Episode 27 - From Farm Life to Caravan Adventures: Mandy and Tui's Nomadic Journey

Imagine going from the daily grind of dairy farming and city commuting to embracing the freedom of life on the road. Meet Mandy and Tui Travers, native New Zealanders who, after a life-altering accident at 60, decided to sell their home and embark on an adventurous journey in a caravan. In our latest episode, they share their incredible story of transition from rigorous work schedules to a nomadic lifestyle, offering personal insights into the benefits and challenges of house sitting as a means to reduce travel costs and create unique experiences.

Discover the profound connections Mandy and Tui have made with people and communities across New Zealand. They shed light on the small-world charm of their homeland, where personal connections often lead to unexpected encounters. We dive deep into the emotional aspects of maintaining strong family ties while enjoying the freedom to explore new places. Listen in as we discuss how travel affords them the luxury of time to appreciate their surroundings and the joy of living life on their terms, even as they navigate the complexities of being physically distant from their children and grandchildren.

In this episode, we also explore practical aspects of their nomadic lifestyle, from choosing a spacious American Rockwood caravan over a camper van to mastering the art of towing. Mandy’s new venture into online digital marketing adds another layer to their journey, showing how they supplement their income while traveling. We wrap up with future plans and reflections on their five-year adventure, emphasizing the flexible, spontaneous, and enriching experiences that come with life on the road. Tune in to hear these inspiring stories and practical tips that celebrate the joy of exploring new places without being tied down.

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Transcript

Jim Santos: 0:19

Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. To Travels with Jim and Rita, I'm your host, jim Santos, and in this podcast series you can follow along as my wife, rita and I work out our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Are we bold, forward-thinking pioneers or just plain nuts? Let's find out together, shall we? Hello, and welcome once again to Travels with Jim and Rita.

Jim Santos: 0:57

Today's guests are native New Zealanders, a country that is definitely on our list. Growing up on a farm, they were used to hard work and as their family grew, they thought nothing of long commutes and longer work days. Then, after the kids were grown and married and they hit 60, circumstances and events brought them to a realization that Rita and I know very well Maybe it was time to stop living to work and start working on living instead. Here to talk about their experiences and their plans for the future are Mandy and Tui Travers Thuy Mandy. Thanks for joining us today on Travels with Jim and Rita.

Tui Travers: 1:29

Hi guys, Awesome to be with you.

Jim Santos: 1:31

And awesome to hear from you. I mentioned that New Zealand is a place that we would definitely like to see. The problem is it's so far away. I think we're a 16-hour time difference or something.

Mandy Travers: 1:41

Yeah, we're at the bottom of the world, but it's well worth a visit.

Rita Santos: 1:44

Oh, I'm sure I'd be so excited. We'd have to do many hops go to Europe and then go to, I don't know, southeast Asia. We'd have to do hops. We're not good on long plane rides.

Jim Santos: 1:56

We know people who've done repositioning cruises to get to that area. That's probably a good idea. Oh, that's a good idea, yeah, first of, all.

Tui Travers: 2:10

I wanted to get a little bit of background on you. From what I've read about you, you were both pretty hard workers for most of your adult life. Yeah, when Mandy and I first got married, we had our kids early and then we were dairy farmers in our early years. And then we left dairy farming when the kids were in their teenage years and we went into building, started my own building company in Auckland and then just went ahead and then we seemingly retired about eight years ago, sold our house about five years ago and then we've been on the road ever since just traveling and enjoying life Good for you.

Jim Santos: 2:39

One of the things I read about your story here that resonated with both Rita and myself. You said that a couple of events happened when you were around 60 years old that made you kind of take stock of your lives.

Mandy Travers: 2:50

Yeah, we came from a really small community and a little country town and we hadn't really been involved with the country town because we were working in the city and traveling and that was kind of our lives.

Mandy Travers: 3:04

But we had a really really good friend of ours who very sadly got run over and was killed, just very random accident and we went to her funeral and, of course, caught up with a lot of the locals that we hadn't seen and, wow, there were people with all sorts of illnesses and not well, and we both came away from there going oh my gosh, that could be us. You know what are we doing, and that's when we kind of put together that there had to be a better way of enjoying our golden years as we roll through and get older not doing the 12-hour days, not doing the hard yards, you know, and yeah. So our plan a was we were offered a, um, a role on a looking after a resort in rawatonga on the islands cook islands which would have been amazing, but it just didn't pan out. So plan b let's buy a caravan, sell the property and go and live on the road, be gypsies for a few years.

