Innholdsfortegnelse for November - December 2023 i RV Travel Lifestyle

The last couple of months have raced by, and the next few weeks show no sign of slowing down for us, with a Special Edition Cycle Trail magazine in production and the Jan-Feb issue underway as well because of an early print date with Christmas holidays on the calendar. This year has been another one of turmoil in the world with the Ukraine–Russia war, and we have all felt the repercussions of that economically one way or the other with product costs, freight, fuel, etc. Now the Israel–Palestine war is happening and is even more disturbing, especially when I learnt that the entire Gaza strip where two million people live is only 140 square miles of land (363 sq km) – 25 miles long by 3.7 to 7.5 miles wide.…

I pulled out a map (the old-fashioned paper kind that our kids laugh at), wondering how many bays and beaches were marked in the Far North. There are dozens. I lost count somewhere around 75. We’ve also got coves, inlets, harbours, points, islands and rocks. Perhaps the rocks are of limited appeal, but then again rocks mean rock pools which are always popular and, although it’s hard for me to understand, Stephen loves rock hopping. I guess they could be good for snorkelling too. So for some, rocks rock. But what makes a good beach? I did an informal and very limited survey among family and friends, and their answers boiled down to two things – solitude and sand. Solitude can often be found on a New Zealand beach, but…

Papamoa Hills Cultural Heritage Regional Park The unparalleled views from the top of the Papamoa Hills have captivated locals for centuries. From the 224m-high summit you can gaze out across the Pacific Ocean and see everything from Mount Maunganui all the way to Whakatāne. The Bay’s earliest Māori inhabitants established more than seven pā sites here, and over 2000 archaeological features can still be found today. It takes about 45 minutes to walk from the carpark to the trig station at the top, but there are numerous other trails crisscrossing the park. Over 50,000 natives have been planted across these hills in recent years. A new visitor entrance and interpretation area opens in November 2023, to explain the cultural and historical context of the land before you set out on…

Not many people would know there’s a small group of artisans in Canterbury who preserve a timeless craft that was once the backbone of civilisation. These blacksmiths practise their trade with skill and passion, forging a connection between the past and the present. These modern-day artisans know that blacksmithing was once an indispensable profession, dating back as far as 1500 BC. They respect the legacy left by their fore-fathers while infusing individual creativity into their craft. In small, hidden workshops around Aotearoa you can find their glowing furnaces and the rhythmic sound of hammer on anvil. Les Schenkel is one such master. Now in his seventies, the retired blacksmith has set up shop at the head of Lyttelton Harbour, near Christchurch, in an old forge that lay neglected until 2010.…

My annual visit to the Caravan Salon Düsseldorf in Germany over the bank holiday weekend at the end of August, quickly followed by the kids going back to school, always signals the end of summer to me. Knowing the summer holidays are over and then seeing all the new caravans and motorhomes at the Caravan Salon definitely leaves me feeling frustrated that I can’t take a road trip anytime soon and this year was no exception. Organisers of the Caravan Salon says it’s the biggest show of its kind in the world, and I reckon that’s true. There’s rarely any UK caravans, campervans or motorhomes there (as most UK manufacturers don’t export to left-hand-drive markets), so for me, it’s always interesting to see all the continental brands, plus smaller, independent…

Walking around the classic caravans and cars brings a smile to the face of most visitors as they see the passion and skills utlised by the owners of these home-built retro vans alongside Kiwi classics from our childhood. Sitting amongst the caravans was a tiny red and white caravan, and closer inspection revealed it to be the oldest-known Liteweight caravan in existence – a 1950 Kiwi 10-footer. It had been rebuilt and restored by well-known local classic RV expert, Dave McRobbie from Caravan and Motorhome World in Hamilton. He originally found the caravan tucked away down on a sloping section in Aotea, south of Raglan on the North Island’s west coast, hidden away in the bushy under-growth. The first challenge was accessing and moving the slightly fragile wreck out of…

