It’s All About Memories | Interview With Caz

This week we have interviewed Caz from yTravelBlog. Caz and her husband Craig founded y travel blog to share their stories and tips from 14 years of living and travelling around the world. They believe life is all about the memories and encourage you to create great ones.

Caz & Craig Warming Up With Green Tea In Shrangrila- Near Tibet

Thanks for wanting to be part of our Positive World Travel community! What’s the way you make your travels positive?

By travelling with an open mind and the desire to make the most of everything, as I know the experience I am having will not come again. With an open mind you are ready to learn and accept, and there are only positive things that can come from this. You are more willing to share, try new things, and listen to others.

Travel inspires me which naturally brings out positive and joyous enthusiasm. I travel with such an overwhelming feeling of awe and gratitude. Gratitude at how lucky I am to be experiencing all I am, and in total awe of how beautiful the planet is and all the diverse people who reside in it.

Your website is all about the memories. Describe one memory that has stuck with you throughout your travels overseas and in Australia?

In Australia, it would have to be working on a pearl farm in Kuri Bay, Western Australia. We had to catch a sea plane to work and would stay on the camp for anything up to five weeks. We would be up at 4am to work every day out on the boats chipping all the barnacles off the pearl shells so we could grow the best pearls in the world.

It was tough work and taxing on the body, but an incredible experience. The area we stayed was a pristine and beautiful part of the Kimberlys. Tourists would pay up to $1000 a day to tour the area in boats and here we were working there, getting paid fantastic money. We had crocs and sharks around our boats daily, and dingos and snakes running around the camp. We went fishing, explored the local waterfalls and caves in the area that were filled with Aboriginal paintings. It was a unique experience.

There are so many memories from around the world. One that sticks in our memory was of our first safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya. The scenery was beautiful enough on its own, but to see giraffes bounding across the plains, elephants protecting their babies, cheetahs on the hunt, lions eating their kill and to then spend the night in a tent guarded by Masai warriors after you have eaten a meal with them and learned about their way of life, was pretty incredible.

You have a great resource for volunteering on your website. What would you say are the main factors to consider when selecting a volunteer program?

I would start by deciding what country you wish to go to and the experience you want to have. Work out what sort of volunteering are you most passionate about, what your skills are, and what you are hoping to get out of your experience. This will help narrow down your selection choices. And then I think you have to do your research as to how reputable the program is, what the prices include and how well it ticks off the boxes as to what you were looking for. Ask people in your personal network who might have some recommendations or talk to other travellers through online groups and forums.

You want to “make your life a story to tell”. What tips have you learnt that could help others create an extraordinary life for themselves?

I love the concept of extraordinary. Most people don’t realise that the difference between that and ordinary is just that little bit extra. For me, it is very simple. First decide what it is you want to do, and decide this without placing any barriers on what you can do; do not let others do this for you either.

Once you have made the decision all you need to do is take action towards making your extraordinary life a reality. Make them small steps each day to allow you to slowly stretch out your comfort zones. This will involve you having to make some sort of sacrifice, whether it be time or money. But if you are serious about your dream then you will make them.

The last part I feel is really important to creating an extraordinary life is to always be grateful for what you have and for what is coming to you. And in your quest for your extraordinary life help to make others extraordinary as well.

Can you explain what you mean by living life “out of the box”?

Living life out of the box means living life by your own terms. Too often, we allow others opinion’s of us or societies expectations to determine how we should live our life. We put the lid down on our dreams and forget about it because I am supposed to go to uni, get a job that pays well with good benefits, get married, have kids and stop living.

I am not saying that there is anything wrong with this life, as long as this is your dream and you have decided it for yourself.

Getting out of the box means breaking down the barriers that hold you back; that is, the limiting cultural beliefs of your upbringing, rules of society, and your own fears and insecurities. Once you break free from them you are out of the box and living the life you were meant to live. Living life out of the box means getting in touch with who you really are and being that person.

One of my favourite quotes that relates to this idea is from Yossi Ghinsberg

“When you realize that you are the planet, you are not living in a box anymore. The comfort zone is not taken for granted and the awe inspiring Universe is a place of great adventures. Life becomes very big but your personal story falls into perspective. Go to nature, sleep under the night sky. Remember where you are and who you are”.

