Kia Mihi Aotearoa – Thank You New Zealand

January 28^th, 2020

With Betty 2.0 on to her next journey with her new Turkish owners, it was time for me to head back home and start my next chapter in 2020.  For the fifth season in a row I will be returning to Revelstoke for 2-3 months to do tandem paragliding from the ski slopes and then on to Lumby for my sixth season instructing at the Freedom Flight School.

Thanks New Zealand…I had a blast!  If you’ve never visited Kiwi-Land, you need to go.  It’s stunningly beautiful, the people are friendly, the government seems to have their shit together and there’s lots of fun things to do. 

I covered over 12,000 kilometers in my van, pretty good considering the country is about 1600 kms in length.  I would have to say that a couple of my highlights were flying around Mount Cook and the scenery around Milford Sound but there are so many other good memories.

I don’t know if or when I’ll be back as there are many other places in this world I’d love to explore but I’m very thankful for having the opportunity to experience 3 months in this wonderful country.

Thanks New Zealand!

Disc Golfing in New Zealand

January 24^th, 2020

While waiting for the second weekend of car fairs, one day during the week I drove about 30km out of the city to Woodhill mountain bike park where there was a disc golf course.  I used to play a lot in the late 90s back on Vancouver Island and I’ve gotten back into it a bit on this trip.  My first round in New Zealand was in Queenstown where I bought a disc, and I’m glad I did as I definitely got my money’s worth as I have played eight different courses:  Queenstown, Nelson and 2 courses at these places: Wanaka, Timaru, Auckland.

Woodhill actually has 3 different courses, some sharing the same tee offs or baskets.  Like a number of times that I’ve played in this country, I had the place to myself.  Sometimes it can be a challenge figuring out the course, where the tees and baskets are, where’s the next hole, what hazards do I need to worry about, etc…  This one started off with some difficulty but the signage got better and better.  I didn’t realize that the main section of the courses was off one side of the parking lot and I had started on the other side, in a heavily forested area on the black course (which you may know from downhill skiing means “most difficult”). 

If you can believe it, there's a basket somewhere over there...

Thread the needle:

Well the first half of the course didn’t mess around but there were definitely some fun holes, especially #6 which was up on a ridge with a little astro-turfed launch pad that jutted out from the hill.  I went back up and played that one a few times.  The second half of the black course joined the red and blue courses on the other side which was more open, and bloody hot as the sun was baking down.  They were long courses so I played the black once and then redid the front 9 before heading off.

The ramp tee off of hole #6.  The basket is pretty much straight ahead, down the hill.

I liked this tee off...nice fake grass.

Interesting basket for short people.  Actually it was up on a hill...

And my tee off shot on that hole:

Three different holes for three different courses start at this tee.

I’ll be taking my new disc back to Canada with me as I quite like it and it was actually made in New Zealand.  I will have to get back into this sport as it’s relaxing, good exercise and a lot of fun!

Trying to Sell Betty 2.0

January 17^th-27^th, 2020

Returning to Auckland, I took the van in for an oil change and 21 point inspection and then went to Ambury Campground, the closest camp spot I could find to the main part of the city.  I would spend the better part of the next week and a half here while trying to sell the van.  It was a decent site near the ocean and situated on part of a public farm so there were sheep in one field, goats in another, pukekos wandering around and even some chickens free ranging. 

I was there enough time to get to know a few of the chickens.  There was one brown hen with half a dozen juvenile chicks that were feathered grey or brown.  A black hen with a little baby chick still sporting its light yellow fluffy feathers were pretty cute and I made sure the little one got something to eat once in a while.  Then there was one loner juvenile who was missing a few feathers around its neck and I saw the hens chase it away once or twice.  But it was brave enough to come up to me a few times so I fed him some granola whenever I could…good luck lil buddy!

My loner friend:

The mother hen and her cute chick:

It was only a 20-25 minute drive to both sites for the car fairs that run every Saturday and Sunday.  The Saturday fair started at 8 am and as I arrived at the parking lot where I had purchased Betty 2.0 three months earlier, I was surprised to see no other vehicles there.  A guy greeted me and gave me a map stating that the fair had been moved about 900 meters down the road due to a tennis tournament in town needing this parking lot.  No biggie but I wondered if it might deter some backpackers from walking down from the hostels.

