Sunday, April 16, 2006

7 mechanics and 2 weeks later....


Well our van is purrrring like a kitten, It only took 7 mechanics and 2 weeks of patience and about 5 different parts to make it run like that. Luckily and somehow we managed to pull this all off for barely any $$$ at all.
So Now we're pretty happy. We've met a bunch of other random people, and scammed our way into a few other free rooms and beds. People seems to pitty us when they ask "where are you sleeping" and we point to the big white van on the side of the road. Meh works for me. Eventhough the van provides me with everything i need, it's always interesting waking up in a new place with new people. We went to "BLACKBUTT reserve" where we got to see some Walibees and kangeroos, and the cutest animals ever here: KOALAS, man they're so cute and sleepy.
We're finally headed up the coast now. We stopped in a tiny town called Forster, nothing to exciting. Then we drove another 10 hours north and ended up in Byron Bay. Oh man this place is crawling with people. The night life is crazy and oh god, i thought we were original with the campervanning around Australia, but it seems that every second person here is doing the same. What a crazy bunch of hippies.
To make things even crazier here, there's a huge Blues Festival going on all week-end, so people from all over Australia are here. Well sadly its raining today and there's not too much to do,.
We bought some chocolate eggs and we're going to hide them in the van and go for an easter egg hunt later.
HAPPY EASTER!!!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Living in a crazy world with REALLY nice people

Well the past few days have just been weird...and crazy...After finishing up with our farm work we descided to take the 10 hour drive to Newcastle. this wasn't such a bad drive. Everything went pretty smoothly. We parked in the middle of a parking lot as usual right by the beach. But by midnight we realized we were surrounded by a bunch of idiots drinking in the parking lot being loud and showing off their cars. After someone shook our van to see if we were inside we descided we would wait till no one was around, hop out of our van, into the front seat (in our pjamas) and drive to somewhere more quiet. this seemed like it would be simple. so we drove about 50 meters, and our car just stopped HAHAHAHAH. And wouldn't start up again. So this left us in the middle of the road at 2 am, pushing the car in our pjamas. HAHAHAHa. It was pretty funny. At first no one stopped to help us. Even the police drove right past us, even practicly waved, but just kept going. EVENTUALLY two guys stopped, helped push our car into the parking lot left us a number for a mechanic. We hung out with them for a bit, and they've been showing us around the town for the past few days. after those guys left a car full of young drunk guys stopped, offered us some beer. Apperantly one of the guys was in the process of becoming a mechanic. But he didn't help much. they pushed our car even further into the car park, on to a hill so we could push start it in the mornng. So we had a couple of beer with them in the parking lot. It was a bit of a hassle to get rid of those guy, but eventually they left. we went to bed and by the time we got up we were surrounded by cars and couldn't leave even if our car was working. so we were stuck there again. Well the mechanic never showed up the day later. So as we were hanging aroudn the beach trying to figure out what to do, we met a woman in the bathroom, we were making small talk and complaining about our broken car. Well the woman mentioned her girlfriend had been studying mechanics for 2 years. She came and had a look at our van. She more or less figured out what was wrong. She got the van started and invited us to stay at their house, and hooked us up with an HONEST mechanic who would help us tomorrow morning.
So right now we're staying at these REALLY nice lesbians' house, with their daughter and 2 doggies.
So we've been getting home cooked meals, HOT showers (we've been showering in public bathroom's sinks haha) and they're even doing our laundry. I almost feel guilty for all the hospitality they've been showing us. And for the time that they're at work, we're goign to call up the first boys we met and they're going to take us out and show us the city. Our star has definetly been shining. In away I'm glad our car broke down, because had it not we would not have met all these nice people and had our crazy little adventure.
Anyway, Newcastle is great!!1 It's a smaller city, and has gorgeouse beaches and has a huge university, so there's always a party going on. And coincidentally the biggest surfing competition in Australia is happening right now and for the next week or so, So we'll probably stick around here for a bit.