An Aussie odyssey

By ROBIN CHARTERIS

Judi and I were going to be like Darby and Joan. We love travel with a difference so we thought we'd hire a campervan and have a leisurely drive back from our nephew's wedding in Perth across the Nullarbor to Melbourne, then fly home to Dunedin.

Great. New country, peaceful open spaces. We booked a two-berth van.

Dunedin-based daughter Kim, husband Chris and baby Tasman were going to the wedding, too. Chris had to fly back in a hurry for work, but mother and baby had no commitments. "We girls could drive with you," suggested Kim.

Wow! Family bonding. We upgraded to a four-berth.

Chris was put out. He hummed and haa-ed, worked on his boss and ended up getting another week off. Could he, plus surfboard, come, too?

Gulp! Real togetherness. We re-booked and moved up to a truck-sized, six-berth camper.

So two days after the wedding we farewelled Australian-based family and friends and set off on an eight-day, 4002km odyssey across Australia, from the Indian Ocean to the Tasman Sea, facing the empty wastes of the infamous no-trees Nullarbor Plain, the dreaded heat and flies of the vast and arid Outback, the relentless, mind-numbing monotony of straight and endless highway ... four of us crammed into a noisy tin box and with a 6-month-old baby to boot.

Mad? A little, perhaps. But while the distance was immense and the need to keep pushing on was constantly on our minds, the passing wastes were anything but empty.

The Nullarbor was never boring; the heat and flies were but a minor distraction; the highway was tar-sealed, first class and fascinating; the driving was a pleasure; the van was a delight; and Miss Tassie was a dream traveller.

Her daily perch was a New Zealand Plunket Society-provided baby's car seat strapped securely between the two front seats of the 6.2m long, 2.4m wide and 3.4m high behemoth hired from New Zealand company, Britz.

From here, the little beauty could chuckle with and be entertained by her two driving compartment companions when not lulled to sleep by the purr of the Isuzu 4.3 litre diesel motor and the gentle rocking of our ever-onward journey. As her comfortable padded seat faced backwards, she also had the attention of the two passengers sitting or lying in the commodious rear cabin.

Our days began early. Tassie would nudge her mother about 5am or so, well before dawn, demanding a cuddle and a feed. That prompted Chris to put the kettle on and provide a cuppa to his lie-abed in-laws sharing the comfortable double bed above the van's cab.

There was more room than we thought, if little privacy, for four adults to dress and move around in the living area. The triple bed shared by Chris, Kim and Tasman doubled as daytime table and seats, and our bed when not in use housed Tasman's buggy and other bulky items.

Breakfasts came quickly and included fruit, muesli and toast from the efficient four-ring plus griller gas cooker.

We'd be tuckered-up, tucked in and on the road by 7 most mornings from our free-camping sites, a little later if in a campground, as we would try to make full use of laundry and bathroom amenities there. The van came with shower and toilet but we found it comforting every second or third night to hook up to 240 volt power and associated amenities at the excellent and ubiquitous camping grounds.

Free camping was more fun. The size, the isolation, the nature of the Australian Outback and very often its varied bird life is never better experienced than at dusk or dawn from a clearing in what seems to be the middle of nowhere, and you never saw such stars at night. From flat horizon to flat horizon, they daisy-carpeted an ebony vastness.

Distant rumbles from a massive electrical storm woke Tassie one night. Lightning bolts shot across the sky for hours, interspersed with almost continuous flashes of red, white and yellow lights. Perth, almost 2000km behind us, we learned later, had been lashed by high winds and 52mm of rain in 12 hours.

Our days' driving sessions were through near-cloudless blue skies on a near-empty road. As it was autumn, there were no extremes of heat but by late morning we would be pleased to turn on the van's air conditioning.

The weather didn't worry fair-skinned Tassie, and nor did the Aussie flies. She liked the rare occasions we left the van to explore on foot, she in her fly-screen adorned push chair, and she certainly enjoyed the attention from other travellers at the welcoming roadhouses dotted along the highway.

We would fill up with diesel at almost every opportunity for the first five days, so far apart were roadhouses or towns. Fuel prices started at 88.9c a litre (no separate diesel road tax in Australia like New Zealand) and rose to 119.9c before descending to 82.5c in Melbourne.

The van was thirsty; we spent about A$90 ($103) a day on fuel and averaged 500-600km.

But other costs were low. With a good fridge, small freezer unit and ample cupboard space for storage, we were able to make our major supermarket shop on the outskirts of Perth last right through to Melbourne, and keep the beer cold all the way.

Early starts were accompanied by early finishes. It was dark by 6pm, so we would look for a campsite soon after five. Few motorists in other than very large trucks or road trains drive the Nullarbor at night because of the danger of hitting wild kangaroos, emus and camels.

We saw ample evidence of "road kill" every day, as common as dead possums and rabbits on New Zealand roads, but it was not until our second last day and well within the civilisation of Victoria that we saw live kangaroos in the wild.

If kangaroos were disappointing by their absence, little else of Outback Australia was. Its barrenness, the feeling it engenders of endless sand, red earth, thin scrub and eucalypts going on and on and the absence of people may be boring to some but to us, they were the reasons for being there.

The countryside changed imperceptibly as we drove east. Once we came within cooee of Adelaide and its wonderful wine-producing Clare and Barossa Valleys and McLarenvale, we were in rolling grasslands - Blenheim with bluegums, as Kim called it.

We detoured off the now-busy main highways through quaint and quiet villages, down rural roads that allowed a different view of heartland Australia, until linking into the Great Ocean Road, the spectacular coastal highway that hugs the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait for the last 250km or so into Geelong before the final across-Australia leg to Melbourne.

Tassie enjoyed it all. Before she was even seven months old, she had crossed the great Australian Outback, seen her first kangaroo, cockatoos coming in to roost in their thousands, the brothels of Kalgoorlie, the Twelve Apostles, numerous vineyard "cellar doors" and too many bluegum trees to count.

She had been in a pub with Aborigines and dusty drovers and shared tables with tattooed bikers and grubby truckies. Tassie had become a traveller.

And she had provided her grandfather with more than enough travel and baby photographs to bore the pants off family or friends silly enough to ask "how did it all go, taking Miss Tassie in a campervan?"

* Over the winter months through to the end of September, Maui Motorhomes in New Zealand is offering skiers and holidaymakers motorhome rentals starting at $59/day for the 2-berth Spirit 2 through to $119/day for the large 6-berth Spirit 6.

Tackling Mt Ruapehu, or skiing Cardrona and Treble Cone doesn't mean going without creature comforts when travelling in a Maui Motorhome. Maui vehicles offer all the conveniences of home - the cabin area in each vehicle is heated and cosy duvets are supplied.

Travellers holidaying on the North Island in either a Maui motorhome or rental car get one free ski pass per vehicle.

For more information on Maui's winter deals, contact: Louise Skinner, THL Rentals, 09 256 0754.

Case notes

What it costs


The daily hire of a Britz Regent 6-berth motorhome is A$214 ($245) a day in the low season (May 1 to June 30).

High season is A$360 ($412) a day (December 15 to January 14).

There are six other pricing bands available throughout the year.

Three levels of insurance are available, but the recommended zero excess option is A$35 ($40) a day.

Contact

Ph: 00613 83798890 for details.