Australia - BIG country...

Another lovely flight with Emirates, and we hoped to stay longer on the plane!! Nice wine and salmon...but then, back to backpacker`s standards.
Brisbane - HOT! not the city so much but it is HOT - Nothing compared to NZ. We went to see the city, really nice by night actually. There is also an artificial beach in the middle of the city, but we needed to wait a bit longer to enjoy the REAL beach in...Hervey Bay. Well, let`s say a taster. We arrived after 6 hours drive and stayed in the Woolshed Backpackers, a really nice hostel, although we arrived late and were locked out - plus the fact that we were hungry and tired caused Mel to curse the hostel, but after a bit we found the key...and we also found a "possum" in our room. A real one. At first we thought it`s outside, but we were wrong. The second night we stayed awake just in case it would attack us. But I think it was more scared than we were.
From Hervey Bay we went to Fraser Island, WOW! We booked a 2 days tour with a cool guide who has been living at Fraser for about 35 years. We got to see Lake McKenzie (superclean rainwater, you could drink it and my hair felt like I went to the hairdresser!), Lake Wabby (totally cool, felt like Leonardo di Caprio in THE BEACH) and a few other things such as Coloured Sands and Indian Heads (great views...no sharks but big waves!).

We stayed in a really nice resort and got good food (we felt like on holidays for the first time I think!) and apart from the very nasty mosquito bites (we looked like we have some kind of illness!), we had a fab time on the island...
We then headed to Noosa Heads, gosh we wished we stayed there longer as it was great. High waves, nice place to stay (even with a bathroom in the room! How posh...). After only a day, we then headed to Byron Bay, a bit eco and hippie, but well, if you go to Australia, I guess this is it:) The hostel called Arts Factory Lodge has their own brewery, pool, hammocks etc., but also lots of party people - we as a couple felt old and boring and even got told to "live a little" (??Well, we are just on a world tour now so I think we do!) But this is what you get when you are over 25 and everybody is under 20:) Anyway, we got a bit sunburnt as well, but we should not complain as it has still minus degrees in Germany.
After this rather embarassing (or "we-are-not-18-years-old-anymore") stay we took an overnight bus to Syndey:

Great city, we had about 3 full days there and we really could have spent a few days more. The opera (although the story is a bit sad, as the architect never got to see his work at the end) is great and felt a little bit like you see the Eiffel Tower for the first time. We also did a free sightseeing tour and went to the lovely districts Glebe (a bit like northern quarter in Manchester!) and took the ferry to Manly. Really nice day trips and worthwhile! We slept at the airport on the way to Tasmania and were a little bit stoned once we arrived (not literally!). We were both really fascinated about Virgin Blue (so everyone should fly with them if you get the chance), cool airline.
So - Tasmania or Tassie. No words left for this beautiful spot of land. The "cities" felt a bit like my little town in Germany, as a so-called "city" is everything from around 10.000 people and a "town" can be everything from one person.

The landscape absolutely stunning. We rented a car for 4 days (and converted it to our living room, dining room and bedroom) and went all the way from Hobart, the capital, to Port Arthur (historic site), where we did a ghost tour, Freycient National Park (Wineglass Bay really stunning as well as the Wineglass Beach), and all the way up to Launceston.

From there we went to Pipers Brook where we did (a few:)) winetastings, yummie!! We could get used to this ceremony every day!! We also went to a strawberry picking farm and had one of the best (apart from the ones my grandma grows!) strawberries ever! We also went to Cradle Mountain, absolutely beautiful spot and went all the way back through forest, giant trees to Russel Falls in Mt Field National Park. We did another wine tasting in the Cole River Valley next to Richmond and checked out the oldest bridge in Tassie. In Tassie you can do 1000 nice little shortwalks on the way and you feel like you need to stop every few minutes, but we drove around 1300 km in 4 days....Tassie has also nice coffee bars, great tarts!
All in all we had a great time and it was probably the best time we had in Australia. Tasmania has everything if you like nature, wildlife and sleeping in your car:)From Hobart we flew to Melbourne where we arrived 5 days ago. Gosh - this city is THE city, our favorite so far, really got everything from cool bars, great nightlife and cafes, a beach, lots of arty districts and architecture. We totally fell in love with it. We also met Jackie (Mel`s ex-colleague from MIF), was great seeing someone familiar:) We did a few FREE city tours (that s also good about Melbourne), we checked out the Botanic Gardens, Federation Square and of course the Queen Victoria Markets, great food and cheap souvenirs! We also went to St Kilda (beach) and to a few nice districts but the highlight was the Great Ocean Road.

