VAN LIFE to CABIN LIFE _ Living in a Beach A-Frame Tiny House

After spending so much time in rural Australia with red sand roads and orange rocks, we just got so excited when we got that little taste of the tropical beach life. We instantly started gravitating towards more island life. So for the next few weeks, we're going to be checking out some of Queensland's most beautiful islands, starting right here on Magnetic Island. And as you can see, we've just moved into a beachfront tropical inspired A-frame house. But to get here, it was a little bit of a journey. First of all, we had to drive three hours south from Cairns to arrive in Townsville to then jump on a ferry to come out to the island. So we're only going for a few days and clearly we're packing light. So there's a couple of things we do with Cooper when we decide to go on these little trips where Cooper can't really go. First of all, is make sure we lock up everything. Honestly, we don't have a lot of valuable stuff in Cooper besides our camera gear and laptops that come with us. The next most valuable thing is our hard drives. Precious memories and photos on here. This is invaluable. So we always lock it in the safe. Next thing we do is use our magnetic window covers just so nobody can see what's inside our van. Hi, just picking up some tickets. Thanks. Awesome. Thank you so much. Enjoy your day. Heading out on the 40 minute ferry ride to the island was already an adventure in itself. As we saw the mainland drift away and Maggie's appear on approach, we started to see the palm fringe beaches and granite boulders the island is known for. So we've just jumped off the ferry and Stephen has gone to pick up a rental car and they have warned us that they're going to be small. Hopefully everything fits inside. Oh my gosh, it is tiny. I don't know who decided to put Italian small cars on this island right here in Australia, but you know what? I think it kind of works. How are we going to fit anything inside this boot? We haven't gone on any Italian holiday. This is not fitting in this boot. I think we're going to need a plan B with this bag to get to Hunter. We're getting the best fit. Ready? We're going to get used to this. So the first time we actually ever stayed in an A-frame was earlier this year in New Zealand with this one. And when I was having a Google of where to stay on the island, this A-frame popped up and I was like, what do we need to stay here? Our own tropical A-frame right on magnetic island. So when you first arrived, you were greeted to this beautiful outdoor deck, the perfect place to watch the sunrise and have a coffee. And you were surrounded by palm trees and you feel like you're in your own little beach bungalow. All right, let's give you guys a tour inside. So this place is two stories. I'll show you the bottom first. As you can see, it is all open plan. On this side, we have a little living room, no TV, so electronic free, but instead they have this beautiful hammock to chill in. Here is our little dining room area. And then through here is our kitchen and our bathroom. So the whole vibe of magnetic island is chill vibes. And you can see that the owners of the Airbnb have done that. You have this hammock in the middle of this giant open area. Plus they have plenty of palm trees and plants inside. So it brings the tropics inside for the entire stay. You guys have to bear with us on these room tours because every now and then you have to have a break and play a jenga round with your toddler. There you go. So I think the thing we're slowly loving so much about A-frames is that the way that they've designed, you have this gigantic open living space because the roof is so tall. And even though it is a large open space, it still gives you those cozy cabin vibes with all the exposed wood and the little sparkly lights. So before we take you upstairs to show you where we're going to sleep tonight, I'll quickly finish up downstairs. So coming into the kitchen, we have this coffee table, so we can sit down and relax. While Jess is cooking, me and Hunter can hang out and see what she's doing. First up, we have an old school gas cooktop and gas oven. And we found that the kitchen is pretty much stocked up with everything that we need from our plates, cutlery, but most importantly, a kettle so we can have our coffee. And right in the back of the A-frame is our laundry slash bathroom. Who did you find? Kiss? And in the back of the A-frame is our laundry slash bathroom. So here we have a little washer dryer. And on this side, we have a shower, a sink and mirror, and then our toilet. Hunter, do you want to see the cubby house up there? Up there. Alrighty, let's show you guys the fun bit. So this is the top of the A-frame and I was a little bit surprised because there's actually two rooms up here. So this area we call the loft, and this is where we can chill, read a book, hang out and look down at the rest of the A-frame. So I feel like this bedroom is one of the main reasons to book this A-frame. Just being up here in the top of the triangle, it just is so cozy and they've done a minimalist job on here. It's pretty much just a bed, two side tables, a fan to keep you cool and a couple of lights. But the best bit