Tag Archives: Dethleffs

2024 Dethleffs Get Together at Waipu Cove

October 21, 2024 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com 7 Comments

What a fun weekend. Fiona and I arrived in Waipu Cove just after lunch and found our park almost next to the track over the Sandhills. Very handy but it was too cold for me swim yet 🙂

Click on any image to enlarge

Peter and Judy were right next to us with their 2014 Esprit so it was nice to have probably the oldest Motorhomes out of the 24 that had arrived parked together.

The oldies. .. Peter and Judy’s 2014 Esprit and our 2014 Globe 4.

I spent the early part of the afternoon catching up with people and checking in with people I hadn’t seen for a while.

Happy hour came around and as we were the only ones at right angles to the wind that had a bit of a bite to it, we squeezed in between the old girls, The Globe4 and the Esprit 🙂

The next morning, it was about getting ready for the 8k bike ride to McLeod’s Pizza and Brewery bar in Waipu which was mostly on a trail and was about 20 minutes ride away. We started with the customary team photo of all 29 of us and we were away.

29 heading for the Waipu Brewery 🙂 (and pizzas!)

It was a pretty easy ride and was mostly pretty flat. As we arrived early before the Brewery had opened, we headed off for a coffee across the road. Fiona saw one of the girls in the shop sneak off for some more milk 🙂 Great business for them as there were quite a few of us.

Bikes everywhere. Leaving Waipu for the campground.

Chris and Mary and Ben and Joss bought their vans in and joined in the fun.

Martin and Jill’s new Grand Alpa with Chris and Mary’s Esprit

Although there was quite a bit of wind around, it had dropped a bit, and the sun was shining so it was looking good for the Potluck dinner planned for later that day.

With the wind in the Southeast but a bit less of it, we decided to have the happy hour between the two oldest vans again to shield from the wind. It worked pretty well and then we shuffled off for our team photo.

6 pm came around and it was time for us to move over the Kitchen where there were several tables available which made life easy.

Click on the Gallery below to enlarge.

Up Early 🙂

Bikes everywhere. Leaving Waipu for the campground.

The official team pic 🙂

Saturday’s Happy hour view from the top of the sandhill 🙂

The queue for the food was out of the door and the food was amazing. Everybody made a real effort. A fabulous night and it was fantastic to see everyone tucking in and having fun.

The Camping Ground is one of our favourites with its 10 metre square parks and we were all literally only steps from one of the best beaches in NZ.

A few of us stayed over for another night and after a nice lunch at the Cove Restaurant down the road a bit, we enjoyed a fun happy hour with Mary and Tony outside their new Baby Alpa.

A lot of fun and thanks you everyone for taking part.

Rafe’s tracker map to Waipu Cove – Armada GPS

Rallies, Rotorua

2024 Dethleffs Get Together in Rotorua

April 9, 2024 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com 1 Comment

We arrived in Rotorua early in the afternoon after getting a puncture in Fiona’s bike repaired in downtown Rotorua. It turned out that the Tube had completely split inside without any outside intervention. One of those things 🙂

Click on any Image to Enlarge

After checking in slightly later than planned, at the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park where we were all booked in, many of the team were already there and enjoying catching up with others. There was a great circle of chairs already forming outside Greg and Shona’s Advantage, just across where we were parked and as the afternoon went on the circle got bigger and bigger 🙂

The Holiday Park reckon there were more than 25 Motorhomes in our group that had booked. I could only count 23 so to simplify things we called it more than 25 🙂

Click on the Gallery below to see some of the Motorhomes

Spot the XLI

Fiona and I checked in with a few people and then went for a swim which was literally only meters away from where we were parked which was really handy.

After the mandatory 4pm happy hour where we all came together, it was time for tea. We joined in with the crew at Greg and Shona’s spot. Great fun and nice to see everyone again.

The next day at 10am, we were all setup outside ready for the bike rides. We split the group into two. Steve took the more experienced, fitter riders on the Loop which was 42k’s or thereabouts and included the blue and green lakes. A decent ride.

