We set off for Dave’s house after work on the Thursday, hoping to get a decent sleep there before the long drive up on the Friday!

Friday morning was an early one- set off at 6:30 so we didn’t miss any action on Walney Island. We arrived to some really horrendous weather and not alot of wind! However not too long after the tide started to go out and they started to run the pro classes. I was real keen to get out before my comp on the Saturday so headed out on a 12.5 ion5. I had a great little session finally mastering my unhooked backrolls :) by the end it got super windy though I was kinda hanging on!

For some crazy reason I decided to enter the ladies landboarding .. I hadn’t jumped on a landboard since my 17th birthday 2 years ago ( even then I didn’t ever landboard!) so thought I’d give it a crack. Its soo different! Since learning to kitesurf I’ve got used to a completely different technique. So my little landboard session was interesting .. was a good job that us lady landboarders were all for making it fun and not serious!

Friday night was a chilled one as we were super tired from a long drive followed by a full on session. The event organisers delivered as always and provided an awesome RedBull BBQ :) I could hardly function by about 10pm so I crashed very early.

We woke to an AWESOME day on Saturday it was perfect 12.5 weather, and once the tide went out it would become nice and flat :) My first kitesurf heat was against Danielle and Polly – I was just happy it was windy this time! I thought I did ok landing quite a few tricks but the other girls showed their experience in comps and must have busted out far more tricks in their heat. As I say I was just happy we all got out to try our best and not be limited by conditions!I ended up in 5th which was a bit rubbish but hey I figure it was my first event with wind and Ive got lots of learning about comp skills to do!Nevertheless it was so good to get out with the girls and have fun.

Whilst out on the water I looked over to see Sukie’s and Karen’s kites in the sky over at the landboarding so it looked like I missed out on that one .. oh well! There was only 3 of us so that meant I still had 3rd position .. even though I didn’t turn up!

I ended up kiting on the Saturday for about 6 hours consequently feeling rather worse for wear in the evening! However us lot decided to go check out Barrow nightlife. Everyone had a great night and we ended up crawling into  the van about 3am.

Sunday morning was a chilled one with no wind, so Dave and I went and managed to blag a cheeky shower at a health  club in the town – was amazing! Not alot happened on the Sunday apart from prizegiving where I managed to get 3rd place despite being tied up out on the water at the time ….!!

Pretty much straight after Prizegiving we decided to hit the road for the long long journey back to the South Coast. As we’re heading to Germany next week for the German Masters I was very kindly given a Flexifoil Hunter landboard to go practice with before .. ( its much needed, trust me !)

I slept pretty much the whole way home, exhausted from such an action packed weekend. A big thanks to the event organisers for putting on such a good weekend thoroughly enjoyed by all!
See y’all in Scotland! :)

After a day of trying out some demo SUPs and generally mucking about in the water, everyone was a bit sunned out and hit the sack quite early, ready for some Saturday action.

We woke to a slight breeze – significantly more than the day before but no where near enough to get out, riding upwind. However the classes had to be run and unfortunately the Amateur Ladies were the ones sent out straight after the juniors! My biggest tool was my 12.5 ion3 and after going out before my heat I knew I would be struggling to leave the floor, let alone trick! I was slightly unlucky as ther other 3 girls doing the Amateurs were between 13-16, half my height therefore a considerable amount lighter! We were all underpowered, I just needed that bit more than the other 3 in order to get some tricks down. However, I wanted experience in competition – that’s what I got! You have to learn to deal with any conditions you get for your heat – I definately wasn’t prepared for a super light wind one.

Sunday was when the wind decided to kick in, and they managed to run all the rest of the classes supposed to happen on the Friday and Saturday. Not needing to stick around for a heat, I got my hands on a 9m hadlow and went out to play. I was a bit wary of it  to begin with being a full on c kite when I was so used to bows, remembering my fear of my 2007 naish torch when i was learning to kitesurf! However  I loved how it handled and was amazed how much power for size the hadlows have. The feedback is so much more consistent than on my ions – with bows they always do what you tell them to, however don’t often tell you what theyre doing in return!

We had a long drive back down South so decided to disappear about 4pm on the Sunday.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend enjoyed by all! Well done to everyone who got involved with competing, see y’all at Barrow :)

After a rather long noisy night we arrived into St Malo which is about 2 hours drive from Quiberon ( if you don’t take a MASSIVE detour … ). We arrived to sunshine and a couple of guys already out riding. In no time at all everyone was out enjoying the lagoon lapping against our tent door at the campsite.

