Active, Professional, Pet-loving, Mature Kiwi Couple, Non-smokers

About this sitter

Fit, healthy New Zealanders with a passion for experiencing other cultures. Married for 37 years, we are a professional couple with extensive travel experience, now semi-retired. Greg is an engineer consulting to major NZ corporate companies and contractors in electricity, rail, motorways, construction and electricity transmission.
Bev was a recruitment manager for a private tertiary education institute for students of fashion design and recently graduated with a degree. She's now in part time admin roles. Our two adult daughters are in England and Australia. We are content with almost any level of comfort in a house-sit and animal care obligations and are super-adaptable! We've completed 12 house-sits over the last 13 years

Why they want to house sit

We like to see the world but not as tourists. We prefer to base ourselves in one place for weeks at a time so we can immerse ourselves in the daily life of your community - shopping at the local market place, eating in neighbourhood cafes, leisurely day trips to nearby places, making friends and taking walks in the countryside. We miss our dog so any four-legged companions are most welcome. We enjoy providing you a quality service to you and your pets, we respect your confidence in us, we earn your excellent references for us and we enjoy the happy looks on your faces when you return to your clean, tidy home and precious happy pets.

Their experience

Our house-sits include a farm in Normandy (2012), a luxury converted stone mill in Tuscany (2013), a new home near Bellac, France (2012, 2013, 2022), an old farm house north of Bordeaux (2013), a flat in Munich (2013), houses in Cyprus (2013), Sydney, (2015/16), New Orleans (2016), Vientiane (Laos 2016), London (2017, 2022). We have also stayed with people in their own homes via other web sites and hosted visitors in our home. We treat your home with respect, ensuring when we leave that everything is just as it was when we came. Or better. We take our shoes off inside your house to protect wooden floors and carpet. We are security conscious – your home will be in safe hands. We supply you with extensive references which you can check. We have minded dogs, cats, horses, sheep, hens and ducks and a parrot. We own our home and in the past we have looked after beach properties, family homes on numerous occasions and rented holiday houses. Click on the link below to see our full references.

What can they bring to the assignment

Greg does all the serious gardening and maintenance like landscaping, pruning, digging, home renovations and repairs. Bev enjoys mowing lawns and looking after herb and flower gardens. She also loves looking after the inside of your house, keeping it clean, tidy and looking homely and welcoming. Greg is a competent handyman - he can fix most things and what he can't fix, he can arrange to be repaired. We take responsibility for your house, reporting any issues and dealing with them as you direct.
We are experienced with pets including rescue pets and farm animals and are amateur animal whisperers! We love getting to know their personalities and caring for them so they barely notice the change of humans in the house.
We both have full clean drivers' licences and Greg also has motor-bike and truck licences. We redirect mail if required and keep you informed about your house and pets while you’re away by email, Zoom or WhatsApp. We will enjoy a peaceful co-existence with your neighbours and may become friends. We are a quiet couple not requiring loud music nor a boisterous night-life to make us happy. We are equally at home in rural settings and in the city. We are flexible and adapt to any situation as our references attest. We look forward to hearing from you. Now's good! Please ask us for our complete list of references or view them on this web site, that other big house-sitting web site and on the AirBnB web site - we'll send the links when you contact us.

Keywords: Non smoker, mature couple, dog lovers, cat lovers, references, responsible, available, horses, chickens, sheep, ducks, watering gardens, gardeners, emails, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, safety, secure, peace of mind, quiet, responsible, non-smoker.