Spud the Pop Top Caravan

It was an instant decision, we brought a 1970s pop top caravan or tent trailer to some of you. We love the idea of a Tiny House but we wanted to create something straight away, so we brought Spud.

The photos shows the development of Spud for 2 months before we camped in it 2 weeks solid over the summer break.

Before Photos.. Spud was musty, dull, and leaky but had awesome potential.

Started with a clean slate and demolished every internal item.

 First step was painting over the vomit coloured roof. 

The grand plan...

 The cat decided curtains were a nice place to chill.

Photo shoot!

Taking it camping at Waipatiki Beach

 Taking it camping at Mangakino

Touring around Bay of Plenty and Coromandel NZ. We forgot to take pictures! So here is what we got up to instead. 

 Waihi Setup

Trumpets at Hot Water Beach, Coromandel New Zealand

So there we are. Spuds life in pictures.

 Kiwi Dee, over n out!

The Noah: An Unexpected Journey

1. Noah Baggins (Toyota Townace) lives a simple life with his fellow vans in the Masterton shire, until the wizardess Dee (@1kiwidee) arrives and convinces him to join a couple of geeks on a quest to travel the kingdom of Middle-Earth. The journey takes Noah on a path through treacherous lands swarming with orcs, goblins and other dangers, not the least of which is an encounter with Gollum (Anonymous) and a simple gold steering wheel-ring that is tied to the fate of Middle Earth in ways Noah cannot even fathom.

   
   

   Release date: 1996 (New Zealand)

   Director: Peter Jackson

   Running time: 338,000 KM, Plumber van four 13 years

   Film series: The Hobbit

   Featured song: Assorted Ukulele Tunes by @Tinker_HQ

   
   

   This is Noah, our 2015 camper van project. It's spud (our '14 Pop top camper project) with a motor! #vanlife #campervan #newzealand

   A photo posted by 1kiwidee (@1kiwidee) on Jul 17, 2015 at 9:57pm PDT

Vintage 1930's City in New Zealand

You may think it unlikely and odd that in little ole NZ, the country sometimes forgotten off the world map, that there is a random as vintage 1930s city. Some think NZ is only full of sheep or grassy green meadows and hobbits...

Walking through Napier (in New Zealand) and overhearing Mexican and German accents I wonder how they managed to find themselves exploring just a small wee dot on the map. Considering we are well off the beaten track and lets face it a little frontier-ish (you will look out of place if you don't have jandals on, and ditch the blazer, you will not fit in at all). Cruise ships and NZ Tourism must be making some impact.

One thing that I really did notice when I came back from a Europe backpacking trip was how new New Zealand was. I was a bit of a classics nut at school so I always wanted to head to the more  history rich places of the world and soak it all in. It never occurred to me Kiwi's were still building our main infrastructure where other world cities are light years ahead. I was quite shocked about having to learn the metro system in just about every major city I went to in Europe - Wellington and Auckland are still developing a rail system. I guess we don't really have the population to really justify massive metro systems.

Imagine if New Zealand was populated and built at the Ancient Roman time! Ha imagine that! A Colosseum in Taupo and hippodrome in Christchurch. Oh dear! The mind is wandering :)

I guess what I am trying to make sense of, is that we do have interesting things happening in NZ and having a fully Art Deco city smack bang in the middle of it is pretty cool. The natural disaster of the 1931 earthquake was an awesome excuse to create a bit of a 'Phoenix from the ashes' and ensuring Hawkes Bay could rebuild in an even more modern and stylistic way. Because NZ is still so young and in comparison it occurred quite early in the history of making NZ, therefore had the opportunity to create a unique art capital of the world (exaggerating a bit?)! Although there are a few too many businesses or rest homes that are run/overrun by old fogies - it is fast becoming a awesome lifestyle to be in the bay.

Quite a unique place if I may say. Vintage baby!

Cheers,
Kiwi Dee xx

P.S. Kiwis are so frontier-ish that whenever I type in Jandals it keeps autocorrecting me to sandals, vandals or pandals!!

Extra PS. I realize New Zealand has the word 'new' in the word...

Local Guide to Survive Napier Art Deco Weekend

Me and my gorgeous friend at Art Deco Weekend 2014

Every February, a happy mob of dressed up 1930s hooligans converge on New Zealand's Art Deco Capital for a weekend of splendour and party.

Follow the below as a simple insiders guide to surviving such a weekend.

• If it is a scorcher (i.e. hot sunny Hawkes Bay day) you will need a parasol (women), hat (men) and a good lathering of sun block.

• Have a Art Deco getup. You well and truly feel out of place if you are not dressed up for the weekend. If you are doing a last minute costume - ladies find some long pearls, a non figure hugging dress (dropped waist) and a head band (put on horizontally not vertically), gentlemen - find some trousers, suspenders and a light button up shirt. Shoes? Well I am a kiwi girl at heart and am most comfortable in jandals but ladies wear a low heels and men in dress shoes. Voila! 

• Have a weekend plan and then a Plan B in case of bad weather

• Book ahead for accommodation and special events because blimey it gets busy! Consider renting a house in Napier or go further a field and book accommodation in Havelock North and combine going to see wineries at that time.

• A local favourite is to watch the war birds (vintage fighter planes) do their aerobatics show. Find out what time they are flying and find a spot on Marine Parade for the perfect watching spot.

• Take snacks and water. Yes there are stalls there on the weekend but it is always good to have a muesli bar and some water on hand to munch on to keep your energy up!

Well there you have it. Simple :) Any more advice my friends?

Have a jolly good time!

