After getting to bed at a normal hour, the birds started chirping around 5 am. Who needs an alarm clock?? We attempted to fall back asleep, but we weren’t able to sleep much longer.
Tossing and turning, we decided to wake up at 7:30 am and started getting ready. We showered in the amenities block, as the shower on the campervan was tiny, and packed up. Check-out was 10 am, so we wanted to make sure we were on the road by then.
I decided to dry my hair in the van, but when I turned it on, I managed to kill it. Really? That meant I’d be going around with damp hair until we hit Sydney. So when you see pictures of my hair pulled back the entire time, now you know why! 
We went back to the deli from the night before, and Lyle was in a much better mood. We filled up the tank with petrol, took some money out of the ATM, and we were on our way to Warnambool. Rosemary told us about the Naracoorte Caves being a spot to check out while we were in the area. At first we weren’t going to stop, but we had a spark of spontaneity and opted to visit.
Arriving at the Wonambi Fossil Centre, we purchased tickets for the “Wet Cave” at $8 per person, which allowed us to go into this one particular cave for as long as we wanted. The other caves required a tour guide, which meant you could only go in at certain times. We didn’t want to stick around too terribly long, so we opted to do the self guided cave.
Wonambi Fossil Centre
Inside the Wet Cave
It was pretty cool inside, they had motion sensor lights so as you walked around, the area would light up. We explored, took some photos, and learned about caves. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at the Caves Café before getting back on the road (Josh had fish and chips; I had the Caves Mega Burger – which was MEGA big!).
We hopped back into the van and were on our way again – that is until we hit the Coonwarra Wine Region. After seeing all of the vineyards, I just had to stop. Why not pick up wine whilst in Australia? We stopped at Katnook Estate’s Cellar Door for some wine tasting. Since Josh doesn’t drink wine, he was now given the designated driver role. 
I got to try their various Cabernet Savignons, as well as their Chardonnays – it was fantastic! I bought a half bottle of their Founder’s Block Cab Sav and a half bottle of their Founder’s Block Chardonnay. I liked the Cab Sav way better, but I wanted options for our nightly dinners in the campervan parks!
In front of Katnook Estate's Cellar Door
Driving through the countryside of Australia really was beautiful. The weather was amazing, the skies were so blue (I’m convinced the sky is more blue in Australia than it is in the US), and the roads were pretty empty.
On our drive we crossed over from South Australia to Victoria and found our way to the Discovery Holiday Parks site, checked in, and backed into our en suite lot. I will say that backing into places in the campervan was my least favorite thing to do! It always required Josh getting out and making sure I wouldn’t hit something, telling me to turn the wheels in another direction, etc. Frustrating!
Once we checked in and knew where we were supposed to be, we ventured off to find a grocery store. The GPS had us driving around clueless, but we eventually came across an IGA store where we were able to pick up dinner for the night, as well as groceries for the week (steaks/burgers/spaghetti/sandwich meat and bread). In addition to items for lunch and dinner, I excitedly bought a box of Nutri Grain. I cannot even begin to tell you how much of this stuff I ate when I was at Bond Uni. I only wish it was sold in the States! By the end of the trip, Josh admitted to enjoying it too!
One of the greatest cereals ever!
We came back to the campsite and setup the grill on the side of the campervan. Josh grilled the two steaks we’d purchased, as well as some asparagus – it was delicious!
Our delicious dinner!
After we ate, we walked over to the camp kitchen and washed dishes before taking a walk over to the beach to watch the sunset. I love sunsets on the beach, there’s just something so peaceful about watching the day end – especially when you’re with someone that you love.
Self-timer photos are great!
A lovely sunset
It was a bit chilly outside, so we decided to walk back to the van. Josh decided he wanted to mess with the TV some, and was able to figure out how to find programs. So we ended the night watching Gordon Ramsey preparing holiday treats, followed by Field of Dreams. We decided to call it a night around 11 pm – another exciting day was in front of us, we needed to rest up!
I’m not going to lie, in planning our trip there were certain days that I *knew* would be way more exciting than others. Today was one of those days. I woke up at 5 am, partly due to excitement, and partly due to jet lag. Oh, the jet lag. Since Josh was having no problem at all sleeping, I laid in bed until 7:30 am before I gave up. We had places to be and I couldn’t wait to get there!
