"Wild Oats" is the name of their motor home which they will park at the Glenavy Domain this weekend for the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association's South Canterbury rally.
They will be joined by their friends Stuart and Shirley Will, of Riversdale, and Fay Weller, of Glenavy.
The five have just returned from a trip around the South Island - where they encountered a Civil Defence emergency in Blenheim and another in Amberley.
Before that trip, the McSkimmings spent eight weeks in the North Island, leaving their just-built home in Alexandra.
"Life is for living and the house will be there when we get home," Mrs McSkimming said.
The couple were away from home four months of the year and spent some of that time with their children in the North Island.
With Mills and Boon novels stashed away for rainy day reading and Sky television in their well-appointed bus, they were very comfortable. "We laugh a lot. We have a lot of fun," she said.
Mrs Weller nearly gave up using their motorhome after her husband died two and a-half years ago, but then decided to downsize to a smaller version.
She enjoyed getting away and meeting people. "You make your own fun and, if you don't, that's your own fault," she said.
Her brother-in-law, Stuart Will, finished turning a bus into a motorhome two hours before he and wife Shirley embarked on a trip.
Their bus was as yet unnamed but Mrs McSkimming was working on a few suggestions. It might be Slow Coach, Mr Will quipped.
