Holiday ... actually

In about 9 hours we will waive "Good-bye" to the 3rd country of our apactravel and check into the Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Nadi, Fiji. We will spend 7 nights on the islands, 3 of them at a couchsurfing home in Nadi, and 4 nights on two different Yasawa Islands. New Year takes place somewhere here, 12 hours earlier than in Europe.

And we will actually be on holiday. We will not take the laptop, we do not take the hiking boots, we will not read e-mails or post pictures and I will finally finish nbr. 3 of the Millennium-Triology, can't wait. See you next year. Maybe. If we come back. Maybe.

Have a great New Year, a hell of a party and arrive safely in a fantastic, happy and successful 2010.

Finally ... big picture post

163 pictures were uploaded today. So brew a coffee, put on some music and enjoy a journey from the South to the North Island with us. Our last route description finished in Dunedin and on Dec 11. Let's get started:

1. Dec 12 - We start off with the steepest road in the world in Dunedin and then drive up the coast to the Moeraki Boulders. These "pearls" are formed below the surface and then washed out until they get stuck on the beach. We enjoy a hidden DOC campsite with a pet wild pig, a self-build dam and a geocoin in surprising dimensions.
2. Dec 13 - The day of the bush! From the DOC campsite there is a track towards some limestone rocks. After a loooooooooong breakfast (Thank God no check-out at 10). The climb is beautiful, even challenging, and the views are amazing. We decide to not return the same way but keep on walking looking for a track to go home ... 5h later we are back, exhausted, tired and so happy that apart from some heavy scratches all over our bodies we did not suffer from anything else, while crouching through dense "furze" forest and knee-deep swamp. But, anyhow, we saw wild horses ... and sheeps (of course).
3. Dec 14 - We meet Aoraki / Mt. Cook. After a few morning clouds it is a beautiful hiking day with crystal-blue water (glacier flour!). Only the Nazi-campsite and the snow at night weren't actually part of the "ideal holiday-day" plan.
4. Dec 15 - Again Aoraki / Mt. Cook, this time from the air, on a tiny helicopter. Amazing, breathtaking views and clear-blue sky with only some clouds. We did a snow landing and also flew over Fox Glacier. Well worth its money!
   A big part of the night we spend driving - and hoping - to catch the ferry to the North Island the next day (Dec 16; Dec 17 we drive up north to do the Tongariro Crossing).
5. Dec 18 - A 5:50 am alarm clock. Nuts! At 7:30 we are on track, walking/climbing the Tongariro Crossing - what a unique adventure ,-) But the blue is convincing. We enjoy two nights at the perfectly organized Whakapapa DOC campground - incl. UMTS *yeah*! It seems like all Germans (speak "I am fffrommm Tschöarmaniiiieeeee") have retreated to New Zealand by now ... they are simply everywhere here.
   
6. Dec 19 - We continue north to Lake Taupo and come across floating beaches, curious swans and warm rivers. 360 degrees Jet Boat spins sound a lot more dramatic than they actually are, but squeezing through canyons with 40 degrees hot waterfalls is actually fun. And I am so thankful to Philipp that he actually did not mention that there were waterspiders running around where I had my nose ... The treat of the day is the Lake Taupo Top 10 Holiday Park - best facilities ever, close to hot springs. A must-stay! And it didn't even rain. Lesson-learned: Being a camper does not mean you cannot turn on the x-mas lights!
   
7. Dec 20 - belongs to the hot and boiling elements. Volcanic valley, bubbling mud pools, fuming busses and sparkling camper-x-mas-trees fill the day.
8. Dec 21 - The Pueroa Forest contains some left overs, some 50 others 2,000 years old. The Deer Jaw-Inbox is another reason why hunting is not on my fun-thing-to-do-list. Groce!
9. Dec 22 - 100m down, water, rocks, crawling, climbing, swimming, jumping, screaming, eating. This is our Waitomo Epic Cavetour experience in a few words.
10. Dec 23 to Dec 26 - Our campingtour is over. We say good-bye to Pippilotta after we "checked-in" with our lovely couchsurfing host in Auckland. 4 nights in Auckland, no driving, sunshine (finally!) and good food are waiting for us! We visit sparkling Franklin Street and celebrate x-mas with a bunch of couchsurfers from around the world. Santa was here. But not only he, also Markus flew in from Guzbach to make sure we keep up the BBQ-spirit.
    

