Buying our First Home

We can’t even believe those are our own words because for the past few years it’s been all we’ve ever dreamt about. It was probably the most spontaneous decision of our lives but we’re in New Zealand and we also now own a place that we can call home.

Its not very big, just enough space for the two of us and our 12kg bag of belongings. There’s a small bedroom and an even smaller kitchen with a gas hob and a few pots and pans. We bought a little coriander plant who is happy because there are lots of windows and so much natural light. We even get to watch the sunrise and sunset from our bed every day (unless its grey which march in New Zealand seems to be). It also has four little wheels and a 2 litre engine that will hopefully get us around this amazing new place that we get to call home for the next year!

After viewing exactly zero other vans we settled on the Mazda E2000, once owned by a painter and still has paint splatters from a life before it was converted into a campervan. It’s about as aerodynamic as a toaster and the fuel economy isn’t worth mentioning but the inside is full of clever pockets, drawers and hooks that help to maximize space and reduce our clutter. But if we’re lazy then we can just chuck all the clibber-clobber under the bed.

There’s a roof rack so that if ever we become good enough at surfing then we can strap our boards to the top, but we’ve got a long way to go before that. We’re even fully self-contained which means we can survive on our own for at least 3 days, but the thought of pooping in the little potty under our bed and sleeping next to said poop is something that might make us try to avoid that scenario.

And we still can’t believe that we’re writing this from OUR van, drinking wine, as the rain is pitter-pattering on the roof.

Written by Frida + Leo