How to live on the road

Lynda was asking how we are going to manage this sort of lifestyle, so here's a bit of info.

The bus will be set up for freedom camping. We will have tanks for about 300 litres each of fresh and grey (from the sink, shower, etc) water, and for 80 litres of black water (the toilet flushes into this). We should be able to go four or five days without having to empty the two waste tanks and fill up with fresh water.

Our power will be supplied by an impressive array of solar panels and gel batteries (which will also charge off the bus engine). Most things like the lights, TV and fridge will be 12 volt so will run straight off the batteries, but there will also be an inverter to run the 240 volt stuff - like the microwave, the printer and such. We're putting a fair bit of money into the electrical system - much more so than if we were just setting up a bus for weekends and holidays - so that we can be completely independent. The sun would have to not shine at all for several days for the solar panels not to keep up with our power demands - and then we can always just go for a drive to charge the batteries.

We don't intend to stay in camping grounds at all. At a cost of between $26 and $40 a night that is just too expensive. The exception to this will be DOC sites - we can get an annual pass to use any of these for $150. In most parts of NZ there are plenty of places to freedom camp - the exception being the Coromandel which has outlawed it. When freedom camping you can only stay at most places two days and have to be fully self-contained. There is also a network of members of the caravan association who make their land available for parking for a small fee.

There has been quite a lot of negative publicity about freedom campers lately - basically some of them are behaving like complete pigs and leaving all sorts of mess behind them. We will not be behaving like this and will certainly speak to anyone we see doing it. The caravan association has very strong policies about it too.

This week I have managed to buy an old-fashioned wringer off TradeMe - one you have to turn the handle on to get the water out of your clothes. That way we can do all our own washing as well, without having to pay for laundromats. Apparently a good trick is to fill a big bucket (with a tight-fitting lid!) with your washing and the water and detergent, put it in the shower and go for a drive. The movement of the bus does the 'agitating' for you. Sounds like a plan!

It's taken me a bit to get my head around the idea of things like doing washing by hand. It will take so long! But, of course, time is something we will have plenty of - I'll have to get into the habit of spending time, not money.

Move that bus! Part 2!

Yep, just got the heading up yesterday and then the powercut brought us all to a grinding halt...

Anyway, Tracy got it pretty well spot on after my last post.

I might be letting the cat out of the bag too soon here, but hopefully no-one from work still reads my blog!

We are going to rent out the house and travel New Zealand in a bus. It's SO exciting.

We've been tossing around lots of options on how to do this, and have travelled around a fair bit in the last few weeks looking at different possibilities. We even drove to Whangarei over Easter to look at a bus.

We have now decided to have a 9m bus converted to a motorhome. It works out a bit more expensive than buying an existing one, but it means we get exactly what we want.

The conversion is being done by The Bus Boy Company in Taupo. They are really energetic and positive - not once have they said 'No' or 'Can't be done' to anything we've asked. A couple of initial layouts have been done, now we just have to find the chassis to convert - and we've got one we're pretty keen on.

We're hoping to be on the road before December (Craig hasn't told work about this yet).

I finish work at the end of July, then I'm going to do a bit of study to brush up on some of my old skills. I'm hoping to do freelance proofreading and a bit of copy writing - something I can do from anywhere so long as I have a computer.

Craig will stop work a month or two before the bus is finished - there's a fair bit of tidying up to do on the house before we rent it out.

Then we'll be gypsies!

Move that bus!

First part dealt with

We are dealing with a lot of change at the moment - in fact we're basically embarking on something which will change every part of our lives! While this is very exciting, it is also pretty scary - not to mention tiring and very hard on the brain and emotions.


But, as always, the best way to to get through something really big is to break it down to a series of small steps and decisions.

The first step is dealt with.

I have resigned from my job.

Actually, that's not a small step at all. It's pretty damn huge, actually. I have worked for various parts of this business, in various roles, for 15 years. My resignation has taken a lot of people by surprise, although not those who actually know me well.

I don't finish until the end of July and then I will take a really good break. After that I have some plans for a small home business I can work at part time. I have no desire to continue working 50/60/70 hours a week as I have in this job.

It is time for a change.


There are still more steps and decisions to be made. I will share these with you as we take them.

In the meantime, a lovely photo of Craig and me at my sister's party in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago.

Turmoil

That's the best way to describe our life at the moment. But it's all in a good way and I will post again as soon as I can say some things a bit more publicly.