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Goodbye Campervan

  Auckland, North Island, New Zealand Thursday, August 20, 2015

 We managed to pack away the campervan we rented before leaving the campsite this morning - the extra bag purchased yesterday was definitely needed. The kids had an hour on the pedal go carts while we packed. Final emptying of the toilet caddy and the grey water waste and we were off.

The road from Coromandel to Thames down the peninsula was windy and slow as it followed the coastline for most of the way.

 We stopped in Thames for a coffee and the loo then headed to Auckland. The journey was faster now as the roads were straight and once we joined highway 2 it was motorway to Auckland. After filling up the diesel we got to the Wilderness office.

 I missed the fact the reception was upstairs so hung around for a few minutes downstairs before realising. The hand back was much less painless than the handover. I filled in the feedback forms and made comment about how long it had taken to get the van. The lady saw this and asked about it and came back to me and said they ha confirmed the time length and would pay for our cab to the hotel as a goodwill gesture. So it was worth complaining. They ordered us a cab (a 7 seater to cope with the luggage) and we were in it about 45 minutes after arriving. The driver was rather grumpy but got us to the Heritage Hotel where the staff were very friendly and helpful. They got our bags to the room before we got up there - the suite was great especially after the compact campervan. Two super king sized bedrooms (kids will have to share but should be OK given the size of the bed), 2 bathrooms a lounge and dining area and a kitchen.

 We headed straight back down , got a map and went for some food. We were only a block away from the Skytower (tallest building in New Zealand) and headed to Queen Street, the Oxford Street of Auckland. Ed saw Burger KIng and wanted that, so we did. I saw on the map there was an Ugg shop down the road and the kids had spotted a Lush so we went there too. Tash got some Uggs as a birthday present and Ed and Sam some gloves.

Then we headed to the harbour front and Ed spotted a jet boat, so we'll be doing that at some point. we went on to the i site to get some ideas on what to do - a Seaplane ride over Auckland and surrounding islands appealed and we have booked for tomorrow morning. A Zipline tour was also talked about but needed a ferry ride to egt tehre and when I looked on line was booked up for the next couple of days. The Aquarium looks like an option for Saturday morning and we may do an open top bus tour around at some point if we get time.

 We took the leaflets and headed back to the hotel to relax a bit, enjoy the space and watch tv. The kids got hungry so we ordered some room service kids meals and pizza, then settled down to proper beds again!

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Getting Cozy in a Campervan

After a relaxing 4 days in Noosa we packed up our rental car for the last time and made the 2.5 hour drive to Brisbane where we were picking up our campervan and new home for the next 3 weeks.

Jonah has fond memories of family vacations spent travelling around Canada and the west coast of the United States in a Volkswagen campervan, so he was looking forward to reliving those great experiences here in Australia. I on the other hand have never travelled around in a campervan, and while I love being outdoors the only times I have ever gone camping have been on multi-day hikes while travelling abroad. Needless to say I wasn't quite sure what to expect but one way or the other I knew it would be an adventure to say the least.

 In Search of our Campervan

We navigated our way to the Campervan Finder NZ office  where we needed to drop off our rental car. We are so excited to start the campervan adventure. A friendly employee led us over to our new home where he showed us the in's and out's of where everything was and how things worked. Our campervan could sleep 4 people - 2 on the bottom bed and 2 up top in what I will call the storage cubby. We had a sink, fridge, 2 burner cooktop, microwave, a few drawers to store cooking utensils, and an open toilet and shower awkwardly located next to the cooking area in the same compartment.

Jonah's first impressions of the campervan - it was not German engineered, a bit tight quarters and I didn't remember the cushions for the bed being so thin. That's gonna be a problem. I was happy we had our home base for the next 3 weeks and was hoping it would work well enough for Kristen. Given that Kristen had never really camped I was hoping 3 weeks in the campervan wasn't too ambitious!

My first impressions - it was definitely tight quarters, the carpet on the floor was a little dirty, and I wasn't so sure how I felt about sleeping on the lumpy pillows or the thin bed. It certainly wasn't the roomy and luxurious Apollo campervan we had seen a couple weeks ago but I was hoping this one would grow on me.

 After loading up our bags and signing off on the paperwork, we still had to drop off the rental car I may be holding the keys but I'm not driving! We did this together and took a cab back as I actually hadn't done any driving in Australia and didn't think now was the day to start.

