havelock north, Duart house and gardens, Murals, Wineries, Tukituki river, Kairakau beach, reflections, Paua shells, ice creams at waipawa, Waipukurau, Lake Hatuma, Wanstead, Wallingford bridge, sheep (again), Porangahau, Never finding the beach down the gravel road (cooks tooth), Longest name of place in the world (no don't ask me to spell it ;) ) ,Pacific Ocean, Cape Turnagain, Our hero Capt Cook, Herbertville, Wimbeldon, Route 52, Pongaroa, Eketahuna, Pagans, Hippies, Sacrificing virgins (ok maybe not!), Electricity, Late at night, Kiwi country, Herberts store, Steak & Cheese Pies, Museum, Masterton, Wool shed, Joseph Masters, Queen Elizabeth park, Aratoi, Maori ripoff, Tinui, Anzac church & cross, Castlepoint, Deliverance cove, Riversdale beach, Wairarapa wine region, late night into Martinborough, Memorial square, Pain & Kershaw, lake Ferry, Lake Okone and spit, old motorhomes, Cape Palliser, Paua shells, Palliser bay, Ngawi, Tractors, Rock lobster, Road slips,Putangirua pinnacles , Wellington Top10 campsite (so changed), Harbour from Pencarrow head to Lyall bay, shells, ferries, Ward island, Wellesley college, Eastbourne, Day bay,Wahine disaster,Moa point, Middle earth, Trolley buses, Waterfront at night, Te Papa, Macs Brewery, Curry, up early for Interislander ferry, Traffic jams If you would like to see more please CLICK HERE Eketahuna camping ground, quite lovely so peaceful cheap but good near our all time fave campsite at papamoa beach Plus a quick summary video with lovely Clannad / Paul Young soundtrack #motorhome #motorhometravels #travelsin2017 #campsites #majortrip

By keef and annie hellinger, Apr 9 2015 05:54AM We have seen quite a few unique Motorhomes in New Zealand on our various trips there. They are keen on conversion but have a look at the video below, it blew our minds away WWWOOOWWW!!! Can't remember if this one was 2007-8 or 2013 but its definitely a kiwi classic

By keef & annie, Aug 12 2013 06:19PM Ever thought of a use for old veedubs? Found these 2 recently What do you think, is this art, sacrilege or very just practical? Have you say ....PLEASE put a comment below get the discussion going Want to follow our Motorhomes pinboard on Pinterest? where you can find many more weird and wonderful motorhomes #veryweird #motorhomes The 1914 Model T Ford Motorhome, I love it, #wantone Search advice The INDEX page has TAGs for all Blogs and by year or month, A-Z INDEX alphabetically or just using the LETTERs in the Tag maps, or you can use the SEARCH page to look for something or just use the search facilities here on the BLOG or the associated Blogs attached to each Blog, entirely up to you, there is a wealth of ways to find what you want, thanks for looking motorhome-travel blog

By keef and annie hellinger, Oct 15 2015 07:53AM If you would like to see a slideshow of the sites we stayed at in France and Scandinavia you need to look at blogs 71 and 100 respectively or view the You Tube Campsites Playlist on the PLAYLISTS page from the dropdown menu, thanks Up to 15/10/2015 Note this data does not include any of the sites we have stayed in in Scandinavia, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the USA. These are numerous and varied and can be found under the appropriate blogs numbered 55,63,71,72,79,80,81,92,100. Suggest using either the SEARCH page , A-Z index or the appropriate TAG of "campsites" on the INDEX page, good luck, happy hunting! There are however some slideshows of those campsites in those countries attached after the data. As a tip however if you stay in these it is worth investing in one of the appropriate club memberships in that country i.e. ACSI (Europe), Big 4 (Oz), Big 10 (NZ) etc. etc. i.e. similar to the Caravan Club (CC) and/or Camping & Caravan Club (C&CC) in the UK. Here I show ALL the sites we have stayed at in our motorhome listed by 1. UK country / county 2. Rated 3. Site Blog number. 4. Site type (i.e CC, C&CC etc etc) 49 different sites in the UK to 2015 UPDATED 77 different sites in the UK to 2021, use the HOME page side bar to go to Campsites, this is the full set from 2012 to 2021. Some of the UK private sites are part of either the Tranquil sites (adults only) or Best of British books.

