Just six backpacks for one year

The family in their first week of Thailand. Photo/Supplied

A family of six from Papamoa have taken on the world for a year with just six 35-litre backpacks between them.

The Stokes family left New Zealand on December 7 to country hop through South-East Asia for four months, before heading to Europe, the USA and Canada for the same amount of time.

Sophie Stokes, her partner Carl Dickens, and their children Kasha, 12, Triton, 7, Ronin, 6, and Cove, 3 each left New Zealand with three pairs of shorts, three short-sleeve tops, one long-sleeve top, one set of pyjamas and a few other essentials.

Since their departure they had landed safely in Bangkok where they spent eight nights before heading to the Thai coast of Pattaya.

"Bangkok was a baptism of fire, a contrast of cultures and a clash of rich versus poor," Ms Stokes said.

"It was smelly and hot, yet clean and refreshing. It was crazy busy yet charming and peaceful. It was everything you would expect a huge Asian capital to be plus so much more.

"Bangkok taught us how to be patient and also how to ignore the gross stuff but most of all it showed us that we got this ... We did Bangkok so we can totally smash out this family world travel gig."

Other essentials the team have taken include:
Silk travel sheets (a silk sleeping bag)
Travel towels
Four iPads
A laptop
A cellphone
A Kindle
Chargers, cords and a 4-way multi-box
A smoke detector
A half-size self inflating mattress
Twelve folding clothes hangers
One pair of jandals and one pair of trainers each
Toiletries