White Transit "Camper" Van Man
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2008
1
24
38
Trip End
Aug 16, 2009
Auckland,
North Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Arrived in Auckland and was met by our mate Ashley who was putting us up for a few nights, luckily he works for Cathy pacific so was at the airport anyway. We went into Auckland while we waited for him to finish his shift. Auckland was smaller than we expected (any town is small when you come from China) but really nice with some excellent surf shops. so we bought some nice beach wear for the coming months.
Ashley lives just north of Auckland with his lovely wife Jo in a beautiful house with fantastic views of the bay. The idea was to spend a few nights there while we sorted ourselves out with a van we could camp in. But a few nights turned into nearly a week of good food and heavy drinking. Ash and Jo were perfect hosts and made us feel really at home.
It was harder than we thought getting a van, but in the end we settled for a 1997 transit van that once was a mini bus. It was up for $5000 but we knock him down to $4000 and spent anther $800 kitting it out with beds and camping gear (about £1700 in total) and we were off.
Not very far though, the first day we got as far as Raglan about 100km from Auckland. We found a great camp site with views over the sea and lots of kite surfing. As soon as we got there Maja noticed a hissing noise coming from the engine. It was actually a puncture "no problems I´ll soon fix that" I said, so I got the spare out put it on, let the van down to find out it was just as flat, "Thought you were changing the Tyre" Maja said walking past, "I have" said I, "but its still flat" said she, "only at the bottom" Says I. That's when we remembered that when we took out insurance we also got break down cover. Great I thought, knew that would come in handy, so I called them but they had no record of me taking out break down cover. Great so no help there either.It took an extra day to sort as it was the weekend, but it was so beautifully it didn't matter.
We are working our way down the cost towards the south island but the coast roads can be quiet bad as a lot of them are windy dirt tracks. We found out to our detriment not to take them in a van after heavy rain. We had only been going for a hour when we got stuck in the mud going up a hill with a cliff drop off on one side. The more we tried to get it out the more it when nearer the edge. We waited to see if any one came past but nobody did so we tried again with rocks, branches and gravel and eventually got it out, but Maja refused to get back in so ran behind for a mile until the road was safe again. When we were back to safety I thought that the only way to make Maja feel safe again was to make her drive or that's what I told her, the drama had wore me out and I needed a rest to just sit and take in the beautiful scenery.
So we are going to keep going south
Comments
Nice van
well hello to the both of you,and its good to see you have finally made it off the asian sub continent and have landed some where more refined[and the laguage isnt all gobledy gook].New Zealand looks impresive its good to see they have managed to get that orc army under control, have you seen any hobbits yet.The van looks great fun but it dosnt seem nearly battered up enough for your usual style Baz. Not much to report on back here in blighty we just had a shit load of snow come down[most for 20 years apperently] which is nice. How was Ash by the way i went to school with him from when i was 4 to 16 and he has hardly grown sorry meant changed . Oh well keep the photos coming and i will log on again soon.Other stuff to do on line now[stuff that leaves my right hand free so no typing]good to see you both bye for now, Russ