It’s a Dog’s Life!

Tutukaka Adventures with Suzie

Running on the beach, exploring the countryside, chasing balls, getting muddy in the mangroves and going on fishing expeditions. Does that sound like the best ever dog life?!

Meet Suzie, the Whangarei Rescue Dog that we love to bits!

She lives in Tutukaka, a beautiful part of the coastline of the North Island of New Zealand. We are lucky enough to get to stay with Suzie when her owners want to travel. She knows us well, and greets us when we arrive with her ball in her mouth, wagging her tail and ready to join in on what ever adventure is planned for the day.

This week’s adventure included a road trip to Whananaki. Suzie jumped in the car as soon as the door was open, we checked we had her favorite ball, a dog lead, the requisite poop bags and we were off. We followed the winding gravel road from the turn off at Sandy Bay (oopsie, time to wash the car when we get home!).

Our first stop was Whananaki South beach - a beautiful sandy bay with miles of space for Suzie to run and play, and she ran and ran for that ball until she was panting hard with her tongue hanging out! So back in the car to catch her breath while we drove on to the longest footbridge in the Southern hemisphere….

The Whananaki Footbridge

The 395 metre footbridge was originally built by locals in 1947 to span the estuary between Whananaki North (where the school is) and Whananaki South. Prior to this bridge being built, the school teacher had to row across the estuary twice a day, ferrying the kids to and from school! The bridge also forms part of the Te Araroa Trail, a continuous 3,000 km walking track stretching from Cape Reinga in the North, to Bluff in the South. We loved walking part of the local history, watching the herons wading in the tide, and we treated ourselves to an icecream from the local dairy. Suzie had a minor drama, dropping her ball off the center of the bridge - which was waaay too high for us to be able to climb down and rescue it. She was so determined to get her ball back she jumped off the bridge at the end, and then swam the estuary back to the middle and managed to locate her precious ball. Well done Suzie!

On the way back across the bridge to the car, Graham decided the mangroves looked a promising spot for some oysters, so we took our shoes off, rolled up our trousers and waded in to the mud. You only find oysters if the mud is oozing between your toes and up to your ankles. Suzie didn’t care, the muddier the better. Unfortunately we had no luck with the oysters, so we dried Suzie off, and made plans for a fishing expedition closer to home.

As you can see from the pictures - the fishing expedition was more successful than the oyster hunt. We can follow a trail from Suzie’s home down to a rocky beach which is a perfect spot for fishing. We caught a snapper large enough to keep - Suzie was very excited to see it’s flapping tail, and she made sure the seagulls were not allowed to get too close! We then wandered our way home to cook it up with Fog Dog beer batter, and made a side salad to go with it. A successful end to a wonderful doggy day out.

Suzie is tired, too tired to play...

..... oh wait, no she is not!

We hope you loved this vet “tail” of adventures with our 4 legged friend, and we hope that you will follow us on our upcoming adventures full of animal encounters! We have a challenge for you too, see below….

Where is Suzie?

Your challenge for today is to spot Suzie in this photo!

I think the ball is a giveaway….

The best House Sitting website for New Zealand?

Do you want to enjoy meeting wonderful people and pets, while traveling to some amazing places? Housesitting and Petsitting is a perfect way of doing just that! Whether you wish to travel for a short-term break, or if you are a perpetual traveler like us, pet sitting offers you free accommodation in return for caring for the pets, collecting mail, watering the plants and providing security for the home!

Are you ready to start your pet sitting adventures in New Zealand? Great! But where do you find these amazing opportunities?

The Vet Around The World crew have been house sitting in New Zealand as our full-time accommodation, and we would like to share with you the best platform for finding Kiwi sits.

Kiwi House Sitters 

Yes - the name gives it away! Kiwi House Sitters is the largest house-sitting platform in the country, where you will find more available sits than on any other platform, including the big international sites such as Trusted House Sitters. We love how this site is set up, it made it so easy for us to secure our first house sits!

What makes this the best website for NZ pet sits?

• There are more New Zealand sits listed on this site every month than for any other platform.

• Their website is easy to navigate, and you can browse through the house sitting opportunities for free.

• You easily can filter the listings based on your preferences for location, dates, and the type of pets you are looking after.

• Reviews of both the home owners and the pet sitters are displayed clearly.

