Adventure Started Here In 2019
Adventure Started Here Waikato 2019
From Home to Living on the Road
Waikato Home
We have been busy since we decided to hit the road full time. Our house went on the market at the end of January and we have had a buyer on the hook for most of February and March, ironically, they are selling Taumarunui Holiday Park.
We have taken advice from all and decided to replace our home with something more suitable for renting just to keep a foot on the property ladder.
After going all over the Waikato looking for something we wouldn’t need to do work on, ended up putting an agreement on a new build in Otorohanga and moving in May.
We have been selling heaps of stuff on Facebook and Trademe so will only have the essentials to shift to get us through.
We are going to miss this view taken from our house in rural Te Kuiti overlooking the town under fog. We have been here for just under three years. Before that, we brought in Thames in the suburbs and only lasted three years.
Coming from 16 years of owning the Port Waikato Wharf Store and living behind the shop overlooking the Waikato River where it meets the sea. We spent many years prior to that holidaying at the Port Waikato Holiday Park and living in Auckland, that was back in the days when families had weekends off together and four weeks of Christmas holidays. We had the caravan permanently on-site with a fixed awning Robert and camp friends helped us build. Port Waikato was a huge part of our life that seems a lifetime ago now.
Next Finding a Motorhome:
So where to start? When we first got this idea of Motorhome travel Robert had a Cruiser Motorbike and decided to sell that to get one.
We had it for three months then decided to upgrade and try this full time.
In late January we started looking up in Auckland and Tauranga ending up focusing on Zion Motorhomes in Pokeno meeting Jonas he showed us our options in our price range.
We looked at the Dethleffs Trend C Class with the drop-down double bed over the cab and double bed at back but then we looked at the Pulse A-Class and loved the open view feeling in the cab.
We came home and made a list of our needs.
Top of the list is single rear beds with a bedroom door. Robert gets insomnia!!
The double bed pulls down over the cab allowing us to still use the table, TV, and exit door.
Storage the largest garage we can and inside storage. Solar system. Heating. Refrigerator/freezer.
Zion’s website is a good place to search for ideas and answers with several makes and models on offer.
That’s where we found the Dethleffs Esprit so took the 2-hour trip to compare against the Pulse. We needed to up our budget to get the Esprit.
We decided on the i-7150-2-eb with a high garage for the
e-bikes ETA ended up being 11th October 2019, 2 months longer than expected and 9 months we had to wait. It gave us time to go to the Covi show in Auckland and the NZMCA show in Hamilton to get ideas on things we need to add.
Extras:
200w more solar total 400w
AGM 100Ah x 3 - batteries
Dc to Dc 45AH for charging while driving
Inverter 1700w
External shower point
External BBQ point
Hardwire gas alarm
Factory-installed rear ladder
Factory exterior paint silver
Spare toilet cassette
Upsize on TV to 24”
We have been shopping for other things we will need while we wait.
Honda EU 22i Generator for charging e-bikes
Motorhome to generator power led
New bedding
Weber baby Q
Outdoor table and better chairs for our backs
Just have to wait now to learn from experience.
Moved House
But really that was just the last few things because Trevor the owner of the subdivision let us move everything into the garage that we didn’t need from the 3rd of May on.We did it by ourselves this time hiring a furniture trailer and towing it behind our little car.
Trevor Sargent is an amazing old man he has named our subdivision Sargent Place.
From what I have picked up about him he is 81 years old still working 5/6 days a week.
Leaves by 3.30pm every day to get back home in Te Awamutu by 4pm his beer o’clock. He also has racehorses for a hobby, talks loudly because I presume, he has hearing loss, and doesn’t wear his teeth because the council pisses him off and he grinds his teeth lol.
Talking of councils, they have dragged their feet and I can understand why things take forever these days. Trevor has let us in without settling because the paperwork has been held up at council, we only got the title Wednesday the code of compliance has been approved but the council couldn’t even get the two together for Friday.
