Homeward Bound

Hi everyone.   I’ll bet you all thought we had drunk ourselves into oblivion on Barossa Wine. No such luck.  Truth is we are now back in good old NZ, and with all the excitement of getting home and setting up house the poor old blog got put on the back burner.  Added to this has been the problem of trying to get internet set up again. After trying numerous perspective communication companies, and even going to the extent of hijacking Christel’s parents computer, only to find it wouldn’t read our hard drive, on the morning of Xmas Eve we finally received a long awaited  T Stick in the mail. So at long last we are up and running again, and for those few faithful who are still waiting for the final episode, here it is.

Hope you have enjoyed travelling with us via your computer.  Now on to the last episode.

Barossa Valley to Murray Bridge

The agreed settlement day for the sale of the caravan was Wednesday the 23^rd, so Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22^nd were spent sorting, cleaning, and packing.  We finally managed to refine our take home luggage down to 6 bags.  The Gawler branch of the Salvation Army benefited by several box loads of stuff that wouldn’t fit into our 6 bags.

Now that the sale of the caravan was all sorted out, we went on line to look for some seats for our flight home.  The day that most suited us was Tuesday the 29^th, and there were a few seats available, so we booked for the midday flight.

On the night of Tuesday the 22^nd we had our final tea in the van, and toasted it with some Barossa Valley Bubbly.  Then it was into bed for our final night in our home of the last 11 months.

On Wednesday the 23^rd we hooked up the van for the last time and headed south to Adelaide where we met with the owner of the caravan yard.  After a good look over the van he was satisfied all was well and the deal was done.  As simple as that.  Our home of the last 11 months was left behind looking rather forlorn in the middle of a yard with about 200 other caravans.  At least it won’t be lonely.

With some very nostalgic backward glances, we drove out of the yard and headed into Adelaide City and then south east to the town of Hahndorf.  For a while we were all quiet with our own thoughts about leaving the van.  It was almost like a death in the family.

As the name suggests, Hahndorf is a town that was settled by immigrants from Prussia in the late 1800s.  Many of the original buildings are still standing and many traditional German type shops and small industries are still carried on there.  We had been told it was well worth a visit, but we were a bit disappointed with what we saw.  Perhaps we were expecting too much.

From Hahndorf we continued on south east along the South Eastern Freeway to Murray Bridge on the banks of the Murray River, about 30 km from its mouth at Lake Alexandrina.  We booked into a cabin in a motor camp right on the river bank, and the first thing we noticed was how much room we all had, after so long in the confines of the caravan.

Murray Bridge is so named because it is built on the site of the first bridge ever built over the Murray River, and is on the main route between Adelaide and Melbourne.   It is home to hundreds of River Boats, some of them huge floating mansions that are used as permanent homes.  Tomorrow we will cross over the Murray and continue on towards Melbourne.

Thursday 24^th November

Murray Bridge to Halls Gap

With a few days to fill in before our flight home, we decided to head for the Grampians National Park, famous for its mountainous scenery and bush walks. Away back in April when we were first travelling through western Victoria, we called in to the Grampians, only to find that due to the floods the region was then experiencing, most of the park was closed.

After making enquiries at the Murray Bridge Visitors Centre we found out the Park was now open, but the damage had been so severe, some of the roads had only just been opened in the last week.

From Murray Bridge we headed south east to Tailem Bend, where we took our last look at the mighty Murray River. From there we continued on to Keith, where we stopped for lunch.  We decided to go as far as Horsham for the night, but when we tried ringing through to book some accommodation, everything was booked out.

We finally got a cabin at Halls Gap right in the middle of the Grampians National Park.  This was a lot further than we intended to travel for the day, but with nothing available closer we were left with little choice. We would now have to travel well over 400 km to get there, and it would put us one day ahead of our planned schedule to get to Melbourne on Sunday the 27^th. Never mind, we couldn’t do much about it.

From Keith we continued on to Bordertown, and then about 20 km later, crossed back in to Victoria.  There was nothing to mark the border, other than a small sign saying ‘Welcome to Victoria’.  The whole way we travelled through miles and miles of wheat fields with each little town we came to, dominated by huge grain silos, visible on the horizon for more than 20 km away, across the flat countryside.

