May 18, 2025 ā¢ 35 mins
Ever wondered if New Zealand lives up to the hype? After 3 months, 38 towns, van life and cozy Airbnb hoppingāplus working remotely on the roadāweāve got answers. My husband joins me to share an honest and in-depth review of our quintessential New Zealand adventure.Ā
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Takeaways:
- š What itās really like to live out of a van (freedom camping, routines and unexpected challenges)
- š°The real cost of traveling New Zealand - with tips on saving money
- š» Being a digital nomad in New Zealand (Wi-Fi, time zones, coworking culture)
- š»The surprising pros (and cons) of living in a country with no wild animals
- š Who we think New Zealand is perfect for (and who might be disappointed)
- š Plus: the freedom lessons weāre taking home with us and what weād do differently next time
About the show:
Sam Laliberte -Ā entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to āhave it allā - financial, location AND schedule freedom.Ā
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sam (00:02):
Hello, freedom seekers.
I am back in your ears and maybein front of your eyes too if you
are watching this one on YouTubeor Spotify.
I have officially entered myvlogging era and I am episodes
that are now a full visualexperience.
I definitely recommend youwatching this new season, I just
(00:23):
couldn't help myself.
You can imagine how muchcontent.
I got during those three months,I had even bought myself the
brand new iPhone before the tripI knew the nature was gonna be
picturesque and it was, Wevisited 38 different towns.
We traveled across both thenorth and the south island.
We spent 50 nights living in avan, 3 nights in an RV and 6
(00:47):
nights in a tent.
I really feel like we had thefull quintessential New Zealand
experience.
So before we forgot it all, Iinvited Jared to come.
Back on the podcast so that wecould together unpack all of the
highs, all of the lows, all ofthe miraculous moments, and even
the meh ones because this is anhonest review.
(01:10):
Of our time in New Zealand, wegot nothing to lose.
So we're keeping it super real.
What we thought of the people,the food, the weather, the vibe,
so much more.
These are the things that wewish we knew before we flew
across the world and committedto spending three months there.
you're about to learn what it isreally like to live from a van
in New Zealand.
(01:31):
Everything from freedom,camping, the routines, we had
unexpected challenges that wehad to navigate.
Speaking of navigation, how wefigured out working remotely
from various cafes and coworkingspots, because getting free wifi
turns out isn't that easy therenot to mention the time zones
that we had to deal with.
(01:53):
We talk about the real cost oftraveling to New Zealand and
some tips on how you can savemoney and avoid some of the
common surprises that we hadalong with who we think New
Zealand is perfect for, and whowe think will be disappointed if
they choose New Zealand for abig trip.
So with no further delay,freedom Seekers, here's.
Jared.
(02:13):
You are a recurring guest, I think is your fifth time on
the show.
Jared (02:17):
it's always an honor to be here.
Sam (02:19):
welcome back to the Freedom Lifestyle.
Welcome back to Canada.
We are recording this inWhistler.
We're still not back in ourhome.
No.
We have our home rented untilMay 1st.
So we're living at a suitcase,but we've been back in Canada
for a month.
why New Zealand?
Because you are actually the onewho pitched New Zealand as the
location for the sabbatical.
(02:40):
What was drawing you to thatcountry?
Jared (02:42):
Similar to when we did our previous sabbatical to South
America, which I think we'vetalked a bit about on the
podcast previously.
I just sort of had a sense thatthis was the next adventure,
that I wanted us to taketogether.
It was, had a lot ofsimilarities to South America,
but it was better fit for thisperiod of, in our life.
the South America trip wasbackpacking, hostiles, partying.
(03:05):
Yeah.
Uh, buses.
all the different things andthis felt like we could have a
adventure together, but it wasmore about us and more about,
this next phase in our life.
So we were still kind of livingsimply and being out in nature,
but instead of being in ahostile, we were in a van.
And I also knew that NewZealand.
If we wanted to try living in avan was the number one place.
(03:27):
We might want to do that becauseof how good the infrastructure
was and because of how outdoorfocused it was, which is
something that increasingly overour life, we've realized we love
more and more.
Sam (03:37):
Yeah.
I think for me, when you saidNew Zealand, it made sense we
had both already been toAustralia.
We had both had our own separatetrips and I'd always thought
that was the best place in theworld.
I'm a huge animal lover.
are my favorite animal, I lovethe Australia Wildlife, and when
you said New Zealand, Iimmediately thought, oh wow,
(03:59):
this is my chance to go back Ihad never really considered New
Zealand before.
I, embarrassingly didn't evenreally realize it was a country
made up of two islands until Istarted planning the trip.
So I had a lot to learn.
how did you find New Zealand asa country compared to other
places that you've been, andwhat is your country count these
days?
You've done more traveling thanme.
Jared (04:20):
I actually don't know the exact number for how many
countries.
Come on.
Give us, we've been revisiting,it's like somewhere in the, it's
maybe about 60.
Say
Sam (04:26):
maybe about 60 say.
Jared (04:28):
And how was New Zealand?
I mean, New Zealand was supercool.
I thought it was really acombination of a lot of
different countries in one overshort distances of time.
So you had the south island andthe southern parts of it, which
were mountains, very much likebc but also the mountains looked
different and it was a differentenough vibe that I think we.
(04:51):
Thought it was superinteresting.
I mean, we were driving around,we're like, there's literally a
view around every single corner.
Mm-hmm.
And also as you move more north,there's kind of.
Nice hills and it kind ofreminded us of Italy.
then you start to get to, oceanwaters like the South Pacific
and kind of beachy vibes.
so it kind of has a little bitof something for everyone I
(05:14):
found.
The fact that it wasn't soforeign and different allowed us
to really disconnect and livewith safety and ease and not
having to kind of make everydayliving so difficult.
cause the van life in itself isalready relatively difficult in
terms of just like.
Meeting your day-to-day needs.
So not having a language barrieror having a very developing
country helped with that aspect.
Sam (05:34):
Totally.
Okay.
Who is New Zealand?
Perfect for, who do you thinkwill love it and who do you
think might hate it?
Who do you think New Zealand isnot for, if anyone?
Jared (05:44):
Love would be anyone who loves the outdoors.
Definitely hikers.
Definitely people who arecurious about living in an RV or
a van.
Surfers.
Mm-hmm.
People who wouldn't like it.
I mean, I would say if you'relooking for a big city expense,
restaurants that are good.
Hotels.
Sam (06:02):
Yeah, we didn't really like the food.
No.
Maybe controversial opinion, andit's not just because we're
vegan.
The food was meh.
Yeah.
It was actually the first time Ihad ever even been to a winery
and I didn't finish my flight ofwine as part of my tasting.
You finished it.
Sure.
But that's because we paid forit.
Yeah.
(06:22):
I didn't like the wine.
I didn't like the food.
Every time we would go to arestaurant or would splurge, we
just left disappointed and yeah,they didn't have any sour beer,
which is my favorite type ofbeer.
So I would say the food and thedrink, if you're like a foodie
or.
Someone who is connoisseur ofcraft beers and cool wineries.
(06:44):
The views were cool, but I, Ican't say I enjoyed tasting
them.
Jared (06:48):
They did have some great juicy pale ales.
They excel in those?
Sam (06:51):
Yes, that is their thing.
Okay.
So not really people who wantthat big city vibe and energy.
And we did go to all of the bigcities.
We went to WellingtonChristchurch Auckland.
We did them all.
We spent a few obligatory days.
In each, but mostly we were inthe small towns throughout New
Zealand and that's really wherewe thrived and I think that's
(07:11):
what it's all about there.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
close your eyes and the promptis a pinch me moment.
What comes to mind?
Was there any pinch me momentsfor you in New Zealand?
Jared (07:25):
The first one that comes to mind was actually our first
day alone in New Zealand.
cause we started in New Zealandwith some friends, which was
awesome.
and then they dropped us off atthe beginning of what is, quite
a well known hike calledRouteburn multi-day hike.
And if you do enough researchand understand how to camp, you
can go off the track and findyour own place to camp, if you
(07:49):
do it in a safe manner.
And we did that on our firstnight, and we were just
completely alone with surroundedby glacier peaks, by this lake.
And I just looked around and Iwas almost in tears.
I was like, this is literallyexactly what I imagined, but so
much better.
Mm-hmm.
And it was our first night ofthe trip and it was just such a
hot start.
Uh, and I just felt likealready, no matter what happens
(08:10):
after this couple days, I feellike we're okay.
'cause like we just invested somuch time and energy and money
and thought into getting to NewZealand and were nervous it was
gonna be.
Too much like Canada or wewouldn't be enjoying our
company, wouldn't be excitingenough, and we were just like,
wow, this is actually gonna beso amazing.
Sam (08:28):
That's true.
I forgot about that.
I remember in the weeks leadingup to the trip, we thought we
were maybe too late for the fullNew Zealand.
We kept hearing how Van lifewasn't the same as how it was
before.
Rules were changing.
The locals didn't want youthere.
There was this animosity betweentravelers and the locals and
overt tourism, and we justthought, oh wow, maybe we're too
(08:51):
late for Van Life and freedomcamping and adventuring in New
Zealand.
We also had a really highexpectations, which usually when
we have really highexpectations, it's disastrous.
