Another Milestone Today – Three Years Traveling Nomads

We have hit another milestone: Three years of constant travel! If you follow our travels, you know this is not entirely true. These traveling nomads have unlocked the key. We have figured out how to break our trip into many small excursions. And most importantly, rest in between. Usually enforced by a house sit. So in essence, we use other people’s homes to do our resting. We could not be happier with the life we are leading, and there are no plans to stop. Take that you folks that bet on how long we would stay away. 

Our Blog: hummingAlong.net is getting underway. Soon we will be travel “influencers”, imagine that. 

By the Numbers

In three years we have visited about 49 countries, 152 cities, walked hundreds of marathons: we average about 30,000 steps a day, that comes out to about 15k, viewed thousands of masterpieces, hundreds of churches, cathedrals and castles; and waterfalls, beautiful beaches and landscapes, gardens and wildlife. We were in Edinburgh for The Fringe, Munich for opening day of Oktoberfest, Semana Santa in Malaga. Pride week preceded us all over Europe one Summer, and of course Christmas celebrations on both hemispheres. The most surprising statistic of all: over a third of our time has been spent pet sitting. Not originally part of our plan, but it is by far the highlight of our travels. We have had 28 different assignments, and cared for 50 dogs, 54 cats, 134 chickens, ducks, goats, llamas, alpacas, horses, donkeys. Everything except a pig. Boy have I tried to get a pig assignment, but not so far. 

Travel Karma For Sure

No way could we take for granted how lucky we have been to actually be traveling over the past 18 months while the rest of the world is locked up and masked. We have worn a mask – exactly twice: once when on a tiny plane for a 10 minute flight; and a helicopter. It is certainly our hope that the world continues to get this pandemic under control and everyone can get out and about soon. For the time being, we are so blessed to have this gorgeous tourist destination virtually to ourselves. The experiences we have managed would be vastly different in normal times – we probably would not be alone on the beaches for one thing. 

All the time we meet people who are more traveled than we are. We can claim to be spending much more time in each place we go than the average vacationer. It is really interesting how the countries unfold over time. Admittedly, we are very spoiled to have the luxury of spending the time needed to really dig down into the culture of a place: over three months in Croatia, over five in Great Britain, a month in Ireland, maybe three months in Spain, a month in France, two months in Australia, and a whopping 18 months in New Zealand, to name some of our travels. 

Looking Forward

It is easier to talk about all the places we still need to get to, than the places we have been. Not because there are fewer destinations, there definitely are not. Just because forward looking is where are heads are. We have a lot more places we want to go: Still never made it to Norway or Portugal. These were the 2 first destinations on our original list, but we kept getting sidetracked. We have barely been to more than one continent: Europe and the tip of Africa. We have actually spent more time not on any continent at all: the islands of Australia, New Zealand, UK and Ireland.

Travel Goals

When we embarked on this adventure, our goal was to find a new place we wanted to call home. Our first criteria was a place that allowed us easy travel to other places, most notably Europe. Well, we have found the place we want to call home: New Zealand. Ironically, it does not even tick that first box; New Zealand is pretty far from virtually anywhere else. Still we would stay if we could. Unfortunately, there is no path to residency for us; we have searched for loopholes, and no go. New Zealand will not have us full time. Still, we will be returning to this country a lot, I suspect. 

There were a few goals when we started out. We planned to do all our travel with a light footprint. Almost exclusively public transportation, and very little of that by plane. We took a plane only once every three months when we exited or entered the EU. We needed a definite record of entries and exits and plane travel was the call. Plus we were usually traveling over water. Avoiding airplanes was doable until we hit Australia. Australia is big. Public Transport minimal. We flew a lot: Sydney to the Red Center. To Tasmania and back. From Harvey Bay to Sydney, just to name a few. We still avoided a rental car. As an alternative, we went on a lot of tours. Lots of day trips and several multi-day day.

The New Zealand Part of the Story

Then we hit New Zealand. Of our three years on the road, over half of that time has been in New Zealand. We started on an organized tour that worked great, a driver of a small bus to take us here and there and curated our activities. But once covid hit, we had no choice but to get our own wheels. Leary about public travel because of the virus risks was one factor, and the risk of public transportation being shut down. New Zealand would be impossible to really enjoy without a car. Too much of the beauty and joy in this country starts at the end of a gravel road. We are not sure if we were supposed to drive our rental on gravel, but too late now. We have had the car for more than a year. Who of you have washed your rental car? We have also taken it in for routine service several times and changed the wiper blades and oil ourselves. Before the car we had a campervan for over a month. New Zealand has seen me shed some old aversions. I have backpacked and camped too. Who would have thought. 

Having a car, we have been able to shed another goal, the ability to carry all our stuff, ourselves. The ute (SUV) is packed to the gills. We have acquired some of the most random stuff: frying pan, cutting board, coffee plunger (french press), yoga mats, work out props, gum boots (wellies), kindling wood and fire starters, backpacks, sleeping bags, camp stove, spare motor oil and windshield wiper blades, disinfectant and window cleaner, towels, dish washing tools, candles. And food: spices, salad dressing and condiments, self rising flour (for pancakes), coffee, cases of wine, Mark has some scotch. For the food, we have tupperware and storage bags, aluminum foil and a chilly bin (aka cooler). 

The plan is to Exit New Zealand in the next few weeks. Our flight has already been canceled once, so we will not have confidence until we are on a plane over the Coral Sea. A quick stop at home, and then to – you guessed it – Portugal finally.