Stop! Roadblock ahead!

How many times have you set out on your travels to a destination, only to come across a detour, or worse still a roadblock on the journey?

So if you have been wondering why things have been a little quiet on our side .... well, we came across a roadblock ..... and as a result, we have been stuck in Auckland for a while.

The weather was still not shaping up for Spring so we decided to hang around Auckland for a little while so that I could do some "in the office" work in Kumeu.

It was a good opportunity for me to explore the possibility of better remote work, and also use the time to catch up with some dear friends and family in Auckland.

It was also a good opportunity to sort out some minor warranty issues with the caravan and catch up on our medical checkups.  So a good stop after all.

But now after 6 weeks of city life (at the time of writing this post), we are itching to get on the road again.  So shortly we will be leaving the "Big Smoke" and heading down south to continue the rest of our travels into rural New Zealand.  The road is calling .... and our journey needs to continue.

Beautiful black beaches

When most people think of a beach, they picture beautiful blue seas, sunny skies and golden sandy beaches.  That is how most of us know beaches to be.

So picture the same blue seas and sunny skies but with beaches of with black sand.

These black sand beaches are truly beautiful, masterpieces of the nature and make the most spectacular and dramatic photos.

In New Zealand, we have magnificent black beaches along the west coast of North Island.  There are 5 such beaches along this coastline of Auckland and we have been staying at a campground at one of them situated north-west of Auckland.

Muriwai Beach Campground has been our home for a little while and is an amazing black beach which is just wonderful for long beach walks.

Now I totally love black beaches.  I love the black sparkly sand.  It is such a dark rich colour that makes a perfect contrast to the hues and shades of the ocean and skies.  In my mind, they simply make spectacular dramatic photos.

Sunset Silhouettes - at Muriwai Beach

Tide is out  - Sunset at Muriwai Beach

Afternoon walk - at Muriwai Beach

Driftwood beach art - at Muriwai Beach

 For more information on the other black beaches of Auckland, you can check out this link:
Auckland's West Coast Beaches

That 4 letter word called "Work"

Hey, what, huh!?  Work??  What has work got to do with our travels and living on the road?  Well, there is this thing called money ..... And the little luxuries that extra money buys ..... which also keeps our retirement nest egg safe and sound.

In April, when we sold the house and decided to live our dream after I lost my full-time job, we knew that we were starting this journey as full-time travellers a little earlier than planned.  For that very reason, we decided to keep our work options open.

I figured as an accountant I certainly had transferrable skills - skills that I could easily use in any environment, even while on the road, moving from place to place.  All that was really needed was a good laptop, cellphone and reliable internet service - all of which I had.

As something different, I could always do something else. like seasonal work or campground hosting.  Variety is good!

But for now, I have been relying on my accounting skills and have picked up remote contract accounting jobs.  Which does explain why we have been doing longer than normal stays at campgrounds and going nowhere fast.

It has certainly been an interesting 6 months.  The remote contract work is great as it means I have control over my working conditions.  I can start and end my day as I chose.  And best of all, I have had the most beautiful offices to work from - such as this view:

At the moment, I have put the remote work on a temporary hold and we have spent the last few weeks in Auckland so I can to do onsite work at a firm in Kumeu.

Time is coming soon to get back on the road for summer and do some travelling.  I probably will still be working as we go (for that treat of an overseas trip) but with the promise of summer coming soon, hopefully I can cut down on my hours and get outdoors and enjoy summer living.

One thing for sure is that working on the road is not a 9 - 5 jobs -it gives us total freedom to choose how we want to work.  If less money is needed, we can choose cheaper campgrounds, do some house-sitting along the way or line up better-paying jobs that are less time-consuming ..... or ..... just stop working when it suits us.

But for now, those little luxuries in life will keep me working anyway - smarter hopefully as our time on the road evolves.

