Didn't think it rained much in Oz, but it does, and it's bigger and wetter rain here, and it seems to come without any warning. We've been chilling in our orange van, here at the lovely Rainbow Beach, sitting out the rain... '...Day 19 in the Big Brother Stupid Van: Captain Airwofl is rolling fags and now has a tidy store of 346 emergency smokes under his pillow. Pikey Pat's winning so far in the 'Grow A Hunchback' game, but Wofl's got a lead in the 'Cover Up The Holes On The Van Ceiling & Walls' sticker game as he eats more fruit...' ...We've seen a few 'Hippy Campers' around Rainbow and they look like newer vans with definitely better conversions inside - fridge, 240v hook up, kettle... and not that much dearer looking at the ... read more

Headed on up the New South Wales coast, landing at a campsite in Ballina, near Lighthouse Beach. One of the things we've noticed is that some regular campers won't engage in eye contact, let alone conversation, when they see us by the van. Is it something to do with the colour of our van that upsets their sensibilities?? Or is it their pre-conceptions about people who hire Wicked campers? There's a notable difference between how fellow campers interact with us here compared to in NZ, and I'm sure it's not because Aussies are any less friendly than Kiwis. It's got to be something to do with the van, it can't be because we look like Pikeys! Looking at it, the van's a perfect illustration on the impact of branding. Essentially, they've got a fleet of old ... read more

We've done about 450 km up the coast so far, stopping off at Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens and Port Macquarie along the way. The heavy downpours of rain over the past few days have surprised us, but it's autumn here so I suppose it's not going to be so mad hot and sunny... We've encountered a few examples of Aussie wildlife on our way, one particular introduction being quite unexpected and a bit of a lesson on being aware of what might be lurking in the dark! We were the only camper van on the site at Lake Macquarie, and since the clocks have gone back it gets dark around 6:00 pm. I was standing with the back of the van open, having a cup of tea talking to Steve when we heard a thud on ... read more

Our man in Australia, Wynski Bond, Commander 007.5333 recurring, and his assistant Sam Bond, Secret Agent 006.9 nearly 7, have been trailing the private criminal organization TANGO VAN MAN and its leader, Airwofl Lichmeister and his wife Pikey Pat, in 'Operation Wicked!'. On the morning of the 5th of April, Wynski and Sam manage to locate the whereabouts of Lichmeister's hide away, somewhere off the Old Windsor Road in Parklea, Sydney. Although heavily camouflaged and difficult to single out, the Bonds infiltrated Lichmeister's orange Wicked Van, to find the Lichmeister and Pat rolling Pikey fags and eating fudge. With the Lichmeister's cover blown, Wynski Bond made sure everyone on the camp knows who resides in the orange Wicked Van, and offered to do a few paint jobs on neighboring vans, much to their horror. After a ... read more

We've just been looking through our blog at the things we've done over the past 6 months and we can't quite believe our time in NZ is coming to an end. We've had a great time here in NZ, and have met lots of friendly folk who have made us feel very welcome. Despite having cleaned the van inside and out and packed most of our stuff away, we're still somewhat in denial about handing the van over and being homeless and on the homestretch. We've given our fantastic BBQ to Pete who lives and works at the Arrowtown Camp whom we know will put it to good use, and perhaps give the odd sausage to Clarence the campsite cat. And we've posted back home most of the 'stuff' we've accumulated, in a huge box weighing ... read more