February 25, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode of the Van Life Series, we reconnect with Kristen and Carissa, who first crossed paths while traveling the open road with their families. Living on the move, 24/7 with loved ones, created unforgettable memories—but what happens when the adventure winds down?
Kristen and Carissa share what it’s really like to transition from life on the road back to everyday routines. They dive into the challenges of settling back down, how travel reshaped their perspectives, and the surprising realities of making new friends as an adult.
If you’ve ever wondered how long the road's lessons stick with you after the journey ends, this honest and heartwarming conversation is one you won’t want to miss.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Appodjay production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Van Life Series podcast acknowledge the traditional owners and
ongoing custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We pay our respects to all.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Aboriginal and tour As Strait Islander people and to the
elder's past, present and emerging.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You just need to take the step and get out
there and do it. We actually can turn what we
love into our career.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We wanted to travel to be a part of life
and not a perk of life.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
It's the best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Every day is now different, different sunrise at a different beach.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
That's just a paradise. Yeah, it's a paradise.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's an insane I feel so alive and free.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hand in your notice. Make a plan and just commit
to it. I would just say do it the Van
Life series. But now we have these amazing memories we
get to look back on.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
But I think it's also put us in the most
beautiful position to be able to plan the next ones
without so much beer.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The Troop has kind of given that new outlook on
life that less is more like what do you really need?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
They were like, you're not going to have a loungering,
No but I'm going to have a different space to
be in every day, you know, a different outside.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No one has anywhere to be, so why can't you.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Just stop and have a chat. You're not rush enough.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
And caravanning absolutely showed me that we are capable of
so much more than I ever thought.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We were.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Welcome to the Van Live Series podcast and I'm Cruiser.
I guess I'm sort of guest hosting this podcast episode
with my.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Friend here, Kristin.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Here Kristin, I am probably all well known as one
half of laid Back Adventures. My husband and I traveled
Australia this year. We've done a bit of other travel
around Australia and yeah, along.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
The way, we met you guys. You're telling you about yourself.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Ah, So we took off on our lap and just
kind of run into you guys, I guess. So we
all landed in Western Australia around the same time, I guess.
So we were definitely seeking some adventure and trying to
step out of a bit of a Monday in life,
I guess. And so we sold the house, we got
the van, we took off, we took the kids on
the road. We've got two little girls, similar ages to yours,
(02:15):
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We hit the road.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I'd love to say we never looked back, but there
were some challenges. I like to explain it to people
that we had an adventure. We didn't have a holiday,
but void did we have some adventures. So that's kind
of how I like to sum it up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Now I know the answer to this, But where are
you guys from, because we know a lot of people
from this place.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
They all got out in mass Exodus. We're Victorians. Yeah,
we were from Melbourne.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
We definitely run away from the cold weather.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
For us, it was mostly the cold I reckon.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I've said for the last ten years that I can't
do another winter in Melbourne, and we just kept kept going,
kept going, And this was something that I really pushed
to break us out of that. And we have now
settled on the beautiful Sunshine Coast after all of our travels.
So I think after we've been in that we were
living in the van for about eighteen months, we're traveling
for about twelve and I think it's really hard for
us to go back to cold weather after chasing the
(03:07):
sunshine for twelve months.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The eternal summer.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, so a bit about us, I guess then we're
from sunny North Queensland or Central queens omo from Mackay,
and we sort of did a little bit differently. We
did a three month trial run over to Western Australia
in our first in sold our house while we were there, with.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The idea that if.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We weren't cut out for spending on very long time
in a caravan together, that three months trip would be enough,
but if we loved it, we'd come back and set
ourselves up to go more permanently.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And yeah, obviously we just love it.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We came back, we saved our butts off and then
hit the road about the same time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As you guys, yeah, and met over there in Monkey Maya,
Monkey Maya, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We ended up being neighbors right on the beachfront sites,
which my husband, Justin is a huge planner and had
had that beachfront site booked.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
For many many months that you guys judged at last
we flepped it.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Also a huge planner, Justin and I in our spread
she are like kindred spirits, so I get the spreadsheets
and the planning. We booked in a couple of nights
and then after hearing feedback from people about how wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It was there.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
We added on a few and they offered us a
beachfront site for those few extra nights, and which is
where we met you guys. And then unfortunately we had
to move from those beach sites to different ones, which
was a bit of a step back and really hard
to take. But I'm still very glad we got those
beach ones for a few days.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's definitely yeah, it was fade, it was fair.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And then obviously after Monkey Mia Monkey Mayer, we had
a fair few more camp sites together, but the main
one was we ended up doing the GiB River Road
together and we did it with I believe it was
nine caravans with children and a rooftop ten.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Did I get the number right? I think you did.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah, there was something like forty forty people in total,
wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's yeah, yeah, which sounds really daunting when you think
about like rocking out to free camps with nine caravans,
and when we get sites to nine caravans that it
was honestly the best two weeks of our whole year.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I don't know about you, guys, Did you feel like that? Oh?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I really did, a lot of people keep asking me
what was your favorite place, And I think my answer
is not a place. My answer is an experience, which
was the point of the whole thing, and for us,
the GiB which it's kind of funny, right, it's a
pretty remote part of the world. Yeah, it was one
of the most remote, remote parts of the trip that
we did. And we felt so comfortable, We felt like.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
We were with family.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It was just I don't know, I feel like that
whole group of us met so organically and so beautifully.
It was literally like just hanging out with people you'd
grown up with, and our kids all got to hang out.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And play together. It was just the village, the village.