And it actually starts to bereally negative, So that's a
good reminder.
okay.
Given that this is an honestreview of New Zealand, what was
hard for you about being therefor three months?
Jared (09:13):
It definitely wasn't all butterflies although the
bathrooms, the public bathrooms,there are insanely nice.
Don't get me wrong, compared toCanada,
Sam (09:22):
definitely
Jared (09:22):
using public bathrooms pretty much for three months
straight.
And then when you, we weren'tusing a public bathroom when we
did our workaway volunteer,which I think you're talking
about separately, we had acompost toilet.
So I would say the bathroomaccess and quality, was
definitely one of the mostchallenging parts.
But it's a real big testament toNew Zealand that for three
(09:44):
months I was able to sustain itand at times enjoy it.
Sam (09:48):
And you were able to poo in random bathrooms
Jared (09:50):
by the end?
I had been able to do so quiteregularly.
Yes.
As
Sam (09:54):
long as they had a seat.
Jared (09:55):
As long as they had a seat.
Yes.
Yes.
Some of them did
Sam (09:58):
have.
Seats.
Jared (09:59):
Yeah.
Some of them didn't have seats.
It stopped.
Sam (10:01):
But yes, the bathrooms there were so nice.
It was something we talked aboutoften.
It's so funny when you're doingvan life and freedom camping,
and one of the first things youobserve when you get to your new
site is, oh, what's the bathroomlike?
Oh my goodness.
Get in there, honey.
There was a flush toilet.
There's a sink with actual soap.
I remember one time we went toone and there was a hand dryer
(10:21):
in there and that just felt likesuch a luxury experience after
what we had been through.
So, yeah, good point.
I actually read an articleyesterday, it came up on my feed
about how Starbucks.
Unknowingly became America'sGo-to public bathroom because
cities were saying that theycouldn't afford to maintain
(10:44):
bathrooms and provide water andsanitation services for cities,
which is just so messed up.
It really is a human right?
Mm-hmm.
To be able to go to the bathroomsomewhere clean, ideally.
So New Zealand definitely hasthat figured out.
I would say for me just beingthere for so long, it was really
hard to be away from people athome that we loved.
(11:06):
Our cat was with our tenants.
We usually use trusted housesitter, which means we rent out
our house to people who areprofessional pet sitters, you
know, people who love animals.
And we're doing an exchangewhere they're staying in our
house for free to watch our pet,and they like treat it like a
job.
You know, they play with her,they send us updates.
(11:28):
But this time, because we weregone for so long, we wanted to
rent out our house on Airbnb.
So we actually found tenants forfive months, who then we offered
them a discounted rent if theyalso watched our cat.
So they still liked.
RA and our cat, and obviouslyyou have to be somewhat of an
animal lover to agree tosomething.
(11:49):
I think.
Jared (11:49):
I still think they should have paid us to be able to,
Sam (11:52):
you should pay us to watch ra.
She's that too.
It's hard to negotiate
Jared (11:55):
it, but they,
Sam (11:55):
so it was a different vibe and I felt really uneasy about
that.
They weren't sending me as manyupdates as I'm used to.
I just felt like I didn't knowwhat was going on and I kept
having this pit in my stomachand then.
Sure enough, not worst casescenario, but one of the worst
things that you imaginehappening where they
(12:15):
accidentally let her out and shewas lost and she got into her
first fight and had to go to thevet and go on antibiotics.
It was very dramatic to receivethat news and be so.
Far from home and just feelingjust so helpless, like you
couldn't do anything.
You really feel like you're onthe other side of the world.
Yeah,
Jared (12:35):
it was stressful.
Sam (12:36):
Yeah.
That was super tough.
Jared (12:37):
Yeah.
It really also, I guess,exemplifies where our priorities
were at when you were worriedabout our daughter and me.
Where I take my next poo.
Sam (12:45):
Yes, but just a reminder, New Zealand is very far from a
lot of countries.
A lot of our listeners are fromCanada and the United States,
and I mean, you're far from homeand you really feel that, okay,
so that was what waschallenging.
We talked a little bit about howyou took a sabbatical, but for
me, I'm an entrepreneur.
(13:06):
I'm not just gonna get paid fromanybody to go on this three
month trip.
So I did a little bit of workjust enough to be able to fund
the trip, and so I think itwould be good for us to also
talk about working in NewZealand, being a digital nomad,
coworking spaces, wifi, anyinitial comments or
observations.
You had from following me aroundto different coffee shops and
(13:29):
coworking spaces?
Yeah,
Jared (13:30):
well, definitely what was surprisingly easy was keeping in
touch and if you needed to do incalls or something, because when
we were there it was actuallyonly a three hour time
difference.
Mm-hmm.
I think right now it's five.
Actually, with the daylightsavings, it kinda makes it a
little bit bigger, so that wasgreat.
What was more difficult wasactually finding easy.
Good vibe, spots to work.
(13:51):
Mm-hmm.
because yeah, there wascoworking spots, but I mean,
that takes a lot of coordinationand organization to find them
figure out how to book in justfor a day.
Mm-hmm.
And most of the coffee shopsthere, in fact, 95% of the
coffee shops there didn't offerinternet.
Sam (14:04):
Yeah.
They were really not Yeah.
Friendly for digital nomads andremote workers.
No.
Like we would say, Hey, Even ifwe buy something, we'll buy a
full meal.
Can we use your wifi?
And they just didn't have wififor customers or themselves.
They always had a bathroom,which is kind of backwards here.
Mm-hmm.
Here, sure, you can use ourwifi, but you're gonna have to
(14:24):
go to the Starbucks down thestreet to go to the toilet.
Hello.
So that was interesting.
We actually only got one parkingticket and it was overstaying
our welcome at a McDonalds.
Yes.
Because McDonald's is still thego-to place for reliable
internet.
(14:45):
Mm-hmm.
Free parking.
Yeah.
French fries.
Jared (14:48):
That's all we can really order.
I don't even drink coffee, so
Sam (14:52):
I was getting the flat white with oat milk at
McDonald's about it.
I didn't appreciate it.
It was expensive.
Did you find it easy to navigateinformation in New Zealand?
Booking huts, booking campsites,figuring out where to go?
How was that?
Because you did a lot of theplanning.
I was.
Busy working, and then you wouldcome up with an itinerary.
was it?
Jared (15:13):
They have a lot of information online.
It can be a little bitoverwhelming at times, to be
honest.
I used a lot of all trails.
so All Trails is a great app andyou can kind of see people write
reviews and and stuff like that.
But some of these hikes Therewere very intricate, like we
went on this kayakingexperience, it was kayaking and
hiking.
You had to kayak when it washigh tide and you could only
hike across these things when itwas low tide and you had to get,
(15:34):
you had to drop your kayak hereand you had to get, had a boat
back here.
Like it was very, and there wereso
Sam (15:39):
many different options of what island you stopped at in
different distances.
Insane of where to go.
Like I
Jared (15:43):
almost.
I literally almost collapsedmyself on that one.
Yeah.
and yeah, you're out there formultiple days without service to
change things up
Sam (15:51):
There's a lot of logistics involved when you do these multi
night hikes.
Mm-hmm.
But they have so many.
Yeah.
We ended up doing two of theofficial great walks, but then
when I did our trip stats, Icouldn't even get started with
how many day hikes we did.
It was, we did a lot of hikes.
Yeah.
We did a lot of day hikes.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
Let's talk about money.
Everybody likes to talk aboutmoney.
Do you like to talk about money?
No, I never like to talk aboutmoney.
(16:12):
Did you find it was more or lessexpensive than you were
expecting?
Jared (16:16):
I think it was less expensive than I was expecting.
Things were slightly more thanCanada on the sticker price, but
then we had almost 20% discountbecause of the exchange rate.
And then there also wasn't a taxor tip.
Sam (16:28):
Makes a huge difference.
Yeah.
Especially when
Jared (16:30):
you're going out to eat.
It makes a huge difference.
We didn't, we didn't go out thatmuch to eat.
Because of what Sam said earlierin terms of us not being,
because the food sucked.
Food kind of sucked.
But when you did, it was great.
and it was nice to kind of inyour head say, oh, I get a 20%
discount on this.
It was probably closer to 15with everything all included.
But we like to say 20.
Sam (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But when you see something on amenu and it says$20 and you go
pay, it actually just like was$20.
There wasn't a tax and notipping came up.
In fact, people were telling youlike.
Don't change the culture here.
We just don't tip here Their,they're pay a fair wage.
I don't know.
I don't know the details enoughabout that of like how fair the
workers were treated.
(17:08):
People seemed happy.
they weren't in a rush to giveyou the best experience.
Maybe that's why the food kindof sucked and the experience
wasn't that great because therewasn't an incentive to create
anything.
Great.
And you kind of maybe felt that.
Jared (17:19):
Mm-hmm.
One thing I also noticed aboutpeople and businesses was they
weren't.
Money hungry.
They weren't like desperate foryour business and they had their
boundaries and they left.
Like we went to a couple stores,five minutes from closing.
The first was like, honestlyI'm, I'm sorry, but I just wanna
go surfing.
Yeah.
I don't wanna like wait aroundhere for you to look around and
be like, fair enough.