We rented a car (again) and used it (again) as everything but a car: sleeping, eating, chilling out. Anyway - the drive there (about 3-4 hours from Melbourne) is absolutely stunning. The highlight of the the road is of course, the 12 Apostles (although there are only 9 visible), but also the The Arch, the Thunder Cave and London Bridge are worth seeing. We also spotted some koalas (they are sooo cute!!) hanging in eucalyptus trees and we also saw penguins wobbling back to their cave after sunset. A great 24 hour trip!!

And that s the end (of Australia!) - from tomorrow it s all about Asia, starting with Singapore, which means we finally can afford a dinner instead of cooking supermarket food, what a luxury!!

MEL & RAF aka. the Fast and the Furious

New Zealand - here we come!

One piece of advice: Never book a direct flight Manchester to New Zealand, it´s a killer!After 30 hours on a plane you are seriously getting crazy....Manchester - Dubai (7hours), Dubai - Bangkok (6h), Bangkok - Sydney (9h), Sydney - Christchurch (3h)and a few hours on each airport, getting off and on the plane again....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! We tried to keep track about what time it was but no chance...You feel nothing in the end, just your body walking through the check points, but you cannot really imagine what´s happening.Anyway, the food with Emirates was fantastic and all we did those 30 hours was: Eating, drinking and watching DVDs - every few hours...

BUT, we arrived at Christchurch (how happy we were to read this name on the screen!!)on the 15th at 3pm and felt a bit like drugged...(shame we weren`t!). We stayed in the Cokers (good choice of name...!) Hostel in Manchester Street! Wasn`t the best choice but after 30 hours all you want is relax and get normal again, so we decided to change to Coachman Backpackers. Still jet-lagged we went up a hill with the gondola in Christchurch, where you have a wonderful (windy!) view of the town - just to remind us that we are really in New Zealand, still a bit surreal.
After two days and a bit of recovery from 12 hours time difference, we headed to Queenstown, a great great city with a good vibe, where we immediately followed the sound of music and ended up in a festival, drinking beer! OH yes, we finally arrived. Later that afternoon we booked the impossible...a bus to Milford Sound (a must do, simply impressive!!). The bad things is you spend 5 hours on a bus (one way!) and 2 hours on the boat, but hey - welcome backpacker life!

Because Queenstown is known for adrenalin seekers, Raf decided to do a bungy jump from Kawarau Bridge, about 43m. I was quite nervous just watching him (fall) and it was really pure adrenalin rush!! (I am talking about ME, how did HE FEEL?? His heart was on fire...) It was a great experience and he looked like he had seen the most beautiful girl in the world (that would be me of course) after the jump! Amazing feeling it must be.....


From Queenstown we headed to Franz Glacier to do some hiking. Gosh - we came back home, totally soaked, totally knackered....The Glacier looks great from far away and on the postcards, but unfortunately we did not see much of it. We decided to do the BIG WALK (everyone who knows us would say...."you are not fit, why would you chose the LONGEST WALK??" Well, we don`t know....it was an incredible experience, lots of nature surrounds you, great fresh air, and we definively made up on all those bus travels as we spent 10 hours walking or better said hiking...or better said floating, as is was raining so heavily that we were rather swimming than walking. Anyway, a great day but unfortunately our hard work was not blessed by a great view as it was foggy everywhere.But we can say we walked up to 1300 meters (Alex Knob it was called). After our endless journey to the forest and back we cannot move anymore so we will be more than happy to take a 10 hour bus to Nelson tomorrow....We did not know that you can feel all your bones after such a hike!
After a long long drive in a 20 year old little bus, we reached Nelson. The drive was nice though, we saw the whole West Coast of the South, so a bit of a consolation for the uncomfortable chairs. Nelson is a nice city, a bit touristy but the Abel Tasman Track was worth every penny. We had lovely weather, a nice little boat tour and then we walked round the Abel Tasman for 4 hours, having a look at the most beautiful spots, just nice. Our most used sentence was "This is nice...."! Definitively the best day so far.

