A Luxury Car to Drive!
Melbourne, 8th January 2002
Today, well today was just unbelievable, I think I'm still dreaming.
Most of the family in the mansion are going up to Mansfield for a
few weeks but they told us we could stay in their house (while
they're not there!) and use it as a base to explore the surrounding
region. That's right, they're allowing us to live freely in this
fantastic mansion until we want to move on! But that's not the best
part...
Over breakfast, we were chatting with Carol & Graeme when they
casually dropped something in the conversation. We're not quite sure
if we followed them, so we asked them to repeat it, and yes, they
did say what we thought they said. They told us they'd lend us one
of their cars for the next few days until we've sorted out what van
we wanted to buy! Graeme pulled out an advert he got off the Net
advertising some cheap vans. He also pointed out a few good car
dealers on the road map.
After breakfast, Graeme drove off to work and Carol got some things
ready for her trip to Mansfield. This left us time to get our stuff
ready quickly, and once we'd finished, we rushed eagerly downstairs
to examine the car they'd lent us. She said 'It's the blue one', and
so we stepped outside expecting a small, beaten up blue Ford or
something. We were a little off with our expectations...
Sitting outside was a blue, huge, new, Mercedes 4x4 car. Ohmygod,
ohmygod, ohmygod! Pinch me somebody. I tried my best to look casual
& laid back while my insides were flipping all over the place. Emily
& stood squealing while Stinge just rubbed his his eyes in
disbelief.
We climbed in and started it up. As I turned the key, the engine
began to purr quietly. The car was an automatic, and as I'd only
driven a manual before a quick explanation from Stinge was needed.
It seemed easy enough, but as I was a little rusty I jumped the car
a little as we drove along the path, throwing Em & Nat around, but
once I got onto the road, it quickly came to me and I was driving
nice and smoothly.
We drove around town a little at first. One great thing here, is
that they have plenty of places to do U-turns if you want to change
direction on a main road. When I drove into the U-turn lane for the
first time, the others looked out of the window onto the fast
flowing, oncoming traffic. 4 lanes of 100 km/h traffic made sitting
in the middle a little unnerving. I waited for a nice big gap and
then pulled out and around is a seamless manoeuvre. Everyone
breathed a collective sigh of relief, and we continued our journey.
We checked out the car dealers that Graeme had recommended, but like
he said might happen, we soon realised that the van we saw in
Melbourne city centre was actually a very good buy. So after about
an hour, we swapped round so Stinge could have a chance to drive. He
was a little uncomfortable at first, then like me, he quickly grew
to love the power of this car. After some nifty driving, we got
through Melbourne centre & parked the car.
I prepared myself, a bit like a sportsman loosening up, to do some
big bartering, then we headed into the car dealer and met the guy
who owned it. After a quick test drive of our little van, where the
van handled nicely, big, loud & clunky, but satisfying (Quite
different to the Mercedes we'd just been driving!), we get down to
business.
The van was actually a 1985 Toyota Lite-Ace. It had got real
character and we all really liked it. In the end, I managed to
coolly barter the total price down to A$3340. Without taxes and
warranty that was only A$3000 for the van. Included in the price was
1 year's registration (including basic insurance), an essential RWC
certificate, 3 month's warranty on the engine & some other parts, a
new windscreen, a spare tyre and a jack.
After business, we headed back out of town. We accidentally headed
up on the toll-way, and we naively reached for our wallets, but we
didn't see any toll booths. It turned out that there was a little
electronic tag in the car that is read by overhead cameras as the
car passes along the motorway and the owner (in this case, Graeme),
is charged the toll on their Visa card. Nifty!
When we got back, Graeme gave us a couple of little prezzies he'd
bought. Just when we thought they've been the kindest people we
know, they go even better and buy us presents! He gave us a really
useful, glossy touring road atlas of Australia and an Australian sim-card
for Stinge's mobile phone. This meant we could use the phone in
Australia at local rates!
We spent the evening in Kes' part of the house and we watched a
movie on their mini-cinema and had a delicious dinner of good old
Spaghetti Bolognaise. After that, we headed off to bed.
Graeme said we could borrow his car (the Mercedes 4x4) for the next
couple of days and take a little road trip along the Great Ocean
Road! The Great Ocean road is one of Australia's most fantastic
sights, so we all agreed that this would be a great idea. Kes also
said he'd lend us his tent, which would mean cheap accommodation
along the way as well
Thanks guys! Well night, night for now people!
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