But I think you would neverreally see that.
Yeah.
For a shop owner in NorthAmerica.
Sam (17:39):
Totally.
They'd be like, no, come in.
Come in.
Let's go.
Do you have any insider moneysaving hacks for someone who
might be going to New Zealand?
How could they save some money?
Anything you learned?
Jared (17:51):
Well, we got our van from Camp Amplify.
Mm.
Which is, that's a good one.
Like Airbnb, but for Vans.
So that was a money savingtechnique, but actually as if
not more importantly, was wewanted to experience driving
around, not in one of thesetemplated vans with all the
branding across it, with no vibeinside, but actually a van that
(18:12):
somebody had curated, that theyused themselves.
That was a really coolexperience and I think,
significantly cheaper thanrenting, from one of those
companies.
The downside was you always hadto return the van where you got
it from.
So other people sometimes didjust like a one way trip, but
we, we liked that a lot.
I
Sam (18:27):
think Van Life, just in general, we had a few nights
where we were not in the van andhad to see the Airbnb prices.
Mm-hmm.
And it really was the cheapestoption.
Yeah.
To stay in a van, especially ifyou're doing the freedom camping
sites where.
It's a free site to camp at,which is pretty cool.
And a lot of them were takenwell care of.
Like there was garbage servicesand people coming.
(18:49):
And I remember one day thegarbage man came and I was like,
thank you for this, for likeservicing this free campsite.
So yeah.
And also the van lifers, wejoked that they had the best
views.
Mm-hmm.
That was one of the things thatreally surprised us about New
Zealand is they didn't have anywater.
Front property there.
None of the houses or hotelswere right on the beach or the
(19:09):
water.
They would always leave a pathfrom the water to the houses
where anyone could bike or walkor hike or park your van a lot
of the time.
Mm-hmm.
Which is pretty funny if youhave one of these big, huge
houses and then all these vansin front of you.
Yeah.
We had
Jared (19:25):
some funny experiences where I think they're trying to
build up the van lifeinfrastructure there a little
bit.
It's a great source of tourism.
And I think some people hadbuilt these big houses and then
they had provided some parkingslots.
Lots of times they'd have thesekind of strips of parking, and
you'd have maybe five or six forvans.
And then these people in the bighouses behind, you have to look
at people in their vans everysingle night with the actual
(19:46):
waterfront views.
Sam (19:47):
Yeah, totally.
So awkward.
Okay.
Were there any unexpectedexpenses, things that caught you
off guard that was like, wow,that is way more expensive than
I thought.
Jared (19:58):
The ferry?
Mm-hmm.
That fair?
That one.
That was a surprising one.
Like in Canada, you just.
The ferry's not that big of adeal in terms of the price.
Yeah.
You have a lot of ferries in bc.
Yeah.
You can
Sam (20:06):
drive your car on.
Yeah.
Jared (20:08):
And there we were like, you know, we're just gonna take
the ferry.
We have to take it there, we'regonna take it back.
And it was a couple of, yeah.
When you go from north to SouthIsland, yeah, it was a couple
days before.
And then first of all, there wasliterally like almost no slots
left.
And then to book the ferry waslike$500, at least for our van
and us two.
That was a big sticker shock.
Definitely.
So if you're renting a van andgoing from north to south and
(20:29):
then have to go back, you shoulddefinitely factor that in as a
cost.
Yeah.
And then on the way back, we hadto take like a midnight ferry
because there wasn't many leftavailable, and that was the only
one that was even reasonablypriced.
Sam (20:39):
Definitely.
That was a big one.
Okay.
Safety.
How safe did you feel walkingaround at night?
Being alone in the back country,hiking with just a tent.
Let's talk a little bit aboutsafety.
I know for me, one thing thatwas very noticeable is in BC.
When you are camping in the backcountry, you have to worry about
(21:00):
bears.
There are animals that canliterally kill you and eat you,
and even just small things fromhaving to put your food up in
the tree to protect yourselffrom the bears.
Fuck.
Okay, let's go down there.
There's no.
Real wildlife there that canhurt you?
(21:21):
No.
So when we were just out there,my mom, I remember I would send
her pictures of just our tent inthe middle of nowhere, and first
thing she would say is, weren'tyou scared?
It was like, not really.
Yeah.
There's not really anything outhere.
Jared (21:33):
And even with our, gear and like our van and stuff, it
really felt like people had justkind of left their doors open of
their van.
And it was just sort of a, Idid, I wasn't worried about a
theft either.
Sam (21:43):
Mm.
A hundred percent.
Okay.
Another thing people like totalk about when they're
traveling or think about is theweather.
So we kind of went at the cuspof spring, summer.
Summer, I guess summer, fall.
Yeah.
Summer was just ending in NewZealand and they were starting
fall, and we really noticed it,like when we were arrived in
Queenstown, the sunset wasalmost 10:00 PM at night,
(22:06):
sometimes we were just waitingto go to bed in the van because
it was still so light out.
Yeah.
I think we were really caughtoff guard by how quick the rain
can come in sometimes.
Yeah, let's talk about that.
Yeah.
Especially in
Jared (22:16):
the, in the north, it, it was definitely felt tropical at
times in terms of these hugestorms that started to happen
sporadically.
It kinda reminded us of, we werein Costa Rica where it would be
kind of sunny and then it wouldjust be like a huge rainstorm,
and then it was sunny again.
We got such good weather.
Until the very end of the trip.
And they were still nice at theend of the trip, but we just
(22:36):
went weeks without any rain.
I mean, it would've beendevastating to have a rainstorm
like that on some of thesehikes.
I honestly don't even know howyou would survive.
Sam (22:46):
And a lot of the hikes, you would see the signs around.
alternative routes if the riverwas flooding mm-hmm.
Or areas that you had to bereally careful climbing in the
winter, and these were hikes andpaths that were pretty sketch
even in the summer.
Yeah.
I can't imagine people that aregoing there and doing all of
these in the winter.
That's a whole other level ofextreme for sure.
(23:08):
Yeah.
I
Jared (23:08):
mean the, the hike I was talking about earlier where we
had that amazing first night, Ithink there's rain 200 plus days
of the year in some, in theregions around there.
Wow.
Really?
So it's like very, very wet.
but we were there in summer atthat time and got lucky.
Sam (23:23):
Okay.
Top spots.
Where is a town that you thinkwe went most tourists might
skip, that you really felt likewas a hidden gem that you found?
Jared (23:33):
it's pretty hard to remember the name of all the
towns'cause they're all quiteobscure and it's obscure for the
English language.
They do a very good job in NewZealand of integrating the Maori
culture, which is like theirlocal, native peoples.
And all of the names are a bitdifficult to pronounce and lots
of them are very similar.
what comes to mind is a spotcalled Otaki Beach.
(23:56):
Mm.
Yeah.
And this one was.
I'm pretty sure like an hourfrom Wellington or something
like that.
Just off the ferry, just on the,so Wellington's on the south of
North Island and then we got offthe ferry and drove there.
Otaki Beach, you basically justdrive your van right up on this
rocky beach right on the ocean.
(24:18):
And what's cool is you have thisocean and there's this big
island out in the ocean, butthen if you turn the other
direction, it almost reminded usof being in like a African.
Sahara with all these rivers anddifferent small lakes and
Sam (24:31):
beautiful birds everywhere.
Bird.
Yeah.
Jared (24:33):
And it was just like you, you had.
On one side, ocean and vastness.
And then on the other side, allof these amazing wildlife and
things.
And Sam's getting some tears inher eyes just remembering
Sam (24:44):
it.
I loved it so much.
And when you freedom camp in NewZealand, sometimes you get to a
parking spot and there'sdedicated spots where you have
to be in a, literally a parkingspot.
And then other times.
You would get to a freedomcamping site that was a beach
where you literally just driveup and there's no rules and it's
a wild west and people are justtaking up different spots.
(25:06):
People are like listening totheir music.
fishing.
It's a bit of a party sometimes,and that was definitely one of
those vibes and it was.
Our favorite.
Mm-hmm.
We ended up making it so thatthe next time we were doing that
route, we had a night there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was our favorite.
And do you remember even thetown?
We loved it.
Unknown (25:24):
Yeah.
Sam (25:24):
Yeah.
The next day we had to do someerrands.
Before Kiwi burn we had to do abit of shopping.
We went to some, sorry about theshirt.
Is that where you got thatshirt?
The op shop?
The op shop.
Those were cool.
Yeah, we definitely went to abunch of those.
Yeah.
So
Jared (25:36):
they do, they seem to do an exceptional job at having
secondhand, stores called opshops, which are usually.
funding some sort of nonprofit.
Like this one was some sort ofanimal charity that they had
there.
And these were, they just, yougo in, it's pretty simple, and
they'll be like, every shirt inhere's$5.
Every pair of tents, tensdollars.
And you just kind of look aroundand you never know what you're
gonna find.
So we had a lot of fun checkingthose out in all these small
(25:58):
towns.
Sam (25:58):
Mm-hmm.
People were so chill.
Like I remember we were at astore and I just asked them,
Hey, do you know if there's alibrary or something near here
to print something?
And she was like, oh, what doyou need printed?
