Back on the Road Again - the Van is Sold

We left Christchurch on a wet chilly morning and arrived in Brisbane to a beautiful sunny warm day four hours later, what bliss! The weather certainly seems to alter our moods. We both seemed to be coughing a bit from the dry air conditioning on the plane I think, but we were worried in case anyone thought we had the swine flu as they seem to be very concerned with it at the airport. When we walked in though immigration they were monitoring everyones temperature on a special infra red machine.
We caught the shuttle bus up to Mooloolaba to spend our first night as we weren't getting the van out of storage til Wednesday. We decided to stay a night at the Beach Resort on the Esplanade where we have stayed before, and as it was $200 for a night our budget is blown before we even start this trip. Anyway it was a lovely apartment, the very one we had stayed in before. We had a beautiful fish meal at the surf club and felt as if we had never been away. Next day we caught the bus to Eumundi for a total cost (for seniors) of $8.20 .
When we opened the van we found it was in perfect condition, no bugs and no leaks which were our main concerns. We did have a flat battery but a quick tow at the storage place saw us quickly on the road again towards Noosa. We camped up there and spent the rest of the day sorting out and stocking upon supplies etc. The camp was lovely spacious with palm tress all around and lovely warm weather. Also spent the next day in Noosa and it was drizzling but not cold. We are enjoying being back on the road again and are heading to Hervey Bay. The next two days saw us back at Gympy and our old freedom camping again. We met another NZ couple in their bus on their 2nd trip to OZ going in the opposite direction to us.
We spent the weekend at Hervey Bay where we were to meet up with someones family interested in buying our van. We haven't managed to see them yet as they may be still away. We are in two minds whether we want to sell it now so will see what happens when these folks have seen it. If they want it we will let it go, if they don't we might hang on to it and store it up again when we finish this trip. This decision changes daily or even hourly! especially by 'her indoors'
Hervey Bay is a huge bay and is not as popular as Sunshine or Surfers with all the high rise buildings but it is a very popular retirement location as the weather is so mild. It was certainly a lovely day when we were there. This bay is also an area where the whales come to spend the winter so this is a popular tourist attraction. They don't arrive til about August though.
Monday was pouring with rain and we drove over to Coulston Lakes to visit our friends Alex and Norma who also visited us in NZ earlier this year. Alex cooked us a great meal last night and Allen has gone out to help him fix up some fencing on the farm today. Its nice and warm and I am on cooking duty tonight. I will only be using two pots instead of the pile he used last night, thats what living in a van does for you.
There have been a few mozzies about and I have been bit a couple of times. I can't seem to escape the darned things. Tonight is a super $50 million lotto draw for which we have paid $12.50 for a ticket. This is the 3rd lottery ticket we have bought since we have been here only a week ago .Does this sound like desperation or not? Anyway whatever the outcome our gambling days are over.

We have been back here in Oz for2 weeks now and it seems like we have never been away. We have been heading up the coast towards Townsville and its been so lovely and warm. After leaving Alex's place were were heading towards Bunderburg when our missing people from Hervey Bay contacted us re the van sale, so we agreed to double back and show them as we were not far away in Childers.
The end result is the the van has been sold - to another NZ couple who are coming to do a similar trip to ours. Its a small world as it turns out that he works at the same place as son Michael in Invercargil. They want us to deliver it to Hervey Bay by 1st August so at least we can get some more traveling in. We have mixed feelings about letting it go as we have really enjoyed being back in it again. We were not sure how long it would take to sell and had decided to keep it if it didn't sell so were not too worried either way what happened. We have had several inquiries about it and strangely more from NZ than here.
We visited our new daughter in laws Aunt in Bundy as the locals call it and camped two nights on her 25 acre property where there is a lot of bush and the mozzies really attacked us when we first arrived. Her friend Don who has his own motor home will help us with all the relevant paperwork to sell the van when we get back down there as it has to pass certain safety certificates before it can be sold.
We were intending to go up to Cairns but now will only go as far as Townsville before heading inland and south again.
I hate to admit that we did buy another lotto ticket as it was not won last week and was now up to $100million prize money. It was won by 2 people last night so that is it no more buying for us.
There seems to be quite a lot of campers on the road, more in caravans than motor homes but it is the school holidays