Travel chaos
24.–25. Juni 2025 in Qatar ⋅ 🌬 41 °C
Everything was going smoothly, apart from my hangover, after leaving Malaga, until we got an announcement from the captain that Qatar had closed its airspace and we were being diverted to Istanbul. We all reached for our phones to see what was going on and it soon became clear that Iraq was launching missiles into Doha after Mr Trump's latest antics and were striking against a US Air Force base situated not far form Hamad airport. Diverting the flight instead of trying to land at an airport not far from where missiles were being fired into made sense to me, but my thoughts immediately turned to my connecting flights.
Because of my change of travel plans I needed to get to Doha then to Riyadh, check back into a flight to Doha and then go on to Auckland - complicated but necessary for this trip unfortunately. After 7 hours on the tarmac in Istanbul and not being able to get out of the plane we were on our way to Doha again. I had a decent layover in Doha anyway so I assumed I would still be able to get my flight to Riyadh and continue on my merry way .... WRONG
Hamad Airport is one of, if not the largest hubs in the middle east and when it works well, which it almost always does, its a joy to pass through. This was not one of those times - closing the Qatari airspace for 6-7 hours had enormous knock of effects for the tens of thousands of travellers who pass through there every day.
I am lucky to have lounge access at Doha but it was no good to me this time as the place was completely full and you couldn't get a seat anywhere - after hours and hours of no flight announcements it soon became clear that my flight to Riyadh wasn't happening so I was told I had to go and wait in the queue for the transfer desk to rearrange my flights. 9 hours later I was still in the same queue with no end in sight, my Riyadh flight had since left but there was no way I was going to be on it, so my luggage was on its way to Riyadh, but I wasn't.
Not to worry, my flight to Auckland left later that night so I just had to make sure I was on that, but because I hadn't made it to Riyadh to check into my next flights I was worried that my flights may have been cancelled. As I stood in this god forsaken queue with my phone battery on 5% I had the brainwave to call the only person I could think of that could help me ... Joan. Joan was a champion and called Qatar airways in Auckland who confirmed that because I didn't check in in Riyadh I was considered a no show so my Auckland flight was cancelled. I could have cried I was beyond tired at that stage after over 24 hours in the airport with no sleep and all I wanted to do was go home so I asked Joan to get me on any flight she could from wherever I needed to get to so I could get out of this place. I turned my phone off and told Joan I would turn it back on in an hour when hopefully I would get some good news. Like an idiot I stayed in this queue of the damned for another hour and didn't move at all so when Joan called me back and told me I was on an Emirates flight out of Dubai to Auckland the next morning and a flight to Dubai from Doha in 2 hours I have never been so happy in my life. I skipped out of the queue form hell and bolted for the gate for my escape from Hamad International Airport - I was asleep before we took off and had to be woken up by the stewardess in Dubai. I headed straight to a sleep pod and got 4 of the most needed hours sleep of my life before getting on that plane and finally heading for Auckland.
An absolute nightmare of a journey that I hope I never have to repeat again.Weiterlesen
Back in Maraetai
26.–29. Juni 2025 in Neuseeland ⋅ 🌬 17 °C
After the journey from hell it was such a relief to land in Auckland and make my way home to Maraetai, where I had about 30 mins to get showered, changed and then I was out the door again to get down to Scarlett’s hangi lunch at Maraetai Beach School, which was so good after a couple of days in travel limbo eating crappy airline food. After picking Frankie up from kindy and lovely reunions with both of the girls we spent the next day relaxing and taking Bella on as many lovely beach walks as we could before we headed off on our now traditional staycation adventure at the Cordis in the city. It was yet another fantastic 24 hours at our favourite hotel in Auckland – lots of roof top pool swims, snail showers and the girls also discovered that they loved saunas too. We had our regular competition to see who could guess what colour the sky tower would be at night and gorged ourselves at the afternoon tea and canape buffets in the club lounge. The girls really enjoyed the library this time and Mum and Dad got to chill and enjoy a couple of cocktails. Breakfast the next morning is always much anticipated and the girls start planning what ice cream they are going to have and what they are going to dip in the chocolate fountain about a week before we get there. Another perfect break at our favourite hotewol (as Frankie calls it).