We had a village.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
My best thought a little bit different. You were also
there with us Pender Bay, Oh yeah, beautiful, and the bay.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
North of brew It was about two hundred k's dirt
red dirt up sandy tracks and then out onto a
cliff at Pender Bay. And we actually went there two
years in a row.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
We loved it so much.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
For a week there our first year, and then a
week there this tune as well, and I'd still go
back for a week again.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
We just loved it. I can't even tell you what
it is.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I feel like that says a lot, the fact that
you went back within twelve months for another week to
somewhere that it's pretty spash.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, and the whales sort of like in the shallows
looking out on a camp site, and we always say
that that site and you'll have to come back and
ask me what number it was, but ten f ten
we had two hundred and seventy degree water views from
out then, and there's just nothing like that.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So yeah, that was that was the best spot for me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You mentioned experience before, so now I'm sort of wondering
whether I had an experience.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Maybe it was the GiB as well, was pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I just find it really hard to narrow down one
place when people ask what was your favorite, because everywhere
was amazing, but it was a little bit different and
for its own reasons. Like Rapid Bay for us was
amazing because that was kind of our first beach front
camp and we're on the stand up paddle wall with
dolphins and my daughter got to see dolphins in the
wild and we.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Got it on drone footage like I have it. Oh,
and that is amazing to me.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
But then different things happen in different places. So you know, then,
Margaret River, we found just so many beautiful places where
you get to go out with your kids. You know,
there's beautiful restaurants and wineries and breweries, and there seems
to be a playground in every direction in that part
of Western Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Like it just encourages you to have another drill. It
just makes it so easy.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And then the further north you get, you know, there's
just everywhere it's just a little bit different. You hit
that red dirt and it feels different, you know, you
go inland and it's completely different again, and then we
run into people that we met in love. Like, everywhere
was so fantastic, but for its own little reasons. So
I kind of can't give a favorite place, but I
feel like I do experience. Yeah, it's a bit easier
(07:56):
to answer. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Now you may have noticed where obviously talking about our
trips in past ten.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I've seen my caravan, but a part way through the cleaning.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Process, we're back at my mom and dad. You're obviously
in a house. What's going on.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, we landed on the Sunny Coast, which was always
our plan. To be honest, we did want to find
somewhere warmer to live, and everyone keeps asking why here,
and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This just felt right.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
We hadn't been here before, which people seem to find
really surprising. We'd spent absolutely no time here. I used
a holiday on the Gold Coast when I was a
kid with my family. I was fortunate enough to have
time there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Something about here. Just felt like this is where we'd
find home. So we landed here in towards the end
of twenty twenty four. We spent some time in a
caravan park while we looked for rentals up around here,
So we are parked up at the moment, which is
the saddest thing to say. Also, cleaning our caravan, which
I don't know about you, I am genuinely surprised at
(08:53):
how much stuff we had in there.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I felt like for twelve months I was like, I
don't have much stuff because I live in a caravan.
But now I'm unpacking. In mind, we had so many
things with it. Yes, where was it all such a
small spotish?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yep? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And how are you going moving into the house? What
kind of like take have you got on that process?
Coming out of a caravan.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Wow, I thought we had stuff in a caravan. My goodness.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Unpacking all of our things out of storage to bring
into the house, I was genuinely overwhelmed. We'd planned this
for a really long time, this trip so effectively. I've
been packing up our stuff and our old house for
las three years.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Two years, I don't know, Mass, I've been.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Packing up for a while, you know, getting rid of
what I thought was culling and getting rid of things.
My mum always used to joke to Ross, my husband,
that if he stood still for too long that I
would throw him out, because I was on a bit
of a rampage getting stuff out of our house when
we were packing. But the unpacking process are so overwhelming,
just the amount of things that we had, and you know,
(09:59):
they all had a really beautiful place in our life
before we left. But it's a total, total perspective shift
when you step into it after being in a caravan
for twelve or eighteen months in our case, I think, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Just so much stuff. Yeah, how about you? How are
you finding it? You're only a few days into.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The Yeah, look, we got home four days ago, so
we are still a long time.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Very much in the caravan.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Look, I don't want to put a negative spin on
being in the van, but it's great to have some space.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's honestly so great.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I do feel like the kids are really far away
from us, even though the bedrooms literally go next door,
next door.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Next door.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So yeah, look, and I definitely think that the trip
has kind of given us that outlook, that new outlook
on life that less is more.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You don't like, what do you really need?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
As we were sort of unpacking our clothes, I was
sending so much back to storage. And that's been justin
saying to me, what, You're gonna have no clothes? I'm like,
I have all the clothes I need.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, So I don't know. I think I'm still in
the transition period.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It's yeah, you're deeper transition. What's one thing in the
last four whole days. What's one thing that you have
realized that you desperately missed? I know there might have
been some things when you were in the van, but
is there anything now that you get home you're.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Like, how did I live without that?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
A flushing toilet? I feel like there's no one who's
done bad life who wouldn't say that yeah, look, it's
there are obviously cons of living in a caravan for
a year, but I would still say one hundred percent
it was.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Still worth it all of that.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yes, the only time we really struggled with space was
when it was cold or windy and we couldn't be outside.
Aside from that, perfectly fine, like we got on grade.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You know, there's no room.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
For arguments, which is also amazing, Like you can't give
someone a silent treatment in a caravan.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You've got to communicate in a different way.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Don't you. Yeah, you just got to immediately be like, oh, okay,
sorry I did that, or you did that, work it
out and move on.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So the only I will give you one example of
one time that we had to give space and it
wasn't our choice. It was when our daughter, who was
two at the time, was teething. She was cutting molars,
so for any parents listening, you would know the pain
of cutting mollers.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
She kicked my husband out of the caravan.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
So she just got super emotional and worked up and
like all the toddler feels, and she did not want that.
