the camper

Let me introduce you to our new home. It's a 1998 (or so, possible more early-nineties) toyota hiace - front wheel drive, stick-y shift, and a high top that provides us with a bit more headroom in the 'living space'. It's wonderful - we're still working on a name for it (although slowpoke sally, gluestick, bumpy bob have all been options, none have stuck). The front of it is the 'cab' where we drive, and then the back is our apartment, which includes a small sink (with storage underneath, hooked up to a water tank of probably 4-5 litres), a two burner propane stove, teensy frige, and a storage unit (including all of our cutlery, plates etc. that folds out to provide a counter-top cooking space). The back is two long benches under which is all storage, currently holding our food, clothes and camping gear. There's a table in between the two benches, which folds down to provide a really incredibly luxurious bed-space (I'm not kidding - we have pillows, a mattress pad, fitted sheet, sheet and duvet that we put together every night, and take down every morning)! It's WAY more comfortable than sleeping in a tent. Our bikes are hooked onto the back of the camper, relatively precariously (we generally have to tighten the rack, which is actually more of a stand, every time we take the bikes on and off. If you push them, they sway to the side...with the stand completely tightened and the bikes locked in...very solid! Gavin still has yet to put his kayak (which
is likely going to be purchased relatively soon) on the top of the camper, which will be quite an interesting achievement...and help us power up those hills even faster.
We've also added a few personal touches to the camper - mostly for bug-proofing. The windows (which originally come un-screened), have now been screened in using duct tape and some kind of filmy curtain (we couldn't find any screen material, so used second-best)...at least it's white, still lets the air flow through, and seems to stop the mosquitos! The duct tape has definitely been the best item we brought with us - it now blocks about 500 different points of 'bug entry' into the camper. Today, we also put up a tarp outside, to provide some cover if it rains (we had one light drizzle and decided we needed a bit more outdoor space...today it came in more handy to protect us from the sun, some shade in the 40 degree heat was nice)! It has about 10 tie-points, and is propped up on wooden poles we bought (initially intended as shower rods) at the home and garden store, unfotunately, we forgot to buy tent-pegs...but luckily our camp neighbour tonight saw us putting together this tarp with a lot of difficulty, using components from the campers jack as tent pegs - and decided to give us 4 tent pegs...you should see the set up this guy has going, it's pretty impressive, an awning (and a FLOOR!!), a full deck/lawn chair, patio table set up...all in this campground relatively in the middle of nowhere. we've decided being his kids would be the coolest - they've been by us in various different sporting get-ups (fishing, surfing, snorkeling, body boarding, kayaking) on the way to the beach (which is about 30 metres away from us down a hill...listening to the waves as I'm typing).We're slowly getting used to our 'routine' in the camper, as there's really limited space, but I think we've more or less figured out where everything goes, and what we need, at what time. The bike wheels and yoga mat have a home behind the front seat, food is all put away, and even the computers have their own space. At least that's keeping us semi-sane :)
The best part of all of this, is that other than to sleep and to cook, we haven't been in the camper all that much. To briefly summarize, here's what we've been up to the last few days:
- continued heading north from our last stop, ended up in a crap beach town in a campsite that was quite sketchy (think drunken camp manager welcome us saying 'can we sort this out tomorrow mate?', with ATV's etc. driving all over this beautiful beach, screaming children and the rest (actually the beginning of 90 mile beach) - so we left that one, and headed further north, ended up camping in a no-camp area near a mini-lake late at night, got up the next morning early (before we could be yelled at for camping in the no-camp zone) and continued heading north
- made it to the most northern point in New Zealand (well, almost. We went to the smaller, more remote campsite in a bay right near it) - Spirit's Bay, where in ancient Maori history the spirits departed from the island to reach their next point in their journey. The bay was Beautiful - an 8 km beach, which we hiked along that afternoon.
- We spent two nights in Spirit Bay (and we were VERY thankful for the screens on our
windows). Campsite was Gorgeous, right by the beach (a two minute walk), and it has
showers!! even though they were only cold showers, they were AMAZING. We spent the middle day biking 30 kms on a gravel road (not my finest bike ride, it seemed to be up the WHOLE way...there and back!), and then this morning running on the beach - gavin even convinced me to do some 100's in the sand (think Rocky vs Apollo Creed). quite challenging.
- We're now a bit south, in an area called kirikiri peninsula. our campsite is once again AMAZING - in a proper campground (we haven't yet found the showers, but I think there are some), and we're basically on a bluff, overlooking the Maitai bay - with the warmest ocean water I have ever been in (possibly due to the 40 degree heat). It's awesome - the third night in a row that we'll be going to bed listening to the sound of the waves. I'm in LOVE with this country!!! :) Tomorrow we're going to continue heading south, although not exactly sure where we're going to end up. Who knows, we may decide to stay here, go for a hike and play in the surf all day!! :)
Alright, time to head to bed. Huge hugs!! :)