Looking for a bach to buy in the upper North Island proved unexpectedly hard work for a couple at the beginning of last year. With two adult children studying and in training and one partner frequently on long business trips, finding properties that fitted the bill and then the time to go and see them, meant six months passed in rapid succession without making any real progress.
“Despite being keen, cash buyers, we still hadn’t quite managed to find something that was going to totally work for all of us plus our assorted animals. Nothing we found was going to be flexible enough – for short or long trips, sometimes for all six of us (the kids’ boyfriends too), sometimes for just us two and occasionally just for me and the dogs when I want to run away from home on my own,” laughs Rachel.
“Then midway through last year after thinking seriously about a property and deciding against it, we started thinking ‘what about a motorhome?’ My mother has had two and I remembered feeling deeply envious when she went on a trip through the South Island. She is 75 now and been all over the show in the quite flash motorhome she has now. It’s enabled her to go and do lots of things that she would not have done otherwise.”
“It’s not just the travel that’s great in a motorhome; it’s the whole anticipation and planning of what you are going to do. It’s like Christmas. Part of the pleasure is in planning and anticipation of the event itself and like many adventures, they are often better in the telling than the living.
“We realised a motorhome would work for all of us. We could take it down to the snow or to the beach. We could all go away or just us or only me; and we could take it anywhere we want to go in New Zealand. It would make us easy guests when staying with family or friends and that it would give us the flexibility we all wanted, that collectively we’d use it far more than a bach.”
Motorhoming is not just for tourists. It’s surprisingly popular in New Zealand. Over 144,000 Kiwis belong to the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA) which offers maps, support, technical info and know-how to anybody who wants to see the country in comfort their way, to their schedule.
So what were the next steps after deciding to buy a motorhome instead of a bach?
“We had a look at what was out there and had a think about our requirements. From talking to people and looking at the NZMCA website, we learnt that in NZ people often alter motorhomes to suit. Originally we thought we’d spend roughly $50,000. The option was to buy for that amount or buy for less and renovate or alter it to suit. We knew what we wanted, decided on the latter and joined the NZMCA.
“I spent three months looking at everything that came up for sale. Relatively early on I fell in love with a gypsy caravan. Although it was as cute as a button and really, really appealing, at the end of the day you are still driving a motor vehicle and the engine needs to do what you need it to do and the living space has just got to work. Otherwise you won’t get the use out of it and it’s too big an investment to do that,” Rachel explains.
In the end, the family chose a vehicle that is quite old (late 1980s), but has always been a motorhome and has quite low mileage. They had it all checked out before buying it “so we knew it had a good engine, but the first thing we did after picking it up was to take it off to a diesel mechanic for a good service so we would know exactly when our service history begins and exactly what has been done to it.”
“Everybody’s needs are different. We have two oversize dogs. I wanted a vehicle I could walk straight into from the driver’s seat, and didn’t want to be putting a bed up and down all the time. Sometimes motorhomes have big seating areas that convert into beds, but we’ve opted for a smaller seating area in favour of a permanent bedroom.
“We wanted a proper toilet and a self-containment certificate to manage our own water and waste and just give us more flexibility as to where we go. It’s also responsible. There’s dump stations all over the country that you can use. We put in gas burners and larger water tanks. We’ve fitted out a permanent shower, put in new vents and got grills and mesh fitted so the windows can be kept open when the animals are inside to keep the bus cool. The big jobs were getting the water tanks and the bathroom on. You’ve got to be patient around that stuff because like any renovation, everything takes longer and costs more than you’d like.
Rachel says it’s already proved brilliant.
“I sleep like a log in it and one afternoon, when the house was full of rather loud adult children and their friends, I nicked out to the bus for a nana nap. The dog sitting on the deck eyes glued to the bus door waiting for me to emerge was the only clue they had to finding where I was.
“It’s great to be able to stay with my parents without impacting their routines or households and it makes you an easy guest particularly when in our case, we do travel with pets. I carry a dog shelter and can keep them on a leash.
“I spent years hauling kids and animals into the back of a station wagon. It was always a complex juggling act making sure that everybody had everything in terms of sleeping stuff and animal care. I wish I’d thought of buying a motorhome years ago. “