Being a bit hopeful, I listed the van for $14,700 which was $200 more than what I paid for it although it was listed for $14,950 when I bought it.  Well that turned out to be real wishful thinking.  Even though it was only one month into the summer, it turned out that it was definitely a buyer’s market.   It was very slow at the start with hardly any foot traffic.  On either side of me were guys who were dealers, locals who buy a van, convert it and then sell it for profit to travellers.  I bought my van off of a dealer and I learned that that is not a great idea.  These guys don’t have the pressure of selling like backpackers do since travellers often have a plane flight in the near future (as I did).  I had a few people somewhat seriously check out the van later in the morning.  A retired American couple in their 60s seemed quite interested but were unwilling to buy at that moment although we did exchange contact info.  The market closed at 1pm and it looked like I’d be heading to the Sunday market the following day.

The Sunday market is held at a parking lot for a large horse racing venue called Ellerslie and it is a bigger fair than the Saturday one, so I felt hopeful. Overnight I decided to lower my price to $12,900.  I figured with bartering I would hopefully get in the neighborhood of $12,400 which would mean that it cost me $700/month for the van which seemed reasonable to me. 

A beautiful sunset during the week:

These markets cost $30-35 to enter as a seller and they write down your price and the vehicle’s year as you enter on a poster for you to display on your vehicle.  They accidentally gave me two posters so part way through the exhibition I took the blank one and put in a new price, dropping it to $11,900.  There was more foot traffic later in the morning and I did go on three test drives with prospective buyers but still no sale.  Well that was disappointing…

Now there were only 10 days until I was scheduled to fly back to Canada and just the next weekend’s two fair days left.  During that week I made flyers about the van and put them in all of the hostels in downtown.  I kept advertising it on Facebook too and I did have one guy call about it.  We met up one afternoon and went for a test drive.  He was interested but could only afford $8250 NZD.  That was a long drop from the $14,500 I just paid 3 months ago, however at least it was an offer.  I told him I would see if I could sell it in the upcoming weekend at the fairs and if not, it was his.  That did take some pressure off me at least.

One afternoon I drove down to a viewpoint near the airport where you could watch planes landing.

For the following Saturday market, I dropped the price again to $10,500.  Another American couple in their late 50s seemed interested but they had just arrived, were jet lagged, and were not planning on buying that day, but perhaps I’d see them at the Sunday market the next day.  It was a pretty slow day otherwise and I almost felt sorry for the few buyers who arrived as all eyes were on them as they walked around…there were way too many vans and not enough newcomers.

Hanging out with the other campervanners (is that a word?  If not, it should be…), it was hard not to make some new friends.  There was a couple one vehicle over from me that I chatted with.  Sarah was from England and Ollie from Montreal.  They were at the end of the row and just as the fair was starting Sarah was giggling and said “Did you see that?!?”  I guess some dealer guy got out of his vehicle that was on a bit of a slope in the gravel parking lot, didn’t put on the handbrake and the car rolled down the incline and right down the alley between vans and eventually stopped as it ran into a grassy hill at a fast walking pace.  Sarah had run over to the driver’s door and tried to get in to put on the brake but the door was locked.  Lucky it didn’t hit their or anyone else’s vehicle!

And now the final Sunday arrived and I returned to Ellerslie.  I dropped my price again, to $9950.  She’s got to sell now…  The morning started slowly but it started to pick up, however there were a lot of vans.  Even the dealers were saying that this was not a normal season, a lot slower than previous ones.  I did have some bites and did a test drive with a Turkish couple in their late 20s.  They were interested but could only afford $8750.  Okay, $500 more that my backup deal but still a little hard to swallow.  I told them I would let them know later that afternoon as I was meeting up with the American couple for a test drive.  In the end they backed out so I let the Turkish couple, Batu and Lily, that they had successfully purchased Betty 2.0…they were quite excited.  It was a bit of a big pill to swallow, losing that much in just three months but I chalked up a couple thousand of the dollars lost to buying it from a dealer and then another couple thousand to the fact that it was a bad year and bad time to be selling.  Oh well…it’s only money right?!?

