the van

I'm the very fortunate owner of possibly the most super fly van known to mankind. (well, except for this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230542966486#descr)

1980 Toyota Hiace. Absolute Gem. She's been around for more than a few years, but still has lots left to go as she only has 128k on the clock with the original engine. Changed all the belts, plugs, fluids, oils etc. and didn't find any problems. Changed the brake pads just as a precaution, but even they still looked pretty good.

Pretty standard pop-top camper setup with fridge (runs on 12V, 240V and gas), stove and a few sweet seats that fold into the bed. Got a couple of batteries so when you're parked up you can run the stereo (got a couple of speakers in the living area, obviously) and a few of the lights off the second battery. Also plugs into a 240V wall socket via extension cord to power bigger gear and recharge the battery. Dad's got mad sparky skills so he got in and sorted it all out so the wiring's all tight as a tiger and it pretty much just runs itself all day long.

Internally it was missing a table so I grabbed a table leg from a camping store and knocked up and varnished a nice little wooden table top. Looks pretty rustic, but does the job. The bed's surprisingly comfortable and with the roof up I've got plenty enough head room. So far I've only done one trip to Lancelin and camped in the backyard, so haven't really had a go at really cooking and cleaning in there on a fulltime basis, but so far its ticking all the boxes.

Fitted a safe and a mounting for a spare gas tank. Also threw in and mounted a couple of chairs and a sweet little folding camp table ($20!! Can't make it for that!). Plus added an annexe so when I'm chilling after a surf watching the sun go down over the beach I've got plenty of shade so I don't get burnt by those late evening UV rays.

So basically I couldn't be more happy if I tried. Picked her up for a good price, runs well, looks sexy as all hell (by my standards) and should be good for some ridiculous ad-van-tures. The only issue now is that she's currently nameless. I'm assuming she'll find a great moniker along the way, but for now any suggestions are more than welcome.

Peace

the list

1. Drive the whole way around Australia in a van

2. Help someone build a house
3. Grow a beard

4. Approach the most beautiful girl i’ve ever seen and ask her on a date

5. Learn to play the ukelele

6. Howl at the top of my lungs at a full moon

7. Donate blood

8. Go at least 2 days without seeing another person

9. Be in a protest. A big one.

10. Jump off a waterfall

11. Ride a horse

12. Sleep in the desert under the stars

13. Hitchhike

14. Work at a pub

15. Learn the difference between a good and a bad glass of wine

16. Fire a gun

17. Avoid Macca’s HJs, Red Rooster, Chicken Treat, Domino’s and Pizza Hut for 6 months

18. Learn to surf half as good as i can bodyboard (won’t be hard)

19. Surf in every state

20. Eat 10 new foods

21. Swim to an island

22. Get a top 10 score on any round of buck hunter

23. Tune into at least 20 Triple J frequencies

24. Help a stranger with mechanical problems

25. 2 weeks without shoes

26. The naked man

27. Buy a block of each state’s ‘signature’ beer

28. Win a jackpot of at least 5 bucks at the pokies
29. Fly in a helicopter*
30. Meet someone famous*

31. Find a perfect, secret beach not marked on any map
32. Listen to every song on my ipod from A-Z


Got any suggestions? Let me know

*added after they already happened. But I make the rules here, so I say its fine.

the rationale

After too long at uni (7 years) and much too long in full time work (any amount of time), I've decided to give it all in. So I'm packing up my bodyboard, my lawn bowls and my ukulele, throwing them in my sweet yellow 1980 Toyota Hiace and driving until I'm not sure when.

The story of how I came to travel around the country for an indefinite amount of time isn't that exciting. Basically I just got bored. I tend to get bored very easily, you see. And so to make sure I don't get bored on my mighty journey I decided I needed a mission. Or, more accurately, a whole series of missions.

And this is where the van list comes in. Much like a bucket list (google it, wikipedia it, or watch the overwrought movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson), the van list is basically just a list of stuff that I want to do before I die. Or in this case, before I leave the van. Except that instead of being bold, ambitious, self-improvement type goals (learn another language, publish a novel etc.) mine are largely trivial, small-minded and pointless.

But they're all things that I haven't done before, and have always wanted to. Well, not really, but they're all things that I came up with over the last few months when I was bored or drunk. The list is something of an organic creature though, so no doubt it will be added to along the way. Feel free to suggest anything at all that you think I should be getting up to, no matter how small or nonsensical. Being nonsensical is really what this trip's all about.

And this little site is where I'll be talking about my attempts to cross things off the list. I've got no idea how regularly I'll be posting updates - it will likely rest on how I go with the list, and how much time I spend in and around civilisation. But I'll also be throwing up tales of my random adventures and maybe even a photo or two, so keep reading up and leave a comment or two pointing out how well I'm doing at wasting my life.

Cheers for now,

christo