Down Under

We arrived in Oz on Friday morning, it was a 4.5 hour flight from Fiji and the plane was MASSIVE, it was a Boeing 747, the type with an upstairs, and we were sitting upstairs, and unbeknown to us we had been allocated emergency exit seats which meant we had LOADS of leg room, it was a great flight (unlike the toy plane we flew from Chile to NZ on!!!) the food was good to (Air Pacific)

Once we got to the airport and retrieved our back packs we rang the camper van company to come and pick us up from the airport, only to be told that they don't offer a pick up service, so we had to jump in a cab. The camper van we have now is probably half the size of the last one, but much more fun as it really is proper camping now. The weather here is superb and there is no need to use the camper for anything other than sleeping and preparing food, unlike NZ where it was raining and often quite cold.

The camper van depot is in Sydney, so once we had done all the paper work and necessary checks we were given directions to the campsite at Lane Cove which is 14k outside of the City. Well after 12 days of Fiji Time you can imagine that driving through Sydney in Friday rush hour traffic in a camper van is a bit stressful to say the least. We got lost 3 times! We had to drive across the Harbour Bridge through lanes and lanes of traffic and the road signs are so confusing, it really was a nerve wracking experience, and to make matters worse we hit a BIG thunder storm with fork lightening, it wasn't the best of starts!

So after 3 attempts of finding the campsite up and down the toll road at a cost of $5 a time (a toll road that we didn't need to be on at all!!) we managed to find the exit that would take us to the site, and luckily we found it with no further complications. Once we had checked in and got a local map we decided to head out to the supermarket and get some supplies and frozen mixed veg (I'm not sure if anybody knows this but Matt has actually been to Oz before, in fact to the very same camp site that were at now, where he lived for quite a while, which is why he kept insisting on knowing the way, roads looking familiar etc) so we were following directions given to us, when Matt said "I know where we're going now, I remember this road" and as he said this he took the wrong turn and got us back on the toll road!! Anyway to cut it short after a lot of shouting and screaming we managed to find the shops, by which point we were so stressed and tired from getting up early that neither of us could be bothered to shop. We threw a couple of bags of frozen veg in the trolly and headed home.

On the way back to the campsite we realised that we hadn't got any beers or wine, so we did a detour (talk about asking for trouble!) and went to the local "bottle shop" for some much needed alcoholic supplies, we staggered out of there with 6 bottles of beer and 3 bottles of wine. We felt better already ;-)

As we were driving back to the campsite the steering went on the van, Matt was still able to control it but it was extremely difficult and potentially dangerous. He managed to steer it back to the site and I drove it just to confirm that there was something wrong with it. There was no doubt that there was something wrong as it was almost impossible to turn the wheel, God knows how Matt got us back. Matt rang the breakdown company and they agreed to send somebody out to have a look at it, which they did and he advised us to drive it to the nearest garage as the belt that controls the power steering had broken. Matt agreed to this and was advised to call the breakdown depot again the next day to confirm the details, luckily for us when he did they agreed to send somebody out the next day to fix it, which is just as well really as neither of us had a clue where the garage was and the vehicle was not safe to drive anyway. Our stress levels were racing now, it was about 8pm by this time and we hadn't had a drink, anything to eat or managed to get our stuff unpacked. It really had been a nightmare day!

We fell into bed after a few beers and good old beans on toast for our tea, we couldn't work out how to erect the bed so we had to sleep on the benches, both too dog tired to start messing about trying to work out how to put it up. After a good nights sleep we managed to find the boards for the bed, the guy turned up to fix the camper and we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool, so all in all a much better day than Friday.

We are now in Sydney and plan on doing the whole tourist thing, Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Paddy Markets, China Town. You name it we plan to do it, today. Tomorrow we leave Sydney and as far as I know were heading to the Blue Mountains. We have planned a kind of route for the time that were here. We aren't doing the backpacker trail up the East Coast, I will update you as we go along.

So that's us..

It's lovely been in the sun after so much cold and rain, the Ozzie weather is superb, as was Fiji. The only thing here though is there are thousands upon thousands of flies, and they don't leave you alone, flying round your face and in your ears. We have a couple of rolled up newspapers in the van to swat them with. I think we should get some kind of score card going to see who can swat the most! There are also lots of mozzies and I'm covered in bites from Fiji, even Matt who doesn't normally get bitten has some bites. So they will be getting the rolled up newspaper treatment too. It gives us something to do while we're busy doing nothing ;o)