My story behind
the Grand California

I’ve never personified a car before. But then again I’d also never had a car that wasn’t simply just a vehicle for getting from A to B.

That was before Cyril arrived – a teal blue, 1972 VW Kombi, which quickly became so much more than just a vehicle.

We had him for ten years. He was our other home. A vehicle to transport our lives from mundane 9-5 jobs in the Waikato in the late 90’s, to weekend escapes to the east and west coasts, nothing but books, wine, walking shoes, warm blankets and food in tow.

When I first met my husband. He’d just returned from his big OE. Like so many Kiwi’s, he’d “done Europe in a Kombi Van”.

He knew the difference between a Split Screen and a Pop Top, a Transporter and a Microbus, and flicked out a secret wave when we passed various VW’s in our suburban hatch back on the motorway.

Dave had returned home from London broke, spending all of his money on travel, and a collection of miniature kombis and other VW paraphernalia to rival a motoring museum.

I’d always gone camping growing up, so was totally on board when our hunt for a Kombi van to have local adventures began.

Cyril took us all over the North Island. Off the beaten track north to the Cape, and to beautiful regional parks on wonderful Waiheke. But mainly we’d make the weekly Friday night trek through the Thames gorge to our favourite Coromandel, or west to Raglan for a black sand winter escape.

When it came time to head overseas together, we didn’t want to part with Cyril, so we stored him in a large container for a couple of years.

We knew we’d come back probably broke, and we wanted to know there was something to come home to, to live in it if we needed to like we’d done when we’d sold up everything just prior to leaving NZ.

We were based in Dublin, continuing our media careers, but we’d wake in the night in our tiny flat in worrying about Cyril and how “rust never slept”.

When we returned home to the container, everything was exactly how we’d left it. Including, disturbingly, the tub of semi soft butter we’d accidentally left in the pantry.

We’d had Cyril for 10 years by this point, and never considered selling. I promised in our wedding vows I’d always continue to go on adventures in the VW for life. But soon enough our careers took over, we needed a deposit for our first house and we had our first baby on the way. We thought life would be over. We’d never get to go camping again, and I certainly wasn’t going to drive our precious baby around strapped across a back benchseat!

Turns out the couple who bought it from us felt differently, and they were delighted to take Cyril off on a new adventure with their three kids in tow.

Now, three kids later ourselves, we’ve returned to van and caravan life with a vengeance. We have an old retro caravan, Bette, which comfortably sleeps all 5 of us.

But our love for all things VW has never waned, and when the European car company launched the California a few years ago, we hired one to see if it felt suitable for family camping.

With just one child in tow, it was a perfect, warm, mid winter escape with all of the bells and whistles you’d expect from a modern van.