Wow, by now it is 3am in the morning and the SD card already holds about 100 new pictures from our day out at the famous Karekare and Piha Beach. But for now I am going to say "Good night!".

All pics from this post can be found in the new picture album on facebook.

Whitsunday Islands

are just beautiful. Don't forget to sail them, dive them, hike them, fly over, snorkel them when you are around (snorkeling and swimming unfortunately always requires a stingersuit):

This is our fantastic trip with some pics - more to come soon.

Sailing the S.V Whitehaven

Map your trip with EveryTrail

The very first time ...

To do something for the very first time is always special. Remember: Riding a bike, flying, going to a club, being alone at home ... you know all these sorts of things ;-)

Growing up, there are a few good friends around that are currently on the way to experience quite significant "first times" - the first appartement together, the first baby (multiple), being married ... we hope you all do well and the adventure is just as exciting as you thought it would be. Therefore, we dedicate this blog entry to all people who currently do something for the first time in their life. How does it feel???

During our past 7 weeks of travel there have been so many "first times" already it is hard to keep track of them. But a few days ago there was for sure a highlight: Surfing Australian waves. What an awesome sport but I know now why surfers usually look like they do (in case you don't know: *yummie!*) - that sport is f*** exhausting!!! Pardon my french. There are no pictures - we were to busy fighting against current and waves - but this is what the beach kind of looked like. And - thanks to our horse riding (she) and snowboarding (he) experience - we were able to actually surf and stay on the board for over 20 sec. So proud!!!

Visiting the Australian Zoo also had a very important first time: seeing a wombat. After actually hearing them already around our tent at night, we now could see them and found out that these little teddy-bears can run as fast as 40km/h. Try to run away from that one - right, why would you ... Btw, did you know that a 200t whale can go as fast as 48km/h? You don't want to be in the boat that's crossing his way while sprinting. The "rusty motorcycle" noise we heard at night and thought it was a bird, is actually ... a Koala. A few more animal facts: Kookatoos can live for as long as 80 - 100 years, alligators even up to 130.

Speaking of animal facts: While hiking around Ebor Falls on the Waterfall way, we had another "first time" encounter. All kangaroos we met so far were quite cute animals, very relaxed. But there are others, this one being about 1,90 - 2,00m tall with a chest and arms I don't want to fight with. Up for a little boxing, anyone? The Red Kangaroo can even grow up to 2,40m according to a display in the Australia Zoo.

Our when-we-got-it-it-was-brand-new car (= 16kms) shows 5,000kms now. For those who want to keep track I try and continue my list I started recently:

1. Narooma was beautiful, don't miss the beaches!
2. We decided to finally buy a tent and spend a day on the beach @ Batemans Bay (beautiful!) and tested the tent on the weirdest campground ever. Close to a highway, no facilities - and still, some people drive over 100km to stay just here for 4 nights. Not to mention all those people that started to shovel in the middle of the night. Weird and soooo scary!
3. After another day on the road we arrived in the Blue Mountains and stayed at an ok-caravan park in Bleackheath. Management is very grumpy and literally everything is forbidden. Nice facilities, though.
4. The next day was "4WD day" with a lot of gravel roads in the National Parks north of Katoomba. Don't miss the Glowworm tunnel. Also the Dry Canyon is worth a visit - there is a nice Geocache hidden at the end of the canyon.
5. The next 2 nights we spend at the Flying Fox in Katoomba. A fun and relaxed hostel with very helpful staff - the facilities are a little bit too much hostel for me though ... especially the bathroom.
6. Our activities in the Blue Mountains see here.
7. We left the Blue Mountains heading north through the hinterland. Passing Scone (horse town) and the Burning Mountain. We stayed in Armidale at the Pembroke Tourist & Leisure Park - so far so good.
8. Enough north - we turn east, following the Waterfall Way to the coast. Passing Wollomombi and Ebor Falls.
9. At Grafton we stay a wonderful but rainy night at the 5* Caravan Park "The Gateway Village". It was Jacaranda Festival in town.
10. Due to the weather - rain, rain, rain, and again, rain - we did not go up to Byron Bay the next day, but stayed in Lennox Head. And extended to a 3 nights stay. The YHA in Lennox Head is a wonderful place to be - don't miss Graeme's self-made chocolate cake. Beautiful walks, great beaches, good ice-cream.
11. Finally we had to go north and went via Australia Zoo (and - also a first time: a really awful caravan park in the Glass House Mountains) to Rainbow Beach to check out the Fraser Island packages they have to offer. Not so much for indiviual travel, rather groups. Very backpacker!
12. We decided to postpone Fraser Island by 2 days and went back to Noosa. Our tent site is on the beach. Pure holiday. A must on every travel plan.

