Bloody roosters – three of them started up well before dawn and were still going strong when the cloud obscured sun came up. It was therefore quite a memorable night given that it would be our last night of free camping and with the traffic and chicken noise was one of the most disturbed. It makes us appreciate all the nice quiet places we have stayed at around the island. We only had about 30km for the run into Gold Coast so took our time and before long we were heading north in the midst of the M1 freeway system.
We had this cunning plan to put the caravan through a DIY car wash before parking up in the caravan park. With directions in hand we found it and squeezed ourselves into one of the booths. While Carol fed the coins into the machine Ross cleaned. First with a good water blasting under the van to try and get rid of some of the red muck that had accumulated over the past year and then a soaping up of the outside followed by a good rinse. It took a while and did not clean up as good as we had hoped, but no matter – we would clean it by hand once in the caravan park.
Next it was onto the caravan park which if we had done our homework would have been such an easy task but with Ross making a wrong guess as to where to go we ended up taking the van for a tour of Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise. As soon as we could park safely it was out with the laptop and into google maps and off in the right direction. The park is 99% permanents and is not flash but it is low cost and considering we may be there for a while that suited us just fine. Given that the sites are packed like sardines it was a real mission getting the van into our spot (the hardest ever) but we managed it just before Ross lost it. The caravan park is really at odds with the surrounding area in that it is quite old and dates back to the 60s and was actually the site of the original Sea World and yet across the road is significant new canal side development.
A prerequisite to selling a vehicle in QLD is that a roadworthy certificate is required and for the van to get a roadworthy it must first have a gas compliance certificate so after lunch we organized an inspector to come visit us later in the afternoon. While waiting for him to arrive it was lunch then some essential shopping and more cleaning and prep of the van as we have a potential buyer coming on Friday. John the most excellent gas compliance inspector arrived on time and the van passed with flying colours. Now we need to organize a roadworthy inspection (Safety Certificate).
On Friday we let the most promising of our potential van buyers know we were in town and they came to visit later in the day to check out the van. They seemed quite impressed – so much so that they came back on Saturday morning and made us an offer – which we accepted. If the money comes through on Monday/Tuesday then it will be panic stations as we try to figure out how to sell the Beast and sort the logistics of getting back to NZ. The best part of the deal is that even once they have paid for the van we are able to keep using it until it suits us. Brilliant…
Although the deal is done and the van sold we are staying on the Gold Coast until we fly home on the 28th of July. Since selling the van we have been focused on getting roadworthy certificates for both vehicles and cleaning up the Beast to get it sold. Luckily we have a fall back plan so that if we can’t sell it then we have some friends we can leave it with and they will work on getting rid of it so is all good. Jason came and checked both the van and Beast and they passed their roadworthy tests fine so no worries on that front either. Jason is a mobile unit and specializes in Safety Certificates for vehicles and again Jason was great and very professional. Our very pregnant daughter Lisa is coming to visit us from Townsville on the weekend for a few days which will be great as we have not seen her for nearly a year and probably won’t again until after she and D have had their baby.
