Vallery

Location: Vallery lives in St Heliers approx. 18km from Auckland airport and 10km from Auckland CBD. If you’re driving your own car, it can be safely parked at the property while you’re away.

In The Cab: 3 seats in the cab up front (all with 3-point seat belts); reversing camera and USB ports for charging phones. You can also pair your phone to the stereo.

Kitchen Area: The interior height is 1.96m so virtually everyone can stand up comfortably. Vallery has a two-burner gas stove,sink and generous sized fridge. Handcrafted plates, bowls and mugs plus glasses, cutlery, knife set (sharp!), wide range of utensils, 3 pans and a fry pan all with lids, mixing/serving bowls, stovetop kettle and coffee pot; salt and pepper. It also comes with placements, tea towels and other accessories.

Dining/Living/Sleeping Area: Vallery has comfy bench seats facing each other with a good-sized table for working or dining. She has a fixed double bed (135cm x 180cm) across the back of the van and a third convertible single bed (85cm x 180cm). Note: we list bedding and towels as Extras at the booking stage in case guests prefer to bring their own. There are black-out blinds for privacy. There are storage areas under the dining seats.

Water Facilities: Like all Quirky Campers in NZ, Vallery is certified self-contained. There is a 55 litre fresh water tank and 55 litre grey water tank (with tank level gauge) and electric pump tap and sink in the kitchen area. The fixed toilet is stored under a bench seat and can be used in situ. This means Vallery is suitable for freedom camping.

Electrical/Lighting and Audio Equipment: Vallery has a solar panel on its roof which feeds the leisure battery inside to power the lights, fridge, diesel heater, water pump and USB sockets so you can be entirely self-sufficient. Or, if you want to pitch up on a camp site, it has electric hook-up so you can use the 240v sockets.

Type of Heating: Diesel heater

Outside: It has a 2.5m x 2.2m awning and comes with a low picnic table and specially created deck chairs

Conversion Story:

From Aimee Ralfini, curator of Vallery...

When I was first approached about The Coastal Arts Trail slash Glampervan project I was hesitant, the core concept seemed complex to me – fine art meets road-trip, can those two worlds actually co-exist? In the end my curiosity got the better of me, and I absolutely love a challenge, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make it work.

‘The journey’ is an intrinsic part of regionalism in Aoteaora’s art history, and the landscape plays a huge part in that (as do the stars and the sea). So the opportunity to create a completely immersive space which had the potential to change how people perceived their environment as well as educate them, and leave a truly lasting impression was irresistible to me.

Before I took a journey along the Coastal Arts Trail for the first time I was careful not to go too far down any particular path design wise. I wanted to be really open to what was experienced in real time. I had this idea in my mind of framing the landscape from within the van, so that when you’re on the Trail the landscape becomes the ever-changing artwork. I thought of the van as potentially being the inside of an artists’ eye. I wasn’t wanting to create a traditional gallery space, I see the artworks inside as memoirs of the journey, that are substantiated by the environment they were created in – not the other way around. I wanted to leave plenty of space for people to weave their own story, In that regard I see the artworks inside as cues to prompt further exploration.

Another important element that I focused on throughout the trip was the colour palette, and how that changed depending on the region, I wanted to make sure that the colours inside reflected the outside throughout the seasons, so we have rust orange from the wildflowers, sheds and farming equipment in the fields; road marking yellow and asphalt grey, salted stone, greens and plasticine blues from the coast, and rich greens and navy from further inland. I am super pleased with how the colour palette has worked out, and how it plays with the landscape as you travel through it in Vallery – it’s exactly what I was hoping for.