I sold all my stuff, bought a ticket to New Zealand and decided to live and work in a campervan for 6 months. Let me explain.

I woke up one day and realised I’d been in London for over 11 years. That was never the plan.

London is so distracting. It’s like when you walk into a room to pick up that thing you need, only to forget why you were there in the first place. I found myself completely engrossed in London’s awesome culture, career opportunities, pubs and friends. Then one day, you get a memory flash – ah, the matches! Or the cable. Or whatever it was you originally needed. You pick it up and get the hell outta that room.

Nature, fresh air, warmer weather, a slower pace and genuine smiles from strangers; that’s my new room. Together with my partner Chris, we have chosen a home on wheels and New Zealand as our backyard.

For an Australian citizen like me, it’s a piece of cake to relocate to New Zealand. And for digital / IT folks as we are, it’s (in theory) easy enough to work and roam remote regions so long as we can find good wifi or 4G signal to keep us connected to clients, colleagues and our online tools.

After a quick trip at the start of 2015 to campervan around the south island of NZ, we knew we loved this country and the simpler, closer-to-nature life. We spent the rest of 2015 back in London saving some pennies, booking a plane ticket to Wellington (via Melbourne to say hi to my fam) – et voilà! Here we are at the start of our adventure.

Everyone back home kept asking “so, what’s the plan guys?” Our answer has always been “we’re not sure yet, probably a campervan”. Aside from a brief OH MY GOD WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH OUR LIVES panic not long after we arrived in Wellington, I’ve genuinely been happy, comfortable and excited to learn how this plan unfolds. Let it happen naturally bro. Sweet as. (Practising my Kiwi lingo there).

We have a ticket back to London at the end of June 2016. Until then, I’m going to post about our van-buying lessons, our campervan fit-out progress and other bits and bobs that might be useful for fellow campervanning digital nomads. (Yup, it’s got a label these days apparently).

Maybe we’ll get van cramps, sell-up and move back to London forever. Maybe we’ll find a corner of NZ to hike, kayak and gaze longingly at every day.

Maybe we don’t know yet.

Alternative blog post titles I considered and canned:

• How to become a digital vanomad
• We ran away to New Zealand and bought a Toyota Hiace and you’ll never believe what happened next!