I’ve travelled a lot, this was my 9th trip to the U.K. – but this trip was extra special for a few huge reasons:
Scarlett’s (my 1yr old daughter) first time on a BIG plane- My Grandma’s 80th birthday
- Scarlett meeting her great-grandparents on my side
- My Grandma meeting one of her great-grandchildren for the first time (her other two, my sisters children, also live in NZ)
- First big adventure together with just me and Scarlett
- My Mum was also doing the trip to the U.K. on the same day, but we were two hours behind her – and gave her one hell of a surprise when we walked into Air NZ’s Gold Lounge in Los Angeles, USA!
- Two-day get away to Paris
My mission was to survive 35-hour’s non-stop travel from Wellington, New Zealand to Nottingham, England with my toddler daughter Scarlett. My tactic was simple, just wing it and hope her genes meant that she was as good a long-haul flyer as I am. And what a trooper she was! After Air NZ got wind of the epic surprise with mum, they jumped feet first in to help pull it off – which included upgrading Scarlett & I to Premium Economy! I’m sure that helped Scarlett, she slept heaps on all the legs – and was her usual cheerful self the whole way door-to-door and back again! Only problem now is, will we ever be able to travel economy again?
The hardest thing, which didn’t really hit me till we were boarding our first flight, was that I was taking Scarlett away from her mum. My wife has never been big on flying! While I managed to get her to the UK in in 2012 – since having Scarlett her anxiety has returned, and even the thought of getting on a plane was enough for her. So when she suggested I take Scarlett back by myself for my Grandma’s 80th, initially I thought she was kidding. The moment I realised she wasn’t, I had booked flights – 11 days before we left!
For the month of April I was daily vlogging my life, what keeps me busy every day – and this fell right in the middle of that! I was struggling to keep all my excitement out of these vlogs. Every night while doing the edits I’d end up cutting HEAPS out, as I kept eluding to what was coming the following week and out of fear of my mother watching them and working out what was going on. The other problem I had with taking a two-week holiday, was I had to get as much work done before I left. It meant I had to stop spending time editing these vlogs (and am catching up now in June).
While I was away though, I continued to daily vlog – and edited and uploaded these each night. I’m so glad I did – if not for my own collection of my memories from what was the best trip of my life.
I’m pleased that I can also share this journey with you, watch the first video below – or click here to see the full playlist.
Enjoy!