- Oct 28, 2020
- 8
- 50
- Funster No
- 77,276
- MH
- Swift Spirit 604 on
- Exp
- 8 months
My name is Chris and I like Motorhomes, there I have said it but it looks like I am among friends here but be kind!
My habit started early in 2019 when my wife, Sue and myself were trying to plan a holiday to celebrate out 70th birthdays in 2020. We had been lucky enough to have had two touring holidays in Australia and two in New Zealand. We has totally fallen in love NZ’s South Island and wanted a third trip. Having had hired a car and stayed in motels before we wanted something that would enable us to see the more remote areas and having been stuck behind endless Motorhomes we thought if you can’t beat them join them.
Some research showed NZ is over supplied with hire companies we chose an outfit called Wilderness who positively encourage their customers to get off the beaten track - only restrictions were don’t drive on beaches or ford major rivers but if you want to go 50kms down gravel roads good luck to you. Their group is the Bürstner importer so they offer a wide range of German vans. We hired the largest they had a 7.5m TD744 for a 3 week circular trip from Christchurch. Only thing then other than booking some breathtakingly expensive flights was to sit and wait. Meanwhile more research turned up several superb apps to find the best campsites although the state run DOC campsites are excellent but only a few can be booked ahead. Never had an issue booking day to day though despite being there in Feb/March which is still peak season.
In Feb we flew out just as something called Corona virus was hitting the news. Flights took 26 hours with stops in Dubai and Sidney before landing in Christchurch - where the Emirates A380 totally dwarfed the other planes. Wilderness picked us up the following morning and gave us an excellent briefing although they had videos on every subject including the dark art of cassette emptying. The van had the infamous Comformatic gear box which was fun on the hairpin bends the country has in excess. The van was 18 months old and had been well used but was in reasonable knick for a hire. Their Scouse engineer gave us his expert view of German engineering before we set off while he fitted a new fly screen - he was not a fan of their electric beds of which our van had 2! Useful pre-purchase advice from a hire company engineer.
New Zealand was a joy we had a superb time despite getting caught in a storm on the West coast - one of the wettest places on earth where rainfall is measured in 10s of cms. We survived the sand flies - Wilderness advise fitting children under 25Kg with weights to avoid the risk of abduction by those swines - and the alpine parrots that can strip a Motorhome of any rubber component in minutes and we suspect have deals with the garages to sell them back to punters. NZ Campsites are great and the locals are really friendly. Do go if you can the island is larger than England with under 2 million people, endless national parks stunning coastline and snow topped mountains. Oh and they make superb wine and the food is to die for it’s the nearest place to heaven we know.
Two lessons we learnt first turning around in a 7.5Mb motorhome on a 3Mb wide track is challenging and always buy the collision damage waver insurance as car parks get very tight with a huge overhang at the back. We also learnt that going away during a pandemic is not a good idea. We got back in mid March after an interesting flight - Dubai airport was deserted - went straight into lock down.
A lot of discussion ensued two things were decided we had had enough of long haul flying and we really needed to see more of the UK and Europe. The idea of buying a van of our own was born. Sue has slightly dodgy eye sight so in no way could get the C1 renewed and after some discussion we decided that we would stick under 3.5 tons. Another limitation is the length of our drive where a 6m van is stretching it so I researched small vans. We went round a number of dealers when they opened in June before selecting a Swift Escape 604 which met our requirements. Living in the South we visited Dolphin in Southampton who sell a special edition called the Spirit which comes with a solar panel, bbq point etc so we went to see one. Given my advancing years I prefer driving automatics so we had to order from the factory for 2021 delivery So we placed a deposit.
After reading the words of wisdom here we decided to hire the same van if we could and try it out for real. We found an outfit called Land Cruise in Chichester had exactly that model so we we booked 2 weeks away in late September. The 6m van was far more manoeuvrable and fitted(ish) into parking spaces. We had a great time castling along the South Coast scoring 9. After a slight initial panic we managed to get the stuff we needed into the lockers - convinced Swift have bent time/space as more went in than the dimensions should allow. Due the pandemic we found the on board facilities were excellent with the end washroom being far better than the larger Bürstner but YMMV. The manual drop down bed worked and we ended up using the lower bed made from cushions as well as two bunks. The Land Cruise people gave the Swift a reasonable recommendation as well. So we think it should work for our planned use for touring here and in Europe - result.
So project Stumpy is born, the name comes from the sawn off looks ot a 3Mb tall van only being 6m long elegant it is not. Currently it is a spreadsheet of all the things we need to buy from levelling blocks to a rooftop 4G aerial. Sure to be asking loads of stupid questions while we wait for Swift to do their thing - very slowly. Hopefully it will turn up in March as promised as it is our joint Golden Wedding present to ourselves and assuming my pension funds still have enough in them to pay the bill.
