The Shakedown

As per all the advice from the various online forums we have joined (and there were many!) we gave Banjo a good shakedown after we picked her up.  

We had loaded as much as we could fit into the back of the Pajero and we set about finding homes for everything in the caravan’s many fantastic storage options.  Inside there are heaps of drawers, cupboards, cabinets, a hanging wardrobe each, under bed & under seating spaces, two pantry cupboards and various other nooks and crannies.  Outside there is a slim wetboot at the front, perfect for outdoor items, hoses, a wet suit, and sundry damp and dirty pieces of camping equipment.  Behind that is a tunnel boot which stretches from one side of the van to the other and into which we crammed the tug (electronic jockey wheel mover), the baby Weber BBQ, a giant tyre jack, the jockey wheel and assorted other camping items.

After our first successful night on campsite power and water we decided to pretend we were freedom camping and switched all the official electrics off and existed on solar and stored power alone for the second night.  Great news – everything seemed to go swimmingly and we consumed very little of our green power.  On this system everything electrical which can be powered by 12v ports still runs, including the fridge and the hot water system (absolute essentials) and there are various ports around the van allowing you to charge phones and run basic equipment.  The only things that we were unable to use at this point were the air con, the microwave and the electric hob, but given that we still had 3 gas hobs and a gas oven that was not a big deal.

On Wednesday morning we waved off Nickie and Russ in their Bailey Unicorn then packed up everything in Banjo – following our official check list from Vanari and advice from our experienced Moho travellers Abby & Jez.  After a quick walk on the beach and a final swim for Louis we hitched up, checked all our couplings, battened down the hatches (kinda), emptied our “grey water” at the dump station (plug water from the sink, basin and shower) and then triumphantly left Ruakaka Beach Campground, heading South towards Auckland.

This was our first big towing experience and we were both a little nervous (not that I was doing much other than offering encouragement!). We had a few challenges ahead including trundling through about 3km of roadworks where new tar seal  had just been laid, going at a snail’s pace so as not to damage our new baby, being honked at by angry motorists, and navigating the ups and downs and the tight bends of the Brynderwyn hills.  Popping out of the Puhoi Tunnel we also discovered that crosswinds can have a mighty impact as could huge articulated pantechnicans who sucked us into their vortex!

Our third and fourth nights were to be at Orewa Beach Campsite where we had booked a beachside pitch – but the lovely reception guy there took pity on our amateur caravanner status and offered us a choice of pitches so that reversing in public wasn’t necessarily required!  We chose the drive through space – wimps!

We spent a lovely 2 days in Orewa - catching up with a soon-to-be fellow Snowy owner who I used to work with at 2degrees, buying bits and bobs to stock Banjo, cutting spare keys (some proved impossible), swimming and walking on the beach and gatecrashing our daughter’s Hato Hone St John Christmas party!