Piwiwiwi and Campervan Dreams

Q. What do you call a Pommy (Kiwi slang for English person) that moves to New Zealand

A. A Piwi.

Q. What do you call a Welsh man that moves to New Zealand

A. A Wiwi?

So when an English girl and a Welsh man move to New Zealand, it makes perfect sense for them to start up a company calling themselves PiwiWiwi… right?

Well it makes perfect sense to me but perhaps that's because I share my sister's sense of logic.

Anna and Niall emigrated to New Zealand earlier this year to set up PiwiWiwi.com, a campervan rental service aimed a the surf tourists who head to NZ for the waves and the landscape. It's quite a scary dream to chase and I'm so proud of them for making the leap. Check out the site for some gorgeous scenic pics!

I caught up with sis on Skype a few evenings ago to hear more of their adventures. Amongst the busy practicalities of starting a new business she's still managing to be shame-makingly healthy, active and eco. Whilst I lounge on the sofa most evenings drinking wine and internet shopping or fiddling with ribbons and frippery in my sewing room, she's been surfing, running, hiking, eating poridge and lentils and other such stuff that us ordinary folk promise ourselves we'll do but never quite get round to. A large part of last night's conversation centered around sustainable energy, composting toilets and worm farming! I tease her about it mercilessly but secretly I'm rather jealous of her drive and ambition, as well as her ever shrinking waistline!

4 wheel adventures are rather on my mind at the moment. Future Mother-In-Law has recently bought a snazzily compact and rather bijou caravan and I just re-visited the amazing website of Roulotte Retreats who rent amazingly decorated static gypsy caravans full of sumptuous fabrics and dripping with chic and it all has me dreaming of hitting the open road. The fiance and I had a vague plan to buy a camper and travel around Europe for a month or so for our honeymoon, before we both realised that taking a month off was utterly impractical and campers are darned expensive!

Still, a girl can dream and me being me I'm dreaming of all the little extras I could take with me to make my compact life a little more swanky whilst remaining practical:

Melamine
I was never much inspired by melamine. It always seemed like the maiden aunt of crockery, slightly dull and utterly unbreakable. I think I was prejudiced at an early age, our family camping set was a couple of shockingly plain seventies brown plates, a few "cheery" coloured beakers and the obligatory thermos. It looks like I judged too early, a quick etsy search and uncovered a host of beautiful pastel shades and iconic shapes like this lovely set for $85:

and this one for $57

Unfortunately most seem to be from the US and I can imagine shipping being astronomical, otherwise one of these sets may already have been on it's way to NZ for use in the PiwiWiwi vans.

Luckily for the more local the trend for vintage-styling has extended to picnic ware. John Lewis has a couple of very cute ranges that I could see gracing the cubby-holes of my dream camper.

Whilst the Brights range is adorable I'm not sure the fiance would be happy travelling in a haven to pastel, plus it being the end of the BBQ season (Boo) it's almost sold out (the set of 4 beakers is reduced to £5) so I think I'd plump for the Summer Folk range (priced between £2 and £11 oer item). OK, it's only marginally less girly, but just about enough to get away with I think and it would certainly brighten up dining alfresco

Bedding

I've never been much of an admirer of the sleeping bag. Clustraphobic little cocoons made of slippery polyester that take ages to warm up then instantly get sweaty and tangled. On recent camping trips I've abandoned the idea completely and just taken a duvet instead, seriously it's the way forward! I think for the camper I'd choose the Twister double duvet cover (available from numerous stockists including Amazon) cause it would tone in with the crockery and... well it's Twister!

Also essential is a snuggly throw for picnics and campfire moments and I can't think of a better one than  this Fleece Map Throw from the lovely Indigo and Bloom (a site I fully intend to preuse further in future). It may be £95 but it would make route planning our European odyssey a lot more exciting.

Food and drink

I love campfire cooking, so lazy but so satisfying. Chuck a can of chunky veg soup and a packet of instant rice into a cook pot, add some chopped hotdog sausages and in a very few minutes (or an eternity depending on the age of your gas burner and how hungry you are at the time) and you have a hot meal. Our cook set is this one from Go Ourdoors (RRP £20 but much cheaper with a members card). It's the perfect size for two, packs down to nothing and is impressively non-stick. Clever fiance even managed to whip up some impressive poached eggs for us in one of the lids.

Tea is another travelling essential. Whilst the fiance is an absolute tea addict I can pretty much take or leave the humble British brew, but when you're out on the road (especially in the wilds of the British countryside when you're likely to be rather chilly) there's nothing more comforting than a cup of tea to warm your hands and your insides. Whilst heating water in a cookpot is fine for camping, in the dream camper van I'm thinking of something a bit more civilised. A proper stove top whistling kettle is just the ticket, and you can never go wrong with Le Creuset in the classic Volcanic colourway. Rrp £65 but £44.83 from amazon

A china teapot is also one of life's greatest luxuries, but for practicalities sake enamel wins when travelling as it's likely to take a few knocks and this Folklore Teapot is utterly gorgeous and only £16.95 from notonthehighstreet.com.

 Finally, a decent tea towel may seem a mundane thing to get excited over but this one by Betsy Benn also at notonthehighstreet.com is such a classic. I'm a sucker for a union jack at the best of times, and when the design is made up of quintissentially British people, places and things you can't go wrong. Even better the diagonal red cross lists the ingredients and (the website tells me reliable) recipe for Victoria Sponge! £10 may seem a lot for a tea towel, but if it makes the drying up a less onerous task then it may just be worth it.

 

 Well, that's the dream camper mostly kitted out, now all that's left to do is win the lottery, find the perfect one and set off into the sunset. Or at the very least start saving my pennies for a trip to NZ to stay in a Piwiwiwi van.