Josie's year on the other side of the planet..: LOCKWOODS' ROAD TRIP (Finally) !!

Hello everybody from here in the poshest suberb of the poshest city on the planet! I'm in Vaucluse. For those of you that don't know what Vaucluse looks like..

(This is not actually my house everybody, I didn't think that would be appropriate, people get kidnapped and stuff)

So, how have I (a lowly student always complaining about the price of things), managed this GOOD MOVE? I moved in with a lovely family to help look after their two gorgeous kids (2 and 4) in exchange for accommodation and cash, as I had unfortunately hit the negative dollars in my account.

More on my new job/posh lifestyle in another post.
This post is about the LOCKWOOD's road trip. Wahoo.

My family came out to visit me for a month because they love and miss me so much. Well, they did at the beginning of the month, it was a very different matter after they'd spent 4 weeks with me.

So, they arrived into Brisbane on the 14th Dec and I flew up to meet them.

I'll take this chance to introduce them all..

This is Jason, youngest Lockwood.

He's grown about 3ft since I last saw him and now looks suspiciously like Justin Beiber. Strange things happen when you leave home!

This is Mum, oldest Lockwood. Making friends with a lizard.

Mum loves wildlife and babies.

This is Jennie. Probably most normal/coolest Lockwood.

This is Jess, weirdest Lockwood. Making friends with some Emus.

This is Dad. Largest Lockwood.

These pics are all from Brisbane Koala Sanctuary. Everyone is looking super fresh even the day after their 24 hour long flight. And.. I haven't included a photo of me. The reason? I was not so fresh. Why? Because these guys had upgraded themselves to posh class and slept the whole way on 'beds that even lie flat and have an Ipad at the end and you get free food all the time look I filled my hand luggage with it!' (quote of Jason), whilst I had slept on Christchurch Airport floor all night after booking a cheap 5am flight back from New Zealand and refusing to book into a hostel for a mere 6 hours. My own fault really, I shouldn't be so tight.

After Brisbane we hired a GIANT bus-camper type thing and road tripped up to port Douglas.

One of Jason's underwater selfies

Ja's eyes were red quite a lot of the time. I thought it was caused by shear amount of fizzy pink lemonades he ordered every 12 minutes of so from the pool bar, which M + D were oblivious to until they paid the room tab at the end of the holiday. After looking through my camera though, it turns out that actually I think the blood-shotness was caused by all of these under water open eyes selfies.

SOME INTERESTING THINGS from the road trip:

Jess Ja and Dad sporting stinger suits

When the tribe were packing to go home I caught mum putting the featured 'stinger suits' into her already way overweight suitcase. I've no idea why she thinks she could possibly ever need the suits in England, where even if anyone did venture across the -4 degree, dog poo ridden beaches to the sea, the only thing of any danger to be found in there would be the occasional broken glass or floating needle.

Jet-Ski tours!!

A super clear and warm lagoon we found in the forest!

A cute baby wallaby.

Paradise!

Another cool underwater shot.

Jess and Ja diving into another lagoon.

A colony of Ants moving a grasshopper 300 times their size!

This photo is from Bundaberg turtle sanctuary. Since Bundaberg is a place on the east coast, and mum is a turtle fanatic, we HAD to go and see the turtles. Mum is also a bird fanatic, a plant fanatic, a beetle fanatic etc. Pretty much anything that grows or has babies amazes her.

It was turtle 'egg laying' season. This meant that the turtles should emerge from the water anywhere between 7pm and 2am. Mum was obviously quite happy to stay and wait up until 2am, but luckily for the rest of us this lady turtle emerged at about 9pm. She laid 110 eggs which even amazed me, never mind about mum, who was almost in tears by the the whole occurrence.