Mushroom

Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city and about one third of the population inhabits this area of NZ. We stayed at Fat Camel Hostel right in the ‘central business district’ (CBD) of Auckland. This area is quite seedy. There are lovely strip joints and crazy beggars around for the pleasure. Fat Camel was luxurious compared to our last joint in Tassie. We got a cheap meal (Spaghetti Bolgnese and a beer) and chatted with a friendly Irishman. He actually asked me where in Ireland I was from. He he he. I enjoy when people mistake my accent for an Irish one.

We landed on Friday evening and Saturday evening we were headed in our ‘mushroom mobile’ north. We rented our campervan from Escape Campervan rentals. Maya was an extremely helpful and knowledgeable lady that worked in their office. She rules. She actually has been to St. Louis ~ she loves it. (Of course, who couldn’t love St. Louis? It’s a fantastic place after all.)

Ok, back to the shroom. It’s called the shroom because it’s spray painted with mushrooms. It’s got a very hippie look to it. All of the campervans are painted differently by the Escape Artists. (Well, that’s what Maya says and we have yet to see another campervan like ours. The other companies that rent campervans are totally undecorated ones and do look quite boring. Ours looks like a fun mobile.) While I would have jived and picked another theme for our campervan, I can’t complain too much about our lil van. We’ve got a radio that works well (but doesn’t have a connection for our iPods!), heat, fully equipped kitchen for cooking, a little pump for water with a sink, and a decent enough bed. The shroom rents for $39 NZD/night and we have to pay for gas. Thus, it’s a very economical way to see New Zealand. We buy our food as we go, but it is always simple food. For breakfast, we typically have some combination of bread, fruit, breakfast bar, and maybe if I’m lucky cheerios (we aren’t always nearby somewhere to get milk). Lunch is always a sandwich of some sort ~ Mikey loves peanut butter and so do I. We buy can goods that are easy to re-heat for dinner. Since it is winter in NZ (cold, dark, and rainy), if we are free camping, we are less likely to actually cook dinner.

[Free camping: I mean that we just pull off somewhere on the side of the road and park it for the night. There are camp grounds and hostels throughout NZ, but we are thrifty travelers and only occasionally pay for the facilities to use. It’s when we are really grubby and need a shower, etc.]

The freedom of the campervan is so wonderful. We just drive where ever we’d like, on whatever schedule we’d like to get there. Mike and I are like speedy Gonzalez travelers. We hit the big things and cruise right on to the next thing. So Saturday evening we rented the shroom and were on our way to the Bay of Islands. On our way north, we stopped into go to the bathroom at Hundertwasser’s famous public bathrooms. They are the most photographed bathrooms in New Zealand according to Lonely Planet. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an Austrian eco-architect. He lived in Kawakawa (the town where the famous bathrooms are) in an isolated house without electricity from 1973 until he died in 2000. The bathrooms were closed. Boo.

Maya had told us that the All Blacks (NZ’s rugby team) were playing that night at 1 am vs. South Africa and that it was the first match in the America’s Cup (which is NZ vs. a Swiss ship). So we headed to the pub after we arrived in Piahia, Bay of Islands and got the van set up AKA arranged the sleeper-bed in the rear of the van. The pub had a decent sized screen and Mike and I enjoy a beer and the game. The All Blacks ended up winning, but we were too exhausted to stay until the end. Luckily it was just a short walk to the van and then to sleep.