A Succesful Show

The Covi Caravan & Motorhome Show is well & truly over now & we have headed north. The whole weekend was a very busy one not only inside the showground halls but also outside in the huge car park where as you can see there were hundreds of motorhomes, buses, caravans & fifth-wheelers parked up for the weekend rally. Parked up in straight & tidy rows, every available space was taken with the overflow filling up another smaller car park next door. Here in our park I counted  10 rows of vehicles stretching back probably at least 500 metres to the main gates.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that wonderful on any of the 3 days & on Saturday night around 2am a horrendous thunder & lightning storm raged directly overhead for an hour or so. The rain was torrential & the noise on the roof deafening & every time there was a flash of lighting it lit up the whole van through the skylights and the thunder claps actually shook the van.  As I lay there listening, I wondered how many vehicles might have sprung a leak and also whether the vehicles laid out there like they were, might attract lightning bolts. The morning dawned fine & clear & it looked like no one had suffered too much although our friends told us they de-camped to their car in the middle of the storm, feeling much safer there.

We were at the show for two reasons; as happy owners,  & clients, we were helping out “On the Road RV” on their Ultima Stand and secondly we had a number of items to purchase.

 

Over the last 25 years we have regularly attended shows with numerous products from most of our business; Fieldays, Home Shows, A&P Shows, Boat Shows & Bike Shows, we have done dozens here in NZ & in Europe, UK & the States, & now we can add Motorhome Show to the list. But it was very different when you don’t own the business there's none of that "sale, sale, sale" pressure there. We had a great time although we were both tired by the end, we’d forgotten how hard standing on your feet all day, smiling nicely & talking constantly can be. As owners with a lot of experience now of living in the van for both long & short periods we were able to answer many questions accurately & truthfully and offer a load  of advice to people that were contemplating buying a fifth-wheeler either for holidays or for permanent  living. There are a surprising amount of people  who are making the decision, like us, to become permanent gypsies.

Two couples who had made the decision to buy Ultimas came back to our van after the show one evening to check on how we had set up the interior.  One couple brought a bottle of bubbly to celebrate their purchase which was shared around.  (Excuse the out of focus photos they were taken with my cell phone)

 

We had Sunday off as we needed to follow up on a couple of items we were looking at buying, have a look around the stands & then head off to Whangarei in the early afternoon.

And here are our new purchases, a 3.4 Takacat inflatable dinghy & a 2kw Honda generator which should help out with my power hungry computer amongst other things.  Now we just need to rearrange the ute & fifth-wheeler again to fit everything in & still allow room for the outboard which will be the next purchase. It is becoming a real juggling act & I know we will be off-loading a few smaller things for good once we get back to Tauranga.

 

And here's one for the road...

Alexandra Park- Auckland Covi Rally

Throughout the day RVs of every shape, size, make & model have been pouring into the carpark- I'll add to these photos as the weekend progresses. This carpark & another through the fence will be full by tomorrow night.  It's now 5:30, the rain has started & still vehicles are arriving. (click on the photos to see a larger size)


10am

1pm

Hi Chris :)

2pm



4pm



"Lean with Us"- 8am Friday morning & all satellite dishes are pointed north in anticipation of NZ winning the America's Cup. We didn't & had to wait until Saturday morning to bring the cup home.
 



Packed in tight; outside our Fifth-Wheeler, Friday evening

Our neighbours

Friday night

Thru the fence behind our van, Alexandra Park Trots



Camping in the City

Last night found us in a very tight little spot at a camping ground right in the middle of Remuera. It was surrounded by houses & tucked down a narrow tree lined driveway at the bottom of a hill. David's driving & backing were outstanding both getting into the place & back out of it this morning.

Five styles of camping

 

We were up early so we could get everything ready to go as soon as we'd watched the first America's Cup race. We had been asked to get to the park early as there was going to be a lot of vans arriving & the bigger vehicles had to move right down the back of the carpark. Once ship-shape all we had to do was hitch up & pull out, the ute stuck out across the driveway otherwise we'd have hitched before the racing began too.

We were hoping to get to Alexandra Park, which was only a few kilometres away, by the time the second race was due to start. And then David had the brilliant idea of live streaming it on his iPad which we attach to the dash (when we're using it to navigate), & that way we wouldn't miss any of the action. Of course we forgot about the huge data use live streaming uses & quickly used up all his allocation and then some! Another lesson learned, although we both said it was well worth the expense (over $100) and we wouldn't have missed the sailing for the world. Thankfully the second race was postponed otherwise we may have been looking at another couple of hundred dollars!

Once we were parked up at Alexandra Park, David phoned Telecom to check & see why it was still showing his data was being used even though he had everything switched off after we got the notification he was over his limit. And once again David's charm worked wonders, the very helpful telecom guy said we were such good customers that he'd pass a credit for all the excess usage! Sweet!

