Who knew leaving New Zealand would turn into such a logistical nightmare? When we arrived things just seemed like they would work out so easily; buy a van, travel, explore, work, save money, sell the van, leave.
It was supposed to be so simple but of course, life rarely works out that way.
The Van
To say that the van caused us a fair amount of stress would be an understatement. As soon as we brought it, sinking a third of our life savings into it, we had buyers remorse. We got caught up in the moment; the excitement of starting our adventure (and getting out of overpriced dodgy accommodation) ran roughshod over the critical thinking we should have been doing. Every blog and internet forum i'd scoured had the same advice, get a mechanical check before buying... but that would cost a hundred dollars and besides, what if it showed any issues? We loved this van and wanted it now, we didn't want to be back at square one, once again looking at van after van for the "perfect" fit. If anything, we deliberately kept ourselves ignorant - ignoring red flags and all the boxes it didn't tick just so we could hit the road.
During our ten months of van ownership and 15,000 kilometres travelled in it, there was of course some hiccups and some money to spend. An oil leak that we had to get fixed, twice. Two new tyres. A New battery. Quite a lot of sealant to stop the rain coming in. A service... or two. All things that sort of made sense considering how far we’d travelled and some of the juddery, bumpy roads we took. They were all things we mostly expected to pay.
What hit us harder was the long list of things we failed on when we put the van through its WOF (think MOT). Some of it was normal wear and tear, but I really don’t understand how three mechanics failed to notice we had a fuel line unattached and another blocked. We left the WOF dejected, sure that we'd only have a few things to fix not this massive list we'd been saddled with. Luckily, we lived on a farm and farmers always know a guy - our landlords had a friend who would fix it for us on the cheap.
Unfortunately, some miscommunication must of happened along the way and he managed to fix six of the seven fails and one thing that wasn’t on the list at all. So, predictably when we traveled the forty minutes (living in the middle of no-where cow country can be annoying) to the WOF garage, it failed, again. So at this point we were $70 down for the WOF and $500 down for the fixes and no where near finished with the saga. Cutting our losses we booked it in with the WOF garage as they couldn’t possibly fail to finally fix. They did, and thankfully at $164 it didn’t break the bank.
So now the van was in perfect working order (as much as a twenty year old van can be at least) we could finally get around to selling it. Before passing the WOF, we wouldn't have been able legally sell it without some extra paperwork, but we hadn't been sitting idle while we waited. We’d done what we could to pretty it up, fixing the bits that needed to be fixed in the living space and giving it a lick of paint inside and out. We’d had the advert up with a few nibbles, but it was looking like we’d need to lower the price and put in some leg work to get it gone.
Right when we thought things were looking up, we hit another problem. In fixing up the van we discovered that our built in gas hob (one of the things that had sold us on the van in the first place) had decided to stop working. Whilst looking up how to fix it, we discovered that it hadn’t been installed legally in the first place... what wonderful news. So our options were thus; spend a LOT of money getting it installed properly, take it out completely, or shady option number three - leaving it in and hope that no one gets hurt in a gas related incident. Obviously, we weren't going to endanger anyone and all the gas fitters seemed either too far away or two busy so it narrowed things down a bit. In the end, we left it in place, removed all gas lines and updated the advert, leaving the option for the new owners to get it fixed themselves but ensuring there was no way for them to hook it up in the meantime.
Selling vehicles never seems to be easy, selling our van turned into a nightmare. Our first potential buyer almost crashed into our landlords flowerbed and somehow did half the test drive with the handbrake on. Our second was fine, just not as interested as they first seemed and the third tried to buy for a 40% discount alongside four magic stones, I’m not even kidding. We feared that we'd own this van forever, we were ready to leave and there it sat, unavoidably present every time we left the house, a big white badly painted reminder of all the money we might lose.
In the end - after many facebook marketplace messengers and a few near-misses - it worked out perfectly. A couple wanted a viewing, they'd just arrived in the country and wanted a van ASAP, and even better, they hired a car to come to us for the test drive; saving us from yet another trip into Auckland. Before we'd even made it a mile away from the house they were sold, they loved the van and they wanted to buy it now. Of course, buying things now doesn't necessarily mean buying things now - it was a Sunday, the very worst day to for a quick international bank transfer. They set things up their end, and as they didn't have a Kiwi bank account, they were more than happy to pay us in sterling instead.
So the van was technically theirs but as we'd just met them we were hesitant to let them take it until the money came through. Anyway, they were more than happy for us to drop it off for them in Auckland, we'd have a plane to catch and they needed to drop off the hire car there anyway. So as soon as work finished and we bid our precious calves goodbye, we headed up to Auckland, ready to hand it over and suddenly feeling very nostalgic about the whole thing. In the end, after meeting up one evening for drinks, we decided to let them have the van early - the money hadn't yet come through (and wouldn't till we were in Australia) but we'd hastily booked our flights and they seemed like good people.
The visas
We’d decided on Australia as our next destination after NZ. It was nearby, we could work to top up our funds, plus it has some pretty interesting wildlife. First, we needed a visa and for that we needed some documents. Our passports were needed, as were our bank statements and because I changed my name, my marriage certificate.
Easy, right? Well… no.
It would have been easy had I been more organised, but who takes their marriage certificate round the world with them! So I didn’t have it with me, but I must have left it some where sensible back in the UK, right…? Also no. The whole family was put to the search and it couldn’t be found, in fact, my whole documents folder has decided to disappear - I must have put it in a very safe place.
So I didn’t have it and no one else I knew did either, but the General Registry Office would certainly have it, one would think. They didn’t. Twice I applied and paid my £14, twice I waited my 21 days and twice, I was told it couldn't be found. They did refund me half the money each time so at least they only conned me a little. Finally, after much badgering it turned out the Cambridgeshire registry office had it and if I wanted it any time in the next century I would need to pay £35 for an express service. Wanting this saga over I paid and very quickly my missing marriage certificate did arrive.
Documents finally scanned, visa fees of $600 per person paid for… and then popped an email that we really didn't want to get, our time spent in India had won us an all expensive trip to the medical office where we’d need to have a full medical and x-rays to prove we didn’t have TB, again (apparently the x-rays we had for NZ the previous year meant nothing). We made the long and arduous journey to a private doctors office in Auckland CBD where we were measured, poked, prodded and paid $400 each for the privilege. Wanting to make the most of the astronomical parking fees we'd paid to be in the city, we combined the trip with some van viewings, viewings that were ultimately unsuccessful, but at least we tried!
In the end the wait for results wasn't too long, just two days later we received the good news, we hadn't spontaneously developed TB and our visas had been approved.
A weight was lifted, we were ready to begin our next adventure.
Goodbye New Zealand, it was certainly an experience I won't be forgetting anytime soon.
I bet you’ll miss the old van though….IK, maybe not! Great choice if pics there x