Murf: Bungy a bit...

A bit late but for those of you who wanted to see what a bungy jump looks and sounds like, I've put mine on the gallery of New Zealand...

Have fun!

Murf

You gotta go there to come back...

And with the title of this stereophonics album I will put down the last entry on this website about my trip to Australia, New Zealand and Bali.

My trip home was easy and even slept all the way over Russia. The only custums who really was annoying was the dutch one. But just talked myself out of that one. (yes if they would've checked me they would have seen I was lying.) On the airport (most of) my friends and all my family was there. It was so cool to see everybody again. To talk and hug everybody. So a big THANX for everybody who came to pick me up.

Today I am starting my 3rd week of working in a laundryservice. Work is boring and heavy. Money is not much. But I'll have to start somewhere. Wednesday signing papers for my second job. November I will hopefully move on my own to Utrecht. Will be glad to do so, because living in by my parents does bring some uncomfterble situations after living on my own for so long.

For the rest is Holland feeling still strangely formilliar. But it's different. Like a skin that is too tight and still has to be worn a bit longer to get a good fitting. But I will survive. As soon as I live on my own and start my educationn on the end of August. I'll have my own place and life to live again.

Also a short look over where I've been.
New Zealand: Owesome! I'll be back. To much exciting sports, the best view ever and a gourgious culture.
Australia: Interesting culture, lots of different vegetation (that's why I will be back at some places, but others not really necessairly) So a bit a double feeling about it. Culture is very interesting though. Desert is very empty. (although not so sandy as i expected) But I loved Tassy and the north rainforest. (except for the mozzys)
Bali: Nice for 2 weeks, but never longer. Don't get any rest over there. But nice to party, drink and hang in the sun/pool.

Here also the little line that all the fotos are also online. From New Zealand to bali. Nothing else will follow.

And off cours I won't forget my ozzy family who helped me through. I thank you so much for your support, help and that bed that I slept in. I owe you guys more than I can ever give back.

Lot's of love
And hope to see you back
as soon as I go again
Somewheresouth

Nicky

Murf: Back home - A room, a job, and slowly back to normal.

Writing somewheresouth exactly one week after I returned to my own home. A lot changed, a lot stayed the same. It was incredibly busy last week and I did have to arrange soo many things that my mind was buzzing all week but with succes. In this week I found a job as a 1st line helpdesk employee at a big internet provider (2 actually so I had to choose) so I can start paying of the debts straight away. I also bought 3 big closets to store my stuff (2nd hand off course) and to work as a room-divider, found a big curtain to serve as door and as a room-divider as well so I finally have my own private space again. Tiny but very very comfortable with view over the balcony and a massive room-wide window. I got all my stuff from Nicky's parents and from a friend of mine where it was stored for 6 months and next to all that I bought myself a cheap but very good 2nd hand laserprinter (HP Laserjet 4Plus, 25 EUR) with a free nice Pentium III system and a desklamp. (I had to buy a monitor though but 20 EUR for a nice Dell 17" with 4 weeks warranty is not bad.) That means that I not only have a nice bedroom now (with a massive 180x120 poster of the movie "Constantine" on the wall) but I also have a very nice office / study place next to my bed so that I can improve my skills in private.

So it seems that all looks pretty ok for now. There is still an awfull lot I have to do, making the place nice and tidy, arranging lot of financial stuff, getting insight in my finances and paying off the debts but at least I made a good start and begin with a fairly tidy bedroom/office. (I basically stashed all my stuff in my closets to sort out later.) And that does feel like a good start. It's been a bit of a rush last week and the rush won't be over the next weeks but the rest I can at least do on an easier pace so that I can concentrate on my new job. The job might be a bit below my level, I'm still really looking forward to it as it has very hard parts. The big problem with the job is that most of the customers calling don't have ANY clue about computers and/or internet and are using windows. The main question you'll hear will be "The internet is broken. Can you fix it?" while 99,9999% of the time the internet isn't broken (really, that won't happen, it's too big and to spiderweb-like to be able to totally) but it's their computer and/or their internet connection and/or just their email/MSN/browsing which doesn't work. And without too much knowledge of Windows from my side and no experience in a big commercial callcenter like this (I've always worked for small companies as 1st/2nd line helpdesk, systems administrator, hardware-engineer and technical consultant) this will be a challenge for me. Not because I don't have all the knowledge but because I have to talk in THEIR language, not mine. (And because the ISP is on the low-end of the market deal with very upset customers who really don't have a clue what's going on but are still totally pissed off when it's broken because off course it's alwas YOUR fault.)

Anyway, there won't be to many updates from my side anymore. I will write a general overview off my/our trip later and maybe an incidental update about how life starts to run again after the big trip but as Somewheresouth is about travelling I think I should mainly stick to that and pull it out of the closet when I (or Nicky) start travelling to the southern hemisphere again. And for our trips on the northern hemisphere? Well, you could've guessed that a long time ago I already registered somewherenorth.net. In fact, that website existed BEFORE Somewheresouth because I heard a song of AudioTransparent with "Somewhere north is where I belong" in it and couldn't resist registering the domainname. It was later when I met Nicky and wanted a website for our travels when I registered somewheresouth. Somewherenorth was a bit unappropriate for travels on the southern hemisphere so somewheresouth became allive...

Murf

Murf: Christchurch to Enschede

Well, as promised here the last bit of my journey. Somehow I managed to get to the airport at Christchurch and got to the checking where I more or less ran into trouble with my overweight. My checkin luggage being 28Kg and my cabin luggage beeing 14Kg the girl behind the counter wouldn't allow my cabin luggage beeing that heavy and wanted to charge for my overweight as well. I tried to convince her that I was just going home after 6 months and that therefore it was quite normal beeing a bit overweighted but no, the limits where 20Kg and 7kg and that's how it was. So I ended up loading 7Kg in my pockets and plastic bags to drop the 14Kg down to less than 7Kg, checkin my cabin luggage as checkin luggage and carrying not more than 7Kg in plastic bags into the cabin. (Cheating a bit my pockets where stuffed with heavy items like my photocamera and my coat must 've been 7Kg on it's own already but hey...) I paid the $110,- and finally went on. So I flew to Sydney, sleeping half the time as I was still kinda sick, had a nice talk with a girl who this time I *do* regret I didn't got her email addy (you meet 100,000's of lovely people so normally you just don't ask and don't regret as it would be impossible to keep in touch anyway) and after a smooth flight got out at Sydney airport for a 22 hour stopover. Got out, locked my big backpack away in a secure storage at the airport, got to Central and dragged myself into the YHA hostel where I went for a quit 4-bed dorm as I really did need the sleep that night. Well, aparently I did, I sat down on my bed feeling a bit sleepy so layd down for a while only to wake up 3 hours later, making up my bed, undressing, getting in and sleeping 'till 8am the next morning. So I skipped my partynight in Sydney, no sense, I had a great time the last night in Christchurch and was feeling not too well to have a big night out anyway so hey, why bother. I did however go shopping the next morning in Sydney. Instead of 1 there where 3 $10,- cd shops and even knowing I couln't entirely afford spending money on luxury stuff I still came out with in total round about 18 cd's waisting more than $250,- as some of 'm where in the $15,- category for beeing just released. Ah well, I did get some cd's which I wanted for years already so it's not much of a waiste. And then back for the big flight home, this time I didn't have any trouble with my overweight, they didn't weigh my cabin luggage at all and the 28Kg was suddenly no problem anymore when I pollitely answered "Home!" to the question "Where are you going?". He grinned, the lady next to him joked "Hey, that's a very popular destination!" and checked let the massive bag through. Thanx m'te! He even looked surprised when I told him that I did have to pay for it at Christchurch. Cool stuff. Anyway, I hopped onto the aircraft and only there I wasn't too pleased. I should have a window seat and got seat F which is is a Boeing 747-400 one of the 2 center seats. If you look at the seats and _ beeing the aisle it looks like this: (xxx_xfxx_xxx) But nevertheless I had a quite pleasant flight with a quick strech of the legs at Hongkong and I really slept a lot while flying all the way to London. I finally felt like using my discman a lot and listened to almost all cd's I bought in Sydney. After we landed in Heathrow I got from T4 to T1 to fix a new boarding pass, then from T1 to T4 because there where no showers at T1, got a nice hot shower after searching for it for half an hour (it was thouroughly hidden), bough some small souvenirs, went back to T1 and ran into the lady of the security check again who regocnized me and asked if I got lost. But no, just a shower and she smiled realizing that indeed after 22 hours of flying a shower is definetely a thing you need. So no further trouble there and after another couple of hours of waiting I got into flight BA105 to take me home! Sitting next to the emergency exit I had even more legspace than in the aircraft from Sydney to London... Anyway, smooth flight and landing nicely on time. I almost ran through customs, to the baggage claim, grabbed my bag (which was there right when I got myself a trolley, very very fast) and made it for the "nothing to declare" gate where they stopped me for a second asking where I came from and how long I've been away. I saw the guy doubting if he'd question me more and/or search my bag but after 3 seconds (who felt like ages) hey said "Welcome home!" and let me through. And there I was, the door opened and suddenly I saw familiar faces which I haven't seen in 6 months. Mom, Nicky, Nicky's parents and Chantal. Gave 'm all a big hug before we went for some espresso. The rest of the gang was a bit delayed, they ran out of petrol on the highway... But after a quick phonecall they decided to run to Leiderdorp (where Nicky lives) instead of the airport so we'd meet 'm there. Chantal jumped on the train back home quite soon and off we went, me seeing how it feels to drive on the right side of the road again.

