7th Jun 2012 - 23rd Jun 2012 Arriving back in Sydney we put adverts up on Gumtree and posters on hostel notice boards to try sell the van. Within the day we had phone calls asking to view the van. The first couple who viewed it put in an offer and we sold it to them after bargaining them for another few days (as the hostels can end up being expensive). We were sad to see our home of 4 months go but the fat wad of cash and the prospect of going to the toilet whenever, helpe

6th Jun 2012 - After spending a third of our Australian adventure in our campervan it was time to sell up our home. We had a great time and experience travelling around- surprising really as it was just an ex tradies van but the bed was comfortable (for the majority), had enough storage to keep all our crap hidden and apart from the odd tyre trouble the engine went a treat (and apart from using the choke to start it).We enjoyed endless hours chilling in the back watching DVD

31st May 2012 - 5th Jun 2012 Left South Australia and started our journey on the Great Ocean Road. The road was built by soldiers who returned from the WW1, as it gave them jobs and put them back into normality, it was built in remembrance for those who had died in the war. The reason it was built was to do exactly as it is named, be a great ocean drive, and to rival Los Angeles great drive. Our first stop was 'Bay of Islands' which was rock formations in the sea just sitti

25th May 2012 - 30th May 2012 - Crossing the border from the Northern Territory into South Australia, we continued to see more of the same vast landscape, even turning a little more red than in the outback. Also the clear blue skies gave way to a little well deserved drizzle of rain. Our first stop in S.A was the Opal mining town of Coober Pedy. It can get very hot and humid there so 80% of the houses are built underground to escape the heat. I visited an underground church

18th May 2012 - 21st May 2012 Left Darwin and headed 670km back down to Katherine. We visited the famous Nitmiluk National Park, and climbed to see the awesome Nitmiluk Gorge previously known as Katherine Gorge. The gorge is huge and was tiresome to climb (for me, not Shan). You can explore for days but we were happy with seeing a little. On the trek back down we came across hundreds of kangaroos just eating their dinner. One had a little joey in her pouch, it was so cute.

9th Apr 2012 - 18th Apr 2012 - Drove back to Brisbane and parked up on Cricket Street across from number 81- our old house. We went for dinner on Caxton Street before re-tracing our old steps- where we'd either be laden down with shopping bags and crates of beer or I'd be running home from work in my sweaty, swollen, fish splattered feet. We slept on Cricket Street that night and it felt a little odd being back. We had been half heartedly thought we could look for a few weeks

15th Mar 2012 - 18th Mar 2012 Finally after 56 days it was time for Shannon to become as old as me! For Shans birthday I bought tickets to see the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne. We had GP advantage passes and went to Albert Park for the four days. Throughout the weekend we watched on the track- V8 supercar challenge with a Mercedes SLS, V8 car and last years McLaren F1 car, we watched V8 race, Formula Ford, Carrera Cup, Renault Red Bull Race Off. In the air we seen RAAF

10th Mar 2012 - 14th Mar 2012 Our flight landed back into Melbourne about 10am, our flight with Jetstar was fine and we had amazing views of New Zealand as we took off. We then had to wait on our luggage, surprisingly we didn't get our bags searched like on 'border control'. Lorraine kindly picked us up and we spent the rest of the day sleeping. Had a few lazy days at my cousins before heading on a mini mini road trip for a few days. We headed an hour to the coast to Brighton

16th Feb 2012 - 19th Feb 2012 After a few days in Griffith we decided to drive 452km to Melbourne. It was a nice drive and we could see the transition from mile upon mile of flat fields in NSW to a more hilly and tree(y) Victoria. We didn't know our plans for our time in Melbourne but we went sightseeing, went to Federation Square (Fed Sq) and seen Flinders Street Station. We took a super fast elevator to the top of the Eurika Tower which is supposedly the highest building in

12th Feb 2012 - 15th Feb 2012 So we packed up the apartment (we have far too much stuff) and filled up our van and set off for Griffith. Which is 567km and an 8 hours drive inland of Sydney. The journey was fine and had no hassles, one of the ambassadors Tony Bennet, very kindly gave us his SatNav and that helped a lot. We arrived late at night and parked up for the night. The next morning we set out to look for harvesting jobs but suddenly realised it was going to be harder

27th Jan 2012 - 11th Feb 2012 So we had been thinking for a bit what our next plans should be, so we handed in our notice at the hotel. We looked on Gumtree for a campervan, we viewed a few before settling on a 1997, ford econovan maxi. Which has only 196,000 km on the clock and cost $5,300. Which is good, some vans we seen were older than us and had done double the mileage. It's spacious and has a little kitchen area and a lovely spotted sofa which turns into a bed. ( fridg

It's been 224 years since the first fleet arrived in Sydney, the 26th January is a national holiday to remember this, and we had the day off so joined in the celebrations that is Australia Day. We started off our day by getting some Australia flags to wave and walked down the road at Hyde Park which was lined with vintage cars for the 'motorfest', we seen minis, VW campers, carriages, Australian made Holdens, fire trucks and more. We visited the free entry Government House an

