(Belated) Day One – New Farm to Carina Heights (12km)

The plan was to leave our apartment in New Farm, Brisbane Monday May 13th, 2013 and never come back (to the apartment, not Brisbane).

Packing and organising our monumental amount of material belongings was quite a task. I returned to Australia with two suitcases, and Risa came with one – it’s jaw dropping the amount that we have acquired in the past two years that we  have been living here. It’s really quite an experience trying to downsize a regular apartment sized life to one that fits within a (rather large) car.

Tuesday, May 14th and the cleaners were coming at 9AM. We were up until 4AM on Monday night trying to pack and sort to beat the deadline. We did it though, removed the final load of food/clothes/junk/stuff out of the apartment less than 10 minutes of them arriving (and assessing how dirty the apartment actually was).

The mountain of food/clothes that was put aside to take camping really was incredible. I thought there was no way that it would fit inside the van. But, wünderkind Elise with her mad Tetris skills managed to help Risa squeeze it all in.

Finally put everything on the roof (water tank for shower, jerry cans, spare wheel, tool box) and was amazed that it all fit! It’s only tied (and locked) in place for now, but will do a more permanent solution before we start filling it with fluids etc. When the rack first arrived I thought it was the most enormous rack and I’d made a serious mistake buying something so large. Before knowing I could fit everything on the roof, I’d wished I’d bought larger!

By the time we’d finished, it was too late to bother leaving Brisbane (still have to return apartment keys, among other things) so we went and stayed at our mum’s house instead. We didn’t even bother sleeping inside the van as it was full of stuff that has to be left in storage under mum’s house.
1日目？　NewFarm-Carina Heights (12km)

当初は、２０１３年　５月１３日（月）NewFarmのアパートを出発予定が、終わらない引っ越しに悪銭苦闘。２０１１年４月に、スーツケース一つで、北海道　札幌市から引っ越して、２年間の間、シンプルに物を増やさない様に生活してきたのに、やっぱりいつの間にか増えちゃうものです。　　特に今回は、ロードトリップの荷物、日本へ持ってく荷物、イギリスへ送る荷物、いつかまたブリスベンに帰って来た時野茂のとの仕分けが大変だった！

結局、１３日月曜日は、朝の４時まで荷造りをし、１４日は、朝９時にクリーナーさんがくるので、７時起床でまた荷造りを再開。　なんとかギリギリに全てをガレージに運び出して、今度はそこから車への荷造り。友達のElliseがテイクアウェイのチャイラテを飲み終わった所で、一番心配していた大量の食料の積み込みを開始.。　これは、２月に両親が遊びにきた時に大量に日本から持ってきてくれたものだったので、どうしてでも全部積み込みたかったのだ。　　途中で、“すし休憩”を挟み、（徒歩1分の元職場野回転寿し屋）

Elliseの神業のお陰で、奇跡的に超大量の食料(ほぼ日本食！)の詰め込みをなんとか完了し、次は、服の詰め込み。　半年間という長さと、それぞれの地域の気候の違いのために思ったより悪戦苦闘しつつもなんとかこれも完了！　　といっても時刻は既に、午後６時過ぎ。　　その他の荷物を車に積み込んで、ロスのお母さんの家で今日は泊まる事に。弟のショーンがうまーいイギリスの伝統料理のソーセージとヨークシャープディンをごちそうしてくれました。
ロスは、夕食後またアパートに戻ってガレージの片付けに戻ったけど、私は夕食のお皿の上で寝そうな位眠かったので、先に寝ちゃいました。ごめんねー。
でも引っ越し、荷造りも終わったので、いよい次の日水曜日は、出発できそうだぞー！