The next morning the girls and I packed ourselves into the ute and headed down the road to Hawkes Bay to see the whanau, while Joan jumped in her car and headed to Raglan for some sanctuary and a much needed break. This past 12 months has been incredibly stressful for Joan with me being away, Ernie passing away shortly after I left and then all the stresses that come with packing up the house and getting it ready to be sold before Joan and the girls relocate to Northern Ireland for a while. I will never know how Joan managed all of this by herself but she is an incredibly strong wonderful wife, mum and human being in general and we are so grateful for her being the rock in our lives. A few days of peace and quiet and being on her own schedule was very overdue and I was more than happy to have the girls all to myself for a few days so everyone was a winner.Weiterlesen
Quality time with the whanau
30. Juni–3. Juli 2025 in Neuseeland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
The trip down to Hawkes Bay was really important to make sure that the girls had a chance to hang out with their cousins and especially Gran and Pop before relocating to Ireland for the next couple of years while I saw out the rest of my time in Saudi. We certainly hit the ground running and the next morning after we arrived we headed off to the National Aquarium with Gran, Pop and Audrey with us. The girls had an amazing time and really enjoyed being the big cousins with Audrey, which is a change for them as they are normally the young ones at all the meet ups. It was so cute watching the girls hold Audrey’s hand and explain everything they were seeing to her as we made our way around the aquarium. It was also awesome just seeing them tearing around the place and being amazed by the underwater tunnel and all the big rays and fish in the displays. A great morning out.
No trip to Hawkes Bay is complete without a marathon playground session at Cornwall Park in Hastings and this trip certainly didn’t disappoint – Liz bought Amber, Briar and Hazel and Scarlett and Frankie had the time of their lives running around the place, flying down the zip line, climbing up and over everything and being so brave and adventurous – I was blown away with how much more grown up Frankie is on this trip and she was flying around the playground, following her big sister and cousins and going everywhere they went, I was so proud of her and how much she is developing and maturing since starting at kindy full time, she is certainly not a baby any more and is blossoming into a super confident wee girl.
We also managed another epic playground session at Anderson Park with Uncle Hud, Carys and Oti where the ziplines got a hammering and everyone had an absolute blast. Scarlett’s gymnastics and tumbling are certainly making her stronger and more capable around the playground and her skills even impressed her big cuzzie Carys which Scarlett was absolutely chuffed about.
A big highlight of the trip was getting everyone together for dinner at the Puketapu Hotel, all the kids had a blast hanging out, drinking juice and causing chaos and it was awesome to get a chance to hang out with Claire, Philip, Mike, Hudd, Taz, Mum and Dad. Was a shame Liz and Hazel and Chris Michelle and Dom couldn’t make it but we are getting so big as a group its hard to find a time that works for everyone and no one is sick.
We rounded out a brilliant trip home to the Bay with a morning at Pop’s museum, The Faraday Centre on our way out of town. Pop gave us the VIP guided tour and we got to see so many cool things like the Tesla Coil, the voice activated colour room, the mind bending mirrored tardis and all the cool old machinery including the printing press that Pop was working on at the time. Frankie was obsessed with the old washing mangle and just stood for ages winding bits of material through and back. We all had a blast and really enjoyed seeing Pops Museum.
This trip was really important to me as I wanted to make sure that the girls had a chance to spend quality time with Gran and Pop especially but also all their aunties, uncles and cousins before they headed across to Ireland for a while. This past year has reinforced to me that time spent with the people you love the most is absolutely priceless and I was so thankful we got to do this little mini break with the whanau.Weiterlesen
Ka kite for now Maraetai
4.–10. Juli 2025 in Neuseeland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
The last few days back in Maraetai were going to be busy but it is always so important for me to squeeze every last bit of time with the girls and activity out of these visits. We make another lunchtime visit to the awesome Ajisen Ramen in Botany, spent as much time at the beach as we could and hit all the local playgrounds despite the weather starting to get a bit dodgy by the end of the visit.
