Meet our first camper child Gary (named after SpongeBob SquarePants' pet snail). With his outrageously powerful 1.9D (yip, non Turbo!) and a top speed of exhilarating 130km/h , his name is apt, even if his racing stripes try and deceive you.
Following reading hundreds of blogs, it became clear we would need to enlist the assistance of a third party, known as Donna Turner Cars & Campers to inspect and purchase the van based on our behalf. As we were in New Zealand at the time, this was really our only option after reading several stories of non-European people purchasing from overseas. From our research, functional requirements and price range, we knew we wanted a T4, and after six weeks we found and purchased Gary the Mighty Snail in the Netherlands.
*Stay tuned for a few posts around the full process of choosing and purchasing a camper - it's quite a long and stressful ordeal, of which we will go into more detail at another time.
Anyway back to meeting our first camper van. Gary is a 1991 VW T4 with an original Westfalia factory fit-out. He features a fridge, two gas burners (aftermarket upgrade from gels), fresh water tank, sink, pump, grey water tank, more storage than a Tupperware factory, rotating passenger seats, dual bike rack, awning, pop-top and four sleeping places (albeit we haven't and will probably never try and sleep four - mainly for fair of death by farts). Once we have gotten used to his functionality, layout and have him fully furnished, we will publish a few internal shots and posts on our tips for kitting out a van.
Like any new proud parents, we have slammed our family with hundreds of photos of Gary; his first campground, first Diesel feeding, first drive on four wheels, first oil stain; his second oil stain and so on. So here's a few more of our new baby.
Stay tuned for more :)
Happy travelling,
Bidi & Dan