After packing up our suitcases, we went downstairs to check out and grab a cab to drive us over to the Britz Campervan location. It was time to take our chances on the open roads of Australia! We booked the Elite 2 Berth Campervan but when we got there, they didn’t have our vehicle, so we got an upgrade to a Maui Ultima van. It was so nice!
Seeing that we would be driving a vehicle much larger than we were used to, on the other side of the road, we opted to get full liability on the campervan. We also rented a GPS unit, as well as a satellite phone – just in case we ended up somewhere without mobile service. With the liability upgrade, they threw in a bonus pack with chairs and a table to use outside of the van.
Once all the paperwork was signed, I took the keys, we loaded the campervan, and Josh and I spent a good 5 minutes asking if we were really up for this part of the trip! In the entire eight months that I spent in Australia studying abroad, I drove once, from campus to go pick up pizza in a friend’s car. I did pay attention to the road rules, so I was confident I could do it – just nervous about attempting to do it in a campervan! It was 7.2 meters (23.6 feet) long, and I’m used to driving a Mustang on a daily basis. Since I had more experience, I took the driving duties for Day 1.
Over the course of the next week, we would be driving from Adelaide to Sydney, 2116 km (1,315 mi). Lots of driving!
Our road trip mapped out
We plugged in the address to the Cleland Wildlife Park, I took a deep breath and started the van, and I pulled out onto the road. We were off!
I nervously drove the streets of Adelaide making our way through city roads, then onto the motorway. As I was starting to feel better about driving the campervan, it was time to get off our exit. We came to a roundabout, which I’m a huge fan of! As we got closer to the park, we started going up narrow roads, sharp curves, definitely not roads I wanted to drive in a campervan – on my first day driving, but alas, there we were. To top it off, there was a stretch of road with bicyclists – talk about nerve-wracking!
We made it into the parking lot safely (thank goodness) and managed to find a place to park the van. Walking in, we paid our admission fees ($18 per adult) and bought a bag of food to feed the animals ($3). Knowing that the Koala close-up was about to end, we went straight to where we could take a picture with a koala. We got to meet “Hank” and take pictures of and with him – he was adorable. It was a nice warm up for Josh, knowing that we were going to come back at 2 pm so he could hold a koala.
A photo with "Hank"
After the close-up, we decided to walk around the park and find some kangaroos. It was so much fun watching Josh interact with kangaroos for the first time. These guys were open to people walking up to them (for the most part), feeding them, taking pictures of them. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. We also saw birds, lizards, ducks, but no dingos – they were hiding apparently.
Josh with a 'roo!
I just love kangaroos!
Around 1:30 pm we walked back to get in line for the Koala Cuddle, which started at 2 pm. We were the first in line, and shortly after we arrived, more and more people lined up – definitely glad that we got there early. We paid $30 for the hold and souvenir photo and waited for “Vincent” to come out and join us. He was a big fella, heavier than Josh anticipated too! They took our photo on their camera, then took a few snaps on ours.
Cuddling with "Vincent"
We’d seen all we wanted to, after looking at lizards, birds, but no dingos (they were hiding), we went to get lunch at the café before hitting the road. Josh had fish and chips and I had a sausage roll (oh, how I love sausage rolls). After filling up on food, we made our way back to the campervan to hit the road to Padathaway Campervan Park.
300 km (186 mi) later, we arrived at the park at 6:45 pm. It was tucked away behind a vineyard, which was nice scenery. The owner (Rosemary) informed us that the stores nearby had closed at 6 pm, and the only remaining place left with food closed at 7 pm. We hadn’t had a chance to stop for food yet, so we hurried over to the deli to get food before they closed.
When we walked in, the owner, Lyle, looked thrilled to see us. The ATM inside had been turned off for the night, luckily I still had some cash from our time in Adelaide on me. We ordered two ham sandwiches, two drinks, and while we were waiting for our sandwiches, Lyle told us about the Coonwarra Wine Region (Australia’s Red Wine Centre). He gave us a map, showed us where we were, suggested a few places to stop, and then handed us our food.