THE PROBLEM Due to the high roof of a campervan, you need a ladder to tie the boards on the roof, who carries a ladder in a camper or motorhome? THE SOLUTION Transport the surfboards on the side of the van. Due to the high roof of the van, the surfboards are mounted above the side mirrors and therefore cause no obstruction to the view looking backwards, and therefore it’s possible to keep an eye on the boards through the mirror too. THE HARDWARE Our standard brackets are made to fit onto the side of the Fiat Ducato, VW Crafter, or a Mercedes Sprinter panel van. We are constantly making new adaptors for different vehicle types and models, such as gutter brackets for the older vehicles and our recently developed…

We won’t see Skippers or Serpentine now. Cruising Milford Sound is off the agenda, as is one more leisurely trip around the East Cape. Aggressive lung and kidney cancer took Neill’s life in mid-September leaving me completely and utterly bereft. But a wonderful condolence letter from Stuart Edgecombe who ran a gold-panning operation in Roxburgh has motivated me to write. We visited and interviewed Stu in 2020. Then, and again recently, he was adamant that the greatest gold in his life was his wife Ngaire, his long-term partner who has now battled Alzheimer’s for several years, a sentiment that I totally agree with. Stu expressed his appreciation for the exposure our article had given his operation, then mentioned that for reasons of age and other difficulties, the gold-panning was no…

In 2007 James Moore was a successful businessman. As a high-flying CEO life was good and his company was booming. However. by 2009 the global financial crisis had wiped him out and he was bankrupt. Never one to sit idly by, he got on his bike – literally. He found work as a postie and loved it. It was the perfect opportunity to spend his working day thinking and dreaming about what to do next. He needed another business idea. He thought about the importance of reducing food miles and working manually to create a product that could be sourced, processed and consumed locally, a product that would have a low impact on the environment and be sustainable. Salt. With easy access to thousands of miles of coastline and a…

Waiotahe Trail Completed in the last year, the Waiotahe Trail extends nine kilometres from the western side of Ōpōtiki town, along the coast to Te Ahiaua/the Pipi Beds. About 3km of the mostly gravel trail runs parallel with State Highway 2, but much of the way the trail flows over low dunes that are blanketed in spinifex and Pīngao, and backed by giant pōhutukawa. The trail’s beach sections have sensational views seaward: sweeping 180-degree Pacific ocean panoramas with Whakaari (White Island) and Moutohora (Whale island) on the far horizon. The trail is mostly flat, with just one short, steep rise. Overnighting options include Island View Holiday Park, or nearby, Ōhiwa Beach Holiday Park. Most people start Waiotahe Trail from Te Ahiaua or from the Dunes Trail starting in Ōpōtiki. For…

Fried kina on toast This simple dish could be considered slightly controversial, as I believe most kina eaters would think it was sacrilege to consume kina in any other state than raw. Don’t get me wrong, I love raw kina and will always pick up a dozen or so when going for a dive. The thing is, I want more Kiwis (especially Pākehā) to start understanding how delicious they are, and by serving them this way I see it as the gateway to discovering how darn tasty sea urchin (kina) can be. There is also another motive running alongside what I’ve said in this intro: in parts of New Zealand we have created what are now called ‘kina barrens’, where the kina have taken over and consumed much of the…

In part two Richard finishes work on the roof, looks at electrics, and starts planning the interior kitchen unit placement. My pop-up (and others that I’ve seen) has roof bars that could be useful. Unfortunately they were quite rusty, so had to be removed by unbolting, then wire brushing, sanding, etc. before being primed with a rust eater/primer then painted with three or four coats of enamel paint. Without the bars the top was easier to paint, too. There was only fairly minor damage to the fibreglass top, but nonetheless I filled in the small dents and cracks before priming and painting with a small roller. So far it has received three coats. The finish might not be quite as good as spraying but it is easier by far and…

Shows are great for us exhibitors as well the visitors. We get to catch up with the RV industry on a regular basis, view new products as well as seeing familiar faces everywhere we go. For the last couple of Mystery Creek shows our neighbouring exhibitor has been the boys from Kohi Campers, James and David, with their very cool Northstar Hardwall 600 ATV slide-on camper RVs. If you’re a true adventurer who loves to hit the real outdoors, going off-road for bush or beach adventures, an intrepid hunter-gatherer type, or you just like being in the real outdoors remotely, these units are ideal. You can also easily tow a boat, trailer, jet ski or even caravan if desired so they tick a lot of boxes. I am surprised Allan…