The undisputed highlight of this last few days at home was Frankie’s 4th birthday princess party which was at her daycare in Beachlands. Everybody got dressed up the nines for the royal occasion and we had an absolute blast. Taffy the fairy ran the show perfectly as always and all the kids had a brilliant time. It was so nice seeing Frankie with all her own friends at the party. We were always a bit worried about all Frankie’s friends being Scarlett’s friends and all their little brothers and sisters, but having her at Seema’s has meant she has a great little group of mates, who all came along to the party.
I also managed to squeeze in a catch up and a few low key drinks with some ex Stride colleagues in the city which was great – so awesome to see everyone especially on a school night – thanks to Geoff, Josh, Lu, Nicole, Fabio, Tim and Correen for making the effort.
My final day in Maraetai was a heavy one, we were in the process of getting work done to the house and getting it ready for sale, which I was fine with but it was a really weird feeling knowing that you once you leave the place that is your home, you wont ever be going back there and that it will soon become someone else’s home. This was our first home so we have never sold and moved on before.
The hardest was yet to come though as I put Bella into the car and headed down to the beach for what I knew was going to be the final time I got to walk her. We went down to Waiomanu beach, one around from the main beach at Maraetai and headed off on Bella’s favourite walk one last time – we stopped at all the usual spots, she checked the bins for chicken bones, sniffed every tree and weed on every second one as we ambled our way round to Magazine Bay and back. We certainly didn’t set any land speed records that morning but that didn’t matter at all. I spent the whole time remembering all the great times we had had with Bella and reminding myself that trying to relocate her to Ireland wasn’t going to be fair on her and that the incredibly hard decision we had made was the right one. Joan would get a few more precious weeks with Bella but this was it for me and it hit me hard. We got back to the car, got Bella back in and I just broke down and bawled for what felt like an hour. We had done this walk and journey hundreds of times over the last 10 years plus but this was it, the last one. I managed to compose myself and we headed home and I got packed up and ready to head to the airport again for another marathon journey back to site.
This was an amazing trip home and I loved every second of it, but this one hit different – things were about to change significantly all round, and while the thought of the changes was daunting it was also really exciting – the next chapter of our family life was about to start and we were ready for it.Weiterlesen
Back to site
11. Juli 2025 in Saudi-Arabien ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
Back to site and another 2 months until I get to see everyone again in September in Ireland
Family time
19.–22. Sept. 2025 in Nordirland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
After an unbelievable, super human effort from Joan and support from our nearest and dearest in Maraetai, the house was packed up and all our things were moved into storage. The house went onto the market and Joan, Scarlett and Frankie boarded the big bird and headed to Fort Worth for a week of destressing and family time before making the big jump to Fermanagh for a fresh start and some much needed time at home.
So after everyone had been in Fermanagh for about a month or so and started to settle into a new routine and surroundings for the girls, I boarded another flight and headed for Ireland. I landed early morning in Dublin and after a couple more hours sleep on the bus I arrived in Enniskillen and was greeted by Joan off the bus, which after the stress of the past 2 months it was so great to her smiling face again.
We headed straight to Dunnes for a feed and then went on to Ballinamallard to pick Frankie up from Nursery which was awesome. I entered the building and Frankie spotted me from across the other side, screamed and ran over to give me the biggest hug ever, it was lovely. We did the same thing for Scarlett when she finished school which was so awesome too. Nothing better than those first hugs when I get home.
We spend the next couple of days at playgrounds, eating ice cream, watching the girls gymnastics displays in Granny Linda’s front room and generally having the craic. We also were very lucky to all be in Enniskillen at the same time as Lisa so it was awesome to catch up with her, her folks, Dutchy, Sarah and the whole crew for some bowling and surprisingly good coffee at 9th Avenue.
No trip back to Enniskillen is complete without a trip to the rugby club so we spent a brilliant afternoon and evening up at the club watching the 1st XV beat Lurgan fairly convincingly, catching up with loads of old friends and sampling the Guinness and bacon fries. Great times.
Having missed Father’s Day in New Zealand this year I also got a very special belated Father’s Day breakfast in bed on Sunday, which after a couple of pints on Saturday was very welcome. We then rounded out Sunday at Lucy’s 5th birthday party with the Ferguson’s which was also great craic.
