About One Way New Zealand

So what's all this about then?

Hello, we are the Rays, Craig, Rachel and Myles our son. In September 2007 we started out on a trip / holiday of discovery to travel through New Zealand in order to find out more about the country, the people and its culture. After spending all our lives in the UK we are eager to find out if our lives could be better in another country? Is New Zealand somewhere we could emigrate to - we will endeavor to find this out along the way, and will record our thoughts and feelings of New Zealand and what we think it has to offer.

In the process of putting this blog together we have decided also to try and bring together lots of information on the different regions, towns and cities of New Zealand. Information on immigration, travel, places to stay etc. We also plan to produce a weekly podcast featuring some of the people we meet on our travels. All of this, in the hope that this site will become a valuable resource for others to find out more about New Zealand.

We booked our flights - made the trip of a lifetime and gathered our thoughts, feelings, photos and videos. Feel free to travel along with us!

Recent Comments

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Hi Kelli Just send us an email: hello@onewaynewzealand.com and we'll reply good luck with the move - Rach :-))"
- Rach

Hello, is there anyway to write to you? We are about to make a move to NZ and it would be great to speak with you. Please let me know. Thank you."
- Kelli

So do we - you'll be here before we all know it sista - hugs to ya both Rx"
- Rach

Lovely photos sis. Wish we could have been there too."
- Tracey

What precious and fun memories to hold on tight to till the next time. Can't believe you captured all that on film! It was lovely to meet your Mum whilst she was here and so pleased you got to share so many special moments together."
- Sarah

I need to get Craig round to give Dan some lessons! Awesome work on the planter box, which is no doubt over flowing with goodies by now - yummy!"
- Sarah

One of your best Craig! Anna and Myles are gorgeous together and look to be very good friends. What a fabulous piece of footage, to beautiful music and that view is always breathtaking."
- Sarah

Hiya Jude - Awww great to hear your news, we are loving NZ so much and hope this blog will let people know what we are up to! - Time flies so fast - hope your all well over there too - Rx"
- Rach

Congrats on the move abroad. Thought you might like to hear my news - I've got a little girl 16 months old (not much younger than Mike's)"
- Jude

Loved the video matey....Very Hendrix! Myles is a cool dude. Everyone looks so happy and chilled. Liked the old guy in the hat towards the end too! Keep up the good work x"
- Liam & Tracey

Useful things we travel with...

Chariot Carrier

Myles's chariot! What a fantastic piece of kit. Bought this in the US after seeing it in Canada. It's a stroller, an off road buggy with suspension, a cycle trailer and you can even put skis on it! Wouldn't go anywhere without it - You can find out more and see it in action here

Our Travel Insurance

Used World Nomads for our annual policy for quite a while - They were recommended by Lonely Planet and Rob (Our global travelling friend!) also uses them - Good enough for him then it's good enough for us! Not sure if they are the cheapest but you do get what you pay for.
Get a quote online

Canon Camera

We use a Canon Ixus camera for all the photos and videos on the site. The size and quality is unbeatable - a great travelling stills and video camera in one! We got ours from Amazon because of their good returns policy and the online reviews from other users-Amazon reviews on this camera

Car Hire Worldwide

We've used loads of car hire companies over the years and we keep on coming back to auto-europe. They are usually the cheapest worldwide and the price includes all insurance / CDW etc,
www.auto-europe.com

Leatherman Wave

Brilliant multi-tool. Built like a tank and small enough to fit anywhere. Wouldn't leave home without it - Got us out of a few 'sticky' situations.
We got ours from Ready To leave.com

259 Entries found for the date period of: 01 March 2010 to 01 April 2010

Tuesday, 2 Mar 2010

Holiday Highlights

I can't begin to say how amazing it was to have my mom and her friend Marj visit us before Christmas. We had the best of times and look forward to another trip next year from the ladies! I'll let these pics speak for us - we have tons more and some videos but as ever it takes us an age to update this blog - I am very all or nothing and have done 5 blog posts this evening in an attempt to bring up to date what we've been up to this last quarter!!! - Enjoy

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Thursday, 21 Jan 2010

Matakana Hols

Following a wonderful Christmas with mom and Marj and a quiet New Year at Ray HQ we were headed 'up North' where it is far from grim! Our destination Matakana is a village that has been brought into the 21st century but still retains it's charm. We have fallen for this area which consists of a rolling rural landscape, and stunning coastline, dotted with attractive vineyards, olive and fruit orchards and organic farms who sell their produce at the weekly farmer's market. A great blend of country slow vibe mixed with a community of like minded people whose aim is to produce quality food and drink mixed with the odd artist group,galleries and a number of gelato makers just to cover the pudding!