I hadn’t flown my 12.5 ion in 6 months so I was not overly keen to take the big monster out, however I forgot how much fun it is fully powered up!

A few days later and the Flexi RVs had turned up with a bunch of the Belgian and Dutch lot.

After that day we were slightly unlucky with the wind and weather .. the rain settled in and we had a few days chilling out, eating far too much amazing french food! It was great to catch up with everyone seeing what they’d been up to since the last meet in 2009. We got a sneaky peak at what new stuff would be coming out in the next few months to come, however didn’t manage to get out on the new ions on the water which was a shame!

Quiberon is always such a good trip as everyone is there to take a break and relax, the spot offers something for everyone. The campsite is on a peninsula sticking out into a butter flat lagoon, the campsite has heaps of open space for the buggiers to play on and the beach is only 5 mins away for some waves!

A big thank you to Pete at Mellow Distribution for sorting out another great week down in Brittany.

Who needs to know the time over there? Fijians have much better things to do than worry about what the time is.

I reckon once you experience the pacific way of life, you never want to return to the madness of England – I certainly didn’t! Their way of life is so much simpler, happier and generally better!

I arrived into Nadi airport and thought I’d ask the tourist desk if they knew anything about the Safari Lodge. The bubbly Fijian with hibiscus flowers in her hair had a great response: ” Warren Francis? Oh he’s such a great guy! He’s very well known. You heading over there to kitesurf? You’ll have a fantastic time. Wind every day!” – enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.

We spent a couple of days chilling at Smugglers Cove hotel, enjoying the sunshine after a rather wet few weeks in south NZ.

Josie and I went seperate ways after 2 days, her going off on a tour of the Yasawa Islands and I to Nananu-i-ra. I waited in anticipation as to who was taking me over there and how so. In strolls another grinning Fijian, this time a grandfather from the North of the Island. He leads me to my transport up there, being a battered up van with all the windows popped out. I was thrown into the back with the grandson hitching a ride with gramps up to near where we were headed. I had to keep reminding myself that this was Fiji and who needs a shiny van for customer transport over here?

We reached the dock where I would be taking my next form of transport over to the island ..

A young lad jumped in with me, turned us around and off we went to the island. We passed reefs, sandbars, palm trees and fishing boats. Nevermind the wind, the scenery was breathtaking enough.

As we cruised into the wharf we were met by Paul who was ‘barman’ at the lodge, apparently on a placement during a Tourism Degree. Not bad ey! He led me through trees, up hills down hills round corners until we reached the lodge.

I took this picture from the kite launching area – two steps into the water and you’re riding across a flat water bay. Talk about heaven on your doorstep.

The 10 days merged into a total blur. Every day you wake to the wind blowing through your blinds, scrambling outside to find the turquoise blue water capping already. You stroll down to the verandah where there’s a buffet breakfast all laid out for you, complete with fresh fruit from the trees and other continental breakfast favourites.

Depending on the tide, you kite at the appropriate spot. For mid tide you can ride right from the entrance to the Lodge, until it gets too low when coral becomes a bit of an issue. For real flat water riding we headed out to the sandbar, which is literally in the middle of nowhere! We all piled into the little yellow boat one day and just headed for the horizon. After about 1/2 hour of motoring, you arrive at another reef, fringing a totally flat shallow sandy bit!

captures my mood nicely.

At the quiet time of year being May, there was simply nobody about apart from myself, Mac and Jaz who were instructing at the lodge for the season – heaven! Oh, forgetting the stingrays, reef sharks and giant turtles who regularly come along to spectate.

Knowing I could kite every day made such a difference when I wanted to learn new things, as I could build stuff up every time I went out. I learnt so much more in Fiji within 10 days than in 4 months in Australia, simply because the conditions were there constantly.

mac in the zone

After a full on day kiting, there’s nothing better to do than chillout with a beer looking over the day’s photos, chatting about what the next day will bring for each of us on the water.

I have a massive thank say to Warren and Steph for such a fantastic 10 days, sharing their hidden gem with me in the middle of the pacific. This place has so much potential for trips, events and I would love to organise a trip back there sometime in the next couple of years.

