Everything you need to know about us and our travels.
It has been a long time since I have re-introduced my little family, who we are and what we do.
Lets start from the beginning — I am Kirianna I am who you talk to when you write and comment on our platform, in the real world I am simply “mum” I have a passion for cooking and all things aesthetically pretty, I am obsessed with washing and a hot coffee. Husband, dad and dream maker Lachlan the man behind the lens and the planner, Lock is the brains of the operation researching our camp spots, budgeting and lover of adventure. Riley our almost 4year old and “everready” battery, he is the reason “riley’s travels” came to life – to share his globetrotting with our families in NZ and Aus while we were living as expats. Our Riley is very much a free loving spirit, he makes everyone feel like someone, with big hugs lots of laughing and of late plenty of “why”. Alba; Our busy buzzy bee, she floats around full of curiosity lots of determination and pure love for music.
We are currently travelling in our 1962 Volkswagen bus “Izzie” throughout Queensland an area we skipped through during our first lap of Australia due to my pregnancy with Alba. Now a family of 4 we have had to make some adjustments one being the extension and stand alone side annex. I receive lots of questions about our set up, I’m sorry it has taken this long to share this insight with you all, I have broken everything you need to know below with brand names to make searching easier for you if you would like to find some pieces.
How we make Izzie work for a family of 4
The Annex
Custom made by Willem from Platinum Trimming based on the Gold Coast. This has made life a lot easier for us for so many reasons. It began as a shade only, it worked really well with one child as we slept inside the kombi in a rock ’n’ roll bed for the most part of our trip, it wasn’t until I fell pregnant with Alba did we then decide it was time to create more space. We went back to Willem he added the flooring and the sides — it all fits compact into a duffle bag that simply straps to the roof. We continued through Western Australia to Northern Territory with our new space.
New Extension Now two little people with carseats and two adults, we went back to Willem searching for ideas to make our next trip work, in the end the idea to extend the existing annex and have it “stand alone” so we could load the tent and leave during the day it was extended by a half a metre to allow two blow up beds.
Kitchenette Willem also installed our kitchenette equipped with my much loved fridge by dometic, it runs 240volt when plugged in and 12volt when we aren’t plugged off our auxiliary battery. Our little kitchen has a sink and pump with a 10litre waste and 10litre fresh water. Storage, and a hatch with USB ports and plugs. We purchased a mini Nespresso machine recently to save some dollars from our coffee obsession and its honestly small enough to fit under the sink each stay and pop on the bench, I also have an Aarke soda water pump – it is tall but again we value it. The forever space giving sunk also houses two gas bottles one for the “weber Q baby” and one for the gas cooker (campfire) from BCF (also sides under the sink)
Lastly we have a fold away table that slides along the side of the cabinet.
Willem relined and upholstered the roof, added the lights, and flooring. We feel so lucky to have meet him and worked through ideas with him to make our travels in Izzie carefree as possible.
Battery
Juice is super important we run a dometic fridge, lights a small pump for the dometic sink and battery charger, Willem installed (battery) USB ports, 12v port and two 240v power points. We have also since added a dometic. Sine wave inverter so we can have 240v to charge our laptops, camera gear and for the much needed coffee machine.
Cookware
I love to cook, its my love language my dream would be to write a little recipe book for travellers — anyway we have a few options for cooking in the kombi. The first is our mini weber q baby it is a new addition and provides us with quick meals for the kids those shorter days when you need ton pop on a few sangas or in those days where you want to pop on a roast. We purchased the duffle bag to protect it and pop it on the roof.
Nothing satisfies us more than a campfire cook up, we have several camp ovens 25 quartz from campfire found at BCF. The are so versatile we have kept one clean for bread and the other is great for the big messy tasty stews.
I carry a set of global knives and decent cooking board from winestains, I try super hard to reduce my wast and my plastic consumption so I have a range of glass jars, I keep leftovers in and bulk items. Pans, I have a small saucepan from Baracat for the kiddies pasta, a large campfire pan and a medium skillet. Tongs more tongs and tongs forever BBQ’ing and removing lids. Lastly 4 cups they are from wandering folk and are used for coffee, wine and water, we have 4 plates, 2 of our plates are wooden for the kids I found them in a little Japanese store in Tokyo 3 years ago and they are still going strong.
Foldable fire pit from ??
Self-sufficientWe can go off the grid for up to five days with our solar panel blanket assisting the charge, and we carry a potty for the kiddies. Riley is toilet trained so really its for him.
Packing Bedding is our biggest space stealer, we have now converted to sleeping bags and found some pretty ones through “where the north wind blows” because “ascetics”. Blow up beds were the best option for space – we have now popped 3 ahhhh….everything then fits into a large bedding basket that slides into the boot.
Electronics We mostly charge our laptops, and camera gear. But I popped this in as we do have some nifty things like the JBL boom for music, a mini diffuser to keep the mosquito’s away and also use it with Euky Bear.
Extras My all time favourite item is my Stokke foldable baby bath, slips in the back of the boot without notice, the kids love sand and dirt so this little bath saves the sheets and clothes. Surf board is by firewire and is inside on the roof held up by wandering folk straps,
Carseats are britax and we had the anchor point legally engineered in. Very Busy Bag has the best space saver packing cubes. Extra food supplies go into our wandering folk esky. We had custom magnetic curtains made that black out the bus, they are amazing – I leave one on each side of the carseats and when the kids fall asleep I clip them up while driving to shade them. Locks grandfather copied the measurements and made black mosquito nets that also do the same.
Chairs We have had a fair few of you ask about our chairs and while I would love to delve into this story you will have to wait. I will say they are ours, we had them made and we have a great story to follow with a release date for you to purchase.