An action packed, but flying visit this time to see everyone, however the holiday wasn’t over just yet – Joan and I were off to fulfil a life time ambition for her the next day as we headed for Dublin airport and 3 nights in Ibiza reliving our youth …Weiterlesen
Ibiza innit
22.–24. Sept. 2025 in Spanien ⋅ 🌬 22 °C
I always thought the opportunity to go to Ibiza had passed us by, we are now well into our 40’s and the fear was always that we would be the sad old people at the back of the clubs reliving their youth while the young cool people were enjoying their actual youth. I was also worried that the island itself just wouldn’t be what we were interested in in terms of a few days away. Turns out I was wrong, on pretty much all counts.
The flight from Dublin was just as mental as I was expecting. As we sat at the departure gate the waiting passengers were a heady blend of hen parties, 40th birthday crews, hippies, a lot of people who I simply didn’t think looked like they would be on their way to Ibiza. This was a metaphor for the whole island. The flight itself was chaos with everyone hyped to be heading to Ibiza for a few days of debauchery.
We were staying in Playa d’en Bossa, not far from the airport in a fairly basic but perfectly functional apartment style room. We settled in and immediately got ready to head out as we had tickets to see David Guetta at Ushuaia that afternoon/evening. We had a few pre drinks in the apartment then started the short walk to Ushuaia stopping along the way for a couple more cocktails to wet the whistle. Ushuaia is a huge outdoor super club surrounded by apartments and hotel rooms that are also part of the same venue. Had a really fun evening watching the warm up DJs and people watching. Our fears that we would be the sad old people there was quickly extinguished – we were not even close to being the oldest people there – the day/evening club bringing out anyone and everyone, which was cool. David Guetta was the star of the show and the place was rammed by the time he came on. I’ve seen a few DJs in my time and this was much more of a full on stage and AV show than I had ever seen. If this place had a roof he would have blown it clean off – it was great fun. The gig finished around 11pm and after a long day of travel and a big day ahead the next day we made our way back via a few more bars and cocktails – first day was a huge success.
The next day was our first chance to get a look around Ibiza itself and we took the local bus to the old town and started exploring. The old town itself is down next to the harbour and is made up of lovely narrow, cobbled streets, vibrant food stalls, awesome restaurants and tiny little bars. We found an awesome little restaurant down one of the streets and parked up early afternoon and had a late lunch, and a few cheeky Roses and Aperols. The food was incredible and we left there with full bellies and started the journey back to our accommodation to get ready for a big night ahead.
The main reason we came to Ibiza was to go to the Kevin & Perry Experience at Amnesia that night. The movie is a classic and the soundtrack was a who’s who of late 90’s trance. Joan has always loved trance and had also always wanted to get to Ibiza, and especially Amnesia, after spending much of her youth in clubs across Northern Ireland so this was a bit of a pilgrimage. We hung out that evening at the apartment and eventually made our way to Amnesia, one of the OG Ibiza super clubs. To say it was a little overwhelming when we arrived was an understatement – I had never seen anything like this place in my life. Two enormous, 2 level rooms packed to the rafters with clubbers reliving their youth for this night and this music. We were amongst our own here and we were loving it. We had an absolutely brilliant night seeing some huge names from the past and after we ran out of steam we eventually made our way home at 7am the next morning.
Our final day was a little more sedate after getting some much needed sleep and we made our way over to the other side of the island where we pitched up at the legendary Café Mambo and supped on a few restorational proseccos and bloody marys. We watched the sun set at Café Mambo and then made our way around the bay to an amazing Greek restaurant called Aragma where we had a Top 3 all time meal. An incredible way to round out our time in Ibiza
We flew out the next morning – Joany headed for Dublin and home to see the girls again, and I hopped on a flight to Barcelona where I had 12 hours or so to kill before my flight back to Doha.Weiterlesen
Barcelona bound
25. September 2025 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Tired, a little bit hungover and missing Joan and the girls already I jumped on a short flight to Barcelona, a city I had never been to but one I had to spend the next 12 hours in before my flight back to the middle east.
