So after a little delay we finally got to collect the campervan Thursday 06/10/2017, there always seemed to be another thing we wanted to add to the van, but eventually plans settled and we were on our way. Thanks, Jonas @ Acacia Motorhomes for your patience with us but the Dethleffs XLi is just fantastic, although I must confess to a few nervous moments as I drove it out of the driveway. Even though I have driven plenty of trucks and large vans, the feeling of spaciousness in the cab of the A-Class was a bit scary to start, but I soon got used to it.

We decided to make the first stop Otamauri Bay about an hours drive out of Whangarei at the DOC camp as that’s the very first place we took the old Mitsi Canter and thought it would be a great place to spend our first night in the XLi. However, around 3pm, I started to develop toothache and ending up having a terrible nights sleep. Hence, the following morning it was off to the camp managers office to see if they could help me find a dentist in Whangarei that could see me that day, as there is no phone signal at Otamauri Bay I was very thankful for their help. I found somewhere with an appointment made for 2pm.

We drove the XLi into Whangarei parking in the freedom camping area down by the Bridge on Port Rd. A good friend of mine Peter Baker popped down to say hello he had only moved to Whangarei about a month ago but used to live there as did I and we ended up talking about a mutual acquaintance Murray among other things.

2pm rolled around and off to Team Dental and whilst i was sitting in the waiting room in walks Murray talk about a small world. Anyway turns out I had a severely decayed lower wisdom tooth that needed to be extracted 1 hour and 7 injections later, the tooth was out, and I walked back to meet Sarah at the camper. We decided that we would spend the night at Manganese Point about 15 minutes drive from the carpark, and with my tooth having been removed, I did not feel like driving much further.

Glorious spot well and truly worth the short drive and after the first night decided that would spend a second………….

If you would like to see all the places we have visited click here

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