Australian Open

As we are in Melbourne during the Australian Open we decided to go and watch the final on a big outdoor screen. GO FEDERER!!!

Off to Melbourne!

With the van repaired we are off to Melbourne. We are going to spend 3 days here. We found a place to sleep in our van, along the Botanical garden. Melbourne is very pretty.

Well done Ben !!

Ben changed the fuel pump himself and the van is going well !!!! It passed the steep hill test so our fuel pump problem is finally over. Ben went back to the garage in Lancefield and told the guy that he changed his fuel pump for a more powerful one and asked for our money back. The guy was honest and took the fuel pump he had put in and gave us our money back for it...
So after seing about 5 different mechanics and getting the fuel pump changed 4 TIMES, we are ready to hit the road again.
Next time we have a problem with the van I know who is going to repair it !!!!!!!
Well we thought we were only going to stay 3 days with Kevin and Val and ended up staying a week with them. We had a lovely time and made plans to pop down to visit them again before we left Australia. Before we left them we cleaned out our van and left some stuff with them that we will pick up when we visit them again.

Guess what !!????

Ooooh well Vince did a great job on the van, proof is that we have broken down again. Thankfully we broke down in Lancefield. We are really frustrated now, we have been to see about 4 different people about our fuel pump but nobody seems to be able to repair such a trivial thing as that !!!!!! Kevin said we should wait until Monday to take the van to the little garage in Lancefield. So on Monday we take our van in and the guy says that he has to change the fuel pump and that it is in the wrong place...!!!!! IS IT ????? Obviously Vince is NOT a good mechanic.... We get the fuel pump changed for the THIRD time in TWO WEEKS !! 
A couple of hours later we went to get our van back and Kev and Val told us to take it up that steep hill again as that will be the BIG TEST to see if our van is going well now.
Both stressed out and quite worried we decided to go on with what they told us and it just passed the test !! It did go up but not without difficulty. Just as we thought that we would never hear the word FUEL PUMP ever again...I started crying and told Ben I wanted to go back home. Ben who hadn't showed his feelings to much about this until now started to get very frustrated. We drove back to the Smiths and Ben checked on car websites and forums to see what the problem was. Ben immediately thought that perhaps the fuel pump wasn't powerful enough for our car so we went back to the garage and asked him if he could put a more powerful one and the mechanic replied that no they are ALL the SAME !!! They aren't powerful ones, every  car has the same one. HAVE THEY ???? We went back to Kev and Vals place and Ben asked them if there was a shop that sold new car parts not far from Lancefield and Kevin directed us to a shop in the following town. We went straight there and we did find a MORE powerful fuel pump. Ben decided to give it a go and we bought the fuel pump and a couple of other things and went back to Lancefield. 
Ben said that he will change the fuel pump himself and see if it works...

Yet another breakdown...!!

Today we wanted to drive around Lancefield and visit a few places. On our way back the van stalled in the main street and the van wouldn't go anymore. We got back to the Smiths on foot and told them that our van has brokendown once again. They tell us not to worry and that they know a mechanic who can have a look at it and repair it. In the mean time Ben tries to see what is wrong with it. It seems like the fuel pump is giving us trouble again... The following day, Kevin and Val thought of taking us to their mechanic friend who lives in Sunshine just before Melbourne. They take their car and we follow them in our van hoping it will get there allright. Kevin took a tow rope just in case we needed it....and we DID !!! The van didn't want to go up the steep hill that we have to drive up to get on the road that will take us to Melbourne. We had to stop on the side. Kevin and Val who didn't see us stop carried on up the hill until the top and when they realised we weren't behind them anymore came back. Kevin told Ben to try and get up the hill by keep on reeving the car while going up, as the hill was too steep for Kevins car to be able to tow our van up. We managed to get the van up the hill after a few long minutes and from there Kevin decided to drive slowly in front of us in case we had another problem. 
We engaged on the freeway and after a few kms the van stopped again. Kevin decided to stop and to tow the van to Sunshine. Unfortunatly for us when we got there the mechanic Kev and Val wanted us to see was not there so they had to ask another mechanic whom they also know (Vince) to take a look at the van. He said if will take a while and told us we should go for a drive somewhere and come back afterwards. Ben also asked him if he had second hand tyres for us and he said he did but they were expensive and Ben said that he would see about tyres later and that he would rather get the fuel pump sorted out first.


