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Thea and Lizzie's travels
Ok we headed from Townsville to Airlie beach with the hope of doing some sailing around the Whitsundays. We also said that we would give Max- this German guy who was on our dive course a lift as well. Ok, well off we headed in the scorching heat of the mid afternoon only to run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. Before you call us stupid we would like to point out one fact that to get anywhere is this country you are talking some serious miles- hundreds of miles, and so consequently you would think that they would be so kind as to put the odd petrol station in between these vast spaces or at least warn you that there won't be anther petrol station for say 150km- but no! We would also like to point out that old Niss only did, at the most 180km to the tank. I would also state that when I left (Lizzie, Thea cannot be blamed for this!) the last civilization we had 3/4 of a tank. But needless to say we ran out, and so off Thea and I went in search of petrol- do bare in mind that we really were in the middle of nowhere! So after a refreshing walk in the mid afternoon heat we found a house and a nice couple who gave us a couple of litres of petrol. If only that was the end of it- we really must have pissed Niss off because there was no way she was starting again with the noise she was making!! We tried jump starting her- which was a challenge seeing as she weighed a tone and so it was a miracle that we got her up the hill let alone with enough speed to do any good. However after flagging down some extra help we soon kind of get her going, which was a good job as the police were fast approaching and you get fined for running out of petrol out here. So we made it to a garage and that is about as far we made it- she really did go on strike after that! So we borrowed a battery and got as far as a camp site - which just happened to be the most expensive! The recovery people gave us a name of an electrician which we were due to see the following morning. As if that wasn't enough for one day we consequently got stuck with the German who had successfully managed to piss me off - Thea is so much more tolerant! He seemed to have it in his head that an offer of a lift meant that he could stay in the van- which slept two all the way to Brisbane- I think not and he wasn't paying his way! Things looked up for the following morning because I think he was sick of the combination of my grinding of teeth and the prospect of sleeping across the front seats for a week because we successfully off loaded him that morning! So the verdict from the electrician- the generator had had it! So I phoned Auto barn as it stated to do so in the paper work only to be told that they were not interested- ( if only they had said it that politely!) I very politely and 'un-stressfully' - as I'm sure Thea will vouch for... pointed out that the paper work in front of me clearly stated that they had to pay for the work. To cut a long story short he hung up on me - that was not going to be the last time he did that to me that day! So we said to the electrician to do what he had to do to find out what was wrong. It turned out to be worse that we thought... the van had been fitted with TWO regulators (meant nothing to us but basically the whole garage was astonished that anyone would be thick enough to fit two let alone mean/dumb enough to sell one with two. So there was a lot of damage and therefore expense. SO on the phone I get again- the whole performance took a week to sort itself out and days of phone calls, we had to speak to the Queensland government of fair trading, and I have never spoken to anyone quite as rude as 'Phil' from auto barn but eventually three weeks later we got our money back!
So we are in Airlie beach which was nice and we booked ourselves on to a trip to sail around the Whitsundays. It was two nights and three days and it was 'heaps wicked' that is all the fit captain guy kept on saying!! We also got a free dive with it and some good food; we had roast beef and apple pie and custard!!! We also put on heaps of weight! The trip was really cool and so were the people, esp. because we slept at night on deck below some of the brightest stars I have ever seen and Thea loved the opportunity of being back on a boat! The only annoying factor was that we had to put very flattering stinger suits on to get in the water (fashioned by us in the photos!) as there were so many stingers and serious ones that could kill! We also saw Whitehaven beach which was one of the most beautiful sights ever, we also bumped into the German (max) - what are the chances! But luckily we were leaving before his trip finished and therefore couldn't give him a lift to Brisbane-shame!
From Airlie beach we headed down to Brisbane, which was a lovely drive and stopped for a couple of hours kip at a campsite, scampered before light so not to have to pay and headed on towards Brisbane! This was great until whist driving on the high way in the dark our lights stopped working! So we pulled over and just twiddled our thumbs until sunrise which was no hardship as it happened to be a particularly good one; though it was a little scary being sat on a blind corner with no lights with MASSIVE lorries steaming past! We stopped on our way for a night as Nossa Heads which was a nice small seaside town a bit too classy for us though, before making it to Brisbane! We got to Brisbane and found our home for the next week.... Yes another car park but this one had benefits others hadn't it had a loos, a park, and no rangers! We got the lights fixed in Brisbane; the whole fuse box needed replacing. Otherwise we really enjoyed our stay there. We had a really nice meal out, went to the cinema and went shopping!! Probs wasn't the most sensible thing we have done, but it was well worth it, it's so cheap out here and we got some wicked stuff! We also went to the Botanic gardens for a picnic which was really nice! It was also here that we decided that we had to leave oz early as it was too expensive and we both couldn't wait so long to get to NZ!!
From Brisbane we headed to Sydney, stopping at Coolangatta on the way which had a lovely beach, we drove through Surfers paradise, which was no paradise!! From there it was to Bryon Bay. On the way we found a great café called Moo Moo café and had a nice lunch! Bryon was really nice and had everything you wanted but was too spoilt for our liking really, though the beach was top! We also had a money prob which meant we couldn't do anything except just be. We took our extra time to start to fix up the van - we started by trying to glue the roof back up, this was a fruitless task and all we had to show for it was me getting loads of glue in my hair! So from Bryon it was pretty direct to Sydney really, we drove through Newcastle but it wasn't a patch on the real one!! We made it to Sydney on Sunday 5th, and it was a wicked drive down, the terrain never stopped changing and because we were often on the road early we had the roads to ourselves!
Sorry this has been such a long postcard, but had a lot to cover as we have got behind a bit!! We hope that you are all well at home, and not too cold, lots of love Lizzie and Thea!!
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