It’s been almost one month since we arrived in New Zealand.

We’re beginning to feel as if we’re finding our feet. Our ears are becoming tuned to the funky accent. We’ve learned a new compliment of variations on our vocabulary. We’ve managed to collect solid shoes and warmer clothes for everyone. We’re settling back into camper life.

Our RV is 18 feet long and 7 feet long, a grand total of 126 square feet.

Divided by six, that’s a grand total of 21 square feet per person. That includes our bathroom, kitchen, dining and living rooms and beds for six. Seem small to you? It does to us too, but that was kind of on purpose. The bigger the rig the more trouble it is to actually travel in, so we were intentionally on the hunt for the smallest possible container for our family of six.

The big perks: We have a shower, a tiny fridge and an oven!

We’ve stowed all of the backpacks, big and small, in all weather tubs that are strapped to the box on the back of our rig. The kids have moved their personal belongings into plastic tubs that slide under the bunks in the back.

Tony and I are in the “upstairs” bunk, that is the approximate size of a twin and a third mattress. It’s cosy.

The teens have the bottom bunks (couches) while the tweens have these cool little hammock sling type bunks that fit into grooves over top of their siblings. We’ve always joked about stacking the kids like cordwood, now we kind of do!

Things we’ve purchased to make life more comfortable and fun:

• Sleeping bags
• Fishing poles
• 2 foldable chairs
• A foldable picnic table that seats four, we can all eat at it, barely
• A little generator, the solar just wasn’t keeping up with the computer charging for work and school

That’s pretty much it!

It’s taken us a few weeks to find our routines, especially for morning and evening when people are getting up and going to bed in shifts.

The three seats in the cab of the camper are affectionately known as “the office” where those who need to can work after bedtime hours have arrived for the younger family members *cough*ezra*cough*.

The only real problem we’re having is that we keep popping water hoses.

Tony and Gabe tore apart the front end again yesterday to repair yet another burst hose and it was then that it occurred to Tony to dig a bit deeper. What he found was that the water pump, that has been newly replaced before we arrived, is pressurized at a rate well above the capacity of the tubing. Hence the serial breakage. So for now, we’re living out of buckets and will put a new (properly pressurized) pump in on Monday when we head back into town.

We are loving the freedom of having our home on wheels again, as we knew we would. We’ve enjoyed camping in some spectacularly beautiful places and the ability to tuck into quiet spots in postcard perfect towns. What “everyone” says about RV touring New Zealand is true, it’s a fantastic way to see the country.