‘Worst breakdown ever’: Meet the Kiwi family travelling the world in a van

The Poole family has been travelling the world in Lachlan Poole’s dream camper, dubbed Izzie. Photo / Lachlan Poole
This Kiwi family has been travelling across the world in their VW Kombi named Izzie.
When Kirianna Poole was growing up in Rotorua she had high-flying dreams.
“I was 4 when I went on my very first flight from Rotorua to Nelson to go and visit my grandmother in Golden Bay,” she recalls. “I remember being so excited to walk through the aircraft handing out the lollies and a dream was born that paved the way for my future.”
Fast-forward a few years and Kiri, 37, who’s of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, was working as a cabin crew member for airline Virgin Australia when she met Aussie pilot Lachlan Poole. “In 2012, we were both based out of Auckland and we went to so many places, like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga – within a year, we were engaged,” Kiri smiles.
Not just smitten with each other, they were also bitten by the travel bug and in 2014, the besotted couple moved to Tokyo to fly for Air Japan so they could tick off some more bucket-list countries.
“We were married in 2015, then in 2016, our son Riley came along, but he didn’t slow us down because he was such an easy traveller – and by the time he’d turned 1, he’d been to 37 countries,” Kiri adds proudly.
Eager to explore their own countries too, in 2017, the adventurous pair found an adorable split-screen VW Kombi for sale in Perth. This was Lockie’s dream camper and they dubbed her Izzie. “We spent 18 months on the road in Australia, then Alba came along in 2019, so we stopped for seven months in Lennox Head to enjoy our little baby bubble,” Kiri says.
Three years later, Elsie was born and Kiri decided it was time the kids explored her country too, so they shipped the Kombi, along with the trailer they’d recently fitted out, to Aotearoa.
Travelling with three kids under 6, they started sharing their adventures on Instagram and the photogenic whānau quickly amassed a huge fanbase with 166,000 followers at last count. “As soon as we landed in New Zealand to start our big road trip, we were approached by a publisher who suggested we share our journey in a book,” Kiri says.
The result is The Slow Road: The Complete Guide to Van Life in New Zealand, and it’s full of essential information, road-trip recipes and travel tips as well as photos taken by Lockie, 38.
But they’re not stopping there – when Woman’s Day caught up with the family of five, they were in Kruger National Park in South Africa, about to go out on safari.
“Riley has always wanted to see a lion and his younger sisters are happy to go with the flow, so long as we’re all together,” Lockie says.
It all sounds very idyllic, but for readers thinking this is something they’d like to try, do be warned it’s not all giggles by glassy lakes and photo ops with snowy mountains. “We loved Milford Sound, but I’d never heard of the Homer Tunnel,” Lockie admits sheepishly.
“It’s a steep one-way tunnel, and the Kombi has electric brakes and the engine is only air-cooled. She steamed up pretty quickly on the way in.”
This meant on the return trip, Lockie would’ve liked to have paused before entering the tunnel to give the carburettors a break. “But there was nowhere to pull over, so we just had to get in the queue – and we broke down halfway through with this massive tour bus behind us.”
Kiri adds: “I don’t usually freak out, but Elsie was just a baby and being in a tunnel with our hazards on with all these cars backed up behind us, that was definitely the worst breakdown ever.”
As to how they manage to maintain such an enviable lifestyle, it’s largely thanks to Lockie’s job flying 787s for Air Japan. “I work on a six-month-on, six-month-off roster, which is a pretty good gig,” he says. “Even when I’m working, it’s two weeks on, two weeks off, so Kiri and I make the most of it.”
They have no plans to put down roots any time soon either and Izzie the Kombi has now been shipped to Japan.
“We’ve done five weeks in the north of Japan, and when we get back from South Africa and Turkey, we’ll explore the south,” Kiri says. “Riley’ll do his schooling through distance education.”
Lockie adds: “This lifestyle teaches the kids things they’ll never learn in school, like resilience. We’ve broken down literally hundreds of times. We’ve run out fuel because the fuel gauge doesn’t work. We’ve popped tyres and blown pistons, but they don’t bat an eyelid – they just get out their backpacks, which are full of all their favourite things, and go outside to bounce, play or colour in.”
“The fridge is always full of snacks,” Kiri continues, “and the kids are now really starting to communicate and their conversations are so cute. So long as they’re happy, then we’re happy because the whole purpose for us as parents is to spend as much time together as we can with our children doing fun things.”