The Johnslingtons

After leaving Wollongong, we road-tripped our way southwest in a three-person campervan with overnight stops in Jervis Bay, Broulee, Eden, Kosciuszko National Park, Khancoban, Bright and Whitfield. We dropped the van in Melbourne, where Fiona’s Dad’s friend Anna lives with her partner Sim and their daughter Aelie (8). We spent three lovely nights with them in Preston, just outside the city.

An Interview With Fiona About Our Campervan Adventure and Stay in Melbourne

What was the best thing about spending 10 days living in a campervan?

I liked when we played Go Fish in the evenings around the table. I didn’t think I would like the dinner place [table where we ate dinner] but I liked that a lot.

Anything you didn’t like?

My bed wasn’t comfortable enough—it was too small.

We stayed in a lot of caravan parks along the way. What was the best thing about those?

I liked the bouncy cushions [jumping pillows]—it’s a big rainbow lump and it’s kind of like a trampoline but bigger and bouncier and it blows up kind of like a balloon and you can bounce on it like a trampoline. I met some friends [Australian kids Olivia (8) and Noah (5) on vacation with their family] on one—they were in the caravan park [in Broulee] and so was I.

Coffee is a big deal in Australia. How do kids get to enjoy it?

In Australia they have something called a babycino which is basically foamed milk and it comes with marshmallows and chocolate sugar in a tiny cup and it’s really delicious.

We’ve stopped at a lot of beaches along our trip. What’s been fun about those?

I’m collecting shells. In Eden we saw some unicorn horn shells—they weren’t exactly like unicorns but they look like the horns.

What can you tell your friends about Australian wildlife?

There were some kangaroos right by the door of our campervan [at Kosciuszko Tourist Park] and one night [at Bright Riverside Holiday Park] a possum scared my mama—there were footsteps outside and then it peeked in the vent [on top of the van]!

We also took some hikes. What were those like?

We took a long hike to the top of a mountain [Mt. Stilwell] and there were a bunch of jumping creatures [crickets? grasshoppers?] that were dark green and there were some that were so big they looked like lizards and we saw a mama one carrying a baby one on its back.

We also got to go on a ski lift [in Thredbo] which is basically a bench that you sit on with a thing you pull down so you don’t fall and it takes you up to a mountain [we went as far as the lookout to Mt. Kosciuszko, mainland Australia’s highest peak].

Any other favorite things?

There was a splash park in Bright and I got to play in it. It was full of water things—everything was water! The water was cold!

What did you do in Melbourne?

In Melbourne, I got to go somewhere [The National Gallery of Victoria] with a water wall outside—there was water sprinkling down and there was glass in the ceiling and then I got to go outside and there was a pink pool and we got to go in it!