Long time ago..

I'm back again. Did you miss me? There's a lot to tell now..

In the (previous) article, I mentioned that we wanted to buy a van. We did.

The van itself is good, a Nissan Caravan (2003), with everything still working. It has 240,000 km on its back, which is satisfying for a campervan. But there was a catch: it was just really dirty inside. It smelled (what else, everything stinks in Auckland), there was dirt everywhere, it was all filthy (I don't want to know which liquids made their way to the floor) and it all looked impossible. What did that mean for us? Everything out! Completely redesign the van. So we drove to a free campground in Orewa (a nice little town further north) and started our work here.

First, we dismantled and threw away the bed, then the 'kitchen' and all the other stuff.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from before, but soon there will be some of the 'new' van.

Continuing with the story: after we had taken out everything, which took about 3 hours, we started cleaning. Scrubbing the entire floor with a brush, all walls and windows, the 'cockpit', everything. Another 3 hours gone. No one will give us that time back.. Well, then let everything dry. Another hour gone. 5 hours, gone. Just like that. Time flew, so: off to the hardware store, get tools, get wood, get wood protection and so on. I better not tell you how much all of that cost..

And then it began: measuring the van, cutting the wood (we now have a real bed, not just a wooden board on 3 legs like before), nailing everything together and so on. Doing it by hand is not fun, I can tell you. By now it was probably 8 p.m. You shouldn't make noise anymore. So we put the old crappy mattress on the half-finished bed and tried to sleep without the bed collapsing. The night was bad (let's not start using foul language now, but bad is an understatement), but the bed held up!

The next day, we continued directly. Hammering, sawing, gluing..

Quick side note: all of our luggage was parked in the grass and had to be packed up, brought back to the car, or protected in another way every time it rained. And it rained in between constantly.. MAN I WILL NEVER BUILD A DAMN BED IN A FRICKIN' CAR AGAIN.

I'll report further tomorrow, otherwise all the fire alarms in a mile radius will go off because I'm boiling with anger. In that sense: Peace, I'm out. Stay tuned for tomorrow..