Day 100: Brisbane (OJG)

Hey all,

I thought I would write a summary of the last week or so, not that there is much fun stuff to tell!

Basically changing our means of transport, our home, and our daily routine has knocked us for six!

First off, we spent a lot of the time downsizing all our possessions. It is amazing how much rubbish comes out of a Kombi! We got Henry emptied, sorted out all of the bits into piles of "need" and "don't need", and then repeated the process about 2 further times on the remaining "need" piles!

Once that was done, we gave Henry a good clean (and found out that a mouse had just moved in 2 nights before, it likes almonds!). I sprayed a few of the rusty areas on the outside with white paint, before we filled him up with our "don't need" pile, and took him to Custom Offroad where he will go into storage. Of course about 4 days later we had another box full of "don't need" stuff!

Whilst shedding our old skin we have also spent a lot of time preparing our new one! The Prado needed several modifications in order for it to tour and off-road better. We gave ourselves a budget for this, and as usual the mod I wanted the most was cut out! I will do a separate blog entry with plenty of detail when we have all the mods fitted. Suffice to say that it took about 2 days driving around car orientated industrial estates before we found ourselves a good deal. Unfortunately they would not be able to get all the bits and start work for another 2 weeks. Sigh.

Once the big stuff was out of the way, we needed to get all the smaller bits. Top of the list was a new larger tent. Emelie wanted to stick with the Black Wolf Turbo Twin tent and we found a large 6m x 2.4m version. It cost a small fortune, but we were assured we were buying the best money could buy... yep.... we were told wrong!

After 3 days (it would have been less except for a bank holiday), we took the tent back. We took it back on the basis that it was missing a tiny toggle loop at the top, which in itself was not actually a big deal. However the night before it had rained really hard, and as luck would have it we woke up with several pools of water inside the tent. Most tents use a 2 layer approach to stop rain coming in, but Black Wolf have to be all smart and just apply a rain resistant coating to their single layer. This works fine, as long as nothing touches the sides. Suddenly the large tent becomes very small, and frankly rather pointless. We had other gripes too, but I won't go into all of them.

Having had enough of the big camping shops, we found a nice small one that recommended us the Coleman Northstar. Even better, they had one of last years models available for half price. This tent is perfect in just about every way: Strong supports; Lets lots of light in; Tall ceiling all over; Huge awning; Small packed size; Carry case has plenty of room (no wrestling required). On the negative side, it can get hot during the day, and of course bloody cold at night!

To go with our new tent we have had to buy a few new camping accessories such as foam mats, groundsheet, outdoor lantern, and even a couple of rugs and side lights to make the tent feel just a tad more homely (it really does helps).

And then, I remembered that I still had to do the vehicle owner transfer. In Australia it is really good, because they have loads of public locations run by the Department of Transport, where you can sort out all of your vehicle related needs! Easy... Well it was in WA, so it should be here in QLD...

[note: I don't want to frighten people off by using lettering that is too big or garish, or with a flashing background (Dave!), but believe me when I say that the following line should be a lot bigger!]

I WAS WRONG!!!

How wrong? Let me tell you! I take the 1 page transfer document which the previous owner partly filled in (I filled in the rest), the 6 page recent safety certificate for the vehicle, the 1 page original vehicle receipt, and of course all the paperwork for myself that I can find. At the nearest Department of Transport office (hall would be more appropriate, it was a big place), I join a queue for about an hour. I get to a clerk, who takes all my papers, undoes the various staples, and promptly asks me for my Queensland driving licence! I don't have one, I reply. She then asks me for my Queensland address. I don't have one of those either. She then tells me "ok, well I cannot help you, this is not my problem", re-staples all the documents and hands them back to me.

Excuse me?! I protest. After all, what if people have bought a vehicle but are from Sydney or Melbourne, or what if they have no address at all? Am I supposed to just go back to the sellers and tell them sorry, I am not allowed to have this car?!

After explaining a few of these scenarios, the lady just could not see how crazy their system was. However, her lunch break was due, and seeing that I was not leaving, she raced off to her supervisor who instructed her to give me another handful of forms. After another 10 minutes of discussion, I walked out, absolutely furious.

In order for me to legally acquire this vehicle, I had to not only fill out the F3220 transfer form, but also a Queensland Department of Transport Customer Application form! I have to additionally supply my passport, UK driving licence, bank card, medical card, a recent document with an Australian address, a Queensland "Garage" address (if this belongs to someone else, they have to then fill out yet another form and supply a recent utility document with their address). How many times do they need to verify my identity?!

After sorting out all of the above, I went to a different DoT office, and handed over the stack of forms and documents. The woman behind the glass inspected all of it, and then told me she could process all of this, but that it would all be legally void as I would need a QLD driving licence. At which point she handed me several new forms that I would have to fill out. She saw the look of despair on my face, and said that I could do the licence another day, and how did I want to pay the $610 tax? Arghhhh

So, after a solid day of driving around acquiring more and more paperwork we finally became the legal owners of the Toyota Prado, woo-hoo, although technically we are still not sure if we are legally allowed to drive it?!

And that in a nutshell has been our last week. I told you there was no fun stuff!

Actually, there was one little thing that brought a smile. This pigeon (Ben, can you name it for us?) with the cutest feathered feet that kept on coming up to our table in a cafe near the industrial area. We returned a few times to the cafe, and the pigeon was always there marching up and down along the tables, like a Sergeant major inspecting his squad. Very cute!