He Tangata: Rosie Rogers of the Experience Collective

Rosie Rogers, on the Italian coast, near Pompeii. Photo / Supplied

Elisabeth Easther meets Rosie Rogers of the Experience Collective.

I grew up in the Wairarapa, just before Riversdale Beach. My parents farmed sheep and beef out there so family holidays were always a bit tricky, getting Mum and Dad away from the farm, so we often did camping trips around where we lived. My grandfather retired to Stewart Island and one Christmas we went to one of the outer islands to go kiwi-spotting. We saw heaps of them, maybe 15 or 20, just eating worms on the sand. Grandad also had an oyster boat for trawling, using big metal nets. We'd eat fresh oysters straight from the sea — at the time I thought they were disgusting but now, I wish I'd appreciated them more.

My parents always said you need to travel the world, and it was a given that I'd do my OE. In my 20s I bought a one-way ticket to London via Hong Kong — none of my friends wanted to go at the time so I went on my own. I went to Lake Annecy in France on the French border, it's popular for adventure sports and I went paraponting. The guy didn't really speak English and he just ran off a cliff with me — and I thought, "This is really fun but it's freezing and I'm terrified."

After that I caught a train to the South of France and signed up with the super yachts. I was on a 50m motorboat owned by a tech millionaire. I flew to Mallorca to do my fire-fighting training, then I joined his boat and over a five-month period we did loops through Spain, Italy, France, Sardinia, and Corsica. It was an incredible way to travel. But the thing with super yachts, is there are so many variables that can impact on your experience. Everything is so extreme — if you have a bad captain or a bad owner, a bad boat or bad itinerary, bad pay or a bad crew — because it's such an intense environment.

On my boat, there were 12 crew members and I was at the bottom of the pecking order making $4200 a month. So I was on a well-paid boat, with a good itinerary and crew but a horrible owner and captain — so I had a great time. At the Monaco Grand Prix, because we were the support boat for one of the drivers, our berth was right on the track. I had no idea about car racing, but it's very impressive, very loud and there are famous people everywhere. We saw Leonardo DiCaprio and the Prince of Monaco, and Lionel Richie played on a boat near us.

Today, with my partner Nick, we run the visitor experiences at Tui Brewery in Mangatainoka and Monteith's Brewery in Greymouth moving between the two places. We live an hour from the Tui brewery in Wairarapa, travelling to the West Coast every five or so weeks. But instead of flying or staying in hotels, we live in Nancy, our caravan. She's a 1979 Oxford and nearly 10m long. It's a bit of a mission but it suits us.

We always try to make a point of going on an adventure, to do something different to keep it fresh, otherwise it's just like driving from A to B for work. We love the Punakaiki Beachfront Holiday Park, the Rainforest Retreat in Franz Josef, and Lake Brunner. We also enjoy feeding the eels off the wharf at St Arnaud. These massive eels get fed by the Kiwi Experience buses and have learned if they come out of the water, they get fed.

When you're caravanning it's important to take your time and chat to people. Never try to go anywhere in a hurry, because you're towing a big house behind you. When things go wrong, or things break, you just have to roll with it and be grateful you have a caravan. And the thing I love about our caravan, is it's easy for us to see this beautiful country.

Further information: theexperiencecollective.nz