Sorry for the lengthy first post.
My habit started early in 2019 when my wife, Sue and myself were trying to plan a holiday to celebrate out 70th birthdays in 2020. We had been lucky enough to have had two touring holidays in Australia and two in New Zealand. We has totally fallen in love NZ’s South Island and wanted a third trip. Having had hired a car and stayed in motels before we wanted something that would enable us to see the more remote areas and having been stuck behind endless Motorhomes we thought if you can’t beat them join them.
Some research showed NZ is over supplied with hire companies we chose an outfit called Wilderness who positively encourage their customers to get off the beaten track - only restrictions were don’t drive on beaches or ford major rivers but if you want to go 50kms down gravel roads good luck to you. Their group is the Bürstner importer so they offer a wide range of German vans. We hired the largest they had a 7.5m TD744 for a 3 week circular trip from Christchurch. Only thing then other than booking some breathtakingly expensive flights was to sit and wait. Meanwhile more research turned up several superb apps to find the best campsites although the state run DOC campsites are excellent but only a few can be booked ahead. Never had an issue booking day to day though despite being there in Feb/March which is still peak season.
In Feb we flew out just as something called Corona virus was hitting the news. Flights took 26 hours with stops in Dubai and Sidney before landing in Christchurch - where the Emirates A380 totally dwarfed the other planes. Wilderness picked us up the following morning and gave us an excellent briefing although they had videos on every subject including the dark art of cassette emptying. The van had the infamous Comformatic gear box which was fun on the hairpin bends the country has in excess. The van was 18 months old and had been well used but was in reasonable knick for a hire. Their Scouse engineer gave us his expert view of German engineering before we set off while he fitted a new fly screen - he was not a fan of their electric beds of which our van had 2! Useful pre-purchase advice from a hire company engineer.
New Zealand was a joy we had a superb time despite getting caught in a storm on the West coast - one of the wettest places on earth where rainfall is measured in 10s of cms. We survived the sand flies - Wilderness advise fitting children under 25Kg with weights to avoid the risk of abduction by those swines - and the alpine parrots that can strip a Motorhome of any rubber component in minutes and we suspect have deals with the garages to sell them back to punters. NZ Campsites are great and the locals are really friendly. Do go if you can the island is larger than England with under 2 million people, endless national parks stunning coastline and snow topped mountains. Oh and they make superb wine and the food is to die for it’s the nearest place to heaven we know.
Two lessons we learnt first turning around in a 7.5Mb motorhome on a 3Mb wide track is challenging and always buy the collision damage waver insurance as car parks get very tight with a huge overhang at the back. We also learnt that going away during a pandemic is not a good idea. We got back in mid March after an interesting flight - Dubai airport was deserted - went straight into lock down.
A lot of discussion ensued two things were decided we had had enough of long haul flying and we really needed to see more of the UK and Europe. The idea of buying a van of our own was born. Sue has slightly dodgy eye sight so in no way could get the C1 renewed and after some discussion we decided that we would stick under 3.5 tons. Another limitation is the length of our drive where a 6m van is stretching it so I researched small vans. We went round a number of dealers when they opened in June before selecting a Swift Escape 604 which met our requirements. Living in the South we visited Dolphin in Southampton who sell a special edition called the Spirit which comes with a solar panel, bbq point etc so we went to see one. Given my advancing years I prefer driving automatics so we had to order from the factory for 2021 delivery So we placed a deposit.
After reading the words of wisdom here we decided to hire the same van if we could and try it out for real. We found an outfit called Land Cruise in Chichester had exactly that model so we we booked 2 weeks away in late September. The 6m van was far more manoeuvrable and fitted(ish) into parking spaces. We had a great time castling along the South Coast scoring 9. After a slight initial panic we managed to get the stuff we needed into the lockers - convinced Swift have bent time/space as more went in than the dimensions should allow. Due the pandemic we found the on board facilities were excellent with the end washroom being far better than the larger Bürstner but YMMV. The manual drop down bed worked and we ended up using the lower bed made from cushions as well as two bunks. The Land Cruise people gave the Swift a reasonable recommendation as well. So we think it should work for our planned use for touring here and in Europe - result.
So project Stumpy is born, the name comes from the sawn off looks ot a 3Mb tall van only being 6m long elegant it is not. Currently it is a spreadsheet of all the things we need to buy from levelling blocks to a rooftop 4G aerial. Sure to be asking loads of stupid questions while we wait for Swift to do their thing - very slowly. Hopefully it will turn up in March as promised as it is our joint Golden Wedding present to ourselves and assuming my pension funds still have enough in them to pay the bill.
Sorry for the lengthy first post.
and congrats on your anniversary 
. We have 2 sons who live in NZ so have been there 8 or 9 time.