Steve’s images from the Loop ride to the blue and green lakes. 42k’s

Steve’s image from the loop ride. An event beside one of the lakes.

Fiona returning on the easier bike ride.

Thanks heaps to both Steve Miller and Neal Butt for making sure we all got there and back and safely.

Neal took the other group up a pathway that he knew along the Taupo Road which was great nice and safe and an easy non tree stump and tree root route with a Cafe stop afterwards. We got back after 15k’s odd feeling like we had had some exercise 🙂 It was time for a swim!

Click on the Gallery below for some casual expressions 🙂

On time for the second Happy Hour 🙂

Happy hour on the Saturday

It was time for the 4pm happy hour and the Team photo event and it was a full turn out. Great to see everyone and this carried on for the potluck dinner at a nicely placed set of covered tables outside the kitchen. Thanks to Judy and some others who stepped in to give the table tops a bit of a clean which they needed.

The Happy Team – Click on the photo to enlarge.

The food prepared was sensational and we even had some desert too. The weather held out and we had a great night finished off with another swim in the hot pool 🙂

Click on the Gallery below to Enlarge.

The meal !

Steve and Rene having a natter… There must have been some bumps on the bike ride 🙂

Tea time

Fiona and I thought we’d stay on for another night to relax and after saying goodbye to everyone as everyone departed, we jumped on the bikes and rode into downtown Rotorua.

After stopping at a couple of shops, we headed down to a Cafe we’ve been to before down by the waterfront called Lime. After a great lunch and an Ice Cream later by Eat St, we slowly headed back to the Campground.

A fantastic weekend seeing everyone. There were quite a few people looking at other’s Motorhomes and swapping notes and all I could see was lots of smiles.

The next Event is at Waipu Cove Campground on the 18^th and 19^thOctober. A big Campground right beside an amazing beach. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Rafe’s tracker map to Rotorua Holiday Park – Armada GPS

Waikato

2023 Dethleffs Owners Knees up!

August 27, 2023 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

39 Dethleffs Motorhomes of all shapes and sizes arrived in Miranda ready to catch up with old friends and see other Motorhomes. There were quite a few first timers at this event but also the old hands that could remember others names to catch up with people they met earlier.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Later in the day, there was happy hour for everyone to get together and there was an impromptu shared meal between a dozen or so friends in the evening.

There was a really funny moment after the meal when we were all sitting around having a few drinks and a few laughs. There was a group of about 20 odd teenagers on the table next to us and there were about 8 of us by then. A lady in the group stood up to make a speech and as soon as she started, one of our group started singing happy birthday and others joined in. She was saying no no, then gave up but our group stopped singing. Everyone was laughing. Then we found out it was an engagement so there were lots of congratulations from us too! Great time. 😂😂

The cyclists setting off for Kaiaua and the Cafe

The next morning was the bike ride to Kaiaua or to a cafe up the road. There were about 19 bike riders on bikes! A great turnout. Most were riding the 13k’s or so to the Kaiaua for lunch.

Fiona and I followed them and got pictures of them at stops with the car.

When we arrived at the pub, well before the cyclists, Quin the Manager had just arrived and was about to open so perfect timing.

We all went out to the back beer garden with the bikes and ordered coffees and lunch. Fiona and I had an amazing pizza.

About an hour or so there, we started the trek back.

To see an Enlarged slideshow, click on the Gallery below

Bruce and Judys Globe 4 (Rafe’s twin)

Catching up in the driveway

Liz and Nolina

Catching up on Friday

Friday night happy hour

Friday night

Friday night Happy Hour

On the trail to Kaiaua

Rays Rest

On the trail to Kaiaua

At Rays Rest

The Team piccy

Saturday night

Steve and Troy still behaving 🙂

Saturday night eating fest 🙂

Back to the hot pool and then later at 4, we had the team photo. Where we normally do the piccy was really boggy, so we had to move out to the motorhome parking.

Happy Hour came next, and the place was chocker with people.

Then came the shared meal and the meals were restaurant quality… just amazing and everyone got a great feed with some going back for seconds. Fantastic.

On the last day (Sunday Morning) we caught up again for a farewell coffee together.

