A New Arrival To The Family!!

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January 3rd 2008

Published: January 3rd 2008

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Claire and Tel

Our New Baby!

So the campervan we were looking at was deemed as a “No Go” by our mechanic, and so it was back to the drawing board, well the internet and hunting again! I think we’ve driven through most of the Mornington Peninsular looking at campervans by now. We’d seen a couple that weren’t bad but none that were really calling to us (if you know what I mean!) Then on Sunday a new ad appeared on one of the websites. Strangely the owners live Langwarrin (where we are) Fate??! Well we hot footed it over there and instantly fell in love! Marcus the Mechanic (sort of like Bob the Builder!) looked at it yesterday and said it was probably the best Camper of its kind in Oz! Well that was enough for us and we jumped in the car and went and put a deposit down. So, hopefully, this time next week we will be able to bring the new addition to the family home! Something we didn’t think of was being able to pay for a big purchase abroad, if you know the money is in the bank we just assumed that we could go into a bank here with our

inside

Bed, kitchen and on the right is the loo/shower room

card and passport and withdraw it. Not so….to be honest it’s a bit of a nightmare, the upshot of which is we had to open an Australian bank account and then use a money changing company to exchange and transfer the money. Anyway it cost us 15 quid which was better than the 2.5% we would have had to pay to draw on the credit card which seems to be the only other way!

So anyway, we should be ready for the off by this time next week, we’re planning on doing a little trial run, probably to Lakes Entrance which is about 5 hours away. I think we need to get a feel for the bus before heading off into the wilderness!
We’re not completely sure of our exact route yet, I think it will be clearer once we hit the road! but roughly we will leave Melbourne in a couple of weeks and head west to Perth, then head north around the coast to Broome and on up to Darwin and then head down through the centre back to Melbourne by mid June. We think that part of the trip covers about 17,000km! We will then need

inside

looking out front

to leave Oz to renew our visas so we are planning to go over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks in June, then back to Melbourne to head off east and do the other side, Sydney, Queensland, Gold Coast Great Barrier etc from beginning of July and will make it back to Melbourne by the end of Sept for our flights back to the UK.

Despite the wet and cold welcome to Australia when we arrived, the change which arrived on Christmas morning is luckily still with us. Very sunny and mid to high 30’s, although New Years Eve was a hot one, it hit 44c and was still in the high 30’s at midnight!

So things are getting really exciting now, we are feeling very impatient to get the bus and get going! We have been trying to think of a name for our new addition, she’s a girl and we just can’t think of one! Matilda, Kylie and Shazza have all been suggested and rejected so we need some ideas guys! If one of you comes up with the right one we’ll send you a prize!!! So get thinking!

Right I’m off for