Tag Archives: My Motorhome

Close to home, NZMCA Rallies

The Stirling Moss Special and Caravan

1 Comment

Soon after I arrived at an NZMCA Rally in Glenbrook, Gavin and Gladys rolled in with their absolutely stunning Valiant Hardtop complete with a matching caravan. What a gem!

They were living in Australia when they bought this Stirling Moss Special, which was created to promote Chrysler’s Australian designed Hemi Six engine. The car itself started life as a US Dodge Dart, but with an Aussie nose grafted on, a true cross-continental hybrid!

Gladys and Gavin with their Caravan.

Of the 139 originally built, it’s believed that only 11 still survive today, so this is a pretty special machine.

Gavin and Gladys used it in Australia before bringing it back to New Zealand, where it served as their family car for more than 30 years. After that, it was tucked away in a shed for about 15 years before being completely rebuilt for a family wedding.  What a comeback story!

Under the bonnet now is a 245 cubic inch Hemi with a 350 Holley carb, electronic ignition, and high compression, giving around 240 horsepower. It’s also had upgrades to the brakes, suspension, and gearbox, making it a lot tougher for towing duties.

Having been a Valiant owner myself back in the day, I was blown away when they arrived, it looked absolutely spectacular.

Looking out towards the car.

The caravan has its own story too. They found it about three years ago down in the South Island, bought it, and drove it all the way home. The hardest part, they said, was finding one in decent condition that hadn’t been knocked around. They repainted it to perfectly match the Valiant, and now the pair turn heads everywhere they go including at Mystery Creek and other classic shows.

It was fantastic to see them both out there, enjoying their Wheels of Yesteryear.  A real treat for the eyes!

Waikato

Gary and Jojo’s Self-Built Caravan

One of the nicest surprises at Karapiro was meeting Gary and Jojo, who were parked just a few spots away with their amazing self-built caravan.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Gary and Jojo with their caravan.

At first glance, you’d have no idea it was home built, it’s beautifully finished, full of clever details, and really well thought out.

Even better, it’s colour-matched to their tow vehicle, a V8 Toyota utility and the cleverness doesn’t stop there. Gary’s designed a swappable system where the caravan body can be mounted directly onto the back of the Toyota, and vice versa. While it’s still a bit of a work in progress, it’s seriously impressive engineering!

The Galley and looking towards the Toilet and Shower
The Bedroom living area looking over the Gold Couch. Complete with TV and a Star Gazing vent above.

The caravan is fully equipped with a bathroom, toilet, and galley area (complete with fridge), and it’s fully insulated too. It looks super comfy inside and is a real credit to their hard work.

Gary and Jojo are from Whangārei and have spent the last 18 months building it themselves, including doing all the welding for the custom trailer chassis. The curves and detailing on the build are outstanding. It has clearly been a labour of love.

They were joined by friends at Karapiro for the Branded Music Festival, and it was great to see them enjoying the results of all their hard work.

Looking out over the bench towards Lake Karapiro

A fantastic story of Kiwi ingenuity and a real head-turner of a caravan!

Int'l Motorhomes, Northland

Tony and Mary’s new Baby Alpa

3 Comments

Fiona and I first met Tony and Mary way back when we were playcenter parents together in Devonport, so it was very much small world stuff when I first discovered them in a Dethleffs Motorhome after they first got their Pulse a few years ago.

Click on any Image to enlarge.

Tony and Mary

The Alpas have really changed the standard with the Dethleffs usual format from a rear bed and front Lounge. From originally being rear lounge like the rentals we all see, now we’re back to that and these Alpas look really nice.

Nice looking Motorhome.

A slightly smaller Galley than the Grand Alpa, and a little less cabinetry in the lounge, it really suits the vehicle and takes nothing away from it.

Nice comfy lounge at the back with great visibility.

At just a smidge under 7.5 metres, they come with the new ZF 9 speed boxes and the 2.2hp fiat rated at 180HP. They come as standard with all the standard goodies including a lithium battery.

Galley

I remember when Chris Norman who used to work at Zion, dragged me sideways when I was out there for something else when the first one arrived, to check it out. There was great excitement, and it was a thing of beauty. Then it was only an option for the XLI but hold onto your hats, we’ve got a little smaller, so it’s become a standard sized Motorhome!  I’m sure it is going to be very popular.

Bathroom. Shower is opposite and BIG!

Having it tied to their doorknob at home now, it has been a bit of saga getting this one into New Zealand. Through no fault of anybody, it has been a combination of Covid, shipping issues and then the war in Ukraine where wiring looms in these are all made. The three years wait though I’m sure was well worth it.

The galley looking forward to the drop down beds and the Cab area.

I’ll let the images tell the story but the smile on their faces I think tells the story.

