In transit

It's a day off for the Evangelist today. I'm currently in transit from Brisbane to Broome and am waiting patiently for my Perth flight in the comfort of the Qantas Club, Perth. They have pumpkin soup, salad rolls, pretzels and FREE BOOZE on offer!

What an incredible distance to travel though. I had a flight to Sydney that left at 7.30am this morning. My connecting flight from Sydney to Perth left at 9.50am and took 5 hrs and 15 mins. Now I'm waiting another 2 hrs for my connecting flight to Broome...

I wasn't the only one thinking that was a little extreme...when I checked into Qantas this morning, this is how the conversation with the middle-aged Qantas guy went:

Qantas Man: So you're flying to Sydney today?
Me: No - Broome!
Qantas Man: Oh my gosh. You're travelling all around Australia today! I wonder why they did that?
Me: Yeah....me too
Qantas Man: What do you do over in Broome, work?
Me: Yup
Qantas Man: What sort of work?
Me: I work for a campervan rental company called Wicked Campers, you know, those grafitti'd up campervans...
Qantas Man (interrupts): Oh my god I love them! Last year I saw one with a funny quote...it said "Women want many thing from one man, but...
Me: Men want one thing from many women??
(we both crack up).

We continue to talk about Wicked for 10 mins. This guy was certainly the Wicked fan, a 'roaming evangelist'. He said he rang up Mr Wicked last year and asked if he could go into the Valley depot and take pics of all our vans. He was super excited to meet an Evangelist- it was truly great feedback to hear and it snapped me out of my grumpy morning mood!

The new face of Wicked

Our former Wicked Campers Depots Guru/Captain Amazing went on a glamour photo rampage earlier this year and posted the photos up on his Facebook account! Many of his female fans...I mean friends wrote positive feedback on his site, so we decided to take his most popular image and use it to promote our campervans:


I've also been in contact with Kenneth, The Thirsty Swagman who runs The World's Biggest Pub Crawl (check out his website, sooo damn cool). I originally heard about these World Pub Crawls in an email forward I received from a mate after a particularly huge night. I was inspired. It is such an amazing idea (and a logistical nightmare if you're trying to do it yourself, imagine how many flights you would miss)- 60 pubs, 12 countries, 4 continents, 25 days. Kenneth saw the article written about Mr Wicked in "The West Australian" and also loved the Wicked culture, so we're trying to work out ways in which our companies can pair up - Wicked vans on an All-Australian pub crawl? Pub crawls from Brisbane to London? But for starters this week our Wicked grafitti dude painted them up a van:



Wicked one-liner on the back: "If you're not wasted for a week, you've wasted a week"

The Thirsty Swagman loves it! "Leanne, this is unreal!!!!! Truly awesome, haha. I’m totally stoked! Can you tell me how I can get a carton of beer to your graphic artist? Name and address, and it’ll be shipped on Monday. Special brew it shall be."

You wouldn't expect anything less from The Thirsty Swagman!

Bye Bye Michael Jackson

Wicked Campers have decided its time to say farewell to Michael Jackson so we've taken our Michael Jackson special - "Moonwalk into any of our Wicked depots dressed up as Michael Jackson to get your first day of hire for free" off the shelves.

Here are some photos of the Michael Jackson's that graced our Brisbane depot.





Whilst its said to say goodbye to the special its not all doom and goom. The Wicked staff morale booking "NAKED SPECIAL" is back on! Show up naked to get your first day for free!

I'm back in Brisbane working in the Evangelism office this week, meeting our new Evangelists (Brother Mark and Sister Cassie) and Budi(licious) the IT guy, chewing the fat with Mr Wicked, Jerome, and the Wicked roadtrip planners, and catching up on the last few months of Wicked Evangelising with Sisters Mary and Sam.

Troopy photo shoot

The only Wicked Landcruiser we have currently is our Broome depot drive-car "The Dragon", so I took some locals out on the road yesterday to shoot some pics for our new Wicked brochures that will promote the Alice Springs 4WD package.




I'm flying back to Brisbane tonight and will be working back in 'The Vegas' for the week next week. Will be great to meet the new Evangelists and catch up with the old school Wicked crew!

Wicked Troop Carriers

Uluru. The Red Centre. Its a place you can't miss when you're on the trek Down Under.

In July 2008 I took a 7 day Alice Springs Wicked roadtrip with my fellow Evangelists Camilla, Farley and Dave. In our 4WD Delicas we stormed through Rainbow Valley, Uluru, The Olgas, Kings Canyon and the Meereenie Loop Road back to Alice Springs. It was the first time any of us had driven a 4WD and after 10mins of our first dirt road we were self-proclaimed dirt track experts (of course, always keeping the advice to take it slow, avoid driving from dusk-dawn and swerving for animals in our minds at all times!).

