Our First Week in NZ

It’s been a week since we landed in Auckland and wow, what a wonderful time we’ve had! 

Jacquie and Richard gave us an amazing welcome to New Zealand and helped us find our feet. So far we’ve had the chance to explore Auckland city, as well as some of the coast and even managed to squeeze in a few holes of golf - much to Nathan’s enjoyment. Spotting some dolphins and a ray whilst out for coffee down at the seafront really topped off an awesome first few days.

Later in the week we were able to tick off a huge milestone for our trip by securing a campervan - a 2007 Toyota Hiace! The van has been recently converted, meaning it’s clean, fresh and a blank canvas for us to make our own. This meant that the latter half of the week was spent excitedly gathering items like bedding and kitchen equipment for our van. We were lucky enough to be donated a lot of items by Jacquie and her neighbours, and the rest of the items we managed to pick up in either ‘op shops’ (what they call charity shops over here) or bargain warehouses.

With all of the shopping and sorting complete, we finally set off on our adventure on Sunday, heading north into the aptly named ‘Northland’. An empty gas canister nearly brought disaster on the first night but luckily the public BBQs in the Regional Park we were staying in came to the rescue - showing once again that hiccups along the way only enrich the adventure!

All smiles so far, van life is pretty sweet!