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Do you have an insatiable wanderlust, an incurable urge to seek out what lies beyond your horizon, or a restlessness for discovery? It’s not FOMO driving these feelings, pushing you to travel and explore your world. The answer might lie in your genes! An estimated 20% of humans have an actual “explorer gene” embedded within their DNA. The good news is you don’t need genetic testing to confirm if you possess this gene. If you, like us, have the nagging curiosity to explore your environment then you very likely test positive for the Explorer Gene too.

After many years trying to hopelessly suppress our explorer genes, in 2018 we finally gave in to them, sold or gave away our possessions, left behind our careers, and set out with our new homes on our backs. We spent years planning and saving like mad to prepare for our leap to become fully nomadic. Along the way we’ve discovered financial independence, countless connections to people and places, and have fallen in love with home-free slow travel.

The Explorer Genes blog is the story of our unique journey, with quirky snapshots of our life slowmading the globe on a $50 (combined) budget per day. We love to geek out and write about all the fun insights and facts we uncover, make history not boring, and share obscure or off-beat discoveries as we go. We are also culture hounds, avid hikers and walkers, and try to seek out adventure on a budget whenever and wherever possible. We truly believe that travel isn’t simply what you read in guidebooks, or is something found only in a lists of “must do’s”, “must see’s”, or “top ten’s.” Instead, we create a by-the-seat-of-our-pants itinerary that comes from slow travel, meeting and living with locals, and finding wondrous and off-beat travel opportunities when we can.

– Mandy & Greg Chase

Northern England: Penny Lane to Rolling Terrain

As we were pushing to the limit of our legally alotted time in the European Schengen Zone (90 days within 180), we opted to head to the U.K. earlier than we anticipated, and just a day before New Years Eve we touched down in Manchester. But what to do for New Year’s in Manchester? So, […]

August 16, 2025

It’s a Wrap! New Zealand

We originally had the intention of ONLY going to New Zealand and bypassing Australia in early 2025 and we feel this would have been a grave mistake because we fell hard for the diversity adventure, and terrain of Australia in a way we didn’t expect, nor can we entirely explain. That said, we still were enchanted […]

August 15, 2025

Northbound! From Christchurch to Auckland by $1/Day Campervan

Day One: Christchurch to Marfells Beach Campsite (~4 hours) Our third and culminating roadie in New Zealand was much anticipated because we finally ditched our tent and camping supplies we’d been hauling around since we first found it as street candy in Melbourne and lovingly collected at NZ’s opp shops. On March 8, we fetched […]

August 14, 2025

A Quick Cruise through Christchurch, New Zealand

Before we would depart on our third and final road trip in NZ, we had three nights to sleep in a real bed and relax a bit in Christchurch. By this time, however, we were already growing quite fatigued of the fast travel we’d been under for the previous two months. While in Christchurch, we […]

August 13, 2025

Working for the Wine at a South Island Roadside Hotel, NZ

Volunteering at a Roadside Hotel To save cash in price gouging New Zealand we had to have a similar approach as we did for Australia…which involved a fair amount of last minute planning so we could be as flexible as possible for pop-up vehicle relocations and housesits. And in the meantime, we were able to […]

July 3, 2025

A Housesit in the Wonderland of Wanaka, NZ

Two cats, Some Rest, and a Helluva View During our time volunteering in Beaumont, a six-day pop-up catsit in Wanaka delightfully showed itself on Trusted Housesitters…and we got it!! Wanaka is a stunning lakeside town one hour north of Queenstown, folded delicately in the Southern Alps. It’s popular with tourists for its activities and dynamic views. […]

July 2, 2025

Want to explore by specific destination? This map displays every country we have visited since becoming nomadic in 2018. It’s color coded with green colored countries linking to anything we’ve written on them. And, all those uncolored countries… well, those are all our upcoming adventures; so stay tuned as we color them green!

In our country wraps series, we summarize the upsides and downsides of our time in a country, breaking down expenses, sharing insights, and offering general impressions to help you plan your own adventures.