Road Trip, North Bound

ok! this is road trip post part ii. i'm determined to have our adventure documented, i will accomplish this goal of mine. every time i think about our road trip, i get a little emotional, whimsical, it was seriously the best, most exciting adventure of our lives up 'til this point.

i left off with our first night in sydney. after that first nigt of sleeping in a nice residential area of "castle hill" in sydney, we took the next day to find a mechanic, get an oil change, find a vacuum and give betty a good clean. (we hadn't named her at this point). we did just that! with me guiding dan with my map book (or not guiding, maps are hard), and with the kind help from strangers, we finally found a mechanic, got her fixed up, i put up some makeshift curtains from some thrifted fabric, and we hung out in a parking lot for the rest of day 2, trying to figure out where to head next! we spent day 3 in the big city of sydney. we parked on the outskirts (free parking) and planned to take the train into the city, and then the machine wouldn't accept our canadian cards. brilliant! we were in a tiny, tiny town on the other side of the harbour, so small, the only atm was inside of the video store that didn't open 'til 3. we couldn't wait, so we thought we'd walk. an hour later we finally make it to the bottom of the bridge! (you know, the one mk&a walk over in "our lips are sealed.") we finally get into the city by the afternoon, enjoy a coffee, and just walk. we walked, so, so much. walked through the botanical gardens, through the city, sat in the park, it was so good. we took the train back to betty, had our first little camp dinner (toast & mr. noodles) in full view of the spectacular harbour, we sat 'til the sun went down, it was glorious, then recorded our first road trip video in the van! the next day we headed north, our destination was my good friend tim's house in cessnock, only a few hours north of sydney, but we took the coast and took our time, found some incredible, totally secluded beaches, played in the waves, soaked up the sun, and eventually made it to tim's! what a guy. he took such good care of us, we felt like we were at home, we parked betty in his back yard, and stayed for a few days. we somehow got the brilliant idea of giving our van a paint job! oh boy, we found a paint store, bought a few bottles of spray paint and masking tape and just went for it. once we started, we got really into it and ended up making quite a few more trips to the paint store. i think she turned out pretty great, and it made her stand out a little bit more. we had an amazing time in the hunter valley doing wine tours, and visiting the cheese and chocolate factories!

after being at tim's all weekend, our next plan was to start heading south, until while sitting in a cafe using some wifi to upload our second video, dan caught our good friend phil on facebook chat who was about to fly out of new zealand to brisbane for a layover! this changed our plans, the next morning we were on the road at 5am heading north to brisbane to spend a day with phil! it was pretty surreal hanging out at snapper rocks watching an amazing surf comp the next day with a little piece of vancouver! it was so fun and gave us the chance to explore more beaches and have more sun!