grünes herz

found this hidden gem near tintenbar and spent a solid full afternoon of blissfull napping. it also looks like it’s a local chill spot, littered with empty bottles, cans, fishing gear packaging and other waste and while we were there some bogans went out of their way to do a burn out in the dusty dirt dangerously close to the van while our towels were hanging outside to dry. and thus, the peacefullness of the place was gone, time to roll onwards.

having our afternoon coffee at broken head. it’s our favorite place and feels closest to a home around here. 4 months have already gone by since we started our trip up the east coast and it‘s been more than a year of our time in australia. thank you katie for taking theese lovely photos

so much appreaciation for this place. it‘s easy to forget it‘s just a car park with bush turkeys chasing each other around and trying to sneak into he van

new green addition to matilda and some iced tea in the making. found a new purpose for some single use chopsticks we got from eating out, they’re doing a great job holding up that basil 💚💪

katie and I drove out to tweed heads to find miles a longboard for his 30th. i wanted it to be a surprise but miserably failed when i tried to tuck it into the board bag without him noticing the wheels poking out. funny how living in this small space together makes it impossible to keep secrets from each other. the original design was sanded off and i painted on a new image. #nosecretsinthevan #treehugger

went to the suffolk park bakery for our first breaky and then had our post surf second breakfast at broken head closely followed by our 3rd breakfast.

starting to get back into my surf mojo, accompanied by blonde hair and permanent tanned hands 🏄‍♀️💚

also, how did I eat 3 blocks of chocolate and a box of truffles, sent from home, in less than a week.

current mood 🌚

trying to capture a memory and simultaniously feeling embarrassed about public group selfies: celebrating katie's job and miles' and my sending off our online partner visa application (only to find out the next day we organised all our documentations in a completely different form than what is expected) we keep celebrating the small victories and I think now that most of it is done it's time for round 3 hey

some downtime inbetween the 18 pages of one of many forms for my visa. the sunset that evening was unreal.

one of the luxuries of having our little seaflo waterpump and enormous sink. definitely appreaciate the feeling of freshly washed hair more theese days 🙃

been crazy busy working on our partner visa application/sponsorship, whilst working a job with not much experience, whilst having some issues with Matilda, whilst trying not to loose my mind and taking proper self care, mentally and physically. October came and threw me off my feet but i'm slowly getting up again. the visa process so far has been an emotional roller coaster, making me re-visit every little step that got me here today. 3 years ago i said goodbye to Miles in Panama, a year later we're together in paradise and haven't left each other's side since and I feel like I have everything I could ever want. I also feel that we're incredibly lucky having such supportive families and friends, a big thank you to everyone and so, so much love (and that i'll have to leave it at this or my emotions will go overboard again)!

ever since january we've been trying our best to cut out plastic, single-use items and anything that comes in packaging with hopes that once we move into Matilda we'd be living a zero waste van life. Sourcing waste free material to convert the van has been nearly impossible but whenever we could we used tip or op shop items/ repurposing things that have been in storage for years. we are super lucky there's always been a bulk food shop in the area to restock our pantry. almost all our waste is compostable and ends up in the local green bin or compost. we are not perfect, after all we live in a car, and do have our weak moments sometimes with things that are hard to get in bulk and had to make exceptions when I was sick. it can also get very awkward sometimes when we bring our own bags, beeswax wraps or containers into a shop if they don't understand our reasons but those moments we are understood or even encouraged make up for all the uncomfortable experiences. it's overwhelming to see the state our world is in and how the environment gets treated, but instead of accepting our impending doom, I'd rather put my energy into making a change on my behalf, hoping the trail I leave behind is a better one for our future generations. I truly believe it's not too late to change.

passed through brunswick heads on our way to lennox. the brunswick river was a beautiful turquoise that day

yaroomba beach at sunrise

we were on the way up to agnes waters when we got a call for a job interview in lennox, so we turned around. we passed by a car crash on the way back, you could just make out a caravan now torn to bits. there were 4 more accidents on the bruce hwy that day. it was a shocking sight and my heart goes out to those involved. i felt incredibly lucky waking up next to miles in yaroomba by the beach the morning after.