And we just needed literally onepiece of paper printed and she's
like, oh, I could print that foryou.
People were just really nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
Driving.
You drive on the left side ofthe road there.
In New Zealand you do oppositeof Canada.
(26:21):
How did you find driving aroundNew Zealand?
Jared (26:24):
The roads were insane.
They were very, very curvy.
The roads and very steep attimes, I think I took some
screenshots of some of theGoogle maps.
It was crazy.
Like I thought driving toWhistler was curvy.
That was on another level, Youcould go a hundred kilometers an
hour, but along a lot of theturns, they would tell you'd
have to slow down to 20 and youhonestly had to slow down to
(26:44):
there.
So I honestly thought it waspretty fun.
But if you are not used to thoseroads.
that was challenging, not somuch that side of the road.
And then our first van was alsostick shift, so I had had a
little bit of experience withthat before and I had to very
much ramp up again quickly.
Not only relearning how to doit, but doing it on the other
side totally as well.
The opposite hand,
Sam (27:05):
I was the official passenger princess for three
months.
I did not drive for a singlemoment.
No, we did rent a car once andyou weren't there.
And I did move the car from theparking spot to another area of
the parking spot.
Yes.
He did a great job with that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
On the other side of the car,Speaking of traveling around,
something that really surprisedus was domestic flights.
(27:28):
So flying within New Zealand wasincredibly chill.
Like in Canada, I know it's amuch bigger country.
But when you are flying around,even just within a single
province, I do a lot of theSudbury to Toronto flight, or
we'll do Vancouver to Kelowna.
And even still, they have thefull security as if you're going
to the other side of the world.
(27:49):
And I remember we were chuggingour water before going into
security and they were like.
You don't need to jug that.
Like you can bring that in.
They didn't even have security,right?
Jared (27:59):
Zero.
Sam (27:59):
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
You literally
Jared (28:00):
didn't even check your, or your board, like you
basically just walked up to thefinal agent with your boarding
pass.
Yeah, and I don't even thinkthey checked your id.
Sam (28:09):
No, it couldn't have been more chill.
we were there super early and wejust kept
Jared (28:13):
asking like, is this.
Are we missing something here?
Yeah.
You're not even gonna look at myid.
Sam (28:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're not worried.
And they're just like, it's asmall plane.
What could go wrong?
What could go wrong?
How easy did you find it tostrike up conversation with
locals?
They're called Kiwis there.
Mm-hmm.
And any particularly memorablecharacters that come to mind?
Jared (28:32):
Well, I mean, mentioning Australia would always kick off
a conversation with someone fromKiwi.
They have a little rivalry, uh,we noticed.
Oh, yep.
but They were all very nice, ingeneral, people were super.
Open to chatting and alwayswanted to share tips of hot
locations
Sam (28:49):
some of the slang that we picked up, mm-hmm.
Too easy.
I was too easy sweet as theylove their slang in New Zealand,
a lot of the times I would betexting with some of our
friends.
We made at Kiwi Burn and Ididn't even really, so you'd be
like,
Jared (29:05):
Jared, can you decipher what he's even saying?
Sam (29:07):
Yeah.
I couldn't even understand.
It was like they had a differentlanguage.
I reckon
Jared (29:11):
they do have a different language.
I
Sam (29:12):
reckon they do have another language.
reckon they use that so much.
Anything else?
Jared (29:18):
simple Simple.
They like too easy, simple.
You know, simple.
I reckon you can do it likethat.
Just too easy.
Sam (29:23):
Simple, too easy,
Jared (29:24):
I feel like there's so more, so much more, but they're,
they get more obscure.
Sam (29:28):
They get very obscure, but they love their slang.
Jared (29:31):
I thought about something that I was a bit disappointed
by.
Mm-hmm.
And that was, I was a bitdisappointed.
By the inability to get organicgood produce.
Mm.
They weren't really into thatthere it seemed, I'm not sure.
But fruit and vegetables, theyalmost didn't have anything
organic.
And then they also seemed tohave a less recycling than I
(29:53):
expected.
So those were two things onduring Van Life were, it became
difficult to, even though wewere making our own food and
stuff, they had a lot of plasticand you couldn't recycle it.
And then they had a lot ofveggies and stuff that weren't
mm-hmm.
Organic, but I mean, I'm a soyboy, so
Sam (30:07):
soy boy.
Yeah.
When we were in the Chuka Valleyfor our volunteering, that's
where we really ate the bestwhen we were truly insane off
the land.
Yeah.
And eating the food, which Italked about in the previous
episode.
If you haven't listened to ourWork Away episode, you'll learn
so much more about that, butI've never eaten
Jared (30:25):
so many apples in my life.
It was unbelievable.
Oh my gosh.
It
Sam (30:28):
was too easy.
Too easy.
Jared (30:29):
Too
Sam (30:29):
easy.
the wildlife was a bitdisappointing.
We didn't actually ever see aKiwi bird, which is of course
the official bird of NewZealand.
there's actually no mammals thatare endemic.
Is that the right word?
I.
Endemic to New Zealand.
In fact, all the mammals thatare there were brought in by the
settlers who really just startedto bring them in for game and
(30:51):
for fun.
I think it started with rabbits.
I think they were bringing themthere to shoot.
Did I understand that correctly?
I.
When they say they're bringingthe rabbits in, well, they
brought
Jared (31:00):
in the mice and rats came on the boats.
Yes.
And then they brought in some ofthe rabbits and stuff to get the
mice, or I don't know, somethingto get the mice.
And then they brought in, but Ithink they were gonna shoot
them.
They brought in some rabbits toshoot.
Sam (31:10):
Yeah.
And then the rabbit populationgot two outta control.
So then they brought in someSTOs.
Jared (31:16):
Yeah.
Sam (31:16):
Which I had never heard about a stoke before or even
knew what that was.
Mm-hmm.
But they're everywhere andpossums and it just seems like
they keep bringing in newmammals to manage the population
of the smaller animals.
But each population seems to getmore and more out of control.
And the sad part is, is what'sactually native to New Zealand
(31:37):
as the birds.
Mm-hmm.
A lot of these flightless birdsthat are there.
That are really struggling andmany have become extinct.
Many are endangered, and NewZealand is on a mission to get
rid of their rodents.
They hate all of the rats andthe STOs and all of these
animals that are around killingtheir birds, and we would see
(31:58):
hundreds.
Is that dramatic this time?
No.
Hundreds of traps.
Mm-hmm.
For these rodents, thousands oftraps.
Thousands of traps around thedifferent hikes and areas to try
to kill them.
Mm-hmm.
So that they can repopulatetheir bird population.
Yeah.
We saw lots of Kias and someCCAs though.
But yeah, that I think prettymuch covers it.
(32:19):
If you were to go to New Zealandagain, what, what is something
you think you would dodifferently?
Jared (32:24):
I would.
I love to do even more of ourbackpack trips.
renting the van and the van lifewas amazing, but you also were
paying for it on a fortnightbasis, so we didn't want to also
spend too many nights away fromthe van where you also had to
get a campsite.
And we also didn't carry all ofour gear all the time because it
took up a lot of space in thevan.
So I would love to prioritizedoing even more hikes next time.
Sam (32:47):
Mm-hmm.
And I will say one thing wascool is you could rent equipment
pretty easily.
It's true.
Yeah.
Like we were, we didn't end uptraveling with our own tent.
We just had our sleeping bags.
Yeah.
And there were plenty of, andsome walking sticks.
Sticks of life.
Jared (33:01):
Sticks of life.
Yeah.
And you can stay in the huts.
You can stay in the huts.
I don't like that.
Sam (33:05):
If you don't wanna have your tent and you can still do a
lot of the great walks or run totent.
Mm-hmm.
That was really easy and cool.
Got here early to get thecocoon.
The cocoon.
I'm also by window.
this podcast is all about the freedom lifestyle.
What is one commitment you arewilling to make to honor the
(33:29):
sense of freedom you discoveredon the trip?
Jared (33:34):
Well, one thing you and I discovered was how nice it was
to have these slow morningstogether.
especially when we were doingthe volunteering at, with the
work away, we had this amazingroutine where we'd get up just
kind of.
I don't know if they say faththere.
I've just started saying it.
I wanna say it again.
FFA round.
We would do meditation.
we would have breakfast togetherand talk about the things we're
(33:56):
grateful for, or three things wewere grateful for, and then we
would start our day and we wantto integrate that into our life
here and reserving at least twodays during the week to do that.
And not having any calls or workstarting until kind of later in
the morning.
And so far we've been able toeasily implement that, and
that's been really nice.
Sam (34:14):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
One of the things that we did onour work away is we learned
about a certain type ofmeditation called Kan, where
it's like a mantra bassmeditation where you're kind of
singing and doing some, not adance, but a active movement.
It's a very active meditation,so I love starting our days.
Mm-hmm.
Like that with you and guitar.
(34:34):
You're learning guitar.
Stay tuned.
She didn't believe it, but, uh,stay tuned.
And finally, what is your ratingfor New Zealand?
Out of 10, what are we gettingit?
12.
12.
There you have it.
Thank you so much, Jared, forcoming back.
Sure.
Thanks for having me, Sam, fromLifestyle.
