With school holidays fast approaching we wanted to interview one of our favourite adventurous families - Finch Touring!
1) Introduce yourself
The Finch Touring Family! We are Nic 34, Emily 32, Edison 5, Eliza 3 and together we make up FinchTouring. There are a lot of others that contribute to our social media and content pages but mainly its just us 4 who love to adventure and making memories together.
We sort of started our page after thinking what if something happened to Emily and I where could the kids relive all of our memories together and from there it sort of took off meeting new people other families with the same passion for camping and adventure like our selves and that we get along with so well which then evolved into collaborating with different travelling families and companies with assisting them test out new products etc.
2) Where are you going this school holidays? Or where are some spots that you like to go?
The school holidays are approaching fast and for us this is our first year with a school aged child so its made us rethink everything. Also Emily and Myself Nic now both work in a School so we are always thinking and planning what can we do in the school holidays. This July Holidays while the sunrises and sunsets are magical in winter we are headed to Rainbow Beach, Fraser Island and the Gold Coast to try and maximise this beautiful place of South East Queensland.
3) What are your top tips for traveling with kids? What are your top tips for getting ready to leave, staying organised on the road, and packing/cleaning up at the end?
Travelling with kids is tricky but the most rewarding if you can minimise the stress of it all. Planning stops but don’t lock your self’s into the stops you planned because if they are sleeping keep driving as much as you can and always force the kids to use the toilet every stop otherwise you will be stopping again down the road in no time. We never travel without drinks and food onboard for the kids, trust us it’s a must and will save you hundreds of dollars in servo rubbish foods on your trips. We have travelled with babies before from 10 weeks old and that’s very different again I guess you can get all the tips in the world but tis got to be what suits your baby and family ultimately BUT we did find early morning travel always worked the best for us when they are young.
The more we could travel early morning hours the happier the babies were and slept a lot of it and woke up happy compared to cranky babies/toddlers in the later part of the day. Growing up we always camped as little kids with our parents and now we have been taking our kids camping since they were 8 weeks old, its not for everyone and it freaks a lot of family’s out but we recommend it so they your young ones find it easy to sleep anywhere and not just in their cribs at home etc but yes its not for everyone and if it stresses you out too much then it might stress out your littles ones so just start slowly.
The packing for trips sort of starts earlier in the week before we would leave for a trip that way the the last minute packing prepping isn’t too painful or stressful and everyone going into the trip relaxed straight away. The backseat is prepd with snacks pillows devices chargers etc for the kids and all other times I might need as the driver to keep me ticking along on the trips is arranged in an easy to get place, (phones, chargers, water, sunglasses, devices go pros etc) We don’t want to be having to stress about things not packed so we have a goto list on our phones that we both can access and update each trip also is one of the best things we ever did that way during the weeks leading upto a trip we can just add to it and cross things off as they pop into our heads.
4) What’s been some of your best moments/destinations? Can you tell us about a time when things didn’t go to plan - but it was an adventure anyway?
New Zealand and North QLD Great Barrier Reef are probably standout adventures with the kids so far. The first time they experience snow or crystal clear waters being able to see fish swim past really sits with us and probably will for years to come. We can remember three trips where the caravan wheels or bearings have exploded leaving us stranded at times on the side of the road unfortunately which really took a toll on us there for a while and we stopped caravanning and did more trips just with the LandCruiser again. Also having unfriendly people camp near us causing grief and unsafe environments really shakes us up a bit but we just try to keep ourselves safe and move on home or to another location and we recommend everyone does this if you ever feel unsafe its just not with the risk.
5) What Rhino-Rack gear do you use that you wouldn’t leave home without, and how does your Rhino-Rack gear make it easy to "make space for adventure" with kids?
There’s probably no way we could do the trips with our LandCruiser without the Rhino-Rack gear its changed the way we can use our vehicle and keep us out there adventuring without pilling up the inside of the LandCruiser unsafely. We would recommend family’s grab some of the weather proof travel roof bags they are unreal for packing all the families clothes towels blankets sheets in and can just chuck them on the roof or when we arrive we can unclick the whole weather proof bags with everything in them and just simply chuck them for the room straight onto the ground all done in one manoeuvre and saves us so much room inside the vehicle.
Having kids you want shade especially with you living in Queensland so the Batwing we use almost every week and gives incredible shade options which is important to us if we want to make the most of the day.
You can follow Finch Touring on their adventures below:
Instagram: @finchtouring
YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/FinchTouring
Facebook: @finchtouring
