A road less travelled
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|January 2021
Summer brings back memories of long drives and a simpler life. But did kids really have it better then?
PAT McDERMOTT
A road less travelled
As we back down our driveway with five children and one dog on the first leg of a long drive north for a summer break, a little voice asks if we’re there yet.

Someone complains, from under a surfboard, that they are “all stuffed up back here!” A third voice says the dog smells and numbers four and five ask to be let out at the next corner.

“I want out too,” growls The MOTH (The Man of the House), “but you don’t hear me complaining.”

“We have paid an outrageous amount for this holiday,” I remind them. “You are to start enjoying it right now! There’s only 400 kilometres to go!”

We’d rented a good old Aussie beach apartment complete with stains on the carpet and a vinyl sofa guaranteed to take a layer of skin off on a hot day. The paper-thin floor and walls mean the people sipping coffee in the cafe downstairs will hear us tossing and turning on the plastic-covered mattress in our bedroom.

This story is from the January 2021 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

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This story is from the January 2021 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

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