Our flight from Auckland to Melbourne was uneventful and Howard, the guy who we bought the car off was waiting to meet us. He didn’t bring our car with him so it was out to his shop at Ringwood to pick up the Pajero. From there we drove to Traralgon to our Motor Camp which is right next door to Ian Grants Caravan yard where our caravan was waiting for us. Being Sunday and the New Years Day Holidays, we had to wait until Tuesday before we could see our van. So we spent Sunday afternoon and Monday morning buying equipment and groceries with the occasional swim thrown in to help relieve Cameron’s boredom.
On Monday afternoon we took a break from our shopping expeditions and went for a Tiki Tour to Tarra-Bulga National Park about 30 km south of Traralgon. On the way we passed the LOY YANG Power Station and open cast coal mine. A huge hole in the ground where the coal is mined to feed the power station. The power station consumes 60,000 tonnes of coal a day, and as you can imagine it takes some pretty big machinery to keep it fed. Cameron was blown away by the size of the mine and used some very long descriptive words to express his astonishment. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the mine to see the gigantic excavators up close.
The drive through TARRA-BULGA National Park was a beautiful drive through bush, with some great views out over the surrounding country. We stopped at the Park headquarters where we were instantly visited by several wild beautifully coloured Crimson Rosellas who immediately settled on our arms and hands and proceeded to eat our afternoon tea. A fascinating experience, especially for Cameron.
It was three very excited people who arrived promptly at 9.00 at the gates to Ian Grants caravan yard on Tuesday morning, and we were all very impressed with the first view of our home for the next 12 months. The familiarisation of the van took until about 2.00 pm and then it was time to hook up and tow it the 100 meters to the camp ground next door. This little exercise suddenly bought home the immensity of our rig - 13 meters from the front of the car to the end of the van. Boy you have to swing out wide when turning and think of so many obstacles waiting to rip down the side of our brand new home.
Safely on our camp site we unhitched and commenced to set up home. That’s when the problems started. In quick succession we discovered the one electric element on the stove wouldn’t go, despite the igniters working ok on the three gas elements, the igniters on the roll out BBQ didn’t operate, and when we went to fill our water tanks, one of the pipe couplings fell off with the result that we had a flood under the bottom bunk. All this despite the check list from the van manufacturers showing that all had been checked and tested. Suddenly our nice new caravan was starting to look like a lemon. Needless to say, an e-mail will be sent to the Caravan Manufacturers, politely advising them of their short comings.
A quick visit back to Ian Grants Caravan yard and their maintenance man was soon on the scene armed with a handful of tools to rectify the problems. The water pipe was soon glued up, and, just as a precaution we checked the other one, only to find that it too was due to fall off. Luckily it had held while the tank was filling. The stove element had us all fooled until we discovered, by dismantling various cupboards, that it had never been plugged in. This really had us fooled because the electronic gas igniters were working and we all presumed that therefore there must be power to the stove. The gas BBQ was a simple matter. Despite the fact that the instructions said to press and turn the control knob until the elements ignited, it had never been fitted with igniters. Silly us. That took care of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday morning we had arranged with Ian Grants caravan yard to get the Reese Hayman Hitch attached. For those of you not in the know, this is a spring loaded device that attaches to the draw bar of the car and the towing frame of the van. Its purpose is to distribute the drawbar weight evenly over the car and van wheels, thereby providing a much safer and more comfortable ride. It had been highly recommended that we fit one of these by everyone we spoke to. This took all of Friday morning and just on lunch time we were ready to return the van to our motor camp. Just to make sure everything worked, this time we hooked up all the electrical plugs before we drove off. Turning left into the motor camp, all the plugs pulled out. They had been made too short for sharp turns.
Another trip back to the caravan yard with the bad news. This time they weren’t very interested in our problem, saying the plugs on the car must be set too far back and therefore we would have to rectify it. Another trip to town, and about $50 later we had 2 new sets of plugs and the extra wiring needed. Then it was about a 2 hour job fitting it all up. That was Friday taken care of.
Saturday we decided it was time for some more sightseeing. Before we set off, we took the brand new $600 Hayman Reese hitch out of the van boot to have a check of them and one of the hitches promptly fell apart at our feet. When is this ever going to end? We managed to do a temporary repair, and hopefully it will hold until we next visit Ian Grants Caravans.
After fixing the hitch we went on a sightseeing trip up to an old gold mining town called WALHALLA, which is about 50 km north of Traralgon. We took a train ride through a gorge where several million dollars of gold had been found back in the 1880s. Parts of the town have been preserved, and again we all thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Tomorrow, Sunday 9th we make the big move and put our rig on the road for the first time. We intend to travel east from Traralgon through SALE and BAIRNSDALE a distance of about 160 km, and then on to a small town about 30 km north of BAIRNSDALE called BRUTHEN to a motor camp recommended by fellow travellers. We intend to spend a few days there exploring the area, including the LAKES ENTRANCE area, which is by a huge inlet on the south coast. Hopefully the van won’t fall to pieces before we get there. We are sure our Insurance Company have no idea what they have taken on.
Despite all the teething problems, now that we have most of our equipment installed, our caravan has started to feel like home and we are quite excited to be getting ready to move on from here.
Here endeth the first lesson.
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