Saturday, August 26, 2017

New Zealand, Day 7 - That Campervan Tho' (North Island to South Island)

Day 7 - Auckland to Christchurch

Here's the thing, New Zealand is an island, but it's a big island--and actually it's two islands that are not connected. Several other families we talked to and blogs I had read just focused on one island and it was usually the South one. But there were places we wanted to visit in both regions and we viewed this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to be on that side of the world, so we decided to try to swing both. Originally, our plan was to drive to the southern tip and take the ferry across to the South Island but it would have consumed a huge portion of our limited time to drive there and a huge portion of our limited funds to transfer 6 people and a campervan on the ferry. Turns out, it's actually cheaper to fly. So that's what we did!


This allowed us to focus on just one loop on the North Island, return to Auckland, fly down to Christchurch, do a circle on the South Island, and fly back to Auckland for our return flight to Hawaii.   We had to devote an entire day to travel but it was worth it for us to get to experience both islands and still have time to visit most of the sites on our list!

So on Day 7 we left Waitomo first thing in the morning and drove three hours to Auckland. After days of roaming the hillside, it was strange to be back in the city--with straight highways, multiple lanes, and on-ramps and off-ramps.

We had eaten as much of our food as we could and frantically started cleaning out the campervan once we pulled into the rental lot. We paid extra for a package that exempted us from having to return the RV with a full gas tank and an empty toilet tank (more on that later.) So it was actually fairly easy to pack everything up, wipe it all down, sweep it all up, and hit the road again.

New Zealand is so campervan friendly. Most places had parking areas designated for RVs.
The RV rental location provided a shuttle to the airport that pulled up just as we were finishing one final bathroom break. We were soon back at Auckland, all checked in, and enjoying brunch at the airport McDonalds--which actually made a delicious Flat White, if I do say so myself.


The flight to Christchurch was less than one hour. We splurged on the Kids' Snack Pack that the airline provided and they all got to pick a treat at the gift shop which made for a quick and pleasant flight. As we were flying in to the South Island you could begin to see the difference. More brown than green, more mountains than rolling hills. And snow! Well, not on the nearby ground, but definitely on the mountains in the distance. We were all shivering in anticipation!

We landed, picked up our luggage, caught another shuttle, and then waited some more at the campervan rental, which was actually quite nice and accommodating! We rented through Britz, but they work in conjunction with Maui. So our first van was a Maui and our second one was a Britz--even though they were exactly the same on the inside. We were really happy with our rental experience and loved touring the country in our campervan.

Cappuccino machines for the adults and crayons and coloring pages for the kids!
That said, there were definitely some challenges to sharing a tiny living area with six people. Naturally, space was a big issue. There was plenty of room for us to store our groceries and smaller items, and there was a large storage space under the camper that was great for a folding table (that we never used), camping chairs, muddy boots, and other outdoor stuff. But there wasn't much room for our bags. We had packed everything in soft bags to make storing them easier. But our modus operandi soon became piling the bags on our bed during the day, and stacking them up in the dining area at night.

Kitchen area

As you can see from this photo, there's only space for one adult to walk through at a time. 

Kitchen storage. We also had a TV/DVD player but we didn't figure the DVD player out until halfway through our trip.


We did most of our cooking in our campervan kitchen, but I usually did dishes in the resort kitchens--more space and unlimited hot water!

Another example of a campground community kitchen.
You could only set the tabletop up during the evening when we weren't driving, since two of our kids needed to be in carseats and they didn't fit in the leg space. At night, we'd set up the table and move the carseats to the driver's cab for storage.

Play time

Meal time.

Driving time

More play time
Jon and I had the double bed in the back of the van. The dining area turns into another double bed, but we preferred to use that for storage and put all four kids in the double bed up above the cab. They thought this was fun for the first few nights but soon reality set in and some evenings it was a challenge to get them all to settle and sleep (no matter who was sleeping next to them.) Then we could shut the curtain on their bed and get the rest of the camper to ourselves.

Kids' bed

Our bed. And since I slept next to the window but am always the first one up--it involved acrobats to get out of bed every morning.
Dirty laundry presented another challenge. Mainly because it was actual, dirty laundry. Lots of rain + all our hiding and touring adventures meant there was no re-wearing of clothes. So we started a pile in the one free corner of the camper. And with six people, it didn't take long to grow! Muddy shoes stayed in the bucket-step at the front door.

This is what things looked like when we were parked for the evening.



