Living with MS made easier with a tailor-made mobile home

Hugh and Adrienne Wake on their South Island tour.

Taupō's Adrienne Wake has lived with MS for 30 years, but the progressive disease hasn’t taken away her love of travel thanks to husband Hugh and a talent for customising campervans.

Doing the usual outdoor activities on a road trip is a challenge when bringing a wheelchair along for the ride, but that hasn’t totally put the brakes on things.

The couple - Hugh a veterinarian and Adrienne, a teacher - have had a passion for travel since they married in 1973.

“I always said it was in our marriage contract to travel,” Adrienne said.

“So when Hugh graduated and I finished my first year teaching in Sanson, near Palmerston North, Hugh applied for a job in Alberta, Canada and got it. So after a long wait to become landed immigrants we headed off and Hugh became a large-animal vet there.”

It was two decades later, at the age of 40, that she was diagnosed with MS - a relatively late diagnosis for the condition.

Hugh and Adrienne Wake on their South Island tour.

They spent six years in Canada and Hugh then built his first campervan, which they used to tour Canada and the US.

They then moved to England for 18 months where they toured the UK and spent three months backpacking around Europe.

Adrienne spent time teaching, and then used her swimming skills to get into a Royal Life Saving course so she could work at a pool teaching swimming and work as a lifeguard and manager.

Then, in their mid 20s the couple moved back to Canada, where Hugh resumed his job at the clinic he had previously worked while Adrienne and a friend started a painting and decorating business in Nanton, a town in southern Alberta, painting farms, houses and business premises.

“We made good money but being typical, fickle 25-year-olds we decided we wanted to start a tea house. The Painted Ladies Tea House was born.”

Then, three months after opening the tea house, she got pregnant.

“I can think back to symptoms I had then as being indicative of MS: things like balance problems, fatigue and difficulty standing for long periods. But I put all these down to being pregnant and carried on as normal.

“We had been back to NZ for a month at Christmas prior to becoming pregnant and it took very little time for both of us to decide NZ was the place for us.”

When daughter Amy was 8 months old the couple packed up and headed to a job in Hastings, where Adrienne got pregnant with their second child.

“I had more MS symptoms but they were fairly mild, and I thought little about them. We moved to Pahiatua when our son was two weeks old.”

They would spend 30 years in Pahiatua, where Adrienne did relief teaching, achieved a SPELD teaching certificate in specific learning disabilities and did tutoring for 20 years.

“I was a participant on a number of committees for a few years but when I was diagnosed with MS I kept only the ones I liked best.

“Through Mainstreet I was very involved with planning two balls - both major undertakings - a long lunch and a cafe crawl for one night to view the new Christmas street lighting.

“A lot of these projects I did on my mobility scooter.”

She was given a Civic Award for her services to the Pahiatua community.

Seven years ago they moved to Taupō, where Adrienne has kept up her civic contributions. She is on the Taupō District Council’s Access Taupō group as the MS representative.

“The council uses us as a sounding board for any new projects, and it is how I got involved helping the landscape architect from council making sure accessibility is always a priority.”

Hugh said finding accommodation to suit Adrienne was becoming increasingly difficult, so he took matters into his own hands by fitting out a 6m-long 2011 Fiat Ducato van.

Being front-wheel-drive, the van’s rear floor is lower than other vans and allowed him to use portable ramps for wheelchair access that take up minimal space.

Beams installed across the roof provide support for an overhead track rail, to transfer Adrienne from front seat (swivelling) to bathroom and to her bed.

Insulation was crammed into every nook and cranny and the floor layout was designed to leave a lot of empty floor space, with a lounge/dining/sleeping area in the front half, and swivelling front seats making for a roomy feel.

Two single beds up front fold away when not in use. The wet-floor bathroom area is in the middle of the van open to the kitchen, with privacy provided by an adjustable curtain.

An 80-litre compressor fridge at eye height with a storage area below is accessible from the rear doors of the van.

“Coupled with a folding electric wheelchair from SupaChair, the van has enabled us to explore New Zealand.”

Until recently, most trips away were six nights or less.

“For several years we had been saying we must do a trip down south, so finally decided if we were going to do so, the time was now,” Hugh said.

The seven-week tour was a circuit down the east coast, returning via Haast Pass and the West Coast.

“Unfortunately Adrienne’s disability prevents us from doing the popular outdoor activities like bike trails and bush walks. Instead we enjoyed a number of excellent museums and galleries.”

In Christchurch they visited Ravenscar House, bequeathed to the city by Jim and Susan Wakefield and housing their impressive collection of paintings by famous artists such as McCahon, Hotere, Goldie and Lindauer. Also on view are sculptures, most notably by New Zealand sculptor Paul Dibble.

Another interesting afternoon was spent at the Christchurch Earthquake Museum and their last day in the city was spent at the New Zealand Air Force museum at Wigram.

They followed the gold trail through old historic towns to Alexandra and Wanaka, while a side trip from Wānaka took them over the Lindis Pass to Tekapo to check out the night sky and to Mt Cook Village on the way back.

On the West Coast, trips included a visit to the Fox Glacier River Walk Lookout, a short wheelchair-friendly bushwalk and another short wheelchair walk to Peter’s Pool, a small kettle lake left behind by a receding Franz Joseph glacier.

“A highlight of the West Coast for Adrienne was being able to access the West Coast Tree-top Walk adjacent to Lake Mahinapua, south of Hokitika. Although accessing the start of the walkway was challenging [involving a steep slope on a dirt track], the steel structure is so impressive and perfectly wheelchair-friendly.”

Hugh said that even with Adrienne confined full-time to a power wheelchair, they still managed an enjoyable and informative seven weeks’ travelling. They were on the road a week later for a long weekend in the Coromandel and a family wedding.