Rocky settles in

It has been a busy few weeks, and opportunities to get away under canvas have been few and far between.  We did manage a couple of nights down the coast with friends, and a mad dash to the big smoke for a night - but on each occasion we were staying in a fine house with four solid walls and a roof.

The little fisherman did his best to remove as many fish from the Tasman Sea as he could - however luck again was against us.  Thankfully one of our friends did catch a Pacific Salmon, which is in our freezer awaiting an opportunity for the Little Fisherman to sample the fruits of his labour.

Rocky now has nearly 3 000km on the clock, and continues to impress us with its comfort and capability.  I have no idea how I ever survived so long without a ute!

In that time we have used Rocky as:

A farm truck

A work truck

New Car for Project 2014

Over the past few months we have been starting to think about what things we are going to take with us camping.  Whilst we have survived well enough camping for a a week or two, when travelling for 12 full months, there is going to be a few additional things that will be necessary to make the trip enjoyable.

And it was beginning to dawn on us that our ever faithful and dependable Terracan was probably not going to be able to fit us all in.

So we started thinking about what capability did we really want in a vehicle.  The list of course continued to grow, and ended up looking something like this:

• Dual Cab Ute (cab chassis)
• Steel Tray
• Towbar
• Water and Dust proof canopy with jack off legs
• Steel Bullbar (winch compatible in case I get lucky and find a free winch somewhere!)
• Snorkel
• Comfortable for ALL of us touring
• Under warranty for our trip - meaning a 2012 model vehicle

And so the hunt was on.  There are many dual cab utes on the market that were worth considering, including the new Toyota Double Cab 70 series - all the way down to the offerings by Great Wall.  The decision wasn't going to be easy - and indeed it wasn't.