‘Bad News in Good Company’. Or ‘Bertha needs a heart transplant – thank goodness Mum and Dad are here to console me’.

So we were hanging out for Hilly and Pop to visit. The intention was for them to stay in the spare beds in Bertha, while we parked at the best caravan park in Australia, which has a farm with animals to feed. Mum and Dad were coming to check out MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) with me so I could spend a whole day with them there before going back with Duncan and the children.

Well we got to see MONA at least! Having been towed the day before they were due to arrive, staying on Bertha was out of the question.

We got the sad and horrible news that dear Bertha needs a heart transplant. Her engine is significantly older than we thought. The odometer reads 700 000km, which is great for that engine. They should go 1.7 million to 2 million kilometres easily. Which apparently she HAS done. It appears that the odo has been clocked once or twice. If only it had an extra digit… I shall get Duncan to write the next entry with technical details for those that are interested. I’ll just leave it with this: the engine is stuffed and we need a new one. That’s do-able. There’s a perfect re-conditioned one in Launceston which can be put in. It just costs a lot of money and might take a little longer than the 2 weeks we have left before we are due back on the Spirit of Tasmania. Fortunately that trip is flexible. When I know what date to change it to, I can ring and alter our trip back. In the meantime we are now officially and actually homeless hobos! We intend to move from caravan park to caravan park and still see the sights we were going to. Just call us ‘Trailer Trash’!

Having Mum and Dad here has been a wonderful distraction from our bad news. The children were so excited to see Hilly and Pop. Angus was literally jumping up and down at the airport and their reaction when they saw them through the doors was just beautiful.

They landed in the afternoon and and we spent that evening just chilling out in our caravan park house and catching up and worrying about Bertha. Not at all what I had expected. It was Dad’s birthday and the intention was to bake him a cake and celebrate in style. We got to celebrate with bought cake a day or two late instead.

 We spent a lovely few days ‘holidaying in Hobart’. We went to Richmond and checked out ZooDoo and had an absolute ball. Mum nearly had her cardigan eaten by a deer and we all nearly got eaten by a friendly camel. 

We checked out the Richmond Bridge and the Gaol and then had our days at MONA. 

Mum and Dad and I went one day while Dunc took the kids to Cadburys and the Museum. And then Dunc and I took the kids to MONA while Mum and Dad wandered Hobart.

 

We moved from our little caravan house into a hotel in the centre of Hobart at Battery Point, the start of many moves. I can see I will be working the phones hard finding beds for us over the next few weeks.

We all walked from battery point to Salamanca place and the Tasmanian Museum and I think Pop is happy to be headed home where he can rest a bit! Its been lovely having them here and we will miss them now they have gone back to Melbourne.