Bali with kids: tips and hints

If you want to introduce your young children to Asia, I reckon Bali makes a good choice. Singapore would be the best in terms of cleanliness and orderliness, but you won’t get the most bang for your buck like you would in Bali 🙂

I found Bali to be the most relaxed and easiest Asian holiday destinations for less than $150 a day (depending on your accommodation, obviously). Since it is basically an extension of Australia, you will be able to find most everyday things that you need there. Plus, with the strength of our dollar, you will get luxury for a lot less. There are heaps of cheap flights to Bali, and though there are also articles trying to persuade readers to ditch Bali, I reckon it will still be one of the most popular places to visit.

So, here are my tips for travelling to Bali with young children – based on my experience travelling with a 10 month old (not yet walking) baby and a 3 year old boy.

Nappy bag recommendation: Fjällräven Kanken Backpack

Now that I’ve used the bag for more than a month now, on a daily basis, I am happy to recommend

Child friendly food joint: Westside Acton Park

Little E is currently obsessed with his trike, so much so that

Updated Skincare Routine

Here’s my updated skincare routine now that I am in the “Mum of Two” (ie. even LESS me-time) category.

Holiday: Queenstown in Detail

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.

Activities we did and liked:

• A walk through the botanical garden and its playground – Little E absolutely loved the playground, so did we, as it is right by the water with the beautiful Queenstown backdrop. We visited it each day we were in town. The garden makes a nice stroll, one experience we enjoyed was watching a group of children having a race of what looked like boats made of recyclable materials (ie. Old milk bottles etc). You can’t help feel as excited when watching little people being excited 🙂
• Eat chocolatey dessert at Patagonia – a must do! Their churros were really delicious.
• A walk around the Queenstown main shops – lots of pretty and fancy shops. There’s a children’s clothes shop that I really had to leave very quickly as I wanted too many things and we really couldn’t spend that much money in one shop. I wish I did purchase something though.
• Appreciate the beauty of Queenstown by the water. It reminded me of the equally scenic Switzerland but less cold 😛

A view from up above – Milford Sound Flight

• Milford Sound – we did the flight/cruise/flight as I couldn’t do 9hrs+ in the bus with Little E. It is so much cheaper doing the bus but I just couldn’t do it. I cannot say that the trip was worth the money though. I enjoyed parts of the flights, when it wasn’t bumpy, and I liked the cruise, but only when I was outside (I get motion sickness). We saw a lonely penguin having a snooze and a few seals, though after our tour in Dunedin, it wasn’t as special 🙂 Both my boys enjoyed their time so I guess it was worth it for me to go.

A view from the gondola ride at Queenstown Skyline

• The reason we were in NZ was for our friends’ wedding as Little E was the ring bearer. I loved the wedding and had heaps of fun at the reception. Held at the Queenstown Skyline, we went on the gondola ride, marvel at the beauty of Queenstown view from up high and had a fab buffet meal. The food was absolutely delicious, so I would assume that the food served at the restaurant would be of the same quality. Yum! The Skyline is definitely a must do while in Queenstown 🙂
• Cookietime – delicious but expensive warm cookies, so make sure you keep an eye out on their Happy Hour times 🙂
• Fergburger – a must eat place. Deliciously awesome burger place but not exactly child friendly. Limited seats, definitely no high chairs, long queues but worth it.

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:

• The luge rides at the Skyline
• Putt Putt golf – a great rainy day activity as it’s indoor
• Kiwi Encounter for the bigger kids
• Gold panning in Arrowtown
• The many variety of water activities, such as jet boating, whitewater rafting, parasailing etc.

Accommodation

The Whistler Apartments
15 -17 Gorge Rd
Queenstown
ph: +64 3 409 0394

Loved 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 🙂

Fussy little eaters: Cauliflower Fritters

A dear friend gave us some cauliflower for Easter, along with a copy of a cauliflower fritters recipe. I finally gave it a try tonight and had great success with the boys. I adapted the recipe to our own palate and what we have in the pantry 🙂

Cauliflower Fritters

Ingredients:
450g cauliflower, chopped into little bits (see note)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup of SR flour
1 cup of shredded cheese
2 cloves of garlic, chopping
1tsp curry powder/paprika
Pepper
Oil to shallow fry

Method:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl
Spoon some mix into heated oil
Cook over low/medium heat until golden
Serve with yogurt/fruit chutney/chilli jam

Note:
I mixed some cooked pumpkin in my mix to make up the 450g because I have some in the fridge that needed to be eaten. So I reckon you can do it too with any vegies you have on hand. Just make sure that they’re cut uniformly so they cook evenly.

Mr E loved it so much that he had seconds, and told me that he’d have it again and again lol I probably should have served them with a side of salad to make it a “full and proper” meal but I was tired and to be honest, couldn’t really be bothered.

Next time, I will either add some mince or tuna in the mix because it seems that I am the only mother in the world who has to hide meat. Little E doesn’t seem to like them, at least not my meat dishes. He eats all his lunch without fail at daycare, including the meat. But at home? He’s pretty picky! What’s the dealio, Romeo?!

Anyway, please do try this recipe, it’s a great hidden vegies recipe!