Jim Santos: 4:01

I love that yeah, that uh story, that story, like I say, really resonated with Rita and I because, well, first of all, we both lost our first spouses to cancer.

Mandy Travers: 4:11

Oh right.

Jim Santos: 4:11

And that kind of lets you know that you never know how much time you have.

Rita Santos: 4:15

No.

Jim Santos: 4:16

And when we first met, rita was selling real estate and working 12, 14 hours a day and seven days a week, and I was living in a small town, like you were, and commuting by train to Washington DC. So I was spending, you know, four or five hours a day commuting and, you know, all we were doing was working all the time. So once we got together, we decided to really just start traveling, and it's kind of snowballed from there. You just start traveling and it's kind of snowballed from there.

Rita Santos: 4:44

Yeah, we actually went on a vacation once to Ecuador and bought a condo and we said we're retiring.

Mandy Travers: 4:58

We lived there for six years, oh wow.

Rita Santos: 4:59

It was wonderful, yeah so. But then we came back to the States and we're getting. We were getting ready to kind of be nomads, travel to a country, you know, a month at a time, here and there, but COVID hit and that ended that and then my son in law passed away 18 months ago. So we helped out with our, our family, and now it's January. We started on the road again. So we've been traveling for six months.

Mandy Travers: 5:29

Oh, so you guys mainly do house sits, is that right?

Jim Santos: 5:32

Well, we're doing a cat sit right now and we have a couple of house sits set up in London in November. That's definitely a strategy that we'll be using to try to minimize our cost as we travel.

Rita Santos: 5:46

Especially in the more expensive areas. But that isn't going to be our mainstay because you know your obligation is to the house you're sitting, so you can't really get out and travel around and sightsee or whatever. So, yeah, we'll put it in and out whenever we can in an area that we would like to go to.

Jim Santos: 6:05

And are you doing house sittings yourself now?

Mandy Travers: 6:08

We live in a caravan, so we bought a. It's actually a Samaritan caravan, so it's a nice big, roomy caravan and we tend to just do house sits over winter months out here, mainly because of the weather. It gets too windy and too wet to tow the big caravan around. So we're doing a house sit. At the moment we're here for a month and we've got a nice little dog to look after, which is really cute. But yeah, like yeah, you know you are sort of tied. I mean, we can take the dog out with us if we go exploring. But yeah, we tend to go out and really find somewhere to go for the day and just really explore around the area. Oh, that's good. We tend to go off the beaten track and find all the hidden little gems and nooks and crannies that we can.

Jim Santos: 6:50

Well, with the RV, you can really do that.

Mandy Travers: 6:52

Well, we park the caravan up, yeah.

Tui Travers: 6:55

We went to South Island last year and we just took our time travelling down the Southern Alps and we just parked the caravan up and we'd do day trips and we'd just go out and explore the old hidden roads where dairy farms have been established for many, many years and just go and talk to the locals. And Mandy loves to take photos. So all I do is drive and every corner we go around, mandy's favorite saying is wow, look at this and we. That's the sort of adventures we do, even when we we're house sitting, like we're here for five weeks, we're about an hour from the coastline and we'll just go and do day trips and take the dog with us and just take the dog for walkies and just explore the area. And that's a part of our lives today.

Jim Santos: 7:38

Yeah, I understand you're chronicling your explorations also with a blog.

Tui Travers: 7:42

Yes, that's what Mandy does. She loves to take photos and then she writes a story and researches the area too, and then she puts that on the blog and a lot of people that do follow us say, oh, I didn't know that was there. And I lived in the area for 50 years and I still didn't know it. Was there, right, that sort of information that people love.

Mandy Travers: 8:03

And I guess with my blog too, because so many people thought we were a little bit crazy, selling up everything and becoming modern day gypsies or nomads or whatever you want to call us. And I thought then that if I could do a blog, I'd never done one before. I mean, I was not really that experienced with it. But anyway I thought, well, no, we'll just do what we're doing, document it, put some fun stuff in, put a bit of history in about places we're going to. And people are actually coming back to us now, going you know, gosh, we, that's what we want to do. We're going to do it. We're going to follow you guys. You know we love what you're doing.

Mandy Travers: 8:37

Um, and I guess that was kind of made it for us, that we other people are going to follow us and do it, because they've seen what we're doing and how we're doing it and it is achievable. You know it doesn't. Well, your rig's a big outlay, obviously, to set that up, but once you've got that rig, you know the costs are huge to live on the road Right.

Jim Santos: 8:57

Yeah, I understand that, like us, you made the decision to sell your home.

