Innholdsfortegnelse for No 62 i RV Travel Lifestyle

As we drove off the Cook Strait ferry on Sunday November 6 after our quick trip to Christchurch for the Camper Care Motorhome, Caravan and Leisure show, a sad reality of life came to us, when one of my sisters rang with the news that one of our big brothers had unexpectedly died earlier that day. We’re from good Roman Catholic stock, and I’m the youngest of seven: my brother Roger was number three from the top, beating his younger twin into the world by 16 minutes or so. He’s the first of us kids to go, and it has been a huge shock to us all. I know many of you reading this will have had similar incidents in your lives – perhaps your partner was the person who…

Covi NZMCA Insurance has launched a mobile phone app dubbed ‘Covi Connect’, which provides motorhome and caravan owners with key information on their insurance cover, including insurance claims and renewals. Covi NZMCA Insurance general manager David Culpan says the new app provides motorhome and caravan owners with easy and reliable access to their insurance information, making it easier for them to contact roadside assistance, their client service contact or claims handler. Mr Culpan says the popularity of getting away in a motorhome or caravan – often for weeks or months at a time – has grown enormously in recent years, and with more people spending significant time away from their home base or living permanently on the road, it’s important they have reliable and easy access to their insurance information.…

Brent Thurlow from Central RV in Taup? and DeLuxe Group in Blenheim offers the latest summer models of German Dethleff caravans, which we had the pleasure of checking out at recent shows. Brent can offer a wide range of floor plans and caravans to meet a multitude of budgets and personal requirements. The Dethleff C’go range is the smallest caravan and starts in price around $50k to $55k, the next step up is the Nomad range priced at $65 to $95k, and top of the range is the twin-axle Exclusive caravan, priced from $95k to $120k, depending on your individual choices.…

Two hours north of Auckland or an hour south of Whangarei, at the south end of Northland’s Brynderwyn range, a road turns west off State Highway 1. This is the main road to Dargaville – a town built around the banks of the Wairoa River, where in local parlance its muddy waters are ‘too thick to drink and too thin to plough’. The Wairoa drains into the mighty Kaipara Harbour. A little less than halfway along the Dargaville Road, nestled on the shores of what’s called the Arapaoa River – but what is in fact the northeastern arm of the Kaipara Harbour – is the village of Matakohe with its fascinating Matakohe Kauri Museum. The museum is as far removed from the stereotypical musty, fusty and dusty museum image, as…

Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud, sits precariously astride the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire volcanic zone on the margin of two tectonic plates that frequently misbehave. We know there are serious downsides to straddling faultlines, and it’s perhaps hard to imagine that there’s an upside as well, but there is one – the serendipitous existence of around 90 natural hot springs that dot the North Island landscape, and a further 60 in the South Island. They often occur in bubbling streams in secret locations and betray their presence by wispy spirals of steam rising up through the bush. Some of these natural springs may be a little rough and ready compared to high-end professional spas. However, the pulsating waters have a similar therapeutic effect, relaxing you physically and…

Hi Caspar, What’s this I hear about you being wheeled around in a baby buggy? Hmmm – well as long as your legs are all working properly again, I guess it was worth being treated like a baby for a while! Things have happened to me too – Mum and Dad took me for a ride on the ferry to Wellington, and next thing I knew I’m being invited to go for a ride with their friends. My bed was put in the back of their van so I knew it would be OK. Wheee – it was a rather long ride to a place called Taumarunui, and I stayed there for six months while Mum and Dad were fighting nasty snakes and ticks and things like that in outback…

CEMETERY CIRCUIT When: December 26 Where: Taupo Quay, Whanganui W: cemeterycircuit.co.nz Of international fame and now 65 years old, this event captures the hearts and minds of motorcycle enthusiasts everywhere! This street circuit is one mile long with eight corners, one railway crossing, an over-bridge and blind S-bends beside the old Whanganui cemetery. Parking at the Racecourse VALVOLINE SALOON SPEEDWEEK SERIES When: December 26-31 Where: Huntly, Baypark, Rotorua, Stratford, Napier, Palmerston North W: saloons.co.nz The Valvoline Saloon Speedweek Series is now the longest running Speedway series in New Zealand. Six nights of racing at six different tracks is a huge challenge for all the 22 drivers and the crew members that travel with the series. THE EXTRAVAGANZA – (GYPSY) When: December 31-January 3 Where: Beach Road, Waihi W: extravaganza.co.nz Happy…

New Zealand is behind the trend by several years - in Europe E-Bike sales are running at about 50 per cent of total sales. The boom is a major development in the way we consider cycling as a means of transportation, and the winners in this trend are those people who aren’t physically strong or have impaired ability. As the trend takes hold here, we’ll see more riders using E-Bikes as a primary means of transport, and increasingly couples with differing levels of fitness will again be able to enjoy a cycle experience together. It’s important to be clear about what an E-Bike can and can’t do. An E-Bike still requires that you pedal and exert some energy – most E-Bikes will cut out their ‘power assist’ at 25kms/hr so…

