Blog Week 5 - The Ozzie Campervan Experience

Saturday 8th October - Ridiculously early rise at 3.30am to leave "jail" (my hostel!) and head to the airport
to get my flight to Melbourne and then Cairns. Flight to Melbourne was relatively painless - its just such a pain in the face travelling on your own. I cant recommend it - you cant go to the toilet/get a coffee/do anything without bringing all of your worldy belongings with you. People look at you really funny when you are bringing your matching luggage into the toilet with you! Sat like a homeless person in Melbourne airport and watched 4Christmases- great movie btw. Stupid 8 hour layover..thanks Trailfinders for picking my flights! Got to Cairns in one piece and met Jo and Conal in Caravella. This was more like a motel than a hostel. We had our own little apartment. Really liked Caravella - swimming pool and the whole lot. Did I mention it was 33 degrees? Major change from NZ! Absolutely  shattered and hit the hay after 24 hours on the go!

Sunday 9th October - We met up with Conals friends who were in Cairns for the weekend and are living in Oz. Super handy having people around with cars! We visited Crystal Cascades just north of Cairns - there were swimming holes and places to go tubing. Lots of fun - was scared stupid about getting in the river cos the fish were looking at me - straight in the eye! But I did...see photos! We all went out on the tear that night - which is pretty much the thing to do in Cairns! Ended up in the Woolshed. If you asked me to  describe this joint - Coppers like! Ended up dancing on tables - not one of my finer moments. But when you give girls unlimited free champagne - expect the worst! Visited human size jelly babies on the way home (again see photos!)

Monday 10th October - Marie joined us from New Zealand today! Jo and I spent the morning down by the lagoon - an amazing public swimming pool in the middle of Cairns. Then Jo, Conal and myself went off white water rafting for  the afternoon. Rafting was so much fun. I am actually getting quite shocked at the amount of activities I am signing myself up for lately - but this was something I was really glad I did. Couple of near misses falling over board - but managed to stay on the raft for the 2 hours!Met Marie back at our hostel and went for the yummiest ice-cream ever and back to Caravella for the last proper night sleep in a while..you shall see why next!!

Tuesday 11th October - As some of you may have seen - today was the day that I brought roughing it to a new level!...Camper-vanning it. Our lovely "grande" campervan arrived at 10pm. Well its phenomenal what they can fit into a glorified hiace van! Nah - its very very cool. Lots of room on the inside.Kitchen in the boot..deck chairs and everything! We loaded up the campervan. I couldnt but hide that I now have...a wheele, backpack, pink bag and a wag bag (a purchase from NZ!) . I have WAY more luggage than the other three. Not good living in a camper. Drove for 8 hours to Airlie Beach...arrived at Nomads Airlie Beach at 10pm. Rough aul day. Time to open the "penthouse" before going to bed. The penthouse is a roof-rack..that doubles up as the bed that Marie and I are going to sleep in for the next three weeks. Lots of re-jigging of luggage later and we climbed up the dodgy ladder in the penthouse. Still 33 degrees at 11pm at night..this was going to be a total mare. Picture sleeping in a sauna-like coffin.
Something like that! I woke Marie up at 4am to tell her I was going to get sick on her head. Attractive right! Well I have never seen a girl move so quick..We opened the "door"...(picture a door on a wendy house!) and I was all better. Slept with head hanging out the penthouse and all was ok in case you guys were worried!

Wednesday 12th October - Travellers on tour! We are off sailing the Whitsunday Islands for the next two nights. We got on board the Wings 2 boat at midday and got fed straight away (my kinda boat!) - boat was amazing and staff so nice. We went sailing for about 4 hours before we donned the wetsuits and went snorkelling. Its not every day you can say you went snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. It was really very cool indeed. Saw a turtle on my first snorkel attempt! After drinking about a litre of Great Barrier Reef H20 we headed back to the boat for more food! The boat is BYOB..bring your own booze..how handy! So the duty free vodka came in useful. (Sorry Mammy - promise I drank in moderation!). Off to sleep in a very compact 8 bed room on the boat..our sleeping arrangements keep getting smaller and smaller. Soon enough I reckon I could just request a baby cot on check in ;)


Thursday 13th Octover- up at 7am with breakfast laid out for us...my god to the Wings 2 crew know how to feed us! We made our way to Whitehaven beach - rated in the top 3 beaches in the world. And it did not disappoint. The sand is so fine you can polish your jewellery..so I have blinging bling again!Back to the boat to get ready for our 2nd snorkel. Snorkelling was really the bomb - saw so many amazing colouredy fish and of course beautiful coral in the Great Barrier Reef.
I could most def get used to the sailing life! Back to Wings 2 again for some food and a few sociables and a stumble into my "cot".

Friday 14th October - Usual early start..super early snorkel - well I nearly had a canary!Not able. It was high tide and the wings dude decided to feed the fish as I was getting in. We are talking sharks and the whole lot in my face. Very unfunny. Wont be going snorkelling for a while after that incident! Scalded ourselves on the deck of the boat (Marie was particularly shcaldy - think Cork Flag like!) before saying goodbye to the Wings 2 crew and the friends we made - there was an after party arranged for us in a bar in Aerlie..so it was only a temporary goodbye!Partied til the small hours and sampled Aerlie Teapots. Should have learned from the Queenstown Teapots. Just not a good idea. Vom.com ...back to the penthouse. Terribly awkward climbing up an unstable ladder into our roof rack bed. Lovely Pic of Marie doing this!

Saturday 15th October - Woken up by the 33 degree heat - no need for alarms when your sleeping in the roof rack of the camper! Off we set on a 6 hour journey down the coast. If one thing is becoming clear on our roadtrip down the coast is that it takes a LONG time to get from A to B!! Myself and Marie are like two small children in the back of the camper entertaining ourselves with romcom dvd's and the likes. Got a bit of a fright when Marie reached into the boot/kitchen in the moving camper and pulls out a stanley knife. Marie has a bit of an obsesh with Moyross! 6hours later rocked up to Emu Beach Resort...nice little spot - just a lot of midget sized wildlife. Saw a whole family of  super small lizards - still manky though. And a trog...that would be a miniature three legged frog. eugh. Had the bestest skype chat with the fam in G-town. Thanks Maggie, Ailbhe, Chels and Chloe for getting all dressed up to see me on video skype..was there a deal on fleecy dressing gowns loveens? Got onto the mom aswell - well done Emily at your feis today...wish I was there!


We are making our way down to Rainbow beach to head to Fraser Island and then onto Sydney and then Melbourne to settle down and work :(
Also I have got yet another sim card to add do my collection - my Australian number is 0064 420 812 665 ...texts and calls welcome!!
Catch up next week! xxx