After the track we took the bus to Picton, an astonishing nice little city on the Harbor. There, we did another (! - we are getting sporty here!) track, called Queen Charlotte Track. We did not really know which one we preferred, Abel Tasman or Queen Charlotte but it was different, as Queen Charlotte seemed less touristy, there were times where we thought we lost the track as we could not see anybody around us, which was nice! Another 4 hours walk, a bit muddy at the beginning but nice views and a nice little picknick with wine and muffin and a gorgeous view! A perfect day to celebrate Rafs 30th (!) birthday. No joke, this is true! I surprised him in the morning with a 3-0- candle stuffed in muffins and a voucher for SKYDIVING in Taupo , so he`ll never forget his birthday....When I started to sing "Happy Birthday" in my sexy pyjamas the wrong Raf went in the room and the guy looked rather scared, but after the second try and it was the right one:)
Anyway, back to the Queen...As another birthday present I asked a few whales to say hello and when we took the boat back from Queen Charlotte we saw 2 whales (one baby whale swimming just next to the boat!), it was the most amazing experience ever...you cannot be much closer to nature.

SO - after a lot of tracking it only took a short ferry ride to reach Wellington, on the north side of New Zealand. We went to the botanic gardens and saw Te Papa Museum, the best museum we probably seen so far, with a MEGA Squid! Unfortunately we don`t have the money for a few beers but we look forward to Asia for this:) After a short stay we took the bus to Taupo, where our BIG day started. We are still feeling the adrenalin a bit in our veins...A combo of Skydiving AND Bungy is definitively enough within 10 hours, but it was WORTH IT, every penny and every second...! BIG DAY. First of all, our lodge in Taupo called TIKI LODGE was great, lots of nice people and a cosy atmosphere. Once we arrived we decided to go for a combo of Bungy and Skydive the day after so there we go:
8am - wake up and we both felt really nervous....it was a GREAT SUNNY DAY, clear blue sky...We were really happy! But thank god we took the bus in the morning already, cause we would have gone mad otherwise...
10.15am - we and 4 other people got picked up to go to the airport, where we got a bit of an induction. Dressed in red with a cool pilot cap we started to go to the small (!!) yellow plane and got to know our instructor who would do the jump with us. All nice chaps, they did jump between 5.000 and 20.000 times!! UNBELIEVABLE!! So all in good hands.
12.00am - We got squashed in the plane and everybody could feel the slight tension...there we went....5.000 feet.....10.000 feet....12.000 feet - where the first 3 people already jumped off. Just seeing them jumping or falling or whatever WITHING SECONDS was VERY scary....this is the time where you think "AM I MAD OR WHAT???" But no time to think....A few last words from our instructors and you start to panic...no wonder, 15.000 feet - the highest possible.
And that`s the moment of your life (literally!!) I (Mel) went first (no choice there!) and after a few seconds, a quick hello in the camera (the moment I missed caused I got ready to jump...) you hold on to your equipment and there you go...YOU FALLLLLLLLLLLL! After a few seconds you start to realise...oh my God, I jumped out of a plane!! Raf went after me, but I was too busy trying to understand what I am doing, so could not see anything apart from the Lake Taupo (the biggest lake in NZ!) and lots of mountains...it was beautiful and we both loved every second....It felt like 5 seconds but you are actually falling for more than 60 seconds!

The parachute opened at 5.000 feet and you start to relax a bit more. Raf did not feel too well after it cause the instructor took a few very fast turns so he felt a bit dizzy at the end. All in all, worth doing 100%, I personally want to do it again as it was the BEST experience of my life, that `s for sure. Maybe a skydiving instructor could be another option for a career? (Mum, I am joking!:))

But that` s not it... yet...

