There are numerous blog posts for recommendation on places to stay. You are almost too spoilt for choice in Bali. There are many types at all levels that you would almost guaranteed to find one that you like. However, during our search for “Bali’s best places to stay with young children”, we didn’t see the Pullman Hotel come up, so I thought I would start this blog series from here.
Why we chose the Pullman Bali Legian Nirwana Hotel: Continue reading
We’re only on our second full day in Japan today and we have done soooo much! Summer night dancing festival, dressed up in a Yukata (a summer kimono), had a 10-course dinner banquet, did loads of sightseeing, and ate copious amounts of food. We’ve also spent heaps on the vending machines, making the difficult decision of only choosing one drink at a time 🙂
I am missing Little E a lot! It is difficult when I see little children around his age cuddling up to their parents. Or running around having fun. I feel like we should have brought him with us. Everything I look for at the shops are for him, and it was hard not to as everything here are just too adorable! However, my in laws are wonderful at keeping me up to date with photos and messages about him. By the sounds of it, he is behaving himself, going back to having full nights of sleeps!
I also appreciate this opportunity of being me again, enjoying the company of my husband and my family members. It is nice to have undisturbed sleep and not to follow a routine 🙂
I am having a great time here, Japan is almost like my (third) home. I hope to continue to post photos of this holiday and take you all with me 🙂
The drive to Queenstown were relatively easy. Little E slept most of the way and when he was awake, he was happy looking around. The only “exciting” thing that happened was a hawk flew at us, hitting the windscreen then scratched the whole of the roof. We found out later that a group of our friends had similar encounter too. Silly hawks.
We made a lunch stop at Cromwell, as Mr E wanted to check out the motorcar park. Owned by a man from the Gold Coast, QLD, the place reeked of fancy schmancy cars and revheads. Interesting indeed, but Mr E liked it and the food were delicious (though pricey).
Another quick drive through was to Arrowtown. We went just as some sort of cycling event was finishing so the whole place was hectic and crazy. Definitely not something I wanted to deal with after a long drive. Arrowtown was beautiful though, a quaint little town with little shops. It is an option for something to do while in Queenstown 🙂
Now, onto Queenstown. I won’t go into details of each day we were there, just to keep this post unrambly.
A view from up above – Milford Sound Flight
A view from the gondola ride at Queenstown Skyline
Tips:
Make sure you organise the Milford Sound flight on the first day you’re there as it will get cancelled if the weather isn’t right.
Suggested activities that I would have liked to do given the opportunity and/or other activities available:
Accommodation
The Whistler ApartmentsLoved this one bedroom apartment that our family friend suggested. It had a full kitchen, which we made use of as Queenstown is expensive! Close to the main part of town but still away from the noise. You can walk to the other supermarketnot in town for cheaper grocery 🙂 The apartment also comes with a washing machine and a dryer. The perfect family accommodation 🙂
Of all the cities/towns we went to in our trip, Queenstown has got to be my favourite! A definite must-go city when you’re in the country 🙂 Though probably the most expensive, everyone we met was happy and friendly, the atmosphere welcoming and fun. We were there for 4 nights, 3 days and I felt like it gave us enough time to explore the place and do the things we want to (and can) do at a leisurely pace 🙂
On a separate note, here’s my photo for day 12 of 100.
Little E loved the chicken dish I made that he hardly made a mess even though it came with rice and he fed himself! He ate all the chicken pieces I gave him. All.of.them! An absolute success in my books! In this photo, he was being impatient for seconds 🙂
We made an ultra early start towards Rotorua as we wanted to catch the Lady Knox geyser being manually erupted. The drive is around 3.5hrs from Auckland to the Thermal Wonderland (it’s about 30mins south of Rotorua CBD) and we made it just in the knick of time. We all liked seeing the geyser erupting, it was pretty fun to see while it lasted (it didn’t erupt for very long). Little E was mesmerised by all the commotion and the clapping 🙂 After seeing the geyser, we went to the wonderland itself and it was amazing! I have not seen anything like it, the colours and the bubbling sound.. oh and of course, the smell? It’s spectacular! Little E didn’t really like it all that much, I guess it was pretty boring for him, being stuck in his pram the whole time. He did enjoy walking around the shops afterwards though 🙂
Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland
We made our way to the Rotorua CBD for lunch and went straight to Hennessy’s Irish Bar. It was highly recommended by my brother and sister inlaw from when they went. I was told that the mussels were really good so that was what I had. Little E had a great time making himself comfortable at the pub, charming the pub lady while he was at it. She liked him so much that she gave him four marshmallows! There goes my rule of “no sweets until he’s 15” 😉
They forgot to take a photo of it for me when they went, so he drew me a picture instead lol What do you think of my brother inlaw’s sketch of the dish (insert)? 🙂
After lunch and a quick look around at the shops, we went to the supermarket to get some supplies. We had booked a room with a full kitchen, in an attempt to not eat out too much and maintain some sort of healthy eating for Little E. I absolutely loved our accommodation, especially the huge outdoor spa (more on this below). After checking in, we made our way to Rotorua museum, a beautiful building full of equally beautiful exhibit. It is full of Maori cultural information/stories and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Though he would enjoy museums later when he’s a little older, Little E had great fun running around the place, making friends with some of the other patrons there.