We went back to the park for the evening to eat and relax – there really wasn’t too much more we could do because it’d started getting dark.
It took us a little while to figure out how to use the air con on the campervan, but we were glad to have it available. I setup the bed using the cushions and inserts, laid the sheets out, and we attempted to watch the TV in the van.
Josh excited to show off our home for the week.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. Josh was a little stir crazy, so he started watching Anchorman on his iPad while I was catching up on notes for the day, as well as looking through photos and backing them up on the hard drive.
Around 10:30-11:00 pm, we opted to go to bed – it seemed as if we were getting past the jet lag, which was a nice feeling!
[#6 of #52]
Once Josh was up and moving, we got ourselves together and walked over to Rundle Mall for brekky (Aussie slang for breakfast). We settled on Briccone, which looked like a cute place to start our day (I had a ham and cheese croissant, Josh had raisin toast and fruit).
We walked all around the mall and picked up postcards and a little notebook for me to keep notes about our trip in (which I’m so glad we did – it’s been helpful with the recaps so far!). We had plans to take a walking tour of Adelaide through Urban Adventures, which we won through a giveaway on Y Travel Blog, so we went back to the hotel to relax and re-group.
Around 12:30 pm, we decided we should make our way to Victoria’s Square to meet our tour guide. It was an overcast day, but luckily the forecast didn’t call for rain. We waited around, but didn’t see a tour guide. Ten minutes later, I decided to use Josh’s phone to make a call to Urban Adventures. [Note: We only set one of our phones up for an international data plan – looking back, I wish we would have done one on my phone too!] In talking with the representative, they’d tried calling me multiple times – but because my phone was off – they couldn’t reach us to let us know the tour guide was sick and they couldn’t find a replacement. Needless to say, I was kind of bummed out.
Victoria Square Fountain
They provided us a list of places that they would have taken us, apologized for the cancellation, and offered to refund our money. Because we’d won the tour, we were able to tell them there was no charge. We hung up the phone and decided to go at it on our own. We were a block away from the Adelaide Central Market, so we started our walking tour there.
Adelaide Central Market
For a Tuesday afternoon, the place was pretty busy! The entire time we were walking around, I wished we had a kitchen to go cook in – it would have been great to purchase and then enjoy. The fresh foods looked delicious, and the baked goods were to die for!
So many sweets!
Next we decided we wanted to check out the South Australian Museum, which was a nice walk across town. While we were making our way there, we stopped at the Opal Field Gems Mine & Museum, because I saw Australian opals, and because they were selling Aboriginal art. One of the store workers took us down stairs to see the art, since we were curious as to what they had. Downstairs they had an “opal mine” so visitors could see how opals appeared underground, which was kind of neat. We saw some artwork that we liked, and the one I loved was listed at a little over $1000. We opted not to buy, knowing that there would be other opportunities to do so throughout our trip.
We continued on to the South Australian Museum and spent a good hour or two inside, looking at the exhibits. It’s always interesting to me to visit museums – especially ones that are focused on areas you don’t visit often! They also had an Aboriginal Art gallery, so we went through and looked at the pieces. The museum shop had some cute items, but we refrained from going crazy on picking up souvenirs for our families back home.
South Australian Museum
Next we decided to go back to Rundle Mall to make a stop at Haigh’s Chocolates – which would have been a stop on our Urban Adventures tour. The shop smelled fantastic and they had a wide variety of chocolates to purchase – yum!
Haigh's Chocolates
All the walking, in combination of a little bit of jet lag, we were getting a little sleepy and started making our way back to the hotel around 4:30 pm. We were doing better than we did the day before at this time! We saw a restaurant next to our hotel and determined that we’d eat at 6 pm – hoping it would help us stay up longer.
While we were in the hotel, Josh came across the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship on TV (little did I know that we’d be watching it frequently on our trip). He was hooked!
Dinner was at The Griffins Head and was quite delicious! Josh ordered the special for the evening – Rump steak, salad, and chips, paired with a Coopers Pale Ale. I enjoyed battered Barramundi and chips, with a glass of house chardonnay. Ordering was a bit different, in that we went up to the bar, ordered, paid, and then took a number back to our table for them to bring us our food. There really was no service after that – unlike here in the States. It worked out just fine, and would be a trend we’d see along the way at other restaurants.