Cheers,

Kiwi dee xxx

10 Reasons to live in Hawkes Bay, NZ

Napier, Hawkes Bay 

In no particular order;

1. Vying for a seat at the corporate watering hole is nonexistent . Peace, sunshine, and lush grass at lunchtime is so easy.
2. Jandals and jeans are acceptable as work attire. Forget the blazer, you will feel overdressed.
3. Feel like you are on a constant holiday, slowed down pace, not too busy.
4. Napier I swear is growing more 'hipster'. Young people are taking back the town! In addition Havelock North seems to be developing a trendy foodie scene with popular eateries popping up left right and centre. Pipi, Mamacita and Namaskar India to name a few. No real clubbing scene but if you can't be bothered there's no pressure to go out. Save it for a trip to the big city.
5. You know someone wherever you go, but it's easy to avoid people too... Personal space is just a perfect amount.
6. Parking or travel times due to traffic is not a problem.
7. You can be super rural, or super townie within 10 mins 
8. The traffic is relaxing. You may think it's annoying going an average speed of 80kms on open rd but you will soon realise trying to go faster is a fruitless exercise. No other choice but to lax out and go with the flow. The commute does not exist. 
9. The people are down to earth and most have a warm smile on their dial. Plenty of clubs, societies and social groups to join. Personally I love the theatre scene. Napier operatic society is like having a rent-a-friend crowd. Awesome friends get made. It's hard if you don't get out and get involved though. Make an effort and people will pop out of the woodwork. Hawke's bay locals are cliquey but break into them and you will find the best friends you could ask for.
10. The weather is always great. Sunny Hawke's bay is what it's called. Best climate in NZ. Summer weather is beautiful.

Pano of the Open Air Black Barn Cinema in Havelock North Hawkes Bay.

I can still think of many good reasons to live in the bay but this is a good taster...

Some places to look up if wanting to live/work hb:

• Kiwibank call centre, 
• ABB
• No where! Do your own start up business.
• Watties
• Port of Napier
• Fastway
• Big Save HQ
• J.B Bostock
• Furnware
• Wineries galore
• Orchards
• SMEs
• Tourism

KiwiDee over and out xx

My App in the App Store

I set a goal for myself; To see if I could get an app to the iTunes Appstore by the end of 2013.

Well it happened! I will reveal all in this post. I paid next to nothing (although a lot in time), without in depth coding and all by myself. How? Well I will share with you my secrets!

Why?
Well why not!? I've always had a hankering to see if I could get an app to the app store, a bit of a personal challenge and a boasting point I suppose! "Why Yes, I do have an app in the app store and its not half bad :)."

What? 
Since I had no skills coding and programming the amount of functions needed to be cut down. I quickly realized having a simple content based app was the way to go.  With all my reading, many said to keep it simple as the user wasn't interested in trudging through all your 'cool' ideas and pages.

Having a look at my immediate whereabouts (Napier, New Zealand) I decided a info app on Art Deco and top things to do in Sunny Napier is a good start. I started 20 Buildings to write about/images. I soon cut this down to top 5 as it takes a LONG time to generate your own quality content. I added top 5 things to do in Napier and voila! I had a Top10 App.

How?
Elance? ODesk? TeaminIndia? Developer contacts? NO WAY (although I'd like to explore these options). I went down the DIY road. DYOR People!!! After a few stop starts, I settled on AppArchitect. It was basic as it was still in its beta phase. So I adapted my app to fit into what was available at the time on the web based platform builder. The first go at getting into the app store (Version 1) saw my half hearted effort get there... Yeah nah, didn't go well (a little embarrassed of it actually!) Also it was uploaded under the developer Applique - That's what AppArchitect was originally named. It had to be by default Free also.

After thinking - should I just leave it or spruce it up? After seeing they were going to release the actual binary code (the files that you upload into iTunes connect so you could have it under your name in iTunes), I got my mojo back for it and Version 2 went much better. I thought of it in the new IOS 7 design and adapted what I'd done so far into a Xero inspired 'beautiful' user interface. The content was done so all I had to do was design around it, the fun job! So I toddled away at that for a while then saw they were releasing the binary code. Jumped on that bandwagon (several emails and tweets later as they were a bit slow responding) got my binary code.

I must say, it was a bit of a rigmarole trying to get iTunes connect to accept the binary code file - although AppArchitect supplied a lot of the info that you needed to change things in order to get to the App store. Actually, considering they were in Beta mode they were moderately helpful!
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End Result: TA DA!

Napier Top10 Traveller edition is here!

Use the app & throw the map

Quality tips for the traveler & not boring info.

Features? Instant location of iconic sites, easy simple info, affordable and mobile, local tips, share where you are with friends.

For travelers of all types, cruise ship peeps, backpackers, do-ers, day trippers or 3 day visitors, even locals

Napier, NZ: This is the closest you will get to living in The Great Gatsby time. Experience Napier

View in iTunes here!

 

The most condensed brochure you will find in Napier city

Designed by KiwiDee

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It was definitely a journey.
Onto the next project!

Dee xx

Farm Magic

Managed to capture this moment with my shit camera. Lamb outside, dishes done after a cuppa with family. Farm Magic.

Point A. Home

I was hmming and haaaing about where and when to start my travel blog posts and I realized there is so much to see at my home!

So I have decided to start at point A on the map. My home for the last 20 years (we have never moved!).

I have to show you my room as it is my girly space. Every morning the sun shines through my bright yellow curtains and lights up the room and as my mother comments, ‘It's like being dropped into a big pool of custard!.’

Our beautiful home is the pride and joy of the family. We have lived in it for 20 years and is so inviting and warm to everyone. My friends used to comment how homely it was and that they felt comfortable there. Positive feng shui people!

..and this is where I start my travels. Point A.