Meet Megan
Wanderlust or bust!
This sums up my life over the last 18 years or so. As a child living at the bottom of the world, albeit in a beautiful country, my lust for travel was fostered in the local library and lived out in my daydreams. However, as a young New Zealand woman travelling through my 20s and 30s with my family the dream became reality. Now as I have just hit my 40s, the travel bug has truly integrated itself into my psyche!
This blog chronicles our journeys so far (with a few retrospectively documented); how we funded them, travelling with our son between the ages of 6 – 17, planning for travel, and the details of our adventures.
2020 sees us move from travelling internationally as our lifestyle and budget allow to thinking more laterally about how we travel and the ways we want to explore both our wonderful country and, when it opens up, the wider world. So… we bought a van! In 2021, we will be self-converting a VW Crafter into our perfect home on wheels. And as people with very limited DIY experience (read that as next to none), it is going to be an adventure.
When not jetting off for another adventure, I live with my lovely husband in Auckland, New Zealand where I am an education consultant. Our now very grown up son lives not too far from us.
MEET DARRYL
The man with the maps, the playlists, and a soft spot sideline calls.
Darryl’s love of travel started even further south than most—dreaming of escaping Invercargill as a teenager, he made it happen by joining the Royal New Zealand Navy. He spent seven years as a Navy chef exploring Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Australia (too many times to count) – as well as a lot of time tied alongside in Devonport in Auckland. While there were many adventures, there were also many, many, many days spent staring at the grey horizon line. Maybe that is why Darryl isn’t keen to start taking cruises around the world.
After his time in the Navy, he swapped military life for a more conventional career—one that’s still allowed him to travel far and wide, but this time with more freedom (and less seasickness).
Darryl is the calm to Megan’s planning storm—the one behind the wheel on icy roads, under the van when something rattles, and always asking the locals a million curious (and charmingly Kiwi) questions. Whether he’s reverse-parking It Zwibble into a tight DOC site or lugging Megan’s overpacked suitcases, Darryl brings humour, capability, and steady hands to every adventure.
When not off chasing powder or mountain biking in Rotorua, he’s a die-hard All Blacks supporter, rugby referee, and incredibly hard worker. He’s the reason It Zwibble has solar power, straight lines, and functioning electricity —and while he’s sometimes skeptical of Megan’s more ambitious travel ideas (like overlanding across continents with a cat), he’s usually the one who helps make them happen.
AND FinALLY … CAESAR
Caesar… or Gaius Julius Caesar Dictator Perpetuo for short. This guy lives with us and while Megan may want to make him a van cat, he’s less keen. He pops up in our van build videos and may eventually be brave enough to come on a trip.
The Peterson Odyssey 