Warren, Steph and their brilliant crew really have something special set up out there, and it is still so undiscovered.

www.safarilodge.fj – take a peek, and drop Warren an email.

I can guarantee a fantastic week of wind, waves, sun, coconuts, Fiji gold beer and fantastic company.

If a bit chillier than what we’re used to .. but hey at least the sun was shining!

It’s $50 each to get across the straits without a car .. and they don’t give you hassle for the amount of luggage you have – good times!

After so many problems with our Jucy car in Australia .. you would think we’d be idiots to go for them again. Yeah, we had one waiting for us in Christchurch. After a few sneaky phone calls to our good Jucy friends in Brisbane ( who we were now on first name terms with), reminding them of just how many problems we had over there .. we had a price slash off the van so we were sold!

To get out of Picton, there’s a train which takes about 5 hours down to Christchurch. That may seem a very dull prospect, but i couldn’t recommend it enough! it was awesome! You can sit outside in an open air carriage, watching the snowy mountains, vineyards, waves, seals and all sorts pass by.

Jucy Brucy round 2 worked out to be a great idea.. as I said before, you can be somewhere with no-one else about for miles and miles.

enjoying the sunset at the foot of Mount Cook at Lake Punkakiki

the view from our van – the best room with a view you can get!

We took Jucy Brucy round Lake Tekapo, Punakiki, before hitting Wanaka – one of the many Ski resorts here in the South. After seeing the snow sitting on the tops of mountains all round here .. temptation to stay for the ski season was crazy! Once we hit Queenstown, having no money to do any exciting activities like skydiving or bungying, we did a mish up to the Remarkables ski resort.

wheres the snow then ey? we wanted to play!

This place is full of so many hidden beauties, people would never know they existed unless they decide to climb up like us …

After a good 3 hours scrambling up the side of the mountain, we got to the top!

You don’t need to spend a fortune to see New Zealand from the top. Just get wrapped up, take some water and climb!

I’m getting a bit sentimental just sat here typing away about the place … you just need to see it for yourself to really appreciate the place! No matter how many times I say it’s amazing, its amazing, it’s amazing.. you gotta be there to experience it!

Driving along the motorway in the UK, the most you’re going to see is a few trees, HEAPS of development and far too many cars on the road. Would you come across somewhere so beautiful as this while driving at home?

This isn’t even an attraction to go see, just some random gorge that doesn’t even have a name on the map. The day I see that colour water in England, with not a piece of rubbish floating down it…!  

Our travels took us through Wanaka and Queenstown, down to Milford Sound. Every person we’d met had emphasised the importance of heading down to the ‘gorgeous amazing wonderful brilliant beautiful Milford Sound.’ We did the drive down there, only to find we couldn’t see a damn thing because it rained so so much!!

It would have been a great trip down … if we could have seen something other than greyness!

The rest of our west coast experience consisted of the same rain, wet, mist, cold .. unable to see a thing! We tried to see the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers .. it certainly felt like we were near ice .. just couldn’t damn see it!

After a few days of being sat in the van in miserable weather, enough was enough and we drove back to Christchurch.

 Only a few more days and we’ll be ripping up Fiji!! Excitement is an understatement!! I’m missing tropical climate a bit down here.

Since being on the move, it’s been difficult to get on here to update! So I’m afraid New Zealand is going into 2 giant posts.

On the 4th April I was lucky enough to be heading up to spend a week up in the Northland with family friends.

We had a cottage with this for a front garden! Fantastic.

From this week I have been completely sold on living in New Zealand. To put things into perspective, there are 4 million people living in New Zealand, while 4 million people live in London alone. There is just so much space here! So little development but so many hidden beauties like this natural harbour we found ..

Theres no doubt that New Zealand is for outdoorsy types. That is the beauty of the place! So much to explore that just seems so untouched since the beginning of time. The harbour also provided some good inlets for wakeboarding.

Before the europeans settled here, the indigenous New Zealanders (Maoris) had a set of beliefs about the land. It should not be used for resources, built on, and left in it’s natural state – hence why theres heaps of national parks here! Think England, but a fraction of the people, 10 times more wildlife, and a far more dramatic scenery.

One morning the wind was funnelling into the beach up in Taupo, however after pumping up the 12 it decided to go BANG! What bad timing ey! That was the end of my kiting in New Zealand :( up here was the only place you didnt need a full on wetsuit .. snow was waiting for us down south!

