3happinesshunters

The Farm 🐄🐖🐓🐈🐎🐕🐀

The Farm – a truly special place!
Looking for a place off the beaten track we found ‚The Farm‘, a family run place near the Bay of Islands. We arrived at this dairy farm after following the beautiful Russel Road, a steep and windy way with outstanding views, along Helena & Whangaruru Bay.

Mike & Ellen and their kids formed, together with Wwoofers & volunteers, a community that celebrates rural life.
A diary farm in the first place, but also a destiny for horse lovers, surfers and Yogies, all under one roof. Maori traditions & crafts are lived here to the fullest…in one word: Outstanding!

7. März 2020 0

Waterfalls & Coffee stops

Heading to the east coast we had some lovely stopovers at Matakana and Whangarei.
At Plume Cafe, a real gem when it comes to coffee & lunch, we had a longer stop that lasted from late morning till early afternoon. An entertaining rooster 🐓 in the garden (named Henry, and he was on diet 😅) and lovely shops around the marketplace in Matakana needed time to be explored.

In Whangarei we found a beautiful loop walk around the local waterfall and the chance for our first family picture. Due to the drought over the last few month here on the north island the waterfall wasn’t as impressive as it could have been but it was still nice and definitely worth the stop.

3. März 2020 1

Piha – Surfers Paradies 🏄‍♀️ 🏄

The first stop and a perfect place to get used to our Campervan was Piha. Situated at the west coast, the little village is just a short drive away from Auckland and a go-to spot when it comes to surfing and dramatic scenery (‚The Piano’ was filmed here).

Lions Rock – a gigantic, well, yeah, rock shaped like a lion – divides the long black sanded Piha Beach into two sections.

The local Surf Shop served excellent coffee and minced & cheese pastries. Amélie got her first ‚Jandals‘ ever (Japanese Sandals as the Kiwis say…aka Flip–Flops), Peter got new boardshorts.

And one of us was brave enough to go for the first swim in the ocean… 🙂

1. März 2020 0

Aotearoa – the land of the long white cloud ☁️

Finally we are back in New Zealand, five years after our first trip and constant complaints from Amélie she couldn’t remember…😅

After 3 flights, from Munich to Dubai, Dubai to Denpasar, Denpasar to Auckland, we spend some days in the City of Sails, aka Auckland.

We enjoyed the Space Needle, Mount Eden (Auckland’s highest natural volcanic point with 196m), Harbour Area & Silo Park and dived in into the relaxed lifestyle & yummy eateries. And believe me, there are plenty of them. The Kiwis know something about good food & coffee (flat white) 😋

Not to forget the excellent & creative playgrounds…

Always with us our travel companion, Rainbow Ruby🪁 🌈 , the kite.

29. Februar 2020 0

Birthday Bash

In a nutshell: 5 years old, 2 parties, 12 kids, lot‘s of sun & presets and tons of sweeties…

A surprise party on Amélie’s birthday during the week at our local playground, followed by the „official“ one on the weekend. On both days we where blessed with sunshine!

Sack races, hobbyhorse making, egg–and–spoon race, ˋMohrenkopf–Schleuder´ or, in the attempt to translate something non-translatable: a kind of small chocolate–covered cake filled with foamy sugar slingshot game :–)

It was a blast!

20. März 2019 0

Skiing in Tyrol

Vacation–time is Blog–time 😉

We finally managed to go skiing in the Alps.

Our little ski bunny Amélie rapidly developed her skills and calls herself now a Wintersport enthusiastic. It didn’t take her long to manage the t-bar lift, which made her grow a couple of centimeters simply out of proud (and the parents likewise). Equally, she’s already now into the wavy and sometimes bumpy little sideways next to the slopes. Yes, exactly, the ones that usually kids as of age 7 call their territory… I honestly thought we still would be spared a couple of years! And each afternoon she encouraged us to ski all the way down into the valley because taking the cable car downhill is something only little girls do!

One day the big camera 📸 found its way up into the mountains 🏔 and onto the slopes. This resulted in some decent shots with lots of snow and blue sky! But what am I writing here, go have a look yourself:

18. März 2019 0

Carnival or the fifth season of the year

Oh, this year Amélie was extremely enthusiastic to dress up and masquerade as penguin, clown, princess, fire fighter, witch…

Two weeks of daily changing costumes, countless kids festivals and parades, accompanied with the typical songs all day long granted a happy kid.

9. Februar 2019 0

Fire Balloon Goodbye

Der Urlaub neigt sich dem Ende und es wird Zeit Goodbye zu sagen!

Mit zwei Fire Ballons wurde der letzte Abend zelebriert. Meisterlich entzündet stiegen sie vom Strand aus in den Nachthimmel…

8. November 2017 0

Phang Nga

Der Ausflug zum Phang Nga Delta und den berühmten Kegelkarst Felsen stand heute an!

Los gehts mit Longtail Bootsfahrt zu dem James Bond Felsen Khao Ta Poo (Der Mann mit dem goldenen Colt) und dem Besuch der Muslim Village Koh Panyee, einer Stelzenstadt und ein beliebter Essensstopp. Vorbei an Felszeichnungen und bizarren und toll bewachsenen Felsen.