Living the dream

I'm sitting here writing this in our camper van. O.k I am sitting here writing this in our camper van wearing a beanie I had to buy for the occasion because, yes, it is cold! However, I don't care as I am finally living my dream of travelling around in a camper van. Ok the van is a tad more luxurious than in my dreams (a heated towel rail?) and it has Ezy (the company's logo) with a lady showing a bit of leg on the side of it, but it is still a mini home on wheels. I can wake up in the morning and see a different, beautiful view each day. I can drive off within a moment if I want to, and go wherever I want; Well, at the moment, as long as it is in New Zealand and on the South Island anyway. And lets not forget the compactness of everything. There is something strangely satisfying about the smallness and well, compactness of a campervan/ caravan. Maybe I should be quiet now

We have been in New Zealand for about 3 days now. I wasn't sure we would make it when we boarded our plane and it creaked, followed by the pilot announcing the delay due to engineering difficulties. With this and the fact that there was no back seat entertainment screen the plane was clearly not up to date and I was dubious we were going to get there. The passengers on board didn't seem bothered. They were more bothered when the head steward informed us that the promised free bar to placate us for the delay would be no longer as the plane was fixed. His information was met with a particularly loud “baaaaah” from one passenger. Clearly, he was from New Zealand. Tim also joined in loudly with the boos.

We made it after all and flying in to Christchurch on our internal flight from Auckland we were greeted with miles of beautiful snow capped mountains. Christchurch itself is a nice town and when we got off the bus from the airport on to Cathedral square there were people playing giant chess, a tram ambling by and people doing the same all against the back drop of the small Cathedral. First impressions were that it was quiet, relaxed and had a nice atmosphere. This view did not change throughout the couple of days we were there. (Apart from when the man outside our window shouted “F***! for what seemed like hours.) I was happy when we found a really nice pub/ restaurant that did an extensive vegetarian menu. We spent the next couple of days wandering round and trying to sort a camper van out.

We finally decided on Ezy campers and picked it up today. I was dubious about the fact that it was an automatic, but got quite used to it fast although I still feel like I am forgetting to do something as I drive and sometimes stamp my foot down looking for the clutch. We drove about 100 kms today along lots of windy roads through lots of green hills adorned with lots of shorn sheep. As I write, it is getting colder and we have discovered that the little heater that came with the van does not work. D'oh! We will have to freeze like proper campers now!