CURRENT MISSION

To leave the world a better place than when we arrived!

ABOUT ME

Outgoing and positive!

PHILOSOPHY

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Mostly, we host - we heard about CS while travelling in Europe, but thought to ourselves "There must be some catch, surely random strangers don't just invite you into their homes??! This can't possibly work." We never got up the courage to try Surfing while we were overseas, which I now really regret, because I have since discovered that it really does work! We love hosting and have had some amazing experiences with fabulous people - best of all, we get to share our knowledge of the our home country with other travellers and learn from them about their home. Travel is an experience which can't help but broaden your horizons, but couchsurfing really gives you a unique insight into the culture of a place. We get to share the hobbies, stories and places we love with people who share our passion for travel and adventure, and learn new things from everyone who stays with us. Quite simply, I think CouchSurfing has the power to change the world!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have met some incredible people while hosting, and made some true friends. This was really brought home to me when we had a major earthquake in our region of New Zealand - over the next week, we had emails from many of our former couchsurfers (some we hadn't spoken to in more than a year) checking to see if we were alright - by contrast, only one or two of our family and friends got in touch!. We were really touched, and it reinforced for us again the kinds of connections you can make through this incredible project.

Interests

Travel! Also photography, music (Dan plays saxophone, violin, guitar and piano), cooking, hiking/camping and crafts (Gabrielle makes jewellery and glass beads). Also, did we mention travel?!

• culture
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• cheese
• crafts
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• violin
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• skydiving
• rock climbing
• swimming
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Pretty much anything except horror books / films. If one of us doesn't like it, the other one usually does (see country music).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Probably I'm easily amazed, but there are so many! Blackwater rafting in Waitomo, NZ; watching the sun rise on Mt Sinai, Egypt; getting lost in the markets of Damascus, Syria; hiking Petra, Jordan; skydiving in Vancouver, Canada; watching the midnight sun in Oslo, Norway; swimming with stingrays in Gisborne, NZ; skating on the world's longest outdoor icerink in -30 Celcius in Winnipeg, Canada; eating snails and sheep's head at the night market in Marrakesh, Morocco; visiting an orphanage in Luxor, Egypt; working on a historic sailboat doing dolphin-watching tours in Akaroa, NZ; driving the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne, Australia; having the locals try and teach me Albanian in a market in Pristina, Kosovo; quad-biking in Cappadoccia, Turkey; snorkelling with sea turtles in New Caledonia; climbing over tree roots and feeling like Indiana Jones at the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia - but there's still so much more to see and do!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: Gabrielle is very involved in jewellery making, and has recently started making her own beads in a little glass studio in the garage. Gabrielle loves to teach jewellery making and is very happy to share this with couchsurfers (as you can probably tell from our references from past surfers!). Gabrielle is also a major tea collector and will happily teach you the difference between a rooibos and an oolong. She has also just learned to make cheese (haloumi and ricotta) and is keen to practice if you would like to learn!

Learn: We are always looking for new travel destinations and love to learn about other people's culture and language. Anything you would like to teach us about your home country is always appreciated.

Share: We love to cook, and to share recipes and ideas. We enjoy cooking typical NZ food for our couchsurfers, and love it when people share their traditional food or cooking ideas with us! We're fairly new in our city as well and will happily share exploring it with you!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malaysia, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, New Caledonia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tonga, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, New Zealand

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