We have been doing a lot of soul searching this last year, whilst both building our businesses we have both been pondering what lives we want to carve out for ourselves.
Our friends and family that are close to us will already know we have plenty of lifestyle ideas but never actually pull our finger out and do one of them. I mean this is probably idea number 497 and it did take us five years to move to NZ! After all, who actually takes that long making a decision?! We do.
Maybe it was something about us hitting 30, but we started to think about what lifestyles we want to live and we started to think about what we want to be putting out into the universe. Our fundamental idea of moving to NZ was really about changing the way we live our lives and living for the moment and not ‘waiting’ for the retirement years to live!
It took four years of living in numerous places around NZ but I think we have got there! We have brought an American imported RV and we are going to live and work in our off-grid motorhome full time whilst we travel around NZ.
The idea came from our love of travel, NZ, camping, and motor homing! Nine years ago we travelled around NZ for six months with just a tent in an beat up old car, it was the best six months of our lives. We woke up every day and decided what to do depending on what the weather was doing. We hiked, we drove, we ate, we got lost, we discovered freedom and it tasted so good.
The car we travelled NZ in during the summer of 2009/2010
We have thought about living this way in England, we once purchased a Mazda Bongo and travelled parts of Europe & England in it, but it wasn’t the same we had 9-5 jobs that we were committed too and the sad English weather meant we went away in it for no more than probably 60 days of the whole year we owned it.
Our Mazda Bongo in England
Here in NZ we get summer lasting for 6 months and even if we get a rainy day or two I know we would be able to cope as long we are parked in a beautiful spot!
A Beautiful View Just Like This!
We now have two months to perfect the motorhome into our little home on the road. It’s more than fair to say we have no freaking clue what we are doing! The motorhome is not a small commitment by any means, plus the fact that she is a ‘big lady’ (As Isaac keeps referring to her as) means she needs a lot of maintenance. There are maintenance schedules to build, costly renovations, learning on the job and also making mistakes on the job. You should have seen us try and empty the black water tank (that’s the poo tank, gross I know) the other day, it was like a comedy sketch of error after error.
It’s terrifyingly scary and exciting all at the same time, but it feels great to finally have a ‘hobby’ to sink our teeth into, an investment we have to protect. My focus is on making it feel like a home (decorating & incorporating our style into the home – see I already am calling it home) which is something I feel is important as we are massively downsizing! Comfort is super important for us now and gone are the days we can sleep in the back of a car for 6 months! Isaacs job is to make sure we are practically prepared. That maybe involve a few electric bikes, a kayak the right monitors and Wi-Fi set up so we can work remotely, and then we shall be ready!
Or at least look ready as we set off on the maiden voyage, I know inside we will be battling with our fears and what ifs!
If you want to keep up with our journey as we prepare to go on the open road join us over on our Instagram! The day we move into the Motorhome is 15th November we have lots to do between now and then but couldn’t be more excited for what we are referring to as ‘Chapter 8’ (because we have lived many different lifestyles) of the lives of Dawn & Isaac!
We are also excited on what this new venture means for Going NZ, we can start to create more travel articles with each new destination we visit, and we may even have to start a whole new section dedicated to the hashtag #vanlife.