Round The Kookaburra 2017 | Back to Basics

It is April Fools Day 2016. We are going to travel Australia in a caravan for 5 months with our two daughters in 12 months time. This is no joke!


I am not sure what we are thinking? Some part of me yearns for a simple life where working full time and juggling 5000 different commitments at one time is a distant memory….but part of me is scared shiteless. I know deep down that if this trip is going to be tough on anyone it will be me. Slightly OCD, ridiculously organised – I am definitely that person that isn’t always fun to go on holiday with….but aren’t all Mums the same? Whereas my family switch into holiday mode at the mere smell of a flight confirmation it takes me a week to wind down and savour the coconut cocktails.


So who are we? Dad (Leigh) is a “so laid back he is horizontal” 47 year old, maker of fine chocolate and the yin to my yang, Mum is me Rana), a 40 year old, “self-confessed control freak kiwi”, education employee and mum to two girls, Olivia (10 years old, going on 15), bright charming, stubborn with curly red hair to match the temper and little Maggie (7 years old going on 4), cute as a button, can wrap you around her finger then cut you to pieces with knives of no tact, extremely sensitive and cuddly (aka no personal space for Mum).🙈How will we travel? Not in a tent. Well done to all of you who love tenting, I look at you in awe – you make it look like so much fun! But we are not roughing it, not this time anyway…..my camping experiences as a child in New Zealand was limited to my Vietnam Veteran father waking us up at 4am, driving three hours to the middle of nowhere, where no man had stepped before, then cutting his way down through the bush whilst mum came behind with homemade egg and bacon pie, and us juggling the fishing rods and bait……… fun times for sure but we would go home the same day. No camping for the Smiths!⛺️


Leigh, on the other hand had two parents who bought a new caravan in 1974, hooked up the panel van, threw the kids in the back and chain-smoked their way across the Nullaboor (not sealed in those days I might add!)…..they lived for 12 months in Perth before heading home……needless to say he wins in the caravan/camping experience stakes!


I didn’t want to write a rainbows and unicorns blog. This is going to make us or break us. I’ll put it out there right now…..there will be good days and bad but I hope that you can all relate to us, our dreams and lives on the road. I am going to stop thinking about it as a holiday and more like an experience or journey.....there will still be homework and housework no doubt LOL


This trip will also be about reconnecting, creating wonderful memories for our children and give us all a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this big brash, diverse country called Australia. I hope with all my heart it brings us closer together and that we can all learn and grow from the experience....


So that's us!!! Lovely to meet you and welcome aboard our journey……