I met up with Batu and Lily the following day to work on the logistics on transferring the ownership of the van.  I picked them up at the university and we headed to a pub to chat and have a drink.  The following day I was flying out at 8:30pm so we met up in the day and finished the transfer of the ownership and money.  Batu had badly burned his calf in Bali when he dropped a motorcycle.  He hadn’t taken care of the wound very well and it had become infected.  I experienced an infection from a wound many years ago when I got a grass burn on my leg on a paragliding training hill.  It was at a farm so who knows what lovely stuff I got in my wound.  Anyways, I ended up with a fever and had to have antibiotics via IV at a hospital.  Amazing to think that if that had happened a few hundred years before, I would have lost the leg, and maybe my life.  Batu seemed to be showing the symptoms of an infection, slight fever, pain spreading down to his foot, the calf muscle getting hard.  So we visited a doctor’s office then got the meds he needed.  I’m sure he’ll be okay but it definitely needed proper treatment.

They dropped me off at the airport in the late afternoon.  Both were very excited about the prospects of their new van life.  I had that same feeling 3 months earlier, but now I was ready to head back to Canada and have a bit of winter.  Take care Betty 2.0 and enjoy your next lap of New Zealand!

Whangarei & Whatipu Beach

January 14^th-16^th, 2020

The next couple of days weren’t too eventful.  I started to switch into “clean the van and sell it” mode.  My next campsite was near the small city of Whangarei, population close to 60,000.  In this region it seemed like most of the freedom camping spots only had space for 2-3 vehicles, however there were quite a few of them.  As I passed through Whangarei, I found a car wash and gave Betty 2.0 a good going over.  She’d gotten quite dusty over the last few weeks.

Random pic...a cool beer labeling.

I checked out 4-5 freedom campsites dotted along the Whangarei harbour and eventually settled back on one of the first ones I saw.  It was an alright spot although the 2 designated sites for self contained vehicles were pretty close to the toilets which provided the odd malodorous waft of air and also a bright light shining all night.

The coolest caution sign I've seen in the country...

The following night I worked my way further south towards Auckland but I still had a day or two to kill as it was only Tuesday and the car fairs (where I hoped to sell the campervan) weren’t until the weekend.  I decided to return to Port Albert where I camped a couple of times before and continued on the cleaning and detailing of Betty 2.0.

Some interesting art structures on some farmland...

I scheduled an oil change and 21 point inspection for the van on Thursday so I had one more night before I would have to hang fairly close to Auckland until I had sold the van.  Looking at the map on CamperMate, I opted to go to Whatipu Beach which was on a remote coast west of the big city.  It was a fairly windy road to get there with the last 10 km or so being a dusty gravel road. 

But the drive there was worth it.  What a nice spot!  There were a couple of large grassy fields surrounded on three sides by lush, tree covered hills.  The ocean was a five minute walk away and just out of site, unless you climbed up the small side of a hill behind the campsite which had a wonderful view.  The fields were large enough that all campervans and motorhomes were quite spread out and there was the odd pukeko (colourful bird) walking around.  I did a bit of blogging and then pulled out my guitar to practice a bit.  A young man returned to his van about 100 meters away and after hearing me strumming away, he pulled out a guitar and motioned to me whether it was okay for him to join me…sure why not.  Sasha was from Germany and was planning to be in the country for about a year.  We had a good time jamming together and he taught me a few songs like the Cranberries’ Zombie.

The view from partway up the hill:

The next morning, I went for a walk on the black sandy beach before getting on the road and heading into Auckland to have Betty’s tune-up.  Whatipu is a lovely site for sure.

