The JUCY encore

JUCY sent me an email requesting any pictures and stories we had regarding our JUCY adventure. Well, we all know that we have many a story about our love girl so we sent this to the company and we hope they will hire us to ride a JUCY camper around the other Commonwealth countries and America to spread some JUCY love and create a JUCY Planet book/blog outlining the best places to freedom camp, free showers and create some links to other companies and create some JUCY deals
This is our dream job...to get a JUCY vehicle, some cash for our incidentals and have more adventures, create more blogs/travel writings, take photos and bring the JUCY camping experience to other countries...I feel a business plan coming on, but in the mean time this is the letter we sent to JUCY Lucy and the corporate office...our final goodbye in a way...

Dear JUCY Lucy,
My name is Melissa Goodman and Alexandra Hewett and I rented a JUCY van in Australia for 7 weeks and then again for 6 weeks in New Zealand and it proved to be the best decision we have made thus far on our year of travelling. I am from the United States and Alex is from England, but we live in London and decided to take a year off to travel the world. Our adventure began in India, continued through Southeast Asia in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos when we then left for Australia. As you can imagine, the difference in prices for hostels and food varied greatly from Asia to Australia and we found that we did not budget effectively to take us through Australia, New Zealand and then through South America, as we had originally planned.
We were panicked, especially when we began researching hostel prices in Australia during the Christmas and New Year period when someone suggested we rent a car or van, which would allow you to sleep, eat and get around all in one. Then began the process of finding such a vehicle, and with an endless supply of choices out there this proved to be a daunting task. We had to decide whether to buy or rent a car or van, but with only 7 weeks in Australia, we opted to rent...then there were all the rental companies to research. So off we went to hike up Elizabeth Street to inquire about what each company had to offer from price to extras in the van.
It wasn't long until we were drawn into the JUCY showroom...not just because of the bright purple and green pin-up JUCY Lucy, but also for the look and feel of the JUCY vans. We sat with the JUCY representative, who was cheerful, smiley and full of information. After discussing each option carefully and researching various other companies, we decided to go with JUCY and it was the best decision for us. We wanted a reliable van with some perks and extra comforts, as well as customer support, as we planned to drive through the centre of Australia to Uluru in the outback and then down the east coast.
We picked up our JUCY on November 23, 2010 and then began our 7 week adventure. When we broke down in the outback a week or so later, Scott helped us out tremenously by offering top notch customer service and we were in a brand new and upgraded JUCY and a TomTom within 2 days with all of our expenses reimbursed and we were back on the road. We would have no other problems with our JUCY vehicles in Australia or the whole of New Zealand, but it was good to know that you were there on the other end of a phone should anything else had have happened. We took our JUCY from Sydney all the way through Melbourne, Adelaide to Port Augusta to Coober Pety through the Outback to Uluru, the Olgas and King's Canyon. We think our JUCY loved these sites and watching the sun rise and set over Ayer's Rock with us, as we ate our breakfast and had our dinner.
While travelling throughout the Outback, we had to stay in various campsites and think our JUCY girl has made some friends over her years of travelling, as whenever we showed our JUCY keychain, we got discounts at almost every single campsite. What a treat. She is a popular girl! There were so many animals in the outback as well and I think our JUCY is most certinaly an animal lover, as she missed every single one that found their way onto the highway...kangroos, koalas, walabees, thorny devils...even tiny animals like birds and other lizards. I don't think she was a fan of bull frogs, as she certainly ran over her fair share of them, but later we found out that they are poisonous evil buggers that must be destroyed in droves, as they kill most wildlife and endanger various species' survival! She was glad to do her part!
We then travelled all the way up to Katherine, then back over to the east coast where we began that adventure in Cairns down through Townsville and all the beaches and beach towns along the way. Our JUCY loved taking us to and from all of our actitivies like scuba diving the Yongala, camping on Fraser Island and boating through the Whitsundays...I think she loved to see us so happy. We loved filling up the fridge with healthy food to cook on our cooker in the back and serve up on our picnic table and chairs each day. Our JUCY was always a conversation starter when we were parked cokking dinner and one time some guy came and asked us for a free juice, as he thought our JUCY van gave out free fruit juices because of her name. Bless him. We all had a laugh at that!