I had a couple of things that I wanted to tick of the list so not knowing how the public transport system worked or whether what I wanted to do was even going to be possible in the time I had, I checked my bag into left luggage and headed into the city to explore.
First stop was La Sagrada Familia, a church I had seen in pretty much everyone’s travel photos and one I was keen to check out. I popped out of the metro right next to the church, but unfortunately the whole site seemed to be a construction site so while I got a good look at the outside there was also a load of construction cranes and hoarding which I wasn’t expecting. I also didn’t realise you needed a ticket to get inside and unfortunately it was sold out for the day so I wandered off to find some much needed lunch and hydration as my hangover weirdly really kicked into gear for the next hour or two.
From there I got back on the metro and headed for the Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. Thankfully I already knew the stadium itself was being rebuilt so a tour was not on the cards I did go into the museum and the incredibly impressive 3 level club shop. The museum was cool, with loads of cool memorabilia from all the most famous eras of arguably the biggest football club in the world. Seeing their 5x Champions League trophies and the dozens of other La Liga, Copa del Ray and other trophies. The club shop itself was overwhelming and after spending a bit of time in there and picking up a few souvenirs I moved on again.
Vinyl shopping is one of my favourite things to do anywhere I go so I headed for an area just off La Rambla with my sights set on some new albums for the collection. I found an awesome little shop called Revolver Records and spent the next hour digging through crates and crates of awesome records. I managed to pick up a few new additions and with the best intentions headed out to explore La Rambla. It was about this time I quickly realized I was absolutely done for the day, my feet were aching, I was knackered and I still had a long haul flight ahead of me so I slunk back to the Metro, headed for the airport and waited for my flight back to work. Another full on but awesome tripWeiterlesen
Back to work again
26. September 2025 in Saudi-Arabien ⋅ 🌬 31 °C
Back to work - next trip back to NI for Halloween
Shura Links - my new home course
10. Oktober 2025 in Saudi-Arabien ⋅ 🌬 31 °C
The project I am working on here in Saudi is delivering some truly mind blowing hotels and resorts, all of which are amazing but to be honest, probably way out of my price range and unfortunately things I will probably never get to experience.
There has always been one glimmer of hope however and that has been the development of Shura Links, Saudi Arabia’s first island golf course and a key part of the biggest project in this area, being Shura Island. Myself and the rest of the guys who regularly use the simulators onsite always held out hope that we may get access to the course as it opened but we were never sure that would be the case.
So when we received confirmation that we would indeed have access to the course when it opened, and at reasonable green fee rates (for teh region), excitement levels were very high to get out there and play some actual, real life golf.
That day finally came on the 10th of October and I have been lucky enough to get out there more weekends than not since opening day.
The course itself is beautiful, fair and at the same time incredibly tricky around the greens – a true championship standard course. At the time of writing this (mid Jan 2026) I am yet to have a really great round there but after a confidence eviscerating, weeks long case of the shanks pre Xmas its finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable. Still plenty of work to do before March though and the next installment of the G.Smith Golf Tours in Tauranga.Weiterlesen
Black River hike
17. Oktober 2025 in Saudi-Arabien ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C
Our project is located on an amazing bit of the Saudi Arabian coast, so naturally the coastline, islands and sea are a big part of what we are doing here. A part that often gets overlooked though is the fact that we are also really close to a vast desert area which and what are effectively the foothills for the massive mountain ranges to the north of us.
Akun is the land based adventure activity part of Red Sea Global and they run regular weekly adventures now that the weather is starting to cool down a bit and spending time outside is actually enjoyable.
We went with Akun to a local area called the Black River for an early morning hike with Ala our awesome guide. The landscape here seems very barren and featureless and in many ways, the absolute polar opposite of the landscape in New Zealand or Ireland, which is why I find it mesmerising and just as beautiful, in a strange way.
Black River was about 25 mins drive from the site and once we arrived in darkness we started the scramble up the rocks and through the gulleys and rock formations. As it started to get light we were getting near the top of the range and as the sun started peaking out from behind the mountains to the east we stopped for a while to take it all in. It was such an awesome place and I loved how isolated we felt.
