Well, here we are back on the Aussie mainland after just on five weeks in Tasmania. We had driven just over 3300 km and still didn’t get to see everything we had planned on. Looking back, we had really enjoyed every minute of our Tassie trip, and it was hard to put any one experience above the rest.
Now it was time to pick up our caravan and generator, and hopefully a generator box that we could mount on the rear draw bar of the caravan to hold the generator. You may remember, when we dropped off the caravan we went to a nearby caravan centre where we were extremely lucky to spot a Kipor Generator, which we quickly put a deposit on so it would be there for us when we got back from Tassie. We also spoke to one of the employees about a generator box, and he assured us he could get one made to our exact requirements. As long as we gave him about a week’s notice, it would be ready for us when we came to pick up the generator. We had duly emailed him from Tassie with what we wanted, but never heard back. We hoped he had got the email, and had gone ahead as arranged to have it ready for us.
Eager to be reunited with our caravan, we headed off to Creative Caravans. We were keen to be on the road again and hoped to be in BALLARAT by that night. There it was sitting in their driveway all ready to go. One of their workers met us and quickly went over everything they had done. Stove well and securely screwed in, scratches in the floor where the stove had landed, all repaired. New table pedestal to replace the one scratched by the stove when it fell out. Extractor fan now sucking instead of blowing. Sealing around the toilet all finished.
“Anything else” he says. “What about the awning slide that was catching”. “Oh yeah, we got the guys from Aussie Traveller, they make the awnings, to have a look at that. They said there was nothing wrong with it”. Christel and I looked at each other. Had we imagined it? “OK” we said, “let’s have a look at it”. By this time we had been joined by another of Creative Caravans workers. Sure enough as soon as we tried to erect the awning the same old problem occurred, the slide caught. This time it was their turn to look at each other.
Surprisingly enough they continued to argue that the Aussie Traveller guys had assured them there was nothing wrong. After repeated demonstrations of how the slide caught every time it was moved, one of the workers got a screw driver and tightened some fittings on the slide, and low and behold, no more problems. Needless to say nothing would have been gained by commenting on the ability of the Aussie Traveller workers to detect and remedy very simple problems.
“Right then that’s everything”, says the Creative Caravans guy. “What about the wiring from the van to the car, has that been lengthened”. “Don’t know anything about that” he says. “Well Emma wrote that on her list of things to be done” we say. “I’ll see if the electrician can have a look at it for you” he says. “Good idea.” we reply. Out comes the electrician who also claims no knowledge of the wiring problem, but offers to fix it straight away. “If you can give us about an hour I’ll have it done for you” he gallantly offers. “That’s great. We’ll go and have some lunch and pick up our generator and generator box, then call back”.
A little disappointed that we still didn’t have our caravan in tow, and beginning to realise we may not get to BALLARAT today, we went and had lunch and then headed off to the caravan centre to pick up our generator, and hopefully a generator box. Now, this is where the fun really starts.
Arriving at the Caravan Super Centre we quickly recognise the lady who had done the paper work for us when we put the deposit down on the generator. We explained why we were there and she said she remembered us and got out the paper work with our details, and the fact that we had put down a $600 deposit on our generator. She then went to the office at the side to get our generator. We could see her hunting around, among a pile of packages, and then having a conversation with another employee. They were frequently referring to the paper work with our deposit recorded on it, and made repeated searches among the packages. It was obvious they were becoming a bit agitated. You know where this is going don’t you. Finally they both came back to us.
“We don’t have it” they rather embarrassingly inform us. “What do you mean you don’t have it? You must have it. We have paid a deposit on it”. “Yes we know but it’s been sold”. “What do you mean it’s been sold? You can’t sell it twice. You had already sold it to us. You have the receipt in front of you.” “Yes we know, but there’s been a huge demand for generators because of the floods up north”. “Look, we know all about the floods up north, that’s why we put a deposit on the one we saw here in the shop, so it would be here for us now. Now if you don’t mind we would like our generator please.” “We are very sorry, but we don’t have it”.