The beautiful building – Rotorua Museum
That night, we made great use of the playground, the spa and the free videos on offer.
The next day, we got up bright and early for the Hobbiton tour. This was the first thing that we booked and paid for after we bought our tickets to NZ 🙂 I enjoyed the tour immensely, even when Little E had his worst ever tantrum in his life so far! We did make him pose a lot, as he is at the perfect height for a hobbit 🙂 I’m also sure that there are a lot of people who has photos of him dressed up as a hobbit at the Green Dragon Inn. We got there as a big tour group of oldies were enjoying their complementary beer, and they were so delighted watching Little E toddling around in his outfit, pretty much all of them whipped out their cameras and started clicking lol
I won’t say too much of the tour as it is something that you gotta experience yourself, but I can now appreciate the sheer amount of work that goes into filming such big-budget movie. Oh, and that Peter Jackson sounded like a really pedantic dude who has a high attention to detail. I really think that it is worth going to the Hobbiton, and given the opportunity, I would go there again and again 🙂 One of my favourite stories told to us that day was of a 2.2m tall German guy who came dressing up as a hobbit. When asked why he didn’t dress up as Gandalf, he answered “I wish to be a hobbit”. Fair enough! This same guy apparently refused to leave the Hobbiton, telling the staff there that he was home and they can’t possibly kick him out. When the staff finally coaxed him out, he told them that he was going to help Frodo look for “the ring” lol I love crazy people!
We were dropped off at our motel after the tour, and after a quick and easy lunch at the motel, we went to the big playground by the water. It was another awesome NZ playground, full of squealing kids 🙂 Little E particularly loved all the seagulls around, and had great fun chasing them around. We contemplated going to see another attraction in town, but we enjoyed seeing Little E played there that we decided to stay. After he had enough fun terrorising the poor seagulls, we had another look around at the shops before dinner at Brew (more details below).
Dinner was soon followed by ice cream for dessert then another run around at the park before another bath in the outdoor spa back in the motel.
Activities Summary:
Tips and hints:
Restaurant Suggestion:
All three of us enjoyed our meals at Brew, a craft brewery place in “Eat Street”. The restaurant is child-friendly, the waiter was super patient and friendly with Little E, the food was good and if you or your travelling buddy loves beer, I heard the beers weren’t bad either 🙂 Right across from it is Lady Jane’s ice creamery where you can have your choice of ice cream from the 25 or so flavours there.
We also liked the Hennessy’s Irish Bar for simple hearty pub meals and fresh cold ones. As mentioned above, the pub lady was very friendly and super duper nice to Little E. So despite it being a pub catering for adults, it was still child-friendly. Little E was able to share our meals (the serving size was huge) and we got to enjoy our lunch!
Accommodation:
It was difficult to choose an accommodation in Rotorua as there were a lot! We went to Tripadvisor for help but was innundated with too many people’s differing opinions. In the end, Mr E found Arista of Rotorua through a random forum and we booked it. I loved the room we had, it was in a loft-style room, with the beds upstairs. It came with an outdoor spa, which came really handy for Little E. The motel also had a big playground, though it was a little dilapidated and needed cleaning. The room itself was clean and recently refurbished. The housekeeping ladies were very friendly and accommodating with our requests. It is a little far from the Rotorua CBD, though it wasn’t a problem for us, because we had a car. Depending on where you’re going next and when, I would suggest you don’t do any laundry at the motel as it was expensive! NZD4 for the washing machine and another NZD4 for the dryer.
What we found in one of the souvenir shops – wut wut?
I have to say that Rotorua was one of my favourite spots we went to in NZ. I expected the smell to be a lot more pungent than it was, in fact, after only a couple of hours, my nose got used to it that I couldn’t smell it anymore. I would call Rotorua as a must-visit city, only because you need to go to the Hobbiton and also experience the sulphuric experiences 🙂 For my other posts on our New Zealand trip, please click here.
Activities/Things we did
On our first full day in Auckland, we started the day very early for Canberra time as Little E adjusted to the time difference almost immediately. We had a leisurely breakfast then made our way to the French market around the corner. We didn’t buy anything though there were many things that looked delicious, especially the cronut!
Cronutttttssss!
We walked towards the ferry terminal to do a day trip to Davenport. A sea side town across the harbour, lined with shops, cafés and restaurants. Little E absolutely loved the ferry trip, he laughed the entire trip, pointing at the seagulls, clapping. Despite the fact that it was windy and cold, he didn’t stop smiling.
Once we got there, we made our way to the lookout point of North Head. It was such a hike! Pushing a sleeping baby up a steep hill is definitely a great work out. We got a nice view of Davenport, the water and Auckland. After a quick look around and loads of photos, we descended down the hill towards the playground.
Things to do in Devonport
As it was a Sunday, there were plenty of families with young children. I believe the local council organised a treasure hunt for the older kids. Such fun! While Little E played, we enjoyed some much deserved coffee and hot chocolate. Once Little E had enough of playing (and getting slightly pushed over by some unruly older children) we had a quick look at a craft market that happened to be on. We didn’t get much from there, just a couple of jars of feijoa jam – a fruit that tastes almost like guava.