I hope you appreciate it.
Our honest review of NewZealand, the highs, the lows
don't come for us.
(34:55):
If you didn't like what youheard, Kiwis and Friends, this
is just our opinion, but wewould definitely recommend you
put New Zealand on your bucketlist.
Will we be back?
Jared (35:05):
We will be back.
Sam (35:06):
We will be back, and until next time, we'll be back in your
ears.
Enjoy your freedom.
Jared (35:12):
Bye-bye.
Hello, freedom seekers.
I am back in your ears and maybein front of your eyes too if you
are watching this one on YouTubeor Spotify.
I have officially entered myvlogging era and I am episodes
that are now a full visualexperience.
I definitely recommend youwatching this new season, I just
(00:23):
couldn't help myself.
You can imagine how muchcontent.
I got during those three months,I had even bought myself the
brand new iPhone before the tripI knew the nature was gonna be
picturesque and it was, Wevisited 38 different towns.
We traveled across both thenorth and the south island.
We spent 50 nights living in avan, 3 nights in an RV and 6
(00:47):
nights in a tent.
I really feel like we had thefull quintessential New Zealand
experience.
So before we forgot it all, Iinvited Jared to come.
Back on the podcast so that wecould together unpack all of the
highs, all of the lows, all ofthe miraculous moments, and even
the meh ones because this is anhonest review.
(01:10):
Of our time in New Zealand, wegot nothing to lose.
So we're keeping it super real.
What we thought of the people,the food, the weather, the vibe,
so much more.
These are the things that wewish we knew before we flew
across the world and committedto spending three months there.
you're about to learn what it isreally like to live from a van
in New Zealand.
(01:31):
Everything from freedom,camping, the routines, we had
unexpected challenges that wehad to navigate.
Speaking of navigation, how wefigured out working remotely
from various cafes and coworkingspots, because getting free wifi
turns out isn't that easy therenot to mention the time zones
that we had to deal with.
(01:53):
We talk about the real cost oftraveling to New Zealand and
some tips on how you can savemoney and avoid some of the
common surprises that we hadalong with who we think New
Zealand is perfect for, and whowe think will be disappointed if
they choose New Zealand for abig trip.
So with no further delay,freedom Seekers, here's.
Jared.
(02:13):
You are a recurring guest, I think is your fifth time on
the show.
Jared (02:17):
it's always an honor to be here.
Sam (02:19):
welcome back to the Freedom Lifestyle.
Welcome back to Canada.
We are recording this inWhistler.
We're still not back in ourhome.
No.
We have our home rented untilMay 1st.
So we're living at a suitcase,but we've been back in Canada
for a month.
why New Zealand?
Because you are actually the onewho pitched New Zealand as the
location for the sabbatical.
(02:40):
What was drawing you to thatcountry?
Jared (02:42):
Similar to when we did our previous sabbatical to South
America, which I think we'vetalked a bit about on the
podcast previously.
I just sort of had a sense thatthis was the next adventure,
that I wanted us to taketogether.
It was, had a lot ofsimilarities to South America,
but it was better fit for thisperiod of, in our life.
the South America trip wasbackpacking, hostiles, partying.
(03:05):
Yeah.
Uh, buses.
all the different things andthis felt like we could have a
adventure together, but it wasmore about us and more about,
this next phase in our life.
So we were still kind of livingsimply and being out in nature,
but instead of being in ahostile, we were in a van.
And I also knew that NewZealand.
If we wanted to try living in avan was the number one place.
(03:27):
We might want to do that becauseof how good the infrastructure
was and because of how outdoorfocused it was, which is
something that increasingly overour life, we've realized we love
more and more.
Sam (03:37):
Yeah.
I think for me, when you saidNew Zealand, it made sense we
had both already been toAustralia.
We had both had our own separatetrips and I'd always thought
that was the best place in theworld.
I'm a huge animal lover.
are my favorite animal, I lovethe Australia Wildlife, and when
you said New Zealand, Iimmediately thought, oh wow,
(03:59):
this is my chance to go back Ihad never really considered New
Zealand before.
I, embarrassingly didn't evenreally realize it was a country
made up of two islands until Istarted planning the trip.
So I had a lot to learn.
how did you find New Zealand asa country compared to other
places that you've been, andwhat is your country count these
days?
You've done more traveling thanme.
Jared (04:20):
I actually don't know the exact number for how many
countries.
Come on.
Give us, we've been revisiting,it's like somewhere in the, it's
maybe about 60.
Say
Sam (04:26):
maybe about 60 say.
Jared (04:28):
And how was New Zealand?
I mean, New Zealand was supercool.
I thought it was really acombination of a lot of
different countries in one overshort distances of time.
So you had the south island andthe southern parts of it, which
were mountains, very much likebc but also the mountains looked
different and it was a differentenough vibe that I think we.
(04:51):
Thought it was superinteresting.
I mean, we were driving around,we're like, there's literally a
view around every single corner.
Mm-hmm.
And also as you move more north,there's kind of.
Nice hills and it kind ofreminded us of Italy.
then you start to get to, oceanwaters like the South Pacific
and kind of beachy vibes.
so it kind of has a little bitof something for everyone I
(05:14):
found.
The fact that it wasn't soforeign and different allowed us
to really disconnect and livewith safety and ease and not
having to kind of make everydayliving so difficult.
cause the van life in itself isalready relatively difficult in
terms of just like.
Meeting your day-to-day needs.
So not having a language barrieror having a very developing
country helped with that aspect.
Sam (05:34):
Totally.
Okay.
Who is New Zealand?
Perfect for, who do you thinkwill love it and who do you
think might hate it?
Who do you think New Zealand isnot for, if anyone?
Jared (05:44):
Love would be anyone who loves the outdoors.
Definitely hikers.
Definitely people who arecurious about living in an RV or
a van.
Surfers.
Mm-hmm.
People who wouldn't like it.
I mean, I would say if you'relooking for a big city expense,
restaurants that are good.
Hotels.
Sam (06:02):
Yeah, we didn't really like the food.
No.
Maybe controversial opinion, andit's not just because we're
vegan.
The food was meh.
Yeah.
It was actually the first time Ihad ever even been to a winery
and I didn't finish my flight ofwine as part of my tasting.
You finished it.
Sure.
But that's because we paid forit.
Yeah.
(06:22):
I didn't like the wine.
I didn't like the food.
Every time we would go to arestaurant or would splurge, we
just left disappointed and yeah,they didn't have any sour beer,
which is my favorite type ofbeer.
So I would say the food and thedrink, if you're like a foodie
or.
Someone who is connoisseur ofcraft beers and cool wineries.
(06:44):
The views were cool, but I, Ican't say I enjoyed tasting
them.
Jared (06:48):
They did have some great juicy pale ales.
They excel in those?
Sam (06:51):
Yes, that is their thing.
Okay.
So not really people who wantthat big city vibe and energy.
And we did go to all of the bigcities.
We went to WellingtonChristchurch Auckland.
We did them all.
We spent a few obligatory days.
In each, but mostly we were inthe small towns throughout New
Zealand and that's really wherewe thrived and I think that's
(07:11):
what it's all about there.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
close your eyes and the promptis a pinch me moment.
What comes to mind?
Was there any pinch me momentsfor you in New Zealand?
Jared (07:25):
The first one that comes to mind was actually our first
day alone in New Zealand.
cause we started in New Zealandwith some friends, which was
awesome.
and then they dropped us off atthe beginning of what is, quite
a well known hike calledRouteburn multi-day hike.
And if you do enough researchand understand how to camp, you
can go off the track and findyour own place to camp, if you
(07:49):
do it in a safe manner.
And we did that on our firstnight, and we were just
completely alone with surroundedby glacier peaks, by this lake.
And I just looked around and Iwas almost in tears.
I was like, this is literallyexactly what I imagined, but so
much better.
Mm-hmm.
And it was our first night ofthe trip and it was just such a
hot start.
Uh, and I just felt likealready, no matter what happens
(08:10):
after this couple days, I feellike we're okay.
'cause like we just invested somuch time and energy and money
and thought into getting to NewZealand and were nervous it was
gonna be.
Too much like Canada or wewouldn't be enjoying our
company, wouldn't be excitingenough, and we were just like,
wow, this is actually gonna beso amazing.
Sam (08:28):
That's true.
I forgot about that.
I remember in the weeks leadingup to the trip, we thought we
were maybe too late for the fullNew Zealand.
We kept hearing how Van lifewasn't the same as how it was
before.
Rules were changing.
The locals didn't want youthere.
There was this animosity betweentravelers and the locals and
overt tourism, and we justthought, oh wow, maybe we're too
(08:51):
late for Van Life and freedomcamping and adventuring in New
Zealand.
We also had a really highexpectations, which usually when
we have really highexpectations, it's disastrous.
And it actually starts to bereally negative, So that's a
good reminder.
okay.
Given that this is an honestreview of New Zealand, what was
hard for you about being therefor three months?
Jared (09:13):
It definitely wasn't all butterflies although the
bathrooms, the public bathrooms,there are insanely nice.
Don't get me wrong, compared toCanada,
Sam (09:22):
definitely
Jared (09:22):
using public bathrooms pretty much for three months
straight.
