It’s a dog’s life in this little bach on wheels
Tired of leaving Colin the schnauzer at home when they went on holiday, one couple decided to build their own luxury camper van. Kylie Klein-Nixon reports.
It was Colin, a miniature schnauzer, that prompted two British expats to turn a decommissioned ambulance into a camper van. Leanne Edwards and her husband Dan, a trained electrician and handyman in his down time, came to New Zealand from the United Kingdom about 10 years ago as tourists.
But a few months turned into a few years, and eventually the pitter-patter of little paws. Colin’s little paws. They’d loved tooling about the countryside in hired campers, but it wasn’t the same without their furry friend.
‘‘We missed him when we were away. We felt guilty,’’ says Leanne Edwards.
In February, they ‘‘decided to bite the bullet’’ and invest in a camper van of their own. What they ended up with was a ‘‘campulance’’ – a decommissioned ambulance they converted into a luxury camper.
‘‘The initial plan was actually just tweak it, go out in it and see what we wanted to change, but not invest too much in it.
‘‘One thing led to another’’, however, and the couple ended up stripping out the entire van and building it back up from scratch.
‘‘Once we’d overlaid what we wanted it to be and do, I got busy with the styling, the layout and the floor plan. My husband is extremely handy and he basically brought it to life.’’
There’s not much of the ambulance left about the van they affectionately nicknamed Ivan. A charming retro sea blue with white and chrome detailing on the outside, the interior looks more like a boutique hotel room than a van.
From the tiled backsplash to the raw, locally sourced elm partitions, the miniature log fire and the full three-hob gas-powered oven, Ivan is fully equipped for a comfortable life on the road. It even has a solar panel, portable toilet and outdoor gasheated shower and en suite tent.
‘‘We want to keep it for a long time,’’ says Edwards of their attention to detail. ‘‘We wanted to build something that we would cherish, so the budget went out the window, I’m afraid.’’
Where most backpacker vans are rough-andready campers that tend to be less about looks than function, Ivan is something different.
‘‘We thought, well, we want the whole thing to be a bit of an experience. We wanted a little home from home.’’
The build took six months with Dan doing most of the work. Including the van and their labour, the whole project cost them about $48,000. Not cheap, but still cheaper than a $350,000 static bach.
‘‘The base vehicle cost $19,000. Which we could have got for $15k, because we should have just bought a decommissioned ambulance, as opposed to getting it from backpackers who had added value to it, which we then stripped out. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’’
The biggest expense after the van itself was the exterior paint job, followed by the log burner and appliances. The most difficult part of the build was mitigating the weight, as the old ambos are heavy enough as it is, without passengers, luggage and log burners.
They managed it with ingenuity. Dan even designed clever little wooden locks for all the
Leanne Edwards
drawers that he built himself. While looking for inspiration they discovered the UK site Quirky Campers on Instagram. Quirky has been renting out handmade, luxury campers in the UK since 2010. To borrow a term from the static camping world, their vans are nothing short of Glam-pers.
‘‘We thought, ‘wow – look at what you could achieve with these things. That’s what set us off. Your mind goes crazy. We wrote a list of what we wanted and were like, ‘Let’s get a log burner! Let’s tile the backsplash!’ It was such fun doing the research.
‘‘The standard white boxes, I just think they’re a bit boring. It’s nice to have something that’s got a bit of character.’’
They made contact with Quirky Campers and decided to launch a franchise of the camper rental outfit here.
‘‘We’re trying to encourage other owners of handcrafted campers to list with us, build a community of people who convert vans and coax Kiwis out to rent a bach on wheels.’’
The Quirky ethos is also to encourage more people to give van conversions a go, and share information and advice about the work.
Living in the van is ‘‘ultimately the dream’’ but in the meantime they’re renting out Ivan to cover the cost of the conversion.
‘‘Dan and I would absolutely love to hit the road. This is the side hustle which could give us the flexibility to get back to seeing the country.
‘‘You feel so much pride that it’s just as much of an experience being in it as being out of it. It feels like a little home from home and I get giddy when I make up the bed and lie there. I’m really proud of my husband.’’
Colin feels much the same. ‘‘He loves it. He’s a great little traveller, but we had to get him used to it. He’s not quite used to the engine noise. When we pull up he barks, but he’s getting there!’’
‘‘We want to keep it for a long time. We wanted to build something that we would cherish, so the budget went out the window, I’m afraid.’’