She couldn't even look at him. She was screaming. It
was two am. We're in a caravan park. We were
trying not to be those people, and in the end
he set up the swag outside and slept outside, so
that I would say that that's like the only time
it ever happened. But it's such a fun memory to
(12:44):
look back on because I can't believe she kicked him
out of the caravan. It wasn't It wasn't you, No,
it wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It was the two. And then in the morning, the
sweetest thing. She woke up and she's like, where's Dad.
You kicked him out? Oh that's right. Sorry. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So, sort of continuing on that line, thought, what kind
of things have you taken away from the travel mentality
since you've been home, Like, what are you doing now
in your everyday life that you weren't before you traveled
Australia in a caravan.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We adventure so much more.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
We get out and we do things now we were Victorians.
It was cold, we stayed home a lot. I was
really comfortable being like a nice little homebody, especially when
the kids were little.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's easy to just be home.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
And safe and with all your things, and caravanning absolutely
showed me that we are capable of.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So much more than I ever thought we were. But
there's some.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Pretty spectacular things that you've been a part of in
terms of some hikes and some adventures and beautiful things
we've been on. Oh yeah, And I look back at
that and I'm like, oh my gosh, we did that.
You know, we did those things. So you know what,
I could do a day trip to go visit some
friends now, even if it messes with my kids sleep,
or if it means we have.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Dinner a little bit later.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I think I was really locked into those things as
a bit of a security blanket before we left.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And now I'm like, maybe we.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Did twelve months on the road and nothing brocused. My
husband didn't get kicked out of the caravan, like I
just said, yeah, nothing proper brocus. So I feel like
we've got a little bit more courage.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah. Well, you talked about the hikes before, and that's
the one that resonates with me. And I remember one
particular one we did together at King's Canyon and.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
It was so harsh.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
There's a lot of stairs to go up to the
top of the canyon ridge and then I think, what
it's about five or something kilometers, which with children sort
of six in under is a big undertake.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Long five days. Yeah, yeah, but you know, we were fine.
We experienced it. We did it.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It was amazing and it was so worth any complaint
or wings that we heard that day. Yeah, and I'm
sure the kids all had ice creams that afternoon, so
they're over it too.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
But yeah, no, for sure, But.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I mean another one, I guess, like we're still on
the kids. But that's one of the reasons we're out
here like doing it. We just went wrong skating a
couple of days ago and just and I we don't
even hesitate.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We just pulled on those skates and we.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Went skating with the kids, like, and we're out there skating.
And it wasn't until we were sort of a few
lights in that we realized that there were other parents
that were just sitting on the side watching and that
was an option we didn't.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You guys were in it for you, Okay, the other
thugs and dads aren't doing this. And I mean no regrets.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
We had a great time. We all had a great time.
The kids were there with us watching us do it.
We're setting that example and just like being there on
one hundreder cent few kids, because.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
When you're traveling Australia, there's nowhere else you can be.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Right, well, there's not, and that like, that's something that
I didn't factor in. So many people said to us
when we started doing it, like what do you what
do you mean you're can be in a caravan and
like just all of you And I kept replying with
yet they were like, you're not going to have a
lound room. For some people for some reason, that was
like a comment.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That I got quite a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You're not going to have a lound room, and I start, no,
but I'm going to have a different space to be
in every day, you know, a different outside, do you know?
Barring the weird weather events We tried to avoid those.
We did get a few, but you know, we just
we had a different place to be all the time.
I think we got so used to being involved with
things with our kids and so used to being out
there with them adventuring.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I would have been in that rollerink with you as well. Yes,
we would have had so much fun next time.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Next So sorry, that was Mackay the Rollerskate mikayle Ill
just book.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That in and we out there in a second. That
sounds so much fun.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Obviously, Like I'm talking to you right now. We've got
a great friendship. We're still in contact. We've got group chats,
we've got yearly catch outs. If making friends something that
you picked up whilst being out.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
There, oh yeah, I'm so awkward. I feel like making
friends as an adult is really hard outside.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Of maybe the gym, I reckon, maybe I made some
friends at the gym as an adult, and that's my
like something that I enjoy. I guess an interest there.
Other than that, yeah, I find it really tricky.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But the kids, the kids are the best.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I think most of most of the people that we
met was through our kids, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So it was like playgrounds.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
We met so many traveling families at playgrounds outside of yeah,
oh yeah, but our.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Kids would just be instant friends.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
They got so good at it, right, they got so
good at making instant friendships, so did we. We've got
neighbors here that the kids have met a couple of
times at the playground or we've passed them in the street.
They're renting just up the road from us. Turns out
they've moved from into state too, haven't been here for
too long.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
It's all a bit new for them as well.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
We just ended up in their backyard on Saturday for
a good couple of hours.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
The kids were all playing together.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I don't know how I would have had the courage again, courage,
but maybe just the even the experience, like it's okay
to just.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Say hi to people. If they don't say high back,
that's all right. They might be busy, they might be
doing something else. These guys are absolutely awesome. We can
wait for them from our backyard. The kids now discovered,
which was really cute. Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
But it was just really to be with them, to
say hi, to ask them questions. You know, all these
beautiful skills that I keep crediting my kids for learning
over the past twelve months, and I'm now realizing that
maybe my husband and I have also been top the
same skills.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I had a friend asked the same question as we
were driving through their home in the East Coast, and
he said to me, how do you start talking to
someone on the road?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And it really is as simple as.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Hi, I'm corossa, yep, And that's all it takes. And
before you know it, you've got like I've now got
a friend.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Like you you know. So it's honestly, it's that easy.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And I think what helped when we're traveling to is
a lot of similarities. I would always notice that Ross
would be out the front of the caravan, you know,
lighting the barbecue to cook dinner, or checking something on
the vand or even when we were packing up or
setting up and someone had come over and be like, oh, hey,
what's the bi crack you've got on the caravan? Or
how do you find you know, that particular something on
(19:00):
your car? And next minute it's two hours later and
we're all standing up the front having a chat and
their kids have come past with this scooters and you
all realize it's dinner time and you probably should get
off and do something. But just those I found, we
probably got really good at finding like something that was
enough of a connection to then just branch into a
whole conversation and you touched on it there.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But it's something else that happens on the road.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
No one has anywhere to be, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So why can't you just stop and have a chat.
