Novice Campers Travelling Oz

Finding a 4WD proved to be a task that tested the budget & patience.  We decided on ato get a Crusier due to being so big 1) giving our kids a much room as possible in the back seat on the long days of travel 2) good reputation for towing 3) easy to get parts even in the Outback and even bush mechanics are generally familiar with Cruisers.  So the hunt begins, the long hours on Carsales .com.  Finally we find a 1998 80 Series, bottle green cruiser in Bendigo.   Great mileage, logs, airbags, menacing bullbar, a/c, cruise control, PERFECT!  Brad catches a train then a bus to Gundagai, signs the deal, hands over the chq and drives off.  An hour into the trip home to Sydney he gets that feeling that all is not right, there is no airbag sign on the sun visor or symbol on the steering wheel.  He rings home and I check the ad: it definately says air bag.  I get on the internet and google GXL and every site tells me that all GXLs have airbags.  Its getting a bit fishy now, so we look the vehicle over very carefully at home, even checking the GXL badge to see if its been doctored on.  The local Toyota dealer inspects it and says "mate its got a Camry steering wheel.  Its  probably been in an acco and they've not replaced the airbag!"  Ok. so we ring the guy we bought it from and state our case.  He swears that he was told it had airbags when he bought it and ring the dealership in Gundagai.  Short story: it was part of a unique shipment of 200 cars that came in specially and without airbags!!!  We want to work it out peacefully so we suggest we return it and get a refund, but he offers us 2.5 grand cash back so we accept.  Now we've got to get rid of it, (due to so many miles we'll be travelling we insist on airbags), plus purchase another 4wd and we are in the middle of moving out of our hopuse, so life is chaotic!!!  We sell it with full explaination of no airbags within a week and even come out $100 better off after all the wheeling and dealing.  I ring about 12 Toyota dealers, seach every internet car site and auction house and were told it'll be a miracle if you can get a decent second hand Cruiser (diesel, manuel & solid front axel) at the moment, nobody's trading them.  So we went straight to the miracle maker and within 6 days Brad had been to Ballarat and picked up our 1999, GXL, 100 Series, maroon colour, meticuliously maintained, sunroof, DVD player, cruise control, towball, tinting, DOUBLE AIRBAGS...  Simply gorgeous, so much more than we had prayed for!!

 We went to the Sydney Camping and Caravanning Show and looked at every single camper while we were there.  WE ppred over the brochures when we got home and chucked out 3/4 of them.  We then researched them on the internet, read blog commnets and visited the show rooms of the ones we were most interested in at our lesiure and get quotes.

OUR CRITERIA 

Storage: as much as possible

Queen size bed: no compromise on that one!  wanted an inner spring mattress as stats say the average person spends more than 1/3 of their life in bed.

Soft top: so we could stack stuff above the bed and also have the largest possible living /sleeping area for our 3 kids.

Functional kitchen: at least 3 stove burners, lots of storage space for food, and large space for a family size fridge/freezer.

Convenient water storage: with easily access and filling.

We finally settled for The Complete Campsite camping trailer due to several unique features. It was the only trailer we could find where we could tick off every one of our criteria.  The walk way at the end of the bed was the absolute clincher.  We knew this would allow hubby to rise early and not disturb sleeping wife (happy wife, happy life), and allow access at night for the loo without disturbing each other or having to crawl over sleeping partner or wanting to lift up the bed to access storage.