For our New Zealand trip, we wanted to continue the RV lifestyle, but in a smaller RV, more suited to narrow NZ roads. We searched for various options, and settled on a campervan, what we’d call a Class B van in the US.

The van was a German-made Sunlight Cliff 640. We rented it from McRent, a primarily European rental company that has a couple of branches in New Zealand, in Auckland and Christchurch. Which was convenient, since we wanted to pick it up in Auckland and drop it off in Christchurch.

We chose several optional add-ons for the rental, including the basic package of bedding, towels, etc, plus a package that included a cellular Wi-Fi hotspot, folding table and chairs, first collision coverage, and more. (We didn’t need the collision coverage, but good to have.) We also got a portable BBQ, which wasn’t a rental but something they sold… but we didn’t end up using it or even unboxing it, so we donated it to the NZ Red Cross (along with a bunch of other things we bought) before dropping off the van.

Here’s the floorplan of the van:

Having a north-south bed (i.e. one sleeps in line with the van) was important to us, since otherwise one of us would have to climb over the other to get in and out. Plus we wanted a full-time bed, not a couch or dining table that folded down to a bed like many vans do, meaning you have to make the bed every day.

We also wanted something small enough to be able to fit in regular parking spaces, for the most part, since this would be our only vehicle — in the US we tow a truck behind our motorhome, so we can use that for daily driving, but in NZ we had to take our home everywhere we went. While it made parking harder, we didn’t have too much difficulty, and it certainly was nice to have a kitchen and bathroom wherever we went, and be able to load up groceries directly into the van, and park right outside a laundry facility.

Yes, such chores as grocery shopping and washing laundry continued even on vacation!

Here are some photos of the van when we picked it up at McRent in Auckland:

It had a bike rack on the back… but we didn’t rent bikes, and I brained myself several times on that annoying rack:

Inside, the dining area:

The bed area, with the provided pillows, comforter, and sheets — but they must have been Gen Z, as there were only bottom sheets. That didn’t work for us, so we later purchased another sheet set, amongst other things:

Kitchen drawer and cupboards:

Pots and pans… which we didn’t use; we never fired up the cooktop, since we ate dinner out pretty much every day, sampling the local cuisine:

Looking at the bed through the open rear doors:

Below the bed, a fairly sizable basement area (for a van), with a bag containing an electrical cable, waste drain hose, and fresh water hose, plus a crank for the manual awning (that we never used), a folding table (that we also never used), folding chairs (that we used several times), and the gas BBQ (that we didn’t use); behind them was a box of “AdBlue” (diesel exhaust fluid), and a plastic basket:

Also below the bed in a separate compartment were a couple of LPG / propane bottles, which we also hardly used:

We realized that the van didn’t come with any leveling blocks, so I went back into the office to ask about those. You can see what the BBQ was like in this picture. Along with renting a pair of leveling ramps, I also picked up a packet of toilet treatment sachets, and rented an Ecoflow power bank, which was very useful:

The accessories added to our basement:

Looking down on the van when parked at Mum’s place, showing the front and rear skylights, the bathroom vent, and two solar panels:

Back inside, here’s the cockpit, with the front blinds closed; these were much more convenient than the solutions a lot of vans use:

The entertainment system in the van was a somewhat dodgy Android device (it kept freaking out), which we managed to configure to use Apple CarPlay for navigation and music; I also mounted a dash cam on the windshield (or windscreen as Kiwis call it):

When eating meals, Jenn would sit on the driver chair, turned around like in the picture above, and I’d sit on the dining chair.

It’s hard to keep things tidy in a small space like a van; the dining area was typically a bit of a mess, with a pile of laundry in the corner, various charging devices mounted on the table, my laptop while working (tucked away during driving), and a pile of shoes underneath:

The bed area during travel:

The bathroom was very small. I found the cassette toilet to be fine, but it was a little high off the floor for Jenn. The shower worked by pulling out the sink faucet nozzle and mounting it on the bracket on the wall (or using it handheld). We each tried the shower once, but did not enjoy the experience. With all that wood, they have a shower curtain that has to wrap all the way around, in a very small space, so it tended to stick to your body. After that, we used showers in campgrounds:

The outside again at a campground:

You’ll see more pictures of the outside in the subsequent posts.

All in all, the van was an interesting experience and experiment. The relatively small size was certainly convenient as we traveled around and were able to park in regular spots (for the most part), and it was definitely easier to drive than a bigger RV — as usual, Jenn did all the driving. But the bathroom was a bit of a fail, and using campground showers was inconvenient. If we were to do it again, we’d probably consider a slightly larger model, or one with a more usable bathroom.