What's it all about?
This is our first major holiday in our own motorhome. Three months touring the South Island with no fixed itinerary, just a few rowing regattas to attend, friends to visit, geocaches to find and a large number of “must do and see” wonders of the South Island. 
Even though I was brought up in the South Island and spent numerous holidays travelling around it, items of interest as an adult are far different from those of a child. As were those of my parents who on one of our many tramping, camping holidays made us visit all of the hydro power stations in the South Island. It is mere coincidence (and quite disturbing) that I now choose to live within 400 metres of a hydro power station, albeit in the North Island.
Like all our other motorhome holidays we decided to give this one a theme. “The Lakes” tour was ruled out when we discovered how many lakes we would have to visit and the “eat fresh local produce” tour was never going to work with my aversion to green vegetables. So by default it became Roger’s “Flat White” tour (see separate page on this website for his reviews). As a non-coffee drinker my small role in the Flat White tour is to help pick the Cafés and contribute to the funding. As an accountant I take my role very seriously and perceive many problems with the budget proposed by Roger of $4 a day per coffee x 100 days ($400) as this would require 2 people to sit in a café consuming 1 flat white and no food. I can foresee a serious budget blowout especially with my addiction to high cholesterol foods.
As members of the NZ Motor Caravan Associationn (NZMCA) we display red "Wings" on our vehicle along with our membership number which not only allows us to access free campsites, dump stations and fresh-water etc but also attracts some most interesting people who are also ordinary NZMCA members as well. For example; on this trip so far we have met Heather from Mangakino who stencils on the outside of her motorhome the name of every place she camps. As NZMCA members we don’t use words such as tacky, wife-swapping hippies, nutters, eccentric old fools - we are all merely interesting people with eclectic life-experiences to share. So from the comfort of your computer chair come join us and share our journey.