Our journey continues in Australia with us finally buying our camper van! Van Life is finally a reality! Read how we found our new home, decorated it and set off on the road again! For those who want to read about where to find the cheapest camping gear, scroll to Cost Break Down.

Where did we leave off?

Once we left the Ski Lodge we knew we wanted to buy a camper van and head to the West Coast of Australia. We set off in our wagon and headed for Melbourne. We managed to sell our Wagon while we stayed with friends and family and hunted for our new wheels. Olly and I did not know what to expect when it came to car shopping on the Facebook marketplace. We certainly did not expect to spend the next 3 weeks hunting for a decent camper van. We soon learnt that there were a lot of things we didn’t know about buying a car. This meant we needed to make sure we purchased a car with either Victoria plates or WA.

How we found our new Camper Van

Melbourne is usually the first destination for backpackers starting their East Coast trip. As a result of this, there are lots of people looking for cars/camper vans who have lots of money to spend. For us, that meant being online hunting for cars all day long as we had lots of competition in Melbourne. There are two main frustrations with buying a car from a backpacker. One is that they either haven’t looked after the car/van at all. Or secondly, they do not have any paperwork for the car. This ended up meaning we looked at 10 different vans to find at least 2 things wrong with them. After countless trips to view cars and hundreds of messages, we were beginning to feel deflated.

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One morning I woke up and saw a notification on a Facebook group that someone had a van to sell with Western Australia plates. I messaged them and asked them to be the first ones to view it as it was in our price range. By a miracle, we were the only people to have messaged about the van. We went to see it and fell in love. We shook hands and settled on a day for him to service the van.

How we decorated our Camper Van

I was very nervous about the idea of living on 4 wheels. Thankfully we were staying at Greg and Rachels’s house who offered for us to use anything we wanted to clean/decorate the van. We got our new home and started to take everything out to see what we had to work with. We managed to clean it all out and make it fresh ( I am a clean freak so this was good for my soul). I sat for hours on Pinterest researching Van Life to get some inspiration. Eventually, we headed to Ikea and started to plan our new home to make it ‘Our’ home.

We painted sections blue as it is my favourite colour and it represents creativity. That and I wanted a bright colour to keep the interior fresh and light.

Olly picked some utensils which happened to match our colour scheme but they were the cheapest we could find.

Cost Break down

Ikea- Chopping boards – $1, A door matt – $1, Fake plants for $2, Tea towels – $3, Storage baskets- $8, Storage shoe rack – $7.99, Fairy Lights – $5, Paint – $13, plates/cups – $7. We learnt we needed lining for the cupboards to stop the plates sliding all over the place which was $5.

Before we went to Ikea we measured out the back window and side door so we could find some curtains for them. I and Olly ended up cutting our fabric and making the curtains ourselves for under $10. A skill my Step mum taught me at Uni came in very handy!

Target – The cheapest for bedding and Pillows. 5 Pillows ( 3 decoratives for the sofa the bed turns into), bedding and candles came to $50. The ribbon from the bedding we now use to tie the curtains back is very handy when we are cooking.

Kmart- Cheapest shop we found a gas stove from. Other camping shops sell them for $40 but Kmart does them for $25.

Aldi- Certain times of the year they sell amazing camping gear. We got a huge battery-powered fan for $15 which we can hang anywhere.

I added little things to make it feel cosy which Olly did not initially agree with but he has come around to now.

Before and After Photos!

Is Van life for us?

I (Milly) can honestly say that buying a camper van is the best thing we have ever done. It’s made us so much more experienced as backpackers as we have the freedom to do whatever we want. We have saved so much money on accommodation as we have found hundreds of free camping sites, hot showers and amazing views. The stress of finding a van was worth it and it has exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t believe how easy it is to live in a van and cook dinner every night on a gas fire. Not only has it been easy but it’s been an incredible experience learning all of this with Olly.

Travelling with someone is one thing but being in a camper van with someone 24/7 is testing. Surprisingly, we haven’t argued once! *Fingers Crossed*. Living our new Van Life is the best experience I have had in Australia hands down. Olly and I have been to some of the most amazing places together because we have had the van. Van Life is definitely for us!

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