'Vanny DeVito'

As I said, it took ages until we finally found a van. In the meantime, we had to move from our cozy Airbnb to a hostel simply because the Airbnb was no longer available.
There we were woken up at 6 in the morning by the fire alarm - it's getting annoying...

Then FINALLY the roadworthy is done!...now we can get going. We have our campervan: Toyota HiAce, born in 1996, so almost as young as Caro ^^. He was named Vanny DeVito by the previous owners.

Oh yeah...wait a minute...we still had a few things to do.

'224' on the license plate - that's a sign ❤❤(we couldn't choose it)

First of all, we drove to a parking lot, unpacked everything, and checked what we got with our van. Like Mama always says: emptying a used van is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get.
10 kg firewood, a broken fishing rod, a pop-up tent for camping toilets, an old tarpaulin, 2 holey anoraks, 30 liters of water in jerrycans, camping stove, a swimming ring with glitter confetti inside, and so on.
We took most of it to the junkyard, including this fancy toilet tent. We initially took the 10 kg firewood with us for 350 km, until Caro insisted and we left it behind. (Due to the current bushfires, all open fires were prohibited, so there was little room for negotiation)

1. The floor could use a makeover. We found cheap parquet at the junkyard. According to our calculations, we needed 131 boards. We know what you're thinking: it seemed like a lot to us too, especially when we saw the stack, but we double-checked. It wasn't until 2 days later that we realized we measured in inches but calculated in cm 😅

Well? Is that enough =)?

2. The chest is too big... unscrew all the screws and cut it down with the jigsaw...

3. Where to put our stuff? No problem...we built a new cabinet...more stable than some Ikea cabinets...

The tabletop is real teak wood...only the finest here=)

During the 3-day conversion, in scorching sun on a remote parking lot, we met new interested Aussies every day. Donald - greetings to you - was very helpful👏

(I think he was a homeless person who also lives in his car, so he knew a lot^^)

It was brutally hot

During the 3 days, we also slept in the car. (more or less secretly, hoping that nobody would check on us.) This chaos and heat didn't exactly contribute positively to the morale in our travel group.

Camping illegally while renovating.

But how is it now after the conversion? Was it worth it and is it cozy? Pictures say more than words here: