Where now?

We landed in Christchurch around midnight so had booked a hostel by the airport so we could get our heads down straight away. This was also a good idea as there's lots of freebies at hostels by airports so we set of to get our car the next day already loaded up with some of the essentials. We've hired our campercar through spaceships, a company you'll see on the roads regularly throughout Australia and New Zealand. They take their branding very seriously, every email you recieve from them is littered with space jargon and every spaceship has a name. So I would like to introduce our home for about the next 8 weeks, Hades! Yes, Hades as in God of the underworld.  We set off from Christchurch straight out onto the Banks Peninsula and were spoilt with bright crisp days but very chilly nights. We spent a night at Okains Bay where there was a lovely quite secluded beach then did a short walk up to a view point the next day. We spent night in Duvauchelle, where the campsite had ca...

After 109 nights with the van, she's finally been passed on to new owners to continue exploring Australia. We thought it would take about 2 weeks but it's taken nearly 3, and there were some moments inbetween we thought it would never happen! There is some sadness, as everywhere we've been Vanny has been with us, but at the moment there is huge relief that she's sold and we can carry on our travels.  It's been a very weird couple of weeks. At times it's been very relaxing with us being able to potter about, not being constantly on the move, and enjoying the coastline. This has been punctuated, however, by van viewings and cancellations, periods of no interest at all, and then the dreaded bartering stage. We ended up selling for a little less than we wanted but it's meant we can head to New Zealand and the buyers had a mechanical check done which highlighted some work so our original price was hard to stand by.  Where we've been based at Maroubra beach, t...

We arrived in Newcastle on another rainy morning but all was good as Vanny passed her inspection, which we were very relieved about. We went for a celebratory swim at the Newcastle Ocean Baths (just me and Matt not Vanny), but don't let the sunny photo deceive you, there was a cool breeze so it was a quick dip. After, we wandered along to Nobbys lighthouse watching the rain clouds ascend on us again.  We drove down the coast to stop at Norah Head for the night, but as we arrived in the rain the driverside window, which had always been a bit dodgy, decided to detach from its winding mechanism. We managed to get the glass mostly into position for the night but this was our new next day priority.  We woke to a clearer morning by the sea treating us to wonderful rainbow which was a welcome splash of colour! Then we were off to buy some pliers to fix our winding window. It took a while but the window is fixed, we've just got to be a bit gentle with it. We had a campsite booked in P...

 I'm very behind on blogging, so apologies! We spent a morning walking on the coast near Angourie. We wanted to do the Yuraygir Coastal Walk, but as we set off it got very narrow and overgrown, which isn't fun walking in a country with so many highly venomous snakes. We choose to saunter along the beaches instead, so the day ended up being more relaxing than we'd planned. We had a campsite booked and didn't want to arrive there too late anyway, as the closer we get to Sydney the closer we get to van selling, which we need to be prepared for. Whilst researching 'Best way to sell a van in Australia' we ate bacon baps, which we haven't had since we've been here so I was very happy.  We continued down the coast to Coffs Harbour where we visted Muttonbird Island, giving us lovely views out to sea. At certain times of the year its inhabited by Shearwaters nesting in their burrows but we were there just at the end of when they all fledge. Muttonbird was the nam...