A Quick Life Update

I guess I haven’t been writing much lately so I’ll try and catch you up in this post. So, here’s what we’ve been up to this past three months.

So, What Have we been doing Since Leaving the Te Araroa?

As you probably read in my post leaving the trail, we left the Te Araroa after 685km. We were pretty lost when we flew back into Melbourne and didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

We spent a couple of weeks at my Great Nanna’s house. It was good to be able to hang out with her but obviously, we couldn’t move in. And after scorching days over 40 degrees and choking on smoke from the bushfires we certainly didn’t want to stick around for too long.

We decided to move back up to Queensland to a town we’d lived in before. After a couple of crazy years around Europe and New Zealand, we just want a boring life for a while. A holiday from holidays.

We’d planned to drive the 2500 km north slowly and leisurely. But it was way too hot for that. As in, it got up to 46 degrees (115°F) and it was still 39 degrees (102°F) at midnight! It was horrible and we were so hot. We just drove and drove and drove because the car had aircon and no one wanted to get out.

But we did brave the heat to stop in Jerilderie, where dad got to meet his lookalike, Ned Kelly. For you foreigners wondering who the heck was Ned Kelly, know that he was a bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police murderer. Basically, he’d our national hero. Heaps of people have tattoos of him and everyone loves him.

Back Home in the Tropics!

It was worth the drive when we got up there. The air was clear and breathable and the temperature was a nice, consistent 33 degrees (91°F) most days.

Tropical North Queensland is just home to me and it’s so nice to be back up here.

We stayed at a holiday park for a couple of weeks while we looked for a house.

We Got a House

It’s been so long since we’ve lived in a house, and it’s so nice. Even though it’s in town the first thing dad did was start digging a huge veggie garden.

My sisters started getting heaps of animals. I think they’re probably freaking the neighbours out with how many they’ve got but I’ll save that for another post.

I turned 16 and got my Learners!

Of course, I was sick on my birthday (always the way!). But I managed to drag myself out of bed for cake. In the photo, you can see that the candles are stuck in a watermelon! Mum hadn’t finished making my chocolate cake.

And I realised just how hard it was to drive. I keep stalling and can’t work out how to shift gears! I thought that driving would be really fun and exciting, but it’s mostly just scary and stressful.

Self Quarantine

You’re probably so sick of hearing about COVID-19 so I won’t bang on about it. Suffice to say, me and my family have decided that it’s the most responsible decision for us to stay at home until the pandemic is over. We don’t want to be responsible for spreading it and potentially be responsible for someone’s death.

But the good thing is I don’t have to go to School!

...wait, I’m homeschooled so nothing has changed…

That’s it for now, catch you all next time!