Meet the Family

We are a family of 4 living in New Zealand. I’m a teacher (great profession for travelling) and my wife Connie works in project management. We are also proud parents of two travel-loving boys.

Travel has been in my blood since I was 10 years old. I was fortunate to have my parents take my sister and me to America and Mexico for 2 months. We weren’t rich, they worked hard and they spent many years after the trip paying it off. However, what they did was open my eyes to the world, I was hooked and I spent many a year after dreaming and looking at places/countries in our atlas of where I would like to visit.

It took a while for me to head overseas again but once I finished University and secured my first job as a primary school teacher, I flew to Vancouver and headed straight to Whistler. Winter skiing at its best! I had a close mate living there so I moved in, living in his walk-in wardrobe for a month. It was big and even had a window looking at the mountains. To be honest, I thought this was my O.E. (Overseas Experience) After this trip, I planned to focus on my teaching career, buy a house, settle down e.t.c.

However spending my last few days in Vancouver I met a great group of people, still friends today, at the hostel. We tripped around the city and partied hard. It just so happened we were all leaving on the same day but I was the only one heading home. Everyone else was heading off on more adventures. As I boarded the flight it dawned on me, I wanted more, more adventures, more experiences just more of everything.

I completed just one year of teaching then I was off, moving to London, England and following the motto ‘work to live not live to work. This was my base for the next 7 years and allowed me to travel and explore all parts of the globe, usually with very little money. But I made it work and I had many amazing adventures within Europe, Middle East, Asia, The Pacific, and North/Central America.

During this time I met my German wife, Connie, and together we continued to enjoy travelling the world creating so many amazing memories.

We eventually left London and moved to Dubai for nearly 4 years, though we worked longer we certainly made time to travel. While living here it opened up more of the Middle East and parts of Asia we hadn’t yet ventured too. 

Dubai was an interesting country to live in, fast paced, fast growing. Construction was in full swing 24/7. I remember watching the Burj Kalifa grow a story and a half week by week by week. I really enjoyed our time there, we made many great friends and explored many parts of the country and surrounding areas.

Eventually, we realised our time was up, we wanted to start a family and for us, New Zealand seemed the place where we wanted to raise our family. At the beginning of 2009, we moved back to New Zealand to start the next chapter of our lives. 

We started our family and while we weren’t earning the money we did in Dubai, we were saving. I wanted to give my kids the same opportunity that my parents gave me. And that’s exactly what we have done.

Lukas’s first trip to Europe (Germany to visit family and friends) was at 4 months and since then has had many more. He’s got the travel bug big time, always looking forward to the next adventure. So far he’s visited 11 countries and he can tell you how many flights he’s had.

Sawyer, our youngest, had to wait until 6 months for his first overseas trip but he too has taken it in his stride. While, I think, he’s still too young to remember things but we have countless photos to show him in the coming years.

We love creating memories with our children and through the ‘all night party days’ have gone, it has opened up new doors even more fulfilling, viewing travel through our kid’s eyes.

Here we will share our knowledge, passion, and experiences to inspire other families to get out and see the world. As well as create memories, while in time, our kids can read and reflect upon all our adventures.          

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