By Dave Gibb, with additional comments by Nancy in italics.

1. The trip was two years late. The air show and ferry were booked and paid for two years ago – the weather forecast was for near-perfect weather for weeks ahead – and then Covid arrived.

2. The highway was closed at Dashwood Pass due to a grape truck rolling over – traffic delayed for approximately five hours.

3. The sewage hose burst at Plimmerton just out of Wellington and we could not source a new hose until we got to Auckland. (The caravan has four tanks – two for fresh water, one each for grey water (from sink and shower) and black water (from the toilet – we do not need cassettes). Normally the latter two tanks are emptied by a 3 inch diameter hose attached to a coupling at the side of the caravan, the black water first so the grey will flush the hose. This coupling came apart rather unexpectedly at the start of the emptying process, with sh…. spraying around everywhere.)

4. It rained for four days in Auckland. Nancy had food poisoning. (But we still managed to visit Dave’s brother and sister in law and they gave us some cotton sheets as I had forgotten to pack any.)

5. The Brynderwyns were closed so it took an extra 2 ¾ hours to detour through Mangawhai.

6. Missed a corner on the detour due to confusing GPS signals and drove 20 minutes in the wrong direction before being able to turn around (on a narrow grravel road, with a large caravan), so detour was 3+ hours in total.)

7. Hit tree and gatepost at Russell POP, tore off corner fittings. (See blog, with photos.)

8. Hooked, fought and lost a large kingfish when out fishing with friends in Russell. (ditto.)

9. the famous Carl of Carl’s Coffee Cart at Long Beach, Russell was on holiday!

10. 3-day rain while in Russell, with an even larger storm predicted, so abandoned plans for Cape Reinga and ran west to the Kauri Coast.

11. Planned to stay at a DOC Camp but it was closed so ended up at the Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park for 4 days waiting for the wind and rain to stop. (The rivers around the camp rose quite a bit but then subsided).

12. Slide-out leaked from the heavy rain and wind onslaught. Carpet (but not bed) wet and everything damp. (On the other hand, the camp provided lovely hot showers and washing and drying machines).

13. Stayed in a small camp at the head of the Hauraki Gulf. Shower swallowed coins. Nancy’s left knee very painful.

14. Travelling south, got frustrated with the Auckland traffic and drove straight through to Ardmore as the camp at Whangaparoa where we were planning to stop was swamped.

15. The washing machine at the commercial laundry at Papakura swallowed $6 for nothing.

16. Carried on to Te Aroha where it rained non-stop and one of Nancy’s troublesome teeth developed an abscess. The special little Italian restaurant we had been so looking forward to revisiting was closed.

17. Moved to Paeroa. Lost the outside refrigerator top vent somewhere between Te Aroha and Paeroa. (Had script for antibiotics made up and tooth abscess finally subsided after 3 days).

18. Mussels in the special Mothers’ Day lunch at the Coromandel Town hotel still had most of their whiskers (but were otherwise very delicious, with cream and white wine).

19. Left jockey wheel in clamp leaving Whitianga camp but luckily it was only a short distance to the dump point. Then left the keys in the water filler locker cover. Fortunately they were still there somehow when we arrived at Waihi Beach. (Surely a miracle! – it was such a long, narrow twisty road).

20. Reached Tauranga. Raining again. Set up at Welcome Bay (NZMCA Camp some way from the town). Computer crashed terminally while chatting to family.

21. Changed ferry booking to 5 days earlier. Planned to leave next morning and wend our way south to Wellington over the next sseven days. When all packed up and ready to leave, discovered one of the caravan springs had broken. This just happened to be on a Saturday morning when everybody we needed was closed.

22. Rained at Tauranga most of the time we were there. (Sitting in the Welcome Bay camp debating on whether repairs could be made locally, and if so how to get the caravan there (on a trailer?); leave caravan in Tauranga and drive down to Christchurch and return for caravan months later, and/or perhaps ship the caravan down to Christchurch to be repaired there… At least we were able to visit Dave’s sister and brother in law twice in their nursing home.)

(Dave continues..) Managed to Mickey Mouse a solution to get the caravan mobile and delivered to Alliance RV in Tauranga for servicing. They were on the ball and ordered a new spring set – from Christchurch of course – for overnight delivery by Courier. The spring was dispatched before midday Monday and finally turned up in Tauranga mid morning Wednesday. Alliance RV worked magic and had us on the road by 4.30pm Wednesday (our ferry booking was for the Friday afternoon).

23. While the caravan was being repaired we stayed with friend Barbara in Greerton. The only available plug in the bedroom meant the phone was on the floor while charging. Sometime during the night I managed to knock my torch off the bedside table and it landed on my phone and cracked the screen!

THANKFULLY THE REST OF THE TRIP HOME WAS TROUBLE-FREE.