There are not many better ways to get to know your life partner than to test the relationship in a foreign country… on a budget… living in a van… for three months.  During our time in Oceania, Jonathan and I had the pleasure of keeping company with two distinctly different camper vans, lovingly named Darla and McFly.

Darla was our companion in New Zealand where she boisterously carried us 2,500 miles around the North and South islands of New Zealand.  She was a no-frills lady who had definitely been around the block before.  Darla responded best to encouraging words and dashboard pets when attempting hill ascents and was keen on letting all other campers know that she was in attendance everytime her sliding door needed to be opened or closed.  She was spacious (it’s all relative right?) and though she had trouble starting on cold mornings, she was faithful and dependable for six weeks of adventure.  Darla’s favorite road trip moments were lunch breaks at Lake Wanaka and days spent at the beach on the West coast of the South Island.

McFly was sleek, shiny, and bright orange.  Though smaller than Darla, he was perfectly converted to allow for maximum storage, comfort (again with the relativity), and ease.  McFly guided us 2,100 miles up the East coast of Australia and though his radio never worked, he made up for it by coming with a portible DVD player!  McFly loved nights where he could open up his skylight to let the Southern sky (some of the best stars we have ever seen!) shine in while he securely protected his passengers from the deadly spiders, snakes, and crocodiles that enhabited their campsites.  McFly’s favorite road trip moments included seeing the World’s Largest Mango and the mornings spent cooking gourmet breakfasts behind gas stations with the long-distance truck drivers.

There were some major advantages to our vagabond lifestyle:

• Ultimate freedom to explore at our own pace, pull over when we liked, and bascially just wing it most days
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• We are now masters of the one-pot meal and have developed pretty good recipes for Thai green curry, Mexican quinoa, spaghetti bolognese, and vegetable soup

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• Our cribbage and hackysack skills have improved exponentially
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• Knowing where you are going to sleep each night after a day of hiking and exploring is one of the greatest feelings when traveling

And there were some definite difficulties straight-up-not-so-fun moments:

• The smell in the van after a hot sweaty day was immediately followed by a day of non-stop rain
• Trying to keep food from spoiling when the temperature outside hits 100 degrees

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• Attempting to convince ourselves that going to McDonalds (one of the few places with wifi) 3-4 times a week is not a failure in traveling…or in life
• Pre-sunrise wake up calls by sheep, cows, tractor trailers, and worst of all, laughing kookaburras (google this little guy!)

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Ultimately though, Jonathan and I had a blast traveling this way and would not hesitate to recommend seeing these countries in the company of Darla and McFly.