Rita Santos: 9:01

Yes.

Jim Santos: 9:02

Was that a difficult choice to?

Tui Travers: 9:03

make. We sort of thought both ways, whether we rent it out, but we didn't want to come home and find it Destroy it. Because we had a lifestyle of beautiful gardens and we renovated the home, because I was a builder and we made it our home. And when we told the kids we were going to go and do this, the kids said, oh, you can't sell a family home. But we decided to do that because we didn't want to go back and spend three or four months in tidying the place up in between our holidays.

Tui Travers: 9:31

So, it was a good choice. We're glad we did sell. We go home now and we just spend time with the children, especially over Christmas times, and then we head off again.

Mandy Travers: 9:41

Yeah that's great. We're very fortunate, and I mean a lot of people on the road I mean it's quite a content subject out here and a lot of people go oh, you're crazy selling your house and people go. Well, you know, you know. So it is a personal option. We are fortunate.

Mandy Travers: 9:59

Our son and daughter-in-law have a property that is big enough where we can go and park the caravan on when we go home it or have a property that is big enough where we can go and park the caravan on when we go home. It's still up where we used to live, but yeah, you know, as we get older, maybe I mean, we will find somewhere to settle down, but we don't know where at this point in time.

Jim Santos: 10:13

That's about where we are. We probably will settle down at some point, but who knows where?

Rita Santos: 10:18

Yeah, we have no idea. I mean, yeah, we're in such a crazy political climate here in the US it might not even be here. So, yeah, we just don't know. It doesn't matter, we'll find some place that suits us someday.

Mandy Travers: 10:33

And that's just that. It doesn't matter. People get really hopped up on that. It does matter, but it doesn't. And yeah, if you have health issues and that I mean, I ended up having to have Achilles tendon surgery in one of the towns we were in and that worked fine, you know. I mean, if it's an emergency you can get into a hospital down here. You know you can't get into doctors as such, but you just roll with it. You know we had to move out of the caravan because my leg was in plaster. I couldn't get in the caravan.

Rita Santos: 11:04

Oh gosh.

Mandy Travers: 11:05

But we found a house that was flat and we made it work. You know, you've just got to make it work.

Jim Santos: 11:11

Oh yeah, that's what you want to do, yeah.

Mandy Travers: 11:13

Yeah, and I mean we didn't want to live back in Auckland where we were from, because it's such a rat race and a horrible big city and the more you travel there's just some beautiful places that are really calm, really relaxing, people are really chill, just real good country vibes in New Zealand that you just think, ah, yeah, I could live here, yeah.

Rita Santos: 11:36

We say that about every place we go. I could live here. I know it's a hard decision. Eh, that's the problem. That's the problem. It doesn't matter where we are, as long as we're together. It's a hard decision, eh, that's the problem. That's the problem. It doesn't matter where we are, as long as we're together, that's home, so it just works out.

Jim Santos: 11:50

I know people think of that. You know we've been called crazy ourselves.

Rita Santos: 11:54

Yeah, definitely.

Jim Santos: 11:56

I know people think that it is a really big deal, but once you make that first step, it really just gets easier and easier as you go along.

Tui Travers: 12:06

Yeah, you're actually quite right. We've been on the road for four and a half years now, if you want to call it that, and everywhere you go, people are just so comfortable. We haven't been to a bad spot yet, touch wood and we've been accepted into the area because we're like an ex-dairy farmer and a builder and we just start talking about life and people generally want to talk to you and ask questions and we've struck it really nice and people. I come from such a big family I've got 10 brothers and sisters and they're all over New Zealand and they're in Australia and we just go into an area and I said, oh, what if my cousin lives here still and just asked a few questions. Oh, yeah, it's just up around the corner, sort of thing.

Tui Travers: 12:53

You know, yeah, but aside from that, you start talking to somebody who's oh, we're a dairy farmer and everything, and we start talking. We have so much in common and then say oh, and then they start talking about different people. I say, well, I know that person. How do you know them? Oh, they're related to my father's deputy son or whatever it was, and it's because New Zealand's such a small country as such, but everyone seems to know one another, or somebody's family knows somebody else, and all that sort of scenario, and it's just, it's mind-blowing.

Jim Santos: 13:30

You know, our choice was to travel to a lot of different countries. But what you're doing also has its benefits and has kind of a rich side to it, because you're exploring, you know, not that far from where you started, but you're still managing to discover new things everywhere you go.

