It's a Drama Podcast

Welcome back to the first podcast first of 2021. Broadcasting from our back garden in New Zealand ('cause it's so blimin' hot inside!)  Podcasting From New Zealand I'm not going to lie. Creating a podcast episode every week isn't easy. Maybe if we had a team of guys sorting out this and that it'd be different, but we don't. It's just me and Bri. A husband and wife, living in New Zealand.   Would Y...

The last podcast episode of 2020! And what a year...because I am a nosey parker who likes to know everything about everyone I thought you might appreciate it if Brian and I opened up and shared with you what 2020 has been like for us. A husband and wife living with two teenagers down here in New Zealand.   Would You Like To Join Our New Zealand Community? Are You Considering Moving To New Zealand?...

Luckily, one of the best things about New Zealand is the fact that the people have a bloody good sense of humour. Which is just as well. Because some of these common misconceptions about what life is like in New Zealand are quite frankly hilarious.  Life in New Zealand I am not a hypocrite so I will tell you this straight up. Before we go any further. Prior to us moving to New Zealand eleven years...

It seems as though most of the world are working from home right now, so in this post and podcast, we wanted to share some tips on how to be more productive. How to get stuff done. So that you don't sit in your pyjamas all day, stroking the cat and staring at the countdown timer on the tumble drier. Working From Home Working from home might be a completely new experience for you. It certainly is f...

The food in New Zealand is not very well documented, is it? When we made our move to New Zealand from the UK over a decade ago, I was expecting to get here and be faced with a plate full of lamb chops and maybe a kiwi fruit for dessert. But the reality couldn't have been further from the truth.  Would You Like To Join Our New Zealand Community? Are You Considering Moving To New Zealand?  Do you wo...

In all the time that I've been writing this blog I have never had so many emails from people (mostly from the US) asking me how they can make their dream of moving to New Zealand become a reality.  ✔︎ Get instant access to my FREE Moving to and Living in New Zealand Guide HERE! , a 5 Day Video Series!  My family and I have been living in New Zealand for eleven years. We emigrated to New Zealand fr...

If you are thinking about making a new life in New Zealand and you have a family (with little kids) then I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you are a teeny bit, massively a lot, downright scared. Or at the very least apprehensive. You lay awake in bed, probably at 3 am, worrying about what your future life in New Zealand will look like once you move to the other side of the world with you...

I'm not entirely sure how long the term unplugging has been a thing. It used to be (back in the day) that if you were told you to unplug it was because your parents were trying to save money on the leckie bill. Someone once told my dad that if you unplugged the toaster, you'd save 5p on every bill. But nowadays, the term unplugging comes with a whole new meaning. Unplugging in 2020 means getting o...

Maybe I'm naive. Or slightly twisted. But when I found out that there was an organisation called Couchsurfing that would allow me to travel the world with my teenagers (for free) while meeting other like-minded people,  I jumped at it. Yes, it would mean that we'd be sleeping under the same roof of complete strangers, maybe even on a couch, but we'd get to know interesting people and listen to sto...

The funniest thing happened yesterday. Because it was Father's Day, I said my husband that on this week's podcast episode we should talk about him being a homeschooling dad. Give some tips to all the other dads, husbands or partners out there that are currently faced with being a new homeschooling parent . And guess what he said to me? (Bearing in mind that our kids have been homeschooled for almo...

If you are wondering how to balance homeschooling and working at the same time then you are in the right place. Let's do an elbow bang. I have been homeschooling for almost ten years, and for the second time in my homeschooling career, I find myself, once again, in the position of balancing homeschooling with earning some money. Why I didn't marry a millionaire I'll never know. My first attempt at...

If you have always dreamt of living in New Zealand , are under 30 years old and have a bit of dosh saved up (enough to get you back to your own country) you can spend a year working in New Zealand by getting yourself a year-long working Visa. That way you can see how you like it. This week's podcast episode features Adam, a twenty-something chappy from the UK is doing just that. After being persua...

