‘Don’t wait’: Kiwi couple share how they retired early to travel NZ

Leanne and Andrew Davidson are still in their 50s but have retired early to live full time in a motorhome and travel New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Leanne and Andrew Davidson aren’t even in their 60s but have retired early to travel around Aotearoa in a motorhome. Sarah Pollok talks to them about how they went from dreaming of life on the road to achieving it.
Instagram abounds with examples of van life and in many ways it’s the traveller’s dream; all wings and no roots, you’re free to roam with no agenda other than finding the next beautiful spot to park up.
For many travellers, these dreams remain just that, a hazy fantasy that never feels solid enough to grasp.
For decades, Palmerston North couple Leanne and Andrew Davidson were two such dreamers. Now they’re the people parked up by the beach with their slick new motorhome and are more than happy for you to stroll over and have a chat about how they made it happen.
The couple, who are in their late 50s, are parked beside a boat ramp in Collingwood, having just driven over Takaka Hill in Tasman, when I call them. It’s been almost four months since they began their forever adventure and they’ve already cycled Canterbury’s St James trail and visited Hanmer Hot Springs, climbed Mt Oxford then Mt Dumblane and gone jet boating with friends — and that’s only in the past week.
Having spent time travelling in cars and vans in their 20s, they both knew life on the road was something they enjoyed. So, in 2013, they purchased a van for short trips around Aotearoa; but it only made them more eager to try something permanent in the future.
“We talked about this right from pretty much day one, that this is something we wanted to do,” Leanne said, explaining how it took three years to actively plan for July 1, 2024, when they would drive away from their home with no set return date.
“There are a lot of things you have to do,” she explained, from arranging retirement, organising finances and, of course, getting the van.
The couple decided on a Traillite Coromandel, a 2.2m-wide motorhome that’s nicer than some hotel rooms — with a memory foam bed, full kitchen, Smart TV, spacious lounge and bathroom. Better yet, it’s made in New Zealand, can go off-grid for 10 days and was built for the couple in August 2023.
With the van ready, the couple sold their businesses (lawn-mowing for Andrew, pilates and rental property management for Leanne). In July, the month they finally paid off their mortgage, they rented out their house, packed their remaining belongings into ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and headed for the South Island.
“We wanted to just get out of the North Island and, really start with a hiss,” Leanne said, as it would have felt anticlimactic to start their journey an hour away from home. In many ways, the timing was perfect; they had just paid off their properties and had a tenant ready to move in. On the other hand, it was the middle of winter.
“The days couldn’t have been any shorter. We were relying on solar power for this thing. That was a bit of a learning curve,” Leanne said. Nonetheless, they were off and enjoying life on the road.
“We started off in Picton and it took us nearly a week or so just to get out of Picton. We just didn’t know there was so much to do in Picton,” Andrew said.
This has been something of a theme for the couple, who rented out their house for a minimum of a year but anticipate being away for much longer.
“You could probably spend two years doing one lap around New Zealand and then you could just reverse it and do it in opposite seasons and that is totally different,” Andrew said.
Looking back, they now laugh at a two-week van trip they did around the South Island, which felt like nothing but driving. Now, they’re learning the art of slowing down, which can be tricky to do.
“We keep saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got time, we don’t have to hurry’ and I think there has just been a learning thing just to slow down,” said Leanne. Shortcuts have also become something of a personal joke.
“Even going for a walk and you cut across that corner or something, we kind of laugh and say we don’t need to take shortcuts anymore. We got all the time in the world,” she added.
That being said, they still pack a lot into their days. Keen mountain bikers and hikers, they’ve enjoyed picking their way along the best tracks in Aotearoa from the 42km ‘Link Pathway’ from Havelock to Queen Charlotte Track, to the West Coast Wilderness Trail, around Lake Rotoiti and through the Port Hills.
“There’s so many of them, we just do them as we come across them,” Andrew said.
Far from their big, tight community back in Palmerston North, Leanne and Andrew prepared to feel pangs of loneliness but were surprised at how social their travels have been so far.
“We thought we’d be quite alone, but we’ve actually had lots of people who just happen to be where we are,” Leanne explained. Slowly driving around the country has also given them the chance to stop by old friends and family they previously didn’t have time to visit.
Lockdown showed many couples how challenging it could be to live in close quarters for a long time but the Davidsons say it’s put the spark back into their relationship.
“It’s good, I think because we’ve got no stress or no pressure. So it’s easy,” they said of their relationship on the road. They sometimes naturally part ways for a few hours, say if Andrew goes fiver fishing but they rarely feel like they need time alone.
Whether it’s a stranger at the petrol station or a close friend back home, the duo say people’s response is almost always curiosity and desire.
“There is the odd one that says ‘Oh, we could never do that. We’d kill each other, or they like being home in a big house,” Andrew said, but most shared their van life dream.
“Most friends and family go, ‘I wish I could do that. We should do that,” he said.
To those people, Andrew’s advice is simple: “I always say just plan it and get out and do it. Don’t wait. We’re lucky because we’re not even 60 yet, so we’re still young enough to do all the things we want to do,” he said.
For those committed to trying it, the pair also recommend hiring one or borrowing it to test whether the dream lives up to reality. The Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA) smartphone app also comes in handy, Leanne said.
As for the next few weeks, the couple plans to go white baiting with a cousin who lives nearby, then return to Nelson to watch their daughter compete in a national ballroom competition. Christmas, however, will be spent alone, likely somewhere beautiful.
“That’s gonna be a bit different,” Leanne said, adding that this may not be a bad thing.
“You know what Christmas is like, it’s family and planning and cooking. Maybe we’ll just have some whitebait fritters sitting somewhere in solitude or even a jam sandwich at the top of some hill.”