Ripening Nicely

The next chapter in life

  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Holding Pattern

    10th October 2021 / 2 Comments

    An attraction of leaving the corporate world and going sailing was not having to plan too much, or too far in advance.  In our “old lives” we planned a lot. …

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    The Mad Cow of Whangamomona!

    26th September 2021 / No Comments

    We’ve tried and failed to visit the Taranaki area on the west coast of the North Island earlier, and it’s a part of the country that neither Helen nor I…

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    Bryan
  • Hobbies and Activities,  New Zealand,  Sustainability,  Van Life

    Lockdown Leveller

    13th September 2021 / No Comments

    It’s been just over a year since we returned to Aotearoa New Zealand, completed our hotel MIQ (managed isolation and quarantine) and were released into the freedom of Covid free…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  UK,  Van Life

    There’s no place like home

    30th August 2021 / 4 Comments

    My homesickness for the UK has been steadily growing. It is now over 2 years since I stood on British soil but, in these COVID times, it is no longer…

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    Helen
  • New Zealand,  Travel

    Death and Life

    21st July 2021 / 6 Comments

    About ten years ago on a week-long camping trip with close friends in a remote desert corner of Oman, I found myself sitting around the campfire with a Cuban Cigar…

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    Bryan
  • Hobbies and Activities,  New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Kiwi Hospitality

    7th July 2021 / 3 Comments

    “Kiwi Hospitality is the process of showing respect and care for guests in our home. Most Kiwis embody this without even realising it, welcoming strangers and warmly inviting them to share New…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Tiki Touring and the Wop Wops

    14th June 2021 / No Comments

    I have picked up a few Kiwi expressions since we have been back in New Zealand.  Bryan thought it appropriate to teach me a few often-used ones. In fact, while…

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    Helen
  • New Zealand,  Sustainability,  Travel,  Van Life

    Two Years Retired

    31st May 2021 / 5 Comments

    My dad encouraged me to learn to sail when I was about eight, as he himself was building experience and taking courses to allow him to fulfil his own dream for…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Island Life

    5th May 2021 / No Comments

    If Covid hadn’t jiggled up 2020 (and 2021…), we would by now be enjoying yacht island hopping somewhere warm in South East Asia.  But, if this is the year of…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Wild, Wild West

    21st April 2021 / No Comments

    One of the many advantages of our unplanned slow and steady campervan adventures through New Zealand has been to explore parts of the country that we haven’t visited before, or…

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    Helen
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About us

We are Bryan & Helen.

A Kiwi and a Brit who met in Dubai. We gave up corporate life and set sail to explore South East Asia in 2019.

The plan was to live aboard our 37ft Bavaria Sailing Yacht called Aroha (ah-roh-huh), meaning “love, compassion and empathy” in Māori.

Life hasn’t all been plain sailing – with the pandemic resulting in us leaving the sea for New Zealand and van life during 2021. After a 2 year break we have now sailed to Thailand.

We share our adventures of sailing, travelling and trying to live as sustainably as possible.

 

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Categories

  • Chagos (9)
  • Food (8)
  • Hobbies and Activities (10)
  • India (21)
  • Malaysia (6)
  • Maldives (30)
  • Myanmar (3)
  • New Zealand (23)
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