Coming Home

 Kookaburra and I have had the idea to surprise our family for Christmas since the day we left for our travels.

 We were determined not to tell anyone except Rainbow Lorikeet who was to pick us up from the airport.

We were two months out from Christmas when we decided to book the airplane tickets. We were constantly searching for a job, hoping to get one any day, so we weren't too sure where we'd be in two months time but we figured that we'd probably find something around Perth, so we booked tickets out of Perth to Brisbane.

As it turned out we drove 8 hours from where we'd booked them and found a great job. We were still 17 hours from Perth but figured that was one of the best possible out comes.

The days leading up to Christmas were filled with anticipation and worry, trying not to let it slip to anyone that we'd be coming.

We did have to tell Mum and Dad that we'd be coming in the end but we made sure not to tell them which day. I could tell Mum was getting very excited and I was worried that she'd let slip to the others but in the end she did pretty well.

On the 17th of December we headed off at 6am, just as we were leaving my friend ran out of the house to give us a hug goodbye. She said the car woke her up and she jumped out of bed to make it in time. It was a really nice send off. 

We drove to Dampier to attend Mass then set off for our very long drive down to Perth.

We slipped back into the rhythm of driving pretty easily but then we'd never driven for this long straight before, so it was a bit tougher. 

We traded off driving every 2-3 hours stopping for breakfast and our Sunday prayers with the family, I think in total we did about 11 hours that first day. Stopping for Sunday prayers was really nerve racking, as we'd pulled over at an information post just outside of Carnarvon and with every car or truck that went past louder then normal we'd look at each other with fear hoping that my phone couldn't pick it up. It didn't help that Mum said that if we'd said we couldn't say prayers she'd know we were on the way, keeping her suspicions at bay was hard.

Driving until 9pm we found a good rest stop and unpacked for the night. We'd read the reviews on Wikicamps for it but were completely surprised for the wind and cold. We were used to hot nights any where between 25°C to 35°C. But this was the complete opposite, I stood it for about five minutes but then had to go put on my winter jacket. Even with it on, my legs were still cold, the wind just stole whatever heat you could get. The wind ended up stealing more then just our warmth, as we were making dinner our mushrooms went flying into the night, bag and all. We ended up having to chase after them down a slope in the dark. 

We slept with our sleeping bags that night and the windows closed up to keep as much warmth in. After one of the worst sleeps I've ever had in the tent we woke up early to start driving. I think we were on the road before 7am choosing to skip breakfast for now. About an hour later we stopped for fuel and food, enjoying a nice breakfast by the ocean.

We tried to book the bus tickets that would take us from Brisbane to Home but found out they were all sold out. Kookaburra scrambled to find another way home as my friend Lorikeet had some things come up and wasn't able to pick us up.

Unfortunately everything was either sold out or leaving at the wrong time, in the end we decided to call our sister Galah and see if she can pick us up. We were really hesitant to call because we didn't want to ruin the surprise but desperate times call for desperate measures.

She was excited to hear that we were coming home and was happy to pick us up, we were a bit worried by how she was going to manage to slip away in the early morning without anyone noticing but she said it'd be fine.

With that finally figured out we could focus on getting to Perth in time for a car appointment we'd booked.

Arriving at the outskirts of Perth at 1:30pm we had plenty of time to get to our appointment and complete all the little jobs we had to do. With all that done we went to our Uncle's house and had dinner with his family. It was great getting to see them all as it's rare that our paths cross with us being on different sides of the country. 

Our Uncle very graciously drove us to the airport to see us off. So with backpacks on our backs we stepped foot in the airport. This was only my second time flying, with the previous one being three years ago. To me the airport was very big and confusing, I'm sure however that during the day it would be a very loud, hectic place. 

Stumbling our way through the process we managed to find our gate. We were about an hour early so settled in for a wait. After my less then amazing sleep the night before I was struggling to stay awake. Thankfully the hour passed relatively fast and we were soon boarding.