A great event with lots of fun and thanks to everyone for coming.

Here’s a reminder of our last get together.

Rallies, Waikato

Dethleffs 2023 Cambridge Get together

March 6, 2023 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com 2 Comments

These events are always fun to organise and fun to be at too. Organising this was made a lot easier by some useful tips from Brian who runs the Frankia group after they had a Rally here at Cambridge. Vicky who runs the event management at Cambridge was very helpful too along with Amy who works with her. Thanks heaps to those people for making it easy.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

We all started arriving at the Racecourse around Midday and during the afternoon. As we were down in numbers from the Miranda do where we had 47 vans, we had 22 but I don’t think that we really had room for many more without splitting into two groups. Apparently, there was more parking just along by the stables. It worked and was very easy. We had some big gaps between us which was great.

I was really pleased to see quite a few new people with new Motorhomes and first timers at an event like this. Nice to see you guys too.

We now have 322 members in this group. These rally’s give you a great opportunity to mix with other Dethleff Owners and pick to their brains, tips and tricks with storage, electrical stuff, all sorts. So come and join us at the next one.

As more people came in, there was lots of cruising around catching up with old friends and people checking on other Motorhomes. I even saw a few pairs of legs sticking out from under vehicles looking at things 🙂

Fiona was not feeling well so she decided to sit this one out and I made the stupid mistake of leaving all my bike keys behind so I couldn’t get my bike off the rack when the time came.

Kirsty and John very kindly lent me Kirsty’s bike as she wasn’t riding .. Nice bike and it was fun but there was an operator error oops 🙂 .. more on this later.

That night, I had tea with my old friends, Walter and Nolina from Taupo who were parked right next door. The last time we caught up was at the Miranda do and it’s always nice to see them. They’re a lot of fun.

Then it was time to go the Clubhouse Bar to watch the Warriors game. I’m not sure why I think this, but I often think I’m going to see them lose but they played brilliantly and won. Fantastic. It was a really good game, and I might have to watch them more often like I used to.

Click on the Gallery below for an Enlarged Slideshow

Great Tshirt.. probably quite true too 🙂

The next morning, I was surprised how many people were up early.

The cyclists amongst us were organising ourselves and getting ready to go. After a team photo, we were off!

We were heading to the Velodrome and Tamahere. More on the Te Awa trail soon.

Arriving back at the Racecourse, it was almost time for that “Elbow Exercise” again. We started in earnest all sitting around our favourite tree until the heavens opened up with a brief downpour which surprised everyone!

There was quick retreat to the room which was available to us for wet weather at the bottom of the grandstand. Very civilised with a bit of an outlook to the track.

Then it was time for Tea where simply had to lock up and head next door to the restaurant. Nice food, good service although they were struggling with one of their tills which wasn’t playing nicely but it was a great evening. Everyone seemed happy and most retreated back to entertain friends in or outside their vans.

Thanks everyone again for coming.

It all went really well. Our next major get together will be in Miranda sometime in August. It’s a popular place and easy to get to and a nice park.

Rafe’s Tracker map to Cambridge Raceway – Armada GPS

Preparation

New Saloon Lighting

May 25, 2020 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

Yay .. its the end of lockdown.. we’re away again.. almost ! Here’s a couple more posts from early 2017 until we get away again.

Its interesting that while quite a few brands of Motorhomes have adopted tracklighting, many haven’t.

Click on the images for Hi Res

Rafe started out in life having three tracklights for lighting. Two on either side of the saloon and one across the top of the bed for reading lights. They were probably a great idea in that you can twist and slide the lights and put them anywhere you want them and also shift them out of the way. The only catch with them is that the ones that we have, have very flimsy plastic tabs on them which are so easy to break off, its ridiculous.

To be fair to the manufacturers, they can’t be blamed for excited grandchildren accidently bumping into them with their heads when they’re standing on the seats but when the owners are reluctant to use them in case they break, to me means there is a problem.

The screws for the glass at the waist of the light.

