We celebrated our nomadiversary on March 1st in the same nation as last year, a first for both of us.
Nothing about our eleventh year as digital nomads went according to plan. Even though the vacation highlights piece from the previous year was published a week before a pandemic was formally proclaimed, it didn’t seem like we knew what was in store for us. Our lives went on as normal, with the exception of using hand sanitizer more often, since COVID had not yet spread to New Zealand.
In the article, we rejoiced at the blog’s success, not realizing that a few weeks later, traffic and revenue would plummet by 80% and remain that way for the remainder of the year.
We still intended to depart from baby Zealand in April and go on our most ambitious travel itinerary to date, which included visits to French Polynesia, Hawaii, the English Cotswolds, Toronto to see our baby nephew, New Orleans, and Disney World for Simon’s 40th birthday—a journey we had been dreaming about for years.
Naturally, none of it took place.
By the end of March, New Zealand was under lockdown, with almost all borders blocked and no way to continue traveling.
After a hard day of preparing an application for a visa renewal, New Zealand granted an automatic five-month extension to all tourists the next day. We felt safer in New Zealand, and it turns out that we were correct, despite our relatives’ wishes for us to go back to the UK.
The next six months were an emotional rollercoaster that I chronicled in our lockdown diaries: shock, dread, anguish over postponed plans, a great deal of uncertainty, and, most of all, despair that, after ten years of effort and our blog’s eventual financial success, we were losing everything.
But we were also really thankful that we had our money to last us, that we were able to secure refunds for the majority of our scheduled travels, that we were safe and well in New Zealand, and that we were housed in a lovely home by the sea.
And then there was the shame, meaningless but difficult to overcome. We were allowed to resume our domestic travel after New Zealand successfully eradicated COVID-19 after a rigorous two-month shutdown.
We have had the freedom to travel this beautiful nation, visit restaurants, bars, movie theaters, festivals, and bowling alleys while our friends and relatives who live abroad remained cooped up.
In the end, our eleventh year of traveling was still filled with pleasure and discovery even though it had deviated much from our original plans, our company was failing, and we were afraid for our family.
We acknowledge that our pandemic has been relatively simple in comparison to practically everyone else’s, and sometimes this makes it difficult to communicate our experiences since they stand in such striking contrast to what is safe and feasible in most of the globe.
Here are the highlights from our eleventh year of traveling the world without a job, which was entirely spent in New Zealand.
An Extended Stay in New Zealand: An Unexpected Gift
The first of three automatic visa renewals for the few thousand tourists who remained in New Zealand (where the borders had been blocked for a year) was the original five-month extension.
Each was more and more last-minute; before the respite and another choice to remain, we had tickets scheduled for September and February.
We’ve been here for 17 months so far, and if our application for an additional visa extension is granted, we’ll be here for two years in total. Two long years! In the last ten years, the longest we have stayed in one nation was five months.
Our prolonged stay has been an unexpected blessing, even though we never would have chosen to remain here for so long before the outbreak. We have developed a deep affection for the nation, particularly its breathtaking scenery and easygoing, outdoor lifestyle.
We would have had more time to explore the area’s best wines, identify the stunning native birds, and trek its many trails if we had stayed longer.
We’ve made pals with whom we’ve played escape rooms, bowled, played mini golf, and karaoke. We brought our friends’ dog for his first swim and watched him grow up. Christmas came to us in July. We rejoiced over Jacinda Ardern’s overwhelming election win. Simon even had the opportunity to record three songs in a real music studio.
We’ve been living out of a carry-on bag for the last ten years, so being able to amass some more items has been made possible by having a rental vehicle. Although we still don’t have many clothing and are selective about what we purchase (which we plan to discard before we go), it’s been convenient to have a few extras for cooking and hiking.
Even better, we have an inflatable stand-up paddleboard that has been a great way to discover the stunning bays and lakes.
Even though we’ve seen a lot more of New Zealand than we ever anticipated, we still feel like there’s so much to learn and are continuously pulled between the need to explore new areas and the need to go back to the locations we like. We are quite appreciative that we have this difficulty, which is a wonderful thing.
Acquiring Yacht Mastery in the Bay of Islands
A year ago, we completed a six-day sailing course in the remote northern region of New Zealand, the Bay of Islands. It seems like a very long time ago. For the first three days of our stay on the small boat, we went out with an instructor. For the last three days, we were on our own, mooring in peaceful coves on some of the numerous nearby islands.
It was a difficult period marked by exhausting days spent attempting to comprehend fresh knowledge, wind-related challenges, and worries that we hadn’t properly moored and that our boat might drift off.
There were also a lot of happy moments, such as when the wind caught the sails just so, seeing sunsets on the ocean, feeling liberated out at sea alone, and coming across deserted beaches and islands teeming with local birds.
We were also nearing the end of our typical week. Everything had altered by the time we got back to the coast. Lockdown was about to occur, New Zealand had locked its borders, and our blog traffic had drastically decreased.
Investigation Following Lockdown in Northland
The day before the countrywide lockdown began, we landed at the Bay of Islands’ ancient village of Russell. We only saw the breathtaking view from our place, the mangrove walking path close by, and the neighborhood FourSquare mini-market during our first seven weeks (we had to prolong our first stay). Online delivery was not an option.
It took some time for us to get used to our newfound freedom once COVID cases were under control and we could once again wander, but we quickly discovered delight in new areas.
One of my favorite locations in New Zealand is Urupukapuka Island, where we hiked extensively. We also went to Cape Reinga, the country’s northernmost point, climbed enormous sand dunes, strolled along secluded beaches, swam in a waterfall, learned about Maori culture at Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and had lunch at a winery.
Every post-lockdown milestone we achieved—eating out, seeing a museum, making a non-essential store trip, etc.—aided in our gradual return to normalcy.
A Healing Road Trip Around the North Island
We departed in mid-June for an early winter road trip along the North Island, three months after moving to Russell.
We rode to vineyards in the rain, climbed, bathed in a hot spring, visited a geothermal park with vibrant pools and boiling mud pits, and readjusted to bustling cafés and restaurants during our two-week journey to the Coromandel Peninsula, Lake Taupo, and Hawke’s Bay.
It seemed like a new start, a chance to get beyond the anxiety and tension of being under lockdown, a transition from quarantine to normalcy. The pandemic worries haven’t gone away, of course, even after nine months—especially with respect to our families and businesses—but this journey did signal a turning point.
In the charming little hamlet of Hahei on the Coromandel, there is a single, idyllic day that sticks out. We trekked early in the morning to the enchanted Cathedral Cove, one of the most visited locations in New Zealand, yet we had the renowned vista of the beach and rock stacks framed by a cave’s arch to ourselves.
We made a stop at another beach en route back, where I had the opportunity to snorkel with stingrays and enjoyed the winter sun on Hahei Beach, which is one of my favorite beaches in the nation, with its immaculate white sand.
Wellington and the Kapiti Coast: A Place to Feel at Home
We have spent the most time in New Zealand—three visits in the last year—in Wellington and the adjacent Kapiti Coast. In addition to the fact that it’s a gorgeous place with loads to do, we also went because we had friends there and because we fell in love with a beach home in the town of Paekakariki.
Wellington is amazing because it’s a little city surrounded by nature that offers all the pleasures of a capital city, including good cuisine, excellent coffee, upscale cocktail bars, and plenty of culture.
Beautiful beaches, a rocky coastline, several hiking paths, and even a marine reserve where I was able to swim with octopuses and eagle rays are all easily accessible from the center in a short drive.
