The New Age Caravans NSW Social Club had organised a couple of trips that we will be attending. This month (May), the venue was North Haven, so we attended for 3 nights to get a feel for what this group was like.
We drove up and arrived at North Haven at a leisurely pace after leaving home around 9:30am on the Thursday. We arrived around 3pm and set up the van in about 25 mins. Soon after, we went around and began introducing ouselved to other attendees. There were about 28 vans that turned up for the event. The people were friendly and welcoming.
As you can see from the photo above, we were surrounded by other New Age vans!
The evenings were set up as social gatherings while the days were an opportunity for people to explore the area if they wished.
We spent Friday touring around the southern costline. Driving through Laurieton, we headed through Crowdy Bay National Park to Diamond Head. The route was a picturesque dirt road that went from Laurieton to Crowdy Head via Diamond Head.
Diamond Head was our first stop and we went for a walk to the beach and along the coastline to the Head itself.
It was a fantastic view from Diamond Head and the rock formation was quite spectacular.
At the end of the day, we headed back to the van park for the sausage sizzle and mingle event.
We met different people again on Friday night and it was a pleasant evening.
Saturday was spent driving up to Port Macquarie via the coast road. We ended up back at North Haven Surf Club kiosk for lunch and then went for a stroll out to the end of North Haven breakwall, then back to the van park for an afternoon get together with the social club for a drink and chat.
Before getting together with the social club, we disconnected the van from the 240V power source and turned on some of the lights to check that the solar was doing its job charging the batteries - the test was all good!
The evenings were definitely cold but the days were warm and clear. The night was so clear and there were a phenomenal number of stars in the sky. We stayed out for a few minutes to look at the sky before going back to the van to get warm.
The early morning hours (after midnight) got a bit windy, but we had secured our awning well and had no issues. We had packed our chairs and table the night before, so all was good.
Sunday morning, we packed up the van headed off back to Sydney.
We have booked in for the June trip to Nundle. This will be our final shakedown trip before we head off for a month into Outback Queensland, Gulf Country and across the Savannah Way to Cooktown before coming back down the coast.
The only issue we have with the van now is that the fridge seems to have condensation dripping from the cooling fins. I will need to find out what is causing this and how to stop it.
Other than that, the Landcruiser is going for a GVM upgrade and a 2" lift in June.
Things to be done in the next month:
Upgrade First Aid kit
Upgrade tool kit and include
electrical connectors
multimeter
silicone sealant
Possibly get Rock Tamers
Stone deflector for van
Butane Gas cans
Buy the following for the van
one-way mains water flow valve
Jerry Cans
funnel
Water Filter
Get a small step ladder
Look into fridge condensation issue.
Create a better greywater hose connection as existing system is not easy to deal with - especially if the hose needs to be connected and removed each day.
Fit a cover on fresh water inlet.
Pack timbers for stabilising legs
Get spare breakaway cable for van
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