In celebration of our first year married...a few pics

Happy memories from April 29th, 2005, Treasure Island, Fiji....

The eve of the great journey...

It has finally arrived...the night before the start of our big Aussie adventure! We have been busy packing and organising all our last minute items and the car and the van are packed and absolutely bursting with things!

It's a funny feeling to be finally about to embark on something about which we have dreamed for years and years now!

We are excited and happy and feel so free since we both finished up at work at the end of last week. So many possibilities and adventures before us. Today we kept reminding each other that it wasnt just another weekend- that we are now on one huge holiday!

Of course, there is also the tinge of sadness and a swirl of emotions which comes with leaving family, friends and familiar places. As one friend put it, "smiling in one eye and crying in the other". I will certainly miss a lot of people in Port Macquarie and have felt sad saying goodbyes. Of course our smiles are also pretty big! :-) And we aren't leaving the country. :-)

This weekend has been a lot of fun. It was our first wedding anniversary yesterday and we celebrated by spending the night at Rydges in Port Macquarie and having a massage followed by a fancy dinner out. This morning we had an excellent surf, followed by a delicious cafe brunch before driving down to mum's place to do the final pack up!

So that's the latest news. Next report in will be from our first stop-Yamba! With love, Adam and Emma

One more day of work for Emma, two days for Adam!

It's all happening now. We've packed yet more things into the van. Adam's been to the hardware store and bought boy things like tools and a drill etc, meanwhile I have bought plastic containers for the food cupboards and extra cooking items for the van. I dont think we planned to fall into such typical boy/girl roles, it just sort of happened that way... hehe.
I've been wrapping things up at work, updating my resume and so on...plus final packing and tidying at mum's and dad's places where we've been living for months now.
Not to mention catch-up coffees, lunches, dinners nearly every day this week, just to see people before we go, which has been fun.
We can't wait to hit the road and relax.
It's a bit surreal right now..the fact we are actually leaving home here, and our jobs etc, for quite a while. I guess it will hit us when we are heading north.

The Final Countdown...

It's Sunday and I am at work at the start of my final week with NBN. My final sunday! hooray!
Adam and I cant wait to be away now...and things seem to be all coming together. We've both been busy, not only with arranging things for the trip, but with tidying up all lose ends at work and at home too.
This time next week I will be unemployed :-) Quite a happy thought.

Our contact details....

Just in case you don't have our updated contact details for when we are on the road they are:

twodaytrippers@hotmail.com


or

emmasiossian@hotmail.com

and of course this site!

Tick, tick....the To-do list gets shorter

Well, Adam and I finally bought a car fridge the other day- something many have told us we'll need and will find very useful. It's a 50 litre fridge/freezer which can supplement the tiny caravan fridge and allow us to carry a lot more fresh food and drinks as we go. It means we can have the freedom to cook more meals using fresh veggies and meat, and have more fresh fruit etc...not to mention nice cold drinks in the car if we are out camping somewhere, or on a picnic or whatever (and no, it won't be filled with beer).

Another item on the To-do list which is finally done is our annexe repairs/improvements. We put it in to have a flyscreen put on the door and an extra window added, because we found it was just too hot as it was, with not enough ventilation. It's now done, and I can pick it up after Easter. :-)

Plus, this weekend we've collected the caravan and its assorted improvements (extra spare tyres, spare gas bottle etc) and can now pack in more stuff! We are a walking sports store.

And a big thanks to Beau and my mum and dad for all your help in different ways.

And of course, for an updated countdown..i now have 9 working days to go!!!!! hooooooraayyy

And Adam (who actually gets public holidays off) has 8 days left.

We both are very excited....and are hoping for good surf and more of the great autumn weather we've been experiencing lately when we start our trip up the coast.

HAPPY EASTER everyone....Love from The Easters ;-) xoxo

Happy days

The lead up to a big trip or exciting event is a big part of the joy. Ad and I were at the beach on the weekend, relaxing, kicking back, and looked at each other and said, "soon this will be our lifestyle- every day!". Yeh! cant wait.

The packing of the clothes...

So I was at mum's, with an assortment of clothes designed to cover all seasons and a year's travel spread out over the bed. Our aim was to cut back on the amount. But everytime I pulled something out, a few minutes later I put it back in again, saying I simply had to take those pants/shirt/jacket with me. Mum sighed in frustration and said she wondered why I had asked for her help in the first place.
After quite some time I ended up with a reasonable looking pile of garments...which will hopefully fit into a soft bag to be stored on the back seat of the car, and my half of the very small, single cupboard in the van (unless of course I simply take over the entire cupboard and banish Adam's clothes to the car- I mean, he's a boy- he'd cope).

This week I have already added yet more items to my pile. You'd think I was going to Antarctica or somewhere similarly remote the way I am desperately adding items. I mean, we are going to be in major cities around Australia. I can actually buy supplies and well, more clothes, if I need to.

Anyway, it will be a relief to get the van back on the weekend from the father-in-laws and pack in our final things (you know, the extras like travel mugs and thermos, hand weights- yep adam and I plan on staying fit while we travel-camera bits and pieces, travel books, normal books, spare linen etc), and see just how much room there is in that clothes cupboard. In typical boy fashion, Adam is yet to consider his clothes. They'll probably get thrown together a few nights before.

Meanwhile, we are getting excited. I have 12 more working days to go. Not long at all. I must admit to also being a bit nervous- not in a bad way, more like in a my life is about to change drastically for a while kind of way.

More news soon.
Cheers, Emma :-)

Photos of THE caravan

Here it is- on a trip we took to Point Plomer, north of Port Macquarie. Soon to be our home for a year...

A month today!!!

This time in exactly one calendar month, we will be on the road heading up to the far north coast of NSW- in fact, by now (it's 1pm) we may have in fact already arrived at our first stop- Yamba.
Wow. The time is flying by now. We went to Newcastle on the weekend and spent yet more money on bits and pieces and clothing for the trip. We also dropped the van off to my father-in-laws place in Taree...Beau is going to fix a few things up for us and make some improvements- which is really a great help!

Meanwhile, my to-do lists are continuing. I tick things off, then add more things! But we are getting a lot done. Mum and Dad have also been a great support and bought us some little extra creature comforts for the road (travel coffee mugs and handy storage bags for the car...)

I am trying to make a list of clothes to take. This is proving tough. I want to take lots of things, but of course i cant! Think i will start bigger, then just keep cutting back. There is very little space in the caravan itself, and we plan having just one back up bag, between us, in the back of the car. Yikes. But as Adam and Mum keep telling me, it's not like i am going on a fashion show... hehe

Am also condensing all toiletry and beauty products into a small pile. And deciding what other creature comforts can travel with us...most things need to be left behind i think.

My mind is not really on work- but I am getting it done and counting down the days left.

I am feeling excited, and also a bit nervous/sad in some ways as our leaving date draws near. I know that for me anyway- that's normal. I know i will miss the comfort of a proper house and bed at night...and I will miss my family very very much...along with close friends...and of course, the routine of my life here in port macquarie. Plus, I am about to give up full time work etc etc.

Overall though, i cant wait for the freedom and adventures to begin! So much lays before us. :-)