With kiting off the agenda I was keen to explore some more of the Northland, so jumped in a car and headed north. I have never seen such stunning beaches in my life! What’s more, there wasn’t a soul on them!

I was SO gutted I wouldn’t be kiting until Fiji, but hey.. that’s how it goes! The primary reason of travelling was to explore and experience new things, and if kiting wasn’t going to happen then it wasn’t the end of the world.

 After an incredible week up in the Northland, it was time to head South. Having previously decided we were terrible backpackers, having never stayed in a hostel OR taken public transport, we took the Naked Bus over to Rotorua, down to Taupo and Wellington. Naked Bus was the cheapest form of transport to get there, so we weren’t complaining!

Very quickly after a couple of bus runs, this form of transport definately wasn’t for me. They sting you for carrying an extra bag of gear onto the bus, it was so much slower and unreliable! Not to mention the couple of breakdowns on the highway!

rotorua - the geothermal lakeside village. Stank a treat!

Lake Taupo - before heading down to Hot Springs for a bathe

Huka Falls - powering 1/3 of New Zealand's electricity

Time in the North Island gave us an insight into the Maori culture that is integrated into society, which I think is awesome! They would re-tell Maori legends, show off their art, teach tourists their language and generally share their beliefs with us. I am normally so anti – history as it’s so damn boring to know about the past, but these people had me intrigued! English society is  all about who has what money from what source, whether it be new money or old. There is so much more to where you live, what school you went to, what car you drive .. people at home really need to look outside the box of materialism! 

We’re in Wellington now at the bottom of North Island, ready to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to Picton tomorrow morning! Can’t wait to see the South Island, everyone has done nothing but talk in awe about it.

A bit scared of the cold though! We have snow waiting for us!

x

The last 10 days have just flown by, cramming in as much as poss:

1) A flying visit through Sydney. The harbour bridge, the opera house, swimming at bondi beach, strolling through Darling Harbour and the rest of the CBD – not an awful lot to report to be honest apart from we’ve done another city! Cities just don’t do it for me. They’re all good to visit for a bit, but I’m just always looking forward to getting back to the coast.

Obligatory photo with the harbour bridge and opera house …

Enjoying a picnic by the water surrounded by fine dining restaurants. Who needs a fancy restaurant when you can enjoy a much better view from the jetty of the harbour??

Enjoying a little free fireworks display in Darling Harbour.

2) After looking at how far we had to go until Melbourne and the amount of days left, we decided to mish it through the middle of NSW and Victoria along the highway. A 12 hour drive was far from exciting, but as it was us driving it, we obviously had to have one last drama before we gave the van back in Melbourne. After stopping for petrol at this random station literally in the middle of nowhere on the side of the highway, our door decides to jam open. Again. Looking at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, all we could do was just laugh. So we located a garage, secured our stuff in the back, banged on the hazard lights and off we went.

3) The Great Ocean Road – a road heading along the south coast of Victoria to the West of Melbourne. We did the drive over 2 days, after hearing alot of hype about the scenery you find along the way. It was so so worth it!

We came across these chappies quite unexpectedly.

the 12 apostles = 12 random stacks, stumps and arches dotted along the shoreline at sunset.

another dude we drover under. Random fact of the day: Koalas move so slowly and spend hours sitting still because they’ve spent their entire day getting high off eucalyptus leaves.

The arch named ‘London Bridge’.

The colour of the ocean was so so nice, the urge to jump in it got the better of us. The Southern Ocean reminded me alot of home – that initial chill you get, then the burning sensation all over your body, then sheer numbness!

So so, Australia is done. New Zealand starts in a couple of days. I can’t believe we’re leaving! This place feels so normal these days! Even though we have been on the move every single day, it feels so normal to be living out a car and a bag.

However, after hearing all the hype about the big NZ I am SO excited to go! The next report will be from the North Island somewhere, sometime soon!

seeeee ya Australia.x

After a hectic day in Brisbane trying to sort our lives out in the way of real exciting stuff like tax returns, and fixing our broken fridge in the van, we hit Byron about 11pm. As soon as we park up, the first persdon we see is a dude on his bike with an african drum under his arm, dreads down to his knees and a rasta hat on! It would be very rude not to go take a peek at the town. Everyone is just soo friendly and welcoming. We made about 4 friends just from wealking up and down the street!