Hanging laundry on every spare inch!
But the wet towels, robes, and swimsuits were impossible to dry in the cold weather. Anytime we weren't on the road, wet items were hanging everywhere in attempt to somewhat dry. Sometimes we'd throw them in the campground dryer but at $4NZD a pop, it's not something we wanted to do every day in addition to our regular laundry. And wet sneakers were a whole other story. I spent a good portion of my vacation time in dreamy En Zed standing by a hand dryer with a stinky pair of my boys' shoes.

We also used the dryers for just getting warm period.

Heat lamps!
And then there's just the whole experience of living in such close quarters with your children every second of every day. Our only hope was to wear them down sufficiently enough during the day to guarantee an early, peaceful evening. And while it certainly helped that the sun was setting at 5:30. It made for some very long and quiet evenings for Jon and I. On the warmer nights we sat outside under the stars on the camping chairs. But on the colder and rainy nights (which was the majority), we just sat together on the bed and read or watched the iPad. And then went to bed early.

Coloring on the floor while sitting on a bag of dirty laundry.


Enjoying a breakfast of oatmeal cookies while siting next to the space heater.
Oh, and let's talk about the convenience of having your toilet RIGHT THERE. Like, right next to our heads as we slept. I mean, it's great, having such amenities available anytime we needed them, especially with four kids. But still... ew. And don't even get me started on the time one of our kids had an emergency situation while we were ON THE ROAD and Jon took a crazy sharp turn that ended with us having to reinstall the bathroom door... I'll leave the rest to your imagination and just say, this is why you only use the toilet when the van is parked.

I tried to capture this bathroom but it was so tight I couldn't fit it into my camera view. But this is the toilet  and that hose you see next to it ...
... is the shower, hanging directly above the toilet and the sink, which folds into the wall. We didn't use the shower, but I was regularly awed by it's functionality.
We tried to utilize the campground restrooms as much as possible! (Note Julia standing under the hand dryer in the background.)


Some were nicer than others ... can you say heated floors?!?

She's showing you an example of a campground shower.

Some campgrounds had stricter shower policies than others!
We tried to encourage the kids to save up their "big needs" for when we were at the campground, but--kids. So instead of lasting us 2-3 days, our sewage tank needed emptied every day. Which was another reason we stuck to camping resorts rather than free-camping (that and power--we needed heat and to charge electronics.) Daddy was an absolute hero in emptying the tank each day and the rest of us cheered him on through the window.

Doesn't the term "cassette" make it all sound so pleasant?


So anyhow, we acquired our second RV and made our first stop at Countdown for more food. They say that New Zealand is expensive, but add shopping with [the distraction and wants of] four kids to that equation and it adds up even more. For example, if you just grab the first eggs you see (which aren't refrigerated by the way), they could end up being the fancy-pants, organic, free-range, fresh-air, $9/dozen kind. Yikes!


There was no La Croix in En Zed, but this was a delicious alternative!

Cheerios, but not General Mills. Interesting.
And while we're on the topic of stores in New Zealand, can I just point out the garishness of signage in this country? It never ceased to amaze me that a place of such jaw-dropping natural beauty had such eye-assaulting, man-made marketing.




This is "The Warehouse" which would be similar to our K-Mart/Wal-Mart/Target.
After a long day of travel, we knew we needed an early evening to relax. So we made a short drive right within Christchurch and stayed at the Top 10 there that night. This was a really nice campground and the only one we visited with a DRIVE-THRU CHECK-IN. So this was also the only  time I was present during the check-in process. And it was also when we realized these campgrounds charge extra per person beyond the initial two campers and why we were busting our budget on overnight accommodations. Instead of $43/night, it turned into $119/night for a family of six!!! I always find it frustrating when I feel like I'm being punished for having kids. But I digress.

I never understood why they always filled campgrounds one next to another when the rest of the park was open. But it did make things feel a little less desolate.
So it was a nice campground and a populated campground--we were surrounded by other camper vans. But we still had the showers and kitchen to ourselves most of the time! The Christchurch Top 10 had an "indoor heated" pool. I use the terms "indoor" and "heated" loosely. It was located in something resembling a shed. And not nearly warm enough for me. But they somehow managed to squeeze a kiddie pool and a slide into the shed-space and that was enough for our kids!

It really was as ghetto as this pictures makes it appear.
This campground also had a hot tub (and it too was located in a separate shed--more like a tiki hut.) But you had to pay extra and reserve it ahead of time. So we did. At 8:00pm, we ensured the kids were fast asleep, locked the camper up, and headed across the road to our own private hot tub. Woo woo!! (and no photos.) It was the perfect peaceful ending to a long day of hustling, and a needed break before what was about to be our longest day on the road in New Zealand!
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