The adventures of Chops and Lowe, part 3: Carry on Camping

---

Hi all!

...So we touched down in Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand and spent a couple of days taking in what the city has to offer (not really much, trouth be told) and we ended up bumping into two lads we met in Fiji, Chris and Freddy who informed us they had just rented a campervan for quite a cheap price, so we got straight on the dog and bone and ordered us up some wheels for the next 2 weeks. If your wondering why theres a photo of a naked lad covering his intimacy with a guitar in amongst the pictures, its because we were intitled to a days free hire if we turned up naked. Chris (the lad in the photo) was brave enough to do it and Lowe had every intention of stripping until, lo and behold, a female turned up and his clothes remained on.

Because we picked up the vans together, we set off in a convoy of, er, two, and headed north. Our van (as shown in the pictures) was graffitti'd up and we noticed that each van from the same company (Wicked Campervans) had a slogan on the back. The other vans had some fairly cool slogans on the back, yet we had been stuck with the hilarious witticism: "THE BOSSES JOKES... ARE ALWAYS FUNNY" which we absolutely detested. The van however did get us a few stares aand comments along the way and it generally got a good reaction. Not too sure about the image of the man vomiting on the side panel either, but you get what your given. And so, avid readers, the journey went a little something like this:

Our first stop was a tiny place called Bayleys Bay and we drove down onto the beach to watch the sun set into the sea. We ended up staying in a holiday park which we had to pay for, but it meant we had amenities such as a shower and kitchen area. It was at this time that we decided to grow some moustaches. Theres nothing like a good old tash competition.

Day two saw us head further north to Opononi where the two lads were slowing us down a bit (we like to go at our own pace) and we lost them on the road. We stopped to do a spot of fishing with some hand lines we had just bought, yet it was to no avail and we had sausages, beans and egg for supper instead of a scrummy sea dwelling beast. This was clearly not on, and we decided to try and rectify the situation over the course of the two weeks.

We drove to the northern most tip of the country where we stood and looked down upon a beautiful and remote beach which is said to be where the Maori spirits come when they die. That night we stayed next to a rivermouth and just as dusk was upon us, out came... the dreaded mosquitos. We had no repellant or insect killer to hand and as it was clear we werent going to get any sleep there (the van was swarming with them) we jumped in and drove away at high speed, slapping our skin hoping to kill some of the little blighters. Luckily we managed to get a room at a run down motel so we ended up having a comfortable nights rest, free of irritating insects.

On day four we started off back south to a fishing port named Paihia where we booked up to do some dusk fishing on a small boat. It went very well and we ended up catching about 20 fish between us. Some were thown back due to size restrictions, and it looked like Lowery had the biggest catch until he was pipped at the post by Phil who came up trumps with a large Red Snapper before we returned to shore. Either way, we had some of the nicest fish weve ever tasted after barbequing it that evening.

Continuing south, we stopped in a car park in Papakura, a small Mauri town which didnt seem too friendly. We had a restless nights sleep before carrying on to Tauranga which was alot nicer and we had a few drinks in the local bars there. We also took this opportunity to wash our trollies.

We arent exactly sure where we stayed the next night as it was in the middle of nowhere but we camped on a small beach and knocked up a curry from the back of the van. Unfortunately the rice was a bit of a mess and we decided to stick to easier to make meals from that point. We slept on beaches pretty much every night after that with a couple of camping sites thown in so we could wash.

There were two occasions where we found out that the battery on the van was knackered. The first time we had left the lights and radio on for a while and we couldnt get the thing started back up, but we managed to hail down some local beekeepers to give us a start. The second time it died was a prime candidate for luckist escape award. We were by the side of the road in the morning next to Lake Taupo (pretty much the centre of the north island) and nobody we were flagging down was stopping. After a while we saw a van pulling over, and by complete chance, who should stop but a man driving a van full of... car batteries! We thanked him gratefully and were allowed to continue chortling at the irony.

And so that was pretty much our two weeks chopped up into edible chunks for your digestion. The van was just comfortable enough to get some sleep (especially considering we arent the smallest of people) and we spent our nights stargazing, watching a new moon birth and grow, fishing, playing Shithead (a card game we learned in Fiji) and drinking lager and wine. The country as we have seen it so far is wonderfully diverse in the scenery it has to offer, one can imagine being in Scotland one moment and then be surrounded by palm trees and pristeen sandy beaches the next. Happy days.

Take care everyone, hopefully more soon from your chums in the Southern Hemisphere.

PS. With regards to the moustaches, Chops looked ridiculous and Lowes was a non starter. Well, there was some hair there but it was so sparse it couldnt really be put into the category of 'moustaches'. Please refer to the pototgraphs which we will put at the end for the final hair-raising results. Ciao!

---