The Real Deal with Living in the Van

Little known fact:  Living in a van is not as easy and cheap as one would think.  Especially when you are cheap, want to do nothing but hike, and its almost winter.  We've gotten back to Earthwise Valley in Tuateawa almost a week ago now, and I feel like I can reflect and share about how life really is living in a van.

1. not so cheap - we paid for accommodation once ($14 each) and cooked almost every meal, did no paying tourist activities, bought no alcohol, and somehow we averaged about $200NZ a week each.  How? Gas. Ferry.  Those were our main expenses.  Paying for a van to go 5500 km in diesel turns out to be quite a bit.  We did do almost all our own cooking, but of course food adds up, especially with my appetite.  Then there was the transportation for the Routeburn and Caples tracks and our backcoutry hut passes coming in at $50 and $90 each.

2. cooking - best way to eat cheap, and well.  And we did manage to have a propane cooker and full kitchen stuff, so that worked out well.  It does get tiring though to cook every single night.  After a long day of hiking and it is 6pm, dark and about 45 degrees outside, we still have to find a discrete place to set up and cook and try to stay warm.  Good thing we had each other for this, cause all except for 3 nights at least one of us was motivated enough to whip something up.

3. the whole winter thing... - so 45 degrees might not sound too cold, but being in it all day and all night is a bit different than having a warm house and shower to retreat to at the end of the day.  I was basically bundled up as if I were going outside in 10 degree weather just to cook dinner, but thats whats needed to keep warm. It also would get dark at about 6 (or 5 if the weather was crappy).  Then with no electricity there is not a whole lot to do other than go to bed.  Finally towards the end I was getting a bit better at managing to stay up until about 10 or even 11; but overall, I have never gotten so much sleep in my life.  Consistently 9-10 hours a night.  I was unaware of how your legs could just hurt from spending too much time in bed!  I also got good at the whole wash cloth bath thing.  It is a bit of a shock to get discretely naked in a parking lot somewhere and then also be wet in that 45 degree weather.

Overall though, even with all that and the fact that we never slept in the same location for two nights in a row, it was great.  Nothing like being in sight of someone for 5 weeks in a row to create some new tensions, but Nico and I were able to work everything out and I even still like her, woohoo.

whats that? there's a pack rack for the card shark in the aardvark carpark.

Plus, we had the ability to go all over and see some really great stuff and do some amazing backpacking in the mountains.  Now, it is nice to have a home base again and a place to relax and get dressed without being bent over cause only a 5 year old could stand up straight in that van.  And I dont know if I'll ever have the ability to travel so freely with a home and kitchen on wheels ever again and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to do so.  I guess there are always RV's, but lets be real, I'm not going to be getting one of those while I can still go backpacking.

Okay enough for now and more later on how the beginnings of the winter program are going here at Earthwise.  But we did plant some trees today!