Ripening Nicely

The next chapter in life

  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Welcome to Middle Earth!

    29th March 2021 / 3 Comments

    Confession.  I never liked the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit films.  My grandfather gave me the Tolkien novels when I was just a little too young to deal with…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Opposites Attract

    5th February 2021 / No Comments

    Bryan’s recent blog about re-becoming Kiwi got me thinking about all the new experiences for me in New Zealand, without that back history to draw upon.  We often joke that…

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    Helen
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Out with the old, in with the new!

    13th January 2021 / No Comments

    I’ve seen plenty of posts on social media etc wishing away 2020, wanting to write off what for many was an insane, terrible year.  Just one friend’s Facebook post stood…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Van Life

    Re-becoming Kiwi

    18th December 2020 / 3 Comments

    It’s a disconcerting feeling, returning to your home country and not, well, feeling totally at home.  I’ve only myself to blame – I left 24 years ago, first for a…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Freedom to Camp

    4th December 2020 / No Comments

    Without a doubt, New Zealand is a spectacularly beautiful country.  It is not without irony that, had it not been for COVID, we would not have been able to explore…

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    Helen
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    The Wild Wild East

    23rd November 2020 / 8 Comments

    The last time I’d been around the remote East Cape of New Zealand was on a family holiday when I was about seven or eight.  Growing up on a berry…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel,  Van Life

    Van Life Shake Down Tour

    31st October 2020 / No Comments

    It has been a few weeks now since we started our New Zealand van life experience. In some ways, living onboard Aroha has prepared us well. We are already used…

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    Helen
  • New Zealand,  Van Life

    Introducing Cyril!

    13th October 2020 / 2 Comments

    Meet Cyril!  Cyril’s a 2004 Transit Camper Van who’s had a busy life running mainly international tourists around the hot spots of beautiful Aotearoa.  But like us, over the last…

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    Bryan
  • Food,  New Zealand

    Dining In In Isolation

    6th September 2020 / 1 Comment

    We are set for release this afternoon!  It’s funny thinking that our 14 days in NZ Managed Isolation is about the same time it took us to sail from Dubai…

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    Bryan
  • New Zealand,  Travel

    Managing Isolation

    30th August 2020 / No Comments

    The last stage of the airport exit process was for hotel allocation to find out where we would spend our managed isolation and the next 14 days. We were told…

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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)
  • Sailing (71)
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