The walk to the beach:

A pukeko:

On the drive to Auckland:

Sailing on the R Tucker Thompson

January 13^th, 2020

Even though the night before turned out to be a later one than I had planned (thanks to my new Kiwi friends at the Pagoda), I was up fairly early to head to the small but busy tourist town Paihia on the Bay of Islands.  There I would hop on a ferry to get to a dock where a schooner named the R Tucker Thompson would be waiting.  I had booked a day trip on the sailboat that was built in the 1980s is operated as a non-profit charitable trust.  During the summer it takes tourists on day trips and afternoon sailings and the money earned is used to take local teens on weeklong trips in the winter where the youth learn how to sail the ship while building teamwork and individual skills.

Disembarking from the ferry at an even smaller town called Russell, it was pretty obvious the R Tucker Thompson was moored at the far end of the dock as she stood tall compared to the other boats in the area.  A bearded Maori man sporting dreadlocks that were spilling out of the top of his straw hat was taking tickets and providing instructions on boarding the ship.  Turns out he was the man in charge, Captain Wayne, and he was fantastic.  His passion for his role was obvious and he combined some humour with his depth of knowledge of both the sailing of the schooner and explaining some of the local history.

It was a fairly full boat with over 40 people sitting around on the 65’ long deck.  Ironically, after many windy days in New Zealand during my trip, today was fairly calm on the ocean so Captain Wayne motored us north from Russell towards more exposed water to see if there might be some more wind out there.  We were setting off at 10 am so there was a good chance that the winds might pick up in the afternoon.

While cruising out, passengers were allowed to don a harness and either scramble out onto the bowsprit (the spar extending out from the bow, or front of the ship) or climb up the rigging of the main mast.  Only a few people could ascend the rigging at a time, so I hung out near the back of the ship where I had first sat down as we set sail.  Next to me were Joanne and Charlie, a nice couple from Canada, specifically Alberta where I grew up, and I chatted with them throughout the day.  Charlie and I happened to climb up the rigging at the same time, but on opposite sides of the mast.  I thoroughly enjoyed clambering up the ropes and checking out the views from up top…well not quite the top but pretty high up there.

Ready to climb.

Charlie on the left, me on the right.

Some of the sails were set but really the engine was doing the lion’s share of the work as we arrived at our lunchtime spot at Moturua Island.  We were given some options of things to do, either head to shore for a short hike or hang out on the ship, swim and even swing into the water from the yard arm.  I opted to go ashore but probably 3/4s of the boat had the same idea so it took 3-4 runs in the inflatable tender to get everyone onto the island.  I waited around and was on the last trip as I was enjoying watching some guys diving off the ship or swinging from the yardarm, including Charlie who had to do one or two extra jumps as Joanne kept missing him with her camera!

Nice Charlie!

I took the helm for a bit, while we were anchored...

Heading to shore.

Captain Wayne had mentioned that there was an archaeological dig on the other side of the island, about a 10-15 minute hike along the trail.  He also mentioned that the bird life was thriving on the island as there are no non-indigenous mammals killing birds or eating eggs.  If you’re not aware, New Zealand has been overrun by mammals that were introduced by foreigners, primarily European sailors from a few hundred years ago.  Public enemy number one is the cute and cuddly possum…yup, the possum.  People will swerve their car to run over one at night if they can and the government has invested a lot of money to try and rid the country of these invaders and others, such as rabbits, stoats, rats and many others.  The trouble is that there are no natural predators so their numbers are not kept in check and they are causing devastating effects to the local fauna.

The trail:

The hike was relatively easy, a slight uphill and then down to the other beach.  It was definitely a happy place for birds as they were singing, chirping and fluttering about.  Reaching the other beach, I could see a variety of tents and tarp coverings and even some rectangular holes in the ground where active archaeological digs were in motion, well…until I showed up.  I heard someone call out “Lunch!” so the digging, brushing and cataloging of artefacts came to a halt.  There was one nice archaeologist who asked me if I was going to be around for a while but I mentioned I had to return to my ship shortly so he gave me a five minute run through of what was happening at this site.  I have to admit that by minute 2 my eyes were probably starting to glaze over as I didn’t recognize most of the names of places or ancient people that he was describing.  They had been “digging” in this spot for 3-5 seasons (can’t remember the exact number) and he was quite excited about the work but I couldn’t help but think that I was glad that I didn’t become an archaeologist, this was hardly Indiana Jones type stuff!