After months and months of rain rain rain in Queensland ( this summer was the wettest summer in 100 years! typical!) it was so nice to have the sun out. The sun makes such a difference to a place and your perspective of it . For example, we woke up one morning to find ourselves slowly becoming submerged in a river..!

… We didn’t want wet clothes in the camper as they were never going to dry in the van, so the morning was spend running round in anoraks and boardies. An hour later, we were sunning it on the beach!

Byron Bay is the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, so we decided to take a stroll up to the lighthouse to look over the bay.

Always go look round the point to see what’s there. You never know what’s round the corner until you take a sneaky peek! The beach was totally deserted as opposed to Byron which is packed with surfers, longboarders, bodyboarders, SUP’pers and all of that.

After a perfect day exploring the bay, we headed out to the infamous ‘cheeky monkeys’ bar, resulting in a fantastic night! I highly recommend any backpackers finding themselves here to have at least one night there. Who needs a dancefloor when you have masses of tables??

Another thing we didn’t realise was now we were in New South Wales, the time had changed! We had spent 3 days working on completely the wrong time. This country is so big some states have daylight saving, some do not .. some have half an hour differences, some an hour differences .. how confusing!

Consequently, I now work on 3 times of day. Sunrise, sunset and and when I’m hungry.

We’re slowly making our way down to Sydney, should be arriving in 2 days or so!

Ciao for now :)

Fraser Island is off the south east Queensland coast and is a tourist hub sfor so many reasons. We decided to do a day tour over there to check the place out and see what all the fuss was about.

We bumped and bashed our way down these sand tracks to Lak Mckenzie which is basically a giant lake of rainwater. 

I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere as beautiful as this! Unfortunately it was slightly overcast when we were there, but the lake is surrounded by the whitest silky sands. The shallows are turquoise and then there’s a sudden drop where the water becomes dark. I accidently took a gulp of water when i was exploring underwater, but it was the purest water I’ve ever tasted! I felt like I was swimming in a giant jug of water! Awesome.

 We reluctantly got back onto the coach to head to 75 mile beach on the other end of the island. We were lucky enough to see some wild dingoes on the beach, even if they are a bit aggressive!

They just look like cute dogs but infact they’re wild as anything.

Eli Creek was another good spot where we went on a mish upstream to see what we could find.

Apparently there was an Aboriginal community living in a small part of the island. It was mad to think that they were so close to us tourists, living an extremely different lifestyle! I would love to go get involved with a community like that and see how they live, but I’ve been told of the conflict between them and the European settlers here .. maybe I wouldn’t be too welcome!

That is still something I really want to do.. go immerse myself in some tribe on the other side of the world and live, sleep and breathe like them.

That’s another trip though!

It was a pity we only had a day there as it was so varied and remote! But hey we’re tight for time as it is.. back to Brissy tomorrow to sort our lives out for the day.. then we hit Byron Bay! woohoo!

Very soon after I got out it dropped so couldn’t really do much but cruise about enjoying the sunshine!

It was a pretty cruisy kind of day but it was good to speak to a few locals and get a feel what this spots all about! The guys from Cardboards came down a bit later with all their new flexi stuff ( they’ve just started distributing flexifoil to aus) so that was cool to see what those guys do.

Luckily I got chatting to the owner of a local backpackers down the road, so we got treated to a hot shower that evening! Normally we use the cold public showers on the beach so that was such a treat. You appreciate the smallest things when you live out a van!! :)

 Fraser Island is all booked for tomorrow, hopefully the weather will hold out!

Our first night driving we nearly ran out of petrol .. we were ignorant about the lack of petrol stations around on the main highways! After thinking we would spend our first night stuck in the woods somewhere, we woke up with a flat tyre. Some very kind fisherman obviously caught on that we were clueless when  it came to changing tyres so very kindly sorted our lives out!

That was that. We arrived up in Airlie Beach within 2 days which was right on target .. good times!

When driving down to Airlie Beach resort, you immediately feel at home in your bright green jucy camper.. every other vehicle parked up is a campervan of some sort!

We woke the next day to a very windy, sunny day! So began to do our research on which boats were heading out to the Whitsundays that day. You can see a faint outline of heaps of islands from the beach, but the only way to get to them is by boat of some sort ..

