The first night in the campervan

On 6.1. at 10:40 am we had the appointment to pick up our campervan and we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, we had to arrange transport from our apartment to the Spaceships warehouse, as a free shuttle service from Spaceship is only included for rentals of 21 days or more. We only rented for 17 days, so we would have had to pay $25 for a pick-up. We then decided to use Uber because with the code 'Google' you get the first ride for free up to $25 NZ$. Our ride cost about $18, so we didn't have to pay anything in the end. Pretty cool :D

The Uber driver picked us up at the apartment at 10:00 am and then we drove about half an hour towards the airport, where the warehouse is located. There we dropped off our luggage and after filling out some forms, copying the driver's license, etc., a nice guy showed us our car. It was one of the newer cars, a Toyota Estima, and therefore not painted bright orange like the Spaceships we knew before. But we liked that. The name of our car was Rafiki and the employee had to remind us of The Lion King before we recognized the name. The car's equipment is pretty good, everything was clean and we were able to put our stuff in right away. And then we hit the road!

The fuel tank was only half full at the handover, so we first went to refuel and then went shopping. By the way, petrol in New Zealand is much more expensive than in Australia. Around Auckland, we were able to refuel for $1.80 per liter, but in more remote areas and in the South, you always had to expect prices over $2.10. Fortunately, the consumption of our van wasn't as high as that of our 4WD in Australia!

Driving such a long car was quite unfamiliar at first! But over time we should get used to it and in general, the car was very good and smooth to drive. After all the errands, we headed north right away because we wanted to visit the Bay of Islands on the east coast of New Zealand, 230 km away from Auckland. The way there was quite far, but also very picturesque and we noticed for the first time that you definitely need more time than usual on New Zealand roads because everything is so hilly. There are often tight bends where you can only drive 40 or even only 25, and you can rarely take advantage of the maximum speed of 100 km/h. So you need about 3 hours for a 200 km long stretch. We're going to spend a lot of time in the car!

In the afternoon, we looked for a free campsite. It was located in a small town on the way to Paihia, the main tourist town for the Bay of Islands. On the site, we were able to inspect all the camping equipment and set up the bed for a trial run. We also organized our things as it seemed most practical to us. The campervan itself had a total of four seats, with the rear two seats (as one big bench) being able to swing around, providing space to extend the bed. For this, we had to extend two metal rods and place a wooden board on top. The same could be done on the other side of the bed towards the rear, so that you were lying a bit outside the car under the trunk. There was also a tarp that could be pulled over the trunk to have some privacy. However, we only did that twice in total because it was always too cold and we were glad to have enough space to sleep in the car :D Under the bed, there were two metal chests in which our backpacks and the kitchen utensils or the refrigerator were stored. Yes, we had a real refrigerator! It ran on the car's second battery and could therefore always be left on. Since we wanted to drive a lot, it would hardly ever run out. Quite a bit of luxury! Finally, we had a kind of pavilion that could be attached to the side of the car if we needed protection against the sun or rain. So overall, everything you need and for us, it was really cool to have so much space in the car and when sleeping.

The first night went well and the next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast in the sunshine with a view of green hills. When we were brushing our teeth, a tour bus suddenly arrived in the parking lot and people ran up somewhere between the houses. We were curious and went up there too. And behold: in the middle of a small town in New Zealand, Hundertwasser built a public toilet. How funny is that! :D So we randomly visited a apparently well-known attraction before continuing north.

I will report on our adventure in the Bay of Islands in the next entry :)