• Initial communication between the pet parents and the sitter is hosted on the site, making it secure and you have a record of conversations.

• They provide a template you can use to form a contract agreement between the sitter and the home owner, it is important to make sure all expectations are clear from the start.

What else do we like about Kiwihousesitters?

• Their platform has sister sites in Australia, Canada, America, Mexico and the UK so we can share our reviews on these sites.

• We can set up alerts so we get notified if a new sit is posted that match our preferred location and dates

• We can save our favorite sit opportunities to come back to in the future.

• House sit postings are not limited to the first few applicants, unlike other bigger platforms, so you always have the chance to put in your application.

What are the benefits of being a house and pet sitter?

Our full-time house-sitting journey started in 2018, and we have loved every minute of it! We have lived in some amazing homes around New Zealand ranging from Grey Lynne villas in Auckland, to 5-star converted barns in the rolling pastures of the Waikato, and even a mansion with views over the ocean and our own private beach in Tutukaka! But the best part is spending time with so many wonderful pets and their owners.

The smallest dog we have looked after was a 3kg Chihuahua who was keeping up with 5 kilometer walks at 19 years of age! The largest dog we cared for was a massive English Mastiff, who took up all the space on the sofa with his snoring 80kg body! And the cats…so many beautiful cats….Siamese, Birmans, Norwegian Forest cats and moggies of many colors and personalities.

The biggest dog we ever looked after!

Being a house sitter has many benefits, both for you and the home owners. You get to live in comfortable homes with all the amenities, without paying any rent or bills. You get to bond with adorable pets and provide them with loving care while their owners are away. You also get to experience different lifestyles and cultures, and discover new places and activities.

The home owners also benefit from having a house sitter. They save a lot of money on pet boarding fees, which can be very expensive and stressful for the pets. They also have peace of mind knowing that their home and garden are secure and well-maintained. They can enjoy their holiday without worrying about their pets or property.

House sitting is a win-win situation for everyone involved. If you want to try it out, you should definitely check out kiwihousesitters. It's easy to use, safe and secure, and full of amazing opportunities. You might just find your dream house sitting job on this site!

Cats prefer staying in their own home when their owners are away.

A Life Less Traveled

It all began with an Idea. A Dream of Escaping from the daily grind of exchanging hours for dollars, and the perpetual creep of expenses keeping in lock step with any salary increases. A Dream of being our own keepers, choosing when and where we want to work, on our own terms. And a Dream of a life of freedom to travel and live a life somehow less ordinary, less ‘normal’.

But where to start? How can you escape the rat race?

For us, it began with House and Pet Sitting. We realized we no longer needed to keep paying high rents for a house just for the two of us, if we could find a new form of accommodation. We were offered a farm sit for several weeks, close to the vet clinic where Alison worked, where we could stay for free in exchange for keeping the house and lawns in order, and supervising twenty sheep and twenty goats. We had a marvelous time, and really enjoyed the antics of the baby goats who turned the rocky cliffs into a rural parkour course.

We are both wanderers at heart, not bound by a need for stability or security, instead we are fired up by the thoughts of change, travel and adventure! So we gave notice to our landlord, sold a lot of possessions, and moved a few things in to Graham’s mum’s place so we had a place to stay if we had gaps between accommodation bookings.

We haven’t looked back!

One successful sit and glowing review lead to another, and another, and another…. all based in our home town within commuting distance to Alison’s vet clinic. We learned to reduce the amount of things we carry, learned to adapt to new homes and pets routines, and have a wonderful time caring for cute cats and crazy dogs. Our house sitting has now become our full time accommodation, and we treat our pet and home care as a profession, looking after every animal and every house as if it were our own.

Our story will continue in following blog posts, where we share how we transitioned to a location independent income and lifestyle, where we can travel wherever we have internet.

Subscribe and follow as we share our adventures, and our journey to become full time travellers. We update our newsletter regularly with animal encounters, tips on how you can start house sitting or developing your own location independent life!

Thank you for taking the time to read this house sitting story of ours - we hope you enjoyed it and hope you will follow along on our future adventures!

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Can’t wait to get started as a house sitter? Get the best New Zealand house sits here:

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Want to House and Pet Sit anywhere in the world? South of France? Mexico? Singapore?

Browse the amazing sits at Trusted House Sitters