Our fondest memories come from our first house-sitting job in France. We became fast friends with an English couple who had made the Auvergne region of France their home.
Nestled in the countryside south of Lyon, this was to be our home for a month while we had charge of an affectionate border collie, two cats and chickens.
This was not your typical travelling. There were no cocktails on beaches, no mountains to be climbed and no galleries visited. It was domestic life in a foreign land and it was filled with authentic local experiences.
The country life was for us. We loved waking up and tending to the pets, seeking out eggs from the hens and walking the dog around the beautiful nearby track.
It didn't matter that we could only speak a few sentences to our neighbours and we soon mastered the art of ordering baguettes and pastries from the bakery. We made friends with other expats and even saw a rugby match featuring former All Black Joe Rokocoko.
When our four weeks were up, we were sad to leave the beautiful village and our new friends, furry and otherwise.
Our house-sitting stints have enabled us to see parts of the world we never would have visited. With homes truly off the beaten track, we have holiday tales unlike any of our friends' stories.
House-sitting won't be for everyone. Most people take holidays as a break from their responsibilities, not to add to them. For us, it was ideal.
There are many websites dedicated to the matchmaking of house-sitters and homeowners. Some are country specific and some offer homes worldwide, such as TrustedHousesitters and MindMyHouse.
Registration is usually straightforward; you set up a profile that includes a photo, some background information and references from past house-sitting jobs. From there, you can begin searching for a location and pets that fit the bill.
You can even be specific about the type of animals you want to look after, from cats and dogs to donkeys and lizards. For the extreme cat lovers, you may also find the odd place with upwards of five cats to look after. We stuck with limited numbers of domestic animals in our criteria.
Length of sits vary, and a glance at the HouseSit Match website sees everything from two weeks in Oxfordshire looking after dogs and hens, to nearly a month in southern Spain with two dogs, two horses and some pool maintenance required. It's not uncommon to find house-sitting jobs just for a weekend or even up to six months. Perfect, perhaps, for hunkering down and finishing off that epic novel you've been writing.
The style of homes differs, too, and I have seen log cabins in Connecticut, London mansions and Dubai apartments.
Everything sounds most agreeable for the house-sitters: free accommodation in exchange for looking after friendly pets and exploring a new area. But the owners get a lot out of this service, too. By vetting the candidates and having regular contact while they are away, owners can be assured their pets will be cared for in the comfort of their own homes. Most owners choose this service so their pets don't have the stress of staying in a kennel or cattery.
The animals we cared for were all well-adjusted and comfortable with strangers encroaching on their territory and we will continue considering house-sitting as a way of experiencing new places in the future.
Who knows where we could end up, or what we could end up looking after.