Our first major town in Victoria was Horsham, and we got there at about 2.30, to complete our round trip of Australia.  A quick look at the speedometer showed we had done 35,306km since leaving Horsham on the 4^th April. We still had to get back to Melbourne, but from now on we would be largely backtracking over roads we had travelled on our way north at the beginning of the year.

We celebrated completing the circle by going into the same pub we had visited on our way up country on the 2^nd April, and downing a couple of beers. The owner/barman was very interested to hear about our trip, and we spent a very pleasant time sharing some of our adventures with him.

From Horsham we drove south east for about 20km and then turned onto a secondary road leading down into the Grampians National Park. This was one of the roads that had been closed when we first visited the area in April.  We followed a narrow winding road up on to the top of the Grampian Ranges to the McKenzie Falls, where we took a short walk to view the falls from a lookout.  We continued on along the top of the ranges, past Lake Wartook, and then eventually wound our way down to Halls Gap Village, arriving at about 5.30pm. 

Our Camp ground at Halls Gap had lots of kangaroos, and a couple of emus, wandering around it.  They were semi wild, and would rapidly head off into the bush if you got too close.  One of the Emus was a bit tamer than the rest, and came wandering up to the door of our cabin looking for a handout, which Cameron was only too happy to give him.

Friday 25^th November

Halls Gap to Ballarat

From Halls Gap we drove south for about 70km through the National Park, with some great views of the rocky hills that form the Grampians, to the small town of Dunkeld, and then headed east towards Ballarat.  We stopped for lunch at the little village called Lake Bolac, on the edge of a large lake, named, strangely enough, Lake Bolac. We then continued on east, again through more miles and miles of wheat fields, finally arriving in Ballarat at about 3.00pm.

After settling in to our cabin and having a couple of drinks, we took a drive into town and had a look at their Arch of Victory, and Avenue of Honour.  Both are a tribute to Australians who served in the First World War.  We spent a bit of time driving around the city admiring some of their huge old stone buildings, before heading to a supermarket to buy some dinner.  Now that we haven’t got a caravan we are living a bit day to day, and are more or less buying our meals as and when we need them.

We tried to book in for an extra night here in Ballarat, but they were booked out, so tomorrow we will head on to Melbourne. That will really complete our trip around Australia.

Saturday 26^th  November

The last leg, Ballarat to Melbourne

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE

Woke up to a very wet morning.  At least we don’t have to pack up a caravan in the wet.  Drove the 100 odd km down to Melbourne through heavy rain.  The Aussie roads aren’t designed for rain, with lots of surface water lying in the hollows of the wheel tracks, making driving a bit tricky.  Didn’t seem to worry the Aussies motorists though, who happily charged along at the maximum speed limit of 110 kph, chucking huge curtains of water everywhere.

Faithful old Nancy took us straight to our Motorcamp, where we were more than happy to get away from the mad Aussie Motorists, and into our cabin out of the shitty weather.  We have booked in here for one night only, and tomorrow we will move to another motor camp closer to the airport where we will stay for our last two nights in Aussie.  With nothing better to do, after lunch we decided to fill in part of the day by visiting a nearby shopping centre to have a look around.

It was a huge complex of a couple of hundred shops spread over 3 stories.  We battled our way through the 3 million or so other shoppers, playing ‘Spot the White Person’, and ‘See if you can find someone who speaks English.’ We soon gave up on both games, and, getting sick and tired of all the pushing and shoving of the crowds, headed back to our cabin for drinkies and a game or two of cards.  Hope it’s a bit finer tomorrow.

For Cameron these are the longest days of our holiday.  Now that we have booked tickets and are getting so close to going home, he just can’t wait.  His excitement is mounting by the day, and he is almost becoming hyperactive.  Getting him to sleep at night is almost impossible.  We send him off to bed and after a while out he comes to discuss something we’ve ‘got to do’, when we get home.  No sooner is he back in bed and he’s out again to discuss the next thing that’s on his mind.  It’s going to be a long few days until we get on that plane!!

Sunday 27^th November

Melbourne

We moved across town to our new motorcamp near the airport, and after dragging all our bags inside, set to once again shifting stuff from one bag to the next, trying to keep within the allowed 23kg, and still managing to close the bags. After lunch we drove over to the airport to familiarise ourselves with the route, and the location of the Rental Car company, where we had to pick up a rental car later in the day.

