We survived 13 nights and 14 days in the campervan!  We dropped the van off yesterday in Christchurch after touring the entire South Island.  Some of the highlights of the South Island were wine tasting in Blenheim and Renwick on a tandem bike.  This was our first time on a tandem and it was very challenging in itself never mind following the rules of riding in a different country.  However, after excelling in the “1-2-3-GO” method of beginning to pedal, we nailed it and made it to about 5 wineries, a strawberry farm and a boutique chocolate factory on the bike.  The region of Marlborough is famous for its Sav Blanc which we had plenty of throughout the last two weeks.

Other highlights were going to Ohau Stream where we were able to see seal pups close up in their natural environment without any other tourists. The seals would travel upstream from the ocean to a small pool and play in their natural environment.  We  accidentally sat down for breakfast on a bench one day and realized we were about 5 feet away from a “beached” seal, when he yawned we could literally smell his fish breath!  In Abel Tasman national park we took about a 3.5 mile walk along the coast and ended up on our own private beach for lunch, the water was clear blue and the sand white, it was very picturesque of what we would think Thailand would look like. The town of Wanaka near Queenstown was the first warm weather we experienced in quite some time. Wanaka is a great beach town with local breweries and picnicking on the lake. A few questions we thought most people would be wondering about our NZ van experience…

1. Where and how did you shower?

We were on a steady 2-3 day shower schedule, where we used public showers, coin operated showers, rec club showers and cold showers at campsites.

1.  What did you eat in the van?

We made all of our meals each day, therefore visited the supermarket on a daily basis as well.  Cereal or eggs for breakfast, wraps for lunch, and then a meat and veggie dinner.  We had a portable gas cooker on the van.

1.  Did you have a GPS? How did you know where to go?

No, we did not.  We didn’t even have wifi or internet.  We used a good old atlas to get us around the entire Island.

1.  What is your typical day like in the van?

–          8am wake up and dissemble queen bed and convert back to bench with table top

–          830am breakfast in the van, cleanup and dishes

–          9-10am on the road with a general final destination in mind. We would stop at different points of interests along the way; including stunning lakes, bridges, hikes, salmon farms, vegetable stands, etc.  The radio on NZ plays the hits of 80’s, 90’s and today including anything from Cranberries, Verve Pipe to Maroon 5 and Mumford and Son

–          Afternoon lunch from cooler, pick up daily supplies, such as ice, gas, groceries, chocolate and wine

–          5pm decide on where to camp for the night

–          7pm arrive at site, wine and cheese and make dinner

–          9pm do dishes and set up bed

A few things we would like to note about NZ: It’s quite common to see people not wear shoes when entering a mall, supermarket or restaurant anywhere on the island.  Apparently, tetanus has not been an issue here … yet. There are about 13x more sheep than humans, they still call Victoria Beckham by Posh Spice, the highlights on morning radio include missing cats, and they have stoplights as points of interests on maps. There is an extreme amount of undeveloped coast lines, which in other areas would have been taken advantage of with high-rises and restaurants.  Also, dining out is not part of the culture here, people do not congregate at restaurants for causal social outings, all places thrive on their takeaway business.  On a whole, the Kiwi’s (NZ people) were extremely happy to have us here, and had a genuine interest in the states and our lifestyle.

Next up, visiting the one and only Joe Ciminelli in Singapore.