Darwin to Perth to Darwin

This last week has been a bit of a whirlwind with arriving in Darwin, setting up the van and then jetting off to Perth for the working week and returning to Darwin again to continue the admin.

It has been a very successful and eventful week for Geist Direct with some long hours, happy moments and a sad one to finish off.

It started from our arrival into Darwin from Mataranka on Friday 19th when we found our ensuite green shady spot at Lee Point Caravan Resort just east of Darwin. This huge park is a bit empty at the moment but can cater for hundreds of vans and has a no booking policy. Having your own ensuite does have its ups I suppose although I must admit it only appealed as it was about the same price as one without an ensuite for this time of year. The XK660 has a great ensuite and Rachel and I still prefer to shower in our own bathroom. We setup next to Rachel's parents and spent the weekend settling in, putting up the Isabella and popping into the shops to get some supplies. We briefly visited the Mingal markets on that Sunday.

Monday was hectic as I rushed some emails through and jumped on a plain to Perth so I could deliver two vans to customers. Mr and Mrs Hogarth and Mr and Mrs Mateara who ordered a XK660 and XK630 Denyer respectively. Licensing proved a headache seeing we have no dealer at present in WA but Care-a-van are fantastic as a service agent and were able to accommodate me for the week which I really appreciate. Michelle's paperwork and tenacity proved to be the main driving force to getting the paperwork rubber stamped as well as a little help from me. All deliveries went smoothly in the end and everyone left happy. On Thursday our last Demo motorhome was sold in Perth too which topped the week off for me and the new owners. I'll be delivering the Phantom RG later in October when I get back around to Perth. Congratulations Mr and Mrs Green. Care-a-van will become our WA Geist Direct Centre, well done guys and girls.

Long days and nights wore me out a bit but I flew back to Darwin on Friday to some news that wasn't so good. A customer had some problems in Peterborough SA and had little help from the local dealer so I was able to talk the customer through the problems and get them home to Adelaide that afternoon after some discussions on the phone.

Over the weekend I was able to unwind a little and visited the B52 parked at the Aviation museum in Darwin. It is the only B52 on display in the Southern Hemisphere, well worth the $12 to see it. All the museum was absolutely fantastic as well as the Spitfire MKVIII replica, the Sabre and the Wessex helicopter which helped Darwin residents out during cyclone Tracy. My time as a photographer in the RAAF still gives me great memories of the various planes I have been so fortunate to fly in but the planes that graced our skies in the 40's through to the 70's are something else. On Sunday evening we returned to the Mingal markets to have dinner and watch the sunset over the bay. Seeing all those people around got me thinking about metal detecting again. At 5:30am Monday morning I headed down to the Mingal Markets site and metal detected the beach with a massive $6.70 find in coins and some cheap jewelery. But still it was good exercise and I helped clean up the beach a bit of cans and pull tabs before it got a bit hot and I had to get into some work.Better luck next time.

Yesterday (Monday) I had discussions with our Adelaide dealer, Noels Caravans about the servicing of the Geist Caravans after Fridays incident and it has been agreed between us that it is just not practical to continue on a relationship in selling and servicing the Geist product at their dealership. Their servicing centre is not up to the task in-conjunction with their other brands to give full service backup required by us. So with regret we have had to part company with Noels Caravans and so a new service agent will be appointed this week and the team at Geist Direct and I will service the Adelaide and regional market for future sales and accessories until a good dealer presents themselves or other avenues are looked at.