At about 3.30 we headed back to the airport to pick up our Rental Car.  Christel had managed to book an XR6, and it turned out to be a 2011 model, so now she’s not talking to us ordinary Pajero drivers.  I guess after we deliver the Pajero to Howard, the guy that’s selling it for us, that’ll be the end of my driving in Australia.   First thing tomorrow morning, we will head right across town in the two cars to deliver the Pajero to Howard.  Then there are a hundred and one last minute things to do before coming back to our motor camp for our last night.  Then just like that, it will be all over.

Monday 28^th November

It took us just under an hour to get across town to Howard’s place.  Thank god for Nancy who faithfully guided us from our motor camp, along side streets to a motorway, then off onto more side streets, then a freeway, more side streets, another motorway, then another freeway, until finally we were back in familiar territory in the suburb of Ringwood, and we were soon turning into Howard’s Street and there he was to greet us.

A chat about the trip and how the Pajero had performed, then we left the Pajero in Howard’s capable hands for him to spruce up and put on e-bay for us.  Thank you Howard for your interest, support, and advice before and during our trip.  You certainly made travelling a lot easier for us.

We unplugged Nancy from the Pajero, and installed her in Christel’s rental XR6 for the journey back to our motorcamp. The rest of the day was spent cancelling insurances, and phone accounts and a myriad of other things, and final checking of our luggage.  Then we headed off to a nearby RSL Club for our final dinner.

Tuesday 29^th November

We got to the airport at about 9.00am and joined the hundreds of other travellers in the usual endless queues for bag check in, customs, and immigration.  On to the departure lounges where Cameron spotted our plane - a huge jumbo 747.  Boy was he excited.  We got our boarding call, and the next thing we are leaving Australia behind, our great adventure all over.

Hope you have enjoyed travelling with us.  What a wonderful trip.  The Highlights??  Too many to mention, but swimming with the Whale Sharks always comes to mind for all of us as being high on the list. That and the lasting impression of that huge empty vastness of the outback.  A gigantic harsh land that gives no quarter to anyone.    

 

Here are a few stats that might be of interest.

Total kilometres travelled - 44,430.

Kilometres travelled with caravan - 25,830.

Amount of fuel used - 7550.71 litres.

Fuel costs - $11,248.60.

Average fuel consumption - 16.99 litres per 100 km.

Average Daily expenses - $208 NZ.

What a great year it has been.

Urban, Christel and Cameron.

Barossa Valley

Saturday 12^th November and onwards for a few days.

On the way up to the Barossa Valley, we called in at a Caravan Yard on the northern outskirts of Adelaide.  We had previously phoned them, and they said they were interested in looking at our van and giving us a price.  After a quick look over the van, they offered us a price which we felt we could accept, if nothing better came along.

The famous Wine Region of the Barossa Valley is about 60km north of Adelaide City.  It is situated in gentle rolling hill country, and the whole country side is very picturesque with the dark green lines of the grape vines growing in the low lying valley areas, contrasting with the golden brown of the wheat growing on the surrounding hills.

Combined at this time of the year with temperatures in the early thirties, makes it a very pleasant place to spend a few days. With the end of the trip rapidly drawing near, we are going to spend a few days here while we sort out the sale of the caravan, and get a few minor repairs done to the Pajero.

While this is all happening, we are having a few lazy days chilling out, and making the most of the campground’s swimming pool and its water temperature of anything between 29 and 32 degrees.

About 30 km south east of us is the small town of Birdwood, home to the National Motor Museum, and we spent a very interesting day taking a scenic drive down to it, and after viewing the museum, taking another route back to camp.

The museum itself was extremely interesting with hundreds of cars and motorbikes on display, some of them the only examples in the world still in existence. 

Almost every museum or place of interest we have visited has a visitors’ book for you to sign and make any comments.  Christel went over to sign this one, and there about a week earlier was the name B. Buckthought, Inglewood, N.Z.  How’s that for a small world?  Brian Buckthought used to farm on the Durham Road.  He obviously still lives in the Inglewood area.

On another day we took a tour through the Barossa Valley itself and visited a few of the wineries.  One winery, called Winter Creek, had accommodation set up beside it, consisting of old Railway Carriages set up on tracks.  They also had a Car and Motorcycle Museum, (another one), specialising in Chevrolet Cars and Ariel Motorbikes.  We didn’t taste their wines, but enjoyed their museum.

