Hitting the road
The car I had been driving back home for the last 4 years is a Nissan Micra petrol automatic, quite different from an extra-large Ford Transit Diesel Manual - though I’ve driven plenty of manuals, it does take a little bit of practice to get used to it again. So when first getting behind Vandalf’s wheel I thought it best to take it easy somewhere quiet. However, New Zealand’s roads don’t quite work like that!
After two wrong turns in Auckland I had gotten on the motorway twice in both directions. I took a wrong turn down a big hill with a dead end which required both hill starts and 3 (more like 8) point turns, and to get to the first overnight location I was a bit delayed which led to driving up a windy, narrow road in the pitch black. At the time I blamed google maps for taking me such a wild route but soon discovered that there are a lot of roads like that here.
I had circled the hotel so much to find somewhere to park that wouldn’t bother anyone else, which is a pattern I’ve come to give up on, and in the end stuck the hazard lights on and made two sweaty trips through the hotel heaving my many bags of possessions into Vandalf - to sort out later. I was nervous but so excited, I tried to make it look like I wasn’t a new van owner and that I knew what I was doing but I think the expression on my face of pure excitement and slight terror gave me away.
The first location I had booked was to stay at the Arataki Visitor Centre. After RJ bigged up Piha so much I was sure that would be a good place to start. After getting there in the dark and having my crash-course on van driving that day I was pretty sleepy so got ready for an early night. I’d popped to the public toilets and tiptoed back in the dark to vet in bed, pulled my side door handle and POP. The couple I bought it off had mentioned (after buying) that somethings I might need to lock and unlock a few times before I can slide the door open. This hadn’t worked and I lost patience so went for a harder pull, which led to the ‘POP’. The handle had busted out and I could not see anything to try and get it back in. I climbed through the back and pulled the rear doors closed forgetting they don’t open from the inside. Luckily, one can climb over the passenger seats to get out but it’s not very easy for a chunky person, but this was something I had to do quite a few times in the end.
I managed to pop the handle back in the next day with the pointy end of a paint roller I found in the back but I spent my first night panicking about how little I knew about the van and important questions I did not ask. For someone in such panic, I still slept pretty well. I also found a note in my sudoku book from A.J that said “At somepoint you’ll find this in NZ. Remember how much you are loved and how proud I am of you. You’ll find this when you are meant to xxx” - I found it on my first night in Vandalf.
In the morning, my selfish, silly panic left after a phone call from home, one of my best friends was going through something and I wasn’t there to help her, but she sounded so brave and strong that I got over my little fears and looked for solutions. I went for a long and thoughtful walk, I remembered where I was and how amazing it was that I was here. After speaking with my dad which also helped, I called a few garages and was able to drop Vandalf in to one, they even sorted me with a car to drive around for the morning which was a speedy little Nissan Duke automatic. Now garages won’t always see you this quickly especially if you have a campervan but I got lucky! I spent that morning reading by a lake and focusing on the exciting times ahead feeling positive, until they called and said there was nothing to fix and I’d basically paid $80 for them to spray lubricant on the door, which ended up being money well spent as the door worked perfectly. Fast forward a month and yes the door still gets stuck but I’ve got my trusty can of lube and more patience and sense to know not to yank it open! He is 22 years old after all… I felt so happy to be able to open and close my door and not have to hike over to the cabin and if that simple thing made me feel so happy I couldn’t wait to get going! So we hit the road and went to see what all the fuss was about in Piha….
