Caution Wide Load

One night around 10pm we came across a 4x4 with some flashing lights and a "Wide Load" sign. Following closely behind was a truck carrying a house. I'm guessing this maybe fairly common in New Zealand but we found it unusual. The quality of the photos isn't great but you can make out that its a house thats just passed us on the road.

Caution Wide Load - House approaching!

Did a house just pass us?

Monster Trucks near Queenstown

On our way to Queenstown we came across a place that had monster trucks that you could drive. We thought this sounded like fun so we stopped to take a look. Sadly they were carrying out repairs on all bar one of the trucks. The one that wasn't being serviced as an old school bus but the lady advised us that it was very very slow and that we'd probably be bored. This monster truck was intended for families.

School Bus Monster Truck

School Bully

It was unfortunate that the other ones were being serviced as they looked like lots of fun especially as their wheels were almost the same height as our camper van!

Hiace versus Monster Truck

Quad Biking on the South Island

After the Irish game we made our way south to Wellington and took the ferry to the South Island. Everyone had told us that we'd have difficulty getting the ferry because everything would be booked out because of the Rugby World Cup but this turned out not to be the case. This was the same with renting the camper van, I think they overestimated the amount of people that would be visiting or else everyone assumed everything would be booked out so no one actually tried to book anything. We spent some time around Nelson, a sunny spot in the north of the South Island.

Sunny Nelson!

We headed south then to the Franz Josef glazier. Here we planned to do another helicopter ride this time with a snow landing on the glacier. Unfortunately it was very cloudy which meant it wasn't worth doing it as visibility was extremely poor. Instead we did a quad bike tour. Things were a little more strict here compared to Quad Biking in Bolivia, if you turned the bike over or crashed into the instructor you would receive a fine. The terrain varied greatly and was considerably more difficult than that in Bolivia. The result was you didn't have time for messing around or racing.

Quad Biking in New Zealand

The trip really showed what quad bikes are capable of, some of the water crossings were quite deep and some of the kills steep but the bikes had no problems especially when you put them into 4-wheel drive. The highlight of the trip for me was the river crossing. The photo doesn't really do it justice but the current was very strong, so much so that you could feel it pushing against the bike.

River Crossing on a Quad Bike

Finally to finish the day we had to clean the bikes and the overalls. They had a quick way of doing this!

Free Shower Included

Meeting Paul O'Connell

After our trip up North we went South to New Plymouth for the first Irish game in the Rugby World Cup. We arrived the day before the game and realised that most people had the same idea of us. Even though overnight parking and camping is illegal almost all car parks in New Plymouth were full with Irish camper vans. We were struggling to find somewhere to park up for the night until a random Irish guy came over to us when we were stopped at the traffic lights and told us of a place they had parked. It was the car park for an aquatic centre only a few minutes walk from the town centre. Perfect location, public toilets in the car park and hot showers in the aquatic centre. 


New Plymouth was full of Irish fans, everywhere there were people dressed in green and the two Irish bars in town were full from opening until closing. It rained and rained the day of the game and throughout the game itself but this didn't stop the Irish fans coming out. There were some USA supporters around as well although they were seriously outnumbered.

Green Army

The game itself wasn't the best but there was a great atmosphere around the stadium and everyone was enjoying themselves. The organisation of the event was excellent and everything worked as planned and without any problems. 

The rain wouldn't stay away

A few hours after the game we met Paul O'Connell in a car park. He passed passed by us on his way to the nearby gym and decided to come over to chat. He stayed for about a half hour talking, laughing and joking with everyone. 

Paul O'Connell with the group

We even got him to take our photo. This had been a running joke for most of the day but we never thought we'd end up asking Paul O'Connell. Some of the other fans didn't get the joke but luckily he did. It probably would have been better had we got a photo of us with him or sign our jerseys but possibly not as humorous.

The one Paul O'Connell took!

HEALTH WARNING - Collection of shellfish not recommended

The next day while traveling further north we stopped at another beach. Here we met some locals who were collecting shellfish. Friendly as all kiwis are they came over and started talking to us. They showed us what they were collecting, from where and explained how we should cook them. It was lunch time so we decided we'd collect some and cook them as well.

Fresh from the sea

We cooked them in boiling water with some garlic, onion and chili and served with some bread and lime. They tasted great, it was only later that we noticed a nearby sign advising against collecting the shellfish.

Health Warning

Luckily we didn't experience any health problems although I figure the locals wouldn't be eating them if there were problems. The sign looked to have been there a while so it may have been from an earlier time when there were problems.

Beach front property on wheels

After stocking up on food supplies we decided to head north in our new home on wheels. I can see why so many people go camping in New Zealand. Everything about the country promotes camping, great roads, great landscapes, clean public toilets, lots of picnic areas and lots of places for camping, some expensive, some cheap and some free.

New Zealand - perfect for camping

We spend our first night in a Department of Conservation campsite on our way to the Bay of Islands. We arrived after dark so we had a brief conversation with the guy running the place. We just parked up and slept after a long day of driving and sight seeing. The next morning we awoke to the sound of the waves and an amazing sea view with a deserted beach.

deserted beach

The Internet is closed for Winter

My mate Dave has a camper for sale eh!

After almost a year in Latin America I took a flight from Santiago de Chile to Auckland in New Zealand. I almost missed this flight due to snow on the roads between Argentina and Chile. My bus was cancelled so I ended up having to fly to Uruguay to get a connecting flight to Chile. The plan for NZ was to spend a month traveling around in a camper van watching some of the rugby and seeing some of New Zealand. It was strange to be back in an English speaking country although it did take a short while to learn kiwi. Here's a quick lesson: finish almost every sentence with 'eh!', call everyone 'bro' and use the phrase 'sweet as, bro' as much as possible.

Auckland City Skyline

We had free use of a friends camper van, the only problem was it didn't start. We found a mechanic who got it started and performed the Warrenty Of Fittness. The WOF is the New Zealand equivalent of the NCT. Not surprisingly it failed, 2 small problems that would take time and money to fix. The mechanic was advising us not to go ahead with the repairs saying that we'd be wasting money as we couldn't trust it and we could end up spending more and more money on it. He seemed rather negative considering we'd be paying him to do this work. We thought this a little odd and even joked that he was probably trying to sell a camper van.


We decided to take some time to consider our options, collect the van and maybe even find a different mechanic. As we were about to leave the garage he told us that his friend Dave had a camper van for sale and that it would be perfect for us! Later that day we passed a camper van rental place in the city center. We decided to venture in and see if they had any cancellations. Everyone had told us that there was no way we'd be able to rent anything due to the world cup. Surprisingly they had one available that we could take the next day. Only downside is that they spray paint all of their campers with graffiti so each has an individual design. This I could have done without.

Escape Rentals Camper