Auckland to Huntly

Day 1 – Auckland bound

SO after reading many many articles about how you shouldn’t take this and shouldn’t take that into New Zealand I decided (rather begrudgingly) that the coffee, hot chocolate and other essentials (at least essential to me) must stay put – I must admit I’m rather glad that I did!

After what can only be described as a ‘turbulent and bumpy’ journey, to say the least – which the Pilot assured us was highly unusual, approaching Auckland has to be one of the most breath taking descents I’ve ever witnessed. The sudden rush of emerald greenery and rolling hills is beautiful, and made me all the more excited to get in my campervan and start our 3 week journey!

On the plane you are required to fill in a declaration form, stating any particular ‘biohazardous’ products that you may have brought with you, I sat there smugly ticking ‘no’ until it came to ‘hiking boots and camping equipment’. Shit. I could just picture my muddy boots sat in my case and rather anxiously ticked yes. A speedy pass through passport control saw us at the declaration point, and after seeing that I’d ticked yes to camping equipment I was sent off to queue 1. Opening my case and removing my dry dirty boots he asked me where I had last used them – Wales I think, maybe climbing Snowdon? I honestly couldn’t remember, so off he took them to a ‘special cleaning lab’. My mum, on the other hand, her boots were gleaming, she smugly looked at me and packed hers into her case as I waited, cautious of the time as we had 100km to drive and it goes dark quite early in September. A mere 5 minutes later, he returned, shiny clean boots in a plastic bag – sent my case through Xray and off we went – I honestly cannot stress the importance of declaring anything you might have, it takes barely any time and otherwise you risk a hefty $400 on the spot fine (my Pukka cleanse tea, however, did survive).

So, baggage claimed we headed straight to Vodafone – I’m a bit of a social junkie, although the idea of three weeks with no facebook or instagram didn’t fill me with dread, the idea of not having a working phone at all, did. Vodafone has the best network coverage over New Zealand (there are only three networks available here). There is a Vodafone shop in Arrivals at Auckland, we purchased (for a mere $49, which although may seem steep, for three weeks I was more than happy to pay it) a sim card, with 2 GB data, 100 texts and 200 minutes of calls. 

Bags check. Simcard check. We hastily called ‘APOLLO CAMPERVAN RENTALS’ for our free transfer to their depot. You have to exit via Gate 11, (on the left as you come out of arrivals) and head to the right. Rather quickly, a silver van with – you guessed it- Apollo written in orange down the side, came and collected us, and a after a short detour (to pick up their boss who had been searching for an abandoned campervan) arrived at their office. And what a pleasant little office it was too. We happily dumped our suitcases and headed over to a desk to sort out the paperwork – this, however, did take a little longer than anticipated. But, all things filled in, we were showed around the Apollo Euro Tourer van (pointing out any marks you may see) and advised as to how the appliances (and many switches) worked. I HIGHLY advise watching the youtube links, my mum had watched them a few times so she was reasonably prepared as of what to expect as we’d never been in a campervan before. Check over complete, we were handed the keys and off we went! It felt so good to be on the road, fresh air and beautiful scenery – exactly what you want if you’ve made the long journey to New Zealand.

Car in tow we set off for the vast expanse that is New Zealand, though not without a stop off at Countdown, a supermarket located on the first left turn as you leave the Auckland Apollo depot. We topped up our essential groceries (coffee, tea, pasta, bread, beans, jacket potatoes…note we have no oven) and started our 80km journey towards Huntly. A rather smooth ride later we arrived at the Lake Hakanoa Campervan Park in Huntly (I had prebooked this via email on Jason’s website). It cost $15 per person for a powered site, and for your first night in a campervan I suggest that you pay it, the silence and darkness can be a bit intimidating at first. Carol was very friendly, I just called them on arrival, she told me where to park and everything was great! Dave even came over a little later and guided us to some free brochures and gave us a map and directions to our next morning destination of Hobbiton! After a nice glass(es) of red wine and some hotdogs with onions (we’d been travelling a LONG time and were very tired) we set up my laptop to watch a movie, yet both fell asleep before it started.

A 6:15am alarm soon startled me (I’m not one for early mornings, but the sunrise in New Zealand is not to be missed), we relaxed, had some coffee and bacon sandwiches on our camper outdoor furniture in the glorious sunshine. We didn’t really know what to expect of the site, having never done anything like this before! We landed from Sydney at around 1430pm and still only arrived at Huntly about 630pm. The showers were great, high pressure – amazingly hot and refreshing for the cold fresh morning; kitchen – fully equipped; but we did have these already supplied in our campervan.