You're not rush enough, you've got nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
If the kids are having a great time, you're having
a great time, and like quite literally, if it works
and you're jelling and you just keep hanging out because
there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
In all the best kind of ways.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
We just had that airpic New Year's Eve catch up
with some of the kids' families, and honestly, it was
just brilliant to go back to that feeling of just
sitting around. Kids are playing, kids are having fun, swimming,
and we're just catching up, just talking rubbish. Really, but
you know that's nowhere to be. There's no community like it.
Yeah yeah, at home everyone seems so rushed. Yeah, it's
(20:10):
a different feel.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And what about in unpacking? Have you found anything you
didn't need that you put in storage? You said you're
pretty ruthless, though.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Oh okay, I thought I was ruthless. Can I go
back and correct my comment? I thought I was less.
I have fifteen coffee cups? CRUs who dates fifteen coffee cups?
We just lived with one each on each We want
to make another coffee quick prints making exs coffee wash
it when you do your round of dishes. As I
was unpacking, because it kind of became a thing because
(20:39):
I reckon they were even scattered over like three different
boxes so I kept opening coffee cups, coffee coffee cups.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
There's fifteen people here having coffee. I'm probably not happy,
Like that's too many people we're going out.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I don't know lots of things, and even just I
don't know the same thing, but multiples of I'm now
questioning do I actually need? Yeah, you know, so many
more sets of bed sheets or towels or we did
lose one of the kid's towers today, so that's probably
all this week.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's probably one thing we're not used to, I guess.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Is base because we have so much space now and
places to put things. For the life of us, we
have no idea where one of the kids bath towels
is gone.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And it's like it's a pretty obvious one. It's a
dinosaur one with.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Like a little hood that goes on it so the
kids can run around the dinosaurs at the end of.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
The day, the durable.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
But it's gone. I mean it's not it's here somewhere.
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Pro house problems, yeah, hashtag house problems. Yeah, I love it.
Will you guys travel again? Caravan? Not in this caravan?
I don't think we definitely purchase that.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Absolutely with the intention of full time travel with that one,
and that is not how we'll move forward most because.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We don't have the money too yet. If anyone wants
to just give.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Me all the money in the world, I'll keep the
van and we'll keep traveling because I wouldn't give that
up ever if I had to. But we would definitely
set ourselves up for shorter trips and weekend trips.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
We didn't spend a lot of time in Queensland. We've
done a couple of.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Trips here in the past before we had kids and
done a bit of exploring, but we haven't seen enough
of it yet, so there's absolutely places we need to
get to. I hear Makai is pretty cool, so we
might find out that way.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
What are you guys doing, What are your plans? We're
keeping our caravan.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
We absolutely love it and we're just honestly, we're so
excited to explore with our home in our our lap
then because you know, we love all the spots here,
we know all the great places and now we have
great caravan, so let's go and see it all. And
for us, essentially it's an easy and the inexpensive holidays,
(22:41):
So you know, you've got a van.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You've got a caravan.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
You can literally go anywhere anyway that the van will
take you. So yeah, we're just excited for that. No
big trips planned as yet. There was talk from our
youngest that she wants to see the snow in the caravan.
Oh okay, So we tried for Hassan in the end
(23:04):
of October and we got our small puddle of snow,
but it's not it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
There's still shalk with the snow. So that yeah, yeah,
like we've got a diesel leader. That's a lot good. Yeah,
you're sort of yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
But yeah, would you recommend caravan life or lap life
or travel and left capacity.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I would recommend it to anyone and everyone who would listen.
It has so drastically changed how we live and how
we think about things.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And just filled us with that sense of adventure.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
For now we have these amazing memories we get to
look back on. But I think it's also put us
in the most beautiful position to be able to plan
the next ones without so much fear. And I think
that everyone needs that, you know, get out and do something,
get out and I don't know, experience things. Meet people
do There's just so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Also, we just got to hang out on some really
nice beaches, so that really stilled my cup. Australian is
quite amazing. I do actually agree.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I think in all of the way you just mentioned,
I would one hundred percent tell people to do it,
but also in that it changes you as a person.
I'm quite a light regimented person and you cannot be
that person on the road because you need to.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Just did you try to? Because I, oh.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, they you hold it the war it gets away
from you and that you can't do it, can you?
And yeah, it just kind of I even said to
one of my best friends in the last couple of
days since I've been here, am I different?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Do I feel? Do I see in your life? What'd
she say?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
She said she thought I was the same that I
feel quite relaxed. Maybe I'm just happy. She did say
I was tamned.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So, oh, you're nice. Nice, I'll take it. I'll take it.
That's all I had to talk to you about.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Is anything else you want to to chat about before
we finish up here?
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Only just like, wa are our next adventures? And can
you make sure I'm included?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Please?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Oh yes, yeah, well we'll have to do New Year's
again next year, so lock that in. And we love
the travel community, so honestly, if you're joining it, yell out.
Obviously I'm on social media. Our handle is laid underscore
Back Underscore Adventures. Your account that you're on is kristin Olivia,
which is k R I F T E N Kristen.
(25:21):
We can underscore at the end let me go again
kristin Olivia, And obviously we're on the Van Live series podcast,
so hopefully they just tag.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Us and make it nice and eat. Get ahold of us.
