For most of the time we’re spending in New Zealand, we’ve rented a camper van. Between us, we refer to it as our “chateau”. It’s of course far from that, but it’s home sweet home for the next 2 and a half weeks. It has a kitchen with a fridge, gas stove, grill, microwave oven, toaster, water boiler, and all pans, plates, cutlery and other kitchen utensils one might need. It has a small bathroom with a toilet, shower and wash basin. It has a dining room area (meaning a table and benches around it), which turns into the bedroom when we pull down the bed for the night.

Neither me nor Daniel had ever travelled around in a camper van before, so it’s a first for both of us. I’m definitely impressed with how well organized it is, and that you really have everything you need to live on about 10 square meters. It’s also well thought out, in the sense, for example, that the plates, cups and glasses get fixed into place, so that they don’t move around and possibly break when you’re driving the car. We have also camping chairs and a table which we can put out if we want to eat outside, and a cover giving shade that we can extend from the van. And there are of course a few cupboards inside the van, where we can store our things. As the cherry on top, we were lucky enough to get a brand new camper van, so everything inside it is brand new. The car had driven 40 km when we got it. It’s of course nice to have everything inside new, but it also creates a bit of stress for us to try to not damage anything at all, as the rental company also knows that they gave it to us in a perfect state…

On our first day of having the camper, we decided to go to a beach that’s pretty close to Auckland, whose most interesting feature is that it has black sand! I had never seen a black sand beach before and was quite impressed with the reflection effect it creates in the areas where the sand is wet.

Highs:

• When we got the camper van! I was really excited and curious about it. Once I could inspect it a bit, I was quite impressed with how well organized and well set up it is, given that it is effectively a small house on wheels.

Lows:

• The next 1 or 2 days after getting the camper van… After the initial excitement and once we got to use it a bit, I started getting frustrated with how little space there is in it and with other small inconveniences of life in a camper van. But they are indeed very small inconveniences and, for better or worse, we have an own “home” for the next 2 and a half weeks, which we haven’t had in more than 2 months now. After the initial 1-2 days, I got to used to it, and I’m now pretty comfortable in the van. Daniel and I have divided and worked out our tasks inside it, and we found the way to make it work for us.