Whilst here we visited Rainbow Valley Farm a farm with a emphasis on permaculture - a movement which began in Australia in the 1970's. It's ethos is based upon asking the question 'Are we allowing our culture to develop in a permanent way by how we are interacting with the land?' - So do we live in harmony with our planet or use and abuse it?

We also visited Brick Bay Vineyard an established vineyard and with an amazing sculpture trail and restaurant. Possibly the fanciest place you could sip a Pino Gris in the area!

We spent 10 days in this area so many more pics to follow and it is somewhere that we would like to move to if all our plans go right in the next 12 months - watch this space!

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Monday, 11 Jan 2010

Kindy's out n the summer hols roll

We're just into week 2 of school/kindy for M's summer hols at the moment, at the family Ray we have been super busy and me n M have been up to our usual Blue Peter specials - maybe all that TV watching and 4 years at Art & Design school may not have been in vane after all! And how can we not go for a free pottery lesson at our fave haunt Te Papa too to start off our second week of creativity!

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Saturday, 9 Jan 2010

Blueberry Farm

A scorcher of a day - so what better thing to do than go and pick the new season blueberries - yum! With memories of strawberry picking as a family when I was a child in my head we set off. Myles was very excited and couldn't wait to get stuck in after a few pointers from dad - who was also experiencing his first 'pick your own' day out - we were soon filling our little buckets with juicy blueberries. The farm is set in a gorgeous valley just outside of Wellington and feels a world away from the hustle of the city So we had to try the delights of the cafe also and scoffed everything blueberry related on the menu it seems and spoke only in umms and aarrs for a while whilst we were in blueberry heaven. Needless to say we made short work of our bounty when we got home and muffins and smoothies and just blueberries on cereal were enjoyed throughout the week without any of us tiring of there deliciousness!

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Monday, 4 Jan 2010

Mount Bruce

With thoughts of my mom in snowy England and a need to blow the post Christmas cobwebs away - we headed on out to Mount Bruce a regional park around a 3 hour drive from Wellington. It turned out to be a perfect way to indeed blow the cobwebs as was quite windy! and to just recharge the batteries and think about the new year ahead and what adventures we were gonna be having. I just find being in nature is so therapeutic and it's something we all thrive on as a family. We're looking forward so much to our adventures in the great outdoors of NZ this year and to meeting new friends and welcoming old ones to share 2010 with us

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Friday, 25 Dec 2009

Christmas Morning

As I've not done any blog posts for ages!!! - I am writing this post post Chrimbo in March - shock horror!!!

Anyway an amazing Christmas morning to be able to share it with my mom and of course Marj, and the boys Ray too!

A few pics - there are tons more and vids too, am sure I'll get around to posting more but I think it shows that we all had a great time

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Sunday, 29 Nov 2009

Beach over jetlag

After mom and Marj successfully arriving and an early night, I thought it only proper to take them to Scorching Bay for a day of rest and relaxation on this beautiful beach on an apt scorcher of a day too. Little did they know that Myles had an itinerary of games in store! One of which mom christened 'basket chair rugby!' This consisted of Myles playing catch with them and his throws becoming a little more challenging to catch with each turn! Needless to say it wasn't before long when my mom attempting for the all important catch for her turn leaned a little too far over and ended up collapsed in a heap to fits of side splitting giggles all around! As an antidote to this energetic fun Myles next activity was a genteel paddle followed by some epic sandcastle building. Thank you soooo much mom and Marj for making the trip to see us and this was the first day of many fun and laughter filled days to come - perfect you might say :))

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Saturday, 21 Nov 2009

The Piano

After being together forever and always knowing that Craig played the piano so beautifully it seemed only fitting that as a first anniversary present (that being 1 year in NZ) we finally had a piano in our home. It is just wonderful to hear and watch him play and it seems he's passed on his talents to Myles who is happy to join in and also to 'tinkle the ivories' himself from time to time. It feels like a reward in some sense for being brave and mad enough to put ourselves on the other side of the planet and kind of start again in a way. And has become a real focal point for us all and yet another creative outlet for Craig to wow us with - is there no end to this man's talents!!! We do love him so :)

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Friday, 20 Nov 2009

DIY with Dad

As we've only got a back yard in our current house we thought it'd be a great idea to grow some veges and so Craig being the DIY expert set about with constructing a planter for us to grow our own. As you can see Myles also has inherited the DIY gene and so the work began. More pics to follow no doubt on it's progress and said vegies!
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Thursday, 5 Nov 2009

Sparkler Fun

Just before our venture out to check out the amazing fire works of Wellington we invited our neighbours over for a bbq and a few sparklers to celebrate bonfire night. A bit different to our UK ones where it's winter and normally chilly - we were able to enjoy the outdoors without the cold and a few sparklers rounded off the evening nicely. John, Kay and their children Tara and Sammy have made us feel really welcome and are the kind of neighbours you hope you will have whereever you move to!

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