Roadtrippin’ Northland
(Feb 25 2014)
To write this, I am using the last bit of battery power on my MacBook. I am sitting in the dark, on a mattress in the back of a minivan. Through the window on the roof, I have a perfect view of the starry night sky above me. It is completely silent, except for a few crickets singing in the distance, and the clicking of my keyboard as I type. It’s a bit muggy and warm in here, but opening the windows to enjoy the cool summer breeze would mean an attack of the mozzies (kiwi for mosquitos) — a sacrifice I am willing to make. Back seats removed and curtains installed, this minivan has been converted into a campervan that sleeps two comfortably. It’s rad. It’s red. It’s mine.
That’s right, I’m the proud new owner of a 1990 Toyota Estima campervan. I’ve been calling it Rad Red and it’s going to take me all over New Zealand on a rad van adventure…a radVANture
in front of Te Paki Dunes
It set me back a little…but not as much as would the combined costs of hostel accommodation and bus fares. There’s also the added bonus of complete and total freedom. I can go anywhere in this campervan, to places no bus could take me.
I’m currently on a massive road trip. I just finished a tour around the Northland region of New Zealand. It was very quick; over 1000km in just 3 days. My copilot and navigator is a friend I met in France during summer of 2012 through a mutual friend. Coincidence brought us both to New Zealand within two weeks of one another. Friendship and a shared craving for adventure brought us here, to our fourth night on the road.
The landscapes have been breathtaking. Being from Saskatchewan where the roads and highways are totally flat and straight, it’s been quite fun to drive the roads in Northland which are all up, down and around. I like to pretend I’m in one of those racecar video games, vrmm vrrrmmmm! Rad Red has a little trouble going uphill, but she makes up for it in general awesomeness. She came complete with a built-in bed for two, blankets, pillows, curtains for privacy, two lawn chairs, a gas-stove, pot, pan, and all the necessary crockery. Even though we’re technically camping, we’re not exactly roughing it…Rad Red has it all!
Anyway, highlights of Northland have been visiting the massive 2000-year old Tane Mahuta kauri tree in the beautiful Waipoua Forest, a roadside lunch cookout at a lookout over the giant Te Paki sand dunes, walking at Cape Reinga, the northern most tip of New Zealand where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, swimming in big waves at Rarawa Beach at sundown, and eating fresh fish and chips, or “fush an chups” as the kiwis say, on the beach in Orewa.
Although we have finished our tour of Northland, our southbound road trip continues…next stop: Tongariro National Park, where I’ll put my mind and body to a test in a full day volcano trek…stay tuned to find out how I do…
