TAKE ON NEW ZEALAND

It’s hard to believe you’d somehow stumble upon this without knowing, but we (Noah, Pete and Conor) are currently in New Zealand! And though it sometimes feels like an eternity, we have only been here for two weeks out of the several months we intend to spend in this place. We have already kicked off what is sure to become a series of adventures and, of course, experienced our fair share of misfortune and bumps in the road (pun intended). Before diving into all the excitement of our first days in New Zealand, however, you may be wondering: How did you get there? What are you planning on doing for “several months”? If you’re a family member or friend of one of us, who are the other two? Where are you sleeping and how on earth do you plan on getting to see all these fun places?

OK, OK, slow down! That’s a lot of questions. Let’s just start from the beginning.

To distinguish the three blonde guys wearing blue: Noah is on the left and Conor is on the right, making the awkwardly diagonal one in the middle Pete.

As with most big life decisions, this plan began as more of a far-fetched dream about moving to New Zealand temporarily. However, once we all graduated in May and none of us had taken a job for the fall, we revisited this dream with greater intent. Early in the summer, Pete and Conor decided to give it a real go. Noah, realizing part of the way through his summer job that he had no idea what his plans were after August, texted Pete on a whim to see if he was still considering New Zealand in the back of his mind. When Pete responded that he and Conor had already decided to commit to the initial plan, then it was a foregone conclusion: it would be Pete, Conor and Noah, despite the fact that the latter two would not meet in person until they both touched down in New Zealand.

More precisely, the band would consist of Pete, Conor, Noah and the van. In the initial preliminary planning period, we quickly realized the reason for so many travelers in New Zealand to purchase a van: the two foremost logistical dilemmas when planning an adventure on the other side of the planet are where you’re sleeping every night and how you’re getting to all those exciting places that led you to the faraway land in the first place. A van equipped with a bed solves both of these problems. This gives way to the most basic form of our incredibly flexible long-term plan: fly to Christchurch, purchase a used van, build it into our dream camper, and spend the following weeks until around Christmas touring the entire South Island. Since time is our most plentiful resource and money is our most scarce, we chose to purchase a completely empty work vehicle and build it into a home ourselves. As the result of weeks of deliberation and too many “Is this still available?” messages on Facebook Marketplace to count, we are proud to introduce you to Scrappy (short for scrap metal), our not-so-brand-spankin’-new 2007 Mitsubishi L300 (the long wheelbase version, of course, thanks in part to Conor’s 6' 5” frame).

As you might imagine, buying a van through Facebook from halfway across the globe gave us some complications. When Pete and Conor went to drive for the first time, the van wouldn’t start. We sat with our new purchase in a 10 minute loading zone parking spot outside of our hostel for 3 hours while brainstorming a way out of this situation. Luckily for us, you are now looking at three proud owners of a New Zealand's Automotive Association membership, a brand new battery, and a van that reliably starts. Over the next couple days we began to learn all the little quirks of our new home that gives the van its character. 

The look you give when your newly purchased van refuses to start.

After several days of riveting calls to insurance and basic essential purchases to eat and sleep from the van, Noah arrived and the band was finally complete! Noah met Conor for the first time and Pete endured plenty of silly banter and various forms of gaslighting; it was fair to say that the two recruits were going to get along just fine. After a final night in Christchurch for a while, we took the van to scoop up our dear friend, Liam. Liam served as our resident New Zealand expert as we all acquainted ourselves with the country, as he had spent the preceding semester studying abroad in Christchurch. Three became four, and soon we were all bounding off like a family of rabbits (contained in one big, cluttered cage of a van), hoppingly eager to leave Christchurch and get a taste of what the rest of the island had to offer. Next on the agenda? The Abel Tasman Coastal and Inland Tracks.

A slow start to the day and a long ride meant we arrived at the trailhead at 10:00pm with a couple of miles yet to hike to reach our first campsite. Naturally, we chose to stop at the conveniently located bar right at the trailhead for pints before taking off - it was Halloween, after all!

The following five days flew by in a blur of secluded bays and an overwhelming number of ocean views. This was not your typical backpacking trip; though we covered miles, climbed hills and slept in tents, we also spent all of our free time playing Spikeball (which we obviously brought) and throwing a frisbee at the beach. At night, we continued our theme of competition with rousing games of Spades. 

THE TRIP IN NUMBERS:

1. Spikeball record: Pete/Noah: 7, Liam/Conor: 0

2. Wekas spotted and unsuccessfully corralled: innumerable

3. Total possum trap counter: <387

4. Spades record: Conor/Noah: 4, Pete/Liam: 3

5. Total low-tide estuaries crossed: 2

6. Kilos of pasta eaten over 3 nights: 3

The next chapter of our adventure includes a stint working at a vineyard in central Canterbury while we build out the interior of Scrappy. Stay tuned for us meeting Helen and Matt, becoming handymen and consuming lots of free wine!