It is an ongoing source of fascination to see the wide range of caravan/camper-van/camping set-ups that abound in this country. To be fair, we do not camp or use campgrounds in New Zealand, but the press inches devoted to freedom campers and camper-vans suggests they are more of a problem rather than a desirable tourism asset. Unlike New Zealand, Australia is a country of people who head off regularly as well as many overseas visitors travelling in car, campers, vans and caravans. Consequently, there are as many types of camping areas as there are ways to camp.

The most basic level is just a swag at ground level, more or less a one person mini tent. this is for Nigel no-mates, or of you have mates then you can each have your own “bedroom”.

Next up is the roof top camper which is very popular, especially with young people who tend to be lithe enough to climb up and bend themselves in the required shapes to be comfortable. And people who don’t have to go to the toilet during the night. Often the vehicle is set up with a drawers and pull outs to make a camp kitchen, or sometimes a small camper trailer is along for the ride.

Now, camper trailers come in all shapes and sizes and put you in mind of kids’ transformer toys. They fold out and up and change personality. One of my favourites is the little white one in the photo below. It opens its bum and doubles its size immediately – and not all of us can say that.

Camper-vans are the same in that you have a multitude of options, some from the factory, some homebuilt or conversions. In New Zealand, we are more than familiar with the camper-van and the multitude of companies hiring them out – at least, before Covid we were. Some of the same names appear here, Britz and Maui for example, but there are so many more.

Caravans come in three main types: on-road standard, semi off-road like ours, which means it has more clearance but is not necessarily more rugged, and off-road which means tough. Length and breadth are also variable. Breadth can increase considerably with the use of slide-outs which give more internal space. I could not guess at the number of manufacturers, and we hear there is still a 12 -18 month waiting list to get one. When people had to cancel overseas trips they looked homewards and traded Bali for Birdsville and Amsterdam for Alice Springs.

Then for some people there is no limit to the amount of space or stuff they need. In this case you graduate to a bigger caravan or a bus. We see everything from converted public transport buses, the kind that takes the kids to school, through to custom built luxury liners.

Now just when we think we’ve seen it all, we see a convertible towing a camper trailer. We are so intrigued we watch them set up. None of it looks comfortable for long journeys or comfortable sleeping. They are not young. I ask how long they’ve been travelling – 61 days she says. How much longer? another 61 days, and the look on her face tells me she has it counted down to hours, if not minutes. This is not really her happy place, and if I had to crawl into that space to sleep I think I’d been signing the divorce papers sooner rather than later.

So there you have it – you pay your money and make your choice. I haven’t touched on the people you meet (as varied as there are ways to camp) or the types of places to camp, so if you want to hear more on the topic, let me know,