The Mammouth Mission to Melbourne Tour

The moment had finally arrived after months and MONTHS of talking and planning......we finally hit the road to head to Melbourne to start our new lives together. Elliot and I had looked long and hard at a map to pick our route from Bundaberg, QLD to Melbourne, VIC and we decided on the shortest and quickest route. This went via Goondiwindi, Dubbo and Albury. We averaged about 6 hours a day and we were impressed by the car and how well it held up considering it was basically touching the floor as it was full of all our cra......precious belongings. Jet lag was still hitting home for the first night where I was fast asleep by 5pm and up bright and early at 4am! This meant an early start for day two so stopped at the truck stop and had an obligatory truckers breakie! Quite an impressive start to the day!

I was kept entertained by trying to pronounce the place names along the way - see how you go with the one above! Elliot kept telling me I was over pronouncing it but I guess that's the English way, I've not quite got the hang of the Aussie abbreviations yet.....

When we got to the home straight it all started to become more real. I couldn't believe that we were going to finally be in Melbourne! We're staying with my cousin's Lee and Julie until we get ourselves sorted and settled which we're hoping won't take too long. To all our friends and family out there, we're doing great and loving being here, it was definitely the best decision.

I promise to keep the posts coming. Back in the land of technology!

I Made it to Australia!

I guess as I haven't blogged for 7 months that I really should start up again! My sister keeps asking for posts so here it goes!

For those of you that don't know (not sure how you wouldn't know by now!), I have moved to Australia! I am so excited to finally be here after months and months of planning with Elliot (the Aussie reason I'm over here in the first place) and it already feels normal and natural to be in ridiculous heat day in and day out.

I arrived 3 weeks ago to meet up with my good buddy Helz who is currently travelling the world on her own adventure. It made sense to coincide our journey's so we could have some travel time together and catch up properly before she contines on her way and I start to live the Aussie dream!

We travelled through Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and then Brisbane where Elliot's flight was landing two weeks after I left. Helz has been blogging her way round the world so if you want to take a look at her posts of the ins and outs of our time together than you can read so here.

Helz and I went our seperate ways last Friday and she headed off to Noosa to go to Australia Zoo whilst I stayed with Elliot and his family in Brisbane. The reunion between him and his Mum was incredible to watch. I met up with Laureen (his Mum) before he arrived and she was so excited for the reunion, as you can imagine after 2 1/2 years! It was an anxious wait as Elliot took forever and a day to come through the other side but once he did we were both thrilled (and relieved!). We saw Helz off to her train then went back to his Auntie's house for a bit of R&R.

I'd booked us into a 5* hotel for Elliot's birthday which was just fabulous! We strolled in wearing shorts, flip flops (aka thongs) and our back packs and we certainly didn't fit in with the posh decor. But, once we got to our luxury room with ace views of the Brisbane River, the fact we looked so scruffy didn't matter. The next morning we managed to have the pool all to ourselves (mainly because we were up so early due to Elliot's jet lag!) and we had a relaxing start to the day before heading back to Team Jensen for more catching up with the family.

His family have made me feel incredibley welcome and it's been a very easy transition for me which I am eternally grateful to them for. I am now in Bundaberg at his Mum's awesome new house which certainly feels like home. The weather is blooming hot but I'm just about surviving (saying that, I am currently sat with epic bright red sun burn on my back from a trip to the beach at Elliott's Head this morning!! But Laureen has just rubbed Aloe Vera into my back that she plucked from the garden - how Australian!!).

I'll keep you posted on my where abouts and when we finally get to Mackay and settle in a bit more. Will be in Bundy for another week or so and we're having a 'Welcome Home' party on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to. Let's see if the Aussie's can drink like I think they can!

Love to you all xx

Happy Belated Australia Day!

It's taken me a while to write this post so apologies for my tardiness. Australia Day has a lot to answer for!! There are many, many, many Australian's in Les Arcs so that meant that Oz Day had to be celebrated in style.   This included a BBQ breakfast at The Loft where the drinking commenced at 9am then a trip up the hill (minus snowboards) for more drinking. Things got very messy, very early but damn it was fun. It also meant that I could rock my best Aussie accent for the day! There were wheelbarrow races, beer bongs and moist tees. What more could you want ay?