Caz On A Street Car In New Orleans With Her Daughter Kalyra

You have many articles written on budget saving advice. Could you give some examples of how you saved to fulfill your dream of travel?

Often by working two jobs. This was hard work, but when you have a dream you are willing to make the sacrifices. Craig and I would always live off one wage and save the other. If you don’t see it, you don’t miss it, and before you know it you have a large amount of money saved up. Craig and I never buy luxury goods. We are not about keeping up with the Joneses as this is the fast track to nowhere. We buy the essentials and at budget prices.

We took in some boarders in our house as well. So not only were we living off one wage, and working two jobs, but we had another stream of income coming in that we could save.

The final way, was to make our travels working holidays. This meant we did not have to save as much, as we could earn and spend the local currency. If you are going to have to work anyway, why not work in another country, so you can experience a vastly different way of living and travel while you work.

You posted about your definition of home. Can you share with our readers this definition?

Home is not a place that is defined by the brick walls and roof of your house, nor the neighbours who hang over the fence to say hello. Home is really the space that only you occupy. It is the space that is truly meant for you in this world. When you find this place, you can carry it with you everywhere and so will always be home. I guess in other words, you could call it inner happiness and peace. Until you have this you will always feel that longing for something- it is your longing to return home.

My home will always be when I am travelling with my family and sharing it through our travel blog. When I am doing this, there is no longing, only happiness and peace.

With the introduction of smart phones and the Internet. How do you think travel has changed over the past few years? Is it hard to experience any kind of authenticity anymore?

Information is much more instant and it is far easier to maintain contact with those you meet when you travel. Smart phones are taking the fun out of travelling a little by trying to figure things out for yourself and talking to locals and other travellers more. And I think far too many people are spending their travel time hanging out on facebook rather than exploring.

We use the technology a lot as we have a digital business. So I am grateful for the tools we readily have available now to work from anywhere. If we did not need it for business though, I would not be travelling around the world with a lap top or smart phone. I am always surprised to discover how many travellers now do just that. Why would you need it? There is too much to explore and discover with your own eyes and feet. My brother, has been travelling now for about 17 years and he constantly complains about how he sees travellers everywhere lost in their cyber world and not experiencing the real world.

Having said that I travelled for 10 years without any of this stuff so I know how exciting and liberating travel is without it. Some young backpackers have grown up with all these tech toys and see it as a natural part of their lives that they can’t do without.

Caz, you’ve recently started a website called Mojito Mother. What was the inspiration and idea behind this new venture?

I started Mojito Mother as I thought there was a need for mothers to have a place they could go to for inspiration to know that their dreams are possible and do not have to be pushed aside just because children come along.

I constantly hear women talking about how they can no longer do the things they want because they have kids, and they try to tell me this should be my reality. I think women are so amazing and have the ability to be great mothers and live their dreams, being strong and happy role models for the children in the process. As my tag says “Putting the mojo back into a mother’s life”

(Editors Note: Mojito Mother has been nominated for the Kidspot top 50 Bloggers of 2011 in Australia. Show Caz & Craig your support and vote for Mojito Mother)

What’s your travel mantra?

It’s all about the memories – or “its a story to tell”. Having this mantra helps us to appreciate all travel moments–good, bad and ugly!

Caz & Craig At Kuri Bay Pearl Farm

Quick Questions

Where to next?

Craig and I have been discussing this question a lot lately and are just starting to form our plans. We are having another baby in August so this has changed our plans somewhat. We are hoping to move to Thailand for at least a year after the baby is born, work on our business, explore more of Asia and just have a cheap and relaxed lifestyle for awhile. We eventually want to then “settle” back in the US. We will use that as our base to further explore other areas of the world. In the meantime we are planning to see as much of Australia as we can.

What are you reading right now?

This interview! I wish I could say something more interesting, but I don’t have time to read anything lately, which is really depressing. The last book I read was Richard Branson’s biography.

What are you listening to?

Mumford and Sons.

Your favourite travel item is?

My passport.

Famous person you’d love to travel with?

Brad Pitt- I think we’d have really interesting conversations

You can follow Caz & Craig as they continue to make more memories by joining them on their Facebook fanpage, at their Website or follow them on twitter.

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