After a chat with a few people, we suddenly booked a boat that was leaving in an hour. We wanted to head out to the great barrier reef, do some sailing and wanted a boat of young backpackers. I’ve learnt that spontaneous decisions are sometimes the best you can make! That 3 days was fantastic!!

Our 80ft maxi yacht called ’spank me’ was our home for 3 days and 3 nights. We had some mad sailing in 40knot winds every day ( too much to kite :(), partied every night, did my first scuba dive too! I might have discovered another very expensive hobby!! :)

Plenty of exploring ..

Up every night all night chatting ..

 and generally had a ball! After 3 nights of no sleep we were absolutely shattered and needed some kind of power nap before a night out with everyone in Airlie beach. Somehow, our van door managed to jam itself open so that was our next drama! We couldn’t leave all our stuff in the van with the door wide open but we weren’t missing our last night out with everyone either .. so we mnaged to park up right next to some friends so nobody could get in. The next morning it poured with rain so all of our stuff got soaked when we were driving the van to the garage .. we got some very funny looks. Even the mechanic said he was laughing at us as we drove past with our door wide open. Oh well! That’s how it goes sometimes!

It’s very sad to leave Airlie as we love it, but hey now we head south for man y more good times ahead! woohoo!

1900 miles to cover over 25 days. How did we pick where to go? We decided on our most Northern and Southern destinations for our time frame. Realising we don’t have a clue what lies in between, we based our stops on which beaches have the bluest looking sea around them,and the most remote sounding Aboriginal village names in the mountains. Our transport..?

It may not be subtle, good looking, or what one would ideally choose as their mode of transport throughout Australia. However it is the cheapest option and let’s face it .. cruising down the pacific highway in a bright green and purple automatic with ‘JUCY” in big letters on the side will definately be entertaining!

Also the idea of dragging out long hours on a greyhound bus from one tourist spot to another just doesn’t sound appealing. A camper gives us the flexibility to go wherever we want, and carries all my gear in it too which makes life alot easier! Kit bags do not give much flexibility to go explore on foot.

For the rest of the month into early April we will be making our way down  the coast. I hope to share with you all the beautiful spots I’ll be discovering along the way – however time spent at the computer will be limited! I hope to be able to update about once a week…

We pick up the ‘van’ one week today – woohooo!

:)

I thought I’d get researching so here are a couple of pics I found…

At last my endless hours of working my ass off are beginning to pay off as I’ve managed to book myself a week on this beautiful island staying at the Safari Lodge!

Even though I’ve never been anywhere near the Pacific islands, they fascinate me in every way. Everything I read or see in pictures of them gives this amazing untouched feel about them. Not only can I not wait to kite in such a beautiful place, I can’t wait to meet some Fijians and see what kind of life they live all the way out there. I guess I love the idea of the simple life and that seems to be what Pacific islanders are all about. Also the fact that they couldn’t be further away from from us, so it will be amazing to see what it’s like to not be influenced by the western world and all the baggage that comes with that. I can’t wait to turn off my phone, not look at a computer screen for a week and just appreciate how amazing the place really is…

The beaches don’t look half bad either …. ;)

I am slightly worried I might like the fijians’ way of life a bit TOO much – wack out a bamboo hut on the beach to live in, and live off coconuts and fish for the rest of my life…  however there is too much to look forward to at home in the UK once I’m back in May!

 I havn’t even been here yet and I’m already thinking I want to spend time island hopping around the Pacific.

New Cal, Vanuatu, The Cooks, Tahiti, French Polynesia .. not to mention all the remote islands dotted around.

p.s. beware to anyone else thinking of doing a round the world trip .. once you’re on your first one, you start planning the next 5 as you realise there really is so much ground to cover on the globe! I could work 6 months and travel 6 months for the rest of my life very easily.

ciao for now - another morning of running round like a lunatic to look forward to early tomorrow…a week tomorrow, I’ll be dragging myself in for my last shift! wahoooo!  

:)

…the whole 1900 miles of it!

We will be driving up to Airlie beach near the Whitsunday Islands for a few days before spending 3-4 weeks hopping down through Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria coastline before we hit Melbourne!

Think driving from the top of Scotland to the bottom of Italy and you got an idea how far it is … things don’t get much more roadtrippy than that! There is a quicker route via Canberra inland, however cities just do not interest me when I can be driving along the highway next to the Pacific.

