Australian Van Trip

About the Book

This is our story about our adventures over one and a quarter years in a four-wheel-drive L300 Mitsubishi van. We began our trip in October 2012 in Perth, West Australia, and after a trip up to Shark Bay, we returned via an inland route to travel anticlockwise around and, eventually, right across Central Australia on our last leg home to Brisbane. We worked in orchards and, later, in the Upper Hunter Valley, grapevine-pruning with a great mixture of young travelers from around the world. We fitted in with them so well we almost felt young again. You should try it! —Vaughan and Jill

About the Author

I was born in Northland, New Zealand in 1955 and spent most of my childhood in Kati Kati, Bay of Plenty on my parent’s dairy Farm. I did a carpentry apprenticeship in 1972 and on completion I went to Darwin, Australia to help in the rebuilding of that city after the cyclone Tracy had destroyed it on Christmas Eve 1974. After our return to New Zealand we settled down and built a home and had two children. I have worked in the trade for the whole of my working life doing a wide range of building work in my own business. I enjoyed our sojourn to Australia for this break away from the tools to try the orchard work until we returned home in January 2013. Jill was born in 1959 in Kati Kati also and her parents were farmers / agricultural contractors. After our return from our OE she had worked in a fruit processing plant and after our children went to school she worked in the local library as a circulation assistant. She stayed in this job until we left for this trip and is now in an office administrator position.