After enjoying the views for a bit longer we started to make our way down again through a different set of valleys and dried up ancient waterways, stopping along the way to see loads of different plants and trees with Ala emplaning what the local tries use them for. After dodging a handful of scorpion and snake nests we scrambled our way back down to the bottom and made our way back to site.
Given how beautiful the coast is, it is easy to forget how cool the mountains and dunes are as well – will definitely make an effort to do more of these as winter goes onWeiterlesen
Halloween in Ireland
28. Okt.–3. Nov. 2025 in Nordirland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Halloween has been Scarlett’s absolute favourite times of the year since she has known what it was properly – starting out 3 years early when Joan was informed she would be dressing up as a Mummy, because she was her mummy and I was instructed I would be a pumpkin – ha ha. Since then we have been the Addams Family and Ghostbusters while the girls were space kitties one year as well. This year was no different and details of our Halloween outfits were issued early this year by Scarlett and Frankie. Scarlett was going as Clawdeen Wolf from Monster High, I was going as Draculaura’s Dad from Monster High, and then Mummy and Frankie would be witches – sorted.
I boarded my flight and headed to Ireland again with no real idea what I was dressing up as but that was all part of the craic.
Halloween in Ireland is something else, it is a full noise celebration with events all through the week culminating in parades and fireworks on the 31st itself – no surprise really seeing as Ireland is where Halloween originated … who knew? Certainly not me.
We had a brilliant week going to all sorts of Halloween events, the girls having new spooky outfits for each any every different place we went to. The highlights being the event organized by an amazing organization that has been looking out for and helping support Linda since Ernie’s passing out at the Lisbellaw Petting Zoo where we had an awesome night of slime making with an actual real life wizard, a spooky walk through the farm to the pumpkin patch and then rounding out the night carving our very own Halloween pumpkins and having a zombie disco – great craic.
Outside of the Halloween festivities the girls and I also had a really special daddy and daughters evening out where we went to the amazing Shauna at SHB Hair Nails and Beauty in Clogher for some Japanese head spa therapy for the girls and some general pampering. This was such a brilliant evening getting to spend time with them doing something they absolutely love, made all the better by Shauna and how brilliant she was with both of the girls. We will certainly be back to SH - they rock, and I cant recommend them highly enough
The main event of this trip though was heading up to Derry on the 31st for the huge Halloween celebrations that happen there every year. We all got our costume son a jumped in the car for the quick blast up the road. This trip was also extra cool because we were also meeting up with our friends Mark and Bridie and their two great kids Sienna and Caden in Derry. Mark is from Limavady and they just happened to be at home on a big holiday while we were all there too so that was great. Got some interesting looks rocking up to Starbucks just outside the city in our full get ups but hey its Halloween, I'm sure they’ve seen it all before.
The afternoon and evening in the walled city was so cool, loads of different activations, music and street performance all round the city centre with every single person, man woman or child, regardless of age we came across dressed up – so cool, and something you would just never see in NZ. We walked along the walls of the old city, stopped for a customary Guinness for us and bag of bacon fries and some orange juice for the kids. We rounded out the evening in the amazing Guildhall in the city centre watching a mini concert by a Zombie choir under the most incredible looking moon inside the place – hard to describe and do justice but hopefully the photo explains it better than I can.
The girls and I rounded out this trip back with ice cream and a visit to the cow shed at Tickety Moo. The girls were absolutely fascinated by the feeding shed, how the cows are lived and especially the back scratching machines for the cows, well Scarlett was at least – Frankies favourite part was squealing and pointing out everytime one of the cows took a wee or poohed on the floor – sums them up perfectly, ha ha.
No trip back to see everyone is complete without out traditional stay overnight in a “fancy” hotewol as the girls call it. We were booked into The Manor House and the girls were suitably impressed when we pulled up at the hotel that looked like a castle according to them. We swam in the pool, ate a lovely dinner in the cellar bar, had a few more pints of Guinness and just soaked up our last night together for another wee while. The next morning we dropped the girls off at school and then I was on a bus and on my way back to Saudi for one final push work wise before the end of the year and a well earned Christmas breakWeiterlesen