15th Jan 2012 - 25th Jan 2012 So I turned 24 in Sydney on the 21-1-12 my 'Hannah' date, hmm interesting- get it? I don't know if there is a different word for a number Palindrome. Anyway that's enough about that and here's more about me... My birthday celebrations started a week early when we climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We had both really wanted to do it and thought my birthday would make it special. We asked our concierge boss if he could wangle a discount- if we we

28th Dec 2011 - 14th Jan 2012 Happy New Year to all from the best place in the world to celebrate new years- Sydney! We started the end 2011 by queuing for 3 hours across the Domain in the Botanical Gardens. We had decided we didn't need to waste hundreds of dollars by going to a private event and decided upon the free event at Mrs Macquarie's Point as we love the view from there. But turns out when they say the site capacity is 20,000 people they aren't lying. So we joined

22nd Dec 2011 - 27th Dec 2011 - Well if you had told us it was July and weird people were randomly putting up Christmas decorations and wishing us a happy Christmas just for a laugh we would have believed you. That was the most un-christmassy lead up to Christmas we have ever experienced. The weather was averaging high 20s, and the city lacked any Christmas spirit- sure there were tress sprouting up but the heat/sunshine made it feel fake. Even when guests started saying '

5th Nov 2011 - 21st Dec 2011 - What have we been up to? Well we have made the most of the hot weather and on our days off have covered Sydney corner to corner. - We went on the Sydney city and Bondi sightseeing bus. Even though we have seen a lot of Sydney already it was fun and touristy, and good to see new places as well as the best Sydney has to offer ie. the fish market- the largest in the Southern hemisphere, Central station, Anzac bridge, Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Ope

16th Oct 2011 - 4th Nov 2011 The alarm goes off at 5.30am and one of us are awake. If its my morning for work I'm up and tip toeing about showering, making breaky, and creeping about in the dark, if it's Shannon's morning for work all lights are on and I'm up making his froot loops. For the first few weeks we walked to work, it was a long walk which took over half and hour. But it was straight down Bourke Street the whole entire way so not too hard. However by week 3 I f

29th Sep 2011 - 15th Oct 2011 What a busy few weeks we have had, moved out the hostel and moved into lovely apartment and started work..... The eight bed dorm in a converted train facing the real railway station was fine as dorms go, the other people in room chatted to us and was fine, but we started counting down the days til we moved into our new apartment, as the communal areas were being a pain in the ass. With too many different nationalities and accents trying to out

21st Sep 2011 - 28th Sep 2011 - It was so worth the 6 hour straight drive when we got our first glimpse of Sydney. We turned off the highway and were straight onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was amazing and we were so excited. We drove across and parked at Circular Quay, took a walk and were amazed at how breathtaking both the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House were. We drove back across the bridge and parked in north Sydney and made sure we had views of t

14th Sep 2011 - 20th Sep 2011 So it was time to pack our bags and vacate the flat, we didn't have anywhere to go though as the place we were hoping to move into fell through, we contacted Tony, a guys house we viewed last week and said we would take it, but it was half an hour out of the city, and would make it difficult for me to get to work. Also Shannon had two interviews lined up for delivery driver and a removals company but they were both messing him about taking ages

23rd Aug 2011 - 13th Sep 2011 We had read on other people's blogs it was so easy to get jobs in Brisbane. But we want to say it's not that easy! Shan had been looking for work for over 2 weeks. He had been on gumtree.com.au and seek.com.au. Shan also handed his CV into a few places to be told they dont take on people with working visas. However we asked our landlord who runs the hostel if he knew of any work- and he actually knew of some short term work. So I phoned the gu

3rd Aug 2011 - 22nd Aug 2011 - Life in Brisbane! Ok.. I suggest making a cuppa before sitting down to read this, oh and just for me have some chocolate digestives too, I'd love one right now! Working life- My work is going fine I have to say, but I really hate waitressing, always have and always will. It's just not for me. But Gambaro's is a great establishment, the food is top notch and very expensive, it's mainly a seafood restaurant and even for someone like me who hat

7th Jul 2011 - 2nd Aug 2011 - Cairns to Brisbane Decided last night that we should leave Cairns and move on to Brisbane. The reason being we have looked in estate agents for a 3 month rental but they only do 6 months minimum and also when we signed on at the job agency they said there is little work at the moment, we were also told that the unemployment figures had just been released and Australia is 10% unemployed and Cairns is the worst area with 4.5% unemployed. So we th

5th Jul 2011 - 7th Jul 2011 5th July- We are in Australia! Our flight landed about half 7 in the morning then we got to passport control and queue wasn't too bad and to our shock we only got a normal stamp in our passports no fancy visa which is a shame, then we got bags and queued to pass through customs which we had heard was very strict and we could see then opening everyone's cases, then it was our turn and as we were connecting from Brisbane to Cairns we got to walk r