12.30pm - We checked out the DVD and chose our T-shirt, it was great to see the DVD as it really is 60 seconds!
13.00 - Drive to the next adrenalin site: Bungy - the bit where Raf is less scared,I am more scared of it than the Skydiving...Cause YOU need to jump!
Quick decision if I wanted to do a Tandem with Raf (which means even if I don`t want to jump I WILL anyway) BUT I was brave enough (stupid!) and wanted to jump on my own.
13.45: After a quick word of advice and checking your weight you can go on the platform/bridge where you jump off. (I looked down once and thought - SURELY NOT!)
Raf jumped first and left me all by myself 50 meters above the ground. He did so well, jumped after the 1-2-3 count like a professional (well he already did it once before!!).
My turn, SCCCARRRY - the instructor counted 1-2-3 but I was still up there. I said "I cannot jump, ...count again", so she counted again and I jumped. I only remembered that I made funny noises and then SPLASH - the body was half in the water and you realise "This is it!". Raf nearly lost his T-shirt when he jumped and I was half naked, but hey.
All in all, a great experience, a real adrenalin shock, but worth it. In my opinion scarier than Skydving, in Raf`s opinion less scary than Skydiving...so I guess you need to do it yourself to find out!

Our adventure just started and the next stop would be Tongario Alpine Crossing, 7 hours walk/hike. Bus pick up at 5.30am, this is not a holiday we can tell you this!!:) The Crossing is kind of hurt cause it was so beautiful. Definitively the best walking/trekking we did so far. Beautiful landscape, craters, lakes....although the `Devil`s Staircase` was a bit steep, we got rewarded with the nice views.
It was not as exhausting as we thought (probably because we got used to walk for a few hours a day!) but we fell asleep like a baby this night.

Next day: Bus to Rotorua...and you can SMELL it once you approach this city, it`s unbelievable how it stinks! As if you are walking through a festival site on the last day...like a toilet! Supposed to be healthy, we are not quite sure...
Nice little city and we encountered our first Maori experience, everything for no money and nothing too touristy. We visited a small Maori village and a guy called Sonny gave us a 1,5 hour tour through the history of his people. It was fascinating, interesting and really beautiful. We enjoyed every second and every `hungi` greeting (quote as he `hungied` Raf: `You are easy to hungi`!).
We spent the evening in the Polynesia Spa, absolutely great. There were 4 outdoor pools, all between 30 and 42 degrees, quite HOT when you spend longer than 10 minutes...We really enjoyed it...After all those hiking tours! Well earned..

Our last stop in New Zealand was Auckland, Kia Ora! The city itself not very spectacular but the day trip to Devonport was worth while...

Raf & Mel aka. "the adrenalin couple"

Counting the days...Merry Christmas and the new year can come!

The days are passing by so quickly, time is running out...

20.12.2009
Our first entry for this blog. We cannot believe that this is it...we quit our jobs, our lovely flat, said goodbye to our friends in the UK and are heading to a totally new start...Travelling for 6 months to all the countries we decided to go and then moving to Munich. Quite a challenge for 2010!
We both feel a bit sad, anxious, excited and happy. It´s a rollercoster and you paid for it, so you cannot go back. Only 2 days to go then (well if Manchester Airport is not closed again....!) we will take the plane to Germany / Italy and in a few weeks time we will be back in Manchester to take the BIG PLANE, going to New Zealand.



Our first stop is Christchurch and we will start our journey on 13th of January 2010....Our travel equipment is ordered and we are proud owners of new shoes that are supposed to be the best for a worldtrip (I think the Sales man was very talented...), our budget is updated - which equals around 20 Euros per day (we wish ourselves good luck really), we are pumped up with vaccinations and malaria tabletts and we are just waiting to take off.....Here they come....and were never seen again:) Well no, we´ll try to be back in ....July - for the good weather! First we will spend Christmas at home and we really look forward to it. Merry Christmas everyone and we hope to have a good start of the year!

Raf and Mel aka. "is this really happening?"