Our Blog

We are an ordinary family of four with an extraordinary passion for travel.  We currently live in Australia but we dream  of bigger travel plans.  I (Shani) started this blog to record our travel stories near and far including our future travel plans.  Please pardon my blog writing style since I have not been very good at writing throughout school, this blog was born purely through my burning desire to record my travels and the travel experiences I have gathered through time and not because of my writing talent….  This  Blog will be an online scrap book or a journal where we can share our adventures with family and friends.

A Little Bit About Our Past

I met my husband Raj during University as we started our Engineering degree back in 1997.  No it was not love at first sight, it was a friendship that blossomed into love (it worked better for us:)).  I always loved travel and convinced Raj to do a bit of travelling within New Zealand and  make the move to Australia in 2004.  We got Married and traveled a bit more within Australia and Europe  before we decided to have a baby in 2009.  When our little girl Anisha was 6 months we did our first overseas trip with her.  Since then and another baby boy later we have done many more short distance trips as well as overseas trips with our kids.     I really want to travel the world with our kids and live a different life filled with adventure.

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Get To Know The Family

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Shani (Mum/the blogger)

I am the person behind this blog. Travel has been one of my passions for as long as I can remember.  As a child I would love planning trips with my dad and being the one to guide with maps when we traveled. I was born in Sri Lanka, moved to New Zealand with my family back in 1994.  Where I completed a Bachelor and masters of Engineering.  I always questioned this typical dream where we study, get a degree, work,  climb the co-operate ladder, own a house settle down have kids and wait till retirement to enjoy your travel dreams.  I have gone against the grain so to speak since becoming a mother.  Coming from a Sri Lankan family, doing things out of the “norm” is not accepted.  My mum will say “well you have to work while you can” and I say “well you also have to do the things you want while you can”.

No one knows what happens tomorrow, and our lives are so uncertain and short.  So why wait?? Approaching my mid thirties, a panic set in as I realised that there is so much I wanted to do and I have always been waiting for the right time to do it.  My decision to not go back to 9-5 work, and opting for an alternate life style where I could be flexible for my kids by starting my own handmade jewellery business and later starting a café was slowly taking its toll on me.  Managing a café demanded a lot of my time which took away our freedom to travel.  I started the café nearly two years ago, it was a fun project at the time, even though it demanded a lot of my time.  I turned the business around and now it is at a stage where the day-to-day process runs without me. The problem is the café which requires us (Raj and I) to be present 7 days a week to make sure things run smoothly.  This feeling of being trapped/stuck… nearly drove me into a state of depression where I felt I was being suffocated living this life that belonged to someone else.   Never before have I realised how badly I wanted to travel and see more of the world, and share it with my family.  Traveling with the family is such an amazing experience, where togetherness of family grows exponentially and I feel it is the only way I want to experience my life.  Being able to travel freely feels like THE most important thing for me right now.

So My mission is to start living that dream of travel since my kids are both young and well ahead in their learning, we can open their eyes to see the wider world.  Apart form travel, other things I love and enjoy doing are, photography,  making jewelry (my other business Kookki Designs), going through old things particularly books (love Op Shops), trying delicious food (always open to trying new cuisines) or spending time learning things on the world-wide web (love researching things).

Raj (Dad)

I asked Raj to say a few things ….

I was born in Fiji to Sri Lankan parents and moved to New Zealand in 1989 where I completed all my schooling and higher tertiary studies. I met Shani in 1997 while at University completing my Engineering degree and we have been together since 1998. When growing up, I was fortunate enough to travel to a number of countries including Germany, England, USA and a number of Asian countries. As a result of this early exposure to travelling, during my early adulthood, I did not have a major desire to travel. I was happy with that regular dream “find a good job, a  house, and settle down with the wife and kids”  until I met Shani, she dragged the travel bug into my system.

I now look forward to our travels with kids, which tend to be slightly bit far apart compared to when we were both working with no kids.  We are looking to improve on this and find creative ways to see the world.

Anisha (Daughter/little princess)

Anisha, who was 5 when I started this Blog, is a very reserved, quiet yet sensible little girl, who also shares my love for travel and adventure.  She is a keen observer, and my precious little partner in crime when it comes to travel.  She and I often read about the fun facts of the world, I bought her a little kids Atlas where they have lots of facts about countries, when she was 3 that was one of her favourite books she would sit and happily flip  through the pages quietly, asking me to read about different countries she was interested in.

 

When asked where she would like to travel to those days, she would say Malaysia and Hamilton Island, now it’s Europe.  So far she has been to France, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and lots of places in Australia. 

 

She loves being in a pool all day if I let her, babies (yes she is obsessed with babies), reading and playing with her little brother.  Her favourite subject at school is math.  She is very organised with her school work and super helpful around the house.

 

Callum (Son/the cheeky one)  

 

Callum (3 at the time when I started this blog),  is now nearly 10.  He too enjoys the travel adventures now.  Still loves to go to play grounds wherever we go.  He is an inquisitive fella, who has a lot of “why” and “what does it mean” questions.  He is very independent, and loves to figure things out by himself.  He is also the cheeky one in the family, joking around and trying any trick he can think of to get what he wants.

He is also quite keen on sports (like his dad) loves his cricket, soccer, or just playing with a ball.  He started holding a cricket bat and playing before he could walk properly.  He loves playing with his sister, to the point he didn’t want her to go to school before.  They are the best of friends (most times).