A Kiwi family of 9, traveling Australia converting a school bus, educating, earning and learning, and performing with our dogs.
What do you do when something breaks? What do you do when your washing machine frame looks like this?
Well it’s time to get creative!
We had some plywood left over from the old bus seats and some screws and a saw and a drill. With a lot of sanding and some varnish to seal the wood we now have this:
The handle snapped too, that was the first thing to go so we used the same knob but made a wooden handle.
Now this should last for years!!
After much discussion we have made a decision.
On the 1st of February it will be the 6th anniversary of us going on the road! When we left our rental house in Glenwood, QLD we never imagined we’d be still living this lifestyle in six years! We had planned to go look for work then settle in a new area as there was no work in the local area.
We scored a three month job in Townsville, then when that finished we decided that seeing we had wheels and accommodation, and that we didn’t like Townsville in the summer we may as well go explore Aussie!
After 2 years on the road we all thought about returning to New Zealand, but the timing did not seem to be right.
In 2011, after our family tragedy, when we needed a focus, the Superdogs were born and we did our first public performance at the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival. Each year they have performed at more shows/festivals with most requesting us to return the following year.
That brings us to 2014 …. this year is going to be the final year of the Superdogs in Australia.
The plan is to return to NZ at the end of this year or the beginning of 2015. As our children get older and need to make their own life and also with ageing parents/grandparents we feel the timing is right. We also have two children who have never been to New Zealand, and others who don’t remember it! Those who do remember are very keen to go back and have been for a number of years.
This year will be a year of tying up loose ends. Saving like crazy and saying goodbye to family and friends that we have made here in Aussie. Not sure yet what our life will look like in NZ, but I can assure you we’ll still be giving our kids a “wheel education” and training our Superdogs.
I have included a link here to our fundraising page for those of you who’d like to help us get back home.
The year that was, that went past of fast, bought with it ups and downs and then left! Welcome to 2014!
Some highlights from 2013 in 12 pictures.
With our South Australian Rego due on the Odyssey we tried to reregister online, but were given the message that we needed to phone in. So we dutifully phoned in but didn’t realise we needed a credit/debit card to pay over the phone. All was set to go, we just needed to put money on our debit card.
Two days later we phone again, card in hand only to be told we now could not do it either online or over the phone, we needed to come in to a South Australian Branch! We were by this time in Seymour, Victoria about 500km form the nearest SA service centre. They would not budge! Apparently our SA drivers license, that was to have been posted to NSW had been returned and now they would not release it until we fronted up in person. The operator we spoke to said they did not post interstate, yet when we transferred our license to SA the lady at the desk had no problem with it!
We now had two days to get this sorted before our current rego expired! A 500km trip in two days was not what any of us wanted to do!
We had mail to collect so decided to go and collect it and hope that our SA drivers license was amongst it; it was not! As it was now close to 10pm we choose to stay put and hope that either SA would be kind to us and understand our situation or maybe we could transfer to Vic rego.
First thing Thursday morning with rego due Friday, we phoned SA again, explaining our situation again, they still would not budge! So we phoned VicRoads asking about transferring our rego. Yeah, they said, that’s no problem! Phew!! Appointments were made and we breathed a bit easier!
By lunch time on Friday we had our Vic plates!! Woo Hoo!!
There was signage approaching the bridge, but when we checked them on the way back they did look like they were pointing to the side roads!
This is a pic from Google Maps of where we turned round. Fortunately there was a side “road” not that we could go far down it, but at least we could put our nose into it!
Some people have asked if I’ve blogged about our new wheels … here it is!
About 6 months ago, after trying for years, we sold our Volvo (The Auroara). We then bought a Toyota Hiace Commuter and travelled with a tent. There were positives to living/travelling in a tent; fuel was cheaper, we could drive further in a day, we could camp at different places, Jasmine could use it to learn to drive. There were also disadvantages; after a long day of driving we still had to set up the tent, the zips on the tent kept breaking so we had to find a BCF and swap it for another one, it was really cold, we had to always be aware of the weather.
When we sold The Auroara, it had always been our intention to get another bus. We figured we’d be in a tent for around 6 to 12 months. After 5 months, though we’d all really had enough of tenting! My hat goes off to any families who travel long-term in tents!
After a long trip down from Mt Isa to do a show with the Superdogs in Quorn, SA we now had time to look for a bus!
The first one we looked at, everyone loved, looked great on the outside and in the photo’s, but on closer inspection has some serious problems that we were not prepared to deal with. The kids were very disappointed. We had three in the area to look at, so with one crossed off we rang the second one, sorry, sold one and the other I have will take a while to be ready … we didn’t have a while in that area as we needed to be in Melbourne for the Pregnancy Loss Association's Memorial Walkathon that we were performing at.
Now we were down to the last one, or actually he had two the same. So next afternoon found us looking at not one but two Leyland Tigers! Now our very good friends have one (The Tumbleweed Project) so we have a soft spot for Tigers! It took ages to check out two of them! Hey, takes long enough going through one 38 foot school bus! After about two hours of looking, poking and asking questions we decided that one sounded better than the other when the engine was running. We put a deposit on it subject to a test drive the next day.
On arriving home to our tent we found this:
A massive wind and rain storm had swept through our camp, broken almost every pole and ripped the tent in several places. It was totally beyond redemption, even MacGyver could not have fixed it! The only thing that stopped us from all falling apart was the thought that tomorrow night we would most likely be sleeping in a bus! So for our last night we all nine of us piled into the van! It was rough night, but at least we were dry! Next morning we packed the tent into the rubbish bin!
After we broke camp (pun intended) we headed off to test drive the bus. It drove well, so we paid our money and drove back to where we had been camping. Everyone was happy to once again have a solid roof over our heads and not have to set up the tent EVER AGAIN! (well not that tent anyway!)
Sunday 15 September 2013 we performed in memory of our babies we have lost.
Pregnancy Loss Australia had their annual fundraiser to raise money to assist families who have lost a baby through miscarriage, still birth or neonatal death. When they asked for stall holders and entertainers for the event we offered our Superdog Trick Show for the event. It was an honour to sponsor such and event.
To be able to bring joy into the lives of others who have also suffered loss or losses is a privilege. If for 15 minutes we can make people smile, take away the pain or give them something else to focus on our show is a success. Judging by the number of people who came over to watch, and those we spoke to after the show, I think we succeeded in our purpose.
Having suffered multiple miscarriages and a neonatal death there we lots of emotions stirred in our family too. The girls who perform with the dogs were very keen to do this in memory of their siblings lost and especially their forever little sister Serenity who went to be with Jesus at 13 hours old on 12 March 2011.
Balloons were released at the end of the day … a very moving experience.
Not sure how much was raised in total, but it was in excess of $20,000! Awesome effort by all involved!