During the past week and for the next couple of weeks I’m working like a crazy person to roll in as much dollar as possible before we hit the road! Therefore beach trips have been very limited of late.. which sucks big styley but hey it’ll all be worth it when I get my last payslip through.

We have a shortlist of campers we’re going to be living in but nothing’s been finalised yet.

I’m just dying to hit the road!! I get all bored and fidgety sat in one place doing the same thing every day! 11 days and counting …

 www.safarilodge.com.fj

 Take a peek. It looks awesome! So now my drive is to work work work so I can afford to spend a week in this place. If it’s windy we kite .. if it’s not we surf, wakeboard, fish, SUP.. sounds like an ideal week to me.

 Not alot has been happening of late due to this band of tropical rain and storms that have decided to hit us for the past week. I am beginning to not care whether I pop out an espresso, frappuccino or macchiato out the coffee machine .. whether a customer wants linguine or fettuccini pasta .. I just want to get on the road! Every time we manage a day off to the coast I can’t help but look at the faint coastline further north and think ‘ what I would do to just pack up, hire a car and hit the road right now.’

Just less than one more month of work .. BAM! We’re gone!

I knew this place would be incredible!

We got onto the beach about 2pm after a morning at the cable ski. The guy running the cable ski randomly asked me where in England I was from .. he goes ’Portstmouth hey? I was born in Cosham.’ He made the right move coming out here to run the lake ..!

 to find about 16 knots and a huge playground. My 12.5 bladder went bang a couple of days ago so out came the 8.5. The pics are at a rivermouth where the golden beach meets a huge shallow basin with various little sandy islands dotted around.

With my 2 days off a week, this spot is so worth the mission! next week is 3 days off as we have Australia Day coming so I know where i’ll be…here with a surf breaking in on the beach, a flat river mouth with buckets of room to play in AND a cable ski 10 mins down the road. Whats not to love ??

Towards the end of the day it calmed down a bit and the 12.5 would have been nice .. don’t you hate hunting round for random parts of last years kit?! But hey, a wicked day off and tomorrow its back to work ..

Josie has finally landed a job at a coffee shop the other side of the city from our house so The Dartons have very kindly offered us to stay in our room for very cheap! So we’re sticking with that until we hit the road up North Queensland.

Also a quick shout out to my dad and Nessa currently in the middle of the atlantic sailing to the caribbean – hope the trip’s going well and no dramas! x

Turquoise seas, golden sands and no concrete jungle overlooking the beach that you find on the Gold Coast.

The atmosphere is so relaxed, no one cares what the other looks like and everyone is just there to surf, ski and swim. To the left of these sandbags is the entrance to a river which completley flattens off, and is only waist deep at high tide. Good times!

I’m hoping to get back up there on a couple of days off work, to get a kite in. The scenery is just amazing.

Absolute bliss.

www.paneevino.com.au

I did a trial there having never served a plate of food in my life ( even if my resume said Ive had 3 waitressing jobs .. it’s all about that initial getting in the door! ) nothing went wrong, I didnt soak any customers with their drinks and they kept me on 2  hours longer than they should have so I figured I was doing the right thing ..

 How waitresses manage to juggle 3 plates or 4 drinks at once I have no idea. Also the plates are so hot!! I have a blister on my finger from trying desperately not to throw scorching hot ravioli all over the floor ( or over a customer for that matter). Oh well, I’m sure my hands will man up in no time at all.

There were kites in the distance so we did a hugee stroll up to Brighton. The wind picked up, the predicted 25 kts came through, the tide was going out ..

as the tide went out it got harder and harder to not go BANG on a sandbar if you stacked..

The camera ran out of batt before the tide really dropped but we’ll be back there in the near future where I can get a shot of the tide out.

A great session even if I went BANG! a few too many times.

The local lot here got me thinking. The water here was warmer than warm and some of them were wearing wetsuit hoods!! I mean seriously, MAN UP AUSSIES! They wouldn’t stand a chance in our UK waters ..

To conclude, I don’t think living in super warm conditions is necessary. This lot take it for granted, and I appreciate warm water alot more when I get to it!

We met my Darton cousins on Boxing Day for the first time, and they very kindly have taken us under their wing and let us stay at their house in brisbane until we find a job here! Here are some shots of the GORGEOUS house they have up on a hill overlooking a valley ..

and our little hideout :)

meet hana.

its fine hana. honestly. Il just sit in the corner ...