After eight years in Melbourne, it is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate! A month before our leaving date, we had already started sorting through the cupboards and clearing out the junk and selling anything with value on Gumtree.  Two weeks out, we held a garage sale to clear the last of the household items.  Needless to say the Sallies and another local op-shop did quite well out of us, collecting at least 12 bags of clothes and other items which were too good to throw out, but not worth trying to sell.

I finished work a couple of weeks in advance and, while Estelle still went to work, I madly finished off remaining items on the vehicle so it was ready to go. Just minor things like building the rear shelves, drawers and kitchen, installing the solar panel, rear bar carrier arms, engine oil change, fitting the roof top tent….. it was a long list, many of which should have been already finished.

 

It helped not having a TV as we were full on for a good three weeks at the end, without the need for another distraction like documentaries on SBS tying up Estelle’s attention 😉 .  As the furniture dwindled, we resorted to using our camping furniture, sleeping on the mattress out of the roof top tent, and cooking on our camp cookware.

 

In the final few days, Estelle was on board full time and we smashed out the last of the packing / cleaning / work on the car.  A two cubic meter box arrived for the last of our stuff to be shipped to NZ and we were done.  One last night with four walls and a roof.  What are we doing again?