Converting the Masses

So on 15th February 2008 we bought a 1996 Toyota Hiace Compact 2.4 Diesel panel van with 98882 miles on the clock for £1550 (incase you are interested...probably not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!! ha ha!). The previous owner in Stevenage assured me that the extremely loud noise coming from the back (which I thought was the rear diff on the way out) was just the exhaust pipe rubbing on the driveshaft, so he took a couple of hundred quid off, and we bought it... Then the starter motor which worked fine when we test drove it, just stopped working, and we couldn't start it...doh! not a good start (no pun intended). Well we got it back to Hastings and to the garage: new starter motor, and as I was previously convinced of otherwise, a new rear diff required... Doh Doh!! It's gonna cost a grand to fix.. At this point we were starting to have serious misgivings towards the whole trip, but we got the van back and it ended up being only £400 which was the first bit of good news, and it's been all good from then on in!

The van is great!!!! We have called it "Matatu" due to it's resemblance to the 'African mini-bus' that all who have been there know and love! Sweet engine, sweet gear box...Yes!...this is going to get us to NZ!!

The next task is to get it ready for our expedition. We need a lot of storage space to carry loads of water, food, spare parts for the van, tools, spare wheels, extra diesel, clothes, other equipment for camping/treking, a cooler, gas tank and stove, porta loo, a folding bed, solar shower, electric inverter so that we can charge our laptop and other electrics from the vans battery, other cooking equipment, Lonely Planet guide books, and much more!

I started by paneling the walls and floor with ply wood, and insulating behind it to keep us cool in the heat of mid-summer Asia. We bought a futon for £22 off ebay, and I bolted it in so that it can swing easily down to make a bed, and be secured safely in the 'sofa' position. What fun!

Many thanks to Dan and Andrea for donating their portaloo and roofrack for our use, and in the case of both items I think it's safe to say abuse!

This is Clive. He doesn't have the internet therefore won't ever see this, so I thought it would be funny if I put this picture up and we all had a good giggle at him behind his back?

To New Zealand in a Van!!

Greetings and salutations!

Welcome to our blog about our trip to New Zealand in a van! This is mainly to keep family and friends updated with where we are, and also as a useful journal to document all the exciting things that are going to happen to us on the way! You are welcome to just browse the posts that we put up, but we would be delighted if you left comments on the different posts to let us know to what degree you think we have been/are being stupid!(click on 'comments' tab at the bottom of each post). You can also subscribe to the blog by clicking on the 'subscribe to:' tab at the bottom of the page, and you will get an email whenever we post something up (I think), so you don't have to keep checking it to see if it has been updated.

As this is the first proper diary entry I'd better tell you what we are doing, why, and how! Basically my (Simon's) current career (Recording Engineer and Songwriter) isn't going very well, so instead of persevering with it, I'm going to hands-up-and-quit, and re-train to become a pilot which I wanted to do since I was little anyway! It seems that New Zealand is as good a place as any to do this (much better than UK anyway), and as we quite fancy going there ourselves, we decided to make that our destination of choice. Next up we decided that just 'flying' there was far too boring (despite said career choice), so as we normally drive everywhere anyway, we just thought it would be natural to drive there....to New Zealand...

"What a great idea" we started congratulating ourselves, until we realised that Iran is one of the hardest countries in the world to get visas for, Pakistan is in a state of emergency and has regular suicide bombings, both of which we have to go through. We have to go very close to the borders of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and to get anywhere past India overland, you have to go through either Burma (war torn, and you're not allowed to drive through it) or Tibet (rioting separatists) where to drive through it, you need Chinese residency, a Chinese driving licence requiring each of you to take a theory test - in Chinese, re-register the vehicle in China and give it Chinese number plates, not to mention all the local permissions. This alone would cost thousands.

So the plan at the moment is to get to India from where we will ship the van in a container to Australia, then fly ourselves up to Hong Kong, and make our way down through South East Asia to Singapore via buses, trains and boats, where we will catch a flight to Australia to meet up with our van which will hopefully have arrived! Then we will drive through Australia, and finally ship the van and fly ourselves to New Zealand to set up more permanent camp.

Well that's the short of it anyway. We will be filling in the gaps along the way, and hopefully finding out lots of interesting stuff about the different countries that we travel through, the things going on that we should know about, and some things that we shouldn't know about, so watch this space! Please don't be worried if some time goes by without us posting anything, as we are not taking satellite phones or anything, and we probably can't get any Internet access at that point.

I've put a map up so that you can see our intended route which may well change along the way but it will give you a good idea. Click on it and it'll come up full size. Coming up: the ongoing saga that is the van and getting it ready to go! Enjoy..