Cruising around New Zealand in a Campervan; Sarah and James’ Travel Blog

So I am writing this sitting in our campervan. We have had it for 5 days and we are loving every minute of it.

We picked up the van from Auckland (pictured behind the tree below), bang in the middle of the 2 minute silence the country was holding for the victims of the earthquake. There was a dozen of us watching it in the pick up place on the TV. A very sad moment.

We had heard that the cormandel peninsula was supposed to be stunning, so we decided to head there 1st. We thought we would just do a short trip in the van 1st just to get used to it. Perhaps we chose a fairly hard destination to get to as although the drive was beautiful it was probably one of the most windy roads I have ever been on. But we bumbled on, pulling over often to let the tail of people behind us past every now and again, and so that we could stop to take pictures. So because of our slow pace we have decided to call our van “The Snailmobile” and also because we feel like snails as we are carrying our home with us everywhere we go!!! he he

We actually hired a van with a shower and toilet thinking that if the campsites we pitched at were anything like the UK, we would probably have to trek miles to the toilet and actually be faced with fairly grotty showers. Well, let’s just say NZ campsites are nothing like those in England as all of them have been spotless and the facilities have been excellent. Oh well, we know for next time.

There are a few things we have learnt about campervanning and that’s NEVER to start driving until:

1. Everything is away i.e. in a cupboard or something as it then means you can find things i.e it hasn’t been thrown across the floor

2. The catch on the fridge is on. We discovered this was essential after the contents of our fridge fell onto the floor at our 1st corner

3. And finally, make sure that the waste water tank is empty otherwise you will find that when you empty the sink, it starts to come out the shower/toilet. hmmmmm nice!!! we’re just glad it didn’t happen the other way!!

But we’re getting the hang of it now.

So we spent the 1st night in a place called Thames which was just a pit stop really and then we carried on our spectacular drive to Whitianga (pronouned fitianga). We decided to stay here 2 nights as the weather was nice and it was a lovely town and also here, we met a Dutch couple, Mariette and Arjen who we had a few drinks with on our last night.

We did a lovely walk up a place called Shakespere’s cliff where actually Captain’s Cook memorial is. This was the place where him and his crew on Endeavour discovered New Zealand. After the short walk we thought we would have a treat and went to some Thermal Pools, a place called the Lost Spring. It was very relaxing and the water in the pools was lovely and warm.

James is so pleased with our campervan as it means he can cook lots of nice meals. Yey for me!!!! Most of the campsites also have a BBQ so we enjoyed stuffing some bananas with chocolate and marshmallows!!! yum yum.

After Whitianga we shared the drive to Rotoura, which is where we are now. We stopped at a place called hot water beach which is famous for a volcano erupting there millions of years ago and is still bubbling underneath the surface, therefore as the name says, there is spot on the beach that if you dig a hole boiling hot water is found. We arrived there, to find hundreds of people digging the sand up. We dug a hole 1st and the water was cold, we moved to left a bit and suddenly, after digging for just 5 mins (well James did most of the digging) we found hot water.

En route we also happened to pass a road called Ainsworth Road, so we couldn’t resist turning round and have a photo under it. I think the other motorists thought we were nuts!

We have been in Rotoura 2 days and only just realised that the eggy smelll is not coming from our campervan, which we were very worried about, but from the sulphurous gas that is caused by the volcanic activity in the area. It really does stink!!!

Unfortunately, the day before yesterday was a complete wash out!! It rained all day, infact I didn’t know it could rain that hard solidy for about 36 hours. But, we were very cosy in our caravan and decided to have a chillax day and treated ourselves to fish and chips (we had been craving this).

Yesterday, it had finally stopped raining, so at 5.30pm we were picked up and taken to a Maori Village. James was really keen to learn about some of the Maori history and culture so we went to an Maori evening. To be honest, I wasn’t that fussed, but it ended up being one of the best things we have done. There was a 45 minute performance, where to our delight, they performed the Haka at the end. The actors were excellent. We then went to enjoy a traditional Hangi meal, where our food is cooked in the ground and we watched them bring it out of the ground before they served it to us. I have never eaten so much in my life. I think it was the best meal James and I have had on our travels, there was even stuffing and gravy. Amazing.

We’re back driving the Snailmobile today and heading towards Taupo.

Bye Bye

Sarah and James