Self-drive is a great way to see the country and there are some great 4WD self-drive tours currently available in Fraser Island, but nothing for the outback. Wicked is stepping in to fill the gap and will start to offer 3 day/ 5 day self-drive tours from Alice Springs to Uluru and back, via Kings Canyon. Instead of the Mitsubishi Delica we'll be renting out robust Toyota Landcruiser's or "Troopy's" which cater for between 4-10 people.

It's something that you've just gotta do when you're in Australia - grab a bunch of mates, high-tail it to Alice Springs, watch the sunrise and set over Uluru, take photos with roadkill, climb Kings Canyon and drink with the locals.

To view Part 1 of our outback adventure, click here.

Talkin' bout my generation

The other evening I caught up with Ralph, who runs Australian Wilderness Tours. I met Ralph at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Melbourne earlier this year - he's a big Wicked fan. Ralph was in Broome, taking his entourage of older women (average age of 60) in a 4WD luxury tour from Darwin to Broome via the Gibb River Road. We arranged to catch up this week, and I joined the women for wine and cheese whilst watching the Cable Beach sunset.


It was great joining the group. After living here for a few months you take the extraordinary sunsets for granted, but when you watch the sunset with other's for the first time you remember how lucky you are to experience this every day.








The women were from an international organisation called the 5W's - "Women Welcome Women World Wide. This is a network open to all women and aims to encourage travelling to foreign countries independently. On their website it states "a 5W member can make new friends in foreign lands or just around the corner, travel to far-flung places or enjoy having guests in her own home. Travelling with 5W is a safer way.Imagine having a network of friends wherever you go - having another woman to meet you at the airport when you arrive in a new country - its reassuring in a land far from home."


The tour ended today in Broome and two of the women from 5W - Dora (German) and Marie (Queenslander) came to pick up a Wicked Camper for their roadtrip to Perth. We gave them the John Lennon van and they loved the quote on the back "If only men were as satisfying as chocolate". We had a copy of the Beatles #1 CD so we threw it in for them too - they loved it!

Being from an older generation they took certain precautions while travelling and even asked us to keep a copy of their roadtrip itinerary (which they were also handing to Broome police before setting off tomorrow), just in case something unusual occured on the road. We've promised to call them a couple times during their roadie to say g'day. I asked the ladies "Why Wicked?" and Dora explained that she's giving Wicked a go as she's thinking of buying an ex-Wicked van when she flies over to the east coast month. I hope when I'm 60 I'm still as adventurous as these two ladies!

Jim's Brazilians

Our Wicked customer who was hospitalised last week (read ‘Wicked on Fire" post below) survived her dehydration ordeal and is on a flight to Cairns. She brought me a bottle of wine in gratitude for the ride to the Broome hospital (very muchly appreciated!). She also returned one of the most photographed vans in our fleet, "Jim's Brazilians" to the Broome depot.

For those who don't know about Jim's Mowing, check out his website.

We actually had one of the real life ‘Jim’s in the van back in June – here’s a story received from a Wicked customer:

“Another person in our group that hired a Wicked Van from Cairns recently owns a 'Jim's lawnmowing' business. When i saw the 'Jim's Brazilians' van on your website, i thought it would be great if he got that one.

I was sitting at the back of my van cooking my dinner, at the festival, when he pulled up beside me - in the 'Jim's Brazilians' van!! I fell off my camp stool laughing!! The best bit was, he wasn't supposed to get that van but it was switched when he picked it up.. and he hadn't mentioned it when they gave it to him.. :)”

Its amazing what a stir this van creates, its word-of-mouth marketing in itself! Check out some of the following websites:

http://modifiedcarforums.com/forums/humour-media/5365-franchise-opportunity.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greentea/3204832694/
http://www.mycolours.com.au/Image.aspx?i=714606

http://www.cathellis.com/2007/02/jims-brazilians/

Of course I’m a huge Jim’s fan and had to get a photo taken with the superstar van before the Broome Cup races on Saturday.

Love your work Jim.

Wicked Nullabor 7-day special?

Nullabor Links, the world's biggest golf course is opening to the public on August 15. Its in Australia and situated on the Nullabor, stretching from Ceduna S.A. to Kalgoorlie WA.

The course is 1365km long and the official website states that the course will take an average of 4 days to complete!

The best part is that after playing all 18 holes you get a free certificate that says “You have played the World’s Longest Golf course.” A must for any golf-enthusiasts pool-room.

