CURRENT MISSION

Putting down roots back home in Tassie...& planning our next trip!

ABOUT ME

After graduating from University, we made the move from beautiful Tasmania, Australia, to the city of Oita, Japan & taught English there for 2 years (of course, with a few trips out to other countries on the side!). After that we took a couple months at home to recharge (oh, & get married!), and then set off on a 5 month backpacking honeymoon to explore the other side of the world - Europe and back to Asia via the Trans Siberian Railway! Now we're back home in Tasmania and trying to settle down for a while as Nick finishes his PhD. Must...not...plan...more..travel......
Nick is a scientist - entomologist, to be precise, and is doing his PhD in forest ecology - he might take you out in the field with him if you're interested!
Rhea did a philosophy & Japanese major at Uni, and then caught the travel bug & now spends her days planning other peoples travels.
Nick is the talker, & Rhea's quiet & shy but we both love meeting new people. We moved from a 5 person sharehouse (lived there for 5 years!) to a little Japanese apartment, stayed in all sorts of places around the world, and are now living in Rhea's parents' shed - so we're pretty flexible with our living spaces!

PHILOSOPHY

Try everything once!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Took in couchsurfers in our little apartment in Oita, Japan, and loved every moment of it. We met some amazing people and had a great time learning about their experiences and exploring our adopted city with them.
We really enjoyed finally experiencing couchsurfing as surfers ourselves as we travelled across Europe. Our only regret? Not doing more couchsurfing (although the 2 months we spent HelpXing were pretty good too)!
We hope to do more hosting and surfing - share stories of our home & yours, & if you'll let us borrow your kitchen, Nick will cook something delicious for you (Rhea will help with preparation and cleaning up!).

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We discovered this place when we were sharehousing & not travelling, so we're only just getting to actually take advantage of it... Our sharehouse had plenty of unofficial couchsurfers though, one or the other of our housemates were always bringing new & interesting people to visit.
We rediscovered couchsurfing via a convenient connection in Oita are are so glad we did!

In our Japanese apartment, we hosted:
Sarah from England
Irena from the US
Tatjana & family from France
Elisha & Sophie from Australia
Josef from Sweden
Katrin & Gesa from Germany
Dani & Sam from England/Australia
Steph & Fanny from France

We have surfed with:
Irena & Richard in Pilsen, Czech Republic
Iliana & Socrates in Athens, Greece
Alex & Val in Dijon, France

...& we're looking forward to hosting & surfing with many more people!

Interests

Nick: cooking, judo, gardening, biology, beer, history, good conversation, music & movies, travel.
Rhea: sewing & other creative pursuits, Japanese, taiko drumming, music to dance to, and of course, travel.

• dancing
• cooking
• beer
• sauna
• gardening
• movies
• traveling
• music
• backpacking
• surfing
• biology
• ecology
• history
• science
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Nick: Music - Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Augie March, Muse, Sigur Ros, the White Stripes, Coldplay... Movies - Apocolypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, I <3 Huckabees, documentaries... Books - On The Road, Silent Spring, anything by Murakami.

Rhea: Music - Ben Folds, Bjork, the Whitlams, Paul Simon, Kate Miller-Heidke, Ben Kweller, Angus & Julia Stone, the Cat Empire, the Flaming Lips, Yuzu... Movies - Amelie, High Fidelity, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Rage in Placid Lake, Love Actually, Garden State, The Science of Sleep, I Am Sam, all the Studio Ghibli animations... Books - a bit of everything, but favourite is and always has been The Little Prince.

Haha... spot the difference in genres there...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Just one? How about a few...
Cycled 300km over 3 days around our island home in Japan to raise money for charity - about 20 of us raised over $10,000 and amazed ourselves by actually being able to ride that far.
Lived with a family in Italy for 2 weeks & saw every step of the olive oil process (we picked olives every day, then saw them get pressed into oil, which we got to try directly from the maching... so delicious!).
The Trans Siberian Railway: we went from Moscow to Beijing via Monglia. We walked on the worlds largest lake, drove a husky team, sauna-ed Russian style (& jumped in the snow wearing very little), climbed mountains in the Mongolian steppes, walked on the Great Wall... and then there's the amazing experiences on the train too!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Japan

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