the adventures of pen and jane i1: living and working in palm cove

8/10/2019 The Adventures of Pen and Jane I1: Living and Working in Palm Cove

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B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | [email protected]

December 2013

The boring section

of the trip begins:

Work work work.What happens in Palm Cove...Really isnt much to speak of

After having thoroughly enjoyed our road trip

from Darwin to Cairns, unfortunately the

dreaded time had come where we would

actually have to get one of those things where

people do things for money.

Whilst we were nowhere near running out

of funds, we both agreed that this is the best

time to get jobs because of it being the winter

season (where it actually gets pretty cold in the

south).

After enjoying Cairns festival and findingour feet. We started handing out our resumes

in Palm Cove which is the spa capital of

Australia. This tiny little scenic beach village

hosts numerous resorts, hotels, eateries and of

course tourists! The clientele mainly consists

of rich Aussies from Melbourne and Adelaide

fleeing from the cold and Chinese tourists who

are apparently trying to take over the country

like the Pakistanis are doing in England. And

who said Australians are racist?

Because I am particularly amazing, Imanaged to get a job in the first place I

handed in my resume; Peppers Beach Club

and Spa. Im still not sure as to whether the

official name is Peppers or Peppers as

various signs contradict one another. It

appears that the complete disregard for the

use of proper English and grammar extends

to multinational companies here. Who am I to

judge, but?In all seriousness they put but at the end

of sentences.

Issue Number: One

BenCampbell

andJadeBaker-Edwards

WhiteFordFalconStationWagon

Somewhere inAustralia

TELEPHONE0401514832 328SKX

Cairns Esplanade and Lagoon

The Hillbilly Goats playing at Cairns festival Controlled bush fire at the festival.


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B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514832 | [email protected]

Ben also found a job pretty

quickly, but unfortunately it was in

Cairns central so it would have

logistically difficult. Ben thinks that

Im the devil because he had to turn

down his dream job in Dominos

Pizza, however I believe that I saved

him from becoming morbidly obese.I started my job at Peppers on

the 3rd September after having

agreed that I will stay in Palm Cove

until the beginning of January.

Working in a hotel means that my job

is sufficiently varied so it is hard to get

bored. My responsibilities include:

Making cocktails in the Pool

Bar which is submerged in our

lagoon/beach style pool

Working the buffet breakfast

shifts which mainly consists of

clearing used plates etc away. This

keeps me busy as every customer

tries to break the world record of

how many plates/glasses/cups they

can use in one sitting

Fine-dining waitressing at

dinner

Working/dancing at weddings

and other functions that we hold

on site

Point ing peop le in the

direction of the exit when fire

evacuations occur in the middle of

wedding ceremonies. Im not

kidding - this really happened.

I enjoy most aspects of the job

(worryingly a lot more than the office

work I did before coming away).However, the worst part definitely has

to be restocking the minibars in the

hotel rooms. It turns out that

dragging around a huge bag full of

stock up 52 stairwells (with 3 floors

each) in extreme humidity is not well

suited to a teeny tiny English person

such as myself.

A week after starting at Peppers,

Ben managed to find another job in

Nu Nu; the restaurant right next door

to mine! Its in the same complex so

there isnt even a

wall between us

when we work! I

am free to wave

and blow kisses at

Ben whenever I feel

like and Ben is free

to quickly avert his

eyes and pretend

that he didnt see

my embarrassing public acts of

affection. Nu Nu is a very prestigious

fine dining restaurant which is rated

one of the top 100 restaurants in

Australia. As you can imagine they

are usually very busy and poor little

Benji really has to earn his money.

Up until mid November I hadbeen getting a lot of hours at work

due to school and staff holidays. At

$21 an hour on weekdays, $25 on

Saturdays and $30 on Sundays, I

really didnt mind! Unfortunately,

after that it came into low season

which meant that hours inevitably

dropped but at least it gave Ben and I

a chance to have some real

adventures and visit the reef and do

other touristy things.

