'We thought: ‘We're only in our early 40s' so it was like: ‘Do it now while we were still young and if it didn't work out we were still young enough to make it back into the market'.”

'But nah, we'll never ever go back.”

Donna and Tony Williamson lived normal lives – Donna was working accounts and Tony was a live linesman.

But everything changed about six months ago, when the Tauranga couple sold everything and bought a bus.

Now, they travel around the country with their dog Chopper and cat Millie, parking up pretty much wherever they please.

'Yeah we do [consider ourselves gypsies now].”

And they'll be trucking back to Tauranga this weekend for the gypsy fair, being held at Memorial Park on Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6 from 9am-5pm both days to sell their wares.

The wares that fund their travelling: gas, food, supplies – everything.

'Soaps, balms, candles and perfumes. And we hand-make everything.

'It's basically paying for our trip around New Zealand, with a little bit of extra that we put away in case we break down or anything like that. So yeah, it's more than enough to do it.”

The couple say the switch from a nine-to-five working life and a house was a bit scary, but they'd never go back.

'[The transition was] scary, really scary. Everybody was telling us we were doing the wrong thing and: ‘You guys are crazy' and all the rest of it, but we're the kind of people that if we say we're going do it, we do it,” says Donna.

'We had our own property in Te Puke and our cars and furniture and everything, now we're debt-free.

'And our house bus is quite big – it's 10.5 metres long and we have a trailer that we use as my workshop for my soaps and candles and stuff.

'It's really scary but it's well worth it.”

For more information on this weekend's gypsy fair, search ‘Tauranga gypsy fair' on Facebook.