We were back in the room by 7:30 pm after stopping at the convenience store for dessert. Josh picked up a chocolate and vanilla cone, and I was very excited to see a Splice Bar – by far one of my favorite after dinner treats in the brasserie while at Bond Uni!
Excited for a Pine-Lime Splice Bar!
The cold treats hit the spot and we relaxed until we opted to go to bed at 10 pm – definite progress for our second night in Australia! I’m still not quite sure how I managed to sleep knowing about what we’d be doing the next day!
[#5 of #52]
After leaving on Saturday, December 17th we arrived on Monday, December 19th at 6:30 am. For that reason, I’m skipping ‘Day 2’ and picking back up with ‘Day 3’. It’s definitely a crazy feeling to lose a day – but we knew we’d pick it up on the way back.
By this point, we were pretty exhausted. After not being able to sleep on the plane, we’d been on the move for just under 24 hours, and still had another flight to make. We went through Immigration, picked up our luggage, and then left Customs. We picked up the train to get over to the domestic terminal to check-in for our flight to Adelaide at 10:35 am.
We arrived to the domestic terminal around 7:30 am and attempted to check in for our JetStar flight. Apparently they won’t let you check in more than 2 hours beforehand – so we had an hour to kill. Luckily, the airport had free WiFi! We found a table by a café and called home and hopped online to check email to pass the time.
Being impatient, at 8:15 we walked over to the kiosk to check in – but in the process of printing our boarding passes, the machine froze and only one of our tickets and luggage passes printed. Because we weren’t supposed to check in yet, we had to wait a little longer before we could get the other one.
Going through airport security was SO much easier than it is in the States. We could keep our shoes on, could take water through, didn’t have to remove any belts, etc. Josh did randomly get picked to have his luggage swiped to test for explosives, but even that was quick.
Once inside the terminal we stopped to grab a bite to eat from Subway, because we knew the flight to Adelaide wouldn’t be serving food. After eating, we found our way to the gate and hopped back onto the WiFi – it’d be the last time I knew I’d have reliable WiFi for awhile.
Our last flight for the "day"
The flight was relatively quick and we landed in Adelaide at 12:10 pm [which was 10:10 pm on 12/18 at home]. If you’re doing the math, that’s 31 hours after departing from Atlanta.
We claimed our luggage and made our way to the taxi queue to grab a ride over to the Crowne Plaza Adelaide – $24 later we arrived at the hotel and checked in around 1 pm. The room had been booked using the Friends and Family discount via my friend Hannah, but we opted to upgrade to a room with a balcony and a view of the city. Looking back, it probably wasn’t worth it to upgrade because we didn’t use the balcony except to take a few pictures.
View from the room
The first thing we did though was take showers! After 32 hours of traveling without a shower, it felt fantastic to wash away the travel grime!
Once ready, we walked over to Rundle Mall to explore. We stopped in a few stores and picked up a few snacks (Tim Tams and Shapes) and water from Woolworth’s. And all of a sudden, the jet lag hit us hard. It was 2:30 pm and I was determined to stay up as long as possible – I was going to fight the urge to sleep. We walked around and decided to split a pizza at Brunelli. After a delicious late lunch/early dinner, we made our way back to the hotel around 4 pm.
It wasn’t much later that Josh had fallen asleep (5 pm) and I fell asleep sometime after 6 pm, only to wake up at 7 pm, and again at 9 pm. I figured it was best to wash my face and get ready for bed – Josh didn’t move one bit!
Throughout the night I woke up at 2:30 am, 5:30 am, and 6:15 am, but I stayed in bed until 8 am because I still hadn’t seen Josh move, and I wanted to let him sleep as long as possible. Leading up to our trip, we’d both been pretty busy at work – so we agreed we wanted to relax while we were in Australia. Plus, we’d spent over a day traveling, I figured he could use the rest – we had a busy day ahead of us!