Further down the valley we came to the Jacob Creek Winery, which I’m sure you have all heard of, and probably tried their product.  This was a must stop, and after trying three or four different varieties, came away with a few bottles to tide us over for the next couple of days.

Our next stop was the Kellermeister Winery which had been recommended to us by some other travellers at the motorcamp. They had a beautiful white bubbly, so that too was added to our collection.  Unfortunately Kellermeister don’t export to New Zealand. We would have loved to bring some back with us, but as it is we are going to be struggling to bring back everything we have accumulated and want to bring home.

We need to get a few minor repairs done to the Pajero to make it ready for sale when we get to Melbourne, including a new windscreen, and a replacement hinge for the spare wheel.  There are about 4 panel beaters in nearby Gawler, but trying to get a car fixed by any one of them before Christmas is virtually impossible.  They are all up to their elbows in work, as all the locals want their repairs done before Christmas, and they aren’t very interested in helping out a Kiwi family who want a job done within the next few days.

We finally managed to bribe one with a cash job, and spent the morning wandering around the shops of Gawler.  It’s amazing how many dresses a woman can try on and still find nothing that’s right.

We had two perspective buyers for the caravan lined up in Queensland, but after much negotiation, and many emails they both pulled out. Luckily we had the dealer in Adelaide to fall back on, and after some more phone calls, we agreed on a price and settlement date. With the arrangements for the sale of the caravan all in place, it is time to seriously look at the end of this great adventure.  Our next move will be to get on the computer and check out the availability of flights back to New Zealand.  We’ll keep you posted.



Adelaide 2

Wednesday 9^th November

We had read that Adelaide Zoo was home to the only Giant Panda Bears in the Southern Hemisphere, and naturally we were keen to pay them a visit.  So after the School work was completed, we packed up a lunch and headed for the zoo, which is close to the centre of Adelaide City.

It took us half an hour to drive from our motorcamp into the central city.  We drove along the main street past lots of buildings all connected with the University of South Australia.  In fact half of Adelaide’s central city area seemed to be taken up with University Buildings.  We also went past the Adelaide Town Hall, Parliament buildings and the Adelaide Casino.

We spent a whole afternoon at the zoo, including two visits to the panda enclosure.  On our first visit they were both sleeping, so there wasn’t much to see.  We decided to tour the rest of the zoo and call back again to the pandas again as we were leaving.  The zoo was good, but we felt some of the enclosures were a bit small, not a patch on Auckland Zoo.

When we got back to the panda enclosure they had just been fed, so there was plenty of activity.  Cameron got some brilliant video footage on his camera, of them walking around and then sitting down to eat their bamboo.  We also got some good still shots of them.  There was something very special about seeing these highly endangered species quietly going about their business.  They were a lot bigger than what we had expected.

Thursday 10^th November

I mentioned earlier that Port Adelaide was host to the National Railway Museum, the South Australian Aviation Museum, and a Maritime Museum.  We had done the Railway and Aviation Museums, so now it was time to check out the Maritime Museum.  It was housed in a huge old 3 storied, stone warehouse. Again a brilliant display of South Australia’s Maritime History.

Part of the Museum included a reconstruction of the living accommodation used by the early settlers coming from England to Australia. The particular accommodation they had reconstructed was from a boat that sailed to Australia in 1840, which is about the same time as the first Broadmore’s emigrated to New Zealand, so we were able to get an idea of the sort of conditions they had to endure during their voyage.  A far cry from today’s cruise liners.

Another part of the museum was an old lighthouse, which we climbed to great some great views over Port Adelaide.

After the Maritime Museum we headed back into Adelaide City to visit the Adelaide Oval, one of the great cricketing grounds of the world, and home of the Museum dedicated to Australia’s most famous Australian Cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman. 

We didn’t get to have a look around the museum, but walked down to the edge of the grounds, and went up into the grandstand.  One of the grandstands is called the Sir Donald Bradman Stand, and two other smaller stands are named, would you believe it, the Chappell Stands.  Shame on you Aussie.  All us Kiwis know that the only cricket the Chappell Brothers could play was underarm bowling.

