Cheers for following along from home. This is the first of hopefully many blogs that Baylee and I put together to catalog our travel! We hope to share some of the trip with all of you, and in turn have writing we can go back and read when we’re eventually back home. We’re thinking fortnightly-ish for these posts, and we’ll see how we go! Feel free to reply to this email with any comments, or chat to us on Messenger if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

Now on to the travel, we moved out of Wellington a month ago! What have we been up to?

The calm before the storm - Feilding, Taupo, Auckland

On the 5th of May, we left our keys behind and moved out of Wellington. This was in no small part thanks to John and Karen, who came to our aid with a trailer, and reluctant but MUCH appreciated help with carting all of our gear down the stairs.

From there, we spent time in our home towns - Feilding for a week, and then Taupo for the rest. This time saw us hanging out with family and friends, making plans for the coming weeks in Singapore and the UK, and generally trying to wind down from the hectic last weeks of work.

On the 30th we packed up the remainder of our gear and got in the car to go to Auckland. That night consisted of a fantastic send off with the parents, setting us up well for a day of standing in queues the next day!

We got to the airport at what seemed like an early time, spent an hour queuing for check in and even more for security, only leaving an hour for a pre-departure beer on the other side (courtesy of my Sharesies leaving gift pressy card). We departed a little late at 2:30pm to Singapore, for the first leg of our journey.

Singapore

We landed early - 8:30pm on the 31st, and preceded straight through the smoothest international arrivals process we’ve ever experienced. No queues for the eGate, bags out the conveyor as soon as we got to it, and no customs meant we were out and at our hotel before 9:30! Which was handy, as our next day was a biggy.

Thursday saw us venturing out to explore Singapore by foot, heading along the river and past the Merlion to Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay. What we didn’t anticipate was how ineffective a raincoat is in tropical downpours 🤦‍♂️. Five minutes in, and we’re absolutely drenched. We pushed through it though, and got some great drowned-rat shots looking across the harbour!

The Gardens were well worth the walk, seeing the Supertrees, and splurging for passes to the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome indoor gardens. These were incredible, if pretty busy, and provided a much needed break from the rain. The rest of the day saw us buying an umbrella, and heading to an easy tapas bar on the riverside.

On Friday, it was HOT. Thirty-four degrees, with weather apps telling us “it feels like 40”! We persevered though, taking a sweaty walk through Fort Canning gardens to the museum. We followed this up with a walk along Orchard Road to check out the high-end shopping, and ended up back at the hotel to cool off.

And now for today, Saturday, we’re back at Changi! We spent a bunch of time exploring Jewel Changi before retiring to the Changi Lounge for some peace and quiet, which is where I’m writing from now! We leave at 11:30pm for a thirteen and a half hour flight to London Heathrow.

That’s all for now!

We’re heading through to the UK with a couple of weeks planned around London, Bath, and Cornwall. Our next instalment will definitely be lighter-touch, recapping the UK before we head through to Italy! Thanks for reading, and see you then!