Mobile Bach Adventure

A Christchurch Classic Camper Volkswagen Vanagon is rented by Los Angeles Times’ reporter Mary Engel and her  husband who says the rented vehicle makes for an “experience still more up-close and personal”. No taller or longer than an ordinary van, a VW camper – or Kombi, as it is known in New Zealand – is more fuel-efficient than an RV and far easier to park. And for the price of wheels, you get a bed and meals. “Our van, we decided, would be our mobile bach,” writes Engel. “Imagine the most beautiful places you’ve ever seen – Grand Teton, Big Sur, Alaska’s Inside Passage – cram them all into a skinny strip of land, and that’s New Zealand.” Classic Campers is owned and operated by Auckland couple Bevan and Andrea Beattie.