Life in a campervan
Some of you have been a little curious about how we’re doing in such close quarters in the campervan for 26 days. And, the answer is, we’re having a fantastic time. In fact, we were originally scheduled to drop the camper here in Queenstown on 29Sep and we’ve extended to have it until 3 Oct for dropoff in Christchurch. In our time her in New Zealand we’ve developed quite a daily routine. We normally are up between 7-8am everyday and most of the time have breakfast in the camper. Then, on travel days we’re on the road and on days we’re sticking around the same town, we head out for downtown or sightseeing or whatever is on the agenda that day.
Lunches (and actually dinner tool) are mostly in the camper as well and even though we have really limited space we certainly have still been eating pretty well! We have mostly been staying at the Top 10 Holiday Parks because they’re consistantly the nicest and have the best restrooms, etc. All the parks also have kitchens, some have swimming pools or spas and many have playgrounds for kids since it’s such a popular family type holiday here. Usually a couple of times a week we’ll have dinner out for a change and it is nice to have someone else waiting on you!
The amenities at the different parks (even in the Top 10 system) do tend to vary quite a lot. The showers are normally how we rank how much we like a park. Sounds silly but really, one of them had a SIX (6) minute timer on the shower AND the button to push for another 6 minutes was not just outside the shower stall but outside the door of the bathroom! Now, I am not a shower hog but 6minutes is pretty darn short. The best showers are certainly the ones without meters and some are 10minute meters but at least the button to push for more time is right inside the shower stall with you.
The kitchen is also important in a park because even though we have a propane stove in the camper we don’t want to have to keep refilling it and so we generally always cook dinner and do up dishes in the kitchens of the park. Some have had just 2 cooktops and a couple of sinks and then a few days in Franz Josef it had 8 cooktops, 2 ovens and a dormitory size dining room!
Most parks also have 1 or 2 computers for internet use and a game and/or tv room with truly uncomfortable couches, etc. Not at all a bad way to travel!
One disadvantage of the campervan is, of course, that we must take down the table and put in boards to make up the bed every night and do the reverse in the morning. We have our routine down pretty well and it only takes a couple of minutes but hey, not quite as convenient as just flopping into bed at night.
Most evenings find us reading by headlamp and relatively early to bed….too many exciting things to be up and doing the next day to stay out partying too much!
It may not be fore everyone but many of our dear friends, and you know who you are, would absolutely LOVE this type of freedom in traveling as much as we are. With it’s beautiful scenery, loads of activities and short distances New Zealand is definitely a great place to try out life in a campervan.
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