37 Days + 7559 km in a rented van + 2 dirty hippies in the Land Down Under = One awesome road trip!
"Strine" slang we learned:
Bathing Costume: Bathing Suit
Bogun: White Trash
Cheers: Thank You
Chunder: To Vomit
Goon Bag: Bagged Wine
Grog: Booze
How You Goin?: How Are You Doing?
Jumper (Jumpa): Sweater (Australians don't pronounce the Rs at the end of words, then randomly add Rs to the end of words that don't have them. For instance, we live in "Canader" to hear it spoken)
No Worries: Relax, no problem
Reckon: To Think or Suppose
Sunnies: Sunglasses
Suss It Out: To Check It Out
Wetties: Wetsuits (To sound like a proper Australian, shorten everything, and add "ies" to the end of it - ie: surfies, schoolies, etc.)
We were pretty terrified to leave the airport after hearing all about Australia's horrendous and poisonous wildlife from our many Aussie friends (thanks a bunch everyone), but we finally managed to drag ourselves out of the building, into Brisbane, keeping a good eye out for Drop Bears and Ring Snakes. We stayed at a hostel that would make a Moroccan hostelier blush, and did some sightseeing. The idea was to rent (aka "hire") a car to drive up north to Cairns for Gerry and Melissa's wedding. The distance was something like 1400 km, which I figured could be done in about 12 hours. Everyone I spoke to told me it was going to take at least 20, but I refused to believe it would take that long. 20 hours over three days later, we arrived in tropical Cairns, where we lazed about and did some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I seem to remember something about someone getting married too...
We got turned onto this company called Hippie Camper, that rented nicely done up Mitsubishi vans with ridiculous flower and butterfly paint schemes. We figured that was likely going to be the best way to see the east coast of Oz, so we went for it. The van had bench seating and a table inside that converted to a double bed, with a battery powered fridge, a sink and a 20L water tank. We stayed in a mix of pay camper van sites (which are plentiful and often fantastic in Oz) and free side-of-the-highway rest stops, with compost toilets (or sometimes none at all) and very occasionally cold showers. We'd try to do 150 or so km per day, and stop at all the cool sites. Along the way we saw a 7 metre tall "gumboot", a giant fibreglass banana, sailed and snorkelled through the Whitsunday Islands, took a 4WD tour through Fraser Island, hiked through the Blue Mountains, drove the Great Ocean Road, and caught up with a buddy from our days in Lake Louise and saw the famous Sydney Opera House. There was wildlife out the ass. Most of it not in the form of roadkill! We saw: Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Green Tree Frogs, a Cassowary (look it up), Whales, Lorikeets, a fresh Wombat in the centre of the road (it was probably still warm, so we figure it counts), Fairy Penguins and we're pretty certain we saw the top of the head of a Platypus in a stream. Driving Oz in a camper van was undoubtedly the best way to see the country, and we highly recommend it! Visiting Australia is like visiting Canada - you wouldn't really go for the cities, you go for the nature, and the views.
The Australian people are by far the nicest we've ever met. Everyone here is so easy going and friendly, we sort of wondered if there was something in the water. In our whole time here, we only met two people who weren't nice - we were reasonably certain that one was crazy, and the other we just told off and went on our way. We caught up with our buddy Dan just south of Sydney, who we know from working at Lake Louise. He took our travel-weary butts in, housed us and gave us some bloody fantastic food and drink, which was a nice break from freezing in the van at night.
Oz was certainly one of our favourites. Yes, I know we say that about every other country we visit, but we really mean it! We'd recommend it to anyone, and we really hope to return and see some more of it.
Next stop: New Zealand, for touring and (eww) work. Stay tuned...
HIPPIES AWAY!
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