Laura
& Dave

Australia
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Profile information

Travel information
We are currently
Travelling
Our next destination:
Japan - from May 2024 until Apr 2025
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Description
\\ Laura and Dave //
ローラとデビッド

We are an Australian couple with a 6-month Working Holiday Visa for Japan, starting in May 2024.

私たちはオーストラリア人です。6ヶ月のワーキングホリデービザを持っています。5月に始まります。

Our key attributes:
- Friendly
- Adaptable
- Hard-working

We have lived in a treehouse on a farm stay, worked in Outdoor Education, and experienced "Van life" whilst traveling around Europe for 9 months.

We hope to use our Outdoor Education skills in Japan. We offer fun outdoor experiences that encourage social and recreational interactions.
We love spending time outdoors, with people, and animals.
We also have experience in house and pet sitting; looking after chickens, goats, and dogs.

Dave grew up working with tools as well as landscaping and although he loves gardening he has not yet settled down to have a serious garden of his own.

Laura completed 8 years of Japanese study in 2012 and has been looking forward to returning to live and work in Japan for 1 year. Leading up to this trip, I have been remembering a lot of Japanese and I feel very excited to be able to use it in Japan!

If you wish to look at Laura's LinkedIn profile, check out this link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-upton33114471/

We are looking forward to participating in a few Workaways during our travels.
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶
Interests
Pets
Outdoor activities
Carpentry
Self development
Photography
Nature
History
DIY & crafts
Culture
Adventure sports
Animals
Cooking & food
Cycling
Dancing
Gardening
Mountain
Plant care
Sustainability
Vegetarian or vegan
Writing

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Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
Japanese: Beginner
More details about my language interests
This workawayer has indicated that they would be interested in sharing their language(s) or learning a new language. You can contact them directly to discuss this.
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Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn
Some knowledge of:
Gardening
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Life at a Farmstay
Eco Projects
Hospitality/Tourism
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Helping with Computers/ Internet
Able to teach about:
Helping around the house
Languages
Teaching
General Maintenance
More details about your skills
Laura:
- Outdoor guiding (wilderness first aid, surf rescue, abseil/climbing guide, caving, canoeing, kayaking)
- International drivers licence (cars, bus, recreational boats, small yachts).
- Great care of animals, particularly dogs.
- Cleaning, cooking, hospitality
- Basic gardening skills (worked at a garden centre for 5 years).
- Stone fruit thinning, picking, packaging
- Good interpersonal skills

Dave:
- The same outdoor guiding skills that Laura has including first aid.
- good with ropes and rigging
- basic woodwork and good metalworking skills (worked casually at a machine shop for 10 years)
- can operate and maintain a chainsaw as well as many garden tools.
- Good interpersonal skills
- I enjoy fixing things and am usually able to repair anything I need to
- I am a good self teacher and can learn a lot from watching youtube or from reading.
Age
29 & 31
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
  Dave: Bees
- Special dietary requirements
  Vegan (We don't mind other people eating meat, we can self-cater and/or be flexible with cooking)

Feedback

24 Jan 2023

Left by host (Help around our family home, ...) for Workawayer (Laura & Dave)

Laura and Dave spent 3 weeks with us over Christmas and the New Year. It was their first workaway and they were eager to learn and also contribute their own knowledge.
Laura brings sunshine, humor and such a good vibe into every day. Dave is more serious, and likes to get on with things making them a great team.
They are solid and trustworthy… read more

(Excellent )

21 Jan 2023

Left by Workawayer (Laura & Dave) for host (Help around our family home, ...)

Dave and I enjoyed our first Workaway experience with Mikki. Mikki is very kind and welcoming and has lots of experience hosting Workawayers. Don't be afraid to ask any questions before and during your stay. We met 2 other Workawayers, which made the handover easy and it was nice to have a pizza and games night with other travellers before they… read more

(Excellent )

Friends

Photos

Laura teaches Outdoor Education. She studied a Bachelor of Outdoor Recreation, followed by a Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary). She teaches life skills to secondary students in the outdoors. Offering opportunities to engage in abseiling, rock climbing, caving, canoeing, and bushwalking in Western Australia.

3 Week Workaway in Dubrovnik, Croatia. We did various jobs in the off-season to assist with preparations for Miki's Croatian Kitchen, which operates in the summer season. Jobs included caring for chickens, cleaning, organising, harvesting, and preparing ingredients for summer cooking classes. We also took the opportunity to practice puppy dog training in our own time (see the big 7 month American Akita puppy almost as tall as Dave!)

After 3 months of sleeping on stretchers, we decided to borrow tools and build a bed/couch into our Van Life home. A very comfortable decision :)

Working on and living in our Ford Transit Van.

We spent a day washing, sanding, and painting our van after we bought it, then decked it out with camping equipment to turn it into our home on the road.

Dave was an excellent driver in Europe! We survived driving in Naples and Rome, Italy.

We spent a couple of days helping Laura's cousin who owns a Mill on the Arz River in France. Often, trees fall in and need to be removed.

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Laura chainsawing fallen trees in the Arz River, France.

We cooked up an Aussie BBQ meal to share using the BBQ my Australian Grandad had built whilst he was visiting our family in France.

Dave and I are Uncle and Aunt to 3 little ones (now 7 years, 4 years, and 2 years of age). We like to take our nieces and nephews on adventures. We also house-sit for people. Looking after chickens, goats, and dogs. LOVE dogs!!

Laura owns a rural 5-acre property in the southwest of Western Australia. We often visit to take a break and work on the land. We need to maintain a safe fuel load as the land is very dry in summer and prone to bushfires. This photo shows us cleaning the leaves out of the gutter, and chain-sawing a recently fallen tree before enjoying a bonfire in September 2023.

Laura's property is 5 minutes from the Blackwood River, the longest river in the southwest of Western Australia. We like to explore the river using kayaks. Laura teaches white water canoeing and kayaking as part of her Outdoor Education job.

We enjoy sailing small yachts. Feeling ropes and the wind.

Dave and Laura's hobby is rock climbing. We enjoyed meeting other rock climbers around Europe. Our favourite places to climb in Europe were Meteora in Greece, Paklenica in Croatia, and Switzerland.

Laura after rock climbing to the top of Pillar of Dreams with Dave in Meteora, Greece.