First House-Sitting Gig

September?  What happened to a whole 30 days with no new update?  Why no post in September - what happened and why were we so quiet?  Two reasons ....

Firstly, we are doing our first house-sitting gig on a small life-style block in Pukekohe (just outside Auckland for our friends and followers outside of New Zealand).

Secondly, I got caught up in a terrible backlog of online work that was quite exhausting.  But more of that in a separate post.

So more about our house-sitting/farmstay camping expedition.

We did a house-sit on a little lifestyle block in rural Pukekohe for the month of September.  Life was generally slow for us on this small farm.  Besides having a presence on the property, we had a few chores to do that were really easy as:

1.  Looking after the water for 13 young cows (or was it 12 cows and 1 steer - I am not sure?).  They were on a neighbour's block over the road from us -some days we saw them and other days they were nowhere to be seen so must have on back paddocks way out of sight.  When they were close by,they would all come over to the fence for some of our attention.  They certainly loved us to talk to them and were totally fascinated with Lulu - kept staring at her with their beautiful souful eyes.

2.  Feeding 6 Chickens .... and collecting their lovely yummy farm fresh eggs for our breakfast.

3.  Feeding 2 cats who spent the day sleeping in any comfy place they could find.  They were totally cruizy cats who pretty much did they own thing in the day.

4.  And lastly, doing nana/grandpa duties for 3 children LOL.  All we really had to do was to make sure they left for school in the morning and then to pick them up in the afternoon.

Other than those chores, we are free to enjoy the lovely farm environment.

We also got to meet and enjoy time with the other farm animals, a horse called Becky, 3 very frisky and active miniature horses and 2 very quiet little dogs called Molly and Harold.

So life in September was certainly a bit restful and peaceful which was just as well as the spring weather certainly took a temperamental turn for the worst with torrential rain gale-force winds and freezy cold temperatures.  Where was our wonderful Northland warm weather ..... gone for sure.

So here are some photos of our month on the farm.

Early Morning Mist in Pukekohe

Beautiful day - one of the rare few we had during our farmstay

Lovely green outlook on the farm

A bridge over a stream on the farm

Lulu was not sure at all about these miniature horses

Young one-year old cows enjoying our chat with them 

Lulu was always totally fascinated with the cows as they were with her.

Farewell to Northland

After spending almost 4 wonderful months in wonderful "winterless" Far North and Northland, it was time to start our journey back down south.  We have absolutely loved our stay in this area and we hope to back next winter to do it all over again.  This part of New Zealand is just beautiful and we take with us many many special memories. 😄

We spent our last week in Whangarei and back at the campsite where our full time journey on the road started, Whangarei Central Holiday Park.

Parking over here for a while gave us time to see our Whangarei family again and also to make a change of tow vehicle.  Our Holden Colorado had been a fantastic vehicle which we loved very much but we just felt it was time to look at getting something with more power and grunt.  And so we are now the proud owners of a Ford Ranger 3.2.  And we are loving the change.  The Ranger is super comfortable and towed our Rockwood down to our next destination with ease.  So with our brand new Ranger and 4 month old Rockwood caravan we were ready to start our next adventure.

So where to next?

3 Months on - What Life On The Road Has Taught Us.

Can you believe it!  We have been on the road for over 3 months now.  As we prepare to leave Northland and Far North and soon start out on our next leg of travels, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on some of the lessons we have learnt from our life so far on the road.

Life on the road has taught us to slow down and enjoy life.

It is good to wake up every day with no expectations, no plans and no routine.  It is good to be in no rush to do anything quickly.  

It is good to be able to go for a walk at any time of the day.  It is good to feel the grass beneath your bare feet and feel the sun on your face.  It is good to be able to sit quietly in a peaceful place and just appreciate the beauty of the world around you .... and not feel guilty about .... doing absolutely nothing.

Lovely old bench at Hihi Beach campsite

Life on the road has taught us that we actually need very little.