And then when you, we weren'tusing a public bathroom when we
did our workaway volunteer,which I think you're talking
about separately, we had acompost toilet.
So I would say the bathroomaccess and quality, was
definitely one of the mostchallenging parts.
But it's a real big testament toNew Zealand that for three
(09:44):
months I was able to sustain itand at times enjoy it.
Sam (09:48):
And you were able to poo in random bathrooms
Jared (09:50):
by the end?
I had been able to do so quiteregularly.
Yes.
As
Sam (09:54):
long as they had a seat.
Jared (09:55):
As long as they had a seat.
Yes.
Yes.
Some of them did
Sam (09:58):
have.
Seats.
Jared (09:59):
Yeah.
Some of them didn't have seats.
It stopped.
Sam (10:01):
But yes, the bathrooms there were so nice.
It was something we talked aboutoften.
It's so funny when you're doingvan life and freedom camping,
and one of the first things youobserve when you get to your new
site is, oh, what's the bathroomlike?
Oh my goodness.
Get in there, honey.
There was a flush toilet.
There's a sink with actual soap.
I remember one time we went toone and there was a hand dryer
(10:21):
in there and that just felt likesuch a luxury experience after
what we had been through.
So, yeah, good point.
I actually read an articleyesterday, it came up on my feed
about how Starbucks.
Unknowingly became America'sGo-to public bathroom because
cities were saying that theycouldn't afford to maintain
(10:44):
bathrooms and provide water andsanitation services for cities,
which is just so messed up.
It really is a human right?
Mm-hmm.
To be able to go to the bathroomsomewhere clean, ideally.
So New Zealand definitely hasthat figured out.
I would say for me just beingthere for so long, it was really
hard to be away from people athome that we loved.
(11:06):
Our cat was with our tenants.
We usually use trusted housesitter, which means we rent out
our house to people who areprofessional pet sitters, you
know, people who love animals.
And we're doing an exchangewhere they're staying in our
house for free to watch our pet,and they like treat it like a
job.
You know, they play with her,they send us updates.
(11:28):
But this time, because we weregone for so long, we wanted to
rent out our house on Airbnb.
So we actually found tenants forfive months, who then we offered
them a discounted rent if theyalso watched our cat.
So they still liked.
RA and our cat, and obviouslyyou have to be somewhat of an
animal lover to agree tosomething.
(11:49):
I think.
Jared (11:49):
I still think they should have paid us to be able to,
Sam (11:52):
you should pay us to watch ra.
She's that too.
It's hard to negotiate
Jared (11:55):
it, but they,
Sam (11:55):
so it was a different vibe and I felt really uneasy about
that.
They weren't sending me as manyupdates as I'm used to.
I just felt like I didn't knowwhat was going on and I kept
having this pit in my stomachand then.
Sure enough, not worst casescenario, but one of the worst
things that you imaginehappening where they
(12:15):
accidentally let her out and shewas lost and she got into her
first fight and had to go to thevet and go on antibiotics.
It was very dramatic to receivethat news and be so.
Far from home and just feelingjust so helpless, like you
couldn't do anything.
You really feel like you're onthe other side of the world.
Yeah,
Jared (12:35):
it was stressful.
Sam (12:36):
Yeah.
That was super tough.
Jared (12:37):
Yeah.
It really also, I guess,exemplifies where our priorities
were at when you were worriedabout our daughter and me.
Where I take my next poo.
Sam (12:45):
Yes, but just a reminder, New Zealand is very far from a
lot of countries.
A lot of our listeners are fromCanada and the United States,
and I mean, you're far from homeand you really feel that, okay,
so that was what waschallenging.
We talked a little bit about howyou took a sabbatical, but for
me, I'm an entrepreneur.
(13:06):
I'm not just gonna get paid fromanybody to go on this three
month trip.
So I did a little bit of workjust enough to be able to fund
the trip, and so I think itwould be good for us to also
talk about working in NewZealand, being a digital nomad,
coworking spaces, wifi, anyinitial comments or
observations.
You had from following me aroundto different coffee shops and
(13:29):
coworking spaces?
Yeah,
Jared (13:30):
well, definitely what was surprisingly easy was keeping in
touch and if you needed to do incalls or something, because when
we were there it was actuallyonly a three hour time
difference.
Mm-hmm.
I think right now it's five.
Actually, with the daylightsavings, it kinda makes it a
little bit bigger, so that wasgreat.
What was more difficult wasactually finding easy.
Good vibe, spots to work.
(13:51):
Mm-hmm.
because yeah, there wascoworking spots, but I mean,
that takes a lot of coordinationand organization to find them
figure out how to book in justfor a day.
Mm-hmm.
And most of the coffee shopsthere, in fact, 95% of the
coffee shops there didn't offerinternet.
Sam (14:04):
Yeah.
They were really not Yeah.
Friendly for digital nomads andremote workers.
No.
Like we would say, Hey, Even ifwe buy something, we'll buy a
full meal.
Can we use your wifi?
And they just didn't have wififor customers or themselves.
They always had a bathroom,which is kind of backwards here.
Mm-hmm.
Here, sure, you can use ourwifi, but you're gonna have to
(14:24):
go to the Starbucks down thestreet to go to the toilet.
Hello.
So that was interesting.
We actually only got one parkingticket and it was overstaying
our welcome at a McDonalds.
Yes.
Because McDonald's is still thego-to place for reliable
internet.
(14:45):
Mm-hmm.
Free parking.
Yeah.
French fries.
Jared (14:48):
That's all we can really order.
I don't even drink coffee, so
Sam (14:52):
I was getting the flat white with oat milk at
McDonald's about it.
I didn't appreciate it.
It was expensive.
Did you find it easy to navigateinformation in New Zealand?
Booking huts, booking campsites,figuring out where to go?
How was that?
Because you did a lot of theplanning.
I was.
Busy working, and then you wouldcome up with an itinerary.
was it?
Jared (15:13):
They have a lot of information online.
It can be a little bitoverwhelming at times, to be
honest.
I used a lot of all trails.
so All Trails is a great app andyou can kind of see people write
reviews and and stuff like that.
But some of these hikes Therewere very intricate, like we
went on this kayakingexperience, it was kayaking and
hiking.
You had to kayak when it washigh tide and you could only
hike across these things when itwas low tide and you had to get,
(15:34):
you had to drop your kayak hereand you had to get, had a boat
back here.
Like it was very, and there wereso
Sam (15:39):
many different options of what island you stopped at in
different distances.
Insane of where to go.
Like I
Jared (15:43):
almost.
I literally almost collapsedmyself on that one.
Yeah.
and yeah, you're out there formultiple days without service to
change things up
Sam (15:51):
There's a lot of logistics involved when you do these multi
night hikes.
Mm-hmm.
But they have so many.
Yeah.
We ended up doing two of theofficial great walks, but then
when I did our trip stats, Icouldn't even get started with
how many day hikes we did.
It was, we did a lot of hikes.
Yeah.
We did a lot of day hikes.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
Let's talk about money.
Everybody likes to talk aboutmoney.
Do you like to talk about money?
No, I never like to talk aboutmoney.
(16:12):
Did you find it was more or lessexpensive than you were
expecting?
Jared (16:16):
I think it was less expensive than I was expecting.
Things were slightly more thanCanada on the sticker price, but
then we had almost 20% discountbecause of the exchange rate.
And then there also wasn't a taxor tip.
Sam (16:28):
Makes a huge difference.
Yeah.
Especially when
Jared (16:30):
you're going out to eat.
It makes a huge difference.
We didn't, we didn't go out thatmuch to eat.
Because of what Sam said earlierin terms of us not being,
because the food sucked.
Food kind of sucked.
But when you did, it was great.
and it was nice to kind of inyour head say, oh, I get a 20%
discount on this.
It was probably closer to 15with everything all included.
But we like to say 20.
Sam (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But when you see something on amenu and it says$20 and you go
pay, it actually just like was$20.
There wasn't a tax and notipping came up.
In fact, people were telling youlike.
Don't change the culture here.
We just don't tip here Their,they're pay a fair wage.
I don't know.
I don't know the details enoughabout that of like how fair the
workers were treated.
(17:08):
People seemed happy.
they weren't in a rush to giveyou the best experience.
Maybe that's why the food kindof sucked and the experience
wasn't that great because therewasn't an incentive to create
anything.
Great.
And you kind of maybe felt that.
Jared (17:19):
Mm-hmm.
One thing I also noticed aboutpeople and businesses was they
weren't.
Money hungry.
They weren't like desperate foryour business and they had their
boundaries and they left.
Like we went to a couple stores,five minutes from closing.
The first was like, honestlyI'm, I'm sorry, but I just wanna
go surfing.
Yeah.
I don't wanna like wait aroundhere for you to look around and
be like, fair enough.
But I think you would neverreally see that.
Yeah.
For a shop owner in NorthAmerica.
Sam (17:39):
Totally.
They'd be like, no, come in.
Come in.
Let's go.
Do you have any insider moneysaving hacks for someone who
might be going to New Zealand?
How could they save some money?
Anything you learned?
Jared (17:51):
Well, we got our van from Camp Amplify.
Mm.
Which is, that's a good one.
