Visiting Brisbane

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing in Brisbane - couple of reasons being that
we had been to the city before and the majority of the recommended visits
were to either the Sunshine Coast (where we had just stayed) or the Gold
Coast (where we were going). We did enjoy visiting the city though and
while Peter had some business calls I wandered the shops and surrounding
areas.

It was great to visit the old favourites - Myers and David Jones. They seem
to have very similar layout regardless of which city you are in. We soon
got very used to the public transport system and much preferred to take the
bus than take the car into the city.

The bus took us into the square adjacent to Brisbane City Town Hall - the
town hall is currently closed for extensive renovation so will be worth a
visit in the future. I loved the statue in the square which was erected in
memory of the early families of Brisbane.

Soon it was time to pack up again - and as it turned out it was to be our
final pack up with the caravan. When we purchased this caravan (2010 Jayco
Sterling) we included every optional extra available as we intended to one
day ship the caravan to New Zealand and keep it for many years. However our
plans have changed in that respect as the house we have purchased in Mount
Maunganui does not have a storage area quite large enough for the caravan -
we are short by about a metre and don't think the council will like it
hanging over the footpath that much.

So after a lot of discussion we decided that it would be better to sell this
particular caravan while it was still relatively new and recoup as much of
our cash as possible. This would also save having to store the caravan for
up to six months while we return to New Zealand for the summer. This
doesn't mean we have finished exploring Australia with a caravan - currently
intention is to return to Australia at the beginning of winter 2013 and look
to purchase a smaller caravan and head off to somewhere warmer than either
Mount Maunganui or Melbourne for the winter months.

We had had a dealer in Townsville look through the van, and also two or
three people in various caravan parks had shown interest but the price was
off putting. However, on our last night in Brisbane the dealer in
Townsville spoke with Peter on the phone and a deal was struck. This put us
into a bit of a panic as it required Peter delivering the caravan back to
Townsville (a distance of around 1400 kilometres) and of course removing all
our personal gear.