Kevin and Val took us for a drive around Melbourne. When we got back a couple of hours later, Ben asked to see what had been done to the van and when he saw what the guy did to it he wasn't very happy. First of all the guy changed the tyres meanwhile we had asked him not to and secondly he tried to fix up the fuel pipe y adding a pipe and other things and changing the original place of the fuel pump. He said that the van wasn't going well ecause the fuel pump wasn't in the right place. Ben didn't think much of him at all but what could we say. The last straw was when we went into his office to pay, he wanted to charge us nearly $200 for what he had done to the van on which he hadn't done much at all and he had changed the tyres meanwhile Ben had told him not to. I started crying because we had spent nearly $300 to get our fuel pump changed just a couple of weeks before. The guy got a bit excited but told us to take the repairs as a gift. He also told us before we left that our van was rubbish and Kevin told us that when he told him that we wanted to go around Australia he laughed.... Well we will see....

The Smiths !

We got in touch with some people who live about 100kms North of Melbourne via some people my dad knows.They are called Kevin and Val and told us that we were more than welcome to visit them and spend a few days with them in their house in Lancefield. We decided to drive up to there place. We got to the town and were looking for their street which we soon found. They are lovely people and decided to stay there for about 3 days.We are really happy to be able to enjy home cooked food, hot showers and a comfy bed. Val also washed all our dirty clothes. I usually wash them by hand so that has saves me a lot of trouble !!

Phillip Island

Fairy Pinguin

On our way to Melbourne we stopped at Phillip Island where we can see sea lions and penguins if you pay for a guided tour. It's a very nice place although we both thought that it was far too touristic.

We really didn't want to pay for anything like that so we went on a penguin hunt to see if we could spot some and... we did :-) !!!!

Lakes Entrance VIC

After boring Canberra we are near the sea once again. We are driving to Lakes Entrance which is a tourist resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria.It is very hot and the place is beautiful, we decide to stop for the day and take a swim.

Canberra

Last night, after going to Pebbly Beach we drove for a while before we decided to stop at Batemans Bay for the night. Today we are drove inland to Canberra. Canberra is the capital city of Australia. It was a real deception. The city is not very big, surrounded by mountains and a boring place. When you see it from the Telstra lookout it looks the place looks deserted. We only stayed there a couple of hours.

Pebbly Beach - Nurramarang N.P

Ben with a King Parrot and a Rainbow Lorikeet

The weather has changed and it is windy and cool. We got our jumpers out. Pebbly Beach, one of the park's major attractions, lies between two headlands and forms a splendid sand beach for bathing and surf, followed by hilly grassland towards the bush.The road to Pebbly Beach is unsealed and full of holes we ask ourselves a few times if we shouln't turn back but Ben says that we have gone half way already so we may as well carry on. I'm glad we did because it was really worth while.We saw kangaroos very close up, we could even touch them and hand fed Crimson Rosellas, King Parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets...pure fun !!!

Our 2nd breakdown !

Yesterday we left Jervis Bay Marine Park in the late afternoon. We were driving towards Batemans Bay. It was dark and we were driving through a town called Ulladulla when the van just stopped. We started it again but there was absolutely no power and the van stalled. There I was crying because something else was wrong with the van. As it was late and everything was closed we tried to drive to place where we could park our van and spend the night. Ben had to continually press on the accelarator so that the van didn't stall. We found a place and went to sleep...


Ben wanted to see where the problem was coming from so he looked at the fuel pump and noticed that the mechanics in Kiama blocked a tube in the fuel pump that shouldn't be blocked. We decide to go to REPCO which is a car parts and accesories store and ask a mechanic there if he can take a look at the van and find out what is wrong with it. He was very friendly and took a look at it, he said that there was definitly something wrong with the fact that they had blocked a pipe. He asked us where we go our fuel pump changed and where they had bought the part from. Ben told him that the part came from REPCO, so the mechanic said that as the parts are garantied we should go to a garage to see what is wrong with it and we wouldn't have to pay for anything. So thats what we did.
We toom it to a garage not far from the shop and the guy who took a look at it said that its normal that we were having problems with the fuel pump because it was installed the wrong way round !!! Well we really got ripped off in Kiama and the mechanics there don't even know how to change a fuel pump !!!!!!
Anyway he installed a new one and by the end of the afternoon the job was done and we could set off again...

