Made it to Sydney!!

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G’day everyone from Sydney,

We arrived in the big city over a week ago and we’re now living in a fancy apartment in Surry Hills, with a big balcony that over looks the city. It’s got all mod cons and even has a pool, gym and spa as well…it’s almost as nice as the campervan!!

Rewind about 20 days and we were still living the life of a hobo and travelling down the coast. Our first day in New South Wales started well enough. We had drive around Springbrook National Park, checking out the fantastic views and waterfalls. We decided to stay in a small town called Mullumbimby, but with a lack of campsites, we end up parking up at a rugby pitch for the night! They charge people to stay there and use the facilities (Dad - might be an idea for Tarleton Rugby Club!?) however we seemed to be surrounded by dodgy looking travelers.

The caretaker who looks after the rugby pitch lives in a shed (seriously) nearby and tells us it will be $25 for the night (what a rip off!!). He tells us he’ll be coming round in the morning to collect it.
When morning comes round, we make the extremely mature decision…to do a runner! Driving as fast as we can, all the way to Byron Bay. Byron is another place that would look much snazzier in the sunshine, but rain continues to hammer it down. We look online and find a hostel that looks comfortable and cheap to get away from muddy campsites.

When we arrive at said hostel, we soon realise that it’s actually an overpriced squat. No locks on doors, the room smells of cigarette smoke and the showers don’t work. It takes us only 10 minutes to decide to make our 2nd runner of the morning.

We book into a motel down the road and hide from the rain. In the morning, the sun is out for about 2 minutes so we speed up to the Byron Lighthouse to check it out in the sunshine. After plenty of photos we head to the hippy haven of Nimbim. They call it ‘Smokers Paradise’ there’s lots of grizzly old potheads sat around coffee shops with hippy graffiti all over the walls. Half an hour is about enough time to see all the sights…

The other highlights of the week include seeing a giant prawn and a giant Banana at Coffs Harbor...so not much to write home about. Basically we’re dying to get down to Sydney, so when we make it to the big city, we’re thrilled to find a really nice hostel in Newtown,(it’s more of a guesthouse). It’s amazing how much you enjoy little things like a kitchen after living in a van.

We use the hostel as base to job and flat hunt for the first week in Sydney and things come together pretty quickly, thanks to applying for jobs whilst we were still in Queensland. We go for a job interview for ‘outbound wine sellers’ for Coles (like Sainsburys in Oz) and even though we’re dressed like bible salesmen, we both get the job. It’s commission based, so we can hopefully save plenty of money for South East Asia. Plus, it’s based in Newtown, which is very cool. Like the Northern Quarter meets Camden.

We also find the apartment I mentioned earlier, which we’re sharing with a couple called DK & Rachel (he’s from Alabama and she’s a Kiwi). So that’s where we’re up to, ready to start work this week (training involves tasting 24 different wines…should be fun).

Not sure how frequent the blog updates will be for the next 2 months whilst we’re working, but I’ll try to update you all with any good stories or Kodak moments. We’re going to be skype-able now too, so give us a shout for a proper chat.

Ali and Clio x

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Comments

[Trevor]

Glad you made it
Glad you both made it to Sydney. Bet it was a blow to hand back the camper van! Mum will be in touch to arrange a Skype.