The trip was three weeks in New
Zealand , three weeks in Australia ,
and two weeks in Penang . Doing NZ and OZ in campervans hired from Britz. The vans were
Mercedes and a joy to drive, which is just as well as I drove for about eight
hours a day for 42 days.
We started a Christchurch NZ and did the whole Country,
North and South. The van was the ‘Elite’ version. The design enables access through both back
and side doors. We sat and ate with the doors open giving a great vista and a
very open feeling. There are proper cupboards with proper doors and all locked
properly for traveling.
We traveled down the east side to the southern tip then up
the east side, across the ferry and did most of the north. A lot of businesses
close or do a half day on Sunday including fuel stations so be warned, although
one Sunday when we nearly ran out of fuel somebody saw us peering into the
windows of a fuel station and went up the hill to fetch the owner to open up
for us. They are that sort of people.
On to Australia
We started off from Adelaide
where at Britz we were told we were ‘upgraded’ from an ‘Elite’ to a ‘Venturer’.
Please be warned that the ‘Venturer’ is a truly awful design and if you are
offered a ‘Venturer’, don’t fall for it, insist on an ‘Elite’. The trouble with
the Venturer is that they have tried to include too much and therefore had to
cheapen the essentials. Firstly there’s a television. Who the hell wants a
television on holiday? In the Venturer’s case there is no instruction book and
all on screen instructions are in German. The eye level cupboards, which have plastic
roll top covers instead of doors, increase in size towards the top but as the
cupboard space is governed by the size at the bottom, all the upper space is
unusable. The plastic roll covers go down the back when opened so snag on
anything put in the cupboard, so mostly won’t open or close properly. At least
one of these covers will break during your trip. The lower cupboard locks are
of a cheaper version and will also either break or not lock properly. The sink
tap is also plastic and cannot be cleaned properly. There is a air conditioning
unit but it takes ages to become effective and if you used it at night prepare
to be awoken regularly by a machine gun noise from under the bed. There is not
back access so be prepared to be climbing over or round your partner if you want
to go out alone. There are two shelves for putting things on but although they
have brass rails don’t be fooled; anything on these shelves will be on the
floor within a few yards no matter how carefully you drive. There is a pull-out
barbeque lit by a little strip light, another good idea in theory but only if
you don’t mind cooking the hundreds of attracted bugs that will fall into your
meal. The list goes on, whoever designed this version has never been camping.
In the case of our hiring the back tire would have been illegal in Britain but we
were told it was good enough for our 10,000 or so Kilometres. The shower tray
also leaked.
Australian people are ok but ‘Guarded’ Going north from
‘Republican Corner’ (The South East) they get more friendly but on the whole,
unlike New Zealand ,
they don’t really like Brits. (Something to do with their past that we have
long forgotten). Australia
is now almost completely Americanized; the nation of Crocodile Dundee types
that we learned about at school is quickly being replaced by Holmer Simpsions.
Baseball caps are everywhere and in three weeks I never saw one Aussie wearing
an Aussie Hat. There is how ever that hole in the Ozone layer that the
Americans don’t have and increasing cases of Skin Melanoma, especially of the
upper back and neck, which the traditional Aussie hat prevented so if you are
going there, buy one and ware it.