As we grow up and as we progress along the paths of normal life, ie education, work, family, success …. bigger and better seems to be the standards we set for our lives.  So we strive for more money, more power, more possessions.  And then we can sometimes lose our true selves in all this stuff.

Contrary to what people think, giving all this up is not a step backwards.  It does not make you poorer but enriches your life.

We have a tiny home now with not much cupboard space and weight restrictions so we can only carry the absolute necessities for our lifestyle.  Yet we lack for nothing.  We have all we need.  

Our choice is simply to have the lifestyle we want over possessions and stuff.  Simple and basic.

Beautiful sunrise at Hihi Beach

Life on the road has taught us to ride out the storms that life can throw at you.

We started our journey at the end of autumn, knowing well that we would be living in our caravan in exposed areas in winter.  New Zealand winters are usually extremely wet, windy and prone to all sorts of storms and weather bombs.  So we figured if we could get through the extreme winter weather conditions in our small home in good spirits then we will be just fine.  If we can stay strong and upright and still be loving our lifestyle despite all this, then we can survive anything.  And we have so far.

Fascinating dead tree - stayed upright despite all the wind 

and stormy seas we experienced at Hihi Beach

Life on the road has taught us to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Living this lifestyle has transported us right into nature.  Our backyards have no walls, no fences and no real boundaries and change with every move of our home.  

We have stepped out of our front door right into beautiful backyards of green lawns and park-like campsites with views of the ocean on our doorstep.  We have been surrounded by native trees full of Tuis and other birds in happy birdsong.  We have walked on beautiful beaches, explored around rocks and crevices and sat and watched amazing sunsets evening after evening.

Our life on the road has taken us out of cities and away from the rut and grind of the norm to be able to experience all of this to the fullest.

A peek out a cave at Hihi Beach

Life on the road has taught us to appreciate life.

Going full time on the road has set us free to enjoy life as we should.  It is wonderful to finally be able to spend all our time together as a couple.  It seems like it has taken us years and years of work and slog to finally have the experience of retirement.  Yes it is a lot sooner than we had planned and yes we are still working part-time on the road, but this all feels good and just as it should be right here and now.

We are living the best life we can at the moment and we love it!

All About Lulu

This post is all about a dog ..... a little dog called Lulu.

I call Lulu a rescue dog even though she came out of a home and not an animal shelter.  I say that because she came into our home on 29 May 2014 as a timid anxious little 2 year old dog.  She trembled in our arms for weeks, a fearful little bundle of nerves, terribly afraid of people and other animals.... an emotionally fragile little girl.

We worked with her fears and anxieties with lots of love and understanding over the first year of getting her.  With training and establishment of a routine combined with socialising activities over time, our timid little girl has become so much more confident.  She still is somewhat nervous around other dogs - this is something that has never quite changed with her but that is OK with us.  Rather that than too much bravado and attitude.

So Lulu is now 7 years old at the time of writing this post and is our roadie fur baby on this new journey of ours.

We have been wondering how she would adapt to road life as she is a girl that thrives on set routine of sound and behaviour patterns.  Her environment, sights and sounds are going to be ever-changing whilst we travel around the country and so this will be a challenge for Lulu.  At the moment we are staying longer at campsites so not moving around that frequently.  But even so, she had adapted so well to her new tiny home and new backyards.  She is now comfortable with living in the caravan and loves exploring the campsites and surrounds.  And being on the beach - well, that is her happy place!

We like to think that Lulu is also living her dream right now.  She has mom and dad fulltime with her, a lovely big "kennel and playpen" that is her new home, exciting and new places to visit and explore and so many humans to charm and beguile with her cute personality.

Aah, what more could a little doggie want in life ..... just take a peak at a day in the life of Lulu ....

Seriously .... you want me to get up?!

Nothing like a warm sunny spot on the grass

Playtime on the beach .... oh oh is that another dog I see?

Snuggle time with mommy

Too tired now .... just want to sleep.