From the Oval we walked across the Torrens River which flows through the centre of the city, and into the centre of town for a look around.

We walked along the main central shopping complex, called The Rundle Mall, with its hundreds of fancy shops selling tons of overpriced useless rubbish.  Much more interesting were the buskers doing their thing in the street.  Of all the bigger cities we’ve visited in Aussie, Adelaide would be our favourite by far.

Friday 11^th November.

Interesting date for today, 11/11/11.  After the usual morning’s school work, we decided to have a look at some of Adelaide’s beachside suburbs and beaches.  Adelaide City and its suburbs stretch along some 50 km of beautiful sandy beaches.  One of the best known beachside suburbs is called Glenelg and this is where we headed for first. We sat on the seawall in front of the huge Stamford Hotel watching the locals and had our lunch.

From there we continued south, ending up at Maslin Beach at the very southern end where we spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun. Then we made the long drive back through the city to our motorcamp.

Tomorrow we head up towards the Barossa Valley area where we will stay for a few days while we make further arrangements about selling the car and caravan.  We have now got 3 different people interested in the van, including 1 from Queensland.  If the Queensland buyers come through, we may deliver the van up to them.  On the other hand, if we sell it here in Adelaide, we will continue on to Melbourne with just the Pajero.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Adelaide 1

Monday 7^th November

The day started with the usual school work. We have been discussing the various options we have to sell our van and the Pajero.  We have advertised in an Aussie Caravan magazine and also on Trade Me.  We have also emailed several caravan dealers here in Adelaide. We decided to visit some of the dealers to try and judge interest and get some prices.

There are at least a dozen caravan yards in Adelaide, spread out all over the city.  We visited 2 or 3 in one general area and a couple of them are interested, so that is good. One option they all offer is to sell on consignment; basically they sell on our behalf, but we only want to go down that line if we have to.

As a result of our visits we are going to call in at a couple of them on the way up to Gawler and the Barossa Valley on Saturday, to get a firm price.   After doing the rounds of the caravan yards we headed into Port Adelaide shopping centre for a look around and a bit of essential shopping.

Port Adelaide is a suburb of Adelaide itself, and is based around naturally enough, the Port area.  It has a lot of character with lots of old stone ware house buildings and of course an old stone pub on almost every corner.

Tuesday 8^th November

Port Adelaide is the home for among other things, the Australian National Railway Museum, An Aviation Museum, and a Maritime Museum.   After school work was finished we decided to visit first of all the Railway Museum, and then because it was right next door, we would also take in the Aviation Museum.

The Railway Museum was absolutely amazing. It was all displayed in a huge shed, with about a dozen beautifully restored old steam engines on display, as well as 3 or 4 diesels.  Each one of them had played a significant part in the history of the Australian Railways, like the first Ghan, to go from Adelaide to Darwin, and the first train to cross the Nullabor Plain.  Some of the steam engines were huge.

As well as the engines, there were also several carriages, like the dining car used on the Old Ghan line, and sleeper carriages from the same time. Besides the trains and carriages there was also a lot of the associated paraphernalia that goes with trains, including signal boxes stations and platforms. There was also a miniature train which took us for a ride right around the entire complex.

One of the interesting facts about the history of Australian Railways, is that in the early years, each state had its own gauge.   For the less informed, that is the width between the tracks, so when the lines gradually extended out and met at the various state borders, oops, they didn’t match up.  Bugger. 

To overcome this they had to establish special railway stations near the borders where the trains would stop, and everything had to be off loaded from one train and then on loaded on to the next. This of course meant that moving freight by railway was not very efficient. There were three different gauges in existence, and after a few years they finally managed to agree on a standard gauge.  I’ll bet there were a few interesting discussions on which states were going to have to change.

From the Railway Museum, we wandered a short distance along the street to the Aviation Museum. This was not a big museum compared to some of the others we had seen, but did have some classic planes on display. 

Among them a Canberra Bomber, a Spitfire, and a small home built aeroplane that an Adelaide man by the name of Jon Johanson, had built and then flown around the world three times,

as well as flying to and landing at Antarctica, and flying over the North Pole.

They also had a couple of interactive displays, and a full size Aerocommander aeroplane that you could sit in and play with all the controls. They also had lots of scale models to admire.