Brisbane #3

We have enjoyed a few trips away including our trip to Mapleton where we took the van and stayed in the Lilypond Van Park.  It is right in Mapleton but back from the road enough to be very quiet and still a short walk to the pub, shops, and great views over the Sunshine Coast.  A very enjoyable weekend which will be remembered for the final 20 metres of the trip.  Backing into a narrow gateway off a busy street among parked cars has its risks.  We are now finding all about how difficult it is to get a small mark on the rear corner of the van repaired quickly.  No major damage, just time consuming repairs.

 Henry with his sports award from a couple of weeks ago.

The next weekend was busy with a trip to Noosa on Friday to catch up Brendan and Michelle and spend the day with Henry and Charlie.  The boys loved the beach and we spent a long time in the surf.  The water was very rough but Coolum Beach was great with smaller waves in close for them to ride their boogie boards in.  We then went out to Yandina and did the Ginger Factory over.  The highlight was the train ride around the grounds.

 Charlie at Coolum

 Henry catching a wave

 On board the Ginger Factory Train

 After the ride

 If only we could eat him...

We spent the next couple of nights at Murwillumbah with Barry.  Their was some work to be done in the yard although the yard is now under control and can be mowed pretty quickly.  The weather kept us inside mostly but didn’t prevent a raging rubbish fire being constructed.  It was even cold enough to light the fireplace on Sunday night.  The creek that we had worked to clear after Christmas was very different after the recent heavy rains and was now much wider, cleaner and very soothing.  Baz’s workman has also progressed the modifications a lot and the house now looks much better than when he bought it.  

My main project in Brisbane this week has been the location and refurbishing of the girls cubby house which finally arrived from Dysart.  I enjoyed working with wood again and after relocating the rock wall to suit the current pad, we added battens under the cubby to match the house. 

While the van was being serviced we had the electrics on the Landcruiser checked out to try to locate the problem with the black pin on the trailer plug connection.  The problem turned out to be the electric brake controller which had failed.  The guys at Arrow that replaced my controller had the same controller on their work vehicle and it had failed only a few days earlier.  Their controller had turned the vehicles brake lights on in the middle of the night and flattened the battery.  This reminded me of the strange things happening on Russ & Janes car in Tamworth with the same controller in it.  Needless to say, we installed a different (better??) brake controller.  It is a Guardian IQ Controller from Hayman Reese and cost $360 installed.

We have planned the route we intend taking on our lap west and now have a rough idea of the fuel and park fee costs we will be up for.  To see all of Australia that we haven’t seen yet we have more than 45,000 kms ahead.  Making the plan is the easy bit and our collection of reports on attractions ‘not to be missed’ continues to grow.

 The cubby going in to place via crane truck.  No pressure - just had to re-drill and bolt 9 legs on to it while the crane suspended it in place.

 The cubby in place at last !! Note :- No room underneath for the van?

 Girls best 'patient' friend

 Grandma and Girls watching the gardening

 Kirsty and Ben at 9 months

Bunnings is the nearest hardware and after several trips in my Home Hardware shirt they got sick of it and asked why I was wearing it.  I told them it was because they had not given me a Bunnings one.  Now Ben has a new green Bunnings T-shirt !!! 

Queensland 2

We are both being kept busy and are finding plenty of different things to do.

During the week we heard about the WOW Sight and Sound demise and called into a store to look at the “Receivers” Sale. The ads did say ‘up to’ 30% off and showed a TV price marked down 30%.  That was it.  Everything else was 5,10 or 20% off a very high retail price.  We bought nothing and joined the hundreds of other disgruntled shoppers leaving empty handed.  Most product was priced more expensively than we could have bought elsewhere and that was after the discounts.  The queues at the checkout were still long though – go figure??

A note for other caravanners :--  I may have mentioned to some that we have changed our internal lights over to LED’s.  I initially bought 2 to try them and once satisfied bought another box of 12 to change the whole van over.  The first 2 cost $25 each from Kratzmann’s and are still working fine.  The next 12 we bought on the WWW from an outlet we saw at last year’s caravan show and paid only $16 each.  These were bought from ‘Dreamlighting’ in Brisbane.  For whatever reason, 4 of them have failed in only 3 months.  They are supposed to last for 3,000 hours.  On most, a little square circuit on the back of the light has fallen off with all 4 solder points letting go and on two of them a couple of the LED’s have also fallen off.  In short, I have once again learned that you get what you pay for and I have returned to Kratzmanns’ for more expensive ones.

This weekend we are having a long weekend relaxing in Mapleton.  The Eumundi Markets are still huge and very popular but after 2 hours browsing, we only chose a dress and a bunch of bananas.  A picnic at the beach and a long slow read of the paper made up for it.

The weather is warm during the day but the breeze in late afternoons is cool and makes for beautiful sleeping conditions.  After so much rain over summer the country looks very lush, clean and green.  I am surprised how much real estate values have fallen.  There seems to be good value around the Sunshine Coast and hinterland at the moment with really nice properties available in the $300K to $500K range.  I even saw one unit advertised for $179,000 rented for $260/week.

Till next week…………….

Queensland

Our southward journey is over for the moment.  We have commenced our trip back north heading for Darwin for the winter. 

Kirsty’s baby is due in a few weeks and they have moved into their new home.  It is a renovated Queenslander style house that is very neat and has all the mod cons including a pool and a van slab off the end of the driveway.  There are, however, numerous small jobs that need Dad’s attention and Mum’s help with setting up the house is always appreciated.

The two ‘preppys’ are both doing really well at their first year of ‘school’.  Elliot received an award for using “beautiful manners all week” and was so proud to show us when we met up in Lithgow. He has since recieved another award.  This week Isobel also received an award for “asking lots of interesting questions and being interested in learning”.  Isobel was also excited although she was a bit hesitant about getting up in front of assembly to receive the certificate.  Henry also has recieved a "Good Sportsmanship Award" for his participation in Tennis for PE.  He is so happy to win a sports award.

 Elliot with his two awards.

 Isobel on parade with her award

 Two cuties after dropping their big siblings off at prep - Madelaine and Owen (Scott and Kates middle boy) Mads is the one talking!!

Seems like we dodged a bullet leaving NSW where all the rain has been falling.  There has been rain up here but only showers.

As we will hanging around for a few weeks we may only update every fortnight for the next couple of times.