My Motorhome

The First Morelo Empire Liner in NZ

1 Comment

What an exciting day for Tony and Fiona. After two and a half years, the handover of their new Motorhome and its HUGE!

Click on any Image to Enlarge

The Morelo Palace behind for comparison

After several trips to the factory in Germany over the last 2 years and lots of research, it has finally happened. As Tony says, “When he was filling in the options form, the pen didn’t want to stop”, so as Tony says, “Its fully pimped “!

The new beast

It is 10 metres long, 4 meters high. Carries 500 litres of fresh water and 240 litres of both black and grey water. It is on a Mercedes Actros Chassis with a 400HP, 7 litre 6-cylinder motor with a 12-speed gearbox.

The “Stairway to Heaven “

There was an option to have the drive in the boot storage for a small vehicle but as Tony said, he could make better use of the space as a bigger garage and get more locker space outside by putting the electrics where the car would go.

Huge living and entertaining space.

It is like a footie field inside with a higher than most Motorhomes stud height, slightly wider than your average bear and of course the length.

The Galley

They had a Morelo Palace before this and there was one parked in front of it at the Zion yard and you can definitely see the difference next to the Empire Liner. When they bought their Palace, the Empire liners weren’t available in a form that was acceptable by NZ Transport, but several rules changed in the last few years.

Centre Island Bed

I’m really pleased for them as they have been through numerous delays due to Covid and shipping/parts delays and its finally here and it is exactly what they wanted.

All new Mod Mercedes Dash

Have Fun Guys!

Waikato

Motorhome Veterans go for space!

1 Comment

Valerie and Murray built one of their early Motorhomes themselves for accommodating horses and themselves at shows. Horses were at the back; they were in the front.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Murray and Valerie

Since then, they have had “6 or 7” with them being a mix from pop up Caravans, Pop up and small Motorhomes, to more recently a Swift Bessacar, Autotrail Commanche, a borrowed Roller team and now the main prize, the Swift Kon-Tiki.

Great entertaining space
The Bed room

They picked up the Kon-Tiki just 8 weeks ago from Wellington and what a beauty.

It is 9 metres long, has 2.5 litre motor and has everything that opens and shuts.

Galley

With the entertaining area in the front with seats down each side facing each other and a table in the middle. The Galley behind with a new tall Dometic double opening Fridge opposite. Behind this is the Bathroom with doors on each side and then the centre island bed at the back.

Its light and well-lit and they’re really happy with their new baby. They have done their first big trip in it up to Kerikeri and it went well. A very nice Motorhome with plenty of room.

Bay of Plenty

Rose and Ken’s new Bailey on their first outing!

3 Comments

While I was at Bowentown, I spotted one of the new Bailey Adamo’s down by the beach.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Ken and Rose

This was Ken and Rose’s first trip away in it after picking it up only a few weeks ago. Not too far from home at Omokoroa, their shakedown first trip was so far uneventful apart from a few missing groceries!

Cab area.

Following the European trend of smaller vehicles for parking in European cities and with emissions in mind, the Bailey measures in at 7.485m with a 3500kg GVM making it a WOF vehicle. Being on a Transit base, it is powered by a Ford 2l Turbo diesel. Apparently, it is the same as the motor in the 2l Ranger.

The rear lounge
Drop down bed at the back.

One of the nice things that sold it for Rose and Ken was the drop-down beds giving them a front dining / Lounge area and a nice cosy U shape lounge area at the back. Both beds are electric with a nice Galley area and Bathroom on opposite sides in the middle. A great way to save space.

Front Lounge with Bed above

It’s funny who you meet on the road as later in the day when we sat down with a glass of wine together, it turned out that they both spent many years on Waiheke Island and know a few people in our family as well as a few friends on the island. Small world stuff.

The Galley

A great couple enjoying their new Motorhome.

Coromandel 2022

Russell and Lorraine’s Frankia M-line

I caught up with Lorraine and Russell at a recent Frankia Owners group meeting at Coromandel.

Like me, Russell has had a long career in Newspapers working in his old hometown of New Plymouth.

Click on any image to Enlarge

Lorraine and Russell

He was a Linotype operator making the slugs, think blocks of text that make up a newspaper page before computers. He worked with a lot of my old friends (photographers) who migrated to the Herald and the Star in later years.

Looking back

When I worked at the Herald in the 70’s, we had to walk through the linotype room to get to the photographic department and it always fascinated me to see these things working.  Big machines with great big lead bars being turned into blocks of text and then placed on the stone (the page). It was noisy too with the clatter of many of them. The Herald had roomfuls of them!

Nice and bright and plenty of space

Back to Motorhomes .. Starting out in 2002, this is their 6th Motorhome or Caravan. Their first Motorhome was a small Japanese imported Isuzu Motorhome. They’ve had several others including a 5th Wheeler, a Dodge Ram with a slide on. A Laika motorhome, then a Dethleffs Magic and now the Frankia which they got last year.

