It’s a small world. Recently we decided to go on a day trip around the Coromandel Peninsula so we headed from Whitianga to Coromandel, across the hills to Kennedy’s Bay, up the coast to Waikawau, back across to Colville and down the coast to Coromandel again. As usual Marilyn had the camera on board and here’s what she found. The first 2 caravans were found in Long Bay Motorcamp just out of Coromandel. The corrugated iron siding, cast wheels and curved roof are reminiscent of the English shepherds huts. One looked like it was set up as a lounge with a couch but we were unable to see what the second one was. We’re sure there is a story to these vans and would love to hear from anyone who can tell us about them.
The next caravan we found at Kennedy Bay, buried to the window line by vegetation. It is a late 60s Anglo, unfortunately well past restoration, as was the falling down house which sat alongside it.
The third find of the day was much more exciting for us. It is a Liteweight Cavalier 670 Five Star Special. Don recognized it from 100 metres away and couldn’t resist walking all around it. It actually was one of our personal caravans that we had owned back in 1982. When you’re around caravans all the time you get to know what you like, and of course it turns out not to be a standard layout. The caravan shell and furniture was factory built with Don completing the interior fit out. The back had a double bed and shower layout as per the 1976 Five Star 2500, the centre included the kitchen and dinette from the current 8-metre Cavalier Five Star, and the front L-shaped lounge was a Cavalier 670 layout. We called it our Jessen special, and would have continued to own it had we not bought an 8-metre caravan to live in while we built our house. We were really excited to spot this caravan again in Papa Aroha motor camp. Unfortunately, the owners weren’t there. We’d love to catch up with them. So maybe if you own it, you could get back in touch.
Interesting caravans are everywhere in NZ. If you’ve found something in your travels, drop us a line and we can share it through the blog.
In the meantime, happy camping. Summer is just around the corner.
