This is a first-person travel vlog transcript of Nate and Kara Buchanan meeting friends Jordan and Julianne and beginning an RV road trip across New Zealand's South Island. The chunk covers arriving at the hotel, picking up the RV, learning to drive/park the camper, a grocery/picnic stop (trying local snacks like Tim Tams), scenic stops at lakes (Tekapo/Pukaki) and an approach to Mount Cook, ending with finding a freedom-camping spot for the night. The tone is casual, playful, and conversational.
Chapters
Carol, what are we doing?
Going to get our friends.
Why?
Because they came to see us.
Why is it so dark in our hotel?
I know.
Don't fall down the stairs.
Two of our best friends from back home are meeting us to spend a week in New Zealand driving an RV around South Island. This is going to be the first people that we've met back from the US and we cannot be more excited right now.
Flight leg one of a lot.
Taking care.
We're coming for you.
But not for like three days because.
It takes so long to get there.
See you in a little while.
Is that his voice?
I'm going to sit outside.
Oh, my God.
How are you?
Good.
My goodness.
Thank you.
Thank you very, very.
How do I welcome a new person to the vlog? This is one of my best friends in the whole world, Jordan. He and his wife got here late last night. This week we are picking up a camper van and driving all across the entire south island of New Zealand. Yeah.
After flying for about, I don't know, 30 hours on an airplane, I'm really ready to not be on an airplane anymore. So here we are at the RV center. We're about to.
Jordan and I are going to try to learn how to drive a very large vehicle on the left side of the road.
It's going to be interesting.
Hello.
We are here to pick up a reservation.
Here we are.
We have the terms and conditions.
Hopefully we won't be needing this.
We have successfully navigated ourselves back to the hotel. Now to pick up the girls and get on the road. That was.
That was surprisingly painless.
It was.
Let's see how the rest of this goes.
All my practice in Australia is paying off.
That's right, you cherry weights.
We made it without wrecking.
Alright, so far so good on driving the rv. Nate and Jordan made it back here in one piece. So I'm gonna show you a little bit before we take off.
Here it is. I think Nate already introduced Jordan. This is Julianne.
Hi.
They're best friends in the world and we're so excited that they're here. This is where we're gonna eat.
This is very cramped.
Here's our table.
This is also someone's bed. This. Yes. Turns into a bed. Okay.
And here's the potty.
Just like Asia. A shower potty.
We have a TV that we won't.
Be using because we're in New Zealand.
And an oven.
I can't open it.
Oh, the massive oven.
And all of our junk is up here.
And that's the second bed where someone else is sleeping.
Yay.
Super pumped. Here we are headed to Mount Cook.
Who's driving?
Nate, you wanna drive at least till we get out of the city. There you go. Good.
Okay, here we go.
So far. We're going to the grocery store somewhere here.
Cause I'm already hungry.
I'm hungry too. We're gonna. We're gonna get along great, this crew.
So here's the thing. You've seen a ton of positivity from taking care of this entire trip, and I'm married to Julianne, one of the most positive people that I. So my job in this vlog is to just bring everybody right back down to reality. If you see a lot of pessimism coming from my way, I consider it realism, but it could happen. I'll just let everybody else be positive.
All right. This is Nate's first attempt at parking the rv. We are near lots of cars right now.
I think I may sit. That person is over his rod. I'm not parking right there. I may stay in the car.
We decided backing in was the best option.
3, 2, 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop.
I'd say I nailed it.
Look, I. I missed the big bush, and we just gave it a little haircut.
American.
I don't think we'll be going hungry on this trip.
I want to know what the plan for fitting all of this stuff into the tiny refrigerator and the limited space in the RV is.
We're gonna make it happen. Hey, did you lock.
I can't figure it out. I did not lock it, and I cannot get it. Don't hit that car. Gary. You act like you've been away and haven't used a shopping cart in three months.
It won't move. I think it's this wheel. Like, look, this wheel's not moving. None of the wheels are moving. Turning a circle. This is a joke.
That wheel is definitely not moving. Jordan.
Just show me some effort. Just show me some effort.
Oh, he's strong enough.
So strong. No, there's two. Two wheels.
We're coming for you, lake poo cock.
We have precariously parked the RV on the side of the road while we have a picnic. Tell us about these traditional New Zealand foods that we're eating.
As you may remember.
We have brought another jar of peanut butter.
Please tell us what these are, Tim Tam.
We don't really know, but we've heard they're delicious, so we can't wait to try them. Those actors actually are traditional. This is a fascinating food.
Who cares?
Check out this price.
$0.99 that's what I'm talking about.
Lunch was delicious. It was the most normal food that we've had in a long time. Peanut butter jellies. And now we have, like, two hours left on the road till we get to our campsite. Is it called a campsite?
It's called Lake Resort.
Lake Pukaki Reserve. That's where we're going.
Sam.
We're at Lake Tekapu.
No, Laikapu.
Jordan, where are we?
We're at Lake Takatu, and that's with a very southern noise in New Zealand accent.
Jordan, Julianne brought us this new polarizer.
Without the polarizer.
With the polarizer.
Without.
Which one looks better.
One more hour and we should be at our campsite.
That's Mount Cook, like, right.
There. Mount Mount Cook. Whoa. Look at that sunset. We have about two more seconds of sunlight.
Jordan, thank you for safely navigating us here.
Nice job.
Couple scares.
That was the first sunset of many on this trip. And it was beautiful.
Was love. That's nice. We just pulled off the road. We're going to go find a freedom camping site, which means a free campsite for the night.
We all know Nate loves that. My kind of place.
But I mean, can you get. Can it get any better than this?
This is real life, people.
You eat regularly.
This is a super important time of my hour. Every hour.
Time of your hour.
Julianne keeps touching things, hitting things. What does this do? What does this do? What does this do? That's been too late.
Oh, Jordan. You'll call your name.
I want to explain to you how you get into the American Airlines Admirals Club. First, you have a job that makes you travel a lot. Then you travel away from your family a lot. You get status on airlines, and you come enjoy the labor of your love as opposed to just sign up for a bunch of credit cards.
