Kia ora, we’re Steve and Julie.

English Kiwis. Born in the UK, but New Zealand is home. Or it was, until February 2015, when we got rid of everything we owned, jumped off the corporate hamster wheel and went looking for a different sort of life.

It was only a matter of time

The travel bug is contagious, and Steve caught it from Julie the day they met in 2009. Neither of us was enjoying corporate life any more. We wanted that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling you only get from being well outside your comfort zone, and we wanted to spend our days outdoors rather than in an air conditioned office.

So we set a date 1,375 days in the future. Yes, really. It lined up with Steve’s youngest daughter heading off to university. Steve called the plan the mother of all spreadsheets. We downsized, we saved, we researched, and Julie ticked off the days.

Becoming voluntarily homeless

When the day came we sold, donated and gave away everything. All except three paintings and three small filing boxes of photographs and travel books. Yes, we see the irony. It was incredibly liberating and a huge leap into the unknown.

On 28 February 2015 we said goodbye to friends and family and set off on a six week road trip around the South Island in our 1975 VW Kombi, since sold.

What the next six years looked like

• Living with a four generation family in Bolivia
• Snorkelling with turtles and seals in the Galapagos
• Road tripping nine national parks across the USA
• Getting down and dusty at our first Burning Man
• The Northern Lights in Iceland
• Living like locals for a summer in Italy
• Walking 800km on the Camino de Santiago
• Volunteering with elephants in Thailand

What we actually care about

Somewhere along the way we worked out what we loved most: being outdoors, walking, and seeing wildlife in the places it actually lives. That is what this site is about, and who it is for.

We also fell in love with housesitting, which kept the costs down and gave us a very different sort of animal fix. We have now looked after 381 animals over 125 weeks. And 240 vines in Italy.

Where we are now

Back home in Nelson, at the top of the South Island, writing it all down. Six years of it. The guides, the mistakes, the places worth the detour and the ones that were not.

If you are thinking of doing something similar, start with the resources.