It felt like just a few months ago that we were tripping around South East Asia with a tiny not-quite-two-year old boy. Enjoying spicy food, riding third-class trains through rice paddy fields and going through the trials of parenthood on the road.
That was a year ago.
Some of you may have wondered why we’ve been still for so long.
Isn’t this a travel blog? Should we be like, err, travelling?
Well, the truth of the matter is we’ve been somewhat stuck in New Zealand for the past ten months. Stuck isn’t a great feeling when you’re a traveller at heart. But needs must. We’ve spent the past year sorting out our finances, attempting to sell our house, getting rid of all our shit and gearing up to become permanent nomads.
We’ve been dreaming about a life of permanent, slow travel for some time now. It’s just taken us longer than we expected to get our ducks in a row. But now that’s done.
We’re almost set and ready to go. Just got to get through the last few sets of hurdles and within the next four weeks we’ll be winging our way to a new destination.
My hopes for our life as nomads going forward are something like this…
Learn to live with less stuff. For too long we’ve been rattling around a big house and driving a fancy car. We both know that deep down this isn’t what we want. Sure, we might take the occasional splurge and rent ourselves a fancy property for a few weeks, but in general we’re really looking forward to living on a smaller scale. From our experience as part-time nomads, we’ve really enjoyed living in a smaller space with fewer things. Stuff only gets in the way of life. Be gone stuff!
Simplifying and destressing our life. We’re both sick to death of feeling like we’re drowning in bills. Once you strip away all life’s “basics” like cars and houses you strip away all the stress of mortgage payments, insurance, household bills, car repairs. Can you imagine a life with virtually zero bills? Once we hit the road those stress activators will be a thing of the past.
Push ourselves outside our comfort zone. Both Lee and I know that we benefit from pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone. For him that means travelling to less developed countries. For me that means getting off my butt and trying new things, being brave and taking risks. I’m naturally quite the scaredy cat but always feel a lot braver when I’m travelling.
I’m really excited about what the next few months and years will bring. I can’t wait to get started and want to hit the road hard. Lee keeps reminding me that this is our lifestyle now and we need to resist the temptation to try to do everything in the first year. If I had my way we’d be through another ten countries by the end of the year but slow travel is the name of the game. Even though I’m busting out of my skin with excitement we’re going to take it one country at a time and not plan too far ahead.
Where are we going first? Stay tuned to find out….
Are you a long-term traveller or nomad? Do you have any advice for the newly nomadic? I’d love to hear it.
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Hey
Wish you all the very very best in reaching your goals.
New Zealand is on our bucket list but we’re just starting on the journey towards a life of travel. Currently I run a couple of small (but growing) businesses and so our travel is limited (turkey, germany, france and scotland are all booked for this year).
Our big challenge is how to earn when we’re on the road. I have a few ideas for the website and domains I own (travel related) and one of the businesses I run will run itself soon (serviced offices) but I still need that spark of what I can do with minimal work for maximum return ! Help!
Si
Hi Simon,
Sounds like you’re getting there! What are your current skills/businesses and would it be possible manage them remotely or move them online? Lee’s father did just that 15+ years ago… started running his UK company remotely from down here in NZ. It’s definitely doable.
New Zealand is one of those countries that is really expensive if you try to rush it. The longer you stay, the cheaper it gets. There are lots of housesits, swaps etc that could be a good option.
Happy to chat more over email or Facebook if you’d like.
Bethaney
Thanks Bethany for the comment.
We run a IT and Telecoms business with specialism in “cloud” computing and a small serviced offices business. Currently I have a few ideas (the easiest from a skills perspective would be consultancy) but nothing firm yet. In fact the only thing we have firmly in the diary is when we will be off (28 months to go).
Thanks for the advice on NZ and certainly I would like to discuss as we start getting firmer plans in place.
Si
Si – You should check out Wanderlusters.co.uk. He’s a British guy running an IT company in London remotely. I’m sure they’d be happy to chat through the details. 🙂
Hey thanks Bethaney for thinking of me. Wanderlusters site has some awesome photography. I will reach out to them both as we form our plans. Many thanks again
Si
Awesome Simon. I’m sure they’ll be a great resource for you.
Congrats Bethaney! Excited to hear about all your upcoming plans. 🙂
Thanks Dalene. It feels like it’s been a long time coming. I just have to get over the urge to plan too much too soon and remember this is life now!
Sounds very exciting. Looking forward to learning more. Good for you!
Thanks Craig… I think you know where we’re headed first! *wink wink*
Congratulations on your escape. I have been thinking a lot about this since I started my blog a year ago. I am not there yet but hopefully I will be soon.
Great Jeff! We’ve been building up to it for 10 months so it does take time.
Nice to meet you, looking forward to following the journey!
Thanks Patti. The next few months are going to be really interesting. 🙂
” Stuff Gets in the Way of Life”! That’s exactly how I felt before we had our garage sales, took our junk/rubbish to the tip and packed our remaining worldly goods away before heading off on our trip. I’m not as free as you will be,but it still feels great 🙂 Kathryn.
It REALLY does feel great! I’ve just done some more packing up tonight. More and more is going in the junk pile!