[#4 of #52]
If you’re one of my blog followers (or if we’re friends on Facebook), you know we’ve been back from Australia for two weeks now. I had every intention of attempting to blog while we were Down Under, but I wanted to take the time to enjoy myself and spend quality time with Josh since this was our first true vacation since our honeymoon. So here I am, playing catch-up. Throw in the fact that we just bought a house, so my free time has been somewhat limited!
We’ve had a lot of people asking about our trip, so I wanted to get the recaps going while I could remember everything! Thankfully I kept a journal with tidbits from our trip, which will come in handy. We did quite a bit in two weeks, so there’s a lot to talk about!
Departure to Oz:
Our first flight was out of Atlanta to Los Angeles, leaving at 3 pm. My mom and dad drove up to Atlanta to take us to the airport. They came up early to visit some, but I was still running around trying to get things done before we left. After several “Did you do this?” “Did you remember that?” questions from my mother, I assured her that I knew what I was doing, finished up the packing, and we were off for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Off to the airport!
I love going to the airport – I love it more when I’m actually going somewhere. Watching people come and go, the teary good-byes, the excited moments of being reunited – all scenes you’ll see it all at the airport.
Since we were on an international flight, I wanted to be at the airport by 12:15 – just short of the 3 hours you’re “supposed” to be at the airport before an international flight. We got there closer to 1 pm – oh well! Once we checked in at the Delta counter, I felt much better about what was ahead of us. They checked our luggage on through to Sydney, but we’d have to get our boarding passes from the V Australia counter at LAX. No big deal.
We ate lunch at the airport before heading to our gate. Our flight was a little late departing, but nothing to really stress over. 5 hours later, we landed at LAX. I know I mentioned it to Josh 1,265,178 times on our trip, but I hate LAX. It’s one of the worst airports I’ve ever been too – constant construction, terrible overhead speaker system, etc. Hate it. Luckily once we disembarked the plane from ATL, it was pretty easy to get to the gate we needed to go to in order to pick up the shuttle to the international terminal. Once there, we grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants, and ended up sitting next to an older woman and her mother. We didn’t really pay them too much attention until I heard them talking about The Flying Biscuit – and at that point, I knew they were from Atlanta too.
We talked with them for awhile and found out that they were on our flight to Sydney, but they’d only be there one night before getting on their cruise ship to cruise around New Zealand – hitting several of the locations where The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. It sounded like a pretty nice cruise! After dinner we checked into the VAustralia desk and got our boarding passes. Of course, the terminal was packed and there were few seats available, and NO power outlets available to charge our electronics.
Around 9:40 pm the boarding call began! I looked at Josh and said, “We’re going to Australia!!!” I probably said that 10 times that night.
The Plane Ride:
When we checked in to get our boarding passes, Josh and I learned that we weren’t sitting side by side on the plane. I wasn’t thrilled, but at least we both had aisle seats in row 20.
As we stepped onto the plane, I wished we were flying in first class or business class – the seats were SO nice, but alas, I didn’t feel like dropping $10k per ticket. Yep, PER ticket.
Once we arrived at our seats, I ended up being really excited – because we had leg room. Lots of it. We were also the only pair on the row without kids – because it’s also the row where crib attachments are placed for the flight. I was a little worried, but overall – the crying baby situation wasn’t bad at all.
It's nice being able to stretch out!
We settled into our seats, and figured out how to use the TVs. Unfortunately, Josh’s TV stand wouldn’t stay up on it’s own. He attempted using his long sleeve t-shirt to hold it up, by tying the shirt around the stand and himself. It wasn’t successful for very long.
We attempted sleep, but it wasn’t easy to do after dinner. I’m not a fan of the idea of taking drugs (even if over the counter) to sleep, but I did take one Benadryl capsule, but it didn’t work. I spent the rest of the time watching movies and dozing off for short periods of time, but nothing to really write home about.
And after a 14 hour flight, we arrived in Sydney at 6:30 am, ready to take on the next leg of our trip!
[#3 of #52]
Yep, you read that correctly! I swore for years I didn’t want to buy a house, I didn’t want to settle down in a house – just in case we had the opportunity to move. Well, it’s funny how things change, isn’t it?