So far, so good. Only 1,300kms to go - about 10 days left. We will get there. Stay with us ;-)

Safety first!

We are in the Blue Mountains for 2 days already - stunning mountains, very green forest and steep canyons/stairs, not so much blue though. More green, brown and yellow. We are staying at the Flying Fox Hostel in a "room with a view" ;-). Very nice and fun place with a lot of people to meet and share stories with.

We learned today that the New South Wales Police offers free-of-charge PLBs to hikers in NSW, especially in the the Blue Mountain area. Guess who was thrilled to take along another gadget ;-) But although the Federal Pass along Katoomba does not really require special security gadgets it still is a great service, I think. Especially if you pass by so many FlipFlop-Tourists along the way trying to hold on to the handrails while "sliding" down 50m steep stairs. Luckily we didn't meet any of them while hiking down the Dry Canyon - incl. gravel road driving, 2 hours hike through bushland and quite some rock climbing through the canyon.

Sometimes safety is as much as hopping into your car, considering that a Red-bellied black Snake just passes by your car. Or putting on sunscreen 50 which actually works too well as the "Natural Tan" updates prove.

We came across this ad yesterday - can anyone eyplain what this means? Thank you!

Tomorrow saftey for us means making sure we don't fall asleep or kill a kangaroo/wallabie/wombat/human being while heading quite a few hundred kilometers further north. Brisbane, here we come!

Yesterday Offroad, today snow and a week ago Kangaroos - what day is today and where are we?

Good question! I have no clue (most of the time)!

Based on the Halloween decorations that party must be close and considering that people all along the coast buy gadzillions of kilos of food a long weekend seems to come along. So, let's see ...

• We are driving on the wrong side of the road - must be Australia (too sunny for England, too sorted for India, too peaceful for South Africa).
• This is confirmed by the road signs which range from "Kangaroos", "Wombats", "Wallabies", "Trucks", "Ducks" and "Aged" ... you name it ... crossing
• Halloween = Oct 31, 2009 coming up (Make sure you don't open the door for Freddy!)
  
• Long Weekend = Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation; 3200m, 3 year and older - also coming up (Oh God, I didn't bring my hat!)
  
• We have snow and bright sunshine as well as surfer's on the beach - must be winter ;-)

Ok, for those who like to get a short understanding where we went so far, this is the list:

1. Adelaide - Nice couchsurfing
2. Down south to Kangaroo Island - don't miss Maslin Beach
3. 2 days on Kangaroo Island - Offroad, animals, rocks, Coastline - you can easily do 4 days to a week
   
4. Via Fleur Peninsula & Victor Harbor into the Grampians - Road-side BBQs are great stuff!
   
5. 2 days at the Grampians - you can do easily a full week there - bring your 4WD ;-)
6. Down to Great Ocean Road - Bimbi Campground is an amazing place, close to there is also an interesting Tree-top walk
   
7. Along Great Ocean Road to Melbourne - look out of the windows, an that is not just because of the many, many, many curves
8. 2 days in Melbourne - Great couchsurfing, fun city with good weather and very good food
   
9. Along the coast via Lake Entrance to Buchan - that is the center of the world ... with caves, no honestly: plan to stay there longer - it is "true holiday" at Buchan Lodge
   
10. Through the snowy mountains or Australian Alps to Jyndabinde - yep, snow, fun skiing area and very steep roads as well as just the perfect accomodation for Glenf & Soeren
    
11. Back to the coast at Narooma - make sure you watch out for whales, seals, penguins and birds on Montague Island and meet YHA Momo
    
12. Thats a little bit more than 2,000 kilometers so far. More the 3,000 still to go. 3 weeks left.

And that is about the only time and place which we should not forget.
Hope all is well with you and the weather plays nicely. Have a good day!

Wishlist

Are there any places (in the countries mentioned on the upper left corner) you always wanted to visit but haven't so far? This is your place to request your personal post card or picture. Just post a comment - and make sure we recognize who you are ;-).

Also - you have a second cousins nice's grandmother's friend living somewhere down there who has a couch and loves visitors? Great. You can send us his/her name and address via e-mail or facebook mail.
Thank you!