Motorhoming is more than a hobby for many Kiwis. Some of us even call campers our permanent abode and either travel or park up around the country full-time.
But living in a vehicle means you’re often heavily reliant on an infrastructure of non-essential businesses like libraries, museums, and campgrounds — and during New Zealand’s 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, that became a real problem for a lot of us.
If you live or travel in a vehicle, what happens when it’s not just the internet, showers, and toilets that become unavailable?
What happens when an act of exercising freedom outdoors by roaming becomes selfish, posing an infection risk if you move between communities?
What happens for nomads when freedom camping shuts down due to a pandemic?
It was quite the invitation to problem-solve. Many motorhome dwellers in NZ were forced to locate new ablution areas (several closed), find a place to park up, and figure out how to minimise trips to the laundromat and grocery store — even though a small home may not have the capacity to store many clothes or groceries.
Our family was living in a motorhome at the time — potentially a self-isolation jackpot, since we’re designed for migration or escape, except we couldn’t do that during lockdown, so in some ways life on the road was just as disrupted as living in a static home.
On the up-side, living in a motorhome was already a version of self-isolation. People who live tiny and travel are often already used to living with few needs, in spatially limited quarters, and generally accustomed to low overheads.
With hindsight, I was so glad we’d lived and travelled New Zealand in our house bus the year before, as I think in many ways it helped us cope with the changes lockdown brought.
Just like during our 2019 year of travel, we were alone together with a lot of time on our hands — only this time without the choice to ‘go’ anywhere, since movements were so restricted.
Like many other Kiwis, we found ourselves adjusting to everyone being home at once, all day, and coming to terms with a perceived and actual lack of freedom and space at times.
We’d had an Easter holiday trip planned for the school holidays — sea, sunshine, and sand. Maybe you did too?
I felt real grief over missing out on that blissful escape due to Covid-19, and I know plenty of others who felt the same over plans altered or cancelled by that historic pandemic. Even the Olympics were postponed, only the second time that had ever happened.
However, despite the feelings of transition and loss at the time, I felt pretty grateful that we weren’t at war and being bombed like in times past.
I was grateful for the medical, technological, and social care we had in place, unlike during previous pandemics like the Spanish Flu, which killed around 5 million people worldwide circa 1918.
I felt grateful that NZ declared lockdown when it did. We complied as a nation with the guidelines given, and reduced our case numbers in the weeks that followed — a genuine national win.
All the same, NZ residents were forced to quarantine. Most of us took our work home, but those with an essential worker in the family continued going to work, hoping they wouldn’t bring the virus home with them.
We knew we’d get through it.
We were full-time in our house bus during lockdown, and after close to five weeks of quarantining, social distancing, and working from home, I found myself with evolving, mixed emotions about it all.
I loved the bonus time our family got together during quarantine. We played games and did things together we hadn’t in ages.
Based on conversations I’d had and what I saw on social media, some people seemed to genuinely enjoy that — doing and making things together in new, meaningful ways. Others faced growing loneliness, mental health struggles, or domestic abuse. That part was hard to sit with.
Another plus for me personally was having a lot of time to catch up on things that hadn’t had time allocated to them before. I turned my focus during lockdown to educating, writing, reflection, water blasting, and painting, which gave this task-oriented soul a sense of purpose through it all.
Some days I felt buoyant and fulfilled by what I’d completed; other days it felt stuffy, crowded, and overwhelmingly loud. Could you relate?
One particularly crowded-feeling day, we took a family walk, without the slightest concern about what we were wearing or looked like. (Worrying less about personal appearance turned out to be a genuine perk of isolation!)
Being rural, it was just us and the road. It was partly sunny as we set off. The threat of rain hung above us in grey, spongy clouds but never came, so we kept walking.
We ended up meandering through a local neighbourhood and had a great time spotting the stuffed toys in letterboxes and windows along the way. Samuel most enjoyed the puddles left by overnight rainfall.
As we walked, I also noticed quite a few caravans and motorhomes parked up alongside homes, clearly in active use.
The people inside were on laptops or drinking tea, and it struck me how many different ways motorhomes and caravans were being used at a time like that.
The Pros of Having or Living In Motorhomes & Caravans During Lockdown
1. They gave a standalone space that let owners join up with family before lockdown began, so grandparents or other travelling family members weren’t isolated from each other.
2. They offered secluded accommodation, which may have provided infection protection for at-risk people.
3. They doubled as a hang-out space, an extension to a house — nothing like a little driveway camping to lift quarantine spirits.
4. For some, they became temporary housing for teenagers or uni students once campuses shut down.
5. For others, they turned into an alternate office space for remote workers. So many practical uses.
6. Once quarantine lifted, they went on to make up a large part of the future of NZ holidays for a while.
7. For our own family, the smaller area we had to clean and how often we got outside to do things were real benefits — along with the surprising lack of adjustment shock we felt moving into lockdown status. Definite pluses.
As restrictions eventually loosened in NZ, national parks, campgrounds, and freedom camping spots became accessible again.
It also seemed likely that hotels, cruise ships, and airports wouldn’t be the best places to congregate for a while, and that countries would guard their borders carefully — so for a stretch, one of the safest ways to holiday was to buy or rent a motorhome and explore what the country had to offer.
Low fuel prices and interest rates at the time made it an opportune moment for some to buy or rent a camper, travel trailer, fifth wheeler, or motorhome.
We hoped, looking ahead to a return to normalcy, that everyone would be able to get moving again, with spring and summer soothing unsated nomadic itches and beach withdrawals.
What did your family miss, or feel grateful for, during quarantine? How was your life affected?
With that pandemic stripping so much of our ‘non-essential’ lives back for a while, did you notice a shift in what really mattered to you? What creative, satisfying, or relaxing activities did you find time for during quarantine?
We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below.
If this brought back memories, feel free to pin one of the images below to share.
Other great posts you might enjoy:
The Pros & Cons of Living Small
Meagan