As soon as I got out of the car I got squashed by the rest of the whole gang, Abieg, Maarten, Sabine en Jeroen. What a welcome! They had covered my car with a "Welcome home" banner and really almost squashing me, finally beeing able to hold me and talk to me again. It felt soo good to be back, hearing familiar voices I haven't heard in 6 months, hearing all the latest gossip of who did it with who and who broke up with who and, well, you know the works. Dinner was nothing less than a "patatje speciaal" for me, I missed that for like 6 months as you can't get it. And after dinner the whole gang went home again leaving me for a quiet evening at Nicky's place. The heat got me a little though, I got nauseus after beeing on the attick for 10 minutes and had to go out for a walk outside after which it dropped a bit. Found my bed at 0:00 and then unfortunately woke up at 5am thanx to the wonderfull thunderstorm. But hey, at least I was awake and surprisingly I did feel fit enough to drive back home at the planned 10:00am so I did, with my mom sitting next to me. Yes I messed up the controls the first couple of Km's (grabbing with my left hand to my gears and switchin on my blinkers while I only wanted to whipe my screen) but I really got home without too much trouble. For the first time in 6 months I drove on the right side in my own little car, all the way back home and I truly liked it having my car-stereo softly pumping good vibes into the car with that warm and nice bass underneath it where my car is so famous for. ETA was 1pm but we didn't make that, we had too much stuff to arrange so dropped my X-ray off at the dentist and went shopping for a bed and closets and such. We did find a nice bed, new even, for as little as EUR 135,- but we decided not to buy it. Maybe a bit stupid afterwards as at that time I still had my mom with me and my bank card denied any service in the supermarket later on because of insufficient funds. Aparently my creditcard bill had kicked in and I had dropped below my limits. *AUTCH!* Anyway, after dropping my mom off at the train station to get her home I dropped in at the CWI to apply for gouvernment support for the first couple of days where I won't have any job and then went home after buying some groceries and a couple of fliptop-bottles of Grolsch.

And then I was home! I quietly opened the door to find no-one around so I stashed my stuff in the hallway, said hi to the neighbours and tried to switch on my laptop to realize that you DO need a network-cable for hooking it up to the internet and that the only ones I had where in the basement where I don't have a key off anymore. SHIT! So I rang a friend of mine if he'd have some cable and he agreed to come over for dinner and I had internet on my laptop at 7pm or so. Meanwhile my roommate came in, I almost forgot Hepp and my dinner talking to her just to realize at 9:15pm that we really where getting hungry. Well, late dinner then. Hepp went and just as he left my other roommate came in so the place was full again. I wanted to go to bed at 0:00 but I was too awake so it got 1:30am and then it's a bit sad if you wake up at 5am again. So aparently I do have little of a jetlag. And that's where I started this story, sitting on my own couch with my own laptop on my lap writing one of the last stories on somewheresouth! Today will be a very busy day for me, calling loads of people and visiting loads of places to make sure all that need to be done is done as soon as possible. So finding a job, make sure that I can use my bank-card again so I can buy the neccecairy stuff like a bed, a room-divider, a printer and those kinda things. Tomorrow Nicky's parents will bring back all my stuff which is still there and probably saturday or sunday I'll retrieve all from jnieuwen's place so that all is where it should be and nothing left at other people's places. I want those things fixed this week as hopefully next week I'll have at least some temporary job to provide me with some income.

We'll see, at least I'm home. It does feel funny, it's a bit nasty that I have to plunge into the stressfull stuff straight away but still it feels good to sit behind my own laptop at my own couch again. Home. There's nothing like it!

Murf: Home sweet home

The rest of the story will follow but as it is 5:36am now and I just got woken up by a true dutch thunderstorm I won't do that right now. Anyway, after a long but safe and actually fairly smooth flight (as well as in the air as well as customs) I'm almost home. Safely.
Still 200Km to drive but that's just because right now I'm ad Nicky's place and will go to my own hometown within just a couple of hours.

Oh, and as I've off course seen, spoken to and hugged Nicky (after all, she lives here and was there to pick me up at the airport) I can assure you that she's safe and at home as well. ;-P

TTYL!

Murf

Murf: Queenstown to Christchurch

Well, all worked out luckily with the bus. There where not 1, not 2 but 3 people on standby and I was first. (I really hate arriving late.) They could at least take me to Twizel but being nothing there but Mount Cook I doubted about taking that opportunity anyway or then stay in Queenstown and try to get onto the Nevis again. But, at the end around 6 people didn't show up so there was plenty of space for the 3 of us. The road to Christchurch was a fairly long trip, with only the mandatory toilet, food and photostops we arrived in Christchurch around 5:30pm. As Base BP was the most familiar hostel for me in town (and I kinda liked the bar downstairs last time) I booked in for 3 nights. Those nights and days are over now, just half an hour before I have to check out and dump all my stuff downstairs but it was a crazy time. I spent all those days shopping and all the nights hanging in Saints & Sinners though I did do some cultural thing by going to the Art Gallery which was fairly interesting. (And believe it or not, I FINALLY found a book I promised to someone about Maoiri Tattoo's, not really small, not really cheap but hey, after hours and hours of shopping you're so glad that you finally have it that you are willing to pay a little more...) I also bought some last-minute souvenirs AND I dyed and cut my hair. Surprise surprise, the hooligan look is gone, it's now black/purple and fairly short. Funky yet sophisticated if neccecairy. (When looking for a job for example.)

