Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - A Mary Christmas: Living In A Caravan For A Year!

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

In the third episode of our holiday series, we catch up with another inspiring Mary! This Mary spent a year traveling across Aotearoa in a caravan with her husband, their one-year-old, and their 30kg dog! She shares her unique perspective on exploring New Zealand and reveals how their family business is making a big difference for small cafes. Tune in and help us wish Mary a merry Christmas!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Cheers to Dilma, making the world a better tea. Merry Christmas. Welcome to We Wish You a Merry Christmas, a series where we phone Marys from around the country, around Aotearoa, and wish them a Merry Christmas, find out about their year, find out what they want for Christmas, hope, dreams, wishes. Great Marys we've had along the way so far.

We've had some wonderful Marys on the way. This is, we're calling back a Mary from the text machine right now. Okay. Hopefully it will answer. Text the radio studio machine

had Mary previously. And for what subject? Well, to do with, I guess it was maybe partner names. Probably speaking. Oh, we're looking for Mary. Is Mary around? Mary certainly is

around. Oh, yeah. Great. Do you want to introduce yourself? Oh, sorry. Yeah, it's John O'Bannon-Megan from the Hits Radio Station. You've got to be... Am I on air right now? No, we're recording a podcast right now. So if you want to be part of the podcast, then yes you are If not, then no

I'm very familiar with you boys and your podcast I'm just going to put you on speaker right now Oh, great I'm going to speak with my wife, Mary Oh, Mary Hi there Jono, Ben and Megan from the Hits radio station How's it going?

Oh my gosh, hi I'm good, how are you doing we're doing well welcome welcome to our podcast it's a festive themed one we're doing a special run for this season we wish you a merry christmas thank you so much my husband is um kind of obsessed with you guys in your podcast oh really so that means you have to buy buy it. Do you get punished with it? Well, not punished. Privileged. Oh, that's lovely.

Well, we wanted to ring Mary's at random and wish them a Merry Christmas. Find out how your year's been, what's been going on. This sounds like an incredible Jon and Ben thing to do. Well, funnily enough, we're just back in our house now, but we did something crazy, and we went and lived in a caravan for a year. Did you? And traveled around Aotearoa with our one-and-a-half-year-old and our 30-kg dog.

Wow. Far out. We're back home now, and we're happy to be home. So lots of DIY projects and setting up for Christmas. We are Mr. and Mrs. Christmas over here. That's awesome. That sounds like one of those things where you're like, I'd love to just pack up and go in a caravan around the country,

and you did it. We certainly did. We certainly did. We'll never do it again, but we certainly did it. What was one of the best? I mean, New Zealand's. But we certainly did. What was one of the best? I mean, New Zealand's got so many amazing spots. What was one of the highlights? Oh, man, there's so many.

So, I mean, we went around to promote our business on the road. And just the coolest thing was meeting all these small town, local, family- owned businesses all over the place and getting to chat to them and get to know them there's just so many incredible people here in New Zealand who are just like out there wanting to help I just think meeting small town locals has just been fantastic really but you'll never do it again but i'm in a caravan with a toddler yeah that sounds like it doesn't like the car that was not so enjoyable but our time off and being able to actually you know explore the

places that we were in that part was obviously amazing um it's just day-to-day life in a caravan, you know, small space and when you're working in it and you're like living in it and the dog is constantly on a lead. Yeah, it's really hard and so, you know, you kind of start to feel bad for the toddler who doesn't have, you know, consistent friends to hang out with and the dog who's you know yeah very rarely get to be off the lead so um we we enjoy being home and we enjoy being surrounded by our friends and family again and just a little bit more stability do you think that your child is your toddler's more adaptable now after being on the road for a year? Probably, yeah. I think so, yeah. Yeah, I think so.

She's very, very friendly. She loves to talk to other people. It sounds like it did her good. Yeah, yeah. It had its benefits and its downfalls, much like anything in life, I guess, right? I'm just new to this whole... You're right, Mary. Just new to this whole... The back is always greener on the other side.

You're right, Mary. Just new to this whole scenario, but this felt like more of a Robbie thing than it did a Mary thing. I want to be very clear, it was her idea. Okay. It was very quick to jump on it, I must admit. Well, Robbie's a business owner,

and, you know, it's so easy with business to put it to the side almost um you know oh well I'll get a contractor a full-time job um you know because everyone's got bills to pay and you know important things to do and so um it was just something that every single year he would say oh well next year I'll take some time off of actual you know the day-to-day nine to five and I'll work on my own business. And, you know, you just say that every year because something comes up. So I was like, it's just not ever going to happen if you don't make it happen.

So if you want big changes in life, you've got to make big changes. So I was like, let's just give it a go. This is how we can make it happen, you know. You guys sound so fun. What is your business? make it happen, you know. You guys sound so fun. Now, what is your business? Give it a plug. Well, it's a piece of software named Coffee, C-O-F-F-E-Y, and it's just a way for small coffee shops and cafes out there to log on

and really, really quickly create their own app so their customers can jump on and order coffee ahead of time um it's it's kind of like you know when you go to all the big kind of conglomerates out there they've got a massive software team that can build their own apps they can provide all this functionality but the small kiwi business houses out there don't really have access to a giant software team or have like a lot of money to spend on this stuff. So kind of the purpose was it was to provide all this power that the really big guys have, but to small Kiwi businesses out there. Where this would have been...

And most importantly, at an affordable cost. Yeah. This would have been incredible when I had a cafe, guys. Oh, I know. Great idea. I know. This is what I was thinking. You'd know better than anyone, Megan,

around how difficult it is to have a business on the side but also have a full-time job. Yeah. And just how kind of any way we can help in that kind of industry, I think, yeah, is good, really. Well, listen, you two will get there. You'll get there. It'll be a roaring success.

And, hey, well, thank you for being part of this podcast. We're meeting some very interesting Marys. Aren't we, Josh? And Robbies. I bet I can't wait to hear it back and meet all the other interesting Marys. Well, that was, yeah, you never know what you're going to get with our Merry Christmas podcast. Exactly, exactly.

Lovely to talk to you. It means a lot that you listen. And, yeah, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you so much. And can I say before we go, last year, Megan, I actually DM'd you. I know how into Christmas you are. Yeah.

Maybe the year before. I don't know. This whole year has been a complete blur. Mary came up with this really, really cool idea for gift wrapping where she wraps gifts in such a way that they look like cute little bags. It's super random, but I know that you like aesthetics when it comes to Christmas tree. I do. Really, really highly recommend it.

I'll DM you again with it. Yeah, did I not reply? What a cow. Classic Megan. Hit me again. Classic Megan. Definitely hit me again, please. Okay, I will do.

Lovely to meet you both. Thank you once again. I hit me again. Please. Okay. I will do. Lovely to meet you both. And thank you. Thank you. Once again. I appreciate your time. You guys too. Have a great rest of your day. And have a Merry Christmas.

Yeah. You too. Merry Christmas. Well, we're three from three with this podcast. Well, they're lovely. Weren't they?

They're so nice. Just like you admire people that do, do that, you know, take the leap and actually do that, travel like around. And you actually did it. Such a positive view online. Yeah.

Aw. Really cool. Are we caravanning next year, guys? I think so. Taking the show on the road for the whole year. It's the Merry Christmas podcast. We'll be back again tomorrow with another merry.