Thanks for the chat. Yeah, that was a really nice reflection.
I really enjoyed that. Thanks for listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
We would love if you could leave us a review,
and don't forget to hit subscribe or follow to stay
up to date with new episodes. Get out there and
try something new and we'll see for the next episode.
Appodjay production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Van Life Series podcast acknowledge the traditional owners and
ongoing custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We pay our respects to all.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Aboriginal and tour As Strait Islander people and to the
elder's past, present and emerging.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You just need to take the step and get out
there and do it. We actually can turn what we
love into our career.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We wanted to travel to be a part of life
and not a perk of life.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
It's the best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Every day is now different, different sunrise at a different beach.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
That's just a paradise. Yeah, it's a paradise.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's an insane I feel so alive and free.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hand in your notice. Make a plan and just commit
to it. I would just say do it the Van
Life series. But now we have these amazing memories we
get to look back on.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
But I think it's also put us in the most
beautiful position to be able to plan the next ones
without so much beer.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The Troop has kind of given that new outlook on
life that less is more like what do you really need?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
They were like, you're not going to have a loungering,
No but I'm going to have a different space to
be in every day, you know, a different outside.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No one has anywhere to be, so why can't you.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Just stop and have a chat. You're not rush enough.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
And caravanning absolutely showed me that we are capable of
so much more than I ever thought.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We were.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Welcome to the Van Live Series podcast and I'm Cruiser.
I guess I'm sort of guest hosting this podcast episode
with my.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Friend here, Kristin.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Here Kristin, I am probably all well known as one
half of laid Back Adventures. My husband and I traveled
Australia this year. We've done a bit of other travel
around Australia and yeah, along.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
The way, we met you guys. You're telling you about yourself.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Ah, So we took off on our lap and just
kind of run into you guys, I guess. So we
all landed in Western Australia around the same time, I guess.
So we were definitely seeking some adventure and trying to
step out of a bit of a Monday in life,
I guess. And so we sold the house, we got
the van, we took off, we took the kids on
the road. We've got two little girls, similar ages to yours,
(02:15):
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We hit the road.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I'd love to say we never looked back, but there
were some challenges. I like to explain it to people
that we had an adventure. We didn't have a holiday,
but void did we have some adventures. So that's kind
of how I like to sum it up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Now I know the answer to this, But where are
you guys from, because we know a lot of people
from this place.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
They all got out in mass Exodus. We're Victorians. Yeah,
we were from Melbourne.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
We definitely run away from the cold weather.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
For us, it was mostly the cold I reckon.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I've said for the last ten years that I can't
do another winter in Melbourne, and we just kept kept going,
kept going, And this was something that I really pushed
to break us out of that. And we have now
settled on the beautiful Sunshine Coast after all of our travels.
So I think after we've been in that we were
living in the van for about eighteen months, we're traveling
for about twelve and I think it's really hard for
us to go back to cold weather after chasing the
(03:07):
sunshine for twelve months.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The eternal summer.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, so a bit about us, I guess then we're
from sunny North Queensland or Central queens omo from Mackay,
and we sort of did a little bit differently. We
did a three month trial run over to Western Australia
in our first in sold our house while we were there, with.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The idea that if.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We weren't cut out for spending on very long time
in a caravan together, that three months trip would be enough,
but if we loved it, we'd come back and set
ourselves up to go more permanently.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And yeah, obviously we just love it.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We came back, we saved our butts off and then
hit the road about the same time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As you guys, yeah, and met over there in Monkey Maya,
Monkey Maya, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We ended up being neighbors right on the beachfront sites,
which my husband, Justin is a huge planner and had
had that beachfront site booked.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
For many many months that you guys judged at last
we flepped it.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Also a huge planner, Justin and I in our spread
she are like kindred spirits, so I get the spreadsheets
and the planning. We booked in a couple of nights
and then after hearing feedback from people about how wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It was there.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
We added on a few and they offered us a
beachfront site for those few extra nights, and which is
where we met you guys. And then unfortunately we had
to move from those beach sites to different ones, which
was a bit of a step back and really hard
to take. But I'm still very glad we got those
beach ones for a few days.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's definitely yeah, it was fade, it was fair.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And then obviously after Monkey Mia Monkey Mayer, we had
a fair few more camp sites together, but the main
one was we ended up doing the GiB River Road
together and we did it with I believe it was
nine caravans with children and a rooftop ten.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Did I get the number right? I think you did.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah, there was something like forty forty people in total,
wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's yeah, yeah, which sounds really daunting when you think
about like rocking out to free camps with nine caravans,
and when we get sites to nine caravans that it
was honestly the best two weeks of our whole year.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I don't know about you, guys, Did you feel like that? Oh?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I really did, a lot of people keep asking me
what was your favorite place, And I think my answer
is not a place. My answer is an experience, which
was the point of the whole thing, and for us,
the GiB which it's kind of funny, right, it's a
pretty remote part of the world. Yeah, it was one
of the most remote, remote parts of the trip that
we did. And we felt so comfortable, We felt like.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
We were with family.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It was just I don't know, I feel like that
whole group of us met so organically and so beautifully.
It was literally like just hanging out with people you'd
grown up with, and our kids all got to hang out.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And play together. It was just the village, the village.
