In 2015 we left to travel the world on a one-way ticket. What was supposed to be a year abroad, turned into 2 years of living on the road with everything we owned in our backpacks. What we learned changed our lives, and it has inspired us to create this community so we can share our knowledge with you and give you the tools to build a life you love.
Photography began as a passion and a way to document our travels, but it grew into something much bigger. After 8 years dedicated to exploring our world, and sharing our experiences on social media, we are grateful for the support of our community of over 5 million people.
From 2015-2017 we travelled through Australia and New Zealand on working holiday visas, and spent our time exploring these countries in a small van while working various jobs. We worked on farms, in cafes, restaurants, breweries and a yoga village to fund our travels. We lived as cheaply as possible so we were able to travel longer. After our working visas ran out, we traveled through Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe before heading home in 2017.
For the next couple of years we spent every weekend we could outside of work and school exploring our home. Every day we had off, and every long weekend was used to our advantage so we were able to see as much as possible with the little time we had.
Right as we were gearing up to go freelance, the pandemic hit in 2020 and the world shut down. No jobs were coming in, and we weren’t sure what the future would hold. We held onto hope, and kept following our dream, determined to work and live for ourselves. Slowly but surely we kept moving forward, and our little business grew. Now we work for ourselves and live on our own terms, and we want to show others that anything is possible.
Our most recent project was building our dream home on wheels, fernweh the van. This project began as an idea 8 years ago while living in our tiny van in New Zealand, and we were able to complete this project in June of 2023 after a year of building and a year of planning.
After the build was completed,
we hit the road in June of 2023, and spent months exploring Canada and the USA. This van build has been one of the most rewarding and difficult projects we have ever done!
What now?
Currently, we are developing our newest project:
fernwehcollective.
Our goal with this community is to create a platform as a source of inspiration and education on all things travel, van living, hiking and outdoors. We want to create a community for both new and well-versed adventurers to use as a catalyst for planning and inspiring their next journey.
Questions?
hello@fernwehcollective.ca
