How we made our way from Napier down to Wellington, while enjoying some bouldering, hiking and cycling along the way. We realise this must be getting boring to read about, since this is what we do every week, so we’ve added a deadly weapon and a curious possum into the mix this time around. From … Continue reading Kawekas
Remember how we were pretty happy with our new campspot near Taupo? We loved it so much we pretty much hung around for a whole week! Yep, it's that awesome. This week we also had our clutch replaced and we drove back up north to have our tanks fixed. So now we're ready to take … Continue reading Firsts
We finally got (slightly) further south! We’ve now reached Taupo, where we tackled yet another NZ Great Ride. Of course we also managed to squeeze in a casual bike ride, some running and two days of hard climbing/hiking. Let’s just call this one: a typical week in the life of Thomas & Myrthe. When we … Continue reading Taupo
After our Motu Trails adventure, it was weekend, which meant we would have friends from Auckland coming down to join us for some climbing! We drove back to Mangorewa Gorge, where we met up with Tim and Stu. We had been raving so much about this crag, that they were keen to check it out … Continue reading Climbing buddies
How we decided to test the limits of our cyclocross bikes (or perhaps the limits of our own cycling skills) on a 2-day, grade 4 mountain bike trail in horrible weather and how the van ended up at the Opotiki police station. One of the things on our NZ wishlist was to ride the Motu … Continue reading Motu Trails
How we start filling our days with either climbing, cycling or hiking, or with cycling to the climbing area followed by hiking in to reach the crag to go climbing. Our first stop on this part of the trip was to pop in at Hercules Tanks in Katikati, to see if they can help with … Continue reading Activities
And then we were back in Auckland. For like a whole week. Somehow we just got sucked into hanging around for much longer than we had planned. Partially this probably had to do with the fact we were staying with a friend, which meant we could do laundry, have hot showers and use unlimited WiFi. Afterwards, we also wondered whether unconsciously we realised this was going to be our last time in Auckland for quite a while, which made us postpone saying goodbye to our friends and the city we’ve lived in for so long..
We decided to do a trip to Northland as a trial run with the van for a few reasons. We wanted to visit some friends living there. One of them has a workshop with woodworking machines, so Thomas could do some more van improvements. Also, driving north meant we would pass Auckland again on our way down, which would be our final chance to dump any unnecessary things in our storage unit.
So, how do we feel about vanlife two weeks after “moving in”? It’s definitely been a steep learning curve topped up by a giant jetlag, but we start to feel like we’re getting the hang of it. Here’s the good and the bad of our rollercoaster ride these first weeks.
“I'm off to the toilet”, I tell Thomas, while I put on my shoes and jacket. I step out of the van and cross the car park towards the toilet. On my way back, I look at the stars, the city lights forming Auckland's skyline in the distance and the light spilling from the windows of our van. That's my home, I think, and the thought makes me smile.
rockupnz.home.blog 