The nights where absolutely crazy, I think maybe even the best I've had so far. Wednesday was really dull, so I used that as a day off and had only 2 beers before going to bed and updating my diary @ 11:00pm. But tuesday and yesterday where like party nights have to be. Dancing, drinking, getting kicked out of the pub at closing time (2:00am), and just simply having the time of your life. Aparently leaving within a matter of days DOES make you more interesting. (Thanx girls! ;-P)

Last night ended though not entirely the way I wanted. I had a burger at Burger King earlier at night and aparently the burger was still allive giving me a massive screwup of my entire digestive system. Luckily the first symptoms showed up after my night out and wile asleep but it more or less completely ruined my night. I got up at 4am never to see my bed again and spent the night haning over the toilets, chatting with the night guard and the internet. The nightguard felt more or less sorry for me as it wasn't due to alcohol so I got 2 hours for free! Had a funny time down there though, watching totally pissed people passing by and chatting, one who after 15 minutes of trying to sleep leaning against the wall decided to sleep on the bench right in front of us. IN the hostel.

And still (9:28am) my body feel like a train has been driving over it, 3 times but there is no way in trying to go back to sleep again. There is no way of going into town either, I feel totally fucked up and probably my breakfast will be water, water and a bit of water. Ah well, at least I'm already partly in the Dutch timezone now. (But I won't go out in Sydney tonight, that's really asking for trouble now. Just a quiet night of sleep is all I need for now.)

Ok, that's it for now. Checkout within half an hour, then hanging around in the hostel recovering from the night and maybe just some hanging on the internet if there is a computer free. And then take the bus to the airport at 1:20pm. BTW BurgerKing got a sweet little compliant from me because they DID screw up, though you might blame it partially on me for not realizing my burger was still allive AND not listening to my intuition who already told me that I shouldn't go to BK in the first place anyway.

CY,

Murf

Tulamben wreck and baby steps

Diving is Cool!!! Wreckdiving is strange. But absolutely worth it. It was very nice. Especially if your buddy is just taking his first dive-babysteps... that is funny to see. It was my first wreck but certainly not my last. This was awesome. The second dive was a dropoff wall. Been there done that. But was stil very special with a huge lionfish, boxfish and an octopus. Overall 5 hours travelling, 4 hours in Tulamben with one hour under water...

Mick left yesterday. Today is easy. Tomorrow me and the rest of the guest I know here are leaving all together. Tonight last night out. Last chance to make the pole in Paddy's, the cage in Bounty and the bar in Troppozone unsafe. Tomorrow my last day. Hopefully wake up a bit in time, do my last packing. And grab a cab at 2 to fly at 4. The clock states 1.5 days to go and it is flying. Tonight my last bali meal. One hand I would love to stay. Other hand I love to see everybody back again.

See you the day after tomorrow. (scary to say that)

Love nicky

bali, the cold en diving

The cold is finally weakening. Michael and I decided to go diving tomorrow. It's so cheap that I couldn't leave it. So tomorrow Tulamben wreck is going to be our destination. Michael diving for the first time. (intro dive) And me just relaxen next to that. Will be an very nice experience after missing out on the Yongala. Next to that my times suddenly seems to fly here. Just a couple of days and I will accompany the dutch half of my family again.
Next to that I just received a little mail from my ozzy cousin. Who is getting married to a pommy... ;)
congratulations!!! And lots of fun that weekend in November...
Anything else forgot...
Ehmz ow jeah, airplanes are flying here more and more often because of holiday season. And the best part? My hotel is filling up with guys.....

Lots of love
Nicky

Murf: The Nevis, 134 meters down in 8 seconds flat.

Some people knew I was thinking of it. Some people actually knew that I booked the bloody bitch. But most of you barely know what I planned for today and what was one of the most thrilling experiences in my life! I've done a lot the last 6 months, travelled through Australia, been rock-climbing in the Grampians and almost pissed my pants because I was so friggin' scared on the second climb, done a 4x4-only track with our minivan which did made me (and Nicky) miss more than just a couple of heartbeats, finally became a certified SCUBA diver and did 25 dives in the Great Barrier Reef, walked a glacier in Franz Joseph and jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 12.000 feet in Fox Glacier. But a couple of days ago I realized today was my very last chance to do one of the most frightening things man can imagine, jumping of a 134 meter high pod with nothing more than a piece of rubber between you and the pod to safe you from sudden death. So with shaking fingers I slashed the knot and booked "The Nevis" via the AJ Hackett website. And today was the day. Today was Judgement Day, to separate the boys from the men. And I became a man today!

Yesterday night you could find me in the Altitude Bar 'till late to dance my feet of and scare away my fears. This morning I woke up at 7am, took a hot shower, brushed my teeth and walked slowly to the AJ Hackett center at the corner of the street. After a short brief, the usual weighing and signing a waiver where you basically sign for the fact that AJ Hackett is never responsible for any injuries including death while jumping. Better make sure your travel insurance is ok. (Not that it really matters, serious accidents don't really happen, it seems to be safer than crossing the street. But still...) And off we went, into the bus and up to the site. Mixed group, a couple of big lads with a massive pluche Lion, (Yes the Lion jumped as well, safely in the arms of all 5 lads, and off course had to sign a waiver as well.) 2 girls and some other fellows. Turned out I was not the only fool to make The Nevis his first bungy jump ever. Finally at the bungy site it turned out that I was the very lightest and THUS the last one to jump. *SHIT!* That definetely makes it harder as you can joyfully see how all other 13 people jumped and screamed before finally it's your turn. Surprisingly I slept quite well last night (though I woke up zillion times but mainly because I was afraid not to wake up on time and miss my opportunity.) and after my hot shower I really was ready to go. I was less nervous than I expected, maybe because I'm planning this since Nicky had done her jump and already had done some frightening things in OZ like my rock-climb and that 4x4 track. (Skydiving surprisingly was NOT one of them, a big rush, an awesome thing to do but not particularly scary.) So we got our harnass on, took the mini-pod to the big jumping platform and had lots of time to look down straight into the depth of the valley. And I did, the bottom of the mini-pod is a wire-frame, in the jumping-pod there is a big glass strip so you can look down all the way to the jumpers ahead and after you. If you sit on the sides of the jumping-pod you're actually sitting on glass and have the same stunning view. And I did. I watched all jumpers before me and sat and stood comfortably on the glass strips, not too scared of what would come within an hour. The lads where brave, they all jumped the first time though one got a bit scared when the pin tying your legs together got loose before he was all the way down so he jumped attached to hist waist instead of head-down attached to your feet. But he was already in mid-air when it happened so there is nothing you can do about it then. And then it was the turn of one of the girls. 54321 JUMP! *hesitation* *nothing* 54321 JUMP! *hesitation* *nothing* 54321 JUMP! And off she went, finally, 134 meters down. Brave girl. I'm impressed with people who hesitate a couple of times and then DON'T chicken out but just jump. And then, after some more waiting it was finally my time... Meanwhile one of the crew asked me if I wasn't terribly afraid as I was shaking all over my body but THAT was because of the cold. I wanted to do this jump in my lucky Dollypop shirt, and therefore left my comfortable fleece behind in the base station. But it was friggin' freezin out there and after an hour waiting I really almost died of hypothermia up there. Luckily the sun came out and sitting on the side of the pod I warmed up a bit.

