Happy half birthday to the Kiwi Blog Bus
I just looked in my diary and I have a note that it is exactly six months since I first posted on this blog!
So…. 107 posts later…. 14,213 hits…. visitors from 104 countries … 460 followers… and …..
I’m still totally addicted to it all !!
I love travelling, seeing new places….. seeing old places, taking photographs
I love writing and sharing my (often useless) banter with you all
I love how so many of you like to get back in touch with me about anything or nothing in particular
I love my Kiwi Blog Bus and long may it continue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4p8qxGbpOk
Thank you to all my readers, followers and one-off visitors
I hope you found something here that you liked or were inspired by
I hope that something I wrote about has helped you make a great decision of your own
I hope that you can travel to wonderful places, see beautiful sights and meet amazing people
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr Seuss
Share this:
A little bit of Kiwiana
From the Kiwi Annison Archives
Back in April this year we travelled down to Waitomo and further on to the west coast – see Magnificent meanderings to Marokopa. On our way down we went through Otorohanga , the official Kiwiana town.
So those of you not in New Zealand may now be scratching your heads and wondering what the heck is kiwiana. Read More…
Share this:
Sometimes the best things in life really are free
One of the big things we noticed when we moved to New Zealand from the UK in 2008 was the fantastic and plentiful array of kids playgrounds here.
It may seem like an insignificant thing but when you have three kids who have usually seen broken, graffiti covered, litter strewn playgrounds that normally contained a set of broken swings and nothing too adventurous that you could potentially injure yourself on – then it all came as a breath of fresh air.
Thames playground
Before I get jumped on and all the UK peeps shout at me…. yes, I agree there were SOME nice parks and playgrounds for kids. But I am speaking my opinion when I say that while we lived and travelled around the UK I can honestly say that the large majority of playgrounds were either in undesirable areas or visited by undesirables who used for undesirable purposes.
Sad but true.
Another huge difference for us here was the school grounds. Read More…
Share this:
Soak up some of New Zealand’s social history
From the Kiwi Annison Archives….
I have a new project at work, and I love it.
As part of my Communications role at Mystery Creek Events Centre, I am to help promote the wonderful Ag Heritage Village; a fantastic destination for school and group visits which offers a unique glimpse into New Zealand’s pioneering past.
I find this kind of social history absolutely fascinating, a fact you may have gathered if you are one of my regular blog readers!
Share this:
A little place we like to go (infamous for doing it in public)
From the Kiwi Annison Archives:
In one of my strangely popular (!) posts Doing it in public, I mention briefly a wonderful little spot that we quite often like to visit.
Today I give further, deserved, attention to Fergusson Park in Tauranga.
As well as BBQs and a fantastic playground, the large waterside sports field has toilets, changing rooms, a boat ramp and is a very popular area for kiteboarding and windsurfing.
We were drawn there by this… Read More…
Share this:
Fieldays update
Following my last post, Lots of people have asked me for photos and an update after the big event that is … Fieldays – the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agribusiness exhibition at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton New Zealand.
Now I’m sorry to disappoint but I cannot post lots of fantastic pictures that I took over my time (working) at the four-day event. I didn’t get time to take ANY.
So I will instead briefly report that the whole event was a huge success; the brief showers on Friday quickly disappeared, the sun shone, the frost twinkled, abundant coffee was drunk, the fantastic communications team (!) at Mystery Creek Events Centre were shooting out press releases, tweets and Facebook messages in all directions – and the people came. Visitor numbers were up 9% on 2011 and everyone seemed pretty happy.
If you would like to see some fantastic pictures (not taken by me) I can do nothing better than refer you to Fieldays own Facebook page where some wonderful person has loaded up professional photos that are quite frankly, pretty awesome.
Have a look.
And put 12-15 June 2013 in your calendar so you can visit the next Fieldays.
(and fingers crossed I shall be recovered and recuperated enough to do a Kiwi Blog Bus post at the weekend!)
Share this:
Rattle ya’ dags! Get your gumboots on and get to Mystery Creek
Ok – I’ll admit it now… this post has pretty much nothing to do with the Kiwi Blog Bus.
BUT… it’s about a pretty cool annual event in New Zealand and a great place to have a day out – that happens to be only 10 mins away from where we live so we don’t have any need to go in our bus – acceptable reason?
Fieldays is the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere – it is also held at Mystery Creek Event Centre – which happens to be where I now work in a Communications role so that may just be the other reason for this post! Read More…
Share this:
Minniesdale Chapel and the brave pioneers of Albertland, New Zealand
A spur of the minute decision we made on a trip in April 2011 took us to a place that roused my emotions and stirred my hidden pioneer spirit.
Minniesdale Chapel, Port Albert
Share this:
100th post! (and an explanation)
I’ve made it to 100 blog posts!
It is 19 weeks today since I first pressed that big blue “Publish” button and launched the Kiwi Blog Bus on the big world-wide web.
If you have followed me since early on then you’ll remember my amazement when the blog quickly took off and established a (small and friendly!) readership around the globe!
The blog stats became the first thing I checked online each day and the flag counter was closely monitored as it ticked its way upwards (it’s currently on 92).
I love to blog about our travels in the Kiwi Blog Bus and have managed a few short, brief posts while we’ve been on the road; tackling the longer more detailed descriptions from home at a later date.
Winter has snuck up on us now in New Zealand and we may not be out on the road quite so much until it warms up a bit (having no heating at all in the bus!).
I will continue to post from The Kiwi Annison Archives as we’ve still quite a selection of trips to tell you about and heaps and heaps of photographs to work through.
Kiwi Annison and Pip the dog
But the other reason for this post is to mention that I have now graduated (Diploma in Journalism) and found full-time employment (yay!) so I have to admit the free time I had for blogging is beginning to dwindle a little!
I hope to still get a post up every week and perhaps you’d like to become one of my blog ‘followers’ just to make sure you don’t miss it!
Thank you and hope you stay tuned.
Share this:
Tarawera Falls, one of the best walks in New Zealand
From the Kiwi Annison Archives…..
In December 2010 we made a special visit to Lake Tarawera’s eastern shores.
We had previously been to the western side of the lake (read Lake Tarawera and the Buried Village) but the journey to Tarawera Outlet required us to travel via Kawerau (off SH 30 between Rotorua and Whakatane) where we had to obtain a permit to travel on the private forestry road to the lake. Read More…
Share this:
<
Kiwi Blog Bus
Campervan tales from New Zealand
The Kiwi Blog Bus - campervan tales from New Zealand 