So the trip has hit a pretty big snag… Our car is stuffed… yep that’s the technical term… stuffed. And until now I have been keeping it together, we already had lost Dave’s Dad while we were away, so I wasn’t interested in entertaining any more bad news… but today has got me… really got me, so I am typing it out as a way to process it, and because it’s part of the trip… and as we have reminded ourselves a few times, this is part of the adventure. Working things out, readjusting, pivoting and making it work. Anyway, in the background of the excitement of the theme parks and making memories with the kids… this is what has been happening.
MONDAY:
On the road from Goondiwini to the Gold Coast, we noticed the car was a little ‘wobbly’ when idling. We assumed maybe we just had a bad batch of fuel, and once we filled up again, it would be back to normal…
we gave it a bit of the she’ll be right treatment, drove to the airport and picked up Mooma (Dave’s Mum, Meg) and hoped for the best.
TUESDAY:
Theme Park no. 1 – Sea World… I’ll probably do another post about the theme parks as they don’t deserve to be pulled into this mess. Anyway, on Tuesday, some fun little dash warning lights popped on… and more annoyingly, they stayed on every time the car stops and starts… they screamed please get me some help, I need attention. So we booked the car in as early as we could, Friday, for a quick check with a 4WD specialist and on Saturday with a regular mechanic, just in case. Then back to the fun-filled week we had planned… no point letting the car get us down.
WEDNESDAY:
Theme Park no. 2 Wet’n’Wild… only 1.5km from ‘home’ so not far for the car to manage, easy day… lights were still there but appointments were booked.
THURSDAY:
Theme Park no. 3 Movie world… again only 1.5km from ‘home’, the kids were having the time of their lives. My tummy was a bit unsettled because apparently, you should not even think about what would happen if wet’n’wild water goes in your mouth, but everyone is still having fun and enjoying the sunshine we wouldn’t be getting in Melbourne.
FRIDAY:
Mooma and I took the kids to Movie World because we can walk from the campsite… yep it’s really that close and Dave took the car to the 4WD specialist. After no clear indication in the morning, he is told that the car needs a few more tests to see what is causing the problem… They tell us it could be a compression issue, or maybe a bad injector, and while this was expensive, it was fixable and we could hopefully plan to be back on the road by Thursday, but they would need the car til then. So, a few extra days in Queensland, for us and a compressed version of our trip home, but it was workable. But this was where it started to get a bit more complicated… We rang the park we were staying in to see if we could extend our stay given the car situation… no deal… “you will need to be out on Sunday”. So now we had no car and no accommodation… not ideal. Not to worry, we hired a dual-cab ute so we could move our camper trailer on Sunday, and still have a car to take Mooma to the airport on Saturday. And after a bit of searching, we found a caravan park that isn’t too far away and most importantly has space for us even in the school holidays… the downside is we will now be much much further than 1.5km from the theme parks.
SATURDAY:
Things started looking up, I got to parkrun in the morning, and I beat my 2025 PB by 3 and bit mins… great start. Isaac and I spent the day at Sea World and Dave and the girls picked up mooma and took her to the airport. We upgraded our park tickets to give us access for the rest of the time we have in QLD and I also manage to get an excellent deal on the photos from the parks which is a win because I really love photos. Wins all round for our Saturday… and I won’t lie, I took this as a good sign things were on the up.
SUNDAY:
We packed up the camper, and Dave loaded it on to the ute… which is very very low… so low the jockey wheel got bent and now had to be replaced… Dave was convinced this was a sign that we are really in the poo, and things would not be improving, but I wouldn’t. We forged on, got a new jockey wheel, used the power of our brains to work out how to get the trailer on and off the ute without any more issues and we arrived and set up at the new campsite. There was a weird smell on our site, but I still refused to buy into the negativity.
MONDAY:
We had crumpets for brekky, as one of the Hamish and Andy Podcasts we listened to on the way up to QLD says that the crumpets up here are just better than elsewhere in Australia… and yes they were good… but then we get a call from the mechanic… the problem with the car is worse then they suspected…
The land crusier needs a new engine… which is not the ‘big problem’ we thought we had… a couple of grand and a squashed holiday… it’s a much worse… now we really are in the poo, and I have finally cracked. What was supposed to be a great family trip for Dave’s 40th, has steadily turned into a dumpster fire that is now fully alight. Like most dumpster fire situations, I have spent most of the week distracting myself with other things and have been pretty successful at doing so, but now it’s right in my face and it sucks. So while the mechanic does a Hail Mary and attempts to find an affordable second-hand engine… we have been trying to come up with a new plan. At this stage, the kids and I are booked on a flight home on Wednesday… but how we get the trailer home and all of our stuff… and ideally, our car is still up in the air. At this moment in time, we need a car miracle.
Who knows what Tuesday will bring…
The Most Curious George Fam 
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