Nicole & Niko

Hello!! We are Niko and Nicole from Colorado, USA, living in New Zealand on our year-long Working Holiday Visa. We are currently based in the Bay of Plenty area.

I (Nicole) grew up in the Boston area and Niko is originally from Los Angeles. We each moved at different times to a ski town in Colorado called Steamboat Springs, which is where we first met 3 years ago (I snowboard and he skis). We love mountains and the outdoors.

Our pet experience:

We both have experience caring for cats and dogs. Niko’s previous roommates had dogs that he helped care for via feeding and walking (and playing!). When he was living in Tennessee as a raft guide, he also adopted two stray cats and cared for them throughout his time living at the raft outpost, before passing them on to one of the other full time residents there when he moved back to Colorado.

I’ve also helped care for my roommate’s dogs and cats, and we had cats and bunnies growing up in my household. I previously also lived with a Macaw for about 2 years as one of my former roommates had one. I was somewhat involved in caring for the bird as I found her to be super interesting and cute, so I have some knowledge about bird care as well. I have also worked on a farm during one fall season and was responsible for caring for the rabbits, chickens and ducks.

We always talk about how badly we want our own pets, but we have too many travel plans to have our own at this point in our lives. Housesitting allows us to live vicariously through other people’s pets for small periods of time to fill up our need for some furry love!! We are looking forward to meeting some new furry friends. :)