the little things

Van life is very simple life. Once the sun goes down we generally keep the doors closed so bugs don’t get in. We don’t often have internet and when inside the van there’s only so much one can do with that little space. Luckily my partner Billy has a knack for making just about anything into a game so to add a little variety into the simple life, here are some of the ways we stay entertained:

• Hiding a full water-bottle in the frozen pastry-section of grocery stores to keep our cooler cold.
• Having hot chocolate and cookies every night because we have to burn off the extra propane remaining in the line. (Tim Tams are our favorite cookie and we have ranked the multiple varieties. We have also ranked the off-brand Tim Tams for when the Tim Tams are not on sale. Never will we ever need to know so much about Tim Tams.)
• Visiting every op-shop in every town we go to. Even if we don’t need anything, we at least browse the books.

Each game has a certain degree of utility but none so much as the gas-tank game. The gas-tank game is when we see how close we can get to running out of gas without actually running out of gas. In order to play this game, it’s helpful to know the following about your vehicle: the average kilometers per liter (or miles, whichever units your vehicle uses), the average number of kilometers per tank, and about how many kilometers are left once the gas light goes on.

Leaving Aoraki/Mt Cook we played this game and it was the first time we had to turn around on account of not making it to the gas station in the amount of miles left. Bummer for having to back-track and waste a bit of gas but bonus for not having to pull over and hitch to the next station.

#winning