Back at the Campervan Finder NZ Depot it was now time to start a new adventure in Australia. The campervan is about the size of a 8 seater passenger van/bus you might take to get to the airport, and way larger than the rental cars we were used to driving. We did a few side and rear view mirror checks at which point Jonah told me I was going to have to do all the shoulder checks for him on the passenger side as he had major blind spots. Now that made me nervous because now not only did I have to navigate but practically stick my head out the window to make sure there were no cars beside us. Our first order of business was to find a gas station, and we got off to a bit of a rocky start when we pulled out onto a main road and our lane suddenly stopped leaving us no room to merge into the lanes beside us. After that the remainder of the drive to Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast was uneventful mostly because we were crawling along the traffic clogged freeway with all the other people from Brisbane who were likely heading out to the coast for the weekend.

 Makiing Our Campervan Cozy

We stopped at a Big W (like a Walmart) and picked up an air mattress as Jonah was adamant that sleeping on the thin cushions was just not going to work. We pulled into the caravan park just as the sun was beginning to set Figuring out how to set up the bed . We figured we should probably set up our bed before dark and so after only a few tries we figured out where all the wooden boards went and how the cushions fit together. And I have to admit when looking at the bed I was also glad we had bought the air mattress. We then started blowing up the air mattress but we hadn't bought a pump and quickly realized this was going to take a long long time using our manual lung capacity. Jonah went off to see if anyone in the campground had a pump and found a friendly couple from Australia who let us use their pump. Once the campervan was all set up, we went into town for dinner and then crawled into our new bed for the night!Day one down, 20 more to go!

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Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

  Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Tuesday, May 31, 2011

 Incase there's any confusion, although most of you will already know, we are now back home (boo hoo!) and writing the last month or so of the blog from bonnie Scotland.....so, where were we at the last blog??... somewhere at the end of NZ I think.....It was strange to pack up the rented campervan which had become home in NZ for almost 4 weeks, as it had become our little home!

  It was also really nice not to have to pack/unpack every few days and have everything with us in the back of the van.

  It was time for change though, ready or not!

   We got to Melbourne which was quite chilly so we were glad to have had our jeans on!

   A good night’s sleep later, we walked from our hotel near St Kilda to the city centre and then on to the MCG and Rod Laver Arena which is a nice stroll from the city centre Melbourne skyline .

   We were surprised that Melbourne has so many skyscrapers and alongside some older architecture, so it comes with a pretty skyline especially since the city is by the river.

  We took in the view and headed back for dinner at one of the many narrow lanes in the city - although we couldn't tell you which one!

   We can tell you we had the biggest slice of cheesecake between us that we have ever seen!

  We have always wanted to drive the Great Ocean Road which is around 250km west starting just outside of Melbourne.

   We hired a car and took ourselves along to Bells Beach which is one of the most famous surf beaches in Australia where many competitions are held.

   There were loads of surfers out there bobbing about waiting to catch their next wave but we couldn't help but wonder if there were any sharks lurking around in the water out there, who knows!

   We also stopped at Split Point Lighthouse which was made famous partly because of the kids TV show 'Round the Twist' which some of you might remember!

  Try Googling it and it might jog your memory....Our 2nd lighthouse of the day was Cape Otway, but before reaching the end of the road to here we sighted our first koala cute koala! !

  This one was easy to spot as there were 3 or 4 people standing at the bottom of the trees looking up at it, but further down the road we managed to spot a few of our own.It's one of those things, that once you see one, you keep on spotting them more and more in the trees as you go past!

  They are so cute!

   The next big thing was the main attraction.

   Hint - there used to be 12 of them and there are now only 8 - got it?? The Twelve Apostles!

   We made it there for sunset which was stunning although there was a bit of a struggle to keep the position for the best photo with around 50 other people there - of course Ross won.

  He uses a special technique we call 'circle of death' - basically holding your position by not letting anyone squeeze in any space around you - it can also be used at concerts and any social event to protect your spot!

 After a night in the town of Port Campbell and a lovely dinner at a restaurant called Room 6, we rose very early to catch Twelve Apostles - Part Deux: Sunrise!

 So 6am rise and at the prime spot about an hour before sunrise was possibly a tad early but we had a cup of tea to keep us warm until breakfast, which we finally got at about 10am since the places in the sleepy villages on the route back were not open yet as it was too early Sunset at Twelve Apostles !

  Ah well...eggs and bacon on toast made up for it...just! The main highlight on our drive back towards Melbourne was when a kangaroo hopped right out on to the road in front and on into the 'bush' beyond on the other side of the road. Another one of Australia's unique wildlife ticked off the list!

We're not really zoo people so we normally take our chances on seeing things in their own environment, so we were lucky again. On our last full day in Melbourne we spent it going to St Kilda for lunch and a walk along the old pier there and our last night went out with a bang as we went to see the musical Rock of Ages which was absolutely brilliant!

 Well worth it if any you ever get a chance to see it. Next is Queensland area for 2 weeks, first Cairns which is a few hours flight from Melbourne...and a little warmer too, yippee! ...