World Wanderers
We are often asked about what the drivers were for our choices about the way we live.
Back in 2011 when we began our journey to a nicer life we focused on:
• Relationships with family and friends
• Improving our health through increased fitness and reduced stress
• Meaningful, worthwhile, challenging work whether or not it paid well
• Travel to interesting places
We began to live in a much smaller space, and to concentrate more on experiences and a whole lot less on material possessions. We worked together a lot of the time, and undertook a range of assignments in NZ and abroad because they interested us.
Five years later, the key focus areas have remained the same for us. We have refined our travel goals, and choose to travel more slowly most of the time -cycling or walking so that we interact with the locals and absorb more of the smells, sounds, and sights around us. We tend to return more often to the countries we love and explore new regions.
A key driver for us arose from family and friends who had died or contracted serious illnesses before their time. We worried about running out of health before we ran out of money, and not having enough energy to enjoy any retirement years together. We wanted to ensure that we did the active travelling while we were able to really enjoy it. We had always dreamed of living and working in another country to learn more deeply about another culture.
In the past 5 years we have lived and worked in Christchurch, Myanmar and Yorkshire in the UK. We have travelled to many parts of New Zealand, Lebanon, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Scotland & London, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Vietnam, UK, California, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, India, Malaysia, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Namibia, Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malta, Italy, Laos and Lesotho. Some of those trips were work, some to attend conferences and others to cycle or walk or just to experience the people and places. While we lived in Myanmar and Yorkshire we travelled extensively, exploring the cultures as fully as we were able.
Family, friends and health goals remain at the top of our list. We will continue to spend time and energy on keeping in touch with family and friends and work at keeping in excellent health. We are unlikely to travel quite so much in the future, but are not ready to hang up our travelling shoes just yet. What 2017 will bring in the way of interesting, challenging, worthwhile work is as yet unknown – for sure, something will transpire to inspire us
