SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2007

Berries turn boring breakfastinto delicious morning meal E4

HOMEMADE MUESLI

Inside HereHumour E3Food & Drink E4Calendar E5Occasions E6

SECTION E: THE MERCURY’S WEEKEND READ

15 airplanes 2 trains

26 boats

7 horses 10 cars

World of wondersOnce you get past the fear factor, taking your family around the globe is worth itBY NANCY HARPER

SPECIAL TO THE MERCURY

Every hockey mom worth hersalt knows there’s an unwrit-ten code of conduct for moth-erhood that has a whole lot to

do with self-sacrifice and not a damnthing to do with self.

So, when opportunity knocks, I’mall for moms putting themselves first —a little less June Cleaver, a little moreCourtney Love perhaps — and going af-ter what they really want. All it takes isa kick-ass attitude, a grand plan and awillingness to ignore the doubtingThomases who will inevitably hoverlike flies.

It helps that I’m the baby in my fami-ly and people expect me to be irrespon-sible anyway. So leaving everything be-hind for a year — to take my kids andhubby more than 80,000 kilometresacross seven countries on 15 flights, 26boats, 10 cars, one submarine, sevenhorses, a couple of trains, one truck,three trams and a subway — seemed,well, the right thing to do.

But oh, the raised eyebrows! Thequestions! You’re taking your kids outof school? What about their friends?Their after-school stuff ? Your job?

Won’t you go broke? And why take yourkids to Africa? Are you mad?

Fortunately I learned to politely ig-nore the ones who asked why, and cele-brate with those who asked: “Whynot?”

Certainly, long-haul adventure isn’teveryone’s cup of tea, but the point isthat too many parents don’t take theirkids anywhere at all (other than, per-haps, Disney World) because (a) they’drather stick pins in their eyes than trav-el for any length of time with their chil-dren or (b) the unfamiliar is too scaryor (c) they don’t think kids can handle achange in routine.

The truth is that taking the kidsalong for the ride is actually the icingon the cake, not the disaster-in-the-making that makes you wistful for yourdays as a travelling singleton.

It helps that I have a travel-mad Kiwihusband and a history of being flighty.But I knew this trip was also going to begreat for our kids — as in fabulous, eye-opening and life changing, not overlyrisky or financially silly or ill-thoughtout.

We could have done the “right”thing and invested a sudden, wee, unex-pected, real-estate windfall in an RRSPor something similarly grown-up and

responsible. But why put off doing allthe fun, expensive stuff now just to be afat cat in early retirement?

There are plenty of ways to get offthe treadmill and do that long-haul tripyou’ve always dreamed about. Here’show we did it.

ELORA TO B.C.

The month-long Canadian leg ofthis trip — which involved driving westfor 5,000 kilometres in a rusted-outFord Aerostar with no spare tire andthe biggest tent you’ve ever seen — wasneither absolute bliss nor full-on ChevyChase-style road trip disaster, but itwas certainly unforgettable. Indeed, af-ter a month of battling yeast infections— just try giving yourself a dose ofCanesten in the dark in a seasoned out-house while holding a flashlight be-tween your teeth, plugging your nosewith one hand and propping the doorshut with the other to keep the bearsout — my new mantra became: “It’s notalways going to be good but it’s alwaysgoing to be worth it.”

That I didn’t start smoking again isstill mildly surprising, as is the fact Ididn’t bury my drill sergeant husbandsix feet under after being told for thesquillionth time just how wrong wrong

wrong was my method of lighting firesor ramming in tent pegs or making s’mores.

On the up side, the kids thoughthome-schooling was the bomb — go fig-ure! — and they took the 5,000 km instride.

VANCOUVER TO NEW ZEALAND

Not for nothing was New Zealand re-cently named the coolest holiday desti-nation in the world. The fact that it’s sofar away is just about the only thingthat doesn’t work in its favour. And al-though it costs a fair bit to get there,everything else – the thrills and spills ofadventure tourism, the exchange rate,the wine, the clean green reputation,the world-class sailing, even the “Lordof the Rings” film locations — attractstourists like Playboy attracts randy oldmen with a penchant for big and boun-cy. Plus, it’s kid-friendly, super-safe(people actually still hitchhike there),and everyone speaks English. Whatmore could a travelling family want?

In just one three-day period alone,my girls fed wild-but-tame eels in acrystal-clear river, petted llamas and aTibetan yak, bottle-fed a piglet, diddoughnuts in a speedboat, groomed athoroughbred, pruned a tree, drove a

Jeep, watched the Crocodile Hunter ina luxury home overlooking the sea,sipped kiddie cocktails in a hot tub,wore a wetsuit for the first time, clungto their daddy on the back of a jet ski,caught six sandsharks and 30 fish, andslept in a holiday house with no elec-tricity and dinners made over an openfire. Later on they went bungy tram-polining, pigged out at the Cadburychocolate factory, saw albatross, sea li-ons, penguins and dolphins, and beach-combed till they dropped.

I’m pretty sure no regular school of-fers that sort of curriculum.

NEW ZEALAND TO AUSTRALIA

An expected few months Down Un-der stretched to six, both out of practi-cality (work being the necessary evilthat made the last chapters of the travelfantasy possible) and out of a desire tosavour our last few moments of beingAustralian, surrounded by Australiansand living as only Aussies can do. (Myhusband is a New Zealander and wehave lived in Melbourne for the betterpart of a decade.)

Climate-wise it’s stinkin’ hot; per-sonality-wise, it’s simply the coolestcountry in the world.

SEE TRIP: PAGE E2