Mandy Travers: 13:49

Yes, you are right Because they've got the time to do it. There's a place in the South Island, christchurch, and we were going down to do a house in a row, so it's a two-hour drive normally. Just as an example, it took us six weeks to get there. I love that and people go what the hell are you doing? And it's like, well, we just stopped and explored and the places we saw were just incredible. So you know, normally you don't have that time, you don't have that luxury to do that, like you guys. Now you've got the time Right, luxury to do that like you guys. Now you've got the time right and you make it count. You know, you just. And if you don't want to do, if you want to be in your pajamas at 10 o'clock in the morning, who cares?

Rita Santos: 14:33

and you know, if you get someplace you don't want to be well, you go to another place.

Mandy Travers: 14:37

It just works out exactly, yeah, exactly, and I you know and it is. It is a big step and I think people have that mindset. You know, like we did back in the day, you've got to, you've got to work, you've got to do this, you know, you just, you have to have a family, home and all that scenario. But gosh, once you talk to people that are doing what we're doing, they go. We should have done it sooner right now?

Mandy Travers: 14:59

yeah, we hear that all the time yeah, yeah, you know, and it is, it is, it's taking that step. I mean, yes, I dearly miss our grandchildren. Um, we've got five of them up in auckland and I really miss hanging out with them, but they can come and stay with us every now and again, you know, so they can have adventures in the caravan yeah, you.

Jim Santos: 15:19

You have three kids and five grandchildren. Is? Is that right?

Mandy Travers: 15:23

Yes.

Jim Santos: 15:24

Okay, yeah, we have between us four kids and nine grandchildren.

Mandy Travers: 15:28

Right, oh, lovely yeah, and.

Jim Santos: 15:31

I don't know if you've found this to be true too, but our kids and our grandkids' lives are just so full that even if we were living next door, we would hardly see them.

Rita Santos: 15:40

Right. Well, some are teenagers, and that plays a big role in that you know they're here, there and yonder in sports and in college or whatever. And then some are younger.

Jim Santos: 15:55

And when they don't see you as often, they're more there when you do see them.

Mandy Travers: 16:00

They are exactly. We have that quality time with them when we go home. Now, you know, whereas if we were still living in the same area, it'd be oh grand, can you have this or grand, can you do that? You? Know, and I wasn't quite ready for that as such not being horrible. I would do anything for our family, but it's like well, hang on a minute, We've still got life left in us.

Rita Santos: 16:19

Yeah, we say the same things. Yeah, yeah, we say the same things.

Jim Santos: 16:23

Yeah, so we'd be seeing a lot of our grandchildren, but be mostly in the backseat of our cars. We're driving them from event to event.

Rita Santos: 16:31

Yeah, that's yeah.

Mandy Travers: 16:33

And that's just it, isn't it? It is time for us, you know, while we still can. I thought the kids, I mean, they were a little bit annoyed that we were selling the family home, but then they said well, I guess the bonus here is that we don't have to look after you for a few more years.

Rita Santos: 16:50

Well, you know, I had one of the grandchildren tell me just this year you abandoned us when you went to ecuador. I said I don't think so. You know you came to visit us. You know we came to and we said we would stay with them a month at a time. So that was much more visitation than we would have ever had if we'd lived right there in the same town and that is that.

Mandy Travers: 17:18

that's exactly right, isn't it you do? I mean, we go home back to our sons about the end of November and we stay there for a good two, two and a half months, uh-huh, and our daughters are both within half an hour where he lives. So, yeah, so we get to spend that good time with the kids, and it's quality time, you know it. But, as you say, I mean our son, even though we park up on his property and it's like about a 50 meter walk down to his house, uh-huh, it's like I try to cook dinner for them when we go home, because they're both really, really busy. You know, they have a little boy and it's really hard to have them home to cook dinner for them oh yeah, with all their activities.

Mandy Travers: 17:58

And he's a builder, so he works long hours and it's like gosh, you know. So we live with them when we go home, but we don't actually see them. Right, yeah, they're living their life and you've got to respect that. You know and we do, so, yeah, we have a good relationship with our children, which is amazing, which is really cool.

Jim Santos: 18:21

Well, I think there's a certain point where they realize that you're making your life richer and you're also telling them that there are other options to their life. There are other things that they can do, other ways that they can go.

Mandy Travers: 18:30

Yeah, absolutely yeah, and they all like the outdoors. And that I mean, yeah, they're all into camping and bits and pieces. So eventually down the track, yeah, who knows what they'll get up to? But yeah, you're right, we are yeah.

Rita Santos: 18:41

Yeah, we've got a teenager that's going to high school in Denmark next year. So, yeah, we really gave them the travel bug. Let me tell you they're ready to go anytime you mention go.