The day ended with Kirk vomming his guts up and then having to mop it all up........and little did we all know at this point that the vomming was going to be contagious!! All bar TWO people out of 18 ended up getting the vomiting bug which lasted for a few days. It was not fun but it was an Australia day to remember!!

Funi Kicker Day - The Video!

BOOM!!!

Funi Kicker Day!!

When I saw on Facebook that Funi were going to be holding a kicker day off the side of the Derby run, I couldn't wait to check it out. I don't mind hitting the kickers in the park, but this was something for the big boys! Hywel was on hand to take pics of everyone's efforts and he had to lug all of his equipment up the mountain which included snowboarding with a bag weighing half of what he does! Hardcore. When we arrived (after some off piste action and a lot of hiking), the kicker had been built and the comp was in full swing. I've never seen so many lads throw so many back flips ever! Pies was the man of the match for me as he even did a back flip whilst drinking a beer mid rotation! What a hero! Him and Joey also went off the kicker at the same time whilst flipping! Was insane! I have some mean video footage which I'm going to edit together so watch this space for that. There was a very impressive turn out and it was cool seeing everyone hike across to join in the showmanship. Excellent kicker day brought to you by the excellent Funi - the beanies were well represented by the competitors! Roll on the next one......

Just A Few Bits and Bobs

What's been going on then? Well we've had more snow which is amazing. Had been over a week with no new snowfall so we were all very grateful when it arrived! It made for some great scenic photos as you can see above too. Tried out my new Salomander snowboard which is completely different to my other board as it's 4 centimetres shorter and a LOT softer! It doesn't like the powder so much either as it's more of a park board so I did get stuck from time to time........the pic above that is pure white is the view from the top of the Derby run! Could.Not.See.A.Thing!! The next pic down is of the lobster pots which takes you from Peisey up to the chair lift. They are so odd and old skool and I've been meaning to take a pic of them for a while so there you go! The last pic is of an epic view from the slowest chairlift in the world. It takes over 20 mins from top to bottom but the view was great so I was fine with it. 

Not the most exciting post but thought you might want to see the pics! :-)

Oh Oh What A Feeling, When You're Dancing On The Table!

Arpette night. What can I say? Where should I start? Where CAN I start??? I'll try here...........

It was Nick's birthday so in order to celebrate, Robyn organised a gaggle of us to get together to hit the Arpette Bar and eat some food, have some drinks and do a little dancing. All of those things happened with rather hilarious consequences! We had all pre-ordered our food which could have been either a fondue, raclette or hot rock. There were 20 of us in total and not ONE person ordered fondue. We were definitely all still full from it the Friday before! I went for the hot rock which was an excellent choice as I just couldn't face any more cheese. Only burnt my finger twice which I was impressed with. Included with our meal was a bottle of wine EACH which definitely brought a smile to our faces. After we'd stuffed our faces it was time to move into the other room where the disco was to begin...........

Now, at the Arpette Bar, it is perfectly acceptable to stand on their tables and dance around like an idiot - and that we all did very well indeed! It was even socially acceptable for the boys to take their shirts off - so that they did! I took a horrendous amount of photo's of the boys with their kit off (can you really blame me?!?!) but I put a few of the PC ones on here as to not offend any faint hearted readers! After plying us with obscene amounts of alcohol and knackering us out with all the dancing, it was time to make it down to Bar King Mad for more drinks and debauchery. Only thing is, the bar is on the piste so the only way down is to snowboard or ski...........

In lies the next problem! We were all very merry and had to 'buddy up' as to not lose anyone. Now Mum, if you're reading this, don't worry there were 'mountain police' there to help out if anything untoward happened but we all gave it a good shot! We proceeded down the mountain with a lot of cries of  "HEY BUDDY!" so we all knew where we were at but we all made it in one piece. It was a rocky start as you can see from the pics above but it was a sweet relief to make it back alive - it's very dark out there at night time you know!

After drinking more of the night away at Bar King Mad, it was time to retire to The Loft where a wonderful present was waiting for me - my brand new Salomander snowboard!! I was pretty chuffed it has to be said. Great way to end my most epic night in France so far! Here's to many more........