Map of New Zealand North Island – Click here for fullsize map.

Zeelandia delivers passengers to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

Jason “Psycho” Suttie punches Peter Sampson in the gut on the way to a loss at K1 Oceania Round 3 at Trusts Stadium, Auckland, NZ on November 18th 2006.

We took our first trip in the van last night, to a suburb of Auckland to go to our first ever K1 kickboxing and mixed marshall arts event. The Oceania division of K1 features fighters from Australia, New Zealand, and other South Pacific nations. There were eight fights in all, most pitting an Australian representative versus a New Zealand representative. The crowd was excited as the Kiwis took most of the fights, including the main event.

Got to go, we are leaving to go camping.

Today we purchased a 1990 Toyota Lite Ace. We had been looking for a van for quite a while, and finally found some friends of a friend who were selling theirs. It is just what we were looking for, and comes complete with a sound system, a fold down bed in the back, curtains, and lots of camping gear. Her name is Zeelandia and she has driven 260,000km through New Zealand.

A 1990 van with over two-hundred-thousand kilometers may sound old to you, but in the world of backpacker vans (the market we were looking in) this van is actually quite new and in very good shape. Now that we have a van, we can begin to explore the North Island outside of Auckland. There are lots of campgrounds and holliday parks around New Zealand where we can park and set up camp.

Map of Auckland – Click here for fullsize map.

Here is a map of Auckland, to give you a better idea of where we are. As you can see Auckland is in the northern part of New Zealand’s north island, between two large harbors. Our apartment is located near the south west corner of Albert Park on the downtown map.