My mom and I headed from New Zealand to the beautiful country of Australia. My mom's portion of her travel was to include just Australia from here and my Dad came down as well and met us for a couple of weeks. We stayed in a place called Manley, which was a short ferry ride from Sydney, and when my mom and Dad left I transferred to a hostile in Manly, awaiting Heather's arrival...Going from a 5 star hotel to 1 star hostile took some getting used to, but it is the only way to go to really learn all there is about people from different countries, how to travel on a budget and what to see off the beaten tourist path, so you can enjoy all there is to take in with the Aussie culture, what an adventure we had!
Heather and I both had a working visa and the plan was to travel and work along our way...we had some very interesting jobs to say the least! The first job I had was as a Nanny for 5 kids, under the age of 6, all girls. I remember calling my Mom and telling her all about it, as I was talking to her there was a peacock running through the living room and 5 girls running wildly after it. My thoughts at this time was I don't think I am cut out for motherhood, and if I am I will limit to 2 kids! Well we know how well that plan worked out, and now I can look back on it as training for what was ahead of me!! I remember dealing with tantrums, fishing full rolls of toilet paper out of the toilet daily and experiencing pure exhaustion at the end of every day!
While I was doing this Heather was bar-tending at a nearby local tavern/ restaurant. The owner was the father of the 5 girls I was a nanny for....she definitely got the better part of the deal. We were in a town called Eungella, on the East Coast of Australia in the Mountains, the locals were definitely a bit red-neck, but very nice.
The nanny job turned out to be short term, their mom who was helping at the restaurant decided to come back to working from home full time. Although I did fall in love with all 5 girls in the process; Courtney 1, Jessica 3, Sarah 4, Amanda 5, Brook 6....Yikes! At 22 was somewhat relieved to be changing careers. I was offered a job with Heather bar-tending. The tavern was next to a 5 star restaurant and fancier bar called the Eungella Chalet, so we worked going back and forth between the two. Heather had bar-tended before, and taught me everything I needed to know...I loved it! The trade off between Nannying and Bartending was I traded a beautiful home I stayed in, for a very run down 2 bedroom hostile behind the Chalet...lol was all good though Heather and I were together again, along with Chef Cliff who was like our baby brother. So many laughs we all had, and many a good party... it was a lot of fun!
This was one of many great adventures we had in the land down under...More to follow!
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