Let’s start 5 days earlier when we went to THL on Great Eastern Highway near the airport to book the van. Ve from THL was amazing showing me the different vans available, we had the choice of a 3 man smaller van, 4 berth larger van or the mother 6 berth van. Of course the 3 man was cheaper, but when I took Steve out to THL to see the choices and pointed to the 3 man can from inside the office, he immediately said "well, we won't be going in that. What else do they have?" So of course we got the 6 man van, which has a layout like this...
We arrived a week later to collect the van and commence our 14 day adventure. The office opened at 9am. We got there at 8,55 so that we could get underway. There were 6 others there before us. Eventually we got the keys and then started to set the van up for a 14 day adventure.
The van it self is fantastic but to be honest, we have never travelled like this before and it was fun thinking what we would need for the next 14 days.
As you entered the van there was a table with bench seats either side. If you were travelling with more than 2 people this is where they would be seated when you drive as there were seat belts. This could also convert into a bed at night. You might get 2 people in it. Take a look.
The kitchen was compact but everything you need was there. A gas cook top and griller, fridge, sink and filtered water. On the opposite wall was the compact shower and toilet.
Then at the back a u shape "club lounge" seating area with table. This converts into a double bed. The great thing about this van was you could leave the bed set up and use the smaller sitting area for meals.
The third double bed is located above the front driving cabin and has a proper bed mattress as it isn't used for anything else. This is the most comfortable bed out of all of them.
There are two air hatches at each end of the van to help with ventilation each night as well as air conditioning, plus a built in awning that easily pops out to provide shade on one side of the vehicle.
The downside is the TV does not have an aerial to grab any free to air stations, so it’s basically useless. You can play DVD's thought it by sliding them into the side of the tv. We cleverly took our Apple TV so we could steam from catch up channels direct to the tv however there's no power point nearby, so you need to stretch the cord across the sink area half way through the van. Unfortunately Steve didn't think to bring the remote control for the Apple TV, so we couldn't end up using it anyway!
After 10 days, we turned the bench seat dining into a bed and set up the club lounge area at the back of the van as our seating and dining area, which was a lot more comfortable. One of us was sleeping above the driving compartment and the other was sleeping in the dining area so it was plenty of room for one. This is how it looked when we changed the configuration.
Overall we loved the van. Clearly, there was plenty of room for two people. It was easy to drive and easy to set up each day, just plug in the power, attach the waste hose, turn on the gas bottle and you were fine. We even did one night in a park on an unpowered site and we still could run lights off the car battery (and there was a solar panel on the roof as well that I guess was powering something). We just couldn't use powerpoint when on an unpowered site, so we had to conserve mobile phone and tablet usage, which doesn't hurt.
