There is something strange about Queensland or even that part of New South Wales that lies so close to the border; the sun rises earlier and everything else follows suit. This morning we were awake soon after 5 am, and up and on our way to the local shopping centre before 8 am, yet many others had beaten us to it.
Back at camp the group of friends from Toowoomba were ready to head home as were we. Yesterday evening four of these friendly folk came knocking on the door, drawn by our “For Sale” sign in the caravan window. Two of them had lost their caravan in a freak accident which miraculously killed no-one, and were keen to replace their van with a Lotus, the same size as ours and were duly impressed by the condition of our caravan. Their claim funds are yet to come through so they may be beaten by one of the several chaps who have responded to our on-line advertisement. Suddenly there is interest, but this of course all means nothing until we see the colour of their money.
In the meantime we must carry on living, travelling, and so we left our excellent camp at Tweed Heads in the sunshine, returning to the Pacific Highway and heading on north, inland of the Gold Coast beach settlements; Palm Beach, Surfers Paradise, Burleigh Heads, place names that thrill those who seek the upmarket sun and surf style holidays, and quite frankly leave us cold.
We pulled off at Helensvale where we found the Queensland Transport service centre, where Chris was able to renew his driver’s licence and I was able to find out all the details on how to sell a vehicle in Queensland. We were shocked to learn that the buyer of a vehicle has to pay to the state government 3% of the purchase price in lieu of a change of ownership fee. That is for a four cylinder vehicle; the fee for a six cylinder is 3 ½%. In New Zealand it costs a mere $19 odd to change ownership over, or at least it did when we last had to pay such a fee. Somehow we had escaped this knowledge having dealt with dealers in the past; obviously this is a cost they have to take out of their profits.
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| Happy to catch up with Tineke |
Our afternoon was spent with niece Tineke, who spent a year with us so long ago when she was studying for her nursing degree. Today we met her husband for the first time, admired their lovely home and marvelled at her health and vitality, her ripe belly ready to yield their little one within days. The hours passed far too quickly; it was just so lovely to spend time with her and her husband.
It was nearly
4 pm by the time we returned to the highway and made our way up through
Brisbane, joining the rush hour traffic, crawling up through the Nudgee area near
the airport and finally arriving at Calbooture. We did try telephoning the number
in our Camps 6, were advised to call another, and then transferred to an
extension where we were asked to leave a message. Having received no reply we
were not at all optimistic about the on-going camping facility, but came in
anyway. We hung about for the caretaker and then just came on in, finally
passing the caretaker who was more intent in chatting with his mate. We were
directed to a power pole and have hitched up to power and water with the intention
of paying the tariff in the morning. The whole affair seems most disorganised
and we are not at all impressed, however it beats parking in a truck rest.
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