Like Airbnb, but for Vans.
So that was a money savingtechnique, but actually as if
not more importantly, was wewanted to experience driving
around, not in one of thesetemplated vans with all the
branding across it, with no vibeinside, but actually a van that
(18:12):
somebody had curated, that theyused themselves.
That was a really coolexperience and I think,
significantly cheaper thanrenting, from one of those
companies.
The downside was you always hadto return the van where you got
it from.
So other people sometimes didjust like a one way trip, but
we, we liked that a lot.
I
Sam (18:27):
think Van Life, just in general, we had a few nights
where we were not in the van andhad to see the Airbnb prices.
Mm-hmm.
And it really was the cheapestoption.
Yeah.
To stay in a van, especially ifyou're doing the freedom camping
sites where.
It's a free site to camp at,which is pretty cool.
And a lot of them were takenwell care of.
Like there was garbage servicesand people coming.
(18:49):
And I remember one day thegarbage man came and I was like,
thank you for this, for likeservicing this free campsite.
So yeah.
And also the van lifers, wejoked that they had the best
views.
Mm-hmm.
That was one of the things thatreally surprised us about New
Zealand is they didn't have anywater.
Front property there.
None of the houses or hotelswere right on the beach or the
(19:09):
water.
They would always leave a pathfrom the water to the houses
where anyone could bike or walkor hike or park your van a lot
of the time.
Mm-hmm.
Which is pretty funny if youhave one of these big, huge
houses and then all these vansin front of you.
Yeah.
We had
Jared (19:25):
some funny experiences where I think they're trying to
build up the van lifeinfrastructure there a little
bit.
It's a great source of tourism.
And I think some people hadbuilt these big houses and then
they had provided some parkingslots.
Lots of times they'd have thesekind of strips of parking, and
you'd have maybe five or six forvans.
And then these people in the bighouses behind, you have to look
at people in their vans everysingle night with the actual
(19:46):
waterfront views.
Sam (19:47):
Yeah, totally.
So awkward.
Okay.
Were there any unexpectedexpenses, things that caught you
off guard that was like, wow,that is way more expensive than
I thought.
Jared (19:58):
The ferry?
Mm-hmm.
That fair?
That one.
That was a surprising one.
Like in Canada, you just.
The ferry's not that big of adeal in terms of the price.
Yeah.
You have a lot of ferries in bc.
Yeah.
You can
Sam (20:06):
drive your car on.
Yeah.
Jared (20:08):
And there we were like, you know, we're just gonna take
the ferry.
We have to take it there, we'regonna take it back.
And it was a couple of, yeah.
When you go from north to SouthIsland, yeah, it was a couple
days before.
And then first of all, there wasliterally like almost no slots
left.
And then to book the ferry waslike$500, at least for our van
and us two.
That was a big sticker shock.
Definitely.
So if you're renting a van andgoing from north to south and
(20:29):
then have to go back, you shoulddefinitely factor that in as a
cost.
Yeah.
And then on the way back, we hadto take like a midnight ferry
because there wasn't many leftavailable, and that was the only
one that was even reasonablypriced.
Sam (20:39):
Definitely.
That was a big one.
Okay.
Safety.
How safe did you feel walkingaround at night?
Being alone in the back country,hiking with just a tent.
Let's talk a little bit aboutsafety.
I know for me, one thing thatwas very noticeable is in BC.
When you are camping in the backcountry, you have to worry about
(21:00):
bears.
There are animals that canliterally kill you and eat you,
and even just small things fromhaving to put your food up in
the tree to protect yourselffrom the bears.
Fuck.
Okay, let's go down there.
There's no.
Real wildlife there that canhurt you?
(21:21):
No.
So when we were just out there,my mom, I remember I would send
her pictures of just our tent inthe middle of nowhere, and first
thing she would say is, weren'tyou scared?
It was like, not really.
Yeah.
There's not really anything outhere.
Jared (21:33):
And even with our, gear and like our van and stuff, it
really felt like people had justkind of left their doors open of
their van.
And it was just sort of a, Idid, I wasn't worried about a
theft either.
Sam (21:43):
Mm.
A hundred percent.
Okay.
Another thing people like totalk about when they're
traveling or think about is theweather.
So we kind of went at the cuspof spring, summer.
Summer, I guess summer, fall.
Yeah.
Summer was just ending in NewZealand and they were starting
fall, and we really noticed it,like when we were arrived in
Queenstown, the sunset wasalmost 10:00 PM at night,
(22:06):
sometimes we were just waitingto go to bed in the van because
it was still so light out.
Yeah.
I think we were really caughtoff guard by how quick the rain
can come in sometimes.
Yeah, let's talk about that.
Yeah.
Especially in
Jared (22:16):
the, in the north, it, it was definitely felt tropical at
times in terms of these hugestorms that started to happen
sporadically.
It kinda reminded us of, we werein Costa Rica where it would be
kind of sunny and then it wouldjust be like a huge rainstorm,
and then it was sunny again.
We got such good weather.
Until the very end of the trip.
And they were still nice at theend of the trip, but we just
(22:36):
went weeks without any rain.
I mean, it would've beendevastating to have a rainstorm
like that on some of thesehikes.
I honestly don't even know howyou would survive.
Sam (22:46):
And a lot of the hikes, you would see the signs around.
alternative routes if the riverwas flooding mm-hmm.
Or areas that you had to bereally careful climbing in the
winter, and these were hikes andpaths that were pretty sketch
even in the summer.
Yeah.
I can't imagine people that aregoing there and doing all of
these in the winter.
That's a whole other level ofextreme for sure.
(23:08):
Yeah.
I
Jared (23:08):
mean the, the hike I was talking about earlier where we
had that amazing first night, Ithink there's rain 200 plus days
of the year in some, in theregions around there.
Wow.
Really?
So it's like very, very wet.
but we were there in summer atthat time and got lucky.
Sam (23:23):
Okay.
Top spots.
Where is a town that you thinkwe went most tourists might
skip, that you really felt likewas a hidden gem that you found?
Jared (23:33):
it's pretty hard to remember the name of all the
towns'cause they're all quiteobscure and it's obscure for the
English language.
They do a very good job in NewZealand of integrating the Maori
culture, which is like theirlocal, native peoples.
And all of the names are a bitdifficult to pronounce and lots
of them are very similar.
what comes to mind is a spotcalled Otaki Beach.
(23:56):
Mm.
Yeah.
And this one was.
I'm pretty sure like an hourfrom Wellington or something
like that.
Just off the ferry, just on the,so Wellington's on the south of
North Island and then we got offthe ferry and drove there.
Otaki Beach, you basically justdrive your van right up on this
rocky beach right on the ocean.
(24:18):
And what's cool is you have thisocean and there's this big
island out in the ocean, butthen if you turn the other
direction, it almost reminded usof being in like a African.
Sahara with all these rivers anddifferent small lakes and
Sam (24:31):
beautiful birds everywhere.
Bird.
Yeah.
Jared (24:33):
And it was just like you, you had.
On one side, ocean and vastness.
And then on the other side, allof these amazing wildlife and
things.
And Sam's getting some tears inher eyes just remembering
Sam (24:44):
it.
I loved it so much.
And when you freedom camp in NewZealand, sometimes you get to a
parking spot and there'sdedicated spots where you have
to be in a, literally a parkingspot.
And then other times.
You would get to a freedomcamping site that was a beach
where you literally just driveup and there's no rules and it's
a wild west and people are justtaking up different spots.
(25:06):
People are like listening totheir music.
fishing.
It's a bit of a party sometimes,and that was definitely one of
those vibes and it was.
Our favorite.
Mm-hmm.
We ended up making it so thatthe next time we were doing that
route, we had a night there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was our favorite.
And do you remember even thetown?
We loved it.
Unknown (25:24):
Yeah.
Sam (25:24):
Yeah.
The next day we had to do someerrands.
Before Kiwi burn we had to do abit of shopping.
We went to some, sorry about theshirt.
Is that where you got thatshirt?
The op shop?
The op shop.
Those were cool.
Yeah, we definitely went to abunch of those.
Yeah.
So
Jared (25:36):
they do, they seem to do an exceptional job at having
secondhand, stores called opshops, which are usually.
funding some sort of nonprofit.
Like this one was some sort ofanimal charity that they had
there.
And these were, they just, yougo in, it's pretty simple, and
they'll be like, every shirt inhere's$5.
Every pair of tents, tensdollars.
And you just kind of look aroundand you never know what you're
gonna find.
So we had a lot of fun checkingthose out in all these small
(25:58):
towns.
Sam (25:58):
Mm-hmm.
People were so chill.
Like I remember we were at astore and I just asked them,
Hey, do you know if there's alibrary or something near here
to print something?
And she was like, oh, what doyou need printed?
And we just needed literally onepiece of paper printed and she's
like, oh, I could print that foryou.
People were just really nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
Driving.
You drive on the left side ofthe road there.
In New Zealand you do oppositeof Canada.
(26:21):
How did you find driving aroundNew Zealand?
Jared (26:24):
The roads were insane.
They were very, very curvy.
The roads and very steep attimes, I think I took some
screenshots of some of theGoogle maps.
It was crazy.
Like I thought driving toWhistler was curvy.