We had a village.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
My best thought a little bit different. You were also
there with us Pender Bay, Oh yeah, beautiful, and the bay.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
North of brew It was about two hundred k's dirt
red dirt up sandy tracks and then out onto a
cliff at Pender Bay. And we actually went there two
years in a row.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
We loved it so much.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
For a week there our first year, and then a
week there this tune as well, and I'd still go
back for a week again.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
We just loved it. I can't even tell you what
it is.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I feel like that says a lot, the fact that
you went back within twelve months for another week to
somewhere that it's pretty spash.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, and the whales sort of like in the shallows
looking out on a camp site, and we always say
that that site and you'll have to come back and
ask me what number it was, but ten f ten
we had two hundred and seventy degree water views from
out then, and there's just nothing like that.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So yeah, that was that was the best spot for me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You mentioned experience before, so now I'm sort of wondering
whether I had an experience.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Maybe it was the GiB as well, was pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I just find it really hard to narrow down one
place when people ask what was your favorite, because everywhere
was amazing, but it was a little bit different and
for its own reasons. Like Rapid Bay for us was
amazing because that was kind of our first beach front
camp and we're on the stand up paddle wall with
dolphins and my daughter got to see dolphins in the
wild and we.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Got it on drone footage like I have it. Oh,
and that is amazing to me.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
But then different things happen in different places. So you know, then,
Margaret River, we found just so many beautiful places where
you get to go out with your kids. You know,
there's beautiful restaurants and wineries and breweries, and there seems
to be a playground in every direction in that part
of Western Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Like it just encourages you to have another drill. It
just makes it so easy.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And then the further north you get, you know, there's
just everywhere it's just a little bit different. You hit
that red dirt and it feels different, you know, you
go inland and it's completely different again, and then we
run into people that we met in love. Like, everywhere
was so fantastic, but for its own little reasons. So
I kind of can't give a favorite place, but I
feel like I do experience. Yeah, it's a bit easier
(07:56):
to answer. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Now you may have noticed where obviously talking about our
trips in past ten.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I've seen my caravan, but a part way through the cleaning.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Process, we're back at my mom and dad. You're obviously
in a house. What's going on.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, we landed on the Sunny Coast, which was always
our plan. To be honest, we did want to find
somewhere warmer to live, and everyone keeps asking why here,
and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This just felt right.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
We hadn't been here before, which people seem to find
really surprising. We'd spent absolutely no time here. I used
a holiday on the Gold Coast when I was a
kid with my family. I was fortunate enough to have
time there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Something about here. Just felt like this is where we'd
find home. So we landed here in towards the end
of twenty twenty four. We spent some time in a
caravan park while we looked for rentals up around here,
So we are parked up at the moment, which is
the saddest thing to say. Also, cleaning our caravan, which
I don't know about you, I am genuinely surprised at
(08:53):
how much stuff we had in there.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I felt like for twelve months I was like, I
don't have much stuff because I live in a caravan.
But now I'm unpacking. In mind, we had so many
things with it. Yes, where was it all such a
small spotish?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yep? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And how are you going moving into the house? What
kind of like take have you got on that process?
Coming out of a caravan.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Wow, I thought we had stuff in a caravan. My goodness.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Unpacking all of our things out of storage to bring
into the house, I was genuinely overwhelmed. We'd planned this
for a really long time, this trip so effectively. I've
been packing up our stuff and our old house for
las three years.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Two years, I don't know, Mass, I've been.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Packing up for a while, you know, getting rid of
what I thought was culling and getting rid of things.
My mum always used to joke to Ross, my husband,
that if he stood still for too long that I
would throw him out, because I was on a bit
of a rampage getting stuff out of our house when
we were packing. But the unpacking process are so overwhelming,
just the amount of things that we had, and you know,
(09:59):
they all had a really beautiful place in our life
before we left. But it's a total, total perspective shift
when you step into it after being in a caravan
for twelve or eighteen months in our case, I think, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Just so much stuff. Yeah, how about you? How are
you finding it? You're only a few days into.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The Yeah, look, we got home four days ago, so
we are still a long time.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Very much in the caravan.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Look, I don't want to put a negative spin on
being in the van, but it's great to have some space.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's honestly so great.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I do feel like the kids are really far away
from us, even though the bedrooms literally go next door,
next door.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Next door.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So yeah, look, and I definitely think that the trip
has kind of given us that outlook, that new outlook
on life that less is more.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You don't like, what do you really need?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
As we were sort of unpacking our clothes, I was
sending so much back to storage. And that's been justin
saying to me, what, You're gonna have no clothes? I'm like,
I have all the clothes I need.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, So I don't know. I think I'm still in
the transition period.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It's yeah, you're deeper transition. What's one thing in the
last four whole days. What's one thing that you have
realized that you desperately missed? I know there might have
been some things when you were in the van, but
is there anything now that you get home you're.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Like, how did I live without that?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
A flushing toilet? I feel like there's no one who's
done bad life who wouldn't say that yeah, look, it's
there are obviously cons of living in a caravan for
a year, but I would still say one hundred percent
it was.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Still worth it all of that.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yes, the only time we really struggled with space was
when it was cold or windy and we couldn't be outside.
Aside from that, perfectly fine, like we got on grade.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You know, there's no room.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
For arguments, which is also amazing, Like you can't give
someone a silent treatment in a caravan.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You've got to communicate in a different way.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Don't you. Yeah, you just got to immediately be like, oh, okay,
sorry I did that, or you did that, work it
out and move on.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So the only I will give you one example of
one time that we had to give space and it
wasn't our choice. It was when our daughter, who was
two at the time, was teething. She was cutting molars,
so for any parents listening, you would know the pain
of cutting mollers.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
She kicked my husband out of the caravan.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
So she just got super emotional and worked up and
like all the toddler feels, and she did not want that.
She couldn't even look at him. She was screaming. It
was two am. We're in a caravan park. We were
trying not to be those people, and in the end
he set up the swag outside and slept outside, so
that I would say that that's like the only time
it ever happened. But it's such a fun memory to
(12:44):
look back on because I can't believe she kicked him
out of the caravan. It wasn't It wasn't you, No,
it wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It was the two. And then in the morning, the
sweetest thing. She woke up and she's like, where's Dad.
