Channelling Sir Ed. Sort of

With thanks to Big Little Campers for this famil

Today I climbed a mountain, both literally and figuratively. Well, maybe "mountain". The day started well and then just carried on that way. Bircher muesli with fresh Otago cherries (shared again with my poultry visitors) eaten outside on a bright morning gazing at a sea view was an excellent opener, and a stroll around the farm to bid farewell to all the cute animals continued the pleasure.

Then, it was time for the mountain. Māngere Mountain, that is - one of the biggest and most intact of Auckland's 50-odd volcanic cones. It's actually only 108m high, but it's very noticeable, and inviting, poking up green above the surrounding suburbs. There's a lot of Māori history and stories about it, and geological information all laid out on info boards, but today I just used it for a pleasant bit of exercise with the reward of some lovely views in all directions: harbour, bridge, suburbs, city, airport. Lots of fresh air and nature, and other people climbing up and down. Nice.

That was the end of the holiday bit. Next came the campervan return chores, which I'd been quietly dreading - but, as with all my other novice worries, there was no need. Honestly, the hardest bit was wending my way to the nearest dump station - yes, the place to empty the self-contained campervan tanks containing the 'grey water' (from the sink) and the 'black water' (ahem) from the loo. I was expecting it to be a major, but in fact there was just a simple covered drain with a tap at the side of the Mobil petrol station. Once I'd got my instruction via a phone call to helpful Nicola at Big Little Campers, I was able to take out and empty the toilet tank (containing only #1s, natch), and even swill it out, and then drain the grey water - absolutely no big deal, easy as and not in the least gross. I actually struggled more with topping up the petrol tank afterwards, being somewhat out of practice.

And then all I had to do was cruise over to the BLC base, remove my single bag of gear, be reassured again, by Jon this time, that the branch scrape incident was no big deal, and Uber away to train, ferry and bus home. Done! And it was a success: I got over my nervousness, enjoyed the freedom and the comfort, and would happily sign up as a member of the Vanlife community. What I'd feared would be a fairly intimidating mountain to climb turned out to be a doddle. Definitely recommended.