What could be more wonderful than the ferry from Tasmania arriving into Geelong three hours late, at 11:30pm? Only one thing: a midnight arrival at the caravan park to find the gate code they sent doesn’t work. Oh joy! 

Fortunately another late arrival uses their code and we don’t have to camp on the side of the road.

We’re on a mission to drive the 1,645 km to Queensland where we plan to store the caravan for a few months. We take the Hume Freeway and our first stop is Glenrowan. If you don’t know, Glenrowan is the site of Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang’s fatal last stand. This town is all Ned Kelly all the time. A new Ned Kelly Centre is under construction at cost of $3.5 million. Priorities, priorities.

In a last minute decision we to go to the museum – it advertises an animatronic experience: a what you say?

We move into a dark room which recreates the Railway waiting room; the Police are taking the train to Glenrowan where they hear the Kelly gang are resting. For the next 35 minutes we see the famous story from multiple points of view. We progress through several rooms, each with animated life-like mannequins (this is the animatronics bit) conveying the story. There is elaborate staging and multiple special effects. It’s not the Marvel universe, but it is engaging.

One minute we’re in a rowdy pub with a band playing while the barkeep serves customers; we’re on a verandah witnessing the final gun fight; we’re in the burning house where the gang take refuge. The room is full of smoke (steam) and the sound of crackling flames. Suddenly the roof caves. There are gasps. Someone swears (me). Two children are traumatised for life. And that’s before we witness Ned’s hanging.

After this we need a drink. A temperature of 33C means where’s the beer? We find Red Dog Brewery, which turns out to be a vineyard and winery as well. Peter, the current patriarch, is on duty and the man can tell a good story. Or ten. His grandfather not only planted the first vines, small blocks of Trebbiano and Shiraz, in 1919, he also built, by hand, the cavernous cellar in which we stand sampling some good beer and drinkable wine.

I engineer our trip so Scott can see the Dog on the Tucker-box at Gundagai. There’s a famous (in Australia) statue, inspired by a bullock driver’s poem, Bullocky Bill. The mythical dog loyally guards his owner’s tucker-box until death. You can read the full story here. Excitement builds as we approach the site, and….. well, there’s the tucker-box, but where’s the bloody faithful dog? So much for loyalty. Walter has to sub in.

Many ask where we leave the caravan when we return to New Zealand. It varies, as it depends on where we end the trip. This time we head to Ballandean, just over the NSW border into Queensland, to friends who have a vineyard and winery Just Red Wines on the Granite Belt, a lesser known winemaking area of Australia. The region is elevated and specialises in cool climate wines, and you will find varietals not typical in other regions: whites such as Alvarinho, Marsanne, Roussane, Vermentino and Petit Manseng, and reds such as Durif, Petit Verdot, Tannat, and Nero d’Avola.

The Just Red property has two accommodation cabins with lovely views over the vineyard, and bush over a few acres at the back. We bring some track markers to replace the fading strips that mark the trail and that will be our first job when we return.

Oh, look at that – we’re back! It takes a couple of days to mark, and check the marking, of the trail. We call it blazing, but Australians don’t like that word, especially when you are talking about the bush. As you see, the Granite Belt is aptly named as the trail not only leads through towering native trees, but traverses the massive boulders that give the area its name.

So here we are, back in Queensland and this is the final caravan excursion for us before we sell up. In the meantime we are heading north along the Queensland coast: first stop Dicky Beach, a destination we remember enjoying back in July 2019 – our first trip. Seems like a long time ago.