Back in the UK — And the Cold Hit Us Like a Wall
After six months of family travel across Asia, we’re back in the UK for a couple of months of family travel UK — and it didn’t take us long to not miss the weather!
But before we even landed, we had a challenging flight.
The Inaugural Flight That Wasn’t Worth Commemorating
We had the privilege of flying on Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight from Seoul to London. Although I wouldn’t necessarily call it a privilege.
To mark the occasion, we were given a gift — a free scone. So dry it felt like it was a leftover from Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight back in 1984. Although still travelling on a budget, we ate it: free food and all that and managed to keep our teeth intact in the process. We also received an excruciating 45-minute check-in process, and — as an apology for that — the promise of priority baggage collection on arrival at Heathrow.
The plane felt older than me. At one point I genuinely considered whether we were supposed to bring our own logs to fuel the engine. Seats cramped, entertainment limited, food poor. Fourteen hours of character-building discomfort.
We landed. We looked forward to our priority bags.
Our bags came out last.
Outside, it was freezing.
Our Lifetime Underground Travel Cards from four years ago didn’t work.
Welcome to Britain.
The only upside? Our original flight via the Middle East had been cancelled, and this re-booked inaugural adventure saved us a small fortune.
Readjusting to Family Life Back in the UK
We’ve been back a few weeks now and have just about recovered from the frostbite. We had genuinely forgotten how long it takes to warm up in this country. Cold Japan felt like a sauna in comparison.
The one weather-related silver lining: the infamous April showers seemed to have gone on holiday themselves — perhaps they had popped to Thailand to warmer climes.
We quickly set about rebuilding some routine: setting up the education studio in the garage, getting the kids booked into activities, and relearning how to use a knife and fork.
Within days we were at the seaside, at the arcades, eating chips. Not fish and chips — Cod, it seems, has taken a battering in more ways than one. With the cost-of-living crisis in full swing, the price has gone through the roof, and we’re still on a budget. We settled for just the chips.
And what great chips Britain makes – nowhere in the world can match Britain’s big, chunky, greasy, glorious chips. Probably explains the heart disease statistics too.
Things to Do with Kids in the UK: Castles, UFOs and a History Lesson Nobody Asked For
One of the unexpected joys of family travel in the UK is just how much history is on your doorstep — and how spectacularly unimpressed children can be by all of it.
New Zealand has a rich culture through its Māori population, but because Māori were not builders of large structures and had no written language, the visual footprint of that history is limited. Europe is different — thousands of years of civilisation, with the buildings still standing to prove it.
Framlingham Castle, for example, is 800 years old. Around the same time it was being built, Kupe was paddling the first Polynesian canoe onto the virgin shores of New Zealand. That’s the kind of context that makes history feel alive.
Our kids’ verdict after walking the 20-metre castle walls? “I’m hungry.” “Can I buy a sword?” “This is boring.”
History will not be getting much airtime on the homeschool curriculum this term.
A short drive away, in the quiet woodland of Rendlesham Forest in rural Suffolk, we walked the trail to Britain’s most famous UFO event. In December 1980, two RAF servicemen reported seeing lights in the trees and, upon investigation, claimed to witness a craft take off in front of them — leaving scorch marks and damaged trees found the following morning. Today, a replica of what they saw sits eerily in a forest clearing, silent and slightly unsettling.
The kids loved it. Mostly because they got to climb on a spaceship.
Family Activities in the UK: Falconry, Horses and Wildlife Parks
Family travel in the UK has a huge variety of activities on your doorstep. Within a few weeks we’d ticked off falconry, a horse show, and a wildlife park.
Falconry & another “best day ever”
Alex has moved on from his snake obsession. Birds of prey are the new thing. I spotted the opportunity immediately and pounced — which felt appropriate.
We booked a falconry session and he got to fly three owls and a kestrel. Wearing a special glove, holding out meat, watching these incredible creatures swoop back to his arm — the smile on his face said everything. He declared it the “best day ever”, joining the now-legendary Penang hike (blog here) in his personal hall of fame.
The Horse Show
Sofia got her day out shortly after — an early start at a local Horse Show. We stood in a field, in the freezing cold, surrounded by dozens of horses of every breed, competing in everything imaginable.
Sofia was absolutely in her element. I, meanwhile, tucked into a long-overdue bacon butty and tried to look like I knew what dressage was.
I’ll admit — her dream of owning a horse one day is starting to rub off on me. These creatures really are something to watch.
Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park
Jimmy’s Farm has grown from a modest TV project in the early 2000s into a full wildlife park, following Jimmy Doherty as he built it up over the years. Today it’s home to rare and exotic animals — tigers, lions, brown bears, and even polar bears.
Yes. Polar bears. Living in the UK.
That tells you everything you need to know about the British climate.
The kids had a brilliant day out — seeing so many animals up close. The polar bears looked completely at home. Which is more than I can say for myself as I dragged myself around possibly the millionth animal encounter of this trip.
Twelve years away, and four years since our last visit — each time I come back, Britain feels simultaneously familiar and slightly foreign. Just like the timeless pair of trainers I leave here each time we visit – they feel new but not quite sure if they still fit. On arrival, I found myself feeling like a bit of an outsider in my own home country, which was a strange thing to admit.
After a few days though, and normal service resumed. Suddenly I’m eating toad in the hole, debating the weather with strangers, and having a thoroughly satisfying moan about something — anything — for no particular reason.
Some things, it turns out, never leave you.
Six Months In: Reflections on Long-Term Family Travel
We’re already four weeks into our UK chapter with no onward flight booked just yet — but the diary is filling up fast and time is moving quickly.
Six months into the trip now. Which means we’re closer to heading home to New Zealand than we are to the start of all this. That feels like a huge milestone.
Read more of our UK blogs here.
Read more blogs from our round the world family travel adventures here.