Palm Cove beach Captain Cook Highway

Nunu Restaurant
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The great thing about working in

Palm Cove is that there are a lot of

beautiful and amazing things in the

surrounding area. Situated amongst

stunning beaches and rainforest, the

Cove is not somewhere you can get

bored easily. Whenever Ben and I get

a day off together we strive to make

the most of it. We have been to many

lovely local places and have definitely

ticked off a few of the things on our

bucket lists.

The first excursion we took was to

Lake Placid and Barron Gorge. I

must admit that we mostly went to

Lake Placid because the name,

however we found that instead of a

murky lake infested with giant, cow-

eating crocodiles, it was actually as t u n n i n g a n d t r a n q u i l l a k e

surrounded by mountains. If Im

being honest we were a bit

disappointed with the lack of huge

crocs but it was probably for the best.

Barron Gorge is a short drive

away and you can walk along a

suspension bridge that gives you great

views. Ben had an especially good

time drenching my unaware self in

water whilst taking candid photos of

me. Dont worry people of home;Ben has not changed.

But what happens aroundPalm Cove is prettyawesome

Barron Gorge Ben in the act

Spidey Jade at Lake Placid Lake Placid
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Crystal Cascades is just as lovely as it sounds; an

idyllic rainforest area with waterfalls and swimming holes.

We are lucky to know locals as we were told of a secluded

spot to take a dip. The water was freezing but okay once you

got used to it and perfect to get away from the humidity.

On another adventure, we drove around the Atherton

Tablelands which is a rural area up in the mountains. Here

we found a picturesque waterfall called Milla Milla

Falls. We later found out that we were at the very place

where Peter Andre filmed Mysterious Girl! After Milla Milla

we went to Lake Eachamwhich is a brilliant blue in the

sunshine and the sister lake; Lake Barrine. The two

lakes are volcanic craters and are said to be connected byunderground vents. Once a person that drowned in one lake

surfaced in the other a few months later! The drive home on

cliff side roads was quite intense but provided amazing views

of the valleys and rainforest.

Kuranda is a quaint and quirky rainforest town. It

hosts cute market stalls and various tourist attractions such

as a butterfly sanctuary and a little zoo where you can pay

to hug a koala! We wandered around the area but we

chose not to pay for any of the touristy things. Of course I

will definitely hug a koala at some point but they live in

the south so Im sure I will get a chance down there.

After visiting Kuranda we went to Barron Falls

which is a short drive away.

An hour north of Palm Cove is Mossman Gorge

which again is in the rainforest. Another hour north is

Cape Tribulation, another beautiful spot.

Crystal Cascades Crystal Cascades

Ben at Lake Eacham Mysterious boy Ben at Milla Milla

Plane wreck, Kuranda Kuranda market

Ben at Barron Falls Barron Falls

Mossman Gorge Mossman Gorge Walk

Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation
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We have been lucky enough to take

part in some amazing activities whilst

we have been here.

Snorkelling in the Great

Barrier Reef is obviously something

you have to do if you ever end up in this

part of the world. I was a bit scared about it

beforehand because I am not a strong

swimmer and am not fond of breathing

through a tube that might fill up with water

at any second. However, I should not have

worried about it at all! The reef was much

too distracting to even think about the

unnatural breathing apparatus attached to

my face or the fact that we could be

amongst jelly fish! It was amazing, we found

nemo, we saw green turtles, sting rays and

Ben even saw a reef shark!

Bungee Jumpingwas something

that I never planned to do again but

considering I won a voucher for it at my

staff christmas party it would have been

rude not to! The site was at the edge of the

rainforest and had awesome views of

Cairns and the coastline. Im pleased to say

that I managed to actually jump off this

time instead of my previous limp-legged

falling. How embarrassing! Im glad I got

the chance to do a half decent Lara style

swan dive!

Probably the most amazing thing we will

ever do in our lives was skydivingat

Mission beach (2 hours south of Cairns).

The weird thing was it wasnt actually scary.

Ridiculously, I was more scared of the little

plane falling out of the sky when we were

flying up there than actually jumping out of

it. When it came to it, it was just a case of

letting it happen to you; its not like you

actually have to make yourself jump out

like with bungee jumping.

