New Zealand - The Van

One thing we have always known about our trip to New Zealand is that it would be a touring trip in a camper van.  Knowing that and choosing which one to hire were worlds apart on the 'easy to decide' scale.  We didn't disagree with each other.  There are just so many to chose from.  What really helped was making the decision to be able to freedom camp - camping without a caravan/holiday park.  To do that we needed a van that had it's own water supply, shower and toilet onboard.   

After much searching, discussion, reading of reviews and changing of minds we finally settled on hiring a van from Wilderness.  We went with the van they call The Base Jumper 2.  We would hire that van, through Wilderness, again in a heartbeat.  Their customer service from the time we sent them a query, to when they picked us up at the airport, showed us our van and sent us on our way to when they dropped us off at our hotel on our last night, was friendly, helpful, fun and down right unbeatable.  The van itself totally exceeded our expectations.  The bed was more comfortable than the bed in the hotel we stayed in, the donnas and blankets were super cosy, the heater kept us toasty, the shower was decent, the kitchen was kitted out perfectly with everything we needed and all stacked in such a neat, no rattle way that our organisational hearts were a mite overwhelmed!  The van was immaculately clean, with enough head space for even the very tall, easy and very fun to drive according to Joel, who loved it so much I was happy to stick with navigating.  He wants to buy one now too...!!

In short, we loved it.  And next time we go back (yes, we're thinking we'll be back again!), we won't even look at other vans.  We'll gladly call The Base Jumper 2 home for round 2.

Picture Notes:  

Joel did all the driving.  He also lovingly saved me from emptying the grey and black water tanks (you can imagine!) and filled our fresh water too.  

There was a TV we never turned on, a fridge, gas stove top and grill, sink and a kitchen table that could be set up that I didn't take a photo of.

The kitchen table top became the missing piece of the bed at night time to make a comfortable sized bed.

Despite it not being warm enough most days, if there was a tiny bit of sun left when we'd reached our camping spot we'd fling the doors open to get a bit of air, especially if we were cooking.

The last shot was taken on the way into our last camping spot.  It was a bit of a surprise  - totally lovely!