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Hi there! It's officially been three weeks of life in our house in Cairns, making our total time here a whole month, and what a whirlwind it has been! Half of our time can be summed up by either looking for jobs or doing things to be able to look for more jobs, i.e. getting certifications to be qualified to apply for more jobs. A whole week of our time in Cairns was devoted to getting First Aid certified, Katie getting medically cleared for working in the diving industry, and

Hi there! We have now come to the end of Phase # 2 (..3? no, 2? I think?) of our grand adventure, and it's now time to settle down for just a little bit! We got to Australia about 8 weeks ago, spent the last 6 of those roadtripping from Melbourne, west to Adelaide, east to Canberra, then straight up the coast till we hit Cairns, so let's cover the whole thing in one nice little summary post with a bow on top. But first, a quick announcement! Due to storage limits, we upgrade

Hi there! Welcome to rainy/flooding season in northern QLD! Where it just never seems to stop raining! Tropical low U29 (just a step below a named cyclone) was a very warm, very wet welcome to our time in Northern Queensland. Where we last left you, we were spending time with the coolest Australian resident animals and, sadly, not Robert Irwin. Since then, we made quite a bit of progress on our road trip and spent a little bit of time in the Sunshine Coast and Noosa. Then we

Hi there! After strenuous self-restraint and rigorous budgeting, we decided now was a good time to give up on that and splurge on some super cool experiences! We deserve it. Vacationing is hard. Splurge # 1: Diving in Byron Bay Following our reptilian scare, we decided the only safe place to hide was underwater (don't tell Katie there are sea snakes), so we drove as quickly as Olga would allow on the winding mountain road to the seaside town of Byron Bay. Byron Bay is by far

Hi there! Boy, do we have a story to tell you, and what better way than a very accurate, and not at all exaggerated retelling. Please enjoy our misery. Here we go! A cloudy day, on a continent far, far away, two travellers set out on what should have been a simple 12-kilometre loop through Lamington National Park, eager for rainforest views and glimpses of rare birds. The forest, lush and inviting at first, soon revealed its darker side. Missing a turn, they wandered kilomet

Hi there! After Sydney, we sped things up and drove all the way up to Brisbane for a very important reason. After watching the sunrise, we took the scenic route, leaving Dorrigo National Park, driving up the coast while Katie read to James to ensure that he finished our book club's reading in time. We drove down the mountain roads and through little towns, stopping in Ballina for coffee and to see the great tourist attraction of the giant prawn. After seeing the giant lobster

Hi there! It's been a whole week since you last heard from us, and it's been a busy week bip-bopping around New South Wales! Sunday, February 15th Following quite possibly the best Valentine's Day ever, we took a day to reset and get ourselves organized. We woke up just outside the town of Wollongong, to a very wet morning. It poured overnight, so our screens were quite wet and a little muddy. By morning, it had stopped raining but was gloomy and overcast, so we went shopping

Hi there! We made it to the East Coast! It was an uneventful drive across the Southern tip of Australia, with the exciting exceptions of tumbleweeds, sheep, red dirt, red dust, and several cleanings of Olga’s interior and exterior, and even her engine bay... there was A LOT of dust. After 1200km, we made it back to civilization. Our Valentine’s Day on the East Coast started early, as we were already at a 35° angle from our parking spot for the night, so getting the next 55°

Hi there! We started phase 2 of our Australia adventure: road tripping! But you would think that a road trip of the East Coast of Australia would look like the red path below, so why are we driving West? Simple answer: James is still trying to figure out driving in Australia and will only turn left... This road trip might take longer than we expected.... Ok, enough James slander... James is doing very well driving on the left, and only once forgot the side of the road we were

Hi there! As previously mentioned, we made it to the land of Aus! Here is our update. Major points include: car shopping, hotel hopping, and pints dropping. 1: Car As soon as we landed, the hunt was on for our new whip. Luckily, we had done our research and had narrowed it down to 4 strong contenders. We ended up test-driving 3 out of the 4, but the fourth was sold, unbeknownst to us, until we spent an entire afternoon getting to the dealership. The lack of professionalism wa

Hi there! We have our automobile! Meet Olga, our majestic steed! Melbourne update coming soon:) Love, Katie, James & Olga

Hi there! Here we go! This was our last day in Canada for who knows how long, and we've been spending our time in the Bay Area of California, so let's catch up! As our first MAJOR JOINT blog post, we've colour-coded the writing: red-highlighted sections are written by Katie , and blue-highlighted sections are written by James (in case that wasn't clear enough from the Katie-slander in James' sections). FYI: This is a long post, so grab your favourite refreshments before em

Hi there! We are taking baby steps to get to Australia, and this week is baby step # 2 of 3, so let's rewind to baby step # 1. Our westward journey began on a snowy Boxing Day with a prolonged drive from Napanee to YYZ, avoiding the 401 and taking snow-filled backroads with scenic views of Teslas stuck in ditches (subtle foreshadowing...) A long drive was followed by a delayed flight. While waiting, we listened to worrisome announcements of AirCanada cancelling nearly all oth

Hi there! We're back with a whole new blog for our Australian adventure brought to you by BOTH Katie & James! The blog is back and better than ever and even has some new upgrades! New features include: a co-author; James Wootton himself, a James Wootton original photo gallery , far more images of James Wootton, and all in all so many more James Wootton features!!! Other exciting updates (that aren't James related) include our new title: "From Eh to G'day", which we think is