There’s a haze on the horizon, the sunshine is beating down and the waves are crashing in today.

As we near the end of our winter break we’d promised ourselves a bit of down time. A bit of beach time.

With two sunbeds and a parasol priced at 12€ for the day, we choose our little bit of sand carefully. It’s almost like arriving at a car park and finding you’re the first there. Which spot to choose. The beach sprawls for what seems like miles. The Boss can’t decide on which grains of sand are going to be graced with his presence. So, I choose.

The waves are rough today, paddle boarders and surf boards are out riding the waves. I muse for a moment, if we go for a paddle, I want to be safe. Carefully combed sand near the life guard station seems like a safe bet.

Enjoying life while we can

Here we are snuggled up inside a sleeping bag made for two in a rental campervan of similar size to that of an under stairs cupboard in a standard detached house back in Blighty. Above us is not much more in the way of headroom than an extended arm’s length, before we can reach a very clever wooden pull-out bed base which provides a useful 3rd sleeping space for our adult son, who has joined us for a weekend getaway in The Wairarapa wine region in the South of New Zealand’s North Island.

Feeling blessed with the fact that our adult children still don’t mind tagging along with their middle aged parents and even more so when it involves sharing such a small but well organised space together, really then got us thinking as to why do we actually need much more room than this…