2022 | Travel, Anniversaries and Rollercoasters

2022 has unequivocally been a year of highs and lows. I started the year in New Zealand, having a lovely Christmas with my family (which I appreciated even more after the years of lockdowns) only to find out that my blog website provider had let my blog lapse and hadn’t kept any of the content.

The helpful tech on the other end of the phone sounded as upset as I was, and taught me how to lasso SOME of the 10 years of of memories and travel stories – but it wasn’t an auspicious start to the year. I’ve managed to get many blog posts back, and I’ve been slowly re-adding them as time allowed (which has been kinda handy not only for spotting glaring typos, but reliving those memories all over again.)

I’ve also had some big personal ups and downs; mostly downs – but I was thrilled to celebrate my 5th year running my own freelance business and had my first Instagram Reel hit 100k+ views amongst some other delights. I set myself a 12 trips in 12 months goal, and kinda got there (but life happens y’know!) Travel is most definitely a privilege – something I’m grateful to be able to prioritise in our lives.

January – New Zealand

I began the month in Tauranga, spent some quality nephew hanging time, popped down to Nelson, enjoyed a country stay in the Waikato and then rolled up to Auckland. It was a delicious month of summer before returning to the bleak winter weather of an English February that’s for sure!

February – London Staycation

Is this cheating? Probably. Do I care? No. Occasionally I just get all outrageous and book a cheeky little staycation right in the centre – who doesn’t love enjoying 5 star hotels in London..?

March – Liverpool

“Emma” you say, “didn’t you just have a trip to Liverpool (and Manchester)?” Well, yes – we had a city staycation late last year, but on that trip we discovered that the National Trust own & have tours through Paul McCartney & John Lennon’s childhood homes – and we knew we were going back again. Meeting our friend who caught the ferry over from Belfast, we thoroughly enjoyed Liverpool (trip v2)!

April – London, but with a surprise Japanese twist

Ok, so technically we didn’t make it away this month due to being really busy AND the delightful surprise of a last minute visit from one of our favourite friends who lives in Japan. But I’m going to count it!

May – Antwerp, Belgium

We really fancied a low key city break – and Antwerp caught our eye. The home of the Flemish language and infamous for it’s diamonds, it was just so easy to hop on the Eurostar then a local train. We loved exploring this Belgian city, learning all about the history between sips of local beer.

June – Margate, Lincolnshire

Margate is outrageously easy to access from London; – so with a friend on our super chilled, very last minute break we grabbed a few outfits, both packed emergency coffee supplies (the mark of excellent people IMHO), made sure we had plenty of SPF and just rolled onto the train.

July + August + September

I dimbled a few times up to Lincolnshire – my second home in England – for a relaxed break with family. Lincolnshire is the perfect place to take a leisurely road trip – one of those ones where you have plenty of time and wander into local pubs for dinner (after fish and chips on the seafront for lunch obviously.) I took on a really busy work project that didn’t leave very much time for adventuring alas… but I still took my laptop to the beach each time a sunny day presented itself.

October – Bologna, Italy

Mr Kiwi and I decided that we fancied revisiting Italy – it’s been FAR too long since we visited, so we quickly booked a last minute city break to Bologna. It’s such an interesting, foodie city – and we day tripped to Verona which I instantly fell in love with.

November – Valetta, Malta

 

December –

After enjoying a Southern Hemisphere summer Christmas last year, I was determined to revel in the winter wonders of a festive London, and it did not disappoint. A festive London is pure magic.

We have some exciting plans in the pipeline both in terms of travel, and can’t wait to see what adventures 2023 brings!