That was on another level, Youcould go a hundred kilometers an
hour, but along a lot of theturns, they would tell you'd
have to slow down to 20 and youhonestly had to slow down to
(26:44):
there.
So I honestly thought it waspretty fun.
But if you are not used to thoseroads.
that was challenging, not somuch that side of the road.
And then our first van was alsostick shift, so I had had a
little bit of experience withthat before and I had to very
much ramp up again quickly.
Not only relearning how to doit, but doing it on the other
side totally as well.
The opposite hand,
Sam (27:05):
I was the official passenger princess for three
months.
I did not drive for a singlemoment.
No, we did rent a car once andyou weren't there.
And I did move the car from theparking spot to another area of
the parking spot.
Yes.
He did a great job with that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
On the other side of the car,Speaking of traveling around,
something that really surprisedus was domestic flights.
(27:28):
So flying within New Zealand wasincredibly chill.
Like in Canada, I know it's amuch bigger country.
But when you are flying around,even just within a single
province, I do a lot of theSudbury to Toronto flight, or
we'll do Vancouver to Kelowna.
And even still, they have thefull security as if you're going
to the other side of the world.
(27:49):
And I remember we were chuggingour water before going into
security and they were like.
You don't need to jug that.
Like you can bring that in.
They didn't even have security,right?
Jared (27:59):
Zero.
Sam (27:59):
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
You literally
Jared (28:00):
didn't even check your, or your board, like you
basically just walked up to thefinal agent with your boarding
pass.
Yeah, and I don't even thinkthey checked your id.
Sam (28:09):
No, it couldn't have been more chill.
we were there super early and wejust kept
Jared (28:13):
asking like, is this.
Are we missing something here?
Yeah.
You're not even gonna look at myid.
Sam (28:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're not worried.
And they're just like, it's asmall plane.
What could go wrong?
What could go wrong?
How easy did you find it tostrike up conversation with
locals?
They're called Kiwis there.
Mm-hmm.
And any particularly memorablecharacters that come to mind?
Jared (28:32):
Well, I mean, mentioning Australia would always kick off
a conversation with someone fromKiwi.
They have a little rivalry, uh,we noticed.
Oh, yep.
but They were all very nice, ingeneral, people were super.
Open to chatting and alwayswanted to share tips of hot
locations
Sam (28:49):
some of the slang that we picked up, mm-hmm.
Too easy.
I was too easy sweet as theylove their slang in New Zealand,
a lot of the times I would betexting with some of our
friends.
We made at Kiwi Burn and Ididn't even really, so you'd be
like,
Jared (29:05):
Jared, can you decipher what he's even saying?
Sam (29:07):
Yeah.
I couldn't even understand.
It was like they had a differentlanguage.
I reckon
Jared (29:11):
they do have a different language.
I
Sam (29:12):
reckon they do have another language.
reckon they use that so much.
Anything else?
Jared (29:18):
simple Simple.
They like too easy, simple.
You know, simple.
I reckon you can do it likethat.
Just too easy.
Sam (29:23):
Simple, too easy,
Jared (29:24):
I feel like there's so more, so much more, but they're,
they get more obscure.
Sam (29:28):
They get very obscure, but they love their slang.
Jared (29:31):
I thought about something that I was a bit disappointed
by.
Mm-hmm.
And that was, I was a bitdisappointed.
By the inability to get organicgood produce.
Mm.
They weren't really into thatthere it seemed, I'm not sure.
But fruit and vegetables, theyalmost didn't have anything
organic.
And then they also seemed tohave a less recycling than I
(29:53):
expected.
So those were two things onduring Van Life were, it became
difficult to, even though wewere making our own food and
stuff, they had a lot of plasticand you couldn't recycle it.
And then they had a lot ofveggies and stuff that weren't
mm-hmm.
Organic, but I mean, I'm a soyboy, so
Sam (30:07):
soy boy.
Yeah.
When we were in the Chuka Valleyfor our volunteering, that's
where we really ate the bestwhen we were truly insane off
the land.
Yeah.
And eating the food, which Italked about in the previous
episode.
If you haven't listened to ourWork Away episode, you'll learn
so much more about that, butI've never eaten
Jared (30:25):
so many apples in my life.
It was unbelievable.
Oh my gosh.
It
Sam (30:28):
was too easy.
Too easy.
Jared (30:29):
Too
Sam (30:29):
easy.
the wildlife was a bitdisappointing.
We didn't actually ever see aKiwi bird, which is of course
the official bird of NewZealand.
there's actually no mammals thatare endemic.
Is that the right word?
I.
Endemic to New Zealand.
In fact, all the mammals thatare there were brought in by the
settlers who really just startedto bring them in for game and
(30:51):
for fun.
I think it started with rabbits.
I think they were bringing themthere to shoot.
Did I understand that correctly?
I.
When they say they're bringingthe rabbits in, well, they
brought
Jared (31:00):
in the mice and rats came on the boats.
Yes.
And then they brought in some ofthe rabbits and stuff to get the
mice, or I don't know, somethingto get the mice.
And then they brought in, but Ithink they were gonna shoot
them.
They brought in some rabbits toshoot.
Sam (31:10):
Yeah.
And then the rabbit populationgot two outta control.
So then they brought in someSTOs.
Jared (31:16):
Yeah.
Sam (31:16):
Which I had never heard about a stoke before or even
knew what that was.
Mm-hmm.
But they're everywhere andpossums and it just seems like
they keep bringing in newmammals to manage the population
of the smaller animals.
But each population seems to getmore and more out of control.
And the sad part is, is what'sactually native to New Zealand
(31:37):
as the birds.
Mm-hmm.
A lot of these flightless birdsthat are there.
That are really struggling andmany have become extinct.
Many are endangered, and NewZealand is on a mission to get
rid of their rodents.
They hate all of the rats andthe STOs and all of these
animals that are around killingtheir birds, and we would see
(31:58):
hundreds.
Is that dramatic this time?
No.
Hundreds of traps.
Mm-hmm.
For these rodents, thousands oftraps.
Thousands of traps around thedifferent hikes and areas to try
to kill them.
Mm-hmm.
So that they can repopulatetheir bird population.
Yeah.
We saw lots of Kias and someCCAs though.
But yeah, that I think prettymuch covers it.
(32:19):
If you were to go to New Zealandagain, what, what is something
you think you would dodifferently?
Jared (32:24):
I would.
I love to do even more of ourbackpack trips.
renting the van and the van lifewas amazing, but you also were
paying for it on a fortnightbasis, so we didn't want to also
spend too many nights away fromthe van where you also had to
get a campsite.
And we also didn't carry all ofour gear all the time because it
took up a lot of space in thevan.
So I would love to prioritizedoing even more hikes next time.
Sam (32:47):
Mm-hmm.
And I will say one thing wascool is you could rent equipment
pretty easily.
It's true.
Yeah.
Like we were, we didn't end uptraveling with our own tent.
We just had our sleeping bags.
Yeah.
And there were plenty of, andsome walking sticks.
Sticks of life.
Jared (33:01):
Sticks of life.
Yeah.
And you can stay in the huts.
You can stay in the huts.
I don't like that.
Sam (33:05):
If you don't wanna have your tent and you can still do a
lot of the great walks or run totent.
Mm-hmm.
That was really easy and cool.
Got here early to get thecocoon.
The cocoon.
I'm also by window.
this podcast is all about the freedom lifestyle.
What is one commitment you arewilling to make to honor the
(33:29):
sense of freedom you discoveredon the trip?
Jared (33:34):
Well, one thing you and I discovered was how nice it was
to have these slow morningstogether.
especially when we were doingthe volunteering at, with the
work away, we had this amazingroutine where we'd get up just
kind of.
I don't know if they say faththere.
I've just started saying it.
I wanna say it again.
FFA round.
We would do meditation.
we would have breakfast togetherand talk about the things we're
(33:56):
grateful for, or three things wewere grateful for, and then we
would start our day and we wantto integrate that into our life
here and reserving at least twodays during the week to do that.
And not having any calls or workstarting until kind of later in
the morning.
And so far we've been able toeasily implement that, and
that's been really nice.
Sam (34:14):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
One of the things that we did onour work away is we learned
about a certain type ofmeditation called Kan, where
it's like a mantra bassmeditation where you're kind of
singing and doing some, not adance, but a active movement.
It's a very active meditation,so I love starting our days.
Mm-hmm.
Like that with you and guitar.
(34:34):
You're learning guitar.
Stay tuned.
She didn't believe it, but, uh,stay tuned.
And finally, what is your ratingfor New Zealand?
Out of 10, what are we gettingit?
12.
12.
There you have it.
Thank you so much, Jared, forcoming back.
Sure.
Thanks for having me, Sam, fromLifestyle.
I hope you appreciate it.
Our honest review of NewZealand, the highs, the lows
don't come for us.
(34:55):
If you didn't like what youheard, Kiwis and Friends, this
is just our opinion, but wewould definitely recommend you
put New Zealand on your bucketlist.
Will we be back?
Jared (35:05):
We will be back.
Sam (35:06):
We will be back, and until next time, we'll be back in your
ears.
Enjoy your freedom.
Jared (35:12):
Bye-bye.
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