We caught the ferry back to Auckland, which Little E equally enjoyed. We had lunch at what-was-advertised-as the “Largest Asian Food Alley” in the Southern Hemisphere. There were 13 food joints, but we just couldn’t go past the Indonesian food joint 🙂 Little E had an extraordinary amount of food for lunch! My little Indo boy 😉
Little E’s favourite Indo dish
We then spent the rest of the day poking around all the shops in Auckland CBD as Little E needed to nap – a great time to shop indeed! On that note, if you ever need (free) hot drinks or cold water and a clean place to change the baby, Galleria Duty Free is the place to be 😉 😉 😉
What we found in Galleria – wut wut?
We went back to our accommodation in time for Little E’s dinner. We didn’t want to overtire him on his first day of holiday, in fear of him being cranky for the rest of the trip!
Activities summary:
La Cigale French Market
A ferry ride to Davenport – a walk to North Head for beautiful view of Auckland, an amazing playground, little seaside shops and a craft market
Lunch at the “Largest Asian Food Alley”
A walk through Auckland CBD
I reckon we could’ve spent an extra day in Auckland, as there were two places we wanted to go to for Little E. The aquarium and the water park at the Rose Gardens. Maybe the next time 🙂
Accommodation
We had a hard time finding accommodations that ticked all our boxes for this trip. It is our first overseas trip with a baby and we really couldn’t afford to mess up with sleeping arrangements – if he doesn’t sleep, we don’t either. Not good when you have full days of activities 🙂
The days that we were in Auckland also coincided with the Pacific Princess cruise ship. Most reasonable-priced rooms (that could fit a portacot comfortably) were booked out and we really don’t want to stay too far away from the CBD. We then found this guy from AirBnB. It was perfect for us, the place was easy to find, the room was massive (we could fit the portacot in and still have plenty of room to be comfortable), and the hosts friendly. Since the place isn’t specifically decorated for kids, we did have to be extra watchful of Little E though. There were knickknacks within arm’s reach, and cactuses all around the garden. However, of course, it is someone’s house, so we had to be respectful anyway 🙂 All in all, being our first experience with AirBnB, it was a good one and I reckon we’re going to do it again for our future travels.
We enjoyed our short time in Auckland, it felt like we were still in Australia, with some shops getting a name change (Countdown instead of Woolworths, etc). If I can compare it with another city, I would say it is like Sydney. Though I could not say that it’s a must-visit city, given the chance, I would go there again 🙂
I hope you enjoy this first series of my NZ travel posts, and hopefully it gives you the inspiration to go 🙂 In case you missed it, read here for reasons why I think NZ is a great child-friendly country to visit.
For more of my other NZ posts, please click here 🙂
We just got back from our first overseas holiday with the little guy and we thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand. It was a great introduction to a family holiday for us, as it isn’t too far to get to and it isn’t too “foreign” either, making it an easy trip with a baby.
Here are reasons for why New Zealand is such a great place to visit with the little ones:
Playing at the castle grounds
Tips and Tricks we found useful:
One thing that I noticed and made me fully appreciate the effort the Australian government has done in regards to limiting smokers area, is the number of people lighting up around children in NZ. There were a few times when we had the table next to us at restaurant with people smoking, even when they saw Little E sitting a mere foot step away.
All in all, I would definitely recommend NZ as a family holiday destination with young children – that is if they’re okay with a lot of driving 🙂 I will do a NZ travel series of blog posts in the next few weeks, just in case any of you would find it useful for your future trips 😉 I hope that you are all healthy and happy, I do apologise for the lack of posts during my travels. Though we got free wifi in most places, by the time we got to the hotel, I just want to lie in bed and be a blob 🙂
Have a great rest of the weekend, everybody!
This is our view this morning as we sip our hot coffees and watching Little E picking up rocks in the playground. Queenstown really is such a beautiful place. It reminds us of Switzerland, with its snow capped mountains views. I can’t help but feel very blessed and thankful.
Eating as much chocolate samples at the Cadbury Factory tour
Then climbing the world’s steepest street – Baldwin St.
Loving Dunedin so far, this city reminds us so much of Europe. So beautiful and picturesque 🙂 I hope you are all happy and healthy.
Lady Knox geyser at the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland – waiting for the eruption, artificially induced using natural soap. Little E loved it so much, he continued clapping on the way back to the car!
The Hobbiton!!! I don’t think I need much more explanation or reasons why this is one of the trip highlights so far. At least for me. Little E didn’t really enjoy the tour as he was made to pose in almost each of the Hobbit holes. We also kept on having to go in the opposite direction he wanted to go to 🙂
We’re off to Dunedin in the morning!
We made it to Auckland and have enjoyed a full jam-packed day in the city. Here’s a photo of my men on a ferry on the way to Devonport. Little E loved the journey and he couldn’t stop laughing 🙂
More posts to come when I get better Internet access. Stay happy, everybody! 🙂
The Unicorn Mum 