Van Life Shake Down Tour
It has been a few weeks now since we started our New Zealand van life experience. In some ways, living onboard Aroha has prepared us well. We are already used to living in a small space, though the van halves what we had on Aroha. As with the boat, the rule about everything having a place still applies. We are still in the early stages of working out where everything lives, so we frequently open several potential storage locations before we find what we are looking for, but we are getting better. We had decided to have an initial 3-week “shake-down” tour in the beautiful Coromandel. The plan was to get used to the van and get used to how we would live, and be comfortable, in such a small space before deciding on any upgrades we needed.
While the van is a place to sleep and cook in, it is also is a great way to get out and explore. We decided that we were not going to plan where we were heading more than a day or two ahead. We had also decided that we didn’t want to be travelling long distances and, ideally, would stay in some locations for a few days at a time. The ability to change our outlook day to day is great fun. We have been truly spoilt with amazing campsites so far. One day we are waking up looking out onto the waves breaking on the shore, the next overlooking a babbling brook, another looking into trees. We see rabbits running across the field next to us, sheep grazing around us, Pukekos (New Zealand native birds) foraging in the grass with their tails constantly flicking up as they strut around with their dark blue chest pushed out. We have even encountered Alpacas in one campsite in Paeroa. The view from our land yacht is never constant and if we don’t like one spot we simply drive to the next.
Not only does our view change, but our daily activities vary along with our location. Arriving in Coromandel town, we spent the first night overnight at a freedom camping spot on the edge of the town centre. We had, unexpectedly, arrived on the first night of the annual Illume – Winter Festival of Lights. As night fell we walked into town to explore the street market, listen to local bands playing on the green and in the pubs, and watch an acrobatic act, The Twisty Twins, as they strung themselves high in the trees on the green held aloft by dark green cloth as they spun and twisted themselves into contortions that seemed impossible. We headed to one of the high street pubs, The Pepper Tree, to sit by a huge open outdoor fire and listen to the band and chatted to some of the locals, including some colourful characters such as the old chap in a sailors cap wearing a midriff sparkly jumper who carved up the dance floor with another local in a Statue of Liberty-esque crown of lights. They certainly know how to make their own entertainment in these small towns!
Heading into more remote camping spots, we have had long walks available to us, such as the Coromandel Walkway, a 7 hour walk between Stony Bay on the East coast and Fletchers Bay on the West. After months couped up in the Kochi Marina, and then the restrictions of Managed Isolation, it has been great to spend hours of each day outside, by the evening we are ready to hunker down with a hot cup of Milo (the New Zealand hot chocolate), or a glass of wine playing Scrabble, reading or testing our brains with Suduko.
The timing of our road trip has worked well with the start of the New Zealand spring and we have been blessed with plenty of sunshine. Most of the heavy rain and wind we have seen has been overnight, clearing by mid-morning. We have been snug and warm in the van, having invested in decent duvets and socks!
Preparing food has followed a similar pattern to our onboard catering. We are really enjoying being able to cook for ourselves again, and with ingredients we are familiar with that are readily available and easy to find. At one campsite, we had been told about a veggie stall just a few minutes away from a local’s garden. The stall was an unmanned table with an honesty box with a selection of veg that was as fresh as it is possible to be. We selected Silver Beet (Chard), spring onions, parsley, and lettuce for a grand total of 6NZD (about £3). We haven’t been into a cafe since we set off, making lunches as before we head out or stopping kerbside, usually with a spectacular view, while we make a quick brew of tea or coffee in our mobile food truck.
When we set out, we had decided that we did not need to plan too far ahead. That formula has proven to be the right one. On average, we have driven relatively short distances – sometimes as few as 30 kms – and just focused on the next destination as we head off again.
Those first few weeks in Cyril really helped us to work out changes we wanted to make. We knew that getting solar panels and new batteries were high on the list to enable us to spend longer “off-grid” without the need to go to paid campsites to get our power hook up to top up the battery. The end of our trip coincided nicely with the annual Motor Home show in Hamilton. This gave us an opportunity to compare different solar supply options in one place and benefit from some show discounts at the same time and meant we could get Cyril booked in for his nip and tuck when we got back to Auckland.
We are loving the freedom that Cyril gives us and have learnt that longer-term living in our new mobile home is both feasible and comfortable. We got back to Auckland mid-October, where we celebrated Bryan’s birthday and with the new solar installation have already set out again for our long-haul trip heading south along the North Island East Cape before we get the ferry across to the South Island in early December. Happy days ahead on the open roads of New Zealand.
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