Galley

It is equipped with a 3 litre, 190 HP Turbocharged Mercedes V6 with auto transmission.

As you would expect with a Motorhome like these, they are well appointed inside with every mod con you can imagine.

Favourite spots are the West coast of the South Island and Matai Bay in Northland.

Having had a few Motorhomes over the years, they have had plenty to compare this to and only had lots of nice things to say about their Frankia.  A really nice Motorhome!

Road Trip 2021

The Real Oil

2 Comments

Its amazing who you end up meeting in campgrounds! After our first night in the Greytown Motor Camp, we moved to a sunnier site with more room next to Karen and Ian who were staying in their new Eldiss Caravan while they have their house built in Masterton.

Click on an Image to Enlarge

Ian and Karen with their Caravan

I popped my head in the door and introduced myself. Later in the day we got chatting and I discovered that they too were an Army family along with hearing about their huge success in the Olive industry.

They started their Olive business around 2001 by planting their first 1200 trees and later added more in 7 different varieties to bring the total trees up to approximately 1900. Over the course of the last 10 years, they have won numerous awards for the quality and flavours of their oil.

The Eldiss

Last year they sold their business, Juno Olives, bought a caravan, are building a new house in Masterton and retiring!  A busy year… All going well the house will be ready in July.

The caravan is a brand new Eldiss Explor with a rear bathroom and Karen’s favorite part, the HUGE shower. Downsizing from their house to their first experience in a caravan, they found the awning an absolute necessity along with the motor movers for shuffling it around at campsites.

Click on the Gallery below for a Slideshow

Bedroom
Inside the awning
The Eldiss
Karen with a bottle of her Olive oil
Ian and Karen with their Caravan

Ian spent 20 odd years as an officer in the NZ Army specialising in Ammunition’s and Ballistics. He later spent many years in project management before the Olive industry beckoned. Karen was an Editor with TVNZ for years and later became a Technical Writer after doing a degree.

Its fascinating talking to people with these different backgrounds and working out how they both got from there to growing Olives 🙂

I’ve always liked the Eldiss caravans and their one is very comfortable with plenty of room. A lovely couple enjoying their caravan.

We popped into Juno Olives later.
Close to home, Int'l Motorhomes, Rallies

David and Liz’s Cosy Rapido

Fiona and I first met David and Liz at an annual Dethleffs do at Miranda years ago when they had their new A Class Esprit.  They had it for several years until they fell in love with their 2010 Rapido A class Motorhome on Trade me.

It is 7.4 metres long, has a huge payload and is rear wheel drive with a Mercedes 185HP motor which “goes like stink”.

David and Liz both come from a long NZ Army background like us and David knows Fiona’s Dad, Uncle and they have many common friends.. love it when that happens!

We met up with them again at the Covi Rally at Ellerslie Racecourse.

Nicely finished. I love the woodgrain on the dash.

Since they picked it up 8 months ago, they’ve done 20000k’s in it so they really enjoying it.

Galley area
Galley

David’s favorite spot was Mt Cook on a beautiful clear day when they went on the Alpine Track.

Most French beds are tucked up against the wall and hemmed in top and bottom, making it hard work to make the bed.. this is the real thing!  Access to 3 sides !

Corner Bed

What I liked about this Motorhome over their last Motorhome was its nice cosy feel, it looks and feels solid but is still under 4 tons GVM.

A good solid look to it too.

Really nice people enjoying their really nice Motorhome.

Close to home

Wzzzzz and up it goes

I’d just switched the engine off and was plugging in the power point when Lance and Sophie pulled up alongside in the next door Camp spot. They were huge plots so we had plenty of room.

Click on an Image to Enlarge

It turns out that they has recently just bought it online from Palmerston North and was only 5 weeks old ! This one is a Flagstaff Mac made by the great American RV company Forest River.

Lance and Sophie with their trailer

This is their second one of this type although the first one was no where near as flash as this new one. They leveled it on the ground, plugged in the power cord to the post and flicked a switch and up it went! Quite impressive if you haven’t seen one before. Apparently their last one was a wind up one.

With a slide out dining area and the end bedroom areas that po out, its amazing how much room there is. It has a built in BIG gas heater for those cold nights too. Despite the fact that it is mostly canvas and several layers of blinds etc, it really holds the heat in.

Roomy!
Galley area

Lance was saying they got theirs second hand but they are available here new for around $32k fully kitted out which is an option for families who have a limited budget and don’t want a big Caravan.

Extra bed space
Dining area slideout

This was one of the first trips away they have had in it apart from bring it up from Palmerston North and they seemed very happy with it.

Looking across the slide out

A great couple enjoying their time on the road.