All the time in the jumping-pod I drummed on my legs on the rithm of the music, because I felt quite comfortable and it was a way to ease my mind a bit as off course I WAS scared, a bit. So off my glasses (no way you can jump with 'm, you'll loose 'm), into the chair, getting strapped up and still smiling and drumming on my legs. Looking sweet to the camera, giving 2 big OK signs (divers style, no thumbs up but 2 O-signs) and with my legs firmly together I had to wobble to the jumping platform. Wobbling is the only way to do it, you only can move your feet 10cm or so. And there I stood, at the very edge of the platform knowing that if I would totally chicken out and not jump I'd loose the full $199,- which I paid for this jump and make a total fool of myself. Not only for all of you guys but mainly for myself.

This was what I was waiting for 9 months, this was my moment, this was the last part of conquering my last fears. I used to be afraid of heights and therefore decided to challenge them my whole life by climbing onto towers, climbing 100 meters up the rocks, climbing indoors, jumping out of airplanes and doing walks while it goes straight down just 30cm from where you stand. I used to face my fears and not letting them take over. Because I'm afraid of railway crossings I slowed down and walked over them. Because I'm afraid of the dentist some odd combination of circumstances made me going there way too many times, back home AND in Australia. Because I'm afraid of needles I planned to go to Indonesia so I had to get my shots. And here I was, afraid of heights and challenging them by bungy jumping of the highest site in New Zealand and one of the highest in the whole world. There I was, after looking to all jumpers before me, standing at the very very edge and the point of no-return.

So there came the countdown. FAST! 5,4,3,2 *SWOOOOOOSH!* And Murfie was gone, plunging down with a rough 125Km/h into the grey. Screeming so loud that my throat still hurts right now, so loud that even the crew made a remark on it when I was back in the pod, screaming so loud that all who where already back on Terra Firma could hear me screeming from the viewing platform and agreed that I did the loudest scream of all, screaming the full 8 seconds, 134 meters down. *WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!*
FUCK! That was truly scary. So unnatural to plunge yourself off a ledge into the depth. It goes straight into all your natural senses. People are not built to fall and while skydiving you barely have a notion about the hight, here you definetely DO! But I did it, not the best style in the world (the first part I was almost vertical, heads UP instead of down but with my arms widely spread and not mowing around as some people tend to do, aparently to get grip on erhm, what, air?) but I did it! After the second bounce (or was it the third?) I yanked out the pin who tied my legs together and had a leisury bounce and great view off what I just did. I screemed again, or more, yelled. A big and massive WHOOOOOHOOOOOOO!. Whacked my arms into the air, totally hyper of the fact that I suddenly realized I just DID it. I jumped the friggin' Nevis! It was over way too soon, the wench came down to pull me up again and after less than a minute I was back on the platform. Exhillarated. Back into the pod. Back to Terra Firma. Back to the bus after watching my video and photo's. And while before my jump I decided to do it with just the photo's I was glad that they tape all jumps and that you have the chance to buy your DVD (or video) afterwards anyway. And I did, it was a great sight seeing myself plunging down in the depth. As I don't have a VCR I decided to go for the DVD. WITH my scream on it! (Though I didn't hear that yet as the video-footage in the base station is soundless.)

40 minutes later we where all back in Queenstown and now I'm the proud owner of my own set of Bungy photo's, 3 bungee shirts (one of The Nevis, one which is a bit controversial as it insinuates more or less that I DIDN'T jump and a longsleeve with just AJ Hackett Queenstown on it), some fridge magnets and 2 pieces of bungy cord. (Nicky, as promised, one is for you, even though it doesn't have a nice AJ Hackett Queenstown label on it it IS a genuine Queenstown bungy cord!) And I'm just happy. Awfully glad that I did this at the very last end of my 6-month journey. Awfully proud of myself that I didn't chicken out and actually awfully proud that I wasn't as freightened as expected.

Don't get me wrong, it's awfully SCARY! Bungy jumping is definetely not for the faint-of-heart. It's a massive, adrenaline pumping thrill ride. But aparently I did have enough guts to stay reasonably calm under it. :-) And tonight? I'll celebrate it with a couple of coldies down at the bar. I still have a 2-for-1 voucher left and that will go tonight, together with a lot more of the yellow gold. I'll dance my legs off, party 'till I drop. I deserved it. ;-P

Murf: Te Anau - Milford - Queenstown

Back in Queenstown and really almost at the end of the trip. This website says 6 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes which is pretty accurate on the time of writing. But let's not focus on that, let's focus on what happened since I wrote my last entry in Te Anau. (Correctly pronounced like tIanau and not ti-anAU what you might exped.) Meanwhile I try to upload some new pictures as the last films are nicely put onto CD as well. (And that dit cost me an arm and a leg at one photoshop but hey, that's too bad. At least you get what you want, pretty pictures from New-Zealand.)

So I did do the Doubtfull Sound trip. There is not much to do in Te Anau and I really wanted to be able to compare the Doubtfull and the Milford sound as I heard they where totally different. Well, they are. Doubtfull Sound is much more mellow than Milford, less steep mountains and covered with forest, plus that Doubfull around 4x as big is as Milford. It was an amazing day, starting crossing the lake, then into the hydro-powerstation which was really impressive, completely underground and very very noisy. Then over a snowy pass where we had the first glimpse of Doubtfull from a stunning height. Down to the harbour and onto another boat for a 4 hours cruise over Doubtfull with at the end (because the sea was extremely gentle that day) a rock full of NZ Fur-Seals. We approached the rock 'till about 2 meters and had a terrific view of the seals. And then it was time to go back, all the way into Doubtfull, over the pass and cross the lake and back to Te Anau. Starting at 8:45am and back at 6:30pm with a small but affordable ($130,-) operator on 2 small boats and just 11 people. Apart from an ADHD 12yo kiddy the cruise was marvellous. Way better than a stuffed boat with 200 people on it. The whole group was very close and I had some great conversations there though it was pretty cold on top of the boat.

Next day it was time to get the Kiwibus again to Milford and do the Milford-cruise but as the road conditions wheren't to good they had to skip the early boat-trip and went on the trip which didn't include the underwater observatory. Lucky me, I already planned to stay an extra day in Milford and had the chance to go onto the boat the next day, which off course I did and therefore DID go to the underwater observatory. The first night I spent playing chess in the hostel with a m'te I met on an earlier kiwi-bus, then the next day (sunday) we took the Milford Cruise together. Indeed there is a massive difference between the 2. Milford had very, very sheer rock faces. Very impressive. The boat capable of 150+ passengers only had a whopping 10 people on board and Milford's water was really mellow so we had a fabulous crouse again WITH the observatory. The last one was really sweet, taking you down to 8 meters below waterlevel and there you could see what you otherwise only discover when you go SCUBA diving there. Unfortunately the SCUBA diving was closed for the winter but this was at least the closest I could get and I did see some black-coral and other interesting stuff down there. All the way out to the sea and almost getting blowed off the upper deck and getting REALLY cold as it was sunny but it's still winter down here. On the way back we had a nice shower under one of the permanent waterfalls, icy cold but a very cool experience. The kicker came at the end, a troop of ~10 dolphins following our boat so close that I actually managed to get some sweet closeups of the second most intelligent creatures on earth. (If you don't understand what I mean, read The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!) The night we spent in the local pub watching the rugby game (B&I Lions vs Allblacks, the Allblacks squashed the Lions with 21-3, WHOOOHOOO!). I'm not really into rubgy but I'm starting to like it and it's always good to have some people around. Besides, Milford is really small, 50 inhabitants, 1 hostel, 1 pub and a massive harbour for the 1500-2500 people visiting the sound every day. BTW "sound" is not the right term, a sound is a flooded river and this is a flooded glacier bed. So it should be called a fjord instead, but hey, we're in Kiwiland ;-P

And yesterday I got the Kiwibus back to Queenstown for the last leg of my trip. Pickup at 3pm at the harbour and back in Queenstown at 7:30pm. The hostel I took was not the best one, Discovery Lodge is clean but it's a bit too clinic for me. But it was a familiar place and next-door to a bar. But too bad, no 8-bed cheap dorms available for 2 nights so I had to go for a 6-bed dorm which is $2,- per night more expensive... Ah well, I won't die from $4,- and a 6-bed dorm is a little more spacious than a 8-bed plus that worst-case I only have to wake up 5 people instead of 7 when leaving way too early as this morning where I had my alarm clock at 7am and left the hostel at 7:45 after a nice hot shower. (Story follows in a couple of minutes...)