We had the option of sleeping inside the actual van or in the penthouse on top of the van...we were spoiled for choice, and one of the best features was the DVD player. Sometimes we just weren't tired and there wasn't much to do in the Outback so we would pop on a DVD and that would entertain us for a few hours. The best part was being able to swap them at each JUCY location and with other JUCY renters like ourselves. We also loved the commeradary amongst the JUCY renters. Every time we saw one on the road and vice versa, we would wave and honk and flash our lights like we were having some sort of fit...to be fair, so would they and we know our JUCY girl just loved seeing her friends and family on the road.
While travelling down the east coast this year, we were met with some terrible weather. We were lucky enough to have our JUCY there to offer us shelter and a place to stay warm and dry, as well as provide food and a comfy bed and DVD entertainment during some of the worst storms. It was hard to watch other travellers stuck outside at bus stops in the rain and we often gave them rides to and from various places, as we had so much space in our JUCY and she did love meeting new people.
We continued down the east coast stopping at Byron Bay for some surf lessons, but our JUCY likes to enjoy the sea from afar so she did not come into the ocean with us. We carried on back to Sydney for the New Year's Eve fireworks display and had a New Year's picnic with sausages, salad and bolied potatoes from the back of our JUCY. She loved her New Year's Eve celebrations. We made sure that every place we went, we would park next to fellow JUCYs so they could have a chat and catch up on all the JUCY gossip. One time, we spotted our JUCY girl's fraternal twin who was painted purple with green accents, where as ours was green with puple accents. What a lovely family reunion that was for our girl.
It was such a sad day when we had to return our JUCY and catch a plane to New Zealand, but then we remembered that we had her Kiwi cousin again for another 6 weeks all through New Zealand and that cheered us up. It was such a blessing to get to the airport and only have to book a hostel and lug our gigantic backpacks around for one day before picking up our JUCY2 the next day on January 24, 2011. This one was smaller and did not offer the penthouse on top of the van, but she met all of our needs brilliantly. Our first stop was the local New World to fill up on all our healthy snacks for the road trip. New Zealand is much smaller than Australia and there are many cities littering the middle of each island, unlike Australia so we saw many more people along the way, but we were no less excited when we saw another JUCY.
We took our JUCY2 all the up to Cape Reinga where she could take in the two seas colliding in a spectaculer show of colour then back down along the west coast of the north island. She loved Raglan and was a bit friskier than her JUCY cousin from Australia...I think she would have come surfing if we would have let her! She did get to take a giant ferry ride down to the South Island and back again, which she enjoyed immensely! We spent a great deal of time in Christchurch before the devestating earthquake, where we watched the Para World Championships and the enjoyed some comic relief and music and the Buskers Festival. JUCY2 loved the jugglers.
Then, we took her down to the Franz Joseph Glacier for some ice hiking and through Milford Sound for a lovely cruise. I think she knew some people there like our JUCY in Australia because when we showed them our JUCY2 keychain we got 1 cruise ride for free! She is just as popular as her Austailian cousin...JUCY. We continued travelling around the South Island through Taupo and stopped to do some horrific adrenalin activities. I think JUCY2 was quite happy to watch Al and I do our tandem Bungy Swing and death defying Ropes Course from the parking lot...I don't think she likes heights.
We coasted back up through Abel Tasman for a boat ride to the tip of the Tasmen and a hike all the way back and our JUCY2 was there when we retruned weary, exhausted and starving with loads of ice cold water and yummy snacks just waiting for us. We made our way back through Blenheim for some wine tasting, which our JUCY2 girl loved as much as we did...she is a little lush. We were able to stay a few nights with some friends we made throughout our travels and when they met JUCY2 they couldn't help but smile and immitate the JUCY Lucy pin-up pose for the cameras and when it was time to return her to Aukland before leaving for Chile, we had a little cry and exchanged some cuddles before it was time to say goodbye.
Luckily, we have kept a blog describing all our adventures and mishaps and our JUCY girls have been spotlighted in many a story over the months. We also took dozens and dozens of pictures of our JUCYs enjoying our road trips with us and meeting new firends and some old ones too. I know that our travels would have lacked so much flare and fun without those two giant green and purple lovlies and we will remember them and all our fun times forever and ever. Thank you so much for the memories.
Sincerely,
Melissa Goodman and Alexandra Hewett
PS - Should you ever want someone to ride a JUCY around countries where JUCY does not exist such as Canada, USA, the UK to spread the JUCY love, please contact me and Alex, as we are your girls! We would love to create a JUCY blog outlining our JUCY adventures, upload JUCY photos and even create a JUCY Planet travel book outlining the best places to freedom camp, where to find free showers, broker deals with various companies for JUCY freebies (just to name a few) and just let everyone know that the JUCY way to travel is the ONLY way to travel.