Jim Santos: 18:56

Like I said, they also were living in a small town and we do feel like our travel has kind of opened up their eyes.

Rita Santos: 19:03

It has.

Jim Santos: 19:04

That they don't have to stay in that little town all the time.

Mandy Travers: 19:06

Yeah, and I mean our kids are in a big city. And every time we go back to Auckland it's like, oh my gosh, this town is just revolting. Oh my gosh, this town is just revolting. And you know, I said to our oldest daughter I said, rob, you know, auckland is just shocking these days. Every time we come back it's just worse. She goes, mom, there's nothing wrong with Auckland, yeah, they're in it, they're in amongst it, that's their lives.

Mandy Travers: 19:34

Yeah, and they don't step outside it like we have and come back and go, oh gosh yeah, so yeah, it was interesting. Yes, they can't see the forest for the trees thing yeah yeah, yeah, and she's traveled, like she's traveled europe, she um, she was away for seven years, so, but you know, that's their life and that's fine. That's what they're doing at this point in time.

Jim Santos: 19:53

One day they'll wake up, hopefully well, let me ask you about the caravan. Had you had experience with caravanning prior to this decision?

Tui Travers: 20:04

No, okay.

Jim Santos: 20:06

I had a feeling.

Rita Santos: 20:06

I had a feeling too.

Jim Santos: 20:09

I'm starting to understand the crazy part.

Mandy Travers: 20:13

Well, I'm unfortunate as a child that I did have some caravan holidays when I was very young, but with 10 siblings, Tui's family didn't get a chance to do that very often.

Jim Santos: 20:25

No, very often at all.

Tui Travers: 20:27

When we did decide we were going to get a caravan, people said, oh, get a camper van and then you take your wheels with you. But we sort of studied it and by going the caravan way we could just park it somewhere and do day trips. Exactly, If you're in a camper van, you have to take it with you, even if you want to go up the road and just buy milk.

Jim Santos: 20:46

Right, and it is pretty cramped living quarters.

Rita Santos: 20:49

Yeah, the camper vans are tiny.

Tui Travers: 20:52

Yeah, that's why we ended up with the caravan we got today. It's an American Rockwood caravan and it's just so lovely. It's got slide outs, lots of room. It's like a little mini apartment Great, and it's easy to tow and we just love it.

Mandy Travers: 21:06

What you guys call it. We've got the motorhomes and the campervans, so they're our big motorized vehicles and the caravan has got to be towed.

Jim Santos: 21:18

I know you guys, what do you call them RVs? Yeah, just generally they call them RVs and there's different classes of RVs.

Mandy Travers: 21:22

So, yeah, the caravan has to have a tow vehicle. So that's why we went that way, as Toby was saying, so we could just pack it up and we can base ourselves for a week to 10 days in a spot and then we just head out and explore, leave the caravan there, come home at night and it's all there.

Rita Santos: 21:41

In Europe you can just pull off the road and park, as long as you only stay one night. Can you do that in New Zealand as well?

Tui Travers: 21:46

We've got an app on our phone. We belong to the NZMCA, which is the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, and on this app it's got all the caravan places where you could park, like Freedom Camping to, where you can just pull off the side of the road and stay for one night, just like you said, and then go the next day. And then there's another place, what they call Pops, which is a park over poverty, and you could pay like $5 a night to stay there. Some of them have amenities like a shower and a toilet and power and water, which obviously you pay more for.

Mandy Travers: 22:24

But, the POPs are also private properties. They're people that might have a farm or they might be beachside or something, so they open their properties up to the NNMCA people.

Tui Travers: 22:34

And then the Motor Caravan Association have their own camping grounds. They have running water so you can top up your caravan with, and then they will have like rubbish disposal and black dumping stations. So some of them do, some of them don't, just because you have to empty out your grey and black water waste and all that sort of thing. And then some towns will have a dumping station and fresh water available to caravan people as well throughout New Zealand. So you could go from A to B and you might freedom camp, but you can also go and top up with water and go to the dump station at the same time.

Rita Santos: 23:13

Okay, you know some people manage those in their retirement or go from, you know, state to state managing those parks.

Tui Travers: 23:23

Oh yes.

Mandy Travers: 23:25

We've looked at a couple of those to go and manage. Because you've got your normal campgrounds, which we call them, which are your public campgrounds that are quite expensive to go and stay at and they have all the facilities They'll have kitchens and laundries and everything you need, whereas the NZMCA campgrounds don't. So we have to be certified self-contained in our vehicle to go in there, which we do, and we only pay $10 a night to go and stay at the caravan parks. So it's cheap living in that respect. But then we have looked at that. But it said the NZMCA have custodians, so they just are local people that come in and check up on everything.

