About Us

Welcome to Four Jandals Adventure Travel Blog

So glad you wanted to learn a little bit more about us! We are Cole and Adela, New Zealand’s leading adventure travel blogging couple. We have been travelling together and wearing out our jandals around the world since 2009.

Our main goal is to inspire others to travel. We want to do that by providing adventure travel tips and tales to help you step out of your comfort zone, in comfort.

Where it all began…

Well we won’t get all lovey-dovey and tell you about where we as a couple began, because to be honest, it’s a bit boring! What’s not boring is our travel adventures and how the blog was born.

We started our travels together around New Zealand and the South Pacific to various places such as Samoa before deciding we wanted to head overseas for the typical Kiwi overseas experience, or OE.

At the end of 2009 we sold everything but our snowboards and travelled halfway around the world to Canada.

It didn’t take us long to settle in one of the most beautiful places in the entire world, Jasper, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. For 10 months we snowboarded during the winter (both ending up in hospital on separate occassions) and then guided a white water raft in the summer.

However, the blog only began on our epic 18,000 km road trip across Canada and America. At the time we were only writing in a little notebook each night about how much we spent, how far we travelled each day and what we saw and experienced.

Yes, we spent 8 weeks driving, cooking and sleeping in that wee little van!

Leaving the huge portions of North America behind we settled in Scotland late in 2010. Since then we have done some crazy adventures and visited another 14 countries thoughout Europe. We don’t plan on stopping there any time soon with so many fascinating cultures to live in, local foods to devour and adventures to experience.

More about Cole

I grew up in a really active family who basically lived in the water. My brother was an Olympic swimmer and my whole family has represented New Zealand playing Underwater Hockey at one time or another. Yes it’s a real sport and actually where Adela and I met!

Whether it was surfing, diving, mountain biking or any sport in general, I have always found it hard to sit still for too long.

With sport I always had the chance to travel and I guess this is where the travel bug came from. Family trips to Australia and the Pacific Islands just made me hunger for more.

After finishing University in 2006 I packed up my snowboard to work abroad in California at a ski field. You wouldn’t think that a trip to USA would open up my eyes to travel but it did. Embarking on that solo travel trip taught me a lot about myself.

Returning to New Zealand I pursued what I thought was my dream job in Environmental Planning. I didn’t know it at the time but my hunger for travel would slowly eat me up from the inside.

When Adela suggested we head back overseas in 2009 I jumped at the chance. The rest is history. Fast-forward to now and I realise that I am finally settled doing my dream job; working full time developing the Four Jandals travel brand.

More about Adela

I inherited the travel bug from my parents. We were really lucky that they took us travelling from a really young age so it has always been part of my life. Growing up I was surrounded by friends reading girly mags while I would flick through travel brochures.

I couldn’t even watch the Amazing Race without working myself up. I literally couldn’t sleep for 2 hours afterwards as I would get so excited about the places they visited. I have always wanted to participate but I think we would end up killing each other!

After representing New Zealand at the World Underwater Hockey Champs I joined a couple of good friends on a whirlwind tour of Europe. We ticked off all the main sites but it felt way too rushed as we hurried between the main cities.

I quickly realised I didn’t enjoy travelling like that but needed to get back to University for my final two years. I knew that when I travelled again I wanted to explore each culture in depth.

Cole often talked about his memories of working overseas on a ski field and I had dreams of doing it myself. After twisting his arm (well actually just mentioning it in passing) we booked our tickets and set off.

Unfortunately I broke my collarbone on just the fourth day that the mountain was open so my dreams were slightly stunted. I still hold a huge desire to enjoy another winter season in the near future.

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