The other issue is that we found that as we cruised around NZ, the screws holding the glass would undo and eventually the glass would end up smashing on the table below with glass everywhere.
In the end after breaking a few, we now travel with them in a box and tend not use them for fear of snapping the tabs or breaking them.

After looking for ages through lighting shops and RV places, I discovered some really nice LED lights for another model Dethleffs which I ordered through Vantage RV. They had to come from Germany and just arrived the other day so I didn’t waste any time getting them installed. These ones are screwed into the shelves and I’ve set them back out of harms way.

I really wanted to remove the track but found that it was glued as well as screwed so I’m still thinking about this as I don’t want to butcher the cabinets getting it out.

And they can turn right around and direct light where you want it.

The lights are fabulous. We recently had the first trip away with them and the light was awesome.

Int'l Motorhomes, Rallies

Dethleffs Owners Group Get together 2018

November 10, 2018 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

Every year this is an event I look forward to and we missed it last year as we were in the South Island. This year it was held at Zion Motorhomes new premises at Pokeno rather than the usual Rally somewhere.

As the Rally this year was at The A&P Showgrounds at Pukekohe next to the Racetrack, Fiona and I decided we’d go straight to Pokeno and camp outside for the night. This worked really well as we found a driveway next to the Rental fleet yard and later we were joined by three or four others. Those at the showgrounds were bussed out to Pokeno and back.

Since we bought Rafe, Jonas and Irene have added several new brands of Motorhomes to their stable. This year we were also joined by Morelo, Frankia and Niessman and Bichoff owners too.

Other overnighters outside who later moved down near where we were in Rafe in the distance. It was windy and rainy too!

In previous years, they’ve been held at Camping grounds and one year was at the Car Museum in Hamilton where Gary and I did the parking!

The event was well organised by the Zion crew with a couple of ladies singing and the food was fantastic.

Over the course of the night, there were some spot prizes given out. Some were drawn out of the pot and others were for answers to some easy questions.. like who’s the youngest and who had the highest NZMCA number !

Click on the Gallery below to see a Slideshow

Fulltimers in their XLI, Ian and Linda having fun. Good to see them again too.

Jonas having a say.

The front half of the showroom

The Foods up

Yum

Old friends Bruce and Judy from Coromandel. They’ve got Rafes twin with the same colour too. There are only a handful of Globe4’s in NZ as they were only imported for a short time.

At the Zion Motohomes table

More at the Zion table

Down the road a bit

It was nice to see some of our old friends that we haven’t seen for a while and amazing to think that our Rafe is one of the oldest Dethleffs Motorhomes on NZ roads as Jonas only started bringing them in not long before we bought ours 🙂

A great night thanks to Jonas and team and I’m looking forward to next years.

Int'l Motorhomes, Waikato

A new Showroom

October 31, 2018 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

From small beginnings behind a church in Howick to the brand new custom built building they’re in now in Pokeno. Jonas and Irene have come a long way with Zion Motorhomes.

Click on an image for Hi Res

I popped in to have a nosey on my way home from Waihi and it looks amazing.

The building is 1000 square metres and is in the middle of a 5000 square metre yard. Plenty of room to play with but on my visit, they’d managed to fill in all the gaps and still had some more motorhomes still to move!

Click on the Gallery below for a slideshow

The Frankia Mline

The sharp end of the Niessman Bichoff Arto 79

In the showroom

The showroom is fantastic with a polished concrete floor and its nice to be able to check the various models out without getting in and out of the cold and wet.

While I was there, I had a good look at the Niessman and Bichoff Arto 79 which is a slightly smaller version of friends Gary and Diannes Arto 88. Check out the piccies below.

Click on the Gallery below for a slideshow

Arto 79

Arto 79 interior

Arto 79 Galley

Arto 79 Bedroom

Bathroom

Shower

Looking good Jonas.. keep up the good work.

Friends, Int'l Motorhomes

New Home in Pokeno

May 24, 2018 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

From starting out 5 years or so ago from a yard behind a church in Howick and outgrowing that space, Jonas Ng and his expanded team, are about to move into their new custom designed building and yard in Pokeno.

Click on an image to see Hi Res

The building is still under construction and with competion due in June, they’re making the best of it in a temporary yard a few doors down the road.

