In Nelson, Sandy and I stayed at Tahuna Beach Holiday Park. Between dodging small children on bikes and enjoying boysenberry ice cream, we relaxed on the beach, read (I flew through Jonathan Franzen's Freedom) and slept like champs, falling asleep as soon as the sun set.

Living out of a van is a surprisingly wonderful experience. I spoke of the wonder of it to Sandy beforehand and she became a true convert, loving the ease of being able to pack up and go wherever, whenever you want. We especially enjoyed our little cooking set-up and our camp meals of omelettes and Sandy's original recipe, "lettuce-less salad". When we were feeling wild we'd add in some canned soup but mostly stuck to our 2 favorites. Recipe details below.

INGREDIENTS:

tomato, red onion, cucumber, orange/yellow pepper (or as they call it in NZ, "capsicum")

avocado, lemon

eggs

olive oil, salt + pepper

Wattie's fiery chilli tomato sauce (ketchup)

OMELETTE:

-cut up 1/4 of an onion and fry with olive oil until almost burnt

-mix 2 eggs and add to frying pan

-add in diced tomato, salt + pepper

-fold over half to make an omelette. flip again. if it falls apart in the process, present it as a "deconstructed omelette"

-plate with avocado and Wattie's fiery chilli tomato sauce. the latter is crucial.

SANDY'S LETTUCE-LESS SALAD:

-chop up red onion, tomato, yellow/orange peppers and add to bowl

-squeeze 1/4 of a lemon and 1 teaspoon of olive oil over one serving

-add salt and pepper.

Bam. Delicious health from the back of a van.