T-H-R-E-E M-O-N-T-H-S review!!!
A pin to make life easier!
Okay, let me freak out a bit… THREE MONTHS ON THE ROAD, ALREADY??? I can’t really believe it’s been this long! Time flew way too fast – most of the time, of course. Crazy!
The places…
During these 3 months, we’ve been to Tongariro National Park Village, Auckland, Mount Maunganui, Wellington, Golden Bay, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and now Kingston, all in NZ. On the last review, we were in Kaikoura. This month we reached the southernmost point in South Island. We’re already going slowly north again.
We’ve found a few accommodation options that matched our budget, but most of them don’t, so we’ve been trying to compensate with free and cheap day outs. It works great mostly, but in some places (like Queenstown), there’s nothing besides the odd park. We’ve been trying to find the cheap and free stuff to do, and it’s been meaning that we’ve been doing loads of research that takes us to walks and drives, parks, playgrounds, and beaches. We do the odd movie, but mostly, we’ve been sticking to the free stuff. Most of the places offer museums, but some places offer nothing for free (or even cheaply).
Joao, Jose, and Coral playing in the waters of Lake Wakatipu in Kingston’s winter
Challenges….
This was a month where we had 2 amazing, perfect houses and 2… strange stays: the outside toilet and the rats.
It’s also winter, and it’s really cold here in the South Island of NZ. But it’s not cold in general. There are places where we thought we would freeze (like Bluff, south of Invercargill) and it was chilly, but not as much as Queenstown.
We went from wearing 3 layers to 5 on this last month – when going out, of course. Even Angelo needed his jacket on the last 2 outings.
We were really tired by the time we got to Dunedin, and the weather in that week was the worst we got so far. We’re still tired, but getting used to it (or getting more efficient).
We’ve been getting better at cooking fast and easy stuff in different kitchens and getting used to the supermarket ready made food. Food is probably my weak point, as I love eating out and it’s mostly always very expensive, and not always good.
Jose reading the signs at Stirling Point, Bluff
The kids….
We’ve noticed that Jose’s been playing a lot more with Coral and Melissa, instead of only Joao. Melissa’s also been spending more time in the common rooms, not so locked out in her room all day long. Joao, on the other hand, has been spending a lot of time in his bed, reading in his Kobo
We’ve started doing the Surya Namaskar (yoga’s Sun Salutation) every morning and free writing after lunch (or dinner, if we’ve been out). I hope they’ll get used to it and do it always. So far, it’s been fun and everyone’s enjoying.
The grown-ups….
Angelo and I have been really busy because we started an online course, Angelo’s still working on his job and he’s starting his own business in the next months. We’ve been trying to learn all the new things we need to learn in order to make this blog better. And we have 4 homeschooled children and trips to plan every week. We’ve been sleeping less than we would like to, but we’re trying to find a good routine for everyone.
The money….
Talking about money, in this third month, we spent NZ$ 2904 with accommodation, NZ$ 496 with gas and NZ$ 1049 in groceries, NZ$ 974 in restaurants. We also spent NZ$ 321 in activities. Still not much improvement here.
Imagination Lab, in Christchurch. They were trying to figure out how it worked.
For you…
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Nossa, achei super cara a sua despesa mensal. Mas se for pensar que são 6 pessoas, alivia um pouco. Ainda assim acho caro.
Quero dicas sobre cozinhar em cozinhas diversas. Quando vou viajar a trabalho, geralmente alugo um apartamento ao invés de pegar hotel, só que não uso a cozinha pq tenho nojo e preguiça de comprar um monte de coisas, das quais vou usar bem pouco…
Sim, é caro, mas a NZ é cara. Se fossem duas pessoas, daria pra encotrar casa por menos da metade do valor, mas como somos em 6, fica sempre caro, mesmo.