The official opening of the course will be in October but Mark, our super depot manager in Melbourne has a great idea to organise a Wicked rally/convoy headed over for the opening - maybe a 7 day special from Adelaide to Perth and vice versa. Keep posted to this blog and wickedcampers.com for more info!

Great Ocean Roadie

James, the editor of itravel.net took a Wicked Camper on his roadie from Melbourne to Adelaide. He left some great comments on his blog - "I had only been parked for half an hour and I spotted a wallaby by the campsite. The camping area was right on the beach so I could hear the ocean as I lay in bed. You wouldn't experience that on a bus".

Read the rest of his write-up on his popular blog i-Travel.net: http://www.itravelnet.com/blog/notes.html

I'd like to also warmly thank the following couple for sending me this warm and fuzzy email today:

"Hi we had a great time travelling from Broome to Darwin in one of your vans. We got a day's free travel 'cause we turned up naked in the Broome office but we never got a copy of the photo. We booked on the 13th March 2009. Is there any chance of you sending me a copy of the photo that was made in front of the van (e.g. per e-mail). We would be wrapped. Thanks and thanks for a really great trip".

Here are the happy couple ready to embark on their roadtrip of a lifetime!

Wicked on Fire!

My Friday started well in the Wicked depot...we had a lovely med student from Fitzroy return his van and he had only praise for our staff in Darwin and his roadtrip. Here he is popping his Wicked "Customers 4 Life" survey in our pimped out survey box.

We also had some Swiss boys pickup a van, they're on their way to Darwin on the Gibb River Road.

It was a great day at Wicked. No fuss customers, lots of time to evangelise on the web...but then disaster struck.

A wild-fire spread across the road from the Broome depot around noon today. As I ran up to investigate, a local tv journo from GWN stopped me in my tracks and asked for an eye-witness account of the natural disaster.

After the high of being on regional television, I thought my day was going splendidly. I plugged away on my Wicked tasks and then Chris received a phone-call at 3pm. A few Wicked girls had a van that was stuck in third gear at a caravan park. Fortunately it was just down the road, so we hopped in the Wicked rescue-mobile and picked their van up. The two of the girls were worried about their mate, who looked like she was seriously ill. I checked them into the local pistol club (all caravan parks were full) and the woman on guard took a look at the sick girl and told us to rush her to hospital -- she was suffering from severe dehydration!

The rescue-mobile turned into an ambulance and we shot off to the Broome hospital. I returned to the depot and the girl's swapped into their new van (Jim's Brazillian van, the best one in the fleet!). They'll be returning their van to Broome next week so I look forward to hearing how the rest of their day went.

Anyway - I have to cut this blog entry short as I must dash home to watch myself on the 5.30pm news...

Mrs Wicked's Wisdom

After sending out lots of emails to our Australian agents this week, I’ve received some compliments regarding Mrs Wicked’s Wisdom, agents who have said the wisdom has “brightened their day” or is “soooo true”!

To those unfortunate souls who have yet to receive an email from a Wicked Employee, try and nab one! All Wicked staff members have an email signature that includes a weekly quote chosen by Mrs Wicked (one of the creators of Wicked Campers).

After working for a big multi-national company (where we had a boring, stifling email signature), its refreshing to have these unique and inspiring quotes sent out each week and I look forward to receiving the updates.

Here are some of my favourites:

"Life is not perfect; it never will be. You just have to make the very best of it and open your heart to what the world can show you. Sometimes it's terrifying and sometimes it's incredibly beautiful. And I'll take both, thanks." - Graham Nash

"Learn to ask questions. It is always better to ask questions than to make assumptions. Have the courage to ask questions until you are as clear as you can be. Once you hear the answer to a question, you won't have to make assumptions because you will know the truth."

Ask for what you want. Find the courage to ask for what you want. Others have the right to tell you yes or no but you always have the right to ask. Likewise, everybody has the right to ask you for what they want, and you have the right to say yes or no.

Eliminate gossip. Making assumptions is a setup for suffering because we usually gossip about our assumptions. We make assumptions and believe we are right, then we defend our assumptions and try to make others wrong.

While we're on an inspirational note, here are some good books/sites that have inspired me in the last few months.

The Power of Now/ A New Earth – Eckart Tolle
A Complaint Free World

But hey - this can’t be a Wicked blog entry if its full of rainbows, butterflies, sausage dogs (running through sprinklers) and chocolate waterfalls. One Wicked employee (not mentioning any names) once received this in a response to an outgoing email:

"If this still doesn't "sit" with your policy then let me know and I'll look elsewhere. With all respect maybe you need to take a bit of your own advice -

Mrs Wicked’s Wisdom:
Don't take anything personally. Relinquish self importance. Self importance, or taking things personally is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about ''me.''