- Location: Cromwell Presbyterian Church, 10 Elspeth Street, Cromwell
- Start Date: Wednesday 15th Apr, 2026.
- End Date: Wednesday 15th Apr, 2026.
- Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm.
- 1 Weeks.
- 2 hours per week.
U3A Cromwell
Being a Retired Nomad - Travelling Around NZ on Giselle, a French Electric Tandem
Meri: Being a retired nomad: why, how, and where? How a retired woman managed seven years of solo world travel and ended up in New Zealand.
Meri is an American woman who was a clinical psychologist for 40 years, with her last position being ten years in a men’s medium security prison. She was a single mom and had to be creative to afford the active lifestyle she wanted for herself and her daughter. After being single for over 20 years, she met a Kiwi on a bus, and here she is today!
She will talk about how she fell in love with travel, prepared for solo travel, managed to travel on a budget, where she went and the surprises she encountered. She will also talk about the prison where she worked, and how that was consistent with her overriding quest to check out the reality of stereotypes. In addition, she’ll address how it feels in the present, to be touring around NZ on the back of a tandem.
Doug: Tandem touring around New Zealand plus a brief intro to his life and now as an existing online business owner.
After 70 years in Wellington and Wairarapa he and Meri moved to Cromwell in November 2024. He is familiar with Central as he travelled extensively throughout the country as a sales representative, motorcyclist and for 35 years, an aircraft owner and pilot.
Doug has been in business in his present enterprise, Dynamic Graphics, for 49 years moving with technology from printed hardcopy products, to a web-based online image subscription library (he can explain!). Along with a group of Wellingtonians he was the Publisher of the NZ Journal of Christian Thought & Practice. He flew light aircraft for 35 years based in Wellington and Masterton, operating as an instrument-rated pilot, day and night, 2200 hours in total. His business has taken him to Europe 20 times, built around an industry conference.
Doug and Meri met on a bus in Latvia in 2017 and celebrated their 80th birthdays last year. They now tour the country on Giselle, their French electric tandem.