With a bit of luck I'll arrive in Christchurch tomorrow but some bastard busdriver forgot to book me on that bus so when confirming my seat for tomorrow I heard that I could only be put on standby. AGAIN! That sucks, means that I have to be at the pickup-point 300 meter from my hostel at 9am with the risk I have to return to my hostel again and miss out one of my 2 planned Christchurch days. We'll see.

balinese roads & liquer

The title states two words that don't go together. Can tell you that it hurted very much. And to explain the whole situation. (long live talking in riddles) The roads here are shit. You have to look constantly where you are walking to not drop on your nose. So as soon as you talk to one of your mates or look in a shop. You are very prone to fall over. And then you got alcohol. I don't walk that steady already. That night a bit worse after a night out. Walked on the street and bumped my toe. Didn't work that well. After couple of meters found that my flip-flop was a bit slippery. In the light it looked quite bad. At home i found out. (together with my mate Mick) that it was quite bad. But to drunk you put a bandage on it (after cleaning it) and go to sleep. Next day walking was poor. But now after couple of days I can say that everything is fine. Toe looks good and is pretty much healed. But then you always got knives you think are too blunt. Wrong. So cut my finger pretty bad. But bandages enough.

Did I do something else. I enjoyed with the guys. Went out. Got a very heavy cold. Which at this moment prevents me from goin diving. (dammit!!) So thumbs up that me and Mick get better. So we can go diving on tuesday. Because he leaves on wednesday...
But I am having a lot of fun. Leaving seems to come closer suddenly really fast. Doing some heavy shopping today. And enjoy some more sunshine for the rest of the week.

Kuta has a big carnival going on from tomorrow till the 3rd of Juli. With lots of partying on the beach. And enjoying some surfers/skaters. Relax and chill. I'll be allright...

Murf: Invercargill to Stewart Island to Te Anau

Because I'm bored (again!) a short story about the past couple of days. I left Invercargill the next morning a tad too early (9:00am) to hop onto a tiny 8-person airplane at Invercargill Airport for a 20 minute flight to the airstrip of Stewart Island. As the flight only goes to 1500 feet (I asked the pilot on the way back) you'll have a terrific view over Stewart Island. It's truly impressive from the air! Landed, went to my hostel and then to the information center to check some things out for the next 2,5 days. After that went downtown to the only village on the island, Oban. (350 inhabitants) There is not much to do in Oban though, all shops open or on request or from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, exept from the General Store. (In this case called "Ship to Shore".) So I chilled out a bit on the beach and went shop-hopping afterwards. Got home with some minor stuff and 3 T-shirts, of which 2 are yet in back-order and will be sent to me when I come home. Spend the night peacefully watching TV and eating apples and had my room for myself! (YEAH! And it had a 2-person bed so I stole that one, no one would care anyway.) The next day I booked a small trip to Ulva Island with a boat-trip and a 1-hour guide over the tiny island in Stuart Island. As I was the only passenger on board I had a boat, a skipper and 2 guides all for myself. Awesome! I had a great tour there and had a very close contact with a "Weka", the only predator on Ulva Island. (It's a flightless bird, bit smaller than a Kiwi.) After 3 hours we where back in Oban and I decided to go on the Semi-Submarine as well as I DID want to see part of the underwater life on Stewart. SCUBA diving was not an option, too cold and withouth bringing your own divebuddy you couldn't go anyway. Again I was the only passenger on board and had a great value for the buck ;-P Spent the night again quietly in the hostel, only to know that I finally had a roommate. (But we only said HI.) Next day I did basically nothing but spending 1,5 hours on cleaning out my pocket knife while sitting on a deserted beach just 10 minutes out of town. Ultimately relaxed having the luxury to be able to do that for a while. And the night ended in the pub as I met a new roommate who DID want to go for a beer to kill the boredom on the island. But far too soon (the next morning) it was time to fly back to the mainland again in an even smaller airplane (6 persons including the pilot). I hopped in the shuttle and onto the Bottom Bus again, loaded with 10 other persons. What a difference. Stewart Island is SO empty. There is nothing there but a shitload of nature. And even though I didn't do any of the tracks because I was too lazy I definetely had a great time. It's probably the southern most I'll ever go and so extremely quit that I definetely would recommend it to anyone who needs some time to do totally nothing.

While the Bottom Bus brought me safely to Te Anau that day I was still thinking about the island. And now I'm in Te Anau. The bus arrived quit (?) early so I had some time to develop my 4 films (I lost one which I found back today...) and to book some stuff for today and tomorrow. I almost chocked when I got the bill for those 4 films, $96,- including putting 'm all on CD and and hour and a half internet... And no way I can upload 'm here in the village, too slow connections everywhere. But well, that 'll come later. Did the usual stuff like groceries and after a LONG shower went to the pub to watch the rugby. Not that I'm interested at all but it's always nice to have a couple of pints in a loaded pub. Though the pub was almost empty as soon as the game ended so went back quit early and after a bit of chatting went to bed...

Today had an easy morning, had a chat with a new roommate, a dutch guy. So I spoke dutch for the first time in whatever weeks. It was hard, extremely hard. I managed to keep up a bit of speed but my mind was dazzling afterwards, completely unused to speaking dutch full-speed. And yes, I must 've had an English accent and I definetely mixed english words all over the scentences.

Anyway, the afternoon I spent on a trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves, a 25 minute boat trip followed by a combination of a couple of barges and a short walk through the caves. The trip through the caves itself was quite short and all concrete paths so that also oldies could easily do it but it was actually kinda impressive. The fast-flowing water all over the place but off course specially the main attraction, the Glow Worms. I don't know how long they left us in the barge in pitch darkness (I couldn't even see my fingers while I touched my nose...) but it was truly amazing. All those tiny little lights at the ceiling and no sound but the sound of fast flowing water. No one dared to make a sound, I doubt if some people even stopped breathing. Way too soon it was all over again and we went back to the ship to enjoy the 25 minute ride back. And I spent the full 25 minutes in the open air though it was COLD outside. My Driza-Bone kept me nicely warm and out of the wind :-)

And that was it for today. Tomorrow I'll do a full day tour through the Doubtfull sound and then up to Milford. Someone just asked me if it was "friday next week" when it's all over here and suddenly I realized it IS. It's just "sunday next week" that I'll be safely on Schiphol Airport. So I'll take the time to enjoy these last bits of my "holiday of a lifetime"...

