We have been out of the United States for over a month. There are times that it feels like it is flying by. There are other moments where it feels like things have settled a little. I wanted to share a few things that were different than my expectations or that I’ve picked up on. Plus, it’s the perfect excuse to share this SNL skit that I thought was hilarious.
Daily Routines Change
I wrote a whole long detailed post about daily life on the road that you can read by clicking here. I love reading daily routines of different people. The smallest details in how someone structures their day fascinates me.
The News Sucks Everywhere
I don’t mean the journalists suck, I mean the things that they have to report on. The cover of the newspaper in New Zealand today talked about the methamphetamine problem here.
Waste is Convenience
We planned out the items we would need to avoid any single use plastic items in our travels. It isn’t perfect because we only buy a few groceries at a time and that requires plastic wrapping. But with a little work and some advance planning, we have been able to avoid lots of waste. With the amount of focus on it, it’s been easy to spot moments where people make the wrong decisions and it’s about convenience 90% of the time. My friend, Steph, wrote this great post about this topic and I totally agree. Slow down, be prepared and remind yourself that we are killing plant & animals species all the time just by being here. Do more.
Prioritize Your Dollars
Budgets are important to us because we currently not making any sort of income. We made a list of places before we left that we really wanted to see and do it the best way possible. What does that mean? We want to use companies that support local communities, are eco friendly and are not a ton of money. Milford Sound was something that we knew we wanted to see from the water, so we spent the money to book that cruise. You can see more photos here from our trip. We only have a small number of those places in each country and I’m so glad we decided on those items before we were here because there is a lot to distract someone like me and suck me in.
Animals Never Fail to Make Me Happy
We have met animals at almost every single AirBnB we’ve stayed at. There have been sheep, chickens, parrots, dogs, cats and cows. Half of the pictures in my phone are of the pets I’ve had for just a few days at a time. I love them all.
I may have possibly starting naming them all after Game of Thrones characters. The cat I named Arya brought me a dead bird carcass the next morning, so maybe I have a knack at reading them instantaneously.
This is the Cow that I didn’t name. It came running at me when we were feeding them and a cow running at you is scary, so I stayed on the other side of the fence after that.
That’s all for today. I’m off to watch more of Jack Whitehall’s show about traveling with his dad so I can laugh at their adventures and learn from their mistakes.
