One Year Away

Penny

After 5 months of depending on others
to get us from place to place, we decided to get our own set
of
wheels to tour both the North and South islands in New Zealand.
Unfortunately, this convenience also has a cost.  Being on a tight
budget, we went for the cheapest option.  We rented a
micro-campervan.  I think that it sounds much fancier than it really
is.  The micro-campervan is really a four cylinder station wagon
where the front and back seats fold forward,creating a small sleeping
area in the back.  The  “campervan” is outfitted with a tent that
when the back hatch door is open, you can wrap the tent over it. 

Our campervan, that we have nicknamed
“Speed Demon”, is somewhat cramped at times.  We have to take out
all of our equipment, backpacks and food and leave them outside when
we want to sleep.  On our first night in the Speed Demon, set up took
us a total of 40 minutes!  We hope to be able to report at the end of
the trip that we have cut that down to 7 minutes. 

The Speed Demon has given us the
freedom to go wherever we want, whenever we want.  That is a great
feeling.  We are not convinced that it will make it through the
entire trip.  It is already making funny noises and when you go over
80 km/hour it feels like you are going 150 km/hour.  Thankfully we have
all the supplies
we need should we break down in the middle of no
man’s land.

Joe has been doing a good job driving
on the left side of the road.  Everything in the car is on the
opposite side of what we are used to in Canada.  Other than using the
windshield washer control instead of the flicker and almost going the
wrong way when we left the camp ground today, he has been a great
driver.  My turn will be coming up… I am a little nervous about it!