Back in January of last year, I opened a spreadsheet (I love Excel) and started a list of houses that I liked with all of their details (cost/schools/sq ft./# of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.). When I’d get bored at night, I’d look through the real estate sties to find houses that I’d like. I’d show them to Josh and he’d roll his eyes, because we were so far from being able to buy a house, he viewed it as pointless. I viewed it as gauging the market and narrowing down what we liked/wanted in a house.
Over time, we narrowed it down to wanting a 4 bedroom/2.5+ bathroom home. We wanted it in a good school zone, as we did not have plans to send our potential future child(ren) to private school in Atlanta. We weren’t fully decided on the exterior look of the home, but knew what we wanted on the interior. For months, I spent time working on finding houses that matched this description, as well as tracked prices of homes (because I found it interesting to watch homes drop in price over the months on the market).
There were several homes that we fell in love with online, only to see them swept up by another buyer – because we weren’t ready to buy. With our trip to Australia in the plans, we knew we wanted to wait until after our trip to buy a house.
Then in October, we decided we wanted to reach out to realtors to start our search, knowing it could take awhile to find the perfect house. Afterall, most of the houses that I’d been collecting in my spreadsheet were no longer available.
In November, when it became increasingly obvious that in order to find what we wanted, we were going to need to increase our budget. We tried to start out lower, but had a number in mind that would be our max spend. So we started searching in that range and found 6 potential houses online – one of which we fell in love with. Hard.
We went out with our realtor (Jamie Hook – who was amazing by the way*) and looked at 5 of those 6 homes, each not living up to the standard we’d set for “the one” as we viewed them in person. And then the time came to see “the one” in person. It was love at first sight, and we knew it was the one. We wanted this house.
View from the living room
We put an offer on it that day, and we thought we were crazy. It wasn’t in our plans to put an offer on a house until December, or even January once we were back from Oz, but we didn’t want to lose this house. And within 24 hours, we’d agreed on a price with the seller – and set the closing date for January 12th [Note: We were going to do Jan 13th (my birthday) but since it's also Friday the 13th, superstition set in and we went with the 12th].
Then came the fun stuff. Inspections, appraisal, a second appraisal, back and forth on what we wanted repaired on the house, etc. It was stressful, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. We also learned the history of our house from some of the neighbors, which was interesting to say the least. But we weren’t scared off – we knew this was meant to be.
And yesterday, we signed all of the paperwork, got the keys from the seller, and became homeowners. And in doing so, crossed off #27 of my life list – we bought a house. Runner and Birdie are going to be thrilled.
With the keys to our new house!
Us with the house! Excuse the poor quality photo - the "facetime" shot on the iPhone isn't all that great!
* Special thanks to my friend Jen C. for referring Jamie!
[#2 of #52]
Seeing that it’s already one week into 2012 and I hadn’t come up with any resolutions, I decided that I wasn’t going to have any this year. We’ve got a lot going on right now, and I didn’t feel the need to stress myself out by laying down a list of things I want to accomplish. Or I was being lazy. You pick.
In catching up on my frequently read blogs, both Lauren and Jamie have great posts on picking one word to define the year – rather than developing a list of resolutions. It dawned on me that this would be a much better plan for 2012.
After much deliberation, I decided on the word: life.
“Life?” you might ask, and I’ll say it sounds strange, but it’s the first word that jumped out at me when reading their posts as the one I wanted to define 2012.
In 2011, I spent a lot of time thinking about the future, planning ahead, wanting time to pass quickly so I could get to where I wanted to be – even my domain URL is focused on wishing I were somewhere else (physically or mentally). I didn’t spend a lot of time in the now. I passed up on a lot of opportunities due to having a busy schedule, and in turn haven’t seen a lot of the people that were a big part of my life in the past.
This year, I want to celebrate life. Living it to the fullest, sharing it with others, and who knows, maybe even adding one to the world (let’s not get too crazy now, it’s just a thought – not a promise).
Early last week, I learned that one of my mentors (who I also consider a friend) was diagnosed with lung cancer. He’s 35 and was in seemingly good health. He’s not a smoker, never spent much time around them either. He’s got some tough times ahead – but I can say with all certainty I have faith that he’ll come through just fine – and likely telling jokes the whole way through the process.