We've had a quiet day inside the fifth-wheeler backed up to the race course fence watching all the comings & goings as dozens of vehicles(and people) in all shapes & sizes arrive and are directed to their parks. It's a blustery overcast day, a good day to catch up on chores inside.

As you can see & as is typical of us we were first to arrive.........

.........in our area of the park

Quarter Acre Pot

We purchased a Quarter Acre Pot at last year's Covi Motorhome Caravan & Outdoor Show which is held at the Epsom show grounds in Auckland. So far I haven't tried it out so I thought while we're parked up at home I'd trial it along side cooking the same dish in the oven.

Quarter Acre Pots are thermal cookers that require no power, a bit like a slow cooker that doesn't need to be plugged in. Because we'll be off the grid a lot of the time I'm hoping it'll be an ideal way to prepare a meal. I also like the fact that you can prepare the meal in the morning before you leave for the day & it'll be ready to eat when you get back or to when you pull into another site after a day of driving which is when you least feel like cooking dinner.

Here's the blurb from the link above-

The Quarter Acre Pot is a simple to use non-electrical multifunctional appliance that can be used as a Thermo Cooker, Cooler, Bain-Marie, Rice Cooker and Yoghurt Maker. Take your Quarter Acre Pot Camping, in the Caravan or Motor Home, Picnics & Outdoor Events .

I found a recipe in amongst a pile I was sorting & thought it would be perfect to trial in the Pot & to compare, in a casserole in the oven. I was hoping to include it here but I've now gone & misplaced it.

So in case you're wondering what it is, it was called a "Chicken, Chorizo & Butter Bean Bake"

Basically there are two "billies", a large one that fits inside the outer thermo container & a half size one that fits inside the bigger billy. After water is brought to the boil in the outer billy, the smaller one with the food ready to go is placed inside that. It sits in the top half of the bigger container above the boiled water. The lid is fitted & the outer thermo lid is closed and then the whole container is popped into the carry bag & put somewhere safe & secure to work it's magic. The boiling water transfers it's heat to the thermo outer & slowly the food is cooked. And that is that. Meats, casseroles, soups, desserts & cakes can all be cooked in Quarter Acre Pot.

And the verdict? I left it cooking for 8 hours & I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It was definitely tastier than the same casserole done in the oven, much more flavour and the chicken readily fell off the bone. Now I'm looking forward to trying it out on other recipes, maybe some of the less likely "slow cooker" ones. I'll let you know how they go.

Which mobile home to choose....

Once that the house was sold we now had to decide on what type of mobile home we would buy. A bus, a motorhome/campervan, a caravan or a fifth-wheeler. After much research and visits to campervan & caravan shows & various dealers yards in the end we decided on a fifth-wheeler.

What about this one?
 In fact this brought back many memories for David, he used to sell the
NZ made Trekkas when he first came to NZ back in 1968

We never really considered buying a bus, motorhomes were the next to be crossed off our list as we wanted to be mobile once we were parked up and not have to pack up and secure our belongings before we could visit the shops or local attractions, parks etc. We're planning on doing a lot of day trips as we may be parked up at some places for a week or two or more so to be able to leave the site without packing up was a priority. The caravan really never stayed on the the list for long either, we wanted to be able to take whatever we purchased, while not necessarily off road, certainly into some back country areas quite easily and most caravans aren't robust enough, and also the size we were considering lacked the interior space we felt we needed as this was going to be our full-time home. This left us the fifth-wheeler.

I've been asked many times over what a fifth wheeler is, the easiest explanation I've read is that it's an articulated caravan. None the wiser? The fifth wheel is the hitch that joins the caravan to the vehicle that is towing it, usually but not always a ute (utility). It hitches onto a turntable that is positioned on the deck of the vehicle. This makes towing & manoeuvring the van much easier and allows for a lot more room inside as the front of the van swings over the deck of the vehicle; the bedroom is usually located in this area. Fifth-wheelers also have one, two or three "slide outs", these slide out from the walls of the van opening up the interior to nearly double the size, allowing for good sized lounge areas, galley or other bedrooms. They slide back in when on the road. There are very large fifth-wheelers out there, they are very popular in the States & Australia but we needed to compromise on space, we wanted to be able to have enough space that we didn't feel like we were living in a sardine can but not so big that we couldn't tow it easily. Size & weight also had a bearing when it came to road transport regulations and where the van & ute fitted into the licensing parameters; both vehicle & driver. Too heavy &/or big & we'd be paying extra road tax over and above what is included in the diesel price per litre.



Fifth wheeler with slide-out, out

In the end we decided on an Evergreen Ultima Fifth Wheeler, the van would take 3 months to arrive from America which was good timing as the Ford Ranger Supercab we'd also ordered to tow it would take three months also. The Ultima is built for New Zealand road conditions including driving on the left hand side of the road; the entry door opens so that you are exiting away from the road.

http://www.ultimarv.com.au/