Tent upgrade ...

We've been planning to upgrade our tents for a while now.  In January 2009 we bought our first tent, an Oztrail Sportiva Lodge Combo tent (on special).  It's seen a lot of use and still functions well but is a lot larger than we really need - and takes more energy to set up than we want to expend. 


Even though we had heaps of room in the main tent, Erin (and Keegan) preferred some space of their own, so always used an additional smaller tent. Over time, that tent developed leaks so needs to be set up under one of our gazebos.

We've done a lot of research.  As much as the 30-second and Turbo tents appeal, they are out of our price range.  After much deliberation we settled on the tourer tent style.  Several manufacturers made this style but the Oztrail version fits our budget best.  The plan was to purchase two - a smaller 9 for Erin (and Keegan) to use and a larger 10-plus for Nick, Vaughan and I.  If we doing an overnight stay en route, Erin can bunk in with the rest of us. 

Yesterday Nick spotted an Oztrail Tourer 9 on eBay at a buy it now price of $170.00, which represented just half of the best new price he could find - and that was considerably less than the RRP on the manufacturer's site.  (The seller had used the tent once, then stored it under her bed)!  We collected our "new" acquisition today and did a test set-up in the backyard.  So quick and easy - fantastic!