By keef & annie, Oct 24 2012 10:20AM So PROUD. This is our 50th BLOG! At the end of 2021 (30/12/21) after reworking the Blog on WIX we have 55747 visits As at 12/2/2021 we have had 40495 visits As at 22/11/20 we have had 36363 visits As at 08/11/17 we have over 20000 visits Also take a look at Blog 40 which has some earlier information As at 11/8/13: We have now had 2297 different visitors to our site since we started from 59 different countries. By 15/11/21 we have had 52900 visits .... WOW what can I say, amazing exponential growth, hopefully this more suer friendly version created under WIX will make it ever easier for readers to find what they want Which just goes to show that the world is fascinated by Motorhomes, RVs & Campervans. Recently our soon to be daughter-in-laws parents visited from China and were fascinated by our van. In China there is hardly any concept of camping let alone people living in a motorised vehicle. We are amazed by some of the countries that have shown interest . Places you just wouldn't think they would be interested such as KENYA, LEBANON, CHILE to name but a few. #soproud UPDATE Nov 2021 This sort of country / town breakdown is now done using sophisticated Google Analytics Still we know exactly why they are interested don't we, have your say via the comments, you just need to be logged in which is easy.

By keef & annie, Jun 28 2012 07:10AM See also Blog 50 for info Update 15/11/21 (Prior to WIX migration from Moonfruit) 52959 visitors Update 12/2/21 (Post flash removal via Firefox workaround) 40495 visitors Update 22/11/20 now via Google Analytics / Website Counter 36363 page views Update 8/11/17 20028 visits Update 18/8/16 Now 13255 visitors/ page views Update 10/8/13 Now have 2294 visitors from 59 countries. Please keep visiting and don't be afraid to leave some comments Update 29/12/12 Now 1450 visitors from 55 countries, the largest of which are the UK with 679 different visitors and the States with 473 different visitors. Then way behind that Canada with 47 and Ireland with 43, welcome to everyone, you are most welcome! Update 20/7/12 Now 800 visitors *smile* you are most welcome 28/6/12 Just had our 700th visitor to the blog and we have only been up and running a few months. That makes us SO PROUD. Why not join in and have your say. We are about to launch an article about the Motorhome Vs Caravan. We see more and more motorhomes on the road, we feel ,for obvious reasons, in favour of the motorhome but you may have a different view. Whether its an RV, Campervan or motorhome the thing it gives you over a caravan is speed of set up and flexibility to roam and not be focused on a radius from one point i.e. the campsite where you have detached your caravan to use the car. Depends of course what you want, we want to explore and love the fact that if we like somewhere we stay for a few days , if not we move on #freedom #soproud Note Slideshow includes comments on this Blog from the old website

By keef and annie hellinger, Mar 10 2015 10:33AM Not the motorhome trip No 14 (a retrospective, hence out of order) Whilst processing some of our old photos for our family tree I came across some reasonable old scenery pictures of our family holiday to the greek island of crete way back when in 1988. See the picture in the slideshow of the self catering apartments (Argo) we stayed in. Just off the very steep and dangerous beach outside Rethymon town. We walked back into the safe swimming area in the harbour with the boys. Also we hired both a jeep and a car to see lots more of the island, Knossos, Ag Nik, Sumarian Gorge, Phaistos, Mallia, Omolaos, Plains of Messara, North, central and southern areas (although the south is much less easier to travel around by road - boat mostly) It was a fun family holiday when the boys were quite young and nice to remember almost 30 years ago! Note you can also see this on the FAMILY page if you look by year along with many other family fun times, maybe give it a look

