Getting us some new wheels

So I guess you could say a big part of this trip for me is all about living my dreams. But of course it shouldn't take a huge year-plus long trip around the world to do that - we should all be living our dreams all the time, just ticking off the smaller of those dreams as we go along. What this trip has allowed me to do though, is given me an opportunity to amalgamate a number of those dreams and live them all in relatively quick succession.

There have been quite a few ticked off for me so far already (like going on a safari, seeing a chameleon, touching the terminal face of a glacier, watching a clump of an iceberg break off and crash into the water), but one of the longest held wee dreams I've had is travelling around in a motor home. I've had this idea since I was a teenager I think, and watching some American drama series about a doctor who actually lived in a motor home in the car park of the hospital (Trapper John MD, I think it was - actually, after a quick Google it seems a lot of people thought along exactly the same lines as I did).

Obviously the romantic appeal lies in the idea of having total freedom to go where you want, when you want without ever having to worry about finding accommodation, or even worrying about finding somewhere to eat. And it just happens to turn out that New Zealand is the single best place in the world to do just that. So once we arrived in Christchurch I started looking into the best way to get us some wheels that would give us maximum flexibility without completely breaking the bank.

It was all a bit daunting for me I have to say, as I've only ever driven motorbikes, so I know pretty much nothing about cars, let alone camper vans (and even though Sarah has been driving cars for 17 years or so, well, let's not go there...). All the backpacker places and the internet cafes have notice boards packed with notices, many of them from people selling cars and vans - since buying a car or van is a very popular way for travellers to get around New Zealand cheaply. But I have no background from which to evaluate all the various permutations thrown up by cost, mileage, age, make, model, condition, etc., etc., so what might initially look like a good deal one day would seem crazy expensive a couple of days later when a few new 'van for sale' notices would appear.

This buying and selling thing is so popular in New Zealand that they have this market-like place where people pay simply to park up their car/van and then sit around waiting for buyers to walk in and look around. The eager sellers (who are often just days away from having to fly back to Europe or the States or wherever), sheepishly approach you and try to pitch their vehicle to you. It was all terribly sad really, and I felt sorry for most of them. I had been in a similar situation on my last big trip when I bought a motorbike in Miami and then had terrible trouble trying to get a decent price for it when I needed to sell it in New York - naturally I got completely ripped off in the end.

Anyway, to cut a long and very stressful story short, after 5 days checking notice boards, walking around the van 'market', and checking out many of the huge number of rental options I finally arrived at a decision (although I very nearly bought a clamped out banger for $4200, but something felt wrong about the English dude selling it - it was much bigger than most vans we'd seen, but much more knackered looking, and older with more miles, etc, etc.).

But finally I decided to rent from a place Sarah had found on the internet by accident on the fourth day. The same place also had a much older van for sale (it was one of their old rentals that they were retiring), but in the end I just opted for the safety of their rental option, and thereby avoided the whole selling-it-on process, as well as not having t worry about it breaking down, or getting stolen or damaged.

It's actually a really nice van and it worked out really cheap (relative to all the other rental places). Compared to the big proper camper homes it's actually very small, although not nearly as small as the one I was thinking of renting in the first place (a Spaceship - http://www.spaceships.tv/). I paid just $3000 for up to 90 days (although our visas run out after only 85 days), with lots of extras thrown in (including zero excess insurance, which was an extra $280, chairs, table, linen, small eski etc.). That works out at an amazingly cheap 18Euro a day - mental!

It's been surprisingly comfortable to sleep in (in fact, far more comfortable than some of the backpacker beds that often slump in the middle), and we've cooked in it a few times without any trouble. But since the van has no toilet or shower we mostly stay at campsites or backpacker places to use their facilities. We still sleep in the van and generally only pay $10 a night each, whereas a bunk bed in a shared dorm would be $22 a night each. Not all the backpacker places let you use your van to sleep, but its brilliant when you find the ones that do - it means we have all the atmosphere of the backpackers (which always have funky, buzzy common rooms or TV rooms with lots of free videos), we can use their well-equipped kitchens, they've always had spotless toilets and showers, while we still get the privacy of our own very comfortable 'room' AND effectively getting a 50% price reduction - who could ask for a better way to travel?

We didn't realise all these benefits when we first set off from Christchurch, although they all became apparent pretty quickly. But by far the best thing, once we did set off, was knowing we had 3 months of basically total freedom in one of the most stunningly beautiful countries on the planet, and in my book, in terms of living one's dreams, it doesn't get much better than that...