The travelling duo who went on a one-year trip across New Zealand in November last year consists of a mathematician Edina and physicist Jan. Both love coffee, sports activities and, of course, travelling.
That’s right. We published our blog in early March, but the idea sprang to life in October last year before we went to New Zealand. We started organising the website and articles after New Year’s.
In life, we try to pursue as many experiences, challenges and new skills as possible, something we also tried to include in our name. At first, we wanted to write the blog in English, hence the English name. Later on, we realised there wasn’t much content like this for Slovenian travellers, but the name describes very well what we’re trying to accomplish, so we decided to keep it.
As you’ve said, the nature of the content of our blog is very practical. We want to give our readers concrete tips and guide them through the necessary steps to unforgettable experiences. We believe that, due to society’s pressure on our way of life, we settle down too often and forget about our dreams. We would like to bring our readers closer to alternative options and encourage them to take advantage of them.
So far we’ve only had positive experience with New Zealand. People here are not only relaxed and outgoing, they’re always ready to help. When we were on our way to the shop, for example, there was someone having trouble starting their car. Everyone who was nearby immediately put down their shopping bags and came to their aid by starting to push the car. Everything went so fast; it was as if it were all arranged in advance. We’ve also got an impression that people don’t judge others by their appearance and that walking barefoot in shops and restaurants isn’t anything unusual. Besides all that, going through all the paperwork, and there was a lot of it during the first few weeks, is easy and user-friendly.
We were definitely disappointed because we were really looking forward to exploring New Zealand. But the unexpected happened and the most important thing is that we’re all safe and healthy. It so happened that we stayed at the house of a family we used to work for and we’ve been in self-isolation since late March. But we have been living in a quite remote location since November, so isolation hasn’t particularly affected our everyday life. Consequently, we also haven’t experienced the impact of the virus as much as it could be felt elsewhere in the world. We were more worried for our family in Slovenia than we were about our situation in New Zealand.
Of course, they were very worried, just as we were worried for them, but we assured them that we were safe and careful. But they certainly didn’t panic, something we’re grateful for.
Our visa expires in November, so we’ve still got half a year and if we can continue travelling in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to explore everything we’ve planned. We’ve had to change the course of our trip a bit due to the approaching winter, so we’ll start by exploring the North Island. We’ve got planned a lot of trips, natural landmarks, lonely beaches and good coffee.
A cup of coffee while travelling helps us relax a bit, talk about everything we’ve experienced, and make a plan for the rest of the day. We’re definitely no coffee experts, but this ritual represents an important part of our daily routine. New Zealand has many cafés serving really good coffee, the sort we often long for at home. Max Coffee from Northland has become our favourite roasting mill and we’ve spent the last couple of months there.
At the moment, we only move around close to our home where the Takou River flows, allowing us to paddle downstream in our kayaks to a private beach. We still work about a day a week in exchange for a place to stay and food, while spending the rest of the time preparing content for our blog and ticking items off our plan, but we’re also active in sports and we read a lot.
Northland is a district in northern New Zealand with lots of wonderful waterfalls and lonely bays. It’s a true paradise for fishing, diving and sailing enthusiasts. In the far north is Cape Reinga where, according to Maori mythology, souls of the deceased travel to enter the afterlife. Just a few kilometres south, there are tall sand dunes that you can surf on.
Like in the rest of New Zealand, here too are countless hiking trails, our favourite of which is the 17-kilometre trail leading to Cape Brett.
The current crisis has only added to our belief that life is much more than just our personal wishes and ambitions. We’re part of a larger story and everyone can add to it one way or another simply by adding a word or two. Travelling is an important part of our life. But everything we want to explore now will still be there in the future, though how difficult it will be to attain depends solely on us. That’s why we think it’s important to be as responsible as possible now.
We hope we learn to appreciate the wonderful nature, various cultures and the moments spent with others.
The interview was made in the time when movement in New Zealand was restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Jan and Edina have continued their journey and have been travelling again since 14 May.
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