Family of 4 looking for worldwide long term housesit opportunities (1 month +)

About this sitter

We are Colin, Elly, Ayla, and Romy from New Zealand.

We are also an experienced house and pet-sitting family who would love to take care of your animals and property! (Although we can't look after horses because Elly is allergic to them).

We completely downsized our life to embark on an indefinite new 'worldschooling' life back in February 2017. (When it was just Colin, Elly & Ayla!).

We are committed 'global citizens' and love 'living as locals' whenever we visit new places. Our intention is to 'slow travel' as much as possible, and that is why we want to look after your house and pets for a few months at a time.

We will happily consider any location in the world. We love adventure and are excited to expose our daughters to different cultures and experiences. We like spending time together as a family and will happily consider rural, city, or suburban properties. We love experiencing a variety of different sits. Natural areas where we can hike and explore are a bonus.

Professionally, we are location-independent as we work online, providing writing and search engine optimization services for clients around the world. This means all we need to stay employed is a good internet connection!

Colin was born in 1966, Elly was born in 1981, and their worlds came together in 2012. Ayla was born in December 2013 before Romy joined the adventure in January 2019.

Why they want to house sit

We love immersing ourselves in new communities where we can 'live as locals' and get to know the neighbours. We see ourselves as global citizens and are always looking to contribute to the communities where we find ourselves.

Elly and Colin both loved traveling and adventure as singles, and now, as a couple, the opportunity to expose our daughters to different cultures and experiences as part of their development years is a huge motivation for our chosen lifestyle.

We believe housesitting gives us the best options to 'live as locals', contribute to communities, and give our girls an amazing global education.

Their experience

Our first housesitting gig was in Bali, Indonesia where we looked after a lovely cat, Harry. The sit started in January 2018 and was only supposed to be for 10 weeks. But the host decided to extend her stay in Europe and was so happy with how we conducted ourselves, she asked us to stay as long as we could (which was around 5.5 months).

We followed that with two more house sits in Thailand during 2018. One where we looked after two cats and two dogs. And the other where we looked after two cats and two snakes!

We then returned to NZ to bring baby Romy into the world. And also did our first house sit as a family of four! This was for friends and didn't involve any pets.

In October 2019, we looked after three cats in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Then in 2020, we looked after a dog and a rural property in France for seven months.

As we update this profile in June 2023, we are on the first of two extended house and pet sits (including dogs, cats, and chickens) in the Melbourne area of Australia, to take us to November 2024.

We are then booked for a long term house and pet sit in New Zealand (caring for three dogs and one cat). We are currently booked up until April 2024 and looking for opportunities from May 2024.

Prior to meeting Elly, Colin spent 2 years housesitting in Christchurch, New Zealand (around 2009/10).

What can they bring to the assignment

We enjoy living in a clean, tidy, well organised space so we will certainly take care of your home. We are flexible and adaptable - happy to garden, feed and care for pets and check in regularly with you if required.