Murf: Queenstown to Invercargill

Half past 9 in the afternoon, somewhere in Invercargill. (Tuatara Backpackers) While the last story ended in Queenstown it wasn't my last day there... But, I took it really easy the next day and decided to be plain lazy. So I basically spent the evening doing some shopping in Queenstown and chilling out in the TV-room, not really in for more booz-nights. The next morning Mariah left and how sweet it was of her, she woke me op because she totally missed the fact that I did NOT had to take the bus to Christchurch. So I was awake way too early and more or less spent the day doing erhm, nothing at all. Not entirely true though, I went shopping and bought myself a New-Zealand Monopoly game because I didn't have any at home and really liked that as a souvenir. Bit sad though that buying the game set be back $60,- and shipping it over to Holland yet another $24,- But it's worth it and taking it home in my backpack impossible. Went to the beach for a great view of the mountains behind Queenstown (it's winter so there is some snow on it) and headed to the cinema to view Mr. & Ms. Smith. Nice movie though not really a must-see. In the cinema I met some bloke from the first kiwibus and we had exactly one beer together before he got back to his hostel and I went upstairs to fix myself up for a few hours in the bar downstairs. Had to grab the bus to Dunedin the next morning at stupid-o-clock (7.45am) and really didn't want to make it too late. Well, it was 0:30 before I finally found my bed but I had a fairly good night down at the bar so it was not too bad.

The next morning the Bottom-Bus arrived and we headed straight to Dunedin (meanwhile visiting the steepest street in the world which I did NOT climb because I was too damn lazy) to dump off our luggage and make a dash for the peninsula where we had the chance to hop into a 8-wheel-drive vehicle to see some specteculair wildlive. The trip was a bit too short to my opinion but we DID see some very impressive things. First of all we headed to a colony of baby furseals. Because we where in a shelter we could come REALLY close to those pups (mom was a couple of meters further on the rocks). Impressive. A bit later we headed towards a shelter above the beach and there we saw far, far away one of the rarest creatures on earth, a Yellow-Eyes pinguin. Hard to see, the poor fella was already scared by us being at 300 meters distance after we all hid in a shelter he finally walked over the beach where we had a nice view of him. Right behind us, leaving the shelter on the backside we had a close contact with the smallest pinquins in the world, the Blue Pinquin. The lad was asleep underneath a rock and we could come as close as just 3 meters or so. *Wauw!* And then it was time to go back to the bus. Way too early. The 8wd vehicles where pretty cool though, plunging through the roughest terrain I've seen without any trouble. (They're amphibious and fairly comfortable.)

Back to the hostel (still an hour drive from the peninsula) and straight to the Speights Brewery for a tour. Not much to say about it, it was just very nice... I spend the night in the hostel near the woodfire, meanwhile having a talk with one of the Irish girls I'd met on one of my Kiwi busses. I didn't expect her there but we had a really nice talk. Next day she left and I went to check out town AND to the Taieri (?) Gorge Railway, a scenic railway trip of 4 hours. Costed me a whopping $48,- but is was worth it as the train goes through terrain not even cars can come and really has some amazing views. And so my first full day in Dunedin ended. That night I decided I'd spend the night as a homesick alien erhm, Dutchie, found some Grolsch in the supermarket, loaded my basked with a 6-pack of it and shitloads of TimTams and other nice chocolate thingies, a girls-magazine and nestled myself safely in front of the woodfire. Surprisingly I felt really happy that night. A bit as a clown with a tear in one eye but a really big smile on my face. It just felt so lovely homey there in Adventurer Backpackers and having a Grolsch in my hands (Grolsch is brewed in my hometown Enschede and exported all the way from there to New-Zealand in 33cc bottles) made it just perfect.

The next day (thursday) was real easy day. The plan was just to go shopping and that's exactly what I did. Not that I bought much, a new silver ring for myself (with a cute dolphin, I actually bought 2 for $5,- each) and some earrings who I just keep as a present for someone. (And I really don't know who yet, I just liked them and they where only $10,- so I bought 'm.) But I ended up in the Cadbury chocolate factory. I haven't been in any chocolate factory yet and well, it just seemed nice to visit one while I had the chance. Pretty ok, you feel a bit like Willy Wonka and though the tour is kinda aimed at the little ones under us it was still a very nice tour. Only buying a purple t-shirt failed as they didn't have a XL version. But THAT will be fixed as one email solved it all and they'll ship one to Holland as soon as I paid for it. (Not a problem.)

Again another night in front of the woodfire and to bed early as I had to catch a bus at 7:45am. *BLERGH!* Anyway, that was this morning and it seemed like ages ago as today was soo bloody stuffed. The whole trip would normally take just 2,5 hours but we arrived here in Invercargill around 6:30pm. And why? Well, because this leg of the trip you spend a lot of time OUTSIDE the van and IN the nature. We did 4 small walks along the way and took all touristic routes possible. Saw some really impressive nature, frozen lakes, a sea-lion in the sand-dunes from quite close (6 meters) and again a yellow-eyed pinquin. (But again at 300 meters distance as those creatures are extremely shy by nature. Extremely rare as well, I tought there where around 600-1000 of them in the whole world, all of 'm in New-Zealand.) We also stopped at some wacko's gallery in the middle of knowhere who made all funny stuff out of mostly just junk. He lives in an old big bus with his dog and the township is so small I don't even remember the name. Had a quite funny mailbox though, a Mail Whale, indeed in the shape of a whale. Just a tad smaller.

So the trip took us little longer than you would normally expect but it was worth it. And now I'm in Invercargill. It should've been Curio Bay but as the bus only had 6 people in it it was easier for them to head straight to Invercargill (an hour drive from Curio Bay). That is an advantage for me though. Tomorrow I'll fly to Stewart Island and thanx to the fact that I'm already in Invercargill (where the airport is) I can take the morning flight instead of the afternoon one, which gives me just a couple of hours extra on the island. I decided to go by plane because it was just $14,- more expensive than by boat and you get more or less a free scenic flight for free as you're travelling in a really small airplane (6-8 people). Stewart Is. should be great though I don't have the time (and the knees and condition) to do a big hike there. I'll probably stay more or less where I am though I am planning a small trip per water-taxi ($25,-) to a tiny island IN Stewart Island. I'll leave the island on monday the 20th to go straight to Te Anau, spend there 2 days and then go to Milford Sound. As time is running out a bit I have a fairly strict planning to make it back to Christchurch but the planning is very easy in a way that in every place the bus stops I have at least 1 day extra to spend. So though strict I really DO take it very very easy. I just want one day in Queenstown to party hard (and go to the ice-bar) and then a couple of days in Christchurch to check out Hagley Park, the tower and again, party very very hard to celebrate my last days on this island. 16 days to go before I'm home, just 13 before I fly back to Sydney and the big journey home starts. (Including my flight to Sydney and my 22 hours stopover there it'll take me a full 3 days to fly back.)

Well, that's it for now :-)

BTW what is really wicked and still confuses me a bit is that my social life seems to get stronger while I'm away. Already 2 old friends of mine suddenly mailed me and made clear that they DO want to have contact again. Friendships who I had back home became stronger the 2,5 months before I left and even got stronger while I'm away and one of the most important things I've learned over here is that my friends are probably the most important things in my life. That HAS been different. There was a time where my computers where firmly no. 1, closely followed by my girlfriend at that time. But I can assure you now that that has changed completely. I still like computers (and though I wanted to leave the whole IT for what it was before I left, right here I learned that I do love computers but just want a job where I can combine my love for technical stuff with my love for working with people) but they're definetely NOT no. 1 anymore. And really, I like it. No, I don't like it. I LOVE IT!

Nicky, the rooster and the elephant

Kay my days are very easy. Get up get breakfast. (all included is always very nice) Read a bit. Have an activity. Go to internet. Have some food. And end up drinking on the bar. Followed by an early night to bed or goin out late.
Those are my days, relaxing and not to exciting.

