Nomads and their Wagons

Increasing numbers of New Zealanders over 50 are shrugging off the nine-to-five routine, selling their businesses, farms, time-shares, baches, downsizing their homes, saying cheerio to the kids - and taking to the road. Thousands of them live in their vehicles for six months or years at a time, living off investment income and seasonal work. Most have homes to return to.

Whether their wagons are large and expensive or smaller and a lot cheaper what they all seem to relish is the freedom to go where they want when they want, taking their homes with them. They talk about cost-savings, finding new friends with common interests, the realisation that life is short and about more than stress and possessions. The current recession may even have encouraged the trend, and this expanding mobile social network is now New Zealand's fastest-growing leisure industry.