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.