You kicked him out? Oh that's right. Sorry. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So, sort of continuing on that line, thought, what kind
of things have you taken away from the travel mentality
since you've been home, Like, what are you doing now
in your everyday life that you weren't before you traveled
Australia in a caravan.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We adventure so much more.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
We get out and we do things now we were Victorians.
It was cold, we stayed home a lot. I was
really comfortable being like a nice little homebody, especially when
the kids were little.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's easy to just be home.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
And safe and with all your things, and caravanning absolutely
showed me that we are capable of.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So much more than I ever thought we were. But
there's some.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Pretty spectacular things that you've been a part of in
terms of some hikes and some adventures and beautiful things
we've been on. Oh yeah, And I look back at
that and I'm like, oh my gosh, we did that.
You know, we did those things. So you know what,
I could do a day trip to go visit some
friends now, even if it messes with my kids sleep,
or if it means we have.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Dinner a little bit later.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I think I was really locked into those things as
a bit of a security blanket before we left.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And now I'm like, maybe we.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Did twelve months on the road and nothing brocused. My
husband didn't get kicked out of the caravan, like I
just said, yeah, nothing proper brocus. So I feel like
we've got a little bit more courage.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah. Well, you talked about the hikes before, and that's
the one that resonates with me. And I remember one
particular one we did together at King's Canyon and.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
It was so harsh.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
There's a lot of stairs to go up to the
top of the canyon ridge and then I think, what
it's about five or something kilometers, which with children sort
of six in under is a big undertake.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Long five days. Yeah, yeah, but you know, we were fine.
We experienced it. We did it.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It was amazing and it was so worth any complaint
or wings that we heard that day. Yeah, and I'm
sure the kids all had ice creams that afternoon, so
they're over it too.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
But yeah, no, for sure, But.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I mean another one, I guess, like we're still on
the kids. But that's one of the reasons we're out
here like doing it. We just went wrong skating a
couple of days ago and just and I we don't
even hesitate.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We just pulled on those skates and we.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Went skating with the kids, like, and we're out there skating.
And it wasn't until we were sort of a few
lights in that we realized that there were other parents
that were just sitting on the side watching and that
was an option we didn't.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You guys were in it for you, Okay, the other
thugs and dads aren't doing this. And I mean no regrets.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
We had a great time. We all had a great time.
The kids were there with us watching us do it.
We're setting that example and just like being there on
one hundreder cent few kids, because.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
When you're traveling Australia, there's nowhere else you can be.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Right, well, there's not, and that like, that's something that
I didn't factor in. So many people said to us
when we started doing it, like what do you what
do you mean you're can be in a caravan and
like just all of you And I kept replying with
yet they were like, you're not going to have a
lound room. For some people for some reason, that was
like a comment.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That I got quite a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You're not going to have a lound room, and I start, no,
but I'm going to have a different space to be
in every day, you know, a different outside, do you know?
Barring the weird weather events We tried to avoid those.
We did get a few, but you know, we just
we had a different place to be all the time.
I think we got so used to being involved with
things with our kids and so used to being out
there with them adventuring.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I would have been in that rollerink with you as well. Yes,
we would have had so much fun next time.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Next So sorry, that was Mackay the Rollerskate mikayle Ill
just book.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That in and we out there in a second. That
sounds so much fun.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Obviously, Like I'm talking to you right now. We've got
a great friendship. We're still in contact. We've got group chats,
we've got yearly catch outs. If making friends something that
you picked up whilst being out.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
There, oh yeah, I'm so awkward. I feel like making
friends as an adult is really hard outside.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Of maybe the gym, I reckon, maybe I made some
friends at the gym as an adult, and that's my
like something that I enjoy. I guess an interest there.
Other than that, yeah, I find it really tricky.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But the kids, the kids are the best.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I think most of most of the people that we
met was through our kids, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So it was like playgrounds.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
We met so many traveling families at playgrounds outside of yeah,
oh yeah, but our.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Kids would just be instant friends.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
They got so good at it, right, they got so
good at making instant friendships, so did we. We've got
neighbors here that the kids have met a couple of
times at the playground or we've passed them in the street.
They're renting just up the road from us. Turns out
they've moved from into state too, haven't been here for
too long.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
It's all a bit new for them as well.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
We just ended up in their backyard on Saturday for
a good couple of hours.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
The kids were all playing together.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I don't know how I would have had the courage again, courage,
but maybe just the even the experience, like it's okay
to just.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Say hi to people. If they don't say high back,
that's all right. They might be busy, they might be
doing something else. These guys are absolutely awesome. We can
wait for them from our backyard. The kids now discovered,
which was really cute. Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
But it was just really to be with them, to
say hi, to ask them questions. You know, all these
beautiful skills that I keep crediting my kids for learning
over the past twelve months, and I'm now realizing that
maybe my husband and I have also been top the
same skills.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I had a friend asked the same question as we
were driving through their home in the East Coast, and
he said to me, how do you start talking to
someone on the road?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And it really is as simple as.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Hi, I'm corossa, yep, And that's all it takes. And
before you know it, you've got like I've now got
a friend.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Like you you know. So it's honestly, it's that easy.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And I think what helped when we're traveling to is
a lot of similarities. I would always notice that Ross
would be out the front of the caravan, you know,
lighting the barbecue to cook dinner, or checking something on
the vand or even when we were packing up or
setting up and someone had come over and be like, oh, hey,
what's the bi crack you've got on the caravan? Or
how do you find you know, that particular something on
(19:00):
your car? And next minute it's two hours later and
we're all standing up the front having a chat and
their kids have come past with this scooters and you
all realize it's dinner time and you probably should get
off and do something. But just those I found, we
probably got really good at finding like something that was
enough of a connection to then just branch into a
whole conversation and you touched on it there.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But it's something else that happens on the road.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
No one has anywhere to be, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So why can't you just stop and have a chat.