The dig.

Reminded me of my days kayaking around Vancouver Island.

The tools of choice:

A "poupou", like a totem pole of native indians back in Canada.

Returning to the other side of the island, there were a number of people from our ship waiting for their turn to board the tender and get back to the boat.  Since I left the Thompson on the last run, I’d be on the last run back.  By this time lunch had been served and I was the last one to approach the deck where all the pre-served plates of tasty chicken & potatoes had been laid out…and there were none left!  The crew quickly got another serving prepped for me and they figured that likely someone who had said they were vegetarian had taken the wrong plate.  No biggie…however if you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m not the speediest eater and sure enough, we pulled anchor and started off before I’d finished my lunch.

Returning to the ship:

Joanne took this picture before I was back on the boat...as I mentioned, the food was all gone when I got there...

There was a bit more wind than earlier so the captain ordered the crew to set more sail and he turned off the engine.  We were cruising between 5-6 knots and it was a pleasant afternoon, not too hot and sunny but comfortable.   At the start of the day, we saw a boat towing up a parasail but now, Joanne and I spotted some paragliders flying along a ridge in the distance.  I asked Captain Wayne where they were flying but he didn’t know and expressed how he’d much prefer to be on the water than in the air…fair enough, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

Captain Wayne:

We pulled back into the dock at Russell just before 4 pm, pretty much on schedule.  The crew shook hands with everyone as we disembarked the ship and there were smiles all around.  It was a fantastic day in the Bay of Islands…thanks Captain Wayne & crew!  I bid goodbye to Joanne and Charlie and hopped on the next ferry back to Paihia.

Back in the campervan, I searched on my phone as to where to camp for the night.  I checked out a campsite that was just a kilometer away but it turned out to be just a parking lot by a busy road and it was still fairly hot with the sun beating down, so I decided to press on.  I drove close to an hour south and pulled into Otamure Bay campsite near Whananaki (remember, that’s pronounced: “fa-na-na-kee”…fun name!).  It was packed with tents, lined up from one end to the other with only a foot or two between them.  No thanks. 

I had passed a sign for a private campsite a few kilometers back so I went to check that out.  I pulled into the driveway and walked into the office which was just a front room of a house.  A campervan pull out just as I arrived and when I asked the man in the office whether there was a site available I got the impression that they were full and he had probably just turned away that other guy but I was in luck as he mentioned that there was one spot left, only available for one night which was all I needed.  The manager pulled out a map and showed me where my spot was and I was shocked that there were 100+ sites, all of which were out of view from the road.  He told me that I lucked out and had spot #2, which had a view of the ocean and was close to the beach.

I passed through an automatic gate and down a long road towards the sea.  Wow, there were a lot of people here…pretty much all Kiwis on their summer holidays.  It took me a while to locate site #2 which wasn’t surprising as it was already occupied so the sign was blocked by some vehicles.  Turns out that 5-6 sites were occupied by an extended family and site 2 had just become available that morning and they were already in number 1, 3, 4 & 5 so they had planned to go up to the office to ask if they could have #2 but one of the dads hadn’t gotten around to it.  There was already a trailer all set up in the site and I didn’t want to make them have to move it.  They offered that I could go in spot 5 where a couple of teenage girls in the family were just starting to set up tents but they could move.  It didn’t have a view of the ocean but I said I didn’t care.  They seemed to feel bad about it with one guy offering to pay for my night but I declined.  Another guy offered moving one car by site 3 and I could park in front of a few of their sites with a view of the ocean and that seemed like the best option. 

The view from the campsite:

They were super friendly people and in fact I was invited for dinner by a Kiwi family for the second time in two nights!  It wasn’t quite the entertaining atmosphere like the previous night at the Pagoda as they were a fairly religious family so let’s just say that the drinks weren’t flowing but it was still a nice evening and a fantastic day.

The view in the morning:

You can see Betty 2.0 in the middle.