Our home While in New Zealand

A few of you have asked about our living arrangements while we are here in New Zealand, so by popular demand, here are some pictures of our home away from home (for now, that is).

The popular, and very easy option, for sleeping arrangements in New Zealand is to rent a camper of some sort, from the smallest mini vans to the 6 berth mansions on wheels. Our budget permitted us a very modest, but I must say, pretty cool mini bus that has been converted into a camper van. The top has been cut off and replaced with a raised plastic top that adds at least another foot, so you can actually stand up inside.

This is what the living quarters look like during the day. There are seats along the side, with storage space underneath, and if you want a table for eating at, there is a pole that is inserted into a hole in the floor, and a stored table top fits onto that. On the left is our sink, with cutting board, on the right is our mini fridge with 2 burners on the top. We actually manage most of our meals from here, believe it or not!

In this picture, above the kitchen area, you can see our towel rack, our microwave, our dish storage area, plus what we have turned into our linens storage.

At night, a board slides accross the aisle and the cushions form a puzzle mattress. It's actually not a bad bed!! Most nights we sleep in Holiday Parks so that we have showers and electrical hook-ups, but in New Zealand, unlike the United States, it is not illegal to pull off and sleep in parking lots or at the beach, etc., so there have been a few nights spent in miscellaneous parking lots.