These days, my wife and I lead quite sedentary lives and have no desire to go travelling. There comes a point in time when you can be “past it”.

That was not the case when we were young and when our children were growing up. We had some tremendous holidays together – and our children always came with us.

We had to budget carefully but we never borrowed money to support holidays.

In reflection, I think the best-ever holiday that we went on was one of nearly 7 weeks in New Zealand at the end of 1978.

Our three children at that stage were seven, six, and five years old.

In our campervan which we picked up in camp Auckland, we spent just over three weeks going around the perimeter of the North Island as well as up and down the middle. We then crossed over the Cook Strait. We had nearly 3 weeks in the south Island of New Zealand before flying back to Australia from Christchurch.

Without going into a lot of detail – and I can remember it well – that for me was the best holiday we ever had.

Driving in the campervan and living in the same vehicle, together, certainly drew us close as a family.