by kiwisonadventure

Back in New Zealand… what now?

We arrived home in late March, just 10 days short of being a whole year away.  Leaving Mexico, we stopped in Southern California for a 3 day break and caught up with Patti – we had met her over 6 years previously when staying at the same place on the Greek island of  Santorini. It… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Mexico uncovered

We often hear bad press about Mexico which can cause some misconceptions and unfounded anxiety about visiting this vibrant country. Just like any country in the world, there are good and bad parts, things you are amazed at, sights that make you glad and very sad, and places to avoid. Our brief experience of Mexico… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Expectations and reality

As we adjust back to life in our home country of New Zealand after our year-long adventure, a couple of people have asked me how or if our expectations were met? I asked Chris this and we had a very interesting discussion about expectations and how each of us had quite different views on what… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Saying Goodbye to Spain

These last few months have gone way too quickly and now we are on our way north  for our final fling in Spain. Before this past year, our only experiences of Spain were brief visits to the Costa Brava and Barcelona, but these gave us enough of a taste to want to explore more of… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

We’ll be going round the mountain(s)

Another road trip beckoned with a week-long gap before our next housesit. This would be our final trip of the year and, with winter approaching, we decided to explore some of the small towns and villages of Murcia, Castille-La Mancha and Jaen provinces. We had just finished a short four-day house sit in Freila, another… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Last gasp in the South of Spain

It was my birthday, and we were travelling back towards Sotogrande for a return sit with our friends Toots and Tiger Lily and their furry feline companions. Sad as it was to farewell the lovely Lucy and her parents Jim and Janette in the cave house, we were happy to return to another beautiful location… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Cave living and prehistoric Spain

In early November, we headed inland to our next house sit, looking after an elderly dog in a cave house. Having experienced the cool relief of a cave house in the heat of summer, we were interested to see how they performed in early winter. Driving east across the plains from Granada, we detoured to Gorafe  where… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Rest and recovery – housesit time again

We arrived back in Spain feeling slightly the worse for wear after leaving Morocco, thankful we were only staying in Tarifa and didn’t have to travel far that afternoon. Tarifa, being on the southernmost point of mainland Europe and at the channel into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic, is very windy and a paradise for… Read More

by kiwisonadventure

Pilgrims, Picasso and Palaces

We had attempted to see the north of Spain once before but had to change plans with an opportunity for a housesit presenting itself, but now we had an extra ten days from our return to Madrid, so planned to explore places we couldn’t find housesits. We picked up our very cheap car rental (costing… Read More