Hi. We’re a couple of happy New Zealand motorhomers. We had lots of wonderful adventures in our campervan (AZY) we bought in May 2007. Since November 2008 we’ve been living full-time in our new motorhome (Suzi) that Traillite built. This blog is some of the story of preparing for life on the road – living in 18.5 sq metres. Then the Big Step, and the real adventure – living and working with no fixed address. (The official term is no fixed abode but that hardly applies to our circumstances. Suzi is definitely home, so is our abode. But she keeps moving around all over the place and we have trouble fitting our lives into the official boxes for almost everything official … but I better not get started on that!)
We started this blog as a way for our families and friends to see what we’re up to. But hopefully it will also be a way of having some fun, and sharing a few ideas with the wider world.
We are now in our mid-60s, so this wasn’t retirement, just big changes. We’ve got lots of interests – mountain biking, walking, tramping, photography, music, movies, reading, travel, genealogy. So we have lots to do if we can get the money/time balance right i.e. enough money and time to live and enjoy life.
Sometimes we’re diligent with this blog. And sometimes we’re not. Which isn’t helpful I know. But we’re still on the road (sort of), and still trying to keep up with the world. And definitely still enjoying our adventures and misadventures.
Update 2017
Since early last year we have been based in and around Dunedin; catching up with family and friends and bank balances. Wyn has been doing temp and part-time and casual work and Ross has been working 40-hour weeks on contracts. Mostly we’ve been living in Suzi (our motorhome) but we’ve also done quite a lot of house-sitting around Dunedin. We’ve managed a few trips away with Suzi, and that’s good for us all. And we’re dreaming of new adventures…
Kiora would you be able to make contact via email I have tried to send an email to @RossDaviesNZ and was unsucessfull its in Regards to the image you posted in 2015 of the cemetery in Whananaki if you could reply it would be much appreciated thanks.
Hello Elizabeth. I think @RossDaviesNZ might be my Twitter something-or-other. I tried emailing you on Wednesday but I see it got bounced. I’ll have another try.
Would like to make contact regarding your photo image 2015 of Whananaki cemetery thanks.
Hi Elizabeth.
I’ve tried to email you at both of your email addresses. And don’t seem to have heard anything back.
You can email me. My email address is on the photo at the top if you subtract the copyright symbol and the date.
And on most of the recent photos on the posts, again minus the copyright symbol.
Regards
Ross
Hello Ross,
I have enjoyed reading your blog. and hope you and your wife are happy and well and still enjoying the gypsy life. My husband and I are about to do the same. We have 7 metre Toyota Coaster with a gas heater that is too noisy. We want to change to an Eberspacher D2 and wish to ask if you think it will be big enough. We are in two minds about D2/D4. Obviously the price of D2 is better but we are not sure if it will keep us warm enough in the winter. Regards Di
Hi Diane, Thanks for your wishes. We are not very gypsy at the moment; we’ve been semi-permanent in Dunedin for about a year now. But still living in our motorhome albeit mostly on the grid.
I’m interested that you are concerned about your gas heater being too noisy. Have you heard an Eberspacher firing up? It’s like a plane taking off. It’s not too bad once it’s at cruising speed but you need to have a listen to one starting up.
We used to think our D2 was hopeless at heating our 8m Traillite, because it was. We’d asked for three outlets, and that’s what we got, and we shouldn’t have. First we got the bathroom outlet disconnected, and then the outlet in our lounge end. So we had just the one outlet in the middle of our motorhome. Then we got the inlet duct disconnected so it just had a half meter of ducting to the cabin. And now it heats like a hot thing. It blows hot air to the far ends.
The D2 is rated for 4m of ducting, but for every right-angle bend in the ducting deduct 1m. Our installation probably had the equivalent of 10-15m of ducting originally; it was no wonder the poor wee thing kept giving up.
Diesel is a lot more economical than gas and safe to use while driving. It does take a whack of power when it is starting up so if your batteries are well down in the morning then that might be an issue.
It will also depend on your insulation, including of your windows, and how much winter living you plan on. We have done OK at Lake Pukaki a few winters ago, and that was cooolllllldddd.
Personally I’d go for diesel again, and get a D4 and duct it all over the place; our motorhome has two internal doors and thus three rooms, and heat doesn’t actually like to move about very much. But a D2 is probably enough for a one-room Coaster if you’re reasonably insulated.
Keep asking around, and do listen to one.
Regards
Ross
Hey Ross – Kate Adams here, looking for Julia again. Tom Price, Bangkock and places in between? 40 years ago – wow! Tehran and London too.
Gidday Kate. I’ve just now passed your email address on to Ju. Wow! Tom Price. And Bangkok… I’ve finally made it the whole way to the UK. It’s taken me all of those 40 years …
Hi Ross,
Love your ice photos, and your blog which seems to have discontinued over 2018. I have just found your wonderful blog about photography versus art. And then surprises of surprises my abstract? art? photograph hit me in the face. Then when I saw my name in the same paragraph as Brian Brake mmmmm! wasn’t too sure of that.
How did I get all those colours – (it depends on the rock, weed, stones, flowers (pohutakawa) grass, glass, escapee rocks from sea walls to keep tide out) as seen from above – under the water. As you did with the ice . The story goes that boats in the 19th-20th century use to ballast their barges, boats with rock from Auckland and then drop the ballast in Mangawhai Harbour. Hence why I can get so many colours reds are usually Scoria, or those big red sea anemones. Yellow is those hard mustard colour stones. Photographing in the midday sun and through water brightens everything. Just as shells got white after been out the water and dry. When wet they shine. I notice that you are now domiciled in Dunedin. But would love to contact you Kind regards
Jeanette Vickers
Hi Jeanette, Sorry it has taken me so long to approve your comment. I did send you an email as below, and I’ve been rather busy for a few months so never got around to things. Anyway, I’ll approve it now and eventually figure out how to link it. “Hello Jeanette, I was thrilled to hear from you, in response to that post. And slightly mortified when I thought I’d never sought your permission before using your picture. I liked your background on how you get your images. I’d like to actually attach it to the blog post that started it – the one about photography versus art (which continues to interest me 🙂 ) and I’ve been looking to see if I could swap it to that post as it’s currently going to go on the About Us post and get lost. It doesn’t look like I can do that elegantly, so what I’d like to do is copy and paste it as a footnote on the photography/art post, if that’s all right with you. You certainly inspired me along the abstract path. And you getting in touch has kick-started me again – well nudged me along anyway. I’ve got to find a way to continue the blog without getting bogged down all the time. We’ve been too busy having adventures to keep up with the blog – except for the Instagram page (see the menu) which is my new way of showing that we are still alive and out there doing stuff. This year was 5 months in Europe! Anyway, let me know if you’re OK to me adding your comments to the relevant blog post please – it’d be a good place for them and add to the discussion. Thank you very much for getting in touch. Kind regards, Ross”
Hi, I’m trying to find my “BEST MAN” from the 1970’s Ross Davies, he was an electrician at Maraetai power station on the Waikato river are you that person. Hope you don’t mind my asking.
Yours,
Derek Dixon
email, thedixons@xtra.co.nz
Hi Derek,
I’m sorry, I thought I’d replied to this earlier. And can’t see where I did. And sorry, I’m not the Ross Davies you’re looking for. And I don’t know any other Ross Davies either. I’ll leave this comment here, in case your Ross Davies should stumble across this blog site.
Cheers, Ross