Departure Day — Auckland to Vancouver, and Our First Night in the Campervan
This article contains affiliate links. If you book or purchase through these links I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and companies I genuinely use or have researched thoroughly.
Departure day arrived on 12 September, and 48 hours later we were parked up at our first campsite with a fire going and an ice cream in hand. Here’s how the first leg went — an unexpected airport lounge upgrade, our first real look at Vancouver, and our introduction to life in the campervan we’ll be calling home for the next month.
The Strata Lounge — An Unexpected Upgrade
Elaine’s colleagues gave her a very thoughtful leaving gift: two passes to Auckland Airport’s Strata Lounge. With our flight not until 8pm, having somewhere calm to sit rather than fighting for space in the public terminal made a real difference. Comfortable seating, a solid food and drink selection, showers if you need them. We toasted the start of the trip with a glass of bubbles and some nibbles before dinner on the flight. If you’re not keen on the usual pre-flight scramble for seats, it’s worth the splurge.
NZ24 — Economy Stretch to Vancouver
Air New Zealand gets a hard time in the press at the moment, but the cabin crew were excellent, as always. We’d booked Economy Stretch for the extra legroom — definitely worth it on an 12+ hour flight, though the entertainment console living in the footwell (and eating into legroom) remains a mystery.
Dinner’s a blur, as plane food always is, but The Mandalorian and Grogu got me through the first stretch, then half a sleeping pill and 5 hours of actual sleep (thanks, Garmin, for confirming it). Hoppers saw out the rest of the flight after breakfast — also a blur.
Landing Before We Left
Arriving in Vancouver at 2pm, five hours before our NZ departure time, is one of those long-haul quirks that never stops being strange. The upside: 2pm is a good time to land after a long flight — enough daylight left to get oriented without the jet-lagged 6am arrival scramble.
The airport was easy, and the train into the city was busy but good-natured — nobody blinked at our oversized cases. We got off at Yaletown for a short walk to our hotel.
Level Yaletown — Fine, Not Great
Our first accommodation, Level Yaletown, was serviceable but tired — a few lights not working, and Elaine picked up a shard of glass in her foot walking barefoot through the kitchenette, which didn’t inspire confidence in the cleaning standards. It did the job for one night, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to book it again.
Capo and the Spritz
After a shower, we wandered round the corner to Capo and the Spritz for dinner — genuinely excellent. A burrata to share, a burger, a beer, and I was more than ready for bed. A stop for toiletries on the way back rounded out night one.
Nero Belgian Waffle Bar
With the campervan pickup at 11am, breakfast next door at Nero Belgian Waffle Bar was the perfect low-effort start — excellent food, generous portions. Small warning for anyone used to good coffee: Canada is not where you’ll find it. More on that as the trip goes on.
Indie Campers — First Impressions
This is where the trip got real. Indie Campers’ depot sits about 45 minutes south of downtown Vancouver, and the location itself feels a little rough around the edges — we were greeted by someone checking if I was a completely different person before we even found the office.
Once checked in, we learned how limited the “premium” insurance actually is, with no option to upgrade further — not a great start. The van itself is a 2026 Ford Ranger (a brand that’ll raise an eyebrow with anyone back in NZ), fairly new inside, but the “extras” — bedding, kitchen, and cleaning kits — come in separate plastic tubs you pay for on top of the rental. Cheap plates, mismatched cutlery, basic sheets. There’s also an expectation you return the van cleaned and ready for the next renter, which felt like an odd ask for a rental rather than a shared vehicle.
Early verdict: not the premium experience the pricing suggests. We’ll do a proper review once we’ve lived in it for a month.
The Drive to Whistler
None of that mattered once we were on the road. The drive out of Vancouver towards Whistler is incredibly beautiful — something I hadn’t fully appreciated until we were in it. We stopped in Squamish for lunch and groceries, then reached our first campsite, Parkbridge Riverside, with plenty of daylight left.
We parked up, walked back to reception for an ice cream and firewood, and just like that — the adventure had properly begun.
The Numbers
What we spent:
| Item | Cost (NZD) |
|---|---|
| Train tickets (airport to Yaletown) | $25 |
| Dinner at Capo and the Spritz | $160 |
| Toiletries | $172 |
| Breakfast at Nero Belgian Waffle Bar | $78 |
| Lunch at Tacofino, Squamish | $49 |
| First grocery shop | $278 |
| Firewood and ice creams | $43 |
| Total | $805 |
Useful Links
Check out Elaine’s first travel blog here: https://elainedillonwriter.com/the-canada-blog-vancouver-to-whistler/
