A Scientific Experiment

Before we left Auckland to start our big NZ adventure, Kelvin and Pauline gave us many very useful and invaluable camper van tips – all of which were used throughout our journey.  One thing we discussed before we left was the possibility of other camper vans waving to us and who we should wave back to.  There appeared to be some etiquette as part of the wider camper van law as to who you can wave at and who will wave back.  For example Apollo vans should wave to other Apollo vans, but you may not get a wave back from Britz vans, Maui vans etc.

Anyway being friendly, sociably and also tourists we decided when we hit the road that we would wave to anyone provided that they were either a camper (like Betty), mini camper (like the one we tried to rescue) or a motor home (bigger than Betty), essentially anything you could sleep in that wasn’t a car or a caravan (cars and caravans are bad in camper van law).

As we traveled around both the North and South Islands we waved at everyone that we saw (with varying degrees of success) with our waves becoming more exaggerated until we got some kind of response!  This lead us to the great debate held on the drive to Milford as to what was the percentage of campers that did wave back, whether other rental companies were less likely to wave than Apollo (our own rental company) and whether waving was affected by your actual vehicle type e.g. did mini campers wave at campers? 

Now both being scientists (or possibly because we were suffering the effects of confined space living) we decided to run an experiment (or at least a bit of a survey) to test the following hypotheses:

1. Apollo vans are more likely to wave than non-Apollo vans;

2. Camper vans (i.e. same size as Betty) are more likely to wave;

3. Locals are less likely to wave than tourist rental vans.

And so with pencil and notebook in hand Mrs M set out to record the waving stats.  The only rules were that the vans had to be driving (it doesn’t count in they were parked up) for the wave to count.  The results are detailed as follows but please bear in mind we make no claims as to the statistical validity of the results, sometimes we forgot to do the survey and we think that the data collected on the road to Christchurch was slightly skewed by ‘newby’ vans undertaking first days on the road who didn’t understand the etiquette of camper van waving!

Statto compiling the results...

And so the results are as follows:

1. Apollo vans are more likely to wave than non-Apollo vans – The result was conclusive, hypothesis proven – 82% of Apollo vans waved back to us, compared to 50% Britz, 33% Maui & 33% Kea.


2. Camper vans (i.e. same size as Betty) are more likely to wave – Results inconclusive – 39% camper vans waved back, compared to 48% of motor homes and 50% of mini-campers.


3. Locals are less likely to wave than tourist rental vans – Results very conclusive – only 21% of local camper vans, motor homes and mini-campers waved back to us!

We would have loved to have stayed in New Zealand to do more research into waving characteristics of camper vans!  Suggestions for further research include whether demographics affected waving as more younger people seemed to wave as did more men – oh well that’s for another trip!

Statto (Mrs M)