Goodbye Australia, Goodbye Vanny 😢

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, the car park has signs saying 'No camping or overnight stays in vehicles' so we spent a few nights on the roadside with buses hurtling past. We soon noticed however that every night there were about 7-8 campervans staying in the car park, one of which didn't move at all for at least week and a half. So we started spending nights in the car park as it was much quiter. 

We've enjoyed life at the car park! It meant access to Mahon Pool so we could swim everyday and have hot showers (annoyingly cold on weekends). 

We've spent lots of time walking up and down the coast which is so lovely considering how close to Sydney it is, and when the weather's been bad we've actually started to make plans for New Zealand. 



We've headed into the city a couple of times to sightsee again and say goodbye to Sydney. We met our friends Emily and Charlie one evening at a free jazz event but ended up leaving and heading to the pub for a good catch up. We've also spent plenty of time taking it easy in our car park home when it hasn't been raining.




So goodbye Australia! It really has been amazing. We've been blown away by the wildlife, the rainforests, and glorious beaches, as well as the amount of public toliets and drinking water available. I'm pretty sure at somepoint we'll be back, there is still the western coastline to explore after all. I'm pretty sure I posted a photo of our first cup of tea with Vanny, but here it is again with my last below that. The last wasn't relaxed as the first, as we had the van to empty and a time to meet the new owners, but it had to be documented!



We're currently sat in Sydney Airport taking a breath as the van sale and handover all happened quite suddenly in the end. Next stop - Christchurch NZ. It's time to brace ourselves for the New Zealand winter! 


Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕 



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