Vehicle maintenance and back to Sydney 🔧

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 Patonga so headed there where we had a good sort out of our stuff, seeing if we can get it all in our backpacks, it doesn't feel like we've bought loads but it does pile up. We had a beach day the next day, starting with a walk on Patonga beach then a swim/surf at Umina beach. The sun was finally shining and Matt was determined to get some more use out of the surfboard.



The next day we had a trip to Bunnings, which I enjoyed way more than I should have done (think B&Q but better). We then found a random car park where Matt could service the van, the last thing to make her ready for sale, and then hit the road to Sydney to complete the loop. We put the adverts for the van out in a number of Australian backpacker Facebook groups and it's out of our hands now, just got to wait to see if we get any interest. We're happy to be back in Sydney, we headed the next day to Bondi beach as the sun was shining and it had been miserable when we'd visited back in January. We met up with Charlie and Emily, a lovely couple we'd met previously in Sydney who have been living and working in the city so it was great to catch up. 


We're currently parked up just out the city near Maroubra beach, where we can park the van for free and there are no signs saying 'sleeping in vehicles prohibited' which is rare around the city. It's great to be by the sea, there are showers nearby and another ocean pool which we've seen a lot of. They're like rock swimming pools right on the coast that get filled up by the sea, great for a dip in the sea without getting sandy. There is also lots of other campers around so a safe friendly atmosphere.


Wish us luck, we want to be in New Zealand by the 16th May which gives us plenty of time (hopefully) to pass Vanny on to new owners. 

Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕 




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