New Zealand is a pretty big country with only 4.5 million people. With such a wide open place, we decided it was best to rent a campa van for the next two 2 weeks to get around.

We picked up our Jucy Van in Queenstown and agreed to return it in Auckland in 2 weeks.

Campa vehicles have a long tradition in New Zealand. It’s the ideal way to get around the sparsely populated country with absolutely beautiful scenery. Campa parks are set up all over the country and for a little cash, you park your van on a grassy spot and use their bathroom and kitchen facilities.

Since New Zealand was a British Colony, they drive on the opposite side of the road than in the U.S.

The dash had a friendly reminder to ‘stay left!’ I found myself repeating this every time I started driving for the day. Since we relied on the excellent public transit in South Korea, it had been about 14 months since either of us had driven a car. I was a little rusty but New Zealand (especially the south island) was an ideal place to refresh my driving skills.

So from the outside, our Jucy Van looks like a normal minivan. However, the inside is modified to make it a campa. The back seat area has bench seats that fold out to make a bed. All the bedding and pillows are stored under the seats during the day. Also, all the windows have pull down curtains to provide a comfortable sleeping area.

The hatchback part is also a modified kitchen with a propane stove, cooler and sink. The cooler, lights and DVD player all run off a second battery so as not to drain the primary one that starts the engine. While driving, the primary battery recharges battery #2.

We did a little shopping to stock our fridge.