Meet Schindlers on Tour
We're Sharon & Dave SchindlerWho are we?
We’re Sharon & Dave, a husband and wife team in our mid-50’s who love to travel and explore the world.
Between us we’ve lived and worked in seven different countries, and together we’ve toured around many dozens more!
We’re here to share our travelling tales and lifestyle adventures, and in doing so maybe we can inspire your next adventure.
Read on if you want to get to know us a little better, or go directly to our blog for our latest adventures.
Meet Sharon
The Irish half of the team – grew up in Northern Ireland, and to this day I’ve never drunk a cup of tea! Nor coffee for that matter.
Left “The Troubles” behind at 20 years old to be a nanny in the USA, and where the the travel bug took hold.
Firm believer that variety is the spice of life and I love nothing more than jumping for joy in the great outdoors.
AKA Shaz to family and friends the world over.
Meet Dave
Fondly known to his family as “Menace” – his naughty behaviour as a child, and his once long, black, curly hair and close resemblance to Dennis the Menace earned him the nickname!
A lifelong fan of Watford FC.
Has run 20+ marathons including his home town one in London, plus a couple of ultra-marathons, and not forgetting numerous triathlons.
Earliest travel memories are from family camping holidays in France.
Our Story – how it all started…
We met as “mature students” back in 1995, in the days way before blogging was even a thing, at a “Bad Taste” party in Sheffield, England. We still have the embarrassing photo to prove it!
We both had had a taste of travel long before meeting each other. I lived and travelled in the USA and in South Africa, while Dave backpacked across Asia before ending up living in Australia for a year.
Our shared desire for adventure, and our appetite for travel was there from those early halcyon days.
We always knew there was more to life than the daily grind of work, and we knew we wanted a balance of work less, play more!
We put in the hard yards for a few years working all hours in London before we pulled the pin on city life, and during the first year of the new millennium we packed our bags and our tent for our first big trip as full-time travellers.
It was back then when we started blogging for the first time too! Read our blog post about our most recent return to blogging.
Anyway one trip led to another, we stopped and started, worked a bit, lived a bit, travelled a bit, and loved making life up as we went along.
That same philosphy applies today and we love going with the flow. We grab every opportunity to travel that comes our way and we make the most of it.
Our Journey So Far…
Our 20+ years of touring together have taken us to some special places, created countless precious memories, and we’ve made the most amazing lifelong friendships with folks from all around the globe.
We’ve trekked in Thailand and Tanzania; taught English in Peru; cycled through Sri Lanka and Spain; backpacked through Costa Rica and Argentina; driven around Australia in a pop-top van; broken down in Namibia; almost died in a cave in Vietnam; volunteered in South Africa, and lived for many happy years in the land of the long white cloud, all to name but a few of our adventures.
We’ve lived and worked together in England, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa, and most recently in Northern Ireland.
In April 2021 we sold our 6-bedroom home, and most of the contents. We closed our award winning Shola Coach House Bed & Breakfast business in Portrush, Northern Ireland, and swapped it all for the freedom of life on the open road in a 6-metre van that we converted ourselves during 16 weeks of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
Where are we now?
We’re now retired and back to full-time travelling! Since April 2021 we’ve beeen either living life on “Cloud Nine“, our aptly named self-converted Citroen Relay van, or hiring ourselves out across the world as caring and responsible house sitters for your homes and pets.
Follow us on social media to see where we are now!
What’s next for Schindlers on Tour?
Your guess is as good as ours. We still don’t know what we want to do when we grow up!!!
What we do know is that life is short. We want to live life to the full with no regrets. We make our life decisions based on gut instinct, and often on the spur of the moment. Some are good, others less so, but we learn from them all.
Remember it is not always about the destination, but the journey getting there…
Join us on our journey travelling together as we explore the big wide world.
Recent Blog Posts
Have a browse through our recent blog posts, or use the search box at the top of the page to find what you’re looking for.
Day 18 New Zealand cycling tour
Anaura Bay - Tolaga Bay We think it is day 18 of this New Zealand cycling tour! Reluctantly we had to move on from Anaura Bay this morning as we...
Pitch perfect at Anaura Bay
Pitch perfect at Anaura Bay Yesterday we pitched up at what might be the most beautiful campsite we’ve ever had the pleasure of camping at. Put...
Chip and Dip
Day 14 Te Araroa - Tokomaru Bay Sadly it is not the indulgent chip and dip pre-dinner snack you’re thinking of, but the condition of the roads...
Hitch hiking out East
Hitch hiking out East If you think biking is a slow way to travel, then try hitch hiking! We’ve both done our fair share of hitch hiking over the...
Tear drops and rain drops
Day 12 Waihau Bay – Te Araroa Tear drops Today was a tough day, not necessarily physically, although the 55kms included steep climbs and occasional...
Taking it easy on this New Zealand cycling tour
Day 11 Maraehako - Waihau Reluctantly we moved on from Maraehako today, but not far, only about 25kms. We are definitely taking it easy on this New...
Our new happy place
Day 9 & 10 Te Kaha - Maraehako Bay It was a short, scenic ride today, about 16kms from Te Kaha to the Maraehako camping ground - our new happy...
Life is a rollercoaster
Day 8 Opape – Te Kaha We all have our ups and downs in life, and this year has certainly been testament to that for us, but if ever there was a...
Day seven New Zealand cycling tour
O here we go again! Ohope – Opotiki – Opape A really solid day of riding today clocking up another 55kms. The majority was on State Highway 35 which...
Day six New Zealand cycling tour
Short and sweet: Matata - Whakatane - Ohope At only 23kms, today’s ride is our shortest to date. All thanks to Dawn for loading us in the car and...