In the ten years that we have spent living in New Zealand , my family and I have never been glamping. Not once. Let's face it. It's not the sort of thing you want to do with two kids, is it?  But. With the kids now old enough to make their own beans on toast, Brian and I decided that it was time to check out what this New Zealand glamping craze was all about. Get us a little bit of hippy outdoorsy...

This week's podcast is brought to you by me (Liz) and my husband Brian. It is brought to you with love. And with wine and with sushi. This is a different kind of podcast format from any other that we've done in the past (and, I won't lie, it was slightly scarier).  Brain and I will talk about what's on top for us right now. As parents. As husband and wife. As friends. What share we are loving, wha...

I wish I'd read a post or listened to a Podcast like this when we were looking to move to New Zealand ten years ago. At least then I would have been prepared. I could have packed a hot water bottle and a sun hat and some hankies. But I didn't. Instead, I got to the other side of the world and blubbed for six months about how my family never returned my calls and that the bathroom in the house that...

Last week I received this email. "Hi. I am thinking of moving to New Zealand with my family but I am concerned that as we are moving from the UK, my eldest son (who is 12) will be bored. Could you give me any advice?" I have two kids, a boy age 18 (note to oneself, must stop calling him a kid) and a daughter who is 15. We have been living in New Zealand for almost eleven years. We emigrated from t...

If you had to pick just a few, which would you say were the most beautiful places in the World to visit? This is a question that our family hears a lot when we tell how we spent twelve months travelling the world together (two adults and two teenagers) on a budget. We visited thirty-three countries in total - all of them magnificent but some being crowned more beautiful than others. This is part t...

Which were the most beautiful places on earth? This is the question that everyone asks you when you tell them that you spent twelve months travelling the world with your teenagers. That, and did they miss their friends? This week, Sonny (my 18-year-old son) and I made a podcast episode that talked about our favourite places around the world and why they were considered by us to be deemed beautiful...

What is a tiny house and why would a twenty-six-year-old girl want to invest all of her savings and live in one in New Zealand? Because she can and they're cool. That's why. Could you live in a tiny house? In this week's podcast, Sonny and I get to chat with Laura. Laura is a twenty-six-year-old graphic designer from New Zealand who, for the past few years, has been living frugally so that she can...

Kids playing video games is so new thing. Even I, who, according to my kids is a dinosaur who knows nothing - used to play Pacman and space invaders. So why are parents becoming more and more anxious and stressed out over the fact that their kids are spending more time on the screen and less time interacting with the people around them?   I am a parent of two kids. My son is almost nineteen (when...

Why do you need a homeschooling schedule? Because without one you will spend your days wandering from one project to another. Feeling extremely busy but accomplishing very little, if anything, at all. How strict does the home-schooling schedule need to be? Strict enough to keep everyone happy but not too strict that you become a slave to the schedule. Home-schooling isn't easy. Anyone who tells yo...

Yesterday, at 12 pm, New Zealand went to level 4 and as such, the entire country is now in lockdown for (a minimum) of four weeks. Saying it and doing it are two different things. When you are going about your daily life, walking to work and drinking coffee in cafes with buskers outside, the idea of spending a month with the same people behind closed doors seems somewhat of a novelty. It wouldn't...

How old is too old to travel? You know how when you get to a certain age, and you suddenly start 'playing on it?' "Ohh I couldn't possibly take the bins out - I'm far too old for that." Or "Don't ask me to hold the dog down while you cut her toenails - I'm getting on a bit. I can't kneel for long." Well, this week's guest made me feel like a right old fake.  He put me in my place and showed me tha...

It's easy for me to bang on about how wonderful New Zealand is - my family and I have been living here for the last ten years and although the country has its pros and cons , I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I adore living in New Zealand and will always bore anyone who will listen. So yes.  I probably am a bit biased. So we thought we'd give you a treat... This weeks podcast episode sees our...

Jet lag. Is there anything worse than finding yourself wide awake at 3 am with the dreaded jet lag? Pacing around the house like a deluded tiger, trying to decide whether it would be best to watch TV or clean the cutlery drawer out? In this week's podcast, Sonny and I talk about jet lag and a few proven ways in which you can avoid it. And no. My suggestion wasn't to get as drunk as possible on the...