While lots of visitors were looking for multi-berth motorhomes with lots of living space, others were looking for something small and compact to meet their needs. I found fellow exhibitors Belinda and Jean from Gallivanting Oz tucked up in the living space of the Duet Tourer from Tranztec RV campervan manufacturers, a company based near Thames. We caught up briefly, then I sat in the passenger cab seat, swivelled around to the back and shamelessly listened in on their appraisal of the van. Jean had obviously had more than one look as she opened overhead cupboards to show Belinda, pointing out the diesel heater vents and USB charging port, and exclaiming over the space in the 130L 12V compressor fridge with its freezer box and small veggie bins – way…

The weather for the last couple of months here in Martinborough has been wild and windy at times, so heading away in the motorhome (RocknRobyn) hasn’t been on the cards very often. However, a very important grandson’s fifth birthday saw us pack up and hit the road to Tauranga. The day we left was an absolute stunner weather-wise. We headed up to Woodville, over the Saddleback and took the back road from Ashurst to Cheltenham where we would normally have turned left to end up on State Highway 1 between Hunterville and Mangaweka. We decided to stay on the road and go via Kimbolton instead, a bit more of a back road drive, but as Bruce exclaimed ‘the old girl is running like a dream’ (motorhome) and it is a…

There was a distinct musky smell permeating from the ground as I clambered up the steep dew-covered hill. Walking around bristly bushes I looked out at the swirling morning mist blanketing the bush-covered hills. The sun was almost peeking over the horizon, throwing shafts of light down through the mist. Below, a plume of smoke was rising from the chimney of the shed below – AKA the ‘hut’. When I came back into the kitchen the window of the cast-iron wood-burning oven was glowing red and the aroma of coffee brewing on the gas burner filled the room. We have a couple of friends from Ōakura who have a back-country escape on a 500-acre (202 hectare) block near Whangamōmona on the Forgotten World Highway. Wild goats and deer roam the…

The Ruahine Forest Park consists of beautiful bush-covered ranges, including the Ruahine Range. This range is geologically about 1–2 million years old, and has a unique characteristic in that it rises abruptly while being relatively narrow. This significantly impacts the weather on the range, with very high rainfall events (one trig station in the middle of the range has recorded an annual rainfall of five metres). Rivers and streams also deeply dissect the area, forming a network of significant rivers. Vegetation in the park varies with the altitude. The forests in the north are generally a mix of podocarps including red beech, rimu, miro, mataī and mountain beech, with kahikatea dominating swampy areas. On the wide-open tops the forests give way to sub-alpine shrubland, tussock grasslands and summer flowering herb…

Meeting a real bloke Over the years I have done an awful lot of talking to politicians, particularly during the 25 years I spent on radio, and I still get the odd chance to keep my hand in, as it were. During the politicking that went on in the run-up to this just-completed election I spent some time nattering to the hopeful candidates in my electorate, Waitaki. The National Party bloke Miles Anderson and I got on well and he phoned to ask if I would be interested in meeting Andrew Bayly, the sitting National MP for the Port Waikato electorate. I had not heard of him but Miles said he was National’s spokesman on a wide range of endeavours including small businesses, manufacturing, revenue and a couple of others.…

https://qrco.de/beTzLJ Outside the display hall a new exhibitor had the crowds enchanted with the French-built Beauer 3X caravan, a four-berth modular caravan offering 12m2 internal living space at full extension. However, when both side modules are retracted (at the push of a button) the main body space reduces to 4m2 by means of electric cylinders telescoping the carefully sized components back into one with the interior fittings folding securely in the interior of the vehicle – very clever. Brush seals between these structures prevent air and water from penetrating. The structure is insulated with 2cm of expanded polystyrene. The video of it closing is a must-see – click or scan the QR code to watch it. The three sections are created from cylindrical polyester mouldings plus side walls on the…