And we're off!

Our first day in the van we cataloged the things we would need to fix and what we wanted to upgrade. It felt like the engine was sound, but a new coat of paint would be nice, an oil change and some new front tires. We left the city wanting to put some distance between it and us, but keeping our eyes on larger towns where we could get servicing done for affordable prices.

We stopped at a pretty park in the town of Waihi and I got to experience a "talking toilet"...yes, you read that right. It was quite a pleasant and friendly toilet, it greeted me as I opened the door, told me how much time I had once I locked it and played some muzak for me while I pee'd...AND it did it all for free! But better than the toilet was the duck pond with a huge swath of water lilies. It was my first taste of small town New Zealand and it was lovely.

Our next few days were mostly heading from town to town working our way through the Coromandel, picking up supplies for the van and food for us. We wanted to see a lot but it ended up being a lot of driving for Iain, we had decided early on that it would be safer for us and all of New Zealand if I stayed in the passenger seat. Learning to drive a standard vehicle with a sticky third gear on the wrong side of the road surrounded by CRAZY kiwi drivers seems like an adventure for next time!

Our first memorable camp ground was the Pikowai Camp ground on Pikowai beach. It was a slim patch of grass between the sand dunes and the rail road tracks/highway. It gave us a good place to empty the van of everything, and reorganize our gear so it fit in all the shelves, nooks and crannies under the bed. I was blown away by the system Iain had built, there was a lock box for our valuables, shelves for food, and half the bed folded up in sections for storage underneath.

After emptying our belongings out, hanging up our laundry to dry and watching the rain clouds move closer to us we decided to crack open a bottle of local strawberry champagne and toast our arrival in New Zealand! It was a classy evening, swigging from the bottle while perched on the back of the van, cooking in the dirt and swatting the ever present sand flies...I couldn't have been happier!