Getting Our Home Away from Home

                First off, in New Zealand they drive on the opposite side of the road than in the U.S., couple that with our first time driving a house down the road, and you’ve got two nervous newlyweds. But we sat in our new RV and watched a 20 minute video from our flat screen TV that conveniently hides away in the wall paneling, on how to power the RV with either electricity or gas, fill it with water, empty the grey water, empty the “cassette” or toilet waste receptacle, and how not to mix up the waste water hose with the fresh water hose –EW!  Our helpful Wilderness staff member Tracy walked us around the RV showing off all the features and explaining how to use them, “Turn the key anti-clockwise, then push in, then turn both the key and the cap anti-clockwise together,” I never would have figured out how to open the locks without her help!  

                Before setting off, she gave us a crash course in how to put snow chains on the tires, and let us rummage through the leftovers that previous RV renters had left behind. This sounds gross I know but I assure you it was totally sanitary. She explained that stores don’t sell travel sized things usually, so big bottles of dish washing detergent, 12 packs of toilet paper, and rolls of tin foil get left behind. We rounded up some supplies we thought might be useful – Glad ClingWrap, paper towels, salt and pepper mills, garbage bags, multi-purpose surface spray, and then prepared mentally to drive a house down the wrong side of the street. Before we left, Tracy surprised us with a gift box filled with packets of tea, coffee, and a nice bottle of New Zealand wine to enjoy on our honeymoon. We were off to a great start! 

               I have to say, the only disappointing feature of our new home is the WiFi… or lack thereof. We paid for internet service and received a wireless router that I set up with relative ease. Things seemed to be going perfectly; we envisioned live streaming video of us driving down the road, google searching on a whim for the nearest best restaurants, only to be sorely disappointed. Turns out that the $7 a day fee for internet is just to rent the wireless router daily. You need to buy a data plan separately – ouch! So no catching up on Game of Thrones episodes for Andrew, no Snap Chats to my sister, we were once again limited in our internet access. 

              

Post Honeymoon Reflections

               Driving an RV through New Zealand is in my opinion the very best way in which to see it. Yes, it is challenging to drive on the wrong side of the road (if you are American), but you get used to it soon enough; and the roundabouts turned from a feature I dreaded into something so functional I cannot believe that we don't have more of them here at home! Having an RV in New Zealand is practical for many reasons. The first of which is that it allows for you to actually unpack your things. Andrew and I have done a lot of traveling together already and know the routine for living out of your suitcase. We know all too well the thrill you get when you find out you will be staying in the same hotel for two nights instead of just one and you can actually dig things out from the bottom of your pack without having to worry about picking it all up again right away. With an RV, everything is unpacked from your bags and stored in shelves, drawers, bins, and cupboards. Your clothes, your shoes, your gloves and umbrella even - they all have an appointed place where they can be easily found without tossing the entire contents of your luggage making the place look like a home invasion crime scene.

            The second reason RV living is the best way to see New Zealand is because you get to stay in remote locations, off the beaten path, where you like, when you like, without having to be in a city or arriving by a certain check in time like you do with B & B’s. The company that we rented the RV from has made camping so easy! They had an app I put on my smart phone that once downloaded, allows for you to access the site without needing wifi. This was incredibly helpful because it used the location of my phone to track where we were in relation to campgrounds. If we were tired of driving or knew we needed to be in a certain location by morning, we would just pull up the app and use the resources on there to find either free-camping places (indicated in green), or paid campgrounds (indicated in purple) where we could get electric hookups. This app was like the Yelp of the RVing world; people posted reviews of campgrounds and gave smiley or frowny faces instead of star ratings. We had no trouble what so ever finding a place to stay every night we were there regardless of being in a city or rural location. Some of the places we stayed had views you would have paid hundreds of dollars to see if it was from the balcony of a fancy hotel; and yet we got to stay there for free in our convenient house-on-wheels.