noel – Page 20 – Transfercar Blog

Discover the magic of Western Australia

Western Australia (WA) is so huge and so lightly populated that most of it is just pure wilderness. It is Australia’s final frontier!

Perth is the country’s sunniest capital city, offering a vast array of amazing sunsets over the ocean. It blends urban cool with spectacular nature and provides a good start to your Western Australia adventure. There are plenty of bars and restaurants and a very decent choice of beautiful wineries nearby.

Follow the coast up North and discover some of the world’s most pristine beaches. The World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef is the largest fringing reef on Earth and one of the few places in the world where you can swim with the whale shark. Go South and you will find Margaret River, a bustling market town famed for its wine, incredible surfing nearby, and mysterious karri (eucalyptus) forests.

ningaloo reef

Western Australia is a superb destination for nature lovers. Wildlife-watching opportunities are extraordinary, from interactions with dolphins at Monkey Mia to the spotting of migrating whale pods off the coast of Albany. There’s also stunning gorges and waterfalls at Karijini National Park.

Broome offers a fantastic natural phenomenon called the Staircase to the Moon. It is best seen from Roebuck Bay in Broome, when the full moon rises over the exposed mudflats at extremely low tide and creates a beautiful optical illusion of stairs reaching to the moon. The Staircase to the Moon happens 2 – 3 days a month between March and October.

Transfercar regularly offers free rental cars and campervans that need to be relocated from one of the major cities of the East Coast to Western Australia. Relocation deals with 12 to 15 free rental days are not uncommon, giving you enough time to explore en route and see vast expanses of the country. Start planning your escape now!

New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun

People travel from all over the world to ski in New Zealand and it’s not surprising why.

Blessed with snow kissed mountains that stand as high as 3,700 metres and huge volcanoes covered with fresh powder, New Zealand is a ski and snowboarding paradise.

The ski season starts around mid-June and closes around the beginning of October, offering 4 months of play time for the serious and not so serious riders.

Slopes range from the totally novice to extreme black diamond skill levels and if you want that something special, heli-skiing will take you to remote slopes and glaciers far from the reach of road transport.

What’s even better is what the French call apres-ski. When your body needs a bit of a rest from the slopes, the local resort towns of Queenstown and Wanaka nearby the ski-fields offer anything from a blast in a jet boat, a swing from a bungy or a night out at one of the many bars and clubs that pump until the small hours of the morning.

Here’s a little run-down of some of the best ski fields on offer: Continue reading New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun

Transfercar crew on awesome US road trip!

Picking-up-the-RV

After our successful attendance at Collision conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, we decided to get back to San Francisco by transferring an RV. Why fly when you can take a bit of time to check out the fantastic scenery that’s offered in this part of the world? We booked the free rental RV on Transfercar using my personal account and we therefore acted as a mystery client.

The whole transfer process was very smooth, so this reiterated to me what a great service we offer! You just have to be a little patient upon picking up the RV as it’s not the fastest process: after waiting in line and signing the forms, you need to watch a 15 minute long video and then be shown in person how to use everything in the RV. But once the keys are yours and as soon as you hear the engine roar, the exhilaration begins!

We took the northern route from Las Vegas to San Francisco, planning to go through Death Valley and then Yosemite National Parks. After spending a night parked at the Death Valley Inn, we thought that we were in for a very hot day and we were therefore dressed for summer with shorts and thongs.

We were more than surprised when a few hours later we got caught in a big snow storm and realized that all the mountain passes were closed due to those wintry conditions! We were certainly not prepared for this, but that was all part of the fun and adventure. The landscapes we went through were truly amazing so it was worth it …

We made the most of those few extra hours on board and continued to work on various website developments thanks to our laptops while one of us was driving. Ins’t modern life amazing? We can take our office with us wherever we go, even in an RV that’s being snowed under!

In any case we have learned a lesson for next time: check out the weather forecast before you leave and don’t assume Nevada and California are super hot all the time!

See this story in action by watching our short road trip video below:

The world’s most luxurious supervans!

You don’t like being on the water, but you want to live that superyacht lifestyle? Get a luxurious supervan!

Our favourite supervan has to be the amazing eleMMent Palazzo mobile home. This visual feast of extravaganza and luxury is actually of German craftsmanship, so made to last! The Palazzo features two floors of entertainment with a giant master suite, multiple bars and a liftable “flybridge” lounge up top. You can even extend a slide-out, increasing interior space by 80% when not on the road. The new eleMMent series 2015 is coming out soon, and we wonder what improvements will be provided to what is already an amazing motorhome, by all accounts.

Another supervan that would be nice to try is the Futuria Sports and Spa Motorhome. Another German invention! This mansion on wheels contains everything for luxury travelling: bathroom, bedroom, roof terrace with Jacuzzi and even sports car garage (equipped with the custom Toronto garage doors).

Guess where the third best supervan comes from? Germany as well!!! The Volkner Mobil Performance Bus comes equipped with a large fridge-freezer, dishwasher, microwave, Bose-Dolby-home Entertainment Surround System and a widescreen TV which can be concealed in the cabinet when not in use. Pretty cool, uh?

Think this is out of reach for you? Maybe… but do you know that you can find some supervans on Transfercar? Especially in the USA where you can drive brand new RVs for next to nothing. .. Check it out.

Reference: Hunretsville NC Garage Doors.