by keef & annie hellinger 11 Feb 2021, 15.32 pm We are very lucky parents, for Christmas Craig and Leanne very kindly bought us a present of membership to the newly created online wine tasting club. Once a month 2 small cardboard boxes arrive (one each) inside which is a further 5 smaller cardboard boxes each containing about one half a glass of wine...white, red, rose, sherry etc....ready for tasting. Accompanying that our heroes Jamie & Alex hold a zoom conference once a month focusing on those wines all from one selected country and wine growing regions within that country. So far we have had the pleasure of experiencing Spain & New Zealand. Next month is scheduled to be our fave wine area in the world Australia.The presentation is a combination of videos of the region, interviews / chats with the wine growers from the selected vineyards / wineries, and discussion / advice by our heroes from what counts as a studio but looks more like the outroom in their wine warehouse. Wine tasting could be very pseudie but this is very relaxed and nothing like that formal. Indeed Jamie did what can only be described as a sea shanty dressed as santa last night, whatever next, most entertaining oh and of course there is the wines to sample at the same time. We have so far always ended up being more than a little pickled, lightweights that we are on the drinking front. So we thought we had leant from our fellow attendees, there is a chat facility running alongside the viewing, and decided to employ cheese and bikkies with grapes to accompany our tastings. Still pickled at the end I'm afraid, but more than happy. The hosts also throw in a few quizzes along the way, all very light hearted and fun. They announced last night that even though they have only been going for about a year that they had won a new business award. Well done folks, in our humble opinion that is very well deserved. Love it , looking forward to the next tasting already. If you wish to have a look at their website, whilst agreed very little motorhoming is going on now, please click HERE Update 15 April 2021:- after the splendid session on Chile, whose wine we know next to nothing about we ordered our 1st few bottles from the club 2 of the truly wonderful Odfjell's Carmenere grape and 1 of the Vina la Causa Pais grape, both of which grape types we had never heard of before. Looking forward to supping. The Sav Blanc from the desert was a very interesting taste as well, all in all great fun as we have with our cheese and bikkies whilst listening. The Oz one the previous month was via Zoom and failed miserably tech wise so from this one on its all You Tube Live, seemed to work perfectly! Update 12 May 2021;- South Africa, entirely new packaging and 3rd presenter, Caroline who was behind the scenes earlier joins Jamie & Alex , good news plus and here's the really good bit for us amateur alcoholics, glossy new brochure - (see images on the picture show) and 6 wines to try rather than 5 and each increased to 75mls rather than the old 65ml... hic. Oh and the absolute best wine was the CabSav by the 1st black lady winemaker in South Africa Ntsiki Biyela of Aslina winery (progress BIG TICK!) PS as is often the case "they saved the best 'til last". Update and sadly our last club membership after 6 months, UK vs the rest 9 June 2021 ;- Jamie & Alex compared 2 roses - Greece & Kent, Kent won for us hands down, the Greek one had the mustiness and harshness of some of my old Boots homemade wines before I discovered adding grape juice to die down the roughness then 2 whites Austrian vs Norfolk, Annie liked the Riesling type from Austria (no3) I loved the Bacchus grape (which I'd never heard of) especially its elderflower taste notes and finally 2 reds , Chile (one of my fave newly discovered Wine regions (see our Chile tastings session 4 here) and Kent, Annie liked neither I thought the Chilean Pinot Noir was by far the best of the night but if I was forced to chose on an entirely UK supporting basis I would have gone for the Norfolk white. Some nice videos of the country plus interviews again with the wine growers of Norfolk & Kent. Overall now we have finished our 6 months we have to thank Craig & Leanne again for such a fab pressie, during lockdown it made you feel like you were travelling abroad again from the comfort (& cheese & bikkies) of your kitchen with iPad x Surprise UPDATE 14 July 2021 and we were not expecting this , a single pack for the German discoverer series arrived (did they get this wrong?) who knows but never look a gift horse in the mouth so we decided to join Alex & Jamie for one last time, forget your 70's Blue Nun and Black Tower & Black Forest gateaux (apparently so popular back then because it went well with Auslese ,the sweetest categorisation of wines in Germany, Rieslings)... we got the cheese board, bikkies and iPad at the ready for 8pm... You Tube...The Online Wine Club, and hic twas interesting, lovely to see the scenery, talk to the first female sisters from their vineyard on the slopes of Platz (Jamie could not get a word in edgeways tee hee)... There are some nice wines in Germany, Keef didn't like the sweet ones. Overall Annie's fave was the Riesling, Keefs the Scheurebe (one from the sisters). Another fun night, thx again C&L even if you (and we) didn't know this one was coming x Yet another surprise UPDATE 11 August 2021. The wines of Argentina. This really really will be the last one, Criag has now stopped our subscription, we werent expecting this one so a real treat. Now everyone knows about Argentinian Malbec but on this voyage of discovery we have found the Bonarda grape. Bit like our discovery of the Chilean Carmenere grape, a real taste hit. Even their Sav Blanc was nice, quite different from our fave Kiwi Marlborough but nice just the same. With wine tasting the real key is everyone's palette is different, noted by the different likes Annie and I have as they say I'm dry, she is sweet. 😉 For quite a while now they have an online Tag map for taste recognitions by the audience, mostly all very sensible (i.e Blackcurrant, Gooseberry and if I may say pseudie (i.e Jilly Goolden's "like a wild spring meadow in a basket" ) but one that sticks in the mind overall was "dog urine"... how would they know one wonders? how tasteless , literally :) , oh and I remember Jamie saying after the numerous awards they have got (rightly) that he got to hold Oz Clarke's jacket tee hee!. Thanks for looking.

