A couple of weeks earlier Adam and I had made the decision to try and do some harvest work so we could apply for a 2nd year working holiday visa. So as I had not been able to get a job I had been busy looking for fruit picking work. I had tried calling the National Harvest Line to be told that there was nothing available so I started to search on the internet. Eventually I found a company who were looking for grape pickers in the Clare Valley (2 hours north of Adelaide), it was a bit further than we had intended on going, ideally we would have liked to have worked in the Hunter Valley which is only 2 hours north of Sydney but it was not meant to be. So the change of plans would mean that as we would have to do 88 days worth of harvest work we would have to cut out some of our travel destinations to fit in the 88 days. We made the decision to leave Sydney on the 2nd Feb and do a road trip to get to the Clare Valley.
The girls helped organise a leaving party for us so on the Saturday Adam, Frank and I left our apartment and made our way to Bondi Hotel (where Lisa now worked) and the rest of the gang would be. And as you guessed it the drinking began. We stayed there for a couple of hours as Lisa was working behind the bar and then eventually made our way to the Tea Gardens club at Bondi Junction. We partied until 2am and said farewell to some people that we would not see again and organised to have dinner at the girls’ on Sunday.
The following day Adam and I collected our rental car from Hertz which was a nippy little Toyota Corolla and made a quick stop at Emma’s to say goodbye. Emma and Matt had mentioned previously that they didn’t have any drinking glasses so as a farewell present we had stopped at Ikea and bought them 6 glasses which Emma seemed to be very happy about. After returning to the apartment to do some last minute packing we then drove to Bondi to have dinner at the Girls’. After dinner we presented Lisa, Roisin and Sally with a picture frame each which contained various photos we had of them and us and a jar of Hellman’s mayonnaise for all the other girls to share too (the Aussie mayo was horrible and Hellman’s could only be bought at select Coles Superstores). We got big hugs off everyone and said a sad farewell to our “Girls”.
On Monday we also said bye to Frank and thanked him for everything with a picture we had taken of all of us in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and then started our road trip. We had decided to go to our first destination (Wagga Wagga) via Canberra.
We stopped off at the Canberra Information Office and got some advice on what we could do within the 2 hours we would be there. One suggestion was to visit Parliament House. I called the information number and promptly booked us on a free tour.
The girls helped organise a leaving party for us so on the Saturday Adam, Frank and I left our apartment and made our way to Bondi Hotel (where Lisa now worked) and the rest of the gang would be. And as you guessed it the drinking began. We stayed there for a couple of hours as Lisa was working behind the bar and then eventually made our way to the Tea Gardens club at Bondi Junction. We partied until 2am and said farewell to some people that we would not see again and organised to have dinner at the girls’ on Sunday.
The following day Adam and I collected our rental car from Hertz which was a nippy little Toyota Corolla and made a quick stop at Emma’s to say goodbye. Emma and Matt had mentioned previously that they didn’t have any drinking glasses so as a farewell present we had stopped at Ikea and bought them 6 glasses which Emma seemed to be very happy about. After returning to the apartment to do some last minute packing we then drove to Bondi to have dinner at the Girls’. After dinner we presented Lisa, Roisin and Sally with a picture frame each which contained various photos we had of them and us and a jar of Hellman’s mayonnaise for all the other girls to share too (the Aussie mayo was horrible and Hellman’s could only be bought at select Coles Superstores). We got big hugs off everyone and said a sad farewell to our “Girls”.
On Monday we also said bye to Frank and thanked him for everything with a picture we had taken of all of us in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and then started our road trip. We had decided to go to our first destination (Wagga Wagga) via Canberra.
We stopped off at the Canberra Information Office and got some advice on what we could do within the 2 hours we would be there. One suggestion was to visit Parliament House. I called the information number and promptly booked us on a free tour.
The tour took about an hour and it was fascinating listening to the stories and going into the various chambers. After the tour we then drove up to the Australian War Memorial which houses a museum covering many conflicts which Australia was involved in. Looking at the history and hardship some people went through was very thought provoking. After spending about an hour there as well we then made our way into the City Centre to have a look around and a grab a bite to eat. We found a little cafe and enjoyed our lunches whilst people watching, it had been a lovely stop but we had many hours of driving ahead of us so we eventually left (a little later than we had intended). We drove for about 5 hours only stopping to fill the car up.
The journey was long and the scenery started to become tiresome and predictable but the time in the car gave us the opportunity to try and catch up on our blog. We finally arrived at the caravan park where we would be staying in at about 9.30pm in Wagga Wagga. The cabin was a little dated but very spacious. It had a kitchen and lounge area and a bedroom with ensuite. We caught the end of “The Devil Wears Prada” and went to sleep.
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