Auckland - Whangarei

We woke up to a cooked breakfast of hash browns, scrambled egg, beans on toast tomatoes, courtesy of Matt, which was a real treat! Paul didn't join us though, I think he may have had a little bit of a sore head from the wine he drank the night before.

After breakfast, we set off to pick up the campervan. We decided to get an uber there as for an extra $5 it saved us an hour and five minutes travelling time and 3 buses. Once we had completed all of the relevant paperwork and the lady had shown us around the van we were on our way. It's a ford transit with a toilet, shower, fridge, microwave and a 2 hob gas stove. We were very excited to get going but had to go back to Mount Eden first to pick up our bags.

After collecting our bags and saying farewell to Matt (still no sign of Paul) we set off in search of a Pak n Save. Pak n Save is the cheapest supermarket in New Zealand so the perfect place to stock up on supplies. We did however manage to spend $150 but it is the first shop so had to buy everything. Let's hope future shops will be considerably cheaper!

With the van stocked, I made a quick sandwich for the road and we were off. The perks of driving your home around with you means that Simon can be easily fed at all times which will make for a more pleasant road trip!

From Auckland we took route 1 up North with a little stop in Orewa for a cup of tea in the van and a stroll along the beach. By this point it was around 3:30pm so we decided to get a wiggle on to Whangarei as we are staying on a couples property and they were going out for dinner so asked us to arrive before 6pm. We made it there with 1 minute to spare and were greeted by Eric and his wife (I'm calling her that as I can't remember her name). It's a paid site but for only $15 it was a bargain and we even get power. As it was our first night in the camper we thought we should break ourselves in gently. Our first meal in the van was a chilli con carne courtesy of Mr Thatcher.Read more