Introducing Eric

The newest addition to the Hryniewicz family is a 21 year old former taxi from Japan. Eric, as he was christened by his former owners, was lovingly converted into an amazing (until it breaks down at least) campervan by a German carpenter, who has made the most of efficient and practical German design to squeeze use out every square centimetre of space. It really is Vorsprung durch Technik.

Alex and Eric, already the best of friends

Being slightly elderly, it’s almost certain that something will go wrong mechanically before too long. As Alex is not the most technically minded, I was relieved to see that Eric came with a weighty owner’s manual.

Um.... Google Translate... Help!!

Our first campervan adventure took us to Northland, which is the peninsular that sticks out above Auckland, and we spent a happy weekend beach hopping with our new friend. The best thing about campervanning is the freedom to go anywhere and spend the night wherever the local council hasn’t had the forethought to put a ‘no overnight parking’ sign. Our first spot was perched high on the cliffs and when the Friday night storm that had accompanied us out of Auckland had finally passed, we woke up to a glorious day and got to enjoy breakfast overlooking the sea.

Breakfast by the sea

We had boldly planned (remember we’re now in winter over here) to go snorkelling around the reefs that are just offshore, but sadly the water was too rough and I had to make do with a paddle, although this was somewhat unplanned. I was busy trying to snap the perfect ‘waves crashing against the cliff’ photo and Alex failed to mention that the tide was coming in very quickly, resulting in an up-to-the-knees soaking and a brief moment of marital disharmony. To make matters worse, I never did get the shot.

Not quite the money shot, but still a beautiful volcanic beach

The coast of Northland is one huge expanse of beach after another and we spent most of the weekend driving from one to the next, smugly remarking on how lucky we were to live within such close proximity of so many beautiful places and having the fortune to travel in such style (did I mention that we really like our van?!). En route we visited what the locals call the “Paris Hilton of waterfalls” – not the most beautiful waterfall in New Zealand, but the most photographed.

Not such a bad looking waterfall

We spent another afternoon walking around more gun emplacements on the coast (I never would have agreed to come to New Zealand if I’d known just how many of these there were! But following criticism that the blog is not girly enough, and I admit that I’m not doing very well in writing a post that’s mainly about a van, I’m putting my foot down at including more photos of guns). Despite stiff competition, Ocean Beach won the prize for most beautiful spot of the weekend and we timed our arrival perfectly for the sunset.

Prize winning beach

Of course, no good New Zealand weekend is complete without copious amounts of wine and we continued on our mission to sample as many of the locally produced varieties as possible. Unfortunately a lot of wine is clarified using fish products, which is not so good for us vegetarians and we are building up quite a collection of bottles that I’ve realised I can’t drink only once I’ve brought them back from the supermarket… so any wine loving visitors will be very welcome!

Cheers! Skål! Na zdrowie!