DreamTrip

Everyone writes about how they quit their jobs to travel, how rich they are by just working online (funny

though how almost none specify how much money they are actually earning), what a true paradise of always 
on 'holiday', and some state the amount of years spent travelling like it was some competition.

We like being realistic, and encourage other people, rather than post only the epic moments along our
travels. It's not all rainbows and butterflies, even though sometimes it just feels like there is no ray of
sunshine coming your way. Well, these are our unlucky encounters during our travels so far!


Brief introduction:
Quitting our well paying jobs (for our country standards) in January 2015, on the 10th of February we started
our well anticipated working holiday in Australia. Coming from the tiny island of Malta, wages are not very
high so compared to the Ausse life, we obviously where going to travel on a tight budget.

Unlucky No#1:
Buying a fully loaded Mitsubishi Pajero for $4,700 from a backpacker during our 1st week in Australia. We thought we were set for an experience of a lifetime around the huge island! After a lot of hassles and forking out around $2000 to fix that same car (spent all the money we earned from a job!), we ended up wrecking the car just after 3months, as it was a piece of worthless junk (quoting any mechanics)! Head gasket was gone, transfer box stuffed, gearbox synchromesh worn out etc etc.

Buying our 2nd Mitsubishi Pajero for a cheap price (yep, we bought another Mitsi as they were cheap for a 4wd, and that's the only thing we could afford), we spent around $2000 to change the clutch, breaks and a good service to make sure it's good and reliable! Just a bit less than 24hrs since we hit the road again after the fix, we slept through a -5° weather night. Waking up and driving for 2kms along a Highway, a water pipe hose bypass exploded and suffered $800 worth of damages as the water coolant froze (Yep it looks like it wasn't anti-freeze). Thanks to some family members and some good people we met on the way the 2nd Pajero after wasn't that bad (after spending more than twice of what we paid for the car) and kept going strong till the end of the trip.

Total amount spent on cars by the end of our WHV in OZ amounted to around $8000 between both of us.

Unlucky No#2:
Jobs! We have been scammed twice in the first few months. Driving for hours just to go for the job, only to realise that they have told you lies, and end up working your ass off for nothing in return, sucks, and didn't really help with the car situation.

After managing to earn some money back during our last 3months in Australia and having our 88days signed off (yay we got another try in Australia!) we decided to head to New Zealand for a working holiday, learning from our mistakes in Australia we searched thoroughly for a good car and bought a well looked after Toyota Lucida.

Unlucky No#3:
Deciding to start New Zealand on a different note, we opted for a Couchsurfing experience for the first few days of landing. Having everything sorted, we arranged with a particular guy to pick us up at the Airport, only to cancel on us 5minutes AFER the agreed time (19:35), and to our luck, majority of hostels and hotels were booked due to Rugby Weekend. Luckily, the 15th hostel we called had rooms, and thankfully didn't experiece the first night in NZ at the Airport.

Unlucky No#4:
Thinking we have used all our bad luck in Australia, we started travelling New Zealand. However on March 11th, 4 young blokes on push bikes broke into our car and stole whatever they could feel behind the seats and under the bed (yep everything was hidden and nothing visible!). They managed to steal everything apart from our clothes, including: gopros, laptop, cameras, ipod, leatherman, toiletries, first aid, passports, wallets, all documents including the papers signed off for our 2nd year in Australia etc etc list is endless! Thankfully the Hardrives were at the back of the car, hence only the pictures of the last month in Australia, and first month in NZ got lost (including pictures of the dive at the Poor Knights Islands)

Insurance?
- Well coming from a tiny island doesn't help... All local insurance agencies won't insure you for more than 6months and without a return ticket back home.
- Online insurance? Most of them only cover big countries and forget the small ones like Malta. The others are sky high and are only reliable when you need them for health purposes.

Unlucky No#5:
Reissuing of Passports surely is not an easy thing. Even more difficult when there is no embassy in the country you got robbed in! Immediately after getting robbed, we called the Maltese Consulate, only to tell us that our only option is to fly back home. Having to sell our van 3days after the incident (Happy 1month in NZ!), we were confused, shattered, nightmares of the scene over and over again, and depressed, however we had enough courage and started doing our own research. After all, we didn't want to go back home just after a month in NZ and on a bad note! We managed to find a job and after 3months and a lot of hassle we received our Certificates of Identity which gave us the option to fly to Australia (nearest Maltese Embassy) and get our passports issued there, phew!

Unlucky No#6:
Assessing the damage of our stolen items, one of the most important things apart from our passports, driving licences and other identification,  were our 2nd year Visa documents for Australia which we had worked for so hard. Contacting the employers we worked for, in the slightest hope they can sign the papers again. Even though the last farm agreed to sign our days off, the first company we worked for closed down, leaving us with no means of contacting anyone. Does this mean we can't get our 2nd year in Australia?
 

 

Everything set a side, we have learnt to travel lighter and worry less. These experiences have made our travels more interesting, made us stronger and learnt how to tackle life issues, being positive, and have something to say when we meet people! We also met a lot of beautiful people along our way which would love to thank from the bottom of my heart. Thankfully healthwise we're both fine and I think, that is what matters the most! Hopefully we have used all our bad luck, and from now on, we will have only good luck! (Yeah right lol).

Please let us know if you have been unlucky during your travels, because we know it never goes plain sailing and as planned!