February 2014

Travellink winter competition feature I Destination Unknown

Meanwhile at Home: Beautiful Winter Images from Scandinavia

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 27, 2014

I am trying to be on denial. And I would be doing great if there was no Instagram. Shorts, T-shirt and sandals are my daily uniform here in New Zealand, coupled with regularly applied layers of factor thirty or fifty. The bright blue pair of runners is put to use […]

16 comments Read the full article →
Road tripping in New Zealand I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

Crazy or not? Forget renting, buy a car for holidays!

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 24, 2014

Have you ever thought about buying a car, instead of renting one when going on holidays? I hadn’t. In Europe we usually go for rental cars. It’s easy to find a good deal online, only to find out at the pick-up desk that it wasn’t such a good deal after […]

6 comments Read the full article →
Learning languages I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

Learning Languages and Toddler’s Travel Talk

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 18, 2014

Communications can be tricky enough using just one language, but in our family we have three (and half) languages to tackle with. Finnish is the secret language of myself and our little miss. To give some credit to my husband, in the past two years he has taken baby steps, […]

11 comments Read the full article →
Road tripping to Coromandel, New Zealand I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

Little pieces of backyard blogging from New Zealand

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 13, 2014

It is not necessary to travel all the way to New Zealand to take it slow, like we have done. But just like we explore our surroundings back home in Norway to get to know our backyard better, we are now trying to take a bite of the region we […]

11 comments Read the full article →
Cobweb I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

New Zealand: Delightfully slowly

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 10, 2014

It would not be possible to travel any slower than this, as in fact, we are stuck. Our resident spiders have weaved their webs time and time again in the corners of our outdoor terrace while we have been, not busy, on our Kiwi get-a-way. In seven weeks you can […]

20 comments Read the full article →
Packing for Family Travels I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

The Unscientific Art of Packing for Family Holidays

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 6, 2014

Packing is something I never thought of writing about until my husband suggested that I’d do so. I wasn’t convinced, as I don’t have any scientific method to packing. No excel sheets or lists, no real drive to pack light nor have we purchased any family-specific-luggage to make our life […]

7 comments Read the full article →
Rendezvous Motel in NZ I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

First Impressions: How do we get out of here?!

by Satu Vänskä-Westgarth February 4, 2014

New Zealand. I expected to be wowed and fall in love from the moment we met. I was ready for the jaw-dropping views that would requite frequent photo stops as we drove to the sunset with our recently acquired van. And I thought it would be kind of cozy, all […]

12 comments Read the full article →