In the last year, they’ve added a Rental Motorhome business with McRent NZ.

Now they have Frankia Motorhomes, Neismann and Bichoff, and Morelo to add to the Dethleffs fleet and the yard is looking really busy.

And I couldn’t leave without having a nosey at the inside of one of the new Frankia Platins..

Click on the Gallery below to see a Slideshow

A Frankia Platin

Platin Living Space

Platin Galley area

The Bedroom of a Platin

Platin Toilet area

Platin Shower

Compared to the Church yard though, there is plenty of room and the new building will be really good for them. Go Jonas!

Rafe’s Tracker Map

Friends, Preparation, Quirky things

Our first EBooks published!

May 21, 2018 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com

Exciting… we’ve got our first ebooks away!

I’m really chuffed to get them away as it represents a huge amount of time to put them together.

It has been a lot of fun and a huge learning curve but having been involved in publishing some printed books for the Classic Yacht Association before, it was the next logical step. I’m not expecting to get rich on them but if it covers a few bottles of Chardy and the odd tank of Diesel, then thats all good 🙂

The first two are now available on Amazon as of today and the others are coming. They are slightly modified from the blog version so they don’t date so quickly and suit a book, and they’re in a fixed format horizontal format to show off the images to their best.

The first one is on our trip to Napier a year or so ago to the Art Deco festival. A great occasion and because its such a great event with some great images, it would be shame not to give these piccies another outing!

The other one is about our trip to the Pinnacles with friends via the Hawkes Bay last year. We were in several Motorhomes and it was a lot of fun. Some great adventures with some unusual places with a concert thrown in too for good measure.

These will both be available here by clicking on the covers above.

Ads will be appearing soon on the side of the Blog and you can keep up to date on this from the Books page.

Some time ago, I also did a blog about some older european images that I had posted for sale as prints etc. Again, I’m not expecting to get rich on them but some of you expressed an interest in getting some of them. They’re now available here.

A big occasion for me as a Blog person but there is more to come. .. Stay tuned 🙂

Nelson, South Island 2017

Peter and Sue’s new Esprit

October 17, 2017 Chris Miller - Buggeritweareoff.com 2 Comments

One of the nice things about buying a Dethleffs in NZ is that you are automatically a member of the Dethleffs Owners Group. As part of this with the now huge annual Rallies, there is a real sense of being part of a team or family which is great.

Click on the Images for Hi Res

We’d just arrived at Mapua in the pouring rain and trying to line up Rafe into some fairly vaguely defined parking spaces(in the rain anyway!) It was fun when you had to make sure the TV signal was fine and close to the power towers etc, and dodging big puddles. We got the power right but the TV wasn’t a happening thing until I noticed a dish on a neighbourly Dethleffs Esprit pointing in a completely different direction. Where I thought North was was actually 180 degrees wrong so some trees behind us were the problem 🙂 I ran over and knocked on the door and met Peter and Sue who gave me a huge Dethleffs welcome and invited me in and it was about 15 – 20 minutes later before I got to shifting Rafe to sort our the TV!

Turning leather seats. Very comfortable.

Cutting a long story short, Peter and Sue came over through the puddles and rain for a drink later in the day and we had a fun couple of hours.

The Dethleffs curved Galley. Plenty of room here too.

They picked up their brand new Esprit in March and have been up into Northland and several times down to their daughters driveways in Palmerston North. Now that they’re semi retired, they’re getting out and enjoying their new truck a bit more from their home in Taupo.

I was really impressed with the changes in the new Esprit especially where it came to new lighting systems and it was interesting seeing the Single/King sized bed configuration in a practical way too. Peter is pretty tall so that limited their options when they were working out what they wanted and what they have now really works well for them.

The Single Beds which also turn into a massive King Size Bed. There is lots of storage underneath too.

The following day, we caught up with them again for a hour or so in their Esprit. It really is very comfortable.

Another look at the galley with the gas oven below.

They will be at the Annual Dethleffs Owners Group meeting in Karapiro in October so keep an eye out for them.

Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.

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Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.