Winter is a hard time of year. I don’t think it matters what part of the country you live in – life just seems to become a little harder during the winter months. Washing takes longer to dry – sometimes days. The sun rises late and sets early. The weather can be miserable for days on end.
I actually do love a few things about winter, though – winter clothes, winter sports, hearty winter meals or soups and the roaring fire. But I have always hated winter on the Chathams. Our little exposed coastal rock bears the brunt of winter weather from every direction. There aren’t many days when there isn’t any wind, and it’s always wet. Even when it’s not raining, the air is heavy and it takes days – if not weeks – to really dry anything off.
So, you won’t be surprised to learn that winter is the time our family escapes the Chathams’ heavy sea mist and mud and heads to the mainland for a winter holiday. It’s a totally different winter here compared to Central Otago where my family are from. Yes, the days there usually start with crisp, hard frosts and temperatures dip into the negatives, but then sun almost always shines through, and clear blue skies thaw the ice. It’s a fresh, dry cold – a cold you can get out and walk in. You can still get your washing dry, and the kids can get out of the house.
We have recently returned from a three week break on the mainland, including two weeks in Central Otago and one in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty. We had the best time catching up with friends and family, exploring some new places, and we did some awesome activities as a family. As always, we had a bit of a shopping list to get through and made a trip to Timaru to drop a load of gear off at the boat, to be shipped home to the Chathams.
Getting to and coming back from the mainland is always a bit of a mission for us. Even more so now that we have kids, as the amount of gear we have to cart has tripled to cater for little people. A trip out always involves a very early start to catch our two-hour flight off the island. The flight is delayed more often than not, and this usually results in having to pay to change our connecting flights, sometimes multiple times! A rest at either Wellington or Christchurch Airport involves chasing the kids while we wait to catch another flight south. Then, to finish the journey, we have a two-hour drive to my parents’, by which point the kids have almost lost their minds.
To make getting around and doing activities as a family easier, we bought a vehicle a few years ago, which we keep in a storage shed down the road from my parents. This saves us paying for and looking after a rental car or using one of my parents’ vehicles. Like many other grandparents, Mum and Dad have a selection of car seats, a pram, bedding, a potty and other toddler related items, stashed away in the cupboards at home to make our travels a little lighter and life while we are visiting a little easier.
It’s also extremely expensive to travel to and from the Chathams. A return trip, including connecting flights, leaves us with little change from $4,000. I always cringe when paying for our flights because, although I love our trips back and seeing our family, I would love to be booking a holiday to a tropical island – which would cost the same, if not less. However, it is always money well spent. We need trips away to keep our sanity, keep in touch with our friends and family and, of course, make epic memories.
This story appeared in our July Social Club newsletter.
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