World's first crafty camper unveiled

Many RV travellers enjoy strolling through art galleries during their road trips, with particular delights often discovered in smaller town galleries and art spaces that showcase local talent.

But now you can enjoy an all-in-one art and campervan experience with what is being claimed as the world's first art gallery in a campervan launched in New Zealand.

Available for hire, the appropriately named 'Vallery' is an otherwise conventional campervan conversion with its rear barn doors opening up to reveal a fixed rear double bed, alongside a kitchenette with gas cooker and sink, another single bed that doubles as a dinette, and seatbelt seating for three passengers.

The 5.8m long LDV V80 camper conversion also gets fresh and grey water tanks, a battery system with solar panels, lights, diesel heating and a roll-out awning, to make life very comfortable out on the road.

But peer past the relatively conservative external green paintjob and the eye-catching interior is jam-packed with enough painted murals and bespoke pieces to justify a standalone Mona museum exhibit.

The 'Vallery' glampervan project was created in partnership with rental outfit Quirky Campers and The Coastal Arts Trail -- a relatively easy self-drive itinerary of the art galleries, museums and open studios along the central North Island’s West Coast.

Curator Aimee Ralfini was inspired by her travels along the Coastal Arts Trail itself, with 26 different artists from the region contributing 50 works exhibited inside Vallery.

"I thought of the van as potentially being the inside of an artists’ eye," she explained.

"I wasn’t wanting to create a traditional gallery space, I see the artworks inside as memoirs of the journey, that are substantiated by the environment they were created in – not the other way around."

"I wanted to make sure that the colours inside reflected the outside throughout the seasons, so we have rust orange from the wildflowers, sheds and farming equipment in the fields; road marking yellow and asphalt grey, salted stone, greens and plasticine blues from the coast, and rich greens and navy from further inland."

Bookings for the Auckland-based Vallery camper open on August 10. Click here for further details.