By keef and annie hellinger, Dec 11 2020 06:13PM UPDATE 2nd May 2022 Completely replaced by Blog 179 1) a new search process alongside the TAG MAP and INDEXES to allow you to search by Year across all our Blogs. If you want to try it out, please CLICK HERE this makes it so much easier to find all the blogs that refer to a specific Year 2) a new search process alongside the TAG MAP to allow you to search by UK county, UK Country, all Blogs for the UK or Non UK Countries. If you want to try it out, please CLICK HERE this makes it so much easier to find all the blogs that refer to a specific UK county or country i.e England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Island 3) a Book of Blogs created to enable one to download the complete set of Blogs as an offline PDF so one can read it all at one’s leisure wherever one wants without the need for a broadband / wifi service i.e no need to be online Go directly to the new page on the site to get that download HERE Feb 2021: All images from Blogs 68-145 now available in responsive code, click HERE these facility were introduced to the website july 2021 but this blog is retrospectively included under the older style blogs i.e pre dec 2020 to 1) try out all the functionality of Moonfruit's Blogging code prior to swapping to WIX 2) because I believe it is a useful search facility and I wish to see how it is embraced when migrated to new code in 2021 3) if you wish to peruse blog tag’s after 2020 please click HERE, thanks thanks for looking do hope it helps UPDATED 11/11/21 All of these search facilities are now superseded by functionality within WIX to use both search and TAGs across the whole set of blogs (i.e 1-158) the first time since I started the blog both combining the 2 sites (.net & .co.uk) and creating Blog categories to show automatically by year

By keef and annie hellinger, Jun 15 2018 05:53PM Not the Motorhome trip No 10 : 26th May & London – 12th June 2018 Doug and Phoenix and Charlie visited from Singapore to the UK in May / June 2018. Luckily Craig, Leanne & Edie were off for the 1st week so were able to join in. Such lovely family times. We visited amongst others Supernan, Legoland Windsor, White Post Farm, Twycross Zoo, Strawberry Fields Forever, Heights of Abraham, Bolsover Castle, The Luminarium, Sawley Marina.... such wonderful family times !!!! If you want to see the full saga of events you can also look at our FAMILY page here on the site or better still go to the slideshows starting now or the "talkies", videos with speech, click HERE The Talkies #family #funtimes #nottinghamshire #legoland

By keef and annie hellinger, Jan 3 2017 08:04AM Not the motorhome trip No 7 Lovely time spent with our immediate family. The Singapore Division were over from 19th Dec to 3rd Jan so we had a fab time initially taking Charlie to Peppa Pig World in Hampshire, then besides Xmas & Boxing day dinner we had a visit to the santa special steam train in Leicestershire. The grand daughters both got a pressie from Santa Want to see the slideshows, one of which is a talkie, see below, you can also see many more on the FAMILY page , either the full Christmas set or have a look by year via the side bar Enjoy #family #christmas

By keef and annie hellinger, Apr 27 2016 10:42AM Just love it, watch the video and weep, its very clever Tagged as europe as Eire is still in the european union, even though sadly the UK isnt, we were in norway when a lovely dutch guy told me first thing in the morning that we were no longer europeans, boo!