Transfercar a hit at Collision Conference in Vegas

3 men in their 30s spending 3 days in Las Vegas; Sounds like trouble? Fear not, I’m happy to tell you what happened in Sin City. We were three members of the Transfercar team, Espen, the co-founder and CTO, Christian, our creative mentor and myself, the CMO, attending the Collision Conference, a burgeoning confluence of startups, investors, influencers, and next-gen business and technology leaders that has been referred to as being “Davos for geeks.”

TC-at-collision

Our goal was to meet with potential partners, members of the media and investors in order to fuel our expansion in the US as we recently launched our service in America. About 7,500 “colliders” came to Las Vegas from 89 countries representing 1,000 startups, and speakers ranging from Slack’s CEO to Facebook’s CMO, so there was a real feeling of exhilaration and energy under the huge tent that had been set up for the event at the World Market Center. It felt like all the VIPs of the Silicon Valley were meeting in the heart of the desert.

Unsurprisingly, we had a great time! I am not only referring to the drinks and party atmosphere which is part of Vegas’ DNA, I actually think this was the best conference I have ever been to! More importantly, this was a real success for Transfercar. People were queuing in front of our stand as our concept was an instant hit! It was really comforting for us to see the enthusiasm that our business generates among all kinds of people. We were told a couple of times that we were one of the coolest startups of the conference, including Frank Denbow who twitted this below:

Needless to say, we came back with a suitcase full of business cards and some very serious leads for our development. We also encouraged many of the attendees to pick-up a free rental car from Las Vegas as we had quite a lot of availability for those dates. We put our money where our mouth is (so to speak as it was free) and booked one RV on our website and picked it up from a local branch in Las Vegas and transferred it to San Francisco. What an amazing road trip that was!

8 Iconic Australia Snacks

If you’re in Australia you need to do as the Aussie do! Well at least eat like us, because we have an array of snacks you will have never seen or heard of! Once you give them a try you will wonder why they aren’t all around the world!

Fairy Bread

This a must have at all birthday parties under 10 (maybe even 21) in Australia! To create this culinary magic, spread some butter on bread (white bread works best!) and sprinkle some 100s and 1000s on top. Viola, your first go at fairy bread. Not only does it look awesome, it actually tastes good!

Tim Tams

These things of beauties are two chocolate biscuits sandwiching chocolate ganache. This is then covered in more chocolate. Only in Australia can you find the legitimate Tim Tam and these alone are worth the trip. After you have sample a few (try stopping after one, we dare you) you need to attempt a Tim Tam slam. If you are doing with a hot drink make sure you are quick or you might end up with a mug full or biscuit.

Arnott’s Shapes

Shapes aren’t quiet biscuits, crisps or chips. There are an iconic snack all Aussie kids grew up eating and most likely still eat! They came in an array of flavours, from Chicken to Pizza, Bacon & Cheese to the most popular BBQ. Now these baked morsels aren’t like any BBQ chip they are chockers with flavouring and you will never get sick of them.

Snags

When it comes to BBQs or barbies as we say, Aussie do it best. Forget hot dogs, snags (or sausages) is what you need for your Aussie barbie. You will also need to grab some white bread and onion. While your snags are cooking, thinly slice the onion and slowly cook on the barbie as well. They will slowly caramelise and be a perfect addition to the snag. Once you’re done, throw the snag in the bread with the onion and tom sauce (tomato ketchup) and you’re ready to go.

If you cook this beauty up, you will definitely snag yourself some new mates!

Meat Pie

The Aussie pie is a perfect hand-held snack. The pies usually contain minced meat & gravy, however, they vary immensely. From mashed potato, mushrooms, onion, butter chicken to steak and pepper.

These are best enjoyed with a squirt of tomato sauce. Try lifting up the corner of the pastry and squirting your sauce inside to really amp up the flavours. Just be careful biting it as they are usually steaming hot and are prone to falling apart, so be quick!

Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas

For the sake of fundraising it totally fine to eat koalas and frogs in Australia! Don’t stress, its only Cadburys Caramello Koala and chocolate Freddos. These scrummy little goodies are usually sold for 50 cents to $1 to raise funds for all types of causes.

Not only are they doing good, but the Freddos and Koalas are delicious. They are a favourite of not only kids but all adults. You find the koala stuffed full of the caramel and you usually can’t stop at one. We also recommend trying the white chocolate Freddo, he also comes in a larger size which we think is worth splashing out for!

Pods

While the rest of the world has heard of Tim Tams, us Aussie know we have something even better, Pods. These little guys are perfect for sneaking into the movies, school lectures or a family dinner.

Once you have tried then you will realise, they have managed to get the perfect squish to crunch ratio. You can get flavours such as Twix, Mint Slice, Honeycomb, Mars Bar & even raspberry,

Caramel Slice

This slice is perfect if you looking for something sweet, yet fudgy and a swish of chocolate. It may be Irish in origin, but us Aussie has perfected it. A crumbly biscuit base, with a lashing of caramel, then topped with a thin layer of chocolate.

Once you have mastered the caramel slice you need to have a go at the Mar Bar slice or even the iconic Milo & Peanut Butter Slice.

As you can see Aussie don’t only snack on vegemite toast & shrimp! We love our sweet and savoury snacks. They are nothing like settling in for an episode of Home and Away (Google it if you’re not sure of this show) with a box of BBQ shapes!