With all the new sights and sounds I managed to push my exhaustion away long enough for take off. It  soon came back to me, I quite quickly found out however that an airplane seat is not the best to sleep in. After awhile though exhaustion won. I dozed off and slept for a few minutes only to wake up uncomfortable again. This cycle repeated for half the flight, the last half was spent in exhausted misery hoping for this flight to be over.

Finally after three and a half hours in the air we landed at 5:30am Brisbane time, which is 3:30am WA time. Getting off we headed for the train to meet our sister. Finally!! A seat that I can lean my head against the window and fall asleep. 

We had a quick stop for breakfast then continued on. Getting to the meeting place before her we settled in for the wait. Just scrolling through Instagram I heard someone come up behind me then tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to see Galah, I was so happy and excited to see a familiar face.

We then headed off to her car to pick up a present then head home.

While picking up the present Mum called to say that Galah was in Brisbane and if we were flying into Brisbane today that it would be perfect timing. We were all trying to be really quiet as I was "sleeping" and Galah "wasn't there." In the end Kookaburra convinced her that while that would have been really convenient we can't exactly just change our fly plans.

The trip back passed relatively fast, an hour outside of town, Galah arranged to pick up our brother from work. Getting to the carpark we agreed for Galah to go in and get him while we waited to one side of the door. 

He and Galah walked straight passed us. I quickly called out his nickname and he turned around surprised. After hugging him, he explained that he'd recognized my voice and I'm one of the few that uses that nickname but I was supposed to be on the other side of the country, so I couldn't be here.

He was really excited when he found out that he was the only one to know we were here. Growing up in a large family will make you excited to know anything before your siblings.

On the short drive home we formulated a plan on how to surprise everyone. We were sure that Mum was suspicious after that phone call so we planned to wait three minutes before we went in after them, that way if Mum was waiting for us to walk in with Galah she'd be disappointed. 

We got them to drop us off at the top of the driveway then we just waited behind the wood shack. The unplanned thing that surprised us was our brother arriving home. We were in full view of him for a few seconds. Being the true Rangers Apprentice fan that I am I froze in place. Kookaburra was less graceful however and tried to dive behind something, there was nothing to hid behind however.

Thankfully our brother wasn't looking in our direction and drove passed, we added on an extra two minutes to the timer to account for everyone to know we weren't with him.

Once again channeling our inner Ranger we dashed across the open space to the bonfire, from there to the water tanks, then creeped along them to the house. Galah had told us that Dad might be pressure washing the back deck walls, so that's what we were aiming for. Realizing we'd be going passed my brother's window who'd just gotten home we crutched down and hurried passed. 

Reaching the deck that Dad was working on, we stopped for a moment, trying to figure out how to get his attention. He had his back to us and the gurney was too loud to call out to him. We could go up to him and tap his shoulder but I thought that would scare him too much. 

As it was, the gurney machine was closer to us than him, I simply walked over to it and switched it off.

He turned around with an annoyed expression on his face, thinking that he'd just killed the gurney. When he saw us, he was absolutely shocked and stumbled back. Kookaburra and I were worried that we'd given him a heart attack but he was fine. While hugging him we drew the attention of our two brothers, one quickly came out to hug us while the other smugly said "I knew it."

Moving on from them we went in search of our little sister. We found her in the study eating a snack while watching a video. She had her headphones on, so I tapped her on the shoulder... She ignored me, I tapped her on the shoulder again... Once again she ignored me, thinking that this had to be the toughest one to surprise I tapped her on the shoulder again, finally she turned around. It was only then that the thought of her possibly chocking on her food came to mind. But thankfully it was all good and we got a big excited hug. 

The only person to surprise now was Mum, who apparently wasn't the lest bit suspicious and hadn't emerged from her room. So with everyone following us we quietly walked to her room. 

Lifting her head from her phone she was shocked to see us. Getting a teary hug from your Mum is one of those precious moments that you just can't get anywhere else.

With all of us in the same room we had my favorite thing... A family group hug.