I’ve never been one to believe that illness or injury couldn’t happen to me, but seeing someone that it’s that much older than me going through something like this has made me think. If I were faced with a situation like this, or if something worse happened to me, could I say that I truly lived every day to the fullest? The answer would be probably not. I am in no way saying that I’ve lived a dull life, because it’s not true, but it’d be safe to say I’ve just gone along with the days as they passed.
So this year, I have hopes of adding to and crossing things off my life list. I want to do the little things that might seem a bit crazy, and enjoy every minute of them. I’m not a spontaneous person, I like to plan everything out. I don’t like changing plans once they’re made, which prevents me from doing things out of the norm, and in all actuality, missing out on the little things.
So cheers to 2012 and life. I hope that it’s a prosperous year, full of great things for each and every one of you.
[#1 of #52 - yep, I'm trying to hit a blog post a week again... This post will count for last week, since I was still dealing with jetlag from our trip - which I promise I'll be writing about soon! ]
When Josh and I got married, I became completely obsessed with the weather. I think it has something to do with my obsessive, control freak nature.*
I would check the 10 day forecast religiously on Weather.com, as well as the 15 day forecast on AccuWeather.com – because surprisingly, they each had different forecasts. Checking the weather was the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before I went to bed (and multiple times throughout the day). I was so concerned about the weather being perfect on our day, that I stressed myself out a great deal. One week before our wedding, both site forecasts called for rain on our big day so I scoured the internet and purchased 14 golf umbrellas** for the bridal party – just in case.
And what do you know, it was a beautiful day. No rain in sight. You’d think I’d learn, right? Wrong.
As soon as I could start checking the 10-day and 15-day forecast for Adelaide, and the 10-day and 15-day forecast for Sydney, I did. And what did it do? It stressed me out.
At the beginning of this week, it looked like nothing but rain, which wouldn’t entirely have been a surprise after reading a couple article on how the Australian summer is expected to be the coolest and wettest they’ve had in awhile (1 and 2)…
BUT
As we know, the weather report changes daily and I’ve had to convince myself not to panic about the weather.
In checking the weather today, things are looking up! Now if it’ll just continue to look good for the rest of our trip, but most importantly, New Years Eve!
Just a few more sleeps before we leave. Tonight’s focus – packing attempt #1 (I’ve been procrastinating doing this all week) to see if I can get everything that I want to take into one suitcase. Wish me luck!
And in the meantime, if you’ve obsessed over the weather before, what was the event? What sites do you use to follow weather forecasts?
* There is no doubt in my mind that Josh would agree with this.
** To this date, only one of the umbrellas has been used – and it’s the big blue one I bought for myself. The remaining 13 are still in the cardboard box that they shipped in…
[#30 of #52]
Seeing that I work in email marketing, it takes a bit more for me to appreciate a well done email. Yesterday evening, I received an email from Britz, the company we hired our campervan through for our upcoming trip.
I get excited when I get emails about our trip – even more excited when I get phone calls (thank you VAustralia for calling me any time our flight changes by a few minutes – I love hearing the accent!). So when I saw an email from Britz, I instantly opened it (relevance is everything!), and I wanted to share it with you.
The email starts off with my name, thanks to personalization capabilities. This is such a simple thing that helps make an email seem more personable, some might find it creepy, but if it’s coming from a company I do business with, I’m okay with it. Then they ask if I’m getting excited and remind me that our trip kicks off in three weeks – reminding me that it’s coming up. [Note: Excited would be an understatement!].
They provide a link to self check-in, which is convenient, as I assume it’ll reduce the amount of time we’ll need to stand around the office when we pick up the campervan. I can also finish paying off the balance ahead of time, which I’m likely going to do the next time the USD is faring better than the AUD (it seems to alternate daily).
In addition to that, there were some helpful links that I spent some time reviewing:
- “Get me to the branch” – This link provided the branch address, phone number, email, fax, branch hours, directions and taxi cost info from the airport, as well as links to close by hotels, campervan parks, AND the closest grocery stores. Rock on!
- “Things to bring” – We’ve never done anything like this, so I found the idea to be a great one. The list to be somewhat generic, but it got me thinking about what we should pack vs. what we should pick-up while we’re there.