Our 1st puncture !

We took the van to the garage for the third time this morning. They are really starting to get annoyed with us and us with them. Anyway they fiddled with the van for about 30 minutes and told us that they had done everything they could and that if there is still a little leak its not going to cause any major problem. So off we go to Jervis Bay National Park. On the way we both hear a loud noise, like an explosion and the van starts making a funny noise. Ben stops the van on the side of the road and notices that the right hand side tyre is in shreds. 

Jervis Bay Marine Park

After the puncture we make our way to Jervis Bay. Its about 80kms away from Kiama.This park has many facets - woodland and heath, wetland and lake, seagrass beds,bays and beaches. Aboriginal heritage goes back many thousands of years here and local Aboriginal people continue to maintain strong links with places special to them. It is too windy to swin so we go for a stroll.

Kiama - Pelican Feeding

Every sunday the fisherman who come back from fishing, clean their fish in a place exclusivly for their use on Kiama water front. We thought we might go and take a look !                                           

We also went to see Kiama Blowhole which wasn't very impresive:

7 Mile Beach National Park

After spending ost of the day in Kiama we decide to set off. We carry on driving south and stop at 7 Mile Beach which is about 24kms away from Kiama. The long sweep of Seven Mile Beach, backed by sand dunes and forest, has one of the largest remaining areas of natural coastal dune vegetation in the central part of NSW including two endangered communities.  The heaths and forests provide a refuge for a diverse range of animals given the park’s relatively small extent.

Back to Kiama - another problem...

After having spent a few hours at 7 Mile Beach National Park, we get back to the van and start to drive towards Jervis Bay National Park. We hadn't gone far when we realised that there was still a leak, very minor but still ! We payed for the job to be done and it hadn't been done properly. We are fed up now, it's the third time we take the van back to the garage. So off we go...back to Kiama...and as it is Sunday we have to wait for tomorrow before we can take the van in...

Bombo Beach

Bombo Beach

Well our van seems to be fixed as we don't notice a leak anymore. This morning we thought we might go to Kiama rockpool and Bombo Beach for a swim. Its just outside Kiama, so very close. Its was very hot and spent a good day. 

Kiama Rockpool

Budderro National Park

Asplenium - Bird's nest fern

Minnamurra Falls

Suspending bridge

After spending the morning swimming at Bombo beach and in Kiama rockpool we thought we might visit Budderro National Park which is about 30kms way from Kiama.

Its a beautiful park and we were lucky enough to spot a few lyre birds.

Lyre Bird

Our 1st breakdown !

The following morning we went for a drive around Kiama and in the afternoon we had just been parked for about 5 minutes when we smelt a very strong smell of...petrol !!! Our fuel pump was leaking and needed to be changed. We went to the first garage we found and asked them if they could change the pump. They told us to come back the tomorrow as they were quite busy. They told us that the repairs would cost $250 !!!! We went this morning and they told us to come back in about 2 hours time. 

We got our van back and paid. We were happy it was only the fuel pump. We started driving around just to make sure it was safe for us to leave town and carry on travelling. Well the fuel pump was still leaking, can you believe it !! They couldn't have done the job properly. We went back to the garage straight away and they took the van in for it to get checked. The guy told us that the fuel pump was leaking because the other mecanic hadn't installed the pump properly. Anyway we got our van back again after acouple of hours and everthing seemed to be fine...

Kiama

Our spot at the beachfront

We got to Kiama this afternoon. We went shopping and walked around town. Ben went for a swim in the rockpool. We then looked for a place where we could park our van for the night and found a spot on the beachfront. We also found shower just next to the place where we decided to stay. 

The Grand Pacific Drive

We are carrying on our journey down the coast. We are driving along the Grand Pacific Drive. It's sunny and very hot. There are lots of places were we can stop the car to strech our legs and admire the view !

Sydney !

Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House

Today we got up bright and early to go and so some sightseing in Sydney. We planned on going out the whole day on foot. First of all we went down to the shops to buy some foods and drinks for the day and then we set off. We walked though town to get to Habour Bridge on which we walked to get to the other side of town and visit the Botanical gardens, Sydney Opera House... We enjoyed walking in the Botanical garden and we were really happy to get close to Sulphur crested Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets and .... bats !!

           Flying Foxes

Ben with sulphur crested cockatoos

Opera House

Sydney Harbour