The name really does say it all
Camping and exploring New Zealand’s great outdoors is a passion for many 4WDers. But what happens when the appeal of roof-top campers or tents has worn off or when the family has grown.
Is a caravan the way to go? And how easy will it be to find one that really can go off-road? A caravan may have that outdoorsy tough-as-nails look but could it really go overlanding down south, or around the North Island’s central volcanic plateau? Will its suspension, chassis, bodywork and fit-out deal with the inevitable knocks and scrapes?
Off road Caravans NZ has the answer, in the Canyon range of off-road-capable single and dual axle wheel caravans. Canyon’s ‘vans’ are fully designed and built in Australia and are based on a powder-coated 150mm chassis. This means Off Road Caravans can proudly offer a high quality, strong and durable product that is genuinely suitable for Kiwi adventuring.
Australian-born and now Bay of Plenty-based owners Matthew and Courtney Wilson have always had a love of the outdoors and have ‘gone bush’ here and in Australia for years.
By the time they decided to establish Off Road Caravans NZ, the couple had amassed a wealth of knowledge in terms of what type of caravans work best for singles, couples and families, what are the ‘must-haves’ and what are the ‘nice to have’ less important features of a caravan.
Courtney takes up the story in her own words: “Matt and I are high school sweethearts. Like most people who are interested in exploring the great outdoors, we started camping with a couple of swags, upgraded to a tent and onward and upward as we grew older and started a family.” With three young children, they are now dedicated caravan travellers.
The couple have rented many caravans both here in New Zealand and in Australia and they have a clear idea of what Kiwi 4WDers want and need.
“When we started Off Road Caravans NZ we knew that a caravan developed for Australian conditions was definitely robust enough for New Zealand. From our own local overlanding we also had a clear idea of what we wanted to offer 4Wders here.”
“Matthew did the research and we found an Aussie company that shared our strong focus on customer service. Canyon is a family-based operation like us and we share a strong focus on excellent customer service and providing superior quality caravans at an affordable price.”
The couple say with the amount of free camping areas in New Zealand there is a huge need for caravans that can actually reach a lot of the locations.
It has been a busy couple of years, researching and finding the right company to partner with and then establishing Off Road Caravans NZ smack-bang in the middle of Covid, and as it turns out, the timing – which could have been awful – was a positive.
“We found there were a lot of people who had been stood down or lost their positions and were bouncing back during Covid – deciding to sell their homes, buy a decent caravan to live out of and go touring.
“A lot of them were saying ‘if I can’t see the world, I’ll go see my own country and find the special places I have always wanted to see.”
The Off Road Caravans NZ range runs from 18-foot to 22-foot, both single and dual axle, and the vans start with leaf-sprung models suitable for lighter off-road duties, running through to the top end: tough units with full independent suspension. All models have electrically actuated brakes.
Many of the couple’s “awesome” customers in the past year have been completely new to caravan life. They have had plenty of questions “and that’s part of our customer approach, helping people get out there.”
“More than half of all our customers are from the South Island, and most people opt for the leaf-sprung models which are fine for most of the southern touring routes. There are a number, though, who opt for the greater capability of the top end vans. And North Island touring is vastly different.”
The company also offers finance to their customers through a respected third-party Kiwi company, Stadium Finance.
All caravan models are viewable in detail on the website:
www.offroadcaravans.nz