The free fall was intense. I cant really

remember what I could see but I can

remember the feeling. It wasnt really how

you would imagine it because it didnt really

feel that much like falling. The powerful

wind force coupled with the fact that you

were amongst/above clouds and couldnt

really see the floor meant that it felt more

like I was in a wind tunnel rather than the

falling feeling you get when sliding down

death slides or on roller coasters.

Unfortunately, I have always had a problem

with breathing when there is strong wind in

my face and skydiving was no exception.

This led to a video of embarrassing but

hilarious facial contortions; oh please dowatch.

After the free fall the parachute was opened

up and we could gather our thoughts as we

gently glided down towards the ground. We

even got to steer the parachute which took a

lot of muscle!

We would definitely do it again if we had

the chance but the steep price (even with

my industry discount) means that

unfortunately its probably a once in a

lifetime thing!

Green Turtle at the reef Bungee Jumping

An example of said facial contortions Ben skydiving like a normal person
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We came to Palm Cove knowing nowhere

and no one. Now, nearly four months later

we are about to leave a place that has

become our home and people that it seems

like weve known for years.

When we first started working we moved

into an apartment two minutes walk from

work with a 65 year old German lady.

Whilst she had a good heart and meant well,

she was also quite controlling and particular.

We found it hard to feel at home there as we

were treated like guests, and the overarching

awkwardness of age and cultural differences

led to us deciding to move out after a

month. This was a very good thing to

happen as we ended up moving in with

three lovely girls (two of which I work with).

Even after such a short period of time we

had become very good friends with my

colleagues and would often go to the bar

with people from the kitchen and front of

house. They are all mad in their own little

ways but lets face it Im very used to beingaround weirdos (Im looking at you, family

*wink*) and kind of a bit mental myself.

They have all made work not only bearable

but fun and entertaining and I cant get over

how generous they have all been. So many

of them have done their bit to help us out,

they have really looked after us.

Im really going to miss my big Peppers

family, but alas it is time to move on; we

have earned quite enough money thank you

very much! We have handed in our

resignations and are finishing work on the

1st January. We plan to leave Palm Cove on

the 2nd and start making our way down the

east coast. Essentially we have until the 4th

March to get to Melbourne for our flight to

New Zealand. We will travel around the

North and then South island for three weeks

in a Toyota Lucida camper which includes a

bed and cooking apparatus. We fly back on

the 27th March and will continue our

Australian travels by the way of Adelaide,

Perth and up the west coast to Broome.

Thats the plan anyway but oh how we have

demonstrated how fickle planning is.

The next leg of the journey will be a lot

slower than our tour of the Northern

Territory. There is a lot more to see goingdown the east coast so we will be covering a

lot less land which will be nice and relaxing.

It has been nice settling down for a while,

living in an actual house and having a job

andhaving friends that also have houses and

jobs! I feel like a proper citizen. We will be

savouring home comforts for the next 1.5

weeks until we become nomads again! I will

be working on Christmas Day morning and

afternoon but after that I will be joining Ben

at Martin and Nickys house who will be

hosting orphan Christmas for those who

cant be with their families. Everyone is

bringing a dish from their home countries so

we are making Yorkshire puddings, stuffing

and gravy so we can have some sort of

normalcy. Considering we will be spending

xmas by the pool with seafood I think these

things are important for our heads not to

explode.

I hope you have enjoyed this little newsletter.

I thought it would be nice to fill you in on

our lives for the past four months. Hopefully

we have managed to send you other videos

and slideshows we have put together. as well.

Weve been away for a long time now and

writing this has made me feel a bit closer to

you all. I hope you have a wonderful time

this festive season; we are very jealous.When will someone get around to inventing

teleportation devices? Love and miss you all.

Merry Christmas from Jane.

And the people are pretty cool too

Kate, me, Caitlin, Bec and Mel at our staff party

Ben working on Melbourne Cup Day

< Ben at his staff party


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Hi all.

Alive and well.

Ben x

Pens Newsletter...

mry xmas n new yr.

the adventures of pen and jane i1: living and working in palm cove

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