Caravan Life

A bit of my caravan history and a visit to Wanaka

I am not exactly sure what my inspiration was for buying a caravan. No-one in my childhood had a caravan and as an adult, I never really knew people with one (my brother has bought one since I did). We did go on a family holiday when I was 8 or 9 in a tiny rented silver caravan, which was towed from the top of the north to the far south. With six of us, including a baby, in something that was just a few metres long, that trip was hardly an inspiration.

I do recall a visit to Takaka, many years ago, when I envied the freedom of those who had vans, and that led to me buying an old Ford Econovan with a couple of caravan squabs in the back. I called him Webster: he was a former sign-writer’s van and had the letters of the alphabet printed on his sides. A nephew had the bright thought that you could write all the words of the dictionary with them - duh. But Ford and dictionary led to Webster’s Dictionary - he and I saw most of the country together but our ways parted under unfortunate circumstances.

I toyed with the idea of a bach - not mobile enough - and a campervan - too expensive for a good one and a bit compromised as a normal vehicle to drive. It would have meant that every time I wanted to move, I'd need to pack up - bugger that! Thus was born the idea of getting a caravan - it could be left parked up while I drove around during the day. This was back in 2015 or 2016.

This created a conundrum: ought I buy a caravan and then the vehicle with which to tow it or would doing things the other way round be better? Obviously having a tow vehicle would make the purchase of a caravan easier, while the reverse was not true. Cheap caravans are necessarily old caravans and old caravans are necessarily heavy caravans, so I needed something with grunt. My selection process took me to a choice between a Land Rover Discovery or a Jeep Grand Cherokee: the latter struck me as more reliable and easier to fix than the former, so a Jeep Cherokee it was. After quite a search, I found one in my price range and seemingly decent - at the other end of New Zealand. That led to a nice collection caper - a last minute flight to Auckland, a bus further north then a drive home.

The caravan was surprisingly easy to find - I only looked at two, and the one I settled on was about two kilometres from my house. Its owners had spent years renovating it, had not even spent one night in it before they sold it (they were called up to go to Sri Lanka as missionaries (seriously!)). It was (and still is) a Zephyr, made right here in Dunedin in 1974, but the renovations led to substantial amendments. A proper queen sized bed had been installed in one end and a table and chairs at the other. I have been unable to find a photo of how it looked on the inside, but this was the setup.

I drove this all round the South Island one summer and to the far north another - I found I really enjoyed staying in the caravan for weeks at a time, and the caravan park lifestyle. The Jeep never let me down, but didn’t get on towing the caravan too well, mainly because at normal road speed, it couldn’t decide which gear it should be in. Plus it used a lot of petrol and was over 20 years old. Since I did like the Jeep, I bought a somewhat more modern, diesel one.

This rig has also been to the top of New Zealand and all round the South Island, although the last two summers, I’ve been in Thailand and Malaysia, so it didn’t have much use. This year, I have plans to spend Christmas in it and a few trips later on. To do this, I have to get it legal (a WOF or mechanical safety inspection) and clean. Getting someone to do the safety inspection isn’t easy when you leave it until a couple of weeks before Christmas - my caravan lives in a storage place near Cromwell, but no-one there had time to do it. Thankfully, I find VTNZ can do it in Alexandra - 30 km down the road. To get re-acquainted with the caravan, I book into a holiday park in Wanaka for the weekend.

I drive or bus the road to Cromwell so frequently, it doesn’t occur to me to take photos on the drive over. My route is down to Milton then across through Lawrence and Roxburgh - the latter part runs alongside the beautifully blue Clutha River. I do have this photo overlooking Cromwell.

By this point, the river has been dammed to form Lake Dunstan, drowning a large part of what had been Cromwell in the meantime. The dam was built in the early 1990s. I collect my caravan and head on to the Hampshire Holiday Park, which is right in the middle of Wanaka. I am a little dismayed to find that my Electrical WOF has also expired - without a current one, I shouldn’t really connect to the power supply in the park, but no-one checks. First things first - I get the wee vacuum cleaner out, then clean all the surfaces and scrape some lichen off from the outside. Before I leave Wanaka, I actually take it to somewhere I can give it a proper wash.

I don’t really like central Wanaka - there are some modern bars in which I don’t feel too at home and posh shopping. It does have the wonderful Cinema Paradiso, but nothing I want to see is screening. There’s a good little bookshop and a patisserie nearby. A little bit out of the centre, there are four breweries - I get to two of them. I’ve never been to b.effect, so start there - they do a nice pilsner and really good chips.

My phone tells me that there is a Thai restaurant around the corner so I walk around to check it out - it’s a strange place, actually a private club of some sort in what looks like a big house from the outside. The kitchen of the club is the Thai restaurant - it has a few tables separated from the main space. Because it’s a private club and I am not a member, I can’t buy a beer. The food is, however, pretty good - there’s a jump bike park opposite and a view of the lake and mountains behind it.

I also dine at Red Star Burgers (not as good as I remember) and from a funny wee Thai kitchen at the top of some stairs near the lake - they say I can sit on their very narrow verandah to eat, but I take the food back to the holiday park.

Let’s have another look at the lake - there’s a road which runs round its edge to the north west from the centre of town. The second is from the centre.

On another evening, I head up to Rhyme X Reason Brewery.

I am troubled by the lack of an electrical WOF - knowing how hard it was getting someone to do the mechanical inspection, I don’t like my chances, particularly as there’s only one person around to do them. I send him a text - he can do it in the afternoon! Of course, that’s when I’m booked in at Alexandra, but he can sort me first thing the next day. Result!

While in Wanaka, there’s one other place I like to go (of course, I like the National Transport Museum, but I’ve been): Pembroke Patisserie, out in Albert Town. My standard choice in a bakery is a pain aux raisins or pain au chocolat, but here they do both well. I resolve that by going twice. It’s not often you get to see the counter in all its glory without a bunch of people queued up.

In Alexandra, the caravan fails its WOF - a light is not working, the brakes are working but there’s corrosion the VTNZ people don’t like and most concerning, one tyre is about to give up the ghost thanks to the long period of storage in hot weather. I replace both before I leave town. Of course, getting the other repairs will have to wait, but I book them as I go back through Cromwell.

Cheers!