It would have been heaped more stressful if Trevor hadn’t let us move in, imagine having to find storage for our stuff and accommodation at the last minute.
I had a cry when we drove out of our Te Kuiti driveway way it has been a lovely place to live.
The new house is a good old people’s home low to the ground with low maintenance just what we need lol
We are back to reality with traffic noise and close neighbours. I have brought all my garden pots with me and that will be all the garden I can have I just can’t manage gardens anymore with my arthritis and Robert is no better with his back.
We can walk to town the supermarket is the first shop we come to, there is a lovely park that has a lake so we are planning on walking there to raise our fitness. Also, Otorohanga is mostly flat so will be good for the eBikes.
Still got unpacking and hanging pictures but can take our time, it is August before the Motorhome is here then that’s another story.
The plan is to rent this house still need to make decisions on keeping it furnished or not etc
Finally
Motorhome arrived at Zions on 30th September 2019. Progress started on Solar panels and TV dish
Hand over day 11th October 2019
We headed off to our friends in Kawakawa Bay to spend our first night and drop off the car, we were lucky they wanted to buy our car and that made it easy for us to transition our transport from car to Motorhome.
After a long day, we finally got to sit down in our new home and relax.
Spending our first night at Kawakawa Bay with our closest friends was a great way to start.
We needed to get away early the next day and travel back to our house in Otorohanga.
It has been rented out unfurnished in the end and managed by Harcourts the idea is to leave the management to the professionals so we have no problems to deal with and have some spending money for activities on the road.
Won’t be parked here again if life goes our way goodbye Otorohanga we will be back to visit thou made some friends here.
Big thanks to Lizann and Jonno for helping us along the way you two are gems.
Insurance
Here’s our experience........
We have been insured with AA for years so thought we would get a quote for the Motorhome. We went into the AA office and spent time going over everything and told them we would be living permanently in the MH and travelling indefinitely, we were assured that was ok under the Motorhome Policy and had the quote that we thought was of great value. We called back into the same office to activate the quote a month later to be told by another person that we can only live in the Motorhome for up to 12 months and they don’t and won’t cover permanent living in a Motorhome longer than 12 months now we know why the quote was so appealing.
Also, our contents insurance for the house wasn’t transferable to the Motorhome for the same reason.
It just goes to show even though you try your best to do it right you can’t rely on what you have been told.
Next, I got a quote from both Star and Covi they were basically the same price but we could increase the personal contents insurance to cover the bikes, etc above 10k with Covi so that’s who we went with.
Now all this doesn’t matter if you don’t live permanently in your Motorhome the difference in cost reflects that same with the personal contents.
Also, be aware there is a difference between Motorhome contents and personal contents so ask what you will be covered for.
When we made the decision to go with Covi we had no idea sadly we would need to claim in the first week how embarrassing!!!!!
Covi accepted our claim within a few days we highly recommend Covi and hope that is the last time we ever need to put in a claim.
We also have had a stand-alone alarm system installed by Te Rapa Auto Electrical just for that extra peace of mind.
Also, our contents insurance for the house wasn’t transferable to the Motorhome for the same reason.
It just goes to show even though you try your best to do it right you can’t rely on what you have been told.
Next, I got a quote from both Star and Covi they were basically the same price but we could increase the personal contents insurance to cover the bikes, etc above 10k with Covi so that’s who we went with.
Now all this doesn’t matter if you don’t live permanently in your Motorhome the difference in cost reflects that same with the personal contents.
Also, be aware there is a difference between Motorhome contents and personal contents so ask what you will be covered for.
When we made the decision to go with Covi we had no idea sadly we would need to claim in the first week how embarrassing!!!!!
Covi accepted our claim within a few days we highly recommend Covi and hope that is the last time we ever need to put in a claim.
We also have had a stand-alone alarm system installed by Te Rapa Auto Electrical just for that extra peace of mind.
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