Since arriving, our primary focus has been searching for a vehicle that will serve as both our home and transportation for our time in New Zealand. That was easier said than done. Having to rely on public transportation and having no phone to contact sellers made this a difficult task. Fortunately, we stumbled upon a great deal on a '91 Mazda Bongo van only a mile from our hotel. Of course this was after a day of wondering around most of the greater Auckland area both on foot and by bus. We bought the van this morning and spent the rest of the day retrofitting her to meet our needs.
For this amount of money...
You can get this!
Dustin hard at work building our bed frame:
Tomorrow we're planning to stock up on supplies and camping gear before heading south to explore the islands. We're anxious to get out of the city and into the mountains, rivers, and surf.
9 comments:
Sweet ride! I'm impressed with the find...
Hi Dustin and Rachel - sounds like this is QUITE an adventure already- WOW!! It will be FUN to see pictures and stories as you go! Was GREAT to see you before you left- stay in touch - we are still thinking Italy in Sept!! SMILE and be SAFE - Dave and Kim
That looks like an awful lot of money - are you sure you didn't get ripped off...
What is it like actually doing this stuff? Is it like you imagined?
My advisor is from NZ so if you need a sheep farm to hang out at...
Where do you park a van that you live in? Like, to sleep? Do they have rest stops like we in the North do?
Let me know if you find any Hobbits.
Lots of love!
C
I was catching up on the entire blog, quite an adventure thus far. Did you win in Rugby? How are those cheap long underwear treating you? Have fun in the Bongo!
E
Dave & Kim -
That would be great if you two made it to Italy. Maybe we can find another Bongo to cruise around in.
Lisa -
Hopefully we didn't get ripped off. We had to get the money from an ATM and it only gave $20NZ bills, which is less than $11USD. So it looked like alot more money than it was. We'll see how good of a deal we got when we go to sell it. So far, we've parked for the night in a mix of campgrounds and random pullouts near fishing/hiking areas in the middle of nowhere. We haven't seen any Hobbits yet, but we're keeping a lookout for them.
In all of the pictures we saw of Fiji they never showed rain, so it was not quite what we envisioned. A good part of our time in New Zealand has been spent getting our van & outfitting it with the essentials, so we are looking forward to spending more time hiking, surfing, and fishing during the rest of our time.
Elisa -
The Aussies and Dustin were no match for the Fijians.
We'll try to update the blog and add more pictures in the next few days.
Hey, guys. I'm sure you're equally jealous of our snow and -20 temps here! Looks like a great time. I can only imagine what your kids will one day think when they look at these pictures. Have fun. We're proud of you.
Congrats on the sweet house van! If you meet any Maori locals bump noses with them and say Kiora - it's the local greeting:) Make sure you see the Haka at some point, the best would be to go to an All Blacks rugby match, they do the Haka before every game. Keep living it up while the rest of us work and freeze back here in MN.
We are sincerly jealous of everything you two are doing... the good the bad and and the ugly. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.
Renee(Torborg) & Adeam Swanson
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