For a lot of people, the arrival of kids means the end of independent travel. But not for all. On our honeymoon tour we came across a family who showed us it is possible to be responsible parents of young children and retain an adventurous spirit.

We met Nadine Kuczera in a supermarket in Puerto Montt, Chile. We were looking for food; she was looking for crew. We made an impulse buy and agreed to spend a week with her family sailing around icy fjords. Nadine, Bernard and their two children Sofia (11) and Sylvan (7), were no ordinary family. They had sailed from New Zealand to the Southern tip of Chile on a yacht they designed and constructed themselves.

This family made their life a journey; their home a speck on the ocean; and the people they met and their everyday experiences their teachers. During our time with the Kuczera family, we saw the potential for an adventurous family life, the possibilities for parenting and teaching through travel, the joys of discovering the world through children's eyes; and the way family adventure develops strong family bonds. When we said goodbye we knew we wanted some of the same for our family.

Mountain biking on horseback

We know there are hundreds of families just like the Kuczera's exploring the world together; cycling across the Sahara, reindeer sledging across Siberia, biking across America.

These families actively choose to broaden their horizons and undertake adventurous journeys. These experiences provide challenge, learning, excitement and personal development for individual family members and the family as a whole. We're tracking them down so we can hear about their experiences of adventure and discover how journeying together has affected their family life.

Here on The Family Adventure website we aim to publish stories about families that do extraordinary things together. Just as the Kuczera's inspired us, we hope these stories will inspire ordinary families to inject a little something extraordinary into their lives.

But learning from others is only half the game. We also want to experience adventure for ourselves and see what we learn from it. Our children are no strangers to camping, biking and travelling, having been trailered around behind us since the moment they could hold their heads up. Each year we work hard to create opportunities to get out and experience something of the world together. It's not always easy to find the time, money or energy, especially amongst the many daily demands of family life - washing, vacuuming, school, work, earning a living - but experience tells us once free of the daily chores, broke and living day to day on the road, the rewards are always worth it.

Our first big adventure as a family began in November 2004, when we took off on a 10 month, global adventure visiting New Zealand, Western Samoa, the USA and Canada. A major part of this expedition was a six month self supporting cycle tour, pedaling 'end to end' in New Zealand, from Port Adventure near the southern most tip, to Cape Reinga, the most northerly point. From the South Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Sea, over wild, rugged mountains, skirting fjords and lakes, around volcanoes and geysers.

Two adults, two toddlers, two bikes, two trailers riding across two islands and two thousand miles. And on the way, we met up again with the Kuczera family to see how their lives were unfolding.

And as we trail nappies across a Kiwi paradise, cope with tantrums in trailers, and devise ways to keep our little Hobbits safe in a land of adventure, we'll be writing about our experiences. A second book will tell our own story; a first-hand account of the up's, down's, dramas and delights of family life on the road. You can read about and follow our progress throughout the whole expedition here.

We believe family adventure has as much to offer ordinary families as it does the extraordinary ones who venture in the extreme. We want to share with others what we learn about the practicalities and possibilities for family adventure. To complement and support our books, we're developing an online resource and educational talks that will inspire, inform and advise.

Over time www.familyonabike.org will become a rich resource of stories, newsletters, articles, information, links and useful contacts to do with family adventure. We'll be building an online community to enable people to share experience, ideas, contacts and advice to make it easier for others to get out and about. There will also be regular despatches from the road for subscribers to our free newsletter.

Family journeys have great educational potential. While on the road, we're out to learn whatever we can not just about journeying as a family but also about the landscapes, climates, cultures and natural wonders we encounter. Traveling light, powering ourselves, camping out, we hope to live and learn with minimal impact, in harmony with nature. We hope our children's early encounters with the world and other adventurous families will help to nurture a lifelong interest, love and respect for life itself.

Yes, we know the kids are a bit young for education but our educational aspirations extend beyond the immediate family. We see great opportunities to help teach others about family adventure, the wonders of nature, environmental issues, the joys of pedal power.

A network of family adventurers

For us, there's nothing more inspiring than spending time with inspirational people, to see, hear and feel what's possible. That's how this project began and where we hope it will lead. We love nothing better than to hear from others with an interest in adventuring en famille whether extraordinary families who already adventure together or ordinary families who want to.

When the time comes, we hope our virtual community and many of those families that eventually feature in our books, articles and web site will take the opportunity to get together for real in an informal jamboree, to celebrate the joys of family adventure.

Watch this space.

A Family birthday at sea