Haere mai!

CarrieCali · Apr 3, 2018

The obligatory 'introducing...' post:

We bought our Ocean from West Yorks Van Centre in September (great communications and attitude throughout) and it arrived three months early in December. Yay!

We delayed pick up by a week due to impending pre-Christmas travels, and then got caught up in the registration hold by a matter of days. Darn.

But we had ferry tickets booked for nearly three months later (for the preceding fortnight before Easter). It'll be fine... right?

Correct.

Van picked up at 12.30pm on a Friday a fortnight ago. Drove straight home, picked up the wife and threw her and some sensible belongings and camping gear in the back, straight to Hull for the ferry. Made the ferry by only 15 minutes, including with us on the phone line to the booking desk so they kept the gate open as long as possible! Last vehicle on...

We've now owned it for 16 nights, and slept in it for 15 of those. The only one missing being whilst we were sleeping in a ferry cabin, with the van below deck.

1400 miles covered. Six countries visited, to the Alsace as our turnaround point and returning with a boot full of wine.

We've been over a 1000m mountain pass, driven through snowstorms and slept up top every night even during a sustained -5 spell.

We had a fun couple of trips on the autobahn. DPF definitely clean.

So what do we have? Two very happy campers. It's a few years since we had a 'van, and were living overseas in New Zealand in sunnier climes. We're so glad we've bought something which will last us years and years, and couldn't be happier with our van called Moana - the te reo Maori word for Ocean, and not a Disney reference.

Haere mai! Let the adventures continue...

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WelshGas · Apr 3, 2018

Best colour. :thumb

CampervanTime · Apr 3, 2018

Great job and great looking van.

Pushed straight in to service, a top performance!!

Can you tell us a bit more about what you liked, didn't like, forgot, was pleased to remember etc - and maybe what's on the wish-list now after spending 15 nights straight away?

Can't wait to get ours across the water and in to europe. Always love a good road trip and exploring adventure

CarrieCali · Apr 3, 2018

itguy said:
Can you tell us a bit more about what you liked, didn't like, forgot, was pleased to remember etc - and maybe what's on the wish-list now after spending 15 nights straight away?

We liked all of it! We're really glad we didn't buy much for it in advance apart from essentials - everyone's different, and everyone will use/interact with their van differently. We started the trip thinking we could add a shelf in here or there, and ended it finding for two people, for a fortnight, there's buckets of room without any alterations.

The thing we discussed the most? Crockery. We bought proper crockery, cups and robust glasses & goblets - a pleasure to use, but a bit harder to transport in the van and for washing up. But worth it in our opinion.

Our biggest learning points? In a virtually empty site, a Cali came and parked right next to us. So we learnt that Cali owners like to park next to Cali owners. We also learnt that as we like to sleep up top, irrespective of the rain and cold (no topper worked just fine), if a Cali is near you with their heater on all night long it's blooming loud! Definitely doesn't seem it when you're the one closed in in your van.

The eternal DSG/manual query? The DSG was an absolute pleasure to use - and I've always advocated for manual. It was efficient, smooth and accelerates well - even on our 150. Cruise control was used a lot too. Climbed steep snowy slopes and traversed muddy sites just fine. 2WD with All Season tyres.

One critical item we didn't pack was a watering can, for wintry camping packing only. For the first half of our trip, every campsite's water tap was shut off due to the cold weather so we had to find an alternative way to fill the Cali.

And our niece/nephew now think we have the coolest vehicle in the world.

bvddobb · Apr 3, 2018

CarrieCali said:
We bought proper crockery, cups and robust glasses & goblets - a pleasure to use, but a bit harder to transport in the van and for washing up. But worth it in our opinion.

Indeed!