Introducing…..
We’re Scotty and Linda and we’re Kiwis Flying the Coop. We’re 50 something and this is our window of opportunity to restructure our lives, declutter, rent a storage unit and see as much of the world while we still can.
Why Give Up Everything?
It may seem that we gave up on a life that appeared to have it all. The material things we gave up is worth way less than the life’s experiences we have had in return.
We’re not millionaires, we haven’t sold a multi-million dollar business, we just decided that it was more important for us to have a passport full of stamps than a house full of stuff.
The years ticked by and we found ourselves wishing our week away, counting the days till Friday and those weeks passed alarmingly quick. The realization hit – we were waiting all week for Friday, all year for summer and realised that we would be waiting all our life for happiness.
There would be nothing worse than sitting in a Rest Home talking about the trips we should have or could have done. It has taken a lot of planning and soul searching and a huge leap of confidence to do what we did and not everyone is going to agree that we’ve made the right choice but it was ‘our’ choice.
Why Write a Blog
During our massive amount of research into the ‘how to,’ many of the blogs out there are written by the 20 to 30-year-olds or 60+ age group. We couldn’t find any that fitted our age bracket, and although you are only as old as you feel, we thought that we would share as much of our experiences with you to add a different dimension to what is already out there.
We’re no longer party animals, rather we favour a drink or two of an evening on some veranda overlooking an amazing view, watching the world go by and once the sun sets…..so do we!
So, we have decided to write and video our story and travels. This is so we can remember the places we’ve been, the things we’ve seen and the people we’ve met. Also, our other motivation is that it may well help others in some small way. We like to keep our blogs as informative as possible to assist anyone thinking of doing something similar or visiting a certain part of the world.
House and Pet Sitting
We started to explore the world of house and pet sitting before leaving NZ. This opened up some possibilities for us. It seemed like a good idea to fit in some house sits between our travel plans.
Well, it turned out we enjoyed it so much that travels fitted in between the sits. Our next destination was determined by where our next assignment was.
It took us to parts of the world that we hadn’t even dreamed or considered when we initially planned our two-year travel adventure.
Just some of our charges we’ve looked after. We love every one of them.
We hadn’t even considered the huge satisfaction of caring for people’s treasured pets while staying in areas and homes that we could never have dreamed of.
The other huge bonus we get out of house and pet sitting is the people we have met along the way. We have been incredibly lucky to have got to know so many homeowners that we can now consider as friends. We keep in touch regularly with many of them to catch up on what’s happening in their lives and for updates on the pets.
Eating Our Way Around the World
We love to get to know the people and their culture through good food – authentic food cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world and the explosion of flavours is like a party in your mouth.
We’ve posted about these experiences through video and photo’s as we eat and drink our way across many countries.
We have dined in the dodgiest of places, mainly small family eateries or right on the street. There is a mental checklist to help us to decide if it is safe enough food wise. Having them cook orders freshly in front of you and we gravitate to the stalls that are busy with locals. They know where to go so they don’t get sick and also there is a faster turnover of food.
So many dishes and drinks and so little time – but we gave it a good go!!!
We did, however, get hit with the dreaded spews and poos. Each time, we traced it back to places where they were serving up more Western option, often at hotels. The cooks are often locals. They aren’t rehearsed in how to keep western food fresh nor how to cook it properly. The best dishes are served up by ‘aunty or grandma’ in a small or non-existent kitchen on the roadside. They are passionate and proud of what they serve up.
That is the risk you take and it’s a little like Russian Roulette. Luckily we dodged quite a few bullets. We got to enjoy the tastiest dishes that are only found in specific areas of each country. All for scientific research of course.
So What Next?
Well, after two years, 23 house sits, over 2,500,000km and multiple countries, we’ve decided to put our overseas travel on ‘pause’. We’ve returned to Kiwiland to pursue our next favourite pastime.
There are so many places in New Zealand that we haven’t seen yet. We want to go to areas that need more exploring now that we have the time.
That is why we chose our caravan in Australia and shipped it to NZ. See our blogs on why we imported and how we did it.
Our new ‘home on wheels’
So for now, it’s the highways and byways of our wonderful country. We loved the routine of house sitting so much that we were keen to keep this up. Now, of course, our main criteria is that we can park our caravan safely on the property.
When we do not house sit we plan to stay in the more ‘out of the way’ places. Explore those tracks and live ‘off the grid’ as much as possible. We want to show-off the more remote places of our wonderful country we call home.
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