If there were a contest to select a location for a small town makeover, I’d pick Raetihi, situated between Whanganui and Ohakune in the Ruapehu district in the middle of the North Island. We’d driven from nearby Ohakune to visit the local museum only to find it closed – we later found that it’s open on Sundays and at other times by arrangement with the local information centre or the Barbed Wire gallery. Driving through Raetihi, it seemed like there was empty shop after empty shop. Standing on the footpath wondering where to go next, I couldn’t help but notice the number of eyecatching, well-proportioned, photogenic buildings that seemed to date from the late colonial and art deco eras. As it transpired, there was a reason for the construction age…

The hardened cores of Auckland’s urban volcanoe are covered with grass, carefully planted trees and pretty picnic spots but Rangitoto’s double cone outline, which lies like a discarded stopper across the entrance to Waitemata Harbour a few kilometres from downtown Auckland, is wild, stark and unpeopled. Its hard and sharp purple scoria coastline is lapped by the waters of the Hauraki Gulf while stunted trees struggle in a landscape without fresh water or topsoil. The island is the largest and youngest of Auckland’s 53 volcanos – nearby Motutapu, which is non-volcanic, is said to be the oldest island in the Hauraki Gulf. Rangitoto – ‘bloody sky’ in te reo M?ori – was born in a series of violent volcanic eruptions, the last of which occurred 600 years ago making it…

WIN WE HAVE 12 PACKS OF ZOATIES TO GIVEAWAY – EACH PACK CONTAINS 8 PACKS WITH FOUR FLAVOURS WORD LADDERS Instructions These word puzzles were first presented back in 1879 by Lewis Carroll – yes, the Alice in Wonderland man – he called them ‘doublets’. The idea is to change one letter at a time, each intervening word a valid one, to move from one word to the other. Answers next issue Puzzle 1 Time for a snack? Get SOUP into a BOWL, with three steps in between. Puzzle 2 COLD or WARM, with three steps in between? Puzzle 3 TOAST or BREAD with that - six steps in between? Puzzle 4 How to consume it? SLURP or eat properly with a SPOON - six steps in between? WE HAVE…

When you’re enjoying travel in your motorhome, the one thing you don’t need is a blockage in the plumbing. Since its introduction to New Zealand in 2012, Nature’s Head self contained waterless composting toilet has changed the way Kiwis deal with life on the road, on the land or on the water, gaining ready acceptance with owners of motorhomes, boats and tiny houses. One Christchurch-based owner, who lives in his motorhome permanently, has been using a no-fuss Nature’s Head composting toilet for more than a year. “We’ve had marine toilets – electric and manual – but this is the best we’ve ever had,” he says. “There’s no need for a water supply, and we’re no longer having to deal with blockages. It’s easy to clean and maintain, we empty the…

RV Leisure Centre in Nelson is the official New Zealand distributer of the UK manufactured Elddis and Buccaneer caravans. The business was established in 1978 and has a long history with RV owners across New Zealand. The Elddis range has won many awards in the UK, and offers some of the lightest-weight caravans on the market starting from $51,000 for the 1100kg gross weight models, up to the top of the range Buccaneer premiere caravan starting at $102,995 and 1900kg gross weight. Today the business also sells the Motek range of motorhomes as well as the Hamilton-built Southern Star caravans. They have new and second-hand models. RV Leisure Centre has appointed RV Super Centre in Albany and Christchurch as agents for the quality Elddis range to make them more widely…

Half a century of physical work has left one of our group with a wonky knee and another with a crook foot, so the Tongariro Mountain Crossing will have to remain on the bucket list for the time being. But we were in the National Park region, so decided to do some of the shorter walks in the Turangi/ Mt Ruapehu areas instead. There’s a nice short walk northeast of Turangi Township itself. It starts below the bridge on SH1, and then goes along the bank of the Tongariro River and across a suspension bridge over the river. By the time you get to the top of the hill on the opposite side of the river, you’ve had a reasonable workout, so you can feel justified in stopping for a…

When I was a child, I would hide on the last day of the holidays, trying to prolong the summer magic and avoid the long car trip back to Dunedin. My long-suffering parents would be standing on the lawn in Arrowtown with the little crib all locked up and my elder sisters grumbling in the hot car. I was never far away and they always knew where to find me, but it must have been extremely frustrating for them. I never wanted to leave Arrowtown and always fantasised about living in a cave on the hillside above the river like the gold miners of old. We were so excited to finally be heading out on the highway; we were like a couple of teenagers on their firstever independent roadie Many…

Hi guys, woof woof I’m a happy chappie again – my leg is much better now, and just last week Mama Robbie took me for a walk to the park. It was great fun to be out and about again, sniffing all my friends and some new smells as well. I still have my lead onall the time though – Mama says I still need to keep healing, whatever that means – I always walk at her heels, so I’m not sure what that’s all about. I went on a big drive in the motorhome, it was woofy-woof-woof fun. We went over the big hill and drove into the big ship, Mama said it was the Interislander – I knew that, cause I’ve been on it lots of times now.…