Jambo! My name is Rory, half Dutch half Irish from Amsterdam and my journey started about two years ago. I was surfing the internet at work when I saw a great deal on singaporeair.com and spontaneously booked a one-way ticket to New Zealand.
A month later I was sipping Tigers on my way New Zealand via Singapore. Kia ora New Zealand! What a country. After a half a year travelling around and occasionally working but generally just having a blast I ended up in Mount Maunganui. It started off a bit rocky as my credit card got stolen and maxed out at various electronic stores, fancy clubs and restaurants etc. But within no-time I was back on track, working at the Mount backpackers for accommodation and across the street at Astrolabe as a kitchen hand in the evenings.
Without knowing it this would become my home for the next half a year. And with home I don't just mean a house where I live, but a home where I live and am surrounded by friends and family and gain some beautiful memories. (Have a look at aussie film The Castle to know what I mean) I met such amazing people here and had some of the most awesome times of my life at the Mount. My colleagues at Astrolabe were all ace. They all surfed, loved to party and had a passion for cooking. Before I knew it I got promoted to larder chef which was just an amazing experience and very fulfilling. Back at the hostel there were always party's going on by the time I finished work and that's where I met Lahiri and Marco.
Lahiri another Dutchie arrived a few weeks after I had settled in and being half Dutch we started chatting. Didn't take long to notice that we we're both on the same wavelengths and genuinely enjoyed having a laugh. Lahiri had been in the Mount before, liked it, so returned and was planning on staying and working for a while. It wasn't my initial plan to stay, but I kind of had been forced into staying and saving some money due to my credit card misfortune. I guess it’s just fate. So we started hanging out together with other travellers passing by. It was quite a funny place, the Mount Backpackers as in most hostels people stay for a few nights and travel on, but in the Mount people didn't really leave. There were a lot of long-termers, which was pretty cool as you got to know everyone better and kind of became roomies. Not too long after Lahiri had arrived we noticed Marco check-in and said to each other "moet je die Duitser zien…..mafkees". Turns out this German had a sense of humour. We instantly became great friends.
But Marco and Lahiri weren't the only ones. The Mount was a real magical place and like I mentioned before I met some amazing people here. Kingpin Davel the German Lenny Kravitz, Galo and Francesco our Argentinean juggling brothers, Canadian Chris the best night warden ever, Brooke our sweet hostel manager, Roger with his Mellick freebies, Katie surfer chick from the States, Pennie who gave us the best leaving party ever, Sissel Sarita, the two German Christians and many more, forgive me if I missed you out. And then of coarse there's the rest of the family, John "I slap the beacon out yo mouth" I had met Jean Jean (HIGH FIVE) the first month I was in NZ and worked (well...) with him in Hastings for a month or so. Nick our missing brother from the same father. Luci (bumbum) always up for a little cuddle and a party together with her Somerset companion Row, who introduced me to Super Cider Sundays which we have been keeping up ever since. And Tau our Maori bro, who livened up many party's with his guitar. Complain Dain, Eoin the other half of “Hukapuzi” (our crematorium DJ Collective) and Paul "what am I an asshole" Fitzpatrick.
We had many good times together especially the week before Lahiri and I left to Samoa for a month. It started off with probably some mad party at the hostel, some of us staying up and deciding to watch the sun rise from the top of the Mount. Penny got a keg of beer and gave us a wicked party at her place. Then we were busking on the streets of the Mount followed by a legendary Katchafire gig. Then came Magic Monday, need I say more? And Tuesday Jam night at the Mellick when La and I where picked up by Steve and brought to the airport silly drunk but loved-up carrying a backpack filled with good vibes.
It was amazing we caught that flight on time and maybe even more amazing was how they let us on the flight drunk and covered in face paint looking like a teenage mutant ninja turtle and a clown. Good times, but we needed a little month break on a pacific island after all those crazy party's. We needed to charge our batteries because we'd be back in the mount for a week. Oh how we missed everyone after a month and when we arrived back at the Mount and surprised everyone the party started again. "I've got love, darling....love sweet love, darling....we will rock it all night long, darling..." This is when we missed our first flight together. Well, we actually missed it on purpose because we couldn't leave everyone, not that soon. We booked another flight for a week later, so we'd have some more quality time with the family. But we were to meet up soon again.
Lahiri and I flew to Brisbane by accident. Well, we had booked it but after we realised Nick and Dain would be in Sydney, we booked another flight to Sydney to depart the following day. In the train, bags packed Galo's Argentinean flag representing, I asked Lahiri what time our flight would be arriving in Sydney. He checked his backpack looked up in the sky as to look for a plane or something and cracked up. We were supposed to have been on the plane 3 hours prior. We had thought the arrival time in Sydney was our departure time in Brisbane. To top it off, a lady who overheard our laughter and muck up told us that the train wasn't even heading to the airport but way out of the city. Priceless, well it did turn out to be a bit pricy as we had to book yet another ticket.
In Sydney we were also to meet up with John again, as well as Nick, Dain and Galo (which was a nice surprise). I worked on the streets of Sydney as Santa’s Little Helper dressed up as a reindeer collecting money for the Children Cancer Institute the 10 days leading to Christmas. Spent Christmas on Darling Harbour with John, Lahiri and Nick prank texting Marco every 5 minutes pretending we were at the airport waiting for him as he had planned to be there for Christmas. But just as us, he couldn’t leave the crowd back in the Mount
For New Years Marco, Lahiri and I made the largest cocktail we had ever made before. A 9 litre White Russian to celebrate us reuniting again. We had an awesome time at Milk Beach (ironically) where we were able swim in the water and watch the Sydney Harbour Bridge light up at 12 o'clock. Unfortunately we didn't all make it till midnight.
