The Most Eventful Hire in Vamuz History (And Why I'd Do It All Again)
Some hires go smoothly. The van comes back clean, the reviews are great, everyone's happy. And then there's Norm.
Norm came to us through a luxury travel concierge company based in the United States. Their client, a solo traveller on a deeply personal trip, wanted to drive the East Coast of Australia. Airlie Beach to Sydney. Three weeks, one van, no fixed agenda. Just the road, the coast, and time to think.
We'd never done anything quite like it. Weeks of planning, back and forth emails, coordinating flights into Proserpine, custom itineraries, surf spot recommendations, bike hire, yoga mat, wetsuit - the lot. By the time Norm picked up the van I felt like I knew the trip better than he did.
What happened next is the stuff of campfire legend.
Week one
Norm put petrol in my diesel camper. If you've never done this, it's the kind of mistake that stops a trip cold and costs a lot of money to fix. To his credit, he realised almost immediately and called me straight away with a tow truck and an awesome mechanic who squeeze us in to busy arvo schedule. Sorted. Trip continued.
Week two
Reversing out of a campsite he clipped a tree and took out the wing mirror. Again, straight on the phone. Camplify's insurance handled it. We kept going.
Around the same time I drove up to meet him and took him for a surf, which is something I don't normally do, but Norm was that kind of bloke. You just wanted him to have a good time.
Week three
The grand finale. Leaving a Hipcamp property somewhere in northern NSW, Norm drove off with a vine caught around the awning. The awning didn't let go quietly. It took the solar panels and roof racks with it on the way out.
I got the call and was pretty zen-like calm despite being sent pics of the solar panels and awning on the ground next to the van.
But here's the thing about Norm. He was mortified. Genuinely devastated. Not the kind of person who shrugs and hands back the keys. And when I got up there to assess the damage, I looked at this bloke, standing next to my van in a campsite somewhere on the East Coast, a long way from home, on a trip that clearly meant everything to him, and I just thought: this is exactly the kind of moment that defines what Vamuz actually is
So we sorted the van. Camplify handled the insurance claim. And then I invited Norm to stay with us for a night — cooked him a proper Aussie BBQ, introduced him to the family, and took him out for a surf the next morning before he continued south… Oh yeah, he promptly put my longboard into the rocks, dinged the nose and lost the fin. The board survived. I had to laugh. The gift that keeps on giving.
Three weeks after the trip ended, the review from the travel concierge came in. It included this line from their CEO: "She'd hire Chris in a heartbeat if he ever changed careers." I'm choosing to take that as a compliment and not a hint.
Norm's own review described the van as exceeding expectations and the recommendations as the best off-the-beaten-track tips he'd received anywhere on the trip.
I'm not telling this story to scare anyone off hiring. Accidents happen, to first-timers and seasoned travellers alike. What matters is how they're handled. Camplify's insurance exists for exactly this reason, and the walkthrough we do at handover is designed to minimise the chances of the whole petrol-in-a-diesel situation happening in the first place.
But more than that, this is the kind of trip that reminds me why we do this. Norm drove the Whitsundays to Sydney solo. He surfed, ran trails, camped in national parks, found spots that don't show up on the first page of Google. He did it in a van my family built. And he went home with stories.
That's what the East Coast does to people. And honestly? Even with everything that happene, I'd do it all again.
Planning an Airlie Beach to Sydney campervan trip? We've driven it, planned it for others, and know every stop worth making between the Whitsundays and the Blue Mountains. Start planning your trip with us — it's free →