Our First Family Holiday: New Zealand

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:

1. Great playground – It feels as if that the whole country was designed by parents with young children. In every single city we went to (and airports too, for that matter), there is at least one awesome play ground. Little E loved the play ground at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens most, as it not only has the usual slides/monkey bar/swings, it also has 3 paddling pools!
2. Easy to get around – Everything is so easy to get to, and there’s a corner shop (or “dairy shop, as they seem to call it) in literally every corner in every street. We had no problems finding milk, fruit, snacks and other necessities for Little E.
3. Beautiful scenery and culture – In all the places we went, we were surrounded by beautiful scenery. The people we met (and asked questions from) were friendly and helpful. The museums we went to were informative, yet fun and interactive – perfect for little people with small attention span 🙂
4. Good choice of food joints – We didn’t get to do the fancy restaurants this trip, however, we weren’t short for choice of food places to go to. Little E was such a trooper and had no problems adjusting to the different food we offered him (he normally mostly lives on steamed vegies).
5. The time difference is only 2 hours (during Daylight Savings Time, or 3 hours at other times) – Little E adjusted to the time difference straight away (both to NZ and AUS when we got back).

Playing at the castle grounds

Tips and Tricks we found useful:

• Grab one of those New Zealand travel magazine when you arrived at the airport, it is filled with lots and lots of discount vouchers 🙂
• Do early morning flights to NZ so that you have the whole day to recuperate, before starting your trip the next morning
• Look at accommodations with a kitchen (or at least, a kitchenette) and a washing machine – I couldn’t believe how many dirty clothes we went through with Little E! It would cost us a fortune if we didn’t get access to free washing machines 🙂
• Bring your own portacot, each places we stayed in charges around NZD5-10 per night, which would add up. Most airlines allow you to bring them for free, and if you drive around the country, it only takes up a small space in the boot
• Fuel is expensive at NZD2.179/L. With the amount of driving people normally do while there, you would spend a lot of your holiday money on fuel. So I would suggest planning your trip carefully and perhaps even look at flying 🙂
• If you’re like us and used to cram as many activities as possible in a day, be prepared for not being able to do that with a toddler. We didn’t get to as many places we planned to go/do, mainly we wanted Little E to enjoy his time playing. In each city, we make sure that we go to the parks or playground and let him run free.

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!

Holiday: Queenstown’s Beauty

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.

Holiday: Challenges of Dunedin, NZ

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.

Newborn Essentials

A few soon-to-be mums have asked this question recently in some forums I am in, so I thought I would post about what I think are essential items for a newborn. Other than clothing, nappies and wipes, these are the items that I found were most used in the first few months after Little E’s arrival. I would suggest to start with the basics, and if need be, you could always get some more things as you go.

1. A cot with mattress, a mattress protector and a fitted sheet. Depending on the season (and so, temperature) you will also need a blanket.
2. A vibrating bouncer chair – this was a godsend for us, as Little E suffered a little bit of gas. Just the way he was lying down on it, he got relief and he would fall asleep comfortably on this. When he was a little fussy at night and wouldn’t sleep, we would just put the vibrate on, and that soothed him.
3. As I have mentioned in my post about this. we didn’t use a bassinet for when we’re downstairs. Instead,  we tucked Little E on one of these.
4. A baby bath – more comfortable than bathing your little one in the sink or big people’s bath 🙂
5. A glider chair – I love my glider chair, I still use it now, as it allows me to sit comfortably while breastfeeding. It is important, as it used to take Little E almost 1 hour to feed!
6. Muslim swaddling wraps – I love using thin muslim wraps as I found they’re easier to use (not as stiff and bulky). Since they’re thin, they also don’t take long to dry after I wash them. This is important if you don’t want to buy too many and you have a blurpy baby 🙂
7. A towel and a washcloth – this is pretty self-explanatory?
8. A change table – I didn’t actually like to use this for the first few months, I prefer to do all nappy/clothes changing on the floor, as I didn’t need to then be confined to one spot (wherever the table is) to change him
9. A pram/stroller – another self-explanatory item?
10. A carseat – make sure that it is fitted correctly. If you’re in Australia, you can actually get the store you buy it from to fit them, or ring Kidsafe to help for a small fee
11. A nappy bag – most standard nappy bags comes with a changing mat. I still use the mat that came with my nappy bag, even though I don’t use the bag as often
12. Sudocream or any other anti nappy rash solution

Financially, I suggest not to buy everything new nor buy the items marketed specifically for babies. Like towels, for example, I personally have no qualms just using one of our normal towels. Little E wouldn’t care if his towels have cute patterns or if it’s pink 😛 I do prefer to buy bedding and the car seat new, however, most other items, if weren’t already gifted by family and friends, I bought second-hand.

In regards to clothes, it all depends on the season that your newborn arrives. Mine came in summer, so he either just had nappies on then swaddled, or he would have a singlet. I was given about 2 dozens of them, plus loads of onesies. If yours is coming in winter, I would also suggest warmer clothes plus some mittens, socks and beanies.

If you know of any expecting parents, please do refer them to this post. I hope that it is helpful to them in preparing for the little one’s arrival 🙂 I also wouldn’t mind if you would comment on what things were essential for you when you first brought home your newborn.

Image Sources: 1. King Parrot Cots | 2. Amazon | 3. Kmart | 4. Ikea | 5. My Baby Warehouse | 6. The Little Linen Company | 7. Natural Little One | 8. Babyhood | 9. Pram Fix | 10. Baby Kingdom | 11. Baby Bunting | 12. Guardian Pharmacy