After New Years Marco and I were locked out of our apartment as I had left the key in the apartment we were staying and the person who let me stay there was off to Bali. So we decided to camp out in a park in the centre of Sydney. The next day we had a 17 hour bus journey booked to Melbourne, but managed to miss the bus as we were enjoying some Czech beers in an awesome Czech bar/restaurant with Lahiri. It was lovely to find this gem of a bar in the middle Kings Cross where mainly just drug dealers and prostitutes hang out but also just to taste some proper beer for a change. This is where our travel plan came to life. We decided we all hadn't had enough of travelling yet and thought it would be awesome to buy a bus and travel back to Europe. Pick up some hitchhikers along the way and meet some new people. This plan would later evolve into what we are about to start right now. A bit more on that a little later. Marco and I realised we were running a bit late for our bus to Melbourne so hopped in the tube and ran to the bus port but were about 5 minutes late. So it was to be another night in the park and on the bus the next day.
We moved into a huge house in Melbourne with a whole lot of people Lahiri and I had met in Sydney when staying at Mate’s Place hostel. Dain, Marco and I got a wing of the house to ourselves, which some people called the “Shithouse” but we liked to refer to it as “The Elite Wing”. Melbourne was fun, much more of a European vibe than Sydney. I worked as a milkman during the day and at the Espy at night. The Espy was a cool place, huge music venue with a few rooms and restaurant and cocktail bar. I did this for two months during which time Marco had left to Perth to meet up with Lahiri and Eoin had arrived in Melbourne. My last week in Melbourne I got fired from the Espy for giving Dain and Eoin a free beer. I couldn't believe it, only in Australia.
On arrival in Perth I met up with Lahiri and Marco again. We stayed at a horrible hostel where there were fights breaking out every weekend. We couldn't wait to get an apartment but it proved harder than we thought. As well as getting a job for my sake. We heard a lot of big stories that there's plenty of work in Perth, but it didn't work out that way. I did a lot of random jobs, from being a Greenpeace front liner to a timber floor layer, before I found a steady job. I got a government job for the Department of Planning and Infrastructure as a document controller part –time hydro graphic surveyor. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounds pretty much digitising data and cruising around on boats measuring the depths of channels across WA. I also got a job at an Italian restaurant in the evenings. By this time we had managed to find an awesome apartment in South Perth, so it was all falling into place again.
We had a home again named “Labouchere”, a place where we were gonna work and stay untill our Visa's ran out. We got internet hooked up, bought a barbeque and it was like the Mount again. Before we knew it we had visitors from The Mount, from Sydney and from Melbourne which we had met along the way. Dain and Swedish Max we're the first to live on our couch for a while. Mira was staying in Perth and stayed over a bit. We had Debra coming over from Sydney for a weekend. Jonas and a friend from Sweden and probably a few more I missed out. Luci stayed for a bit before she headed over to Vietnam. Row and Tau drove a campervan over from Melbourne and stayed at Labouchere before they headed over to Thailand and Malaysia. They all returned after their Asia adventures to my delight to welcome Kelly into the family. At one stage I remember there were 10 people at the house and it was awesome. Whenever you got back from work there would be someone there to chill and party with. And I'll never forget the crows.....waaoohaaooaoaooah
By this time Eoin (Ain't nothing gonna break my stride...ah) and Paul (oh it's such a hassle ffs!) were living with us already and Eoin introduced us to Scotland (Lindsay) and the Mexicans (Fransisco and Susana (Tuti)).
Had some great times living in Labouchere with a lot of little trips around WA. Margaret River 3 times introducing us to Grace Barbe and wicked golf trips. And an awesome wine tour I did with Kelly which was hilarious. I travelled up to Carnarvon twice (Oi troi oi!) to visit Luce, Row, Kel and Tau, who were working up there at Callagiddy Station with Pete, Chris and Claire(Yum).
“Swan in the Valley” and Oktoberfest (Happy Happy Happy Burzday!) in the Valley were memorable but probably the best trip we did was the weekend up to Ledge Point. We even had our own bar here (...look at ze S car go...mwah ha ha) The only sad thing was that Marco wasn't there he was up in Darwin, but I think he was on the phone to us all night, so his presence was definitely there.
During our time in Perth we also had time to plan out our journey and see how realistic it really was. The bus idea turned into a Toyota Land Cruiser and as time went by we realised we weren't saving as much as we wanted, mainly cause we were enjoying our time and did these little trips when visitors arrived, which was well worth it. So the plan changed to a trip overland from Australia to Europe. This way we would also get in contact with more locals and travel the way the locals do.
So this is where we are today. Marco is in Darwin waiting for Lahiri and I to arrive. Lahiri is in Melbourne enjoying three more days with Luci and I am in Fremantle at work for two last days finishing off a project. Then a few more things to organise before our first going away party hosted by Grace Barbe and her band on Friday. Saturday we have to finish a list we started a while ago at the Paddo's. 140 different beers to drink for us to get our name carved on the wall of fame. We are at 75 I think so will need to get down to it on Saturday for "The Mount Crew" to be on the wall. Sunday Fransisco has hired a 20 person private cruise ship with barbeque, music and drinks for the afternoon, celebrating Scotland’s birthday and our departure. And then Monday it's off to Darwin to meet up with Marco. Don't know what he has planned for us, but have a slight idea what it might be and then Wednesday off to Bali. I can't wait to start travelling again and especially to get to Bali and see Kel. Although it might be of short due as she has a flight booked back to Perth two days later, but I plan on kidnapping her. So there are two more flights standing in the way of our journey. If we can make it past those two obstacles our trip will be starting in one week from today. I can’t wait……..
Bali here we come!
