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 than we anticipated. We went to tourist information who sent us to recruitment agencies who said they had no work and sent us to hostels who said no work and were blunt about it. So we rather rashly decided maybe it was a sign and we weren't cut out to do fruit picking (I did think this previously- long hot sweaty days sharing our space with spiders and flys whilst earning little money aren't my thing). So we had a chat and thought things through, our plan was to fruit pick to gain a 2nd year visa but we thought it was impractical to try fit it in and instead use our remaining 4 and half months to sight see. Which when we thought about it still gives us plenty of time. So we made the most of our time in Griffith by going to Lake Wyangan which is a lovely lake, very peaceful and lovely views, and saw deers and goats. Then we went a drive to Scenic Hill which over looks Griffith from the hill top. Griffith was designed by the same guy who built Canberra and it's mainly on a one way system and on grid. Griffith is a nice place but a little odd. It's small like a town but it's a city, it's full of shops (hardware/furniture) but the streets are like a ghost town.
We had heard Griffith is an Italian community but we haven't found many restaurants (the two we did find were closed) and everywhere is expensive for food. So Maccers it was. We also encountered our first van problem- a punctured tyre. And we didn't have a jack- so luckily we seen two guys picking fruit and they helped, even letting us borrow their car. When we found out (via the sun website) that Whitney Houston had died we put on her greatest hits and sang along in the van.
We also spent Valentines Day in Griffith. We had a lovely morning wakening up in the van and opening our cards and presents I already had my wonderful present of going to the opera house, treated ourselves to another Maccers, Shan surprised me with pancakes, jam and cream- very romantic. At night we went to see 'The Vow' which was romantic and sad. We had pizza for dinner from El Coriso which was yummy and so it should be, they won best pizza in NSW for 2010.
Griffith may have not went as planned but we are glad we went and glad we now have lots more travelling and fun ahead.