Mandy Travers: 24:05

Oh, okay, whereas your public campgrounds, you can go and stay there and manage them if you wanted to, but it's pretty hard to get in and then you're tied yes, and it's normally over a get in and then you're tied yes, and it's normally a busy christmas period as well. So you kind of knock down for that time and we don't like being locked down for too long right, we don't either so you get three itchy feet, he goes come on, it's time to move.

Jim Santos: 24:31

Yeah yeah now was there much of a learning curve when you started out with the caravan.

Tui Travers: 24:37

Yeah, there was a little one. It's just. You've got to like being an ex-dairy farmer and I've driven heavy machinery and you had to drive truck and trailers and all that sort of thing. So once you hooked it on it's just like a normal trailer. You don't worry about the size as much, but you've just got to learn how to back a caravan as well. If you could back like a little trailer to go up the road and pick up some stuff for the house, there's no difference between that and a big caravan. It's like a little bit more weight, but you have to adjust to all that sort of thing. But we found it quite simple. I tow the caravan really well. I'm very cautious about people coming up behind me because we've got on the back of the caravan. We've got a camera which is Bluetooth into our car so we can see cars behind us as well, and then I just when I can I pull up to the side and let them pass. You've just got to be cautious of other people as well. So it works out both ways.

Jim Santos: 25:38

That technology the cameras that you can see behind you has really improved driving vehicles.

Tui Travers: 25:42

It is Like in our ute. We've got a dash cam on the front as well, so it's on all the time, and then with the caravan, at the back of the caravan, and then I've got extendable wing mirrors, which are permanently on the caravan now. So when I'm going around corners you can see vehicles and you come to a nice straight. I just indicate and slow down so they can pull out and overtake. You've got to be cautious. You don't want to be that person that holds the traffic up Right, right, definitely.

Mandy Travers: 26:12

And I guess it was living in the caravan itself, like because you're downsized. I mean we had a four-bedroom home so we obviously downsized quite dramatically and I guess the solar that kind of took a bit of getting our heads around this, because we're running on solar power as much as we can and we were sitting in the caravan not long after we had it actually, and it was December, which is our summer months.

Mandy Travers: 26:38

And we're sitting there watching TV and all of a sudden the power went off. It's like, oh. And then we went, oh gosh, we're on solar and we just totally um run out of power. So there were a few little things like that that we had to kind of um learn and and deal with. And but I mean, we're pretty practical kind of people.

Jim Santos: 26:55

So you go oh okay, and we have a generator, so we put the generator in it right we're back on power yeah, I can see the advantage of you're seeing new places, but you have a familiar place to come back to all the time right yeah, absolutely.

Mandy Travers: 27:10

We come home. To home, you know, and even when we a house sitting like, we'll stay in the house, but it's always nice to get back into the caravan and back to albedo. Yeah, it's just yeah. I don't know whether we'd ever go back to a house, you know, to be quite honest, because the caravan is just so comfortable just need to buy a nice field a nice field to park it in.

Mandy Travers: 27:31

Yeah, I mean, we have tiny homes. I don't know if you guys have them out there, but tiny homes are becoming a big thing out here. They're probably much the size of our caravan, about 30 metres square or 45 metres square, because it is getting so expensive to buy houses out here. And basically, yeah, we've got our tiny home. It's got everything we need in it.

Rita Santos: 27:49

Right right.

Mandy Travers: 27:50

And yeah, we just need somewhere to park it up if we get to that stage, don't we?

Jim Santos: 27:54

Yeah, as far as earning your living while you're on the road. Does New Zealand have anything similar to what we have in the US, a Social Security plan where retirees get a certain amount of money per month based on how much they've worked in the past?

Mandy Travers: 28:14

When you get a certain amount of money per month based on how much they've worked in the in the past. When you get a pension, when we get to 65, everybody gets a pension or superannuation, which is the same amount for nationwide, regardless of how much you've earned or whatever. If you're still earning, then the tax rates change, so you pay secondary tax, which is a lot a bit more than normal. But we have um found because New Zealand does a lot of um market gardening and cropping and all those kinds of things that there is a big call for people, and a lot of people our age, to actually get into the, the orchard work. So we've done avocado work on an avocado farm right off the top of New Zealand. They told us we were too old to pick.

