New Zealand...Camper van time!!

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The last few weeks have involved rolling hills, mountains, sunshine, showers and camper vans!!! When we arrived in New Zealand the climate change was quite dramatic. A lovely 30 degree heat in Fiji, to 10 degrees at night and an average 14 degrees during the day in New Zealand. So not as cold as winter in England but still a bit of a shock to the system.

During week one in New Zealand our mission was to find a camper van. In order to get our bearings and decide on the best way to travel New Zealand we hired a camper van for a week and travelled to a few areas not far from Auckland. Long bay regional Park was a fab coastal walk we went on made up of forest and beach routes, as we walked along we ended up at four different beaches it took 4hrs to complete. We also visited Pakiri beach this was one of the prettiest beaches we've visited so far, the golden sand goes on for miles and the sea is very calm and clear, we found it a lovely beach to relax on. We stayed around the Waipu area and one of our greatest discoveries was a cave. The formation inside the cave was amazing, but unfortunately we didn't have our torches with us so we couldn't explore it any further and didn't get to see any glow worms. But we are planning to go to another cave during our stay in the North Island. We have been staying in free / low cost campgrounds. They are always next to fantastic scenery so when you wake up in the morning you can either see great coast line or mountains. I just have to brave when taking a shower as they are often outdoor cold water showers!!!

After exploring some of the North Island in the rented camper van we went in search for our own. Our first stop was a car fair in Auckland city but no success. However we managed to find an ideal one on New Zealand's backpackers Facebook page so we met up with the sellers and were happy with it so bought it straight away. We spent a few nights in the van and Dave decided that we needed to make changes to it, as you could only cook outside and the bed took up the whole area inside the van.

While Dave completes the conversion on the van we are staying in a hostel for a week. We've got a really good deal; we clean the hostel for 2hrs in the morning and get free accommodation which means we can convert the van and don't have to spend any extra money. I'm sure most of you can imagine as soon as i said camper van that Dave would be transforming it. I will add some pictures to show the before and after. So far he's made a bed out of very limited tools, which i think looks awesome. In true traveller style we've managed to pick up free material and flooring and search charity shops for fabric etc which has helped keep the cost low.

While Dave's converting the van I've been planning our trip around the Island so we don't miss anything out and get to experiences lots of new things eg swimming with dolphins! After the van conversion is complete we will explore the rest of the North Island.

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