Rambo Estrada should need no introduction. Instagram ruler, the creator of insanely beautiful wave scapes. Recently rated in the world top 100 for his wedding photography. Weddings pay the bills, but his passion remains salty.
I worked out I’d spent around 20 nights a year sleeping in the back of my Subaru Forester.
So I knew, for me, getting a camper just made sense. A lot of work I do as a photographer is just tapping away on the keyboard so I have the ability to be able to work remotely. When you’ve got a lot of work to do, it’s difficult to drop tools and go chase waves, and often when on a surf trip, there’s a lot of downtime, so having a mobile office is an epic solution.
I searched obsessively for a ridiculously long time to find ‘The Road Warrior.’ I trawled online auctions for over a year. So long that looking at vans became more like a hobby itself.
But then I finally found her: a customised 1990 Daihatsu Delta. You definitely wouldn’t describe her as being an attractive vehicle, but for me it was love at first sight. The poor bloke selling her had just lost his job and attempted to up-sell me into a combo deal with his jet-ski. I wasn’t really sure if I was ready for a second vehicle, let alone a third so I left the ski and drove home chuffed on my new purchase.
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Over the next year, I was reminded of how one ridiculous toy is more than enough to maintain, as problem after problem occurred with my van. The starter motor gave up, the alternator carked it, the sliding door stopped sliding, etc etc.
And man, when it comes time to get a warrant you may as well just throw your money at the Transport Agency. I got a warrant at the end of a summer, just before spending my entire winter travelling overseas.
On returning home, my new warrant had already expired. The testing station somehow managed to find $2000 worth of work that needed to be done, even though it hadn’t actually clocked up any road time since the last check. The best trips I did in the Road Warrior were definitely going to the Catlins, 24 hours’ drive from my house! I took it down there twice and spent a couple of weeks hanging out chasing waves each time. I love shooting pre-sunrise so being able to wake up right by the beach is epic.
I was heading away for the whole winter again, and had gone through the drama of getting a warrant. I couldn’t face doing it again on my return, so thought it was time. So I sold the Road Warrior… When I convinced Elke to move to NZ we were going to need a second vehicle, so it made sense to get a van instead of another car.
We didn’t actually have to search for long until Debbie popped up on Trade Me. She was originally the minibus for Rutherford Intermediate School in Whanganui. When she’s dirty, you can still make out the signwriting remnants. We just fully committed and hit the ‘Buy Now’ button, and next day I was on the bus to Whanganui.
Debbie was already camper converted. Initially we had big plans for Debbie, but ended up learning to love her quirks and leaving most as is.
We added what we call the toy-box: a giant storage compartment that doubles as a seat. We fill it with camera kit, or clothes, or skateboards, or often all of the above. We made the bed set-up permanent and we also added a projector, which we never use, ha ha.
Elke had only really done short trips in her van in Australia so she probably wasn’t quite ready for a month-long road trip through the South Island in winter! She likes routine things like going to the gym and showering etc, so she prefers two to three night trips. She does love getting out there and exploring New Zealand, camp fires, quirky NZ towns (especially Oamaru). She’s always amped when we score fun waves just to ourselves, which is near impossible on The Goldy where she’s from.
The Road Warrior was definitely a one-person van. I don’t think I could deal with anything smaller than a cargo van like Debbie for two people. Having the extra space feels like such a luxury. The only real difference, rolling with Elke, is I have to get up 10 minutes earlier for a dawny as she doesn’t function without a cup of tea in bed. I actually go surfing more now on road trips, as it’s way more fun with a buddy.
Our dream is a 4WD camper, as in legit 4WD that you can go anywhere. We’d love to get a solid ute and build a camper on the tray with a bed over the cab. I don’t think we have the time, energy and resources for that project right now, so we’ll just be rolling in Debbie for a while. We’re off to Australia for winter, and Elke still has the Mitzi Express so I’m sure we’ll do a few roadies over there.
The above extract was taken from ‘The Recreationalists: Intrepid Kiwis and their campers’ by Craig Levers, $49.95. Available from all good bookstores.