has to be this very simple string lights that go over the headboard of the bed and just adds to those extra cozy vibes. So this island is known to have so many native Australian animals and we it's like a five minute drive from our Airbnb and they have rock wallabies and this one has a little joey in its pouch. Hey buddy. So cool coming out here and just the setting right on the beach. It's so beautiful. So we're just driving around looking for a quick spot to have some breakfast and we saw this food van called Shaka and we rocked up and they've got this almost natural cafe. They've built wooden bench seats, they have all these bean bags laying out, there's a swing. We opted to come onto the beach because we are just loving the beach at the moment. And of course I feel like I'm back in Hawaii. Yes. Brings me right back. That looks really good. Yeah. All right. Hunter's first try of a saibou. I'm just feeling that. Yum. Welcome to the island Hunter. And we have a tour in about half an hour. Morning. What better way to enjoy the beautiful weather that we've been given today than jumping on a boat to explore what the island has to offer. Our first stop involved our very first time ever line fishing and after I had some failed attempts at even some nibbles, Jess seemed to have way better luck. He's gone. He's gone. I felt it rip. He was huge. I almost caught a shark I think. By the way, for the record, that is Jess totally claiming someone else's catch. Here in Magnetic Island, there are a bunch of beautiful little private bays that you can hike to, but we forgot Hunter's carrier and some are about four kilometers high. I don't think we can carry Hunter for that long. So instead we found a little snorkeling trip that also, that also take you to some of the bays. We've just arrived in Radical Bay. This they say is one of the best and I can see why. This place is absolutely beautiful. And do the backflip. One, two, three. Somebody is happy we forgot the carrier, didn't she? Why hike when you can sail? So October GIFmas is back. First of all, we gave away a laptop. Then we gave away a 360 camera. And in today's episode, we're going to be giving away the world's smallest action camera. Thanks to Insta360. So make sure you stick around to find out how you can win one of these. So this is the Insta360 GO 2 and this is the world's smallest action camera. And this is becoming one of my favorite GO 2 cameras due to how versatile it is. It's waterproof. It's rugged. Plus it has one of the world's leading stabilizations built in. And the best bit is that it's no bigger than a finger. I am always looking for new spots to place my camera to grab a shot. And this camera has such a wide range of mounting options. Like this one, there's actually a magnetic necklace hidden underneath my shirt. And I can easily just pop this here and I can get really cool and discreet point of view shots. So when Insta360 got in touch with us to chat about the GO 2, we said it would be amazing if we could give back to our incredible Flying the Nest community. And they said, well, we gave away a 360 camera, might as well send you a spare GO 2. So make sure you head to all the details linked in the description below on how you can win one of these amazing small action cameras. Plus it's international because we're going to be shipping it from Coupa. Alrighty, let's head back to the vlog. I think we all got a little bit sun-kissed from today's activities, but I was looking around for some snacks and I found instead of some snacks, an old school projector. And I'm going to see if maybe we can hook up one of Hunter's favorite movies. Hunter, do you want to watch Finding Nemo? Fishies? Yeah, fishies. For those who aren't fluent in Hunter, this means fish, AKA this means let's watch Finding Nemo. Does that mean watch Finding Nemo? Yeah? Yeah, it does. Okay. Okay. I'll set it up. No movie is complete. Thanks mom. So our weekend at Maggie's had sadly come to a close, which meant getting our luggage back into that little convertible, catching the ferry back to the mainland and continuing our adventure down south to arrive in the Whip Sundaes. Hi mate. Hi mate. Good yourself. Can I get a single and flake please? I like the name, Mr. Whip Sundae. Where'd you come from? We came from Magnetic Island. Oh nice. Yeah. Do you want to try this? What the? Ice cream right where we're staying. So I think we have just arrived at the coolest caravan park we've ever stayed at. There is even water slides. So I think little Hunter is about to go on her very first water slide. So this was quite the roller coaster of a morning, which began in the little kids pool as Hunter slowly worked up her courage. Do you want to come up and we can go down? But after one slide down the froggy slide, she was already working up way more bravery. And honestly insisted that she go down the big kid slide. She is literally directing me to the top. All righty. Which one are we going to do? We're going to do that one? Really? All righty. She has directed me to the big kid slide. Are we wanting to go down one? All righty. One, two, three. I still can't believe Hunter picked me to come on the big kid slide. All right, just leave that flex. One, two. One, two, three.