Home is where you roam

A caravan sits nestled into a valley west of Huntly. Picture /Amos Chapple

In the beginning was the camel. The first caravan. It humped whole households across deserts and ate blocks of hashish to keep calm in sandstorms.

Then the covered wagon trundled in from over the hills and far away, colonising the world with everyone from preachers to debauchers, planting little houses on prairies and getting shot full of arrows by whooping redskins.

New Zealand's golden age of caravans was in the 60s and 70s when thousands towed their little mobile homes, tents on wheels, to beachsides and lakesides from North Cape to Bluff. Today these ghosts of the road sit around like old tramps, unwashed, leaking, blistering, underparts rusting and collapsing, used for whitebait stands, beach baches, garden sheds, sleepouts and hunters' huts.

But now a second golden age is stirring, fuelled by a surge in numbers of active retirees, fit babyboomers with time and money to spare, and inspired by a worldwide resurgence in caravans.

The call of the road is particularly strong to the retiring generations in New Zealand and overseas. Their kids have flown, they've got the cash, the time, the freedom from years of daily routine and the sense of adventure to go ... beyond!

"The babyboomers are at the age where they want to get out and live a bit," says Rob Griffith of North Shore Caravans, one of three main Auckland importers.

"They're sick of working and they're looking for toys. They've got some wealth and still have their health. They're in a been-there-done-that scenario. It's time to sell up in Auckland, invest a bit, then head for the South Island looking for a farm and a place to live."

Geoff Hawke, veteran owner of South Auckland Caravans at Takanini, now retired, says caravans are all go. "The demand has been there for the past two or three years. Supply is the problem."

Try to buy a caravan today and you may have to wait six months at the end of an international queue lengthened by growing demand in Britain, Europe, North America and Australia.

The reason for that is Sir Robert Muldoon's 1979 decision to impose a 20 per cent sales tax on caravans which destroyed the local manufacturing industry. Within three years production collapsed from 10,000 caravans a year to just 50. That figure remained static until three years ago when it climbed to 75 and since then it has more than doubled.

Only the three longest-established manufacturers from the 1940s and 50s survived - Trail Lite at Pukekohe, IC Munro at Otorohanga and Gipsy Caravans in Levin - and they had to diversify.

"The boom is in imports," says Shaun Newman, Trail Lite's business development manager, though he adds that orders for the hand-made caravans his company now produces locally have also doubled.

Richard Martin, of Woods Caravans in Albany, says part of the reason for the swing back to caravans is because they are cheap to run, a lot more comfortable than yesteryear and come in a wider range of options than was available 30 years ago.

All three importers have waiting lists of up to six months for the new and quality used caravans they bring into the country. They say caravan-making technology overseas has taken great strides in comfort and convenience.

Their latest models are tasteful, lemon-fresh havens of luxury and comfort in the wilderness, with cocktail times. They radiate gleam and cleanliness. Lounges, bathrooms and kitchens are beautifully appointed. Floors slide around to create more space. Bedrooms pop out. Sandflies and mosquitoes batter hopelessly against screened doors and windows.

Martin emphasises that the big assets of the modern caravan are self-containment and convenient reticulation. Deep-cell batteries take care of power so you don't have to plug in to a powerpoint and restrict yourself to campsites - "maybe you don't want to go into a big park with 500 other caravans" - and removable underfloor tanks or cassettes hold waste for disposal. The systems are odourless and simple to load and unload.

Terry Mann at IC Munro says demand is increasing "without a doubt", and the New Zealand manufacturers "are gearing up to get some strength back. They are aware they have to move forward with the materials and technology the Europeans have developed."

As a result the number of caravans is once more on the rise. New Zealand has more than 19,000 licensed caravans, says Land Transport New Zealand, excluding those used as backyard sleepouts or on permanent campground sites.

A total of 1565 new caravans were registered in 2004 - the latest year for which figures are available - surpassing the 1113 for motorhomes.

Richard Martin says the great advantage of caravans is their convenience and low cost. "The ongoing costs of a caravan [registration, WoF, electrics and gas certificates] are less than $100 a year."

By contrast, he says, a motorhome's costs, including "LTNZ certificate of fitness, road-user and diesel charges, would be at least $500 yearly. A new motorhome, not overly flash, will cost about $150,000, and a luxury model will be more like $500,000. They're becoming too expensive to buy and to run."

Young couples for whom the cost of a holiday home is out of reach are attracted to the caravan as an alternative. A big range of 1970s models is available for between $2000 and $8000, 1980s/90s models $20,000 to $40,000. One old dunger needing work sold on TradeMe for $265 the other day. New caravans - imports and locally made - cost between $40,000 and $69,000.

Martin's niche market is in used quality English lightweight models for touring, aimed at the over-60s. They are the gazelles of the import fleet, lush and snug, totally self-contained, galvanised chassis and constructed of lightweight composite materials that weigh them in at under 1000kg compared to 1400kg to 1800kg for a 6m New Zealand equivalent.

Perhaps the most interesting concept coming on the market is Rob Griffith's Fifth-Wheelers - caravans designed to sit on the back of a ute - which he has been importing from North America for six years. Fifth-Wheelers fall halfway between a motorhome and a caravan, and they're certainly spacious, with a queen-size bed in the loft. Griffith sells his Fifth-Wheeler package for about $105,000 - $65,000 for the caravan and $40,000 for the towing ute.

Another popular option are the Australian Jaycos which have 50 per cent of the market across the Tasman.

Glen O'Donnell at South Auckland Caravans has the New Zealand franchise for the range which includes the Expanda, which grows from 5m to 7m by extending a bedroom out each end, and pops up the top to give you a good head space - if you're not already in one on holiday.

The Jaycos also include the bigger, heavier Heritage range, which has been developed for more of a fixed family socialising setting in a campground.

Latest Jayco just on the market, says O'Donnell, is the luxury Sterling with even more pop-out space and electrical hardware, selling for $50,000 to $69,000.

Former South Auckland Caravans owner Geoff Hawke points out that because so many campgrounds are disappearing into the maws of the developers, Department of Conservation land, and parks such as those run by the Auckland Regional Council, will become increasingly important to caravanners.

Caravans can stay at any vehicle-accessible DoC-managed camping site in the country, says Auckland spokeswoman Fiona Oliphant. There are 250 around New Zealand including 74 in the North Island. Most have vehicle access. "The New Zealand Motor Caravan Association offers an annual pass for $150 which can be used at most standard DoC campsites."

Caravanners are welcome at most of Auckland's 22 regional parks providing they are self-contained, says the ARC recreation co-ordinator for parks, Nic Edmonds. The 22 parks include 18 carparking areas for overnight use by caravans and 14 camping grounds. If every park filled its caravan quota at one time, says Edmonds, the total would be more than 460.

"We have been researching and surveying campers to find how best to provide for future demands and emerging trends. We are now looking at how we can best use the results of that research."

Today, freedom camping with a self-contained caravan opens wider vistas than the official campgrounds.

If you went caravanning as a kid then you're hooked for life. It stays in the blood. The spoils of the hunter and fisher, the bounty of the wild, lingers in camp cooking aromas wafting up through the years.

The whole country is yours along with dawn choruses, mountain sunrises, the camaraderie of the road, West Coast whitebait, Northland crayfish, roast wild duck, pork and venison, barbecued koura, stewed pukeko (you have to skin it and pull out the long leg sinews with pliers), wild mint and watercress, blackberries and raspberries, camp bread and muttonbirds and smoked Taupo trout.