“I see. Where is Michael Smith, the man who sold us the generator”. “We’re sorry but he’s away at the caravan expo and won’t be back until Tuesday”. “OK, who’s in charge while he’s not here”. “Well only us really, everyone else is at the expo.” “So, you don’t have our generator here, and there’s no one who can tell us why”. “Yes we’re sorry, but look we do have another shipment of Kipor generators coming in, in early April, you can have one of those.” “Listen lady, we came into this shop a month ago to buy a generator. We were told they were in very short supply due to the flooding up north, but you did have one in the shop. Because they were in such short supply we put a deposit on it so it would be here for us now. By early April we will be several hundred miles from here. We have come right across Melbourne to pick it up so we can continue our trip. We want a generator now.” “Well we do have these new Hyundai generators in stock, you can have one of those. They are more powerful and a bit dearer than the Kipor, but you can have it at the same price”.
I won’t bore you with too many more details, but by now you will have got the general gist of what was happening. It would be a slight understatement to say I was pretty p$%^d off. To my mind they had stolen our generator and there was nothing we could do about it. At the same time it was obvious the two staff members we were dealing with, had been left holding the candle, and it was no good having a go at them. If only this Michael Smith guy was available, but he wasn’t so we had to make the best of what there was.
The Hyundai Generator had a 2.6 kw output as against only 2.0 for the Kipor, and of course the bigger the output, the higher the cost. Unfortunately it was also quite a bit heavier and quite a bit noisier, but beggars can’t be choosers. So to cut a long story short we bought a Hyundai 2.6 generator for the price of a 2.0kw Kipor. Quite a good buy by any means but that wasn’t really the point.
Now comes the next part of our visit to the Caravan Super Centre. Remember the generator box. The story goes like this.
“Ok now that we have got the generator all sorted, what about the box Michael Smith was going to get made for us”. This statement was met with blank stares. They knew nothing about it. Great, now we had a generator and no where to put it. Don’t you just love doing business in Aussie. First a caravan that falls to bits, and now this. I was beginning to wonder how many of New Zealand’s unemployables come over to Aussie and get jobs in the caravan industry.
Again to cut a long story short we decided to buy a box off the shelf from in their showroom. “Now, can you recommend someone to fit it to our caravan for us”. “Yes we can. The engineers we use are just around the corner, but unfortunately they have closed today at midday for the long weekend.” “What long weekend?” “Oh didn’t you know. It’s Victoria’s Labour Weekend this weekend. Everybody closes up early on Friday and doesn’t open again until Tuesday.”
Now, remember how the day started. A quick trip to Creative Caravans to pick up our van, pop down the road to the Caravan Super Centre to pick up our generator and box, and be half way to BALLARAT by lunchtime. By now it was about 1.30pm, and at this stage our caravan was still at Creative Caravans, hopefully having it’s wiring fixed, we had bought a generator we didn’t really want, and a generator box that would have to do, but no means of fitting it before Tuesday.
We decided that maybe, just maybe, Creative Caravans could come to the rescue and be able to fit our box for us. Problem was, the back of the Pajero was still full with our camping gear and we couldn’t get it from the Caravan Super Centre to Creative, and bearing in mind our experience with the generator, we were reluctant to leave it in the custody of the Super Centre. However we had little choice. Makes getting lost in Melbourne on the way to the ferry sound like a nice quiet day at the beach doesn’t it.
Obviously we weren’t going anywhere before next Tuesday. Oh well, better ring a camp ground and get a site for the weekend, then come back on Tuesday, and see if we can get the box fitted by someone. No problem, right? Wrong. First camping ground - sorry booked out due to long weekend. Second camping ground, this time a bit further out of town. Sorry booked out, long weekend. Getting the picture? Finally after about six tries we finally got a site about 90 km out of town.
That dealt with, and with our new generator in the back, it was back up to Creative Caravans with fingers crossed that all would be well, and we could get the hell out of this place. At least we would have a chance to play with the new generator over the weekend and make sure all was well.
At last, the tide had turned. The wiring was fixed and all was go. We spoke to one of the staff about our box dilemma. “No problem mate. You grab some bolts over the weekend, bring her back here lunchtime Tuesday and I’ll fit her on for you”. So, with caravan in tow we headed out of town to our campsite. By now of course, millions of Melbournians were on the road heading out of town for the long weekend. Guess what, 4 hours later we finally got to our motorcamp.
Well. I think that’s enough drama for one episode. But don’t worry, there’s more to come. Watch this space.
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