- “Safety on our roads” – For some reason, I seem to be the only person that’s not worried about us driving in Australia. Josh is nervous about it, so I’ve volunteered to take on the driving duties for day one. I spent 8 months living in Australia, and while I only drove once, I did it, and drove through a roundabout – so I feel like I’ll be okay. Thankfully we’ll be on highways a majority of the time, it should be just fine. In any case, this link has some helpful tips for our drive, a link to current petrol prices, as well as calculations on how far different cities are from another.
I can’t wait until we get there, it’s getting closer! In just a few weeks, we’ll be driving one of these around Australia:
Image © 2011 Tourism Holdings Ltd
It may be the email geek in me, but have any of you received an email before a trip that you thought was really informative and helpful? If so, I’d love to hear about it (and see it – if you still have a copy of it!)
[#29 of #52]
Last month, I wrote about Pauline Frommer’s session at the Atlanta Travel & Adventure Expo. Things have been busy here, so it’s taken me awhile to get to part – two, sorry about that!
In the last post, I covered what she had to say about scrimping or splurging on hotel and airfare. This one will cover activities, food, and cruises!
Activities – Scrimp or Splurge?
BOTH!
Activities help make the memories for your trip, sometimes it’s worth the extra money to experience things that you wouldn’t normally experience.
Sometimes, guided tours are good for when you’re in an area that you’re not familiar with, but they do come with Pros and Cons.
Pros:
- They’re social, you get to meet other people.
- The activities/stops are already planned, so you don’t have to do a lot of the legwork before a trip.
- And in most cases, group tours hit the popular “checklist” items in an area that everyone wants to see.
Cons:
- There are 40-50 people in an average sized tour group.
- All activities are determined by the tour bus, so if you want to stop and see something, you’re out of luck.
- When you’re staying with a tour group, you’re likely going to stay further away from the center of activity. This is because hotels that can accommodate large groups aren’t in the middle of everything – and finding places that will be able to allow 40-50 people to eat at once are usually on the outer skirts of town.
There are also small group tours that accommodate 10-12 travelers, which tend to be a bit more flexible and often times a little cheaper.
Some helpful sites for planning group travel are:
- Djoser
- G Adventures (formerly Gap Adventures)
- Intrepid Travel
Food – Scrimp or Splurge?
BOTH!
You can do a bit of both while you’re traveling. Scrimp here and there, but be sure to splurge if there’s a place you’re really interested in trying.
If you scrimp, you’ll likely end up dining with other tourists at the locations listed as ‘cheap eats’ in guide books.
If you take the time to splurge, you will likely end up in a restaurant where the locals frequent, and have the opportunity to take in a culinary treat!
Cruises – Scrimp or Splurge?
BOTH! But it really depends on what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for an amusement park at sea, you can scrimp and find a cheaper cruise.
If you’re looking for something a little more formal, and less like an amusement park – splurging might be the way to go.
When booking a cruise, Pauline had some great tips to share:
- Don’t book through the cruise line directly. Either use a travel agent that has a relationship with a cruise line, as they can often get you additional add-ons for very little or for free.
- If you don’t use a travel agent, use one of these sites:
- Vacations To Go.com
- CruisesOnly.com
- CruiseStar.com
- CruiseBrothers.com
- OnlineVacationCenter.com
- Cruises.com
- Use a site like cruisecompete.com, to allow cruise agents to compete for your business. They will over various amenities and you can get the most bang for your buck.
- Repositioning cruises that are moving ships from one port to another, can allow you to enjoy a cruise for a lesser price. These are typically done in the fall or spring.
- To save money, consider getting an interior room instead of an outside room. For the most part, you’re only in your room to sleep – so why spend a tremendous amount of money for a bigger room? [Note: I'm not typically a balcony cruise room kind of gal, but I do appreciate an exterior room - mainly because they're a little bigger and I hate feeling confined in a small space!]
- If you’re looking for shore excursions for your trip, check out these sites for deals:
And for news and reviews on cruises, USA today has a site called: vacationcruisesinfo.com, with valuable information that you can use in planning your next trip.
Do you have any sites that you use when booking cruises that weren’t mentioned on here? Do you a scrimp or splurge when it comes to the above? Share your thoughts!
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