Mandy Travers: 28:50

I was happy with that. So I did some QCing. Tui did tractor driving, picking up the bins and taking the bins away, et cetera. So that was quite cool. Eh, that was something different and you're meeting the locals, you know, which is really cool too, right. And then we've done pear in a pear orchard at the top of the south island. Same thing toey drove the tractor and I was doing the qc work and we can park the caravan at. Normally. You can park your caravan at the place you're working in, so you don't have to pay um. I think we've always had a little bit of rent, didn't we?

Tui Travers: 29:24

but not much wasn't much five dollars a night, I think it was yeah, um, toey's got some work in march when the grapes come online.

Mandy Travers: 29:33

There's going to do some driving when they pick the grapes. So yeah, there's bits and pieces and a pension. Mainly we can get by on, because we try not to get into our savings obviously um and toey wants to drive, so he's got some more tractor work coming up eh yeah, I've just.

Tui Travers: 29:49

We've just come out of taupo, which which is in the middle of the North Island, and you've got Lake Taupo and a little town, taupo, and we did a house sit there in March, april, and the owners of the property, who are very nice people he was a doctor and he did a lot of locum work and he was building a shed. So he said, tui, do you want to come back and build a shed for us on your travels back down this way? And I said, yeah, I could come back and do that. So we've just finished doing that. So I had a month's work there to do, so it worked in quite good.

Jim Santos: 30:17

So that construction background really helped.

Tui Travers: 30:19

Yes, it did, because, being a builder for 20 odd years, you could just put your hand to most things Because I had my own construction company, 25 staff at one stage working for us. But you can manage different areas and you can put your hand to most things.

Rita Santos: 30:35

Yeah.

Tui Travers: 30:41

And then we're off to the East Cape of New Zealand on October, november, which I'm going to go and drive heavy earth moving machinery for about six to eight weeks. It's just little contacts you made over the time. This person rang me and said oh, tell me, if you're over this way, come and see us and we'll put you on a digger or a bulldozer or something. No trouble at all. So there's always opportunities because you meet so many varied people throughout New Zealand and they say, oh, you're a builder, it's an earth-moving machine operator, there's plenty of work for you.

Jim Santos: 31:09

Yeah, that's great that you've been able to use those skills.

Tui Travers: 31:11

Yes, it is, but we don't have to do it Right, because over the summer months, oh, let's go and do this and go and do that, but hang on a minute, I could work here for six weeks and then we'll go somewhere. No, no, you're right. We try not to keep to a deadline because they don't always work out.

Rita Santos: 31:32

Right.

Tui Travers: 31:33

Like if you plan you have to be somewhere in three weeks time, it never works because you're always busy doing something else.

Rita Santos: 31:39

Right, I don't like to plan too far out because I might get bored in the last spot I was in and want to leave early and that's just it.

Mandy Travers: 31:49

We don't normally plan too far out, but we've this year's kind of been a different year for us. We had to go to Australia for a family wedding, and so we sort of stayed relatively close to home and we sort of picked up these bits and pieces that we probably wouldn't normally do, because we want to go back to the South Island next year. So, yeah, you, just you just roll with it and yeah, like you say, if you get bored with it, well, you don't want to be tied down for too long.

Rita Santos: 32:14

No, no, I don't want to be committed.

Jim Santos: 32:16

Right, mandy, I understand you also just started an online digital marketing business.

Mandy Travers: 32:20

Yes, I'm trying to get my head around that. It's just something I've always wanted to do and I've got the time to actually do it now and, once again, it'll benefit us. Obviously top up our little play money thing, but it's a good opportunity for me to work with other people too. The lady that I'm doing it with. She's just been amazing in helping me, and there's so many people out there at the moment that are hurting and want that little bit of extra income. So, yeah, it's all very, very new.

Mandy Travers: 32:45

Like I said before, I'm not overly tech savvy, but I'm learning pretty quick yeah yeah, and it's just a marketing course that has so many different options of streams of income, like it's just, it's pretty amazing, it's very affordable and if I can do it, then seriously anybody can do it so this is basically uh, an instructional, uh business that you're doing.

Mandy Travers: 33:08

Yeah, there's lots of options with it, but yeah, basically it's a market resale, mrr, market resale right and it's a license. So you buy this and this course and it's a step-by-step tutorial online that you can download and follow. All the instructions on how to set up landing pages, websites, email marketing, you name it. It's got everything you would actually need to get a business up and running online. If you've got products, you can actually sell your products, learn how to sell your products and boost your sales. You can become a teacher, like I just did a little course on landing pages. So there's just so many options that you can then put out and help people to get them up and running as well if they want to have something a little bit different and I thought it was really good with traveling, because people have got the time and you don't want to spend all day doing something.

