Final week of our adventure - Cornwall

This final chapter of our travel diary covers the last week of our three week family holiday where we spent a week in Cornwall. Written on the final leg of our flight home I hope I do it justice.

The car journey from North Yorkshire to the village of Camelford, North Cornwall was another all day one. Not sure of how we’d cope with the 8 hour journey, I was relieved to find we didn’t fare too badly. With some well planned stops and a few games up our sleeves, we made it without too much grumpiness!

While I missed the bustling Paris scene, Alex missed the serenity of rural Yorkshire. However, driving into summer in Cornwall, it’s relaxed, beachy feel was therapeutic for us all. In Camelford we stayed in a mid-18th century cottage that was spacious and comfortable. We were aiming for a slower pace during this final week leading up to the big trip home and returning to regular life.

The week begun by celebrating William’s 5th Birthday. What did he want to do? Go to the beach. Good choice!! We can manage that one. So it was a simple birthday at the beach for the birthday boy who splashed about and soaked up the the sun’s rays to his hearts content.

We made Daymer Bay our go-to beach. One time was after dinner where I did a fast walk up the steep path at the end of the beach to make sure I was hot enough to take the agreed family plunge into the sea. Yip, it was a bit cold but loads of fun! Sitting on the beach watching the lovely sunset, the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds, William said, “It’s like God coming down from heaven.” Which

is quite unlike him but a timely reminder for us all to remember who has given us such good gifts.

An unusual beach experience another evening was further up the coast at Bude. It was a lovely, sunny evening but on our way there we drove down into mist which seemed to engulf this entire portion of the coast line. It was bizarre as lots of people were still at the beach, some going out surfing. You could barely see the surf from the beach it was that misty. Apparently the locals call it “mizzle” for it’s mixture of mist and drizzle. Anyhow, it wasn't cold so we stayed for a while and played in and and around the rock pools.

On the way home we drove up and out of the mist into a brilliant evening where the sun was setting and we were up above the clouds. My amateur photography did not do it justice at all but will still remind me of this surreal and beautiful sight.

Another day trip was to the Eden Project. Such a unique place to visit, this former quarry has been transformed into a conservation project focussing on sustainability. Arriving in drizzle, within an hour we were

regretting leaving the sun hats and shorts in the car!

Huge biomes are the focal point of the Eden Project. The larger encloses a 3-tiered rainforest. While it was too hot and humid to see everything we got to see how things like coffee and cocoa beans, rubber trees and sugar cane grow.

The Mediterranean biome was more temperate and really pleasant to wander around, despite the crowds. We lingered in this biome and listened to a fun story time there. Later while finding refuge from the crowds and heat we set up our picnic rug in a mini orchard for a while. The peace was soon disturbed by a mechanical dinosaur doing a practice round with it’s operators for an upcoming summer event.

Finally, a sobering display was the huge WEEE man, a 3.3 tonne

robot-like structure representing the amount of Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment that the average UK household throws away in their lifetime. A real inspiration to reduce, re-use and recycle!

Quite close to Camelford is the coastal village of Tintagel which boasts the English Heritage owned, Tintagel Castle. This prominent headland connected by a narrow neck of land (now all but collapsed) has been inhabited since Roman times and is associated with the legend of King Arthur.

Such a striking setting where ruins span both headland and mainland which are connected by a narrow bridge and steep steps to reach the top of the headland. Again arriving in drizzle it was quite atmospheric and very fitting for such a dramatic location.

As the days were running out we had to make some compromises. We had really wanted to cycle a portion of the Camel Trail (a former railway). We had planned to do the coastal section between Wadebridge and Padstow (traditionally a fishing port and made famous by restaurateur, Rick Stein).

We chose instead to visit another National Trust property, Lanhydrock House. After a fire in 1881 the house was extensively modernised, which is still very old fashioned to us! Viewing the 50+ rooms felt like stepping into scenes from Downton Abbey, showing the contrast in the lives of those who live “upstairs” and “downstairs”.

The bonus at Lanhydrock House that helped us accept our compromise is that it's set on an estate and has cycle hire facilities to cater for the trails weaving through the estate. The girls had been looking forward to getting on bikes since we arrived in Oxford so we hired bikes for the morning and did some of the trails before visiting the house. Once we all got used to wheels again we had a great

time. The photos show how we managed it with the boys in tow.

With our holiday very nearly at it’s end we packed up at drove the 4 hours to my good friend Nicky’s place in Woking, Surrey. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, Nicky and I went on our first OE together to the UK in 2001. I returned to NZ but Nicky settled in the UK marrying an Englishman and they now have two kids.

We had a lovely final 24 hours with them. The kids had fun together and Alex and I got to relax and enjoy some adult company. The girls even got taken to church the following morning so we could re-jig our packing and get organised to leave that evening. I felt very blessed to still have this friendship almost 20 years on even though we live in different hemispheres.

The last few hours of our holiday weren’t without their trials though. Daniel was sick on the day we left, throwing up during our lunch out and then on the way to the airport to drop off the hire car. After a quick clean up, change of clothes and binning the soiled ones we were finally off to Heathrow Airport.

Running a bit behind schedule because of this and finding long check-in queues wasn’t much fun but then the United Arab Emirates check-in lady queried Alex’s intentions of wanting to enter NZ on his British passport without a return ticket while the rest of the family had NZ passports. This meant us standing at he counter for about half an hour while she sought advice.

After some calls to NZ immigration and Alex finding a photo of his NZ passport on his phone he was given the all clear to get on the plane. A frustrating situation. He must've had a rogue look about him that day….

Completing this entry the day after our return I can report that the flights home were uneventful and much better than the flights to the UK. Daniel slept the whole of the first leg and I managed to get more than 2 hours sleep over the entire journey this time.

One final hiccup is that half of our luggage didn't make it to Auckland on our flight and is apparently still in Melbourne but we are hopeful that will get to us soon!

This part of our family adventure is over. It has been a unique and wonderful experience. One we never dreamed we’d have, even 9 months ago. Alex achieved more than he hoped and on the whole we thrived as a family in a way we didn’t expect. Just so it doesn’t seem too romanticised though, there were days and periods that just like in NZ were hard but (just like in NZ) we got through them :)

We are SO grateful for the opportunity to have had this experience and chance to grow together as a family. What the future holds, we don’t know for sure but I’m looking forward to finding out!