You're not rush enough, you've got nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
If the kids are having a great time, you're having
a great time, and like quite literally, if it works
and you're jelling and you just keep hanging out because
there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
In all the best kind of ways.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
We just had that airpic New Year's Eve catch up
with some of the kids' families, and honestly, it was
just brilliant to go back to that feeling of just
sitting around. Kids are playing, kids are having fun, swimming,
and we're just catching up, just talking rubbish. Really, but
you know that's nowhere to be. There's no community like it.
Yeah yeah, at home everyone seems so rushed. Yeah, it's
(20:10):
a different feel.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And what about in unpacking? Have you found anything you
didn't need that you put in storage? You said you're
pretty ruthless, though.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Oh okay, I thought I was ruthless. Can I go
back and correct my comment? I thought I was less.
I have fifteen coffee cups? CRUs who dates fifteen coffee cups?
We just lived with one each on each We want
to make another coffee quick prints making exs coffee wash
it when you do your round of dishes. As I
was unpacking, because it kind of became a thing because
(20:39):
I reckon they were even scattered over like three different
boxes so I kept opening coffee cups, coffee coffee cups.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
There's fifteen people here having coffee. I'm probably not happy,
Like that's too many people we're going out.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I don't know lots of things, and even just I
don't know the same thing, but multiples of I'm now
questioning do I actually need? Yeah, you know, so many
more sets of bed sheets or towels or we did
lose one of the kid's towers today, so that's probably
all this week.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's probably one thing we're not used to, I guess.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Is base because we have so much space now and
places to put things. For the life of us, we
have no idea where one of the kids bath towels
is gone.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And it's like it's a pretty obvious one. It's a
dinosaur one with.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Like a little hood that goes on it so the
kids can run around the dinosaurs at the end of.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
The day, the durable.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
But it's gone. I mean it's not it's here somewhere.
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Pro house problems, yeah, hashtag house problems. Yeah, I love it.
Will you guys travel again? Caravan? Not in this caravan?
I don't think we definitely purchase that.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Absolutely with the intention of full time travel with that one,
and that is not how we'll move forward most because.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We don't have the money too yet. If anyone wants
to just give.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Me all the money in the world, I'll keep the
van and we'll keep traveling because I wouldn't give that
up ever if I had to. But we would definitely
set ourselves up for shorter trips and weekend trips.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
We didn't spend a lot of time in Queensland. We've
done a couple of.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Trips here in the past before we had kids and
done a bit of exploring, but we haven't seen enough
of it yet, so there's absolutely places we need to
get to. I hear Makai is pretty cool, so we
might find out that way.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
What are you guys doing, What are your plans? We're
keeping our caravan.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
We absolutely love it and we're just honestly, we're so
excited to explore with our home in our our lap
then because you know, we love all the spots here,
we know all the great places and now we have
great caravan, so let's go and see it all. And
for us, essentially it's an easy and the inexpensive holidays,
(22:41):
So you know, you've got a van.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You've got a caravan.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
You can literally go anywhere anyway that the van will
take you. So yeah, we're just excited for that. No
big trips planned as yet. There was talk from our
youngest that she wants to see the snow in the caravan.
Oh okay, So we tried for Hassan in the end
(23:04):
of October and we got our small puddle of snow,
but it's not it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
There's still shalk with the snow. So that yeah, yeah,
like we've got a diesel leader. That's a lot good. Yeah,
you're sort of yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
But yeah, would you recommend caravan life or lap life
or travel and left capacity.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I would recommend it to anyone and everyone who would listen.
It has so drastically changed how we live and how
we think about things.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And just filled us with that sense of adventure.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
For now we have these amazing memories we get to
look back on. But I think it's also put us
in the most beautiful position to be able to plan
the next ones without so much fear. And I think
that everyone needs that, you know, get out and do something,
get out and I don't know, experience things. Meet people
do There's just so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Also, we just got to hang out on some really
nice beaches, so that really stilled my cup. Australian is
quite amazing. I do actually agree.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I think in all of the way you just mentioned,
I would one hundred percent tell people to do it,
but also in that it changes you as a person.
I'm quite a light regimented person and you cannot be
that person on the road because you need to.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Just did you try to? Because I, oh.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, they you hold it the war it gets away
from you and that you can't do it, can you?
And yeah, it just kind of I even said to
one of my best friends in the last couple of
days since I've been here, am I different?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Do I feel? Do I see in your life? What'd
she say?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
She said she thought I was the same that I
feel quite relaxed. Maybe I'm just happy. She did say
I was tamned.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So, oh, you're nice. Nice, I'll take it. I'll take it.
That's all I had to talk to you about.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Is anything else you want to to chat about before
we finish up here?
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Only just like, wa are our next adventures? And can
you make sure I'm included?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Please?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Oh yes, yeah, well we'll have to do New Year's
again next year, so lock that in. And we love
the travel community, so honestly, if you're joining it, yell out.
Obviously I'm on social media. Our handle is laid underscore
Back Underscore Adventures. Your account that you're on is kristin Olivia,
which is k R I F T E N Kristen.
(25:21):
We can underscore at the end let me go again
kristin Olivia, And obviously we're on the Van Live series podcast,
so hopefully they just tag.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Us and make it nice and eat. Get ahold of us.
Thanks for the chat. Yeah, that was a really nice reflection.
I really enjoyed that. Thanks for listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
We would love if you could leave us a review,
and don't forget to hit subscribe or follow to stay
up to date with new episodes. Get out there and
try something new and we'll see for the next episode.
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