Mandy Travers: 33:59

There's too many adventures out there, so I tend to do, probably in the mornings, two to four hours in the morning and then we can go out and do something and explore and have some fun. So I haven't made money on it yet, but I'm definitely working on that and it's um a system in a trial of error, to get the right marketing, get the right visual out there for people to see. Um, yeah, there's a lot still happening, so I'm not 100 happy with what I've set up on my website and my landing page yet, but that's good because I can tweak it and yeah, so, and just helping into travel groups I mean, I think that's how I picked you up just by, you know, talking to travel groups, doing the networking and and people go, oh gosh, you know, I'm looking for something to to help us out with a bit of extra money, sort of thing. So, yeah, it's hopefully, and I'm pretty confident it will work for me.

Jim Santos: 34:45

I've just gotta say tweak it way back well, I think you've got the right attitude there, because you're not approaching it as this is a way that I'm going to make a fortune. You're looking at it as what can I do to help other people discover the kind of freedom that we've discovered?

Mandy Travers: 35:00

absolutely. You know, and I'm too old to think I'm going to make a fortune out of and I want to enjoy life without you know, being tied down. Right, we're at the age we just want to enjoy life without you. I can hang tied down.

Jim Santos: 35:11

Right, we're at the age. We just want to hang on to our fortune.

Rita Santos: 35:14

Yeah, that's our main key.

Jim Santos: 35:17

So do you have any big plans for the future? Do you see this lifestyle changing or evolving any over the next couple of years?

Tui Travers: 35:23

Yeah, we had a plan. When we initially decided to buy a caravan, we said it's going to take us five years to do what we need to do. We're in year five and we haven't even done half of the things we'd like to do. We're just enjoying life and just doing things. I'd never do that before because we were so tied to our working ethics before. Now we've changed and we've gone to the other side of things, where we're just enjoying life and there's always something in the near future we'd like to do. But see me retire and build a house. Maybe build another house.

Mandy Travers: 36:05

Yeah, we're not over it yet. You know, like Tess said, we've still got lots to see and do and it's really cool because we're meeting so many like-minded people on the road, and our age as well, which is really cool. The on-road community is pretty amazing, so you're kind of teeing up and getting to know people. You know, you go out and you just say, hi guys, you know, and there's opportunities coming through from meeting those sort of people as well. You know, that's how to he's picked up some of these driving jobs and yeah, and it's just, we have a lot of families, young families, and I think you know, in the states as well, but for us out here it's becoming more prevalent that young families are out on the road doing this as well and just, I don't know how they do it with three or four kids in a caravan. I'm not sure if I would have, my kids would have survived, but anyway, you know. So it is a pretty amazing community and no, I don't want to stop doing it.

Mandy Travers: 36:59

We've got two minutes to see and do it at this point in time. As long as we can do it, we're well enough to do it and fit enough to do it. Go at.

Jim Santos: 37:06

We've been chatting with Tui and Mandy Travers, two modern-day gypsies just trying to live their best life. You can keep up with their adventures at www. facebook. com/ roundtuitnz/ that's r-o-u-n-d, t-u-i-t-n-z, and you can also check out the digital marketing info that Mandy was talking about by signing up at www. digimarketmischief. com. And don't worry, both links will be in the show notes. I'd like to thank both of you for sharing your lives with us and I hope you continue to enjoy your nomadic lifestyle.

Mandy Travers: 37:42

Thanks, guys, I hope you guys do too. Be interesting to catch up again.

Jim Santos: 37:58

Yes, keep in touch. You've been listening to Travels with Jim and Rita. Thanks for your support and please continue to like and follow and promote on social media as you are able. And, of course, subscriptions are not required but are always appreciated. A quick reminder Rita and I will be at the International Living Ultimate Go Overseas Boot Camp in Las Vegas, nevada, october 26th through the 28th. I'm now scheduled to give four talks and Rita and I both will be in the exhibit hall to answer questions about what we've done, where we've been and where we're going.

Jim Santos: 38:29

You can get more information or sign up at intliving. com/ events. That's intliving. com/ events, but better do it soon, because it looks like it's going to be a sellout. If you'd like to read more about where we've been and see some photos and video, check out our blog at jimsantosbooks. com. You can access my books, audiobooks and short stories at jimsantos. net. We love to hear from our listeners as well, so if you have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover or want to tell your own travel story, email us at jim@ jimsantosbooks. com . Until next time, remember, we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.