Neither of us anticipated it’d take about 90 minutes to get “driving instructions” on how to live in a motorhome – so many buttons, switches and moving parts.

As my dad (may he RIP) was apt to say “… more bleedin’ fings that can go wrong!” and go wrong some of them did!

Like collecting a rental car but more intense

This wasn’t something I’d given much thought to – how long it would actually take us to collect the motorhome. I thought it’d just be a matter of doing a walkaround – noticing any pre-existing damage like scratches, etc, they’d hand over the keys and we’d be off.

It took about 90 minutes – to be given the entire rundown of where to find what and then how to make sure things work (like turning on the lights, etc).

The thing was, we weren’t first in the queue – so we had to wait for those people to get their driving instructions as well.

While we waited we played table tennis. Although ping pong is probably a more apt description of what we did.

 

First stop – supermarket

Not too many kms away was a New World supermarket – holy moly! This beast was sooooo big!

It was in the carpark we discovered the central locking system wasn’t central at all.

We also discovered the TV on the wall wasn’t secured very well because we could hear it knocking and banging around while we were driving.

After getting dinner for the night (rotisserie chicken and salad) it was too late to head back to the motorhome rental place.

This meant we needed to hang around Christchurch for our first night when we’d planned to head as far south as possible.

helloooooo Phil and Jan!

We took the opportunity to have a beer and wine with our good friends Phil and Jane who’re now resident in Christchurch.

We hadn’t seen Phil and Jane for years – back in the Thames Fishing Days. It was good to catch up with them again.

Park over Property – POP – Christchchurch

Our first night was spent not too far out of Christchurch city in a POP (park over property). Alan reversed into the tight space like he’d done it a squillion times before!

The owner of the property said she’d never had anyone reverse in before but was willing to guide us in.

First Dinner – Rotisserie Chicken and Salad