New Zealand

Leaving Fiji on an early morning flight to Auckland, we got to the airport with less than hour to spare. No problem so we thought. The ticket agent for Fiji Airways asked us to show our outgoing ticket from New Zealand – which we didn’t have! Since we’ve been kind of ‘flying by the seat of our pants’ we didn’t know that New Zealand customs requires all visitors to have an outgoing ticket! We were left with no other option than to quickly purchase WIFI access and book outgoing tickets from Christchurch to Melbourne with only 20 minutes to work with. It kind of felt like we were on the Amazing Race and were presented with a ‘speed bump’. We booked our tickets on Travelocity and had only 1 minute left before they closed the gates on us. 

We landed in Auckland with full excitement for the month ahead. We’ve been thinking about doing another mobile-home tour ever since we did our trip to Norway in 2008 with Unni and Ragnar. That experience was so great for all of us that we promised ourselves to someday do the same in New Zealand.

We didn’t really know what to expect with our ‘Walkabout’ campervan rental – but were nervously anxious to find out.  We had a 3 hour wait at the airport before the Walkabout team was able to pick us up. While we waited we decided to splurge and get lunch at one of the airport restaurants (it’s a special occasion when we eat out!).  Kari was excited to see Villa Maria white was the house wine of the menu – and it tasted awesome.

Our first lunch in New Zealand was awesome!

When we got word that our pickup was waiting for us, we didn’t expect to see our campervan driven up to arrivals lane at the airport. We were beaming with excitement to see our new home for the next month – but it came as somewhat of a shock for Norrie to be put directly in the drivers seat and asked to drive from the airport to the rental depot. This would be a crash course in driving on the left side of the road and a refresher on what it’s like to drive a 7 meter mobile home through busy city streets! When we arrived at the rental depot, Norrie was very dry-mouthed but full of confidence for the journey ahead.

We quickly decided to name our camper van the ‘Bula Bus’ (Bula is our new favourite Fijian word). We bought a ‘Duk!’ (Norwegian table cloth) in Fiji which is our official flag which gets pulled out at every stop.

This 7 meter vehicle is a bit large but has some great space to spread out for our month ahead. Kai quickly claimed the top overhead sleeping bunk as his bed, and Vea enjoys being in her own single bed on the lower level for those midnight snuggles. Kari and Norrie are enjoying the King size bed in the back of the bus. Funny that this is the first King Size bed we’ve ever had – and it’s in a mobile home!

Our Bula Bus proudly displaying the yellow Fijian ‘Duk’ on the front mirror.

Our first night was spent at a campsite close-by to Auckland since it was late in the day and getting dark when we finished getting groceries at the ‘Pack N’ Save’ (kind of like a mixture of Costco and No Name Brands). Once settled in we pulled out the map and made a plan for our next few days in the Northland region. 

We’ve spent the past week driving up the east cost of the ‘Twin Coast Discovery highway’ towards the Bay of Islands. The weather has been amazing! New Zealand is experiencing a late summer with 25 degree days of full sun, and slightly cool evenings – but no rain. This is a great time to travel in New Zealand since it’s the shoulder season heading into Fall – which means less crowds and no need to pre-book at campsites.

The campsites so far have been incredible. Super clean and modern with fun trampolines which Kai and Vea love – and unlimited hot water showers which Kari and Norrie appreciate fully. We’ve been alternating days between staying in powered campsites versus freedom camping. In New Zealand it’s legal to camp anywhere that doesn’t have a ‘no camping’ sign. We’ve found many perfect spots by the side of the road and along the coast to spend the night with our ‘self-contained’ unit.

A perfect lunch spot

We took 3 days to drive up from Auckland to Russell – in the Bay of Islands. We’ve learned rather quickly that one of the best things about travelling by motorhome is meeting other ‘mobi’s’  from all over the world. It seems that most people who are travelling by mobile home are taking at least a month – so we’ve met many families who have similar aged kids and are on a type of work-sabbatical as well. It’s wonderful to watch Kai and Vea meet and interact with kids their same age who don’t speak any English but communicate with ease. Sometimes a soccer ball and Uno cards are all you need to bridge the language gap.

Vea playing a game of Uno with her new friend from Switzerland.

Vea’s highlight of this portion of the trip was a visit to the Kawiti Glow-worm Caves – during which we learned about an authentic Maori family story and experienced some amazing natural caves with thousands of Glow-worms.

One of the advantages of camping is the opportunity to get close to nature. We’ve been enjoying many opportunities for ‘family runs’ through beautiful coastal trails and ancient Kauri forest paths. This is really an amazing way to experience the nature of New Zealand – which Kai and Vea are loving.

One of our morning ‘family runs’ along a beautiful coastal trail

Norrie has been doing great driving the Bula Bus through some very windy and steep sections of road, and Kari has been navigating with a calm attitude – helping Norrie stay on the correct side of the road. Kai has the duty of delivering a ice cold beer to Norrie at the end of the driving day, and Vea has the job of gathering snacks for the late afternoon vino-time.

After spending a few beautiful days in the Bay of Islands, we took 2 days to travel down the west side of the Northland region – passing through an amazing ancient Kauri tree forest and renting double ocean kayaks for the morning to explore one of the coastal bays.

Ocean kayaking in the Bay of Islands

One week into our New Zealand adventure we feel like it’s the first time on this RTW trip we’ve been completely on our own agenda with total freedom to explore at our own pace. Kari often gets teary eyed with pure joy and gratitude for the ‘nows’ that we’re having.

Norrie is having a flood of memories recalled from his 3-month mountain bike tour of New Zealand 20 years ago with Beth. It’s great to be seeing so much more of this beautiful country with the Bula Bus – but Norrie and Kari often get yearnings for being on bikes riding through these beautiful coastal and country roads. We’re sure that we’ll find the right place sometime during this month in New Zealand to rent bikes for a few days.

While on our previous Bobil (motorhome) tour of Norway we had a great time ending the day with a planning session which involved a few glasses of red wine shared over a large map for discussing the next days travels. This was such a fond memory – and we’ve incorporated it into our New Zealand tour for the end-of-day planning session.

A memorable map planning session from our 2008 Norway trip

Here’s some more photos from our first week in New Zealand in the Northland.

All 4 Now.