About Us

 

We’re semi-nomadic with a business that’s run online and a pre-school child, we don’t have to be in any one place at any specific time.  This allows us to travel at length while still remaining connected to our home in Christchurch, New Zealand.  We’re in the process of selling our house at the moment with the hopes of becoming full-time digital nomads.  We’re hopeful that it will happen sooner rather than later but selling a house in a post-earthquake market isn’t easy or quick.  Until that happens we’re financially tied to Christchurch and can afford to take extended trips away but we can’t spend the whole year on the road as we’d like.

Who are we?

Bethaney

Wife, mother and blogger-in-chief.  Born in New Zealand, Bethaney has been travelling since her early 20s and loves exotic and adventurous destinations as well as the world’s busy and bustling super cities.  Her travels have mostly been solo trips flashpacking in South East Asia or weekends away in Europe during her three years spent working and living in London.  A reformed vegetarian, she now loves exploring markets and eating street food.  As chasing a toddler takes up most of her day, she doesn’t really have hobbies but likes to sneak off to the occasional hot yoga class and is currently learning to knit.  She has been to 21 countries and five states in the USA and with the goal of visiting at least one new country every year.  Bethaney is looking forward to introducing her husband to the flashpacker-style of travel and can’t wait to get back to Thailand in 2012 for a massage and some sticky rice & mango.

Lee

Husband, father and occasional blogger. Lee is a self-made internet marketer with a commerce degree. He was a contestant on the New Zealand version of the reality show “The Apprentice”.  He has a love of travel, more so in the Western world, having been to America about 30 times. He was born in England which gave him an opportunity to see much of Europe at an early age. He moved to New Zealand at 16. As an avid snowboarder, he particularly loves cold climates and mountain ranges.  He is also practices Kung Fu.  With the ability to work remotely, due to the digital age, his work allows the family to travel anywhere without having to check into any physical premises thus allowing the family “holiday” to run indefinitely.

Reuben

Number one son and part-time keyboard banger.  Born in New Zealand, Reuben will be two years old in July 2012.  He is an intense and active child who loves to swim, run, dance and explore.  He’ll eat anything if it’s served with rice and loves spicy food.  In his downtime he likes to watch Elmo and The Wiggles.  He is currently working on mastering the art of speech.  He has travelled to New Zealand, Australia and four states in the USA.  He doesn’t mind flying provided his parents bring a few of his favourite books, a packet of potato chips and schedule flights in with his nap and bedtime.  He’s looking forward to his first trip to Asia before his second birthday.

What are we doing?

We are taking advantage of our ability to lead a location independent life.  With Lee running a business remotely via the web and Reuben as a pre-schooler, we aren’t constrained to being in work or school in any particular place.  It was always our plan to travel once we’d had a child and I was no longer in paid employment.  The opportunity to be location independent was really thrust upon us in February 2011 when the city we call home, Christchurch, New Zealand, was devastated by a series of deadly earthquakes.  Physically shaken and emotionally shattered we escaped to the relative paradise of Mooloolaba in Australia for 6 weeks.  Upon returning to Christchurch, our house was cracked but still livable but our city really wasn’t.  We no longer felt safe in our house with the threat of more quakes, frequent loss of power and water becoming annoying (especially with a baby) and lack of supermarkets and restaurants left standing in our area made life inconvenient and boring.

All of this kick-started us to reevaluate our lifestyle.  We arranged our life so that we can spend as much time as possible out on the road.  We have access to Lee’s parents’ house in Mooloolaba several times a year for months at a time as they also lead a semi-nomadic life.  It’s a good combination of travel and home for us.  The climate and outdoor lifestyle definitely feels like travel but we have all the comforts of home (toys, TV, a supermarket and a car). We’re starting to know the area well but there are still lots of towns to explore up and down the Sunshine Coast.  We’re close to two airports (Maroochydore and Brisbane) so have easy access to flights within Australia and overseas.

Our plan for 2012 is to spend a few months here on the Sunshine Coast with some side trips around Australia.  After that we’ll spend a few months in Asia with the rough plan of seeingThailand, Malaysia and Singapore.  We’ll return to Australia and may stay for a while or return to New Zealand for the ski season.  We’ve got a few weddings to attend in NZ towards the end of the year so will spend time a home and hopefully explore a little of our own country for once.