Lauren, a Travellers Autobarn customer, just shared her great blog with us.

Roadtrip planning

Half term happens, you guessed it, halfway through term; this means you’ll have known your potential travel buddies for a month or so by the time you’re deciding who to travel with – scary stuff! The way to get round this is pretty obvious – arrange to travel with happy, chilled out people whose company you enjoy; get everyone involved in booking, planning, playing and arranging so that one person doesn’t end up feeling like they’ve done all the work and no one can complain that they’re not getting to go where they want. My group came about from all the people who wanted to roadtrip, but didn’t fancy driving too far and didn’t care too much about where they ended up. For us this meant not having much of a plan apart from a few key things we wanted to see and a very certain notion that we were not going to spend a whole week in the car. Other people drove a lot and even drove by night (which is dangerous due to kangaroo collision possibilities), but they went about 4 times as far as we did and saw almost the entire coast North of Perth. Both sets of people had tonnes of fun so just think about what suits you and what you want out of your trip. For me, having time to relax, laugh with my friends and chill out on beaches was as important as seeing the sites. In hindsight, it might have been sensible to have a more precise plan as we had to make a lot of spot decisions that often involved turning full circle in the middle of the, luckily quiet, roads!

I have just recently been reading an article about the hot issue of campers that are spoiling the most iconic areas with human waste and litter and angering the communities that host them. We at Travellers Auto Barn like many of the other tourism operators know the problems that arise with travellers coming from all over the world who didn’t expect to pay for camping sites and leave their rubbish in the outback whether in Oz or New Zealand but we try to redirect and inform them about reasonable budget expectations as well as handing out guides and booklets such as Top Tourist Park discounts and campsite atlases and we are providing continuous updates over social media in regards to hostel discounts and further deals too.

Nevertheless, we do believe it is exactly this spirit of freedom and independence that makes travellers visit Australia and / or New Zealand.

Are fines and bans on freedom camping really a solution to this problem? The Greens say “Freedom campers are being dumped on unfairly by a new bill allowing instant fines for leaving waste and bans on camping in some areas”, but the Freedom Camping Bill gives councils and the Department of Conservation (DOC) powers to decide where camping is allowed and sets up an infringement regime with offenders facing instant fines of $200 – or up to $10,000 for serious offences such as emptying a campervan sewage tank in a rest area and the changes will even come into effect before the rugby World Cup.

Nevertheless, the number of freedom campers had doubled over the past decade to 150,000 and the number of complaints for polluting picnic spots has grown in areas like Queenstown by more than five-fold.

But isn’t there a better solution than high charges, for example practical measures like the provision of more public toilets and more rubbish bins in these scenic out of the way places would be a much better response than this sledgehammer bill from the National Party.

It is true that this bill seriously undermines the freedoms that travellers have enjoyed for generations, to enjoy the great outdoors without having some council law enforcement officer knocking on the window of their campervan with their clipboard at two in the morning telling them to move on or slapping a $200 infringement notice on their windscreen.”

Oh well, we will see where this all goes but we would like to hear your opinion too. If you have to say something in regards to this topic, please leave a comment and speak up.

Your TAB Team

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Here we go … A little story from one of our customers, Flo Tim Schlor from Germany, who spent an amazing journey in Oz.

Australia is home to some of the most legendary surfing spots in the world, and some of the hottest surfers too. Whether East, South or West, Oz offers a wide range of different coastline environments with over 23,000 km of beaches. Driven by freedom and tranquility, millions of professionals as well as beginners travel to West Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria every year to catch the waves and experience the spirit of surfing.

Chris Stevens who describes himself as a surfer by nature, a photographer by trade and a traveller by accident, provided TNT recently with a pretty useful guide to surfing down under.

Read on to know what he recommends…