Travelling in South Eastern Australia & NZ info?
Submitted: Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 at 14:27
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piratequeen
I know this is an Oztravel site yet I've seen some discussion on here regarding NZ travel so I thought I would ask. :)
We are a family of 5 (2 kids, one baby and two crazy adults) who, having finally gotten sick of paying the exhorbitant rental prices here in
Brisbane, have decided to buy a van and explore in the hopes of finding somewhere that's right for us.
Brisbane is too disgustingly hot and humid so we have no plans at all to travel the top half of Australia, but we'd really appreciate any suggestions and recommendations for travelling the cooler climates of Oz and any tips about travelling in NZ.
My husband's parents bought us an un-outfitted Toyota Commuter as a wedding present, so we have only that and basic
camping gear to start with. We don't have a clue if our travelling will become a way of life so we figure that spending a lot on a motorhome is an extravagance we can't afford (as much as one would be awesome with a baby, we're on disability pensions and banks just laugh at us when it comes to loans). So we're just going to give it a go.
NZ is another matter though- the homemade truck 'houses on
wheels' are just awesome! We're planning on going for just under three months and figure investing in one would be a smart move- any suggestions on discussion boards like this one that deal with NZ travel?
We really have no idea what we're doing, we just know that we need to do something other than end up homeless in the city because we can't afford the rental prices. $500 a week for a house translates to a LOT more travel than we'd want to be doing on a weekly basis, so just from that point of view we'll be ahead of the game.
Sorry this is a bit rambly, there's so much to ask that I could have written a novel. :)
Reply By: Member - Footloose - Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 at 15:07
Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 at 15:07
Don't know if this is any use to you, but I hope so.
Nuu Zeelund
Good luck .
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Follow Up By: piratequeen - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:39
Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:39
Thankyou for that, I'll check it out for sure. :)
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Reply By: Member - Oldbaz. NSW. - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 10:49
Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 10:49
Hi, I think you need to do some serious budgeting here. I realise
that being on fixed income pensions is hard with a
young family, but life on the road may not be a better alternative. You must
cost your accomodation, eg caravan parks, fuel, food & so on, & see if you are able to handle that expense. No doubt you can find
much cheaper accomodation in rural areas, less than half the $500
you pay now. Other things like access to medical
services & schools
for the kids must be considered. I wish you luck........oldbaz.
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Follow Up By: piratequeen - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:39
Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:39
We aren't intending to use caravan parks often- we're pretty introverted as a family and masses of people don't go
well with that. Food is cheaper when using a lot of roadside stalls/markets (we're getting the market and fairs guide to give us a clue on that one). We're not materialistic, will be planning our trip based on
places we want to stay for a couple of days/a week at a time so petrol will be on a weekly basis with bikes for hiking about. School is not a consideration because we don't send our kids to school- John Holt and John Taylor Gatto are our inspiration for that. We've never needed doctors for anything but emergency treatment and as we're not intending on going remote that isn't much of an issue.
Basically we're curious to see if we want to take this up as a way of life: if we do then we'll be having a go at building a housetruck instead of
camping. Anything is better than doing nothing in the city. :)
Thanks for the wellwishes. If you can think of any
places in the cooler parts of Oz that might be of interest I'd love to hear about it. :)
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Reply By: Member - Stuart W (NSW) - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:55
Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 20:55
It sounds to me as if you are the type of people with enough nous to give this a good go. Do you know much about mechanics ? Might be worth looking into that. If you're coming south and looking for cheaper rent stay away from
Sydney and
Melbourne. But you don't have to go too far out. I'm looking at around $300 p/w to rent my 3 bedroom house in the Blue Mts west of
Sydney. Like oldbaz says have a good think about it and if you feel good just do it. What have you got to lose. Good luck.
Stuart.
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Follow Up By: piratequeen - Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 21:20
Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 at 21:20
We do have nous, which is one of the reasons why living in the city is uninspiring. :D My husband is an engineer/roboticist/geek/inventor and I love to build things so we figure we should get along fine, although we are interested in learning mechanics. Eventually we hope to run a modified diesel on wood gas, which Michael (husband) has been researching. The tricky bit will be putting the spark ignition on the diesel- we've been trying to get hold of some of the specs of units that were running in the '40s. I was thinking about starting another thread with the question 'anyone got any information?' :)
Thanks for the vote of confidence. We're not mainstream by any stretch of the imagination and we're a little lost in this culture, so we're on the
lookout for something more interesting. :)
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