We’ve been talking about this journey for years.

Ever since my parents bought a little camper van and knocked around the islands for six weeks or so a decade ago when Josh and his sailboat wended there way to this side of the world. They quickly declared it their favourite place in the world, and they’ve been to more than a few.

Of course things have changed in ten years:

• Free camping has been ratcheted down on.
• Exchange has equalized with the Canadian dollar somewhat.
• Camper hire has become a booming business.

And of course, there is the subtle difference that they are two persons, while we are three times that; none of whom qualify as “small” any longer.

Tony has been on the camper hunt since about September.

In November, we enlisted Bethaney, our angel friend over at Flashpacker Family as our “on the ground” contact and she has patiently, faithfully helped us contact owners and circumvent the very annoying “Kiwi only” aspects of Trademe.com. When we get to Christchurch, I owe her a drink, or three.

Camper hire agencies were out of the question.

Even with long term, off season discounts the best rate we were able to secure was $20,000 NZ for six months for a 6 berth camper.

Yeah, that was our reaction too.

My Dad insisted that it was a simple matter to buy and resell a camper van through one of the agencies set up to assist travelers in that position. He seems quite right. But again, the sticking point being the number of bodies. There are loads and loads of 2-3 person pods of perfection to roll around the countryside in. Not so many in the tribe range.

An additional development, over the past ten years: the Self Containment Certification requirement.

In order to make use of any of the fabulous free camping sites sprinkled across the islands, your vehicle must now be certified self-contained, meaning grey and black water in holding tanks. This is a bigger wrinkle than it seems when looking at flipping one of the many oldie-but-goodie campers for sale. (Insert reference to number of bunks needed here to add to the joy.)

All that to say…

We found a camper!

It took a lot of hunting and Tony has been chatting with the guy for sometime about the details.

It was one we had thought to buy, but then offered the owner a rental deal which turned out to suit him perfectly, as he wasn’t really wanting to sell. Everybody wins! The only tricky bit is the insurance with a private rental, but we’re working on a creative solution to that!

It’s old: 1986 Dihatsu, manual transmission and well maintained and the Toyota diesel engine has barely 300K km on it… nothin’ for that sort of work horse.

It’s small: but it sleeps six, with these cool little hammock style bunks that hang above the two long seat bunks. Tony and I are sleeping in the over the cab bunk, which is about a twin-and-a-half wide mattress. Good thing we’re skinny and like to sleep like snakes.

It’s self contained: Shower, toilet, sink, the whole works.

The cab (which seats three) easily converts to an office, with the addition of coffee cups and laptops. 🙂

And… it has an OVEN!! 

I made cookies and baked a chicken tonight!! I’m in heaven! I haven’t had a proper oven in about a year!

We’re currently noodling names for the old girl, if you’d like to suggest one, leave it in the comments.

Mobile Office!