The only difference this week;

I was looking at a skirt I very much liked. So I got it taylor made. Which costed me EUR$15,- or AUS$20,- And the loveliest skirt ever.

Also I joined a couple of tours. First of all; elephant (thanx robin) riding. That was a weird but gourgious experience. Had the best time ever. Although there not native here. (imported from sumatra) Adelhi was the best elephant to me and let me even ride a bit on her head. (like the riders do) Heaps of fotos. And an unforgettable experience. Recommended!
Next to that I was going to go rafting that afternoon. Bit sceptical. In New Zealand I had rapids grade 4-5. (hardest possible) Over here because of the drought they were 1-2. The stories of the guest weren't that positive eiter. But hey as a dutchy I don't resist a free tour. So after a very long stair we were goin in the boat and away we were. Scenery made my mouth fall open. (sorry for all the flies I swallowed) Twas the most gourgious ride I ever had. Rapids weren't tough. But gave me enough time to talk and look around. On the end when we were pretty tiered we had to walk to many stairs up. But wasn't that bad as the guest told me. And the rafting was more than worth it. Had a good dinner and went to bed... ZZZZzzz.

Today suddenly was a rumour that people were going to cockfigting. (with rooster uhu) Although the guys from the hotel tried to get me in their room to see some 'cock'fighting. In an instant I said yes. Although doubtfull I still wanted to see this side of Indonesian culture. Went there with some other people. Watched with my eyes but hasn't klicked yes in my brain. Was the weirdest thing I ever did. Wouldn't do it again. But feel very double about the whole thing. Can't even say if it was great or horrible. But if I find out you will hear.

So far for today
Lots of Love
Nicky

Ps Although internet is not very fast here. (fastest I can get) I still managed to update some old photos from Frasier Island and Crocodile hunter zoo. Try to do every time a few. So far just a couple.

Murf: Fox - Wanaka - Queenstown

Aaaah, another short story again. Internet is tempting, specially when all your roommates are still asleep and you're bored like hell because you don't want to go shopping or bungee jumping and it's too early to hop in to the pub yet. And as there is not much to do otherwise in Queenstown, I ended up in this internet cafe.

So after my skydive, what happened next? Well, I got into this kinda allright hostel in Fox and did basically nothing the rest of the day. I met some dutch girl (Rosalie) who was travelling around with a swedish and a austrian girl who she'd met on the road. Actually the first dutchie who I run into and I actually kinda liked. So we had a chat and decided to meet up next day in Wanaka again. They going by car, me going by Kiwi. That is, that was the planning. It turned out little different though I DID make it to Wanaka that day. Sitting in front of the hostel I suddenly heard the big hummm of the Kiwibus but while I expected it to turn into the street where the hostel is, it stayed safely on the mainroad running straight to Wanaka. The driver aparently totally had forgotten that he had someone to pick up in Fox. So I rang the Kiwi office and after a long while and some phonecalls they managed to get me onto the Atomic Shuttle at 10:40 who was due to depart at 10:50. And that worked out. I got crammed into the backbench of a 10-person minivan and made my way to the Purple Cow hostel in Wanaka that way. Took us a couple of hours but the American girl and Kiwi guy next to me where good company and I arrived safely in Wanaka. Got my photo's to the photoshop, did some groceries and after a while Rosalie and co. turned up in the hostel but it was too expensive to their taste so they left again. Had a great conversation and some wine that night with a ozzie couple who wanted to visit Europe next year and I invited them to my humble home to show them around. (See you next spring girls!) Had to share my room with 3 girls again (this time Irish girls travelling around on the Magic bus) but that was just for one night. The next day I spend doing basically nothing. To my surprise I met Rosalie and co. early in the morning, 2 of 'm couldn't find any other place so they DID sleep in that hostel. Anyway, they wanted to go to Puzzleworld as did I but we messed up and I ended up walking to PW allone, just a 2Km strawld. Puzzleworld was kinda ok, just worth the $10,- but not extraordinairy to my taste though. Spend the rest of the day in the hostel and shopping around a bit and found an empty room. It turned out to be that my roommates showed up the NEXT MORNING at 7:00 as they where playing in town and had a heavy night afterwards. Anyway, my Kiwibus was due to depart round 9 so I hopped out of bed, did my thing and waited for the Kiwibus to take me to Queenstown. But first Puzzleworld again, as that was on the route to Qeenstown. As I had already been there I spend 1,5 hours doing some free puzzles and... MISSING MY BUS! I was looking at some puzzles and totally missed out that the group left, I ran outside just in time to see the busses butt turning onto the mainroad. I ran back inside, they rang Kiwi and after 5 minutes the bus was back again to pick me up. They hadn't missed me... That is, at the hostel I plunged next to a girl and she thought I found myself another place in the bus so she didn't report me as missing. After a while she realized I was really not on the bus and before the Kiwi call came in they already had turned around. Lucky me, it's no fun seeing the bus with all your stuff in it dissapearing in the distance while you're in the middle of nowhere...

Anyway, we had a nice chat and the bus took us to AJ Hackett's bungee bridge where some brave lads jumped off. After an hour or so we went off to Queenstown to book the Bottom-Bus and hop into our hostel. We more or less spend the rest of the night together in the bars in Queenstown where I met a lot of people from my previous bus who where already for a couple of days in Queenstown. Here is the place where everybody seems to stay for a LONG while. Very good to see those peeps again and have some fun together. The night ended for me at 2:30 when I was kinda pissed and tired and decided that it was time to go home, letting her having her fun in the Worldbar. And that's where this story ends. I'll spend 'till monday in Queenstown and get my bus to Dunedin on tuesdaymorning. Still 21 days to go so taking and spreading it. I'll be back in Queenstown within a week or to to spend another couple of days and then go to Christchurch...

BTW ID Checks are STRICT! Here in Queenstown every bar you enter asks for your ID and really checks it. If you're going outside for a smoke (in NO bar in NZ it's allowed to smoke) and you try to get in while you're kinda pissed they won't let you as I found out yesterday. Well, no hard feelings, I just waited outside for a while and after 5 minutes or so the doorman let me in again, back to the party. And indeed I wasn't entirely sober anymore by that time ;-P

I am still alive!!

The title stands a bit weard. But I just found out that my hostel was one of the keyplaces for the bali bommings. As the body's and harmed were brought in into the hotel and collected on the basketball court. And the empty spot in the corner on the street is the place where Paddy's stood. (now relocated and a bar I regular visit) On the other corner is the Bali memorial. And across the intersection is the second empty patch. Comes all scary close on that kind of moments.

My last couple of days is getting better. My fever is over. My bali belly still exist but I can live with that. Just those darn cramps that hurt so much. So I keep swallowing pain medication. But I walk talk and finally eat a bit again. Just small amounts but enough to live on.

What did I do since my last update... Ehmz lots and lots of nothing. Ow and some guys insisted that if I hadn't seen dreamland (beach) that I did not see any thing of bali. And because they were going there I just lifted along on their scooter. Which was as well my first time on the back of the scooter in bali traffic. Which is a survival of the fittest. No rules and just go as you can. Maximum speed is 70 km/h because of the amount of the traffic. Was pretty scary the first couple of minutes. But after that I enjoyed. We been to dreamland, Pedang Pedang (hope the right spelling) end Ullawatu. (again I hope the right spelling. Ullawatu the guys were going surfing while I had a swim. Pedang Pedang is the sweetest little beach. Very romantic. And Dreamland is gourgious beach. And all of them were bleu sea and white sand. The guys were right if you haven't visited these beaches you haven't seen bali.

So bali traffic is indeed vicious. Scooters enough. For every car roundabout 5-10 scooters on the island. And they know how to load them. sometimes even a family of 5 fits on it. Or complete stores. You name it they transport it. (kinda reminds me of my mom with her pushbike) Ow and crossing here is just gambling and not hesitating. You hesitate, you lose. You can wait for a long long time, if not forever.

Ow little piece about dutch in bali. Which I already wanted to write for a long time. Because indonesia already was a colony for a long long time of Holland. (or Netherlands whatever you want) There are some dutch words integrated in indonesian. Which leads to me to some recognition. And is quite fun to sea that you still can understand a bit.

Last line for my mommy; HAPPY BIRTDAY!!!!!!!!!! I know it was yesterday and I slightly forgot. But hope this makes a bit up. Love you lots and be home soon.

Love Nicky

Ps seeing a temple this afternoon.

Murf: Pictures from New Zealand

I thought it might never happen but the photoshop in Wanaka had an action... Burn your analog pictures on CD for FREE! Now we're talking ;-P Anyway, I've put 3 rolls online, mainly about my skydive, my glacier-walk and the trip from Franz Josef to Wanaka. The order is crappy and not time-based but still, have fun:
http://gallery.somewheresouth.net/murf_newzealand

Murf: 12.000 - 0 feet in 10 minutes

WHOOOHOOOOO!

I've done it! My first skydive straight from 12.000 feet. (Round about 4000 meters.) After a very beautifull ride from Franz Josef to Fox by car we ended up at the airstrip an a small office where a small Cessna was waiting for me to take me up all the way to 12.000 feet. Some short instructions, emptying my pockets, tying my shoelaces, putting on a jumpsuit and taking out my camera's it was time to go. Sitting straight next to the door in the crampy Cessna (there where only 3 of us, my tandem-diver and another skydiver who went down on his own) we ran the runway and took off much faster than I expected. Looking at the altitude meter I saw it slowly going to 12.000 feet while I had the chance to take some pictures with my biggie-cam of the scenery. That already was worth it, snowy mountains, mount Cook and a beautifull view of the Fox Glacier. And then it was time to go. Got my goggles and hat strapped straight into my head, my small camera safely tucked away in my jumpsuit (I could take it down to take shots of the last phase while haning under the parachure.) The airplane went to a steady cruise speed, the door went open and we where there, at the edge of going down. Got my feet out who where straight blown away to the right side, the wingshots where taken with a big OK to the camera mounted on the wing, the airplane made a tilt to the right and off we went! Thoug people warned me that you wouldn't be able to breathe the first 20 seconds I didn't have any of that trouble. Accelerating to round about 200Km per hour we went straight down in a beatifull banana. Looked up to see the airplane dissapear very fast and enjoyed the awesome view and the feel of maximum speed. Indescribable what that does to you, you don't really have a feel of how fast you're falling but the wind blows around your ears, your hat feels like it's coming off and you're going down. But THAT is the thing you don't really realize. The ground is coming at you but it's going slow... I yelled out loud a big WHOOOHOOOO of excitenment. After a couple of seconds we met another stranger in the sky. That was the guy behind us who did a solo-jump! We shaked hands in the air while freefalling. AWESOME! Bet not many tandem-jumpers will have that experience on their way down... It's the same odd sensation you get when your SCUBA diving and suddenly meet other people down there. After a while you almost get used to it but it's strange.

After fully enjoying the 45 second freefall I felt some juggling behind me and suddenly **SNAP!**, a deceleration followed by an immense silence! The parachute was up 'n running and suddenly we where soaring in mid-air, slowly going down to mother earth. I could even talk to my instructor there. Took some pictures while soaring down under the parachute, got control of it for a couple of seconds, took some more pictures and way too soon it was time to lift my feet up in the air to prepare for the landing. On my BUTT! Feet up high and skidding over the grass we made contact with Mother Earth again. More shots of me, my instructor, the parachute, etc and we where off to go back to the airstrip, 7Km away from the dropzone. After getting my T-shirt (which says something like "12.000 feet, 200Km/h I had the attitude, they had the altitude, so I jumped.") and certificate (though credit-card sized I'll frame that with a couple of pictures at home) off to Ivory Towers Hostel in Fox.

And there I am. Had a late-breakfast, went to buy some souvenirs and back at the hostel now. Still completely floating and with the biggest smile you can imagine on my face. This is amazing. Just last week I realized that I was dreaming about skydiving since I was 8 and I still have the skydive-book I read to schreds somewhere in my collection. It's sacred now. I finally did it. Scary? Not at all. I got a tid bit nervous just before we reached 12.000 feet but that was about the same level as you get nervous when your bus is 5 minutes too late and you're not sure if you can make your next connection. And then way less. It was a nice tickling sense of nervousness. Nothing serious. Skydiving is not scary if you've ever flown in any airplane before, the altitude is way too high to have any sense of it. It's just a wonderfull sensation to suddenly jump out of it and plunge down to earth with a speed your own car even doesn't make. Followed by a really relaxed and quiet ride down under the parachute. Really, it costed me a whopping $325,- for the jump, the wing-photo's and the T-shirt but it was worth every single dollarcent of it! Still floating, still with my head up in the air, still completely thrilled and with wobbly knees... I hope part of this feeling will stick to me the rest of my life and if I have the chance to do it all again I'll definetely do it. It was wonderfull, way too short, I'd love to stay up there for hours but gravity is against you. What is really kinda odd is that the ground doesn't seem to come any closer, not during the freefall, not during the parachute-part of it. It's really when your butt hits the ground that you realize you're back again. It all seems to go so slow. It's just a 8 minute ride in total, 45 seconds freefall, 7 minutes under the parachute but it feels like hours and it's totally amazing.

But I was never really scared, just utterly excited. :-))

Murf: Christchurch to Franz Josef

Well, I'm on the Kiwi Experience bus now. Or more, WAS on the Kiwi-Xperience bus as I left the bus and group for 2 days and decided to spend a little time here in Franz Josef where the main feature of the town a big ice-slide known as the "Franz Josef Glacier" is. To start at the end, I indeed did walk on it, yesterday. It's an uncomfortable bus-ride of 10 minutes to the carpark and then a full hour walk before you're actually on the ice but then really the fun starts. Putting some Ice Talonz under your sturdy boots (you do get everything from socks to coats to boots from your guide) and here we go, taking our first steps onto the ice. With those Talons it was not THAT slippery but you have to walk in a but funny way to assure your grip, pretending you're a giant and really whack your feet into the ice as you traverse. A little up the hill where it gets nasty you even get an ice-axe/walking-stick to help you over the ice. We've spend around 7 hours on the ice and in one word it was STUNNING! Really amazing to be there. Unfortunately just 1 small little cave where we could go through but we had 2 very crampy crevices where we had to traverse through. Bit nasty for the one girl who was a bit claustrofobic and the exposure was not too pleasant for those who are afraid of heights but we all managed to make it all the way up and down. I decided to go in the slowest group of 'm all (there where 4 groups) so that I would have a little more time to take some pictures. That was a good choice and I ended up mainly at the end off the group as there where the ppl who had some trouble finding their grips on the ice. Always nice to help eachother out isn't it? :-) Back at the hostel I was pretty much dead but still managed to get some food at the local bar with the end-group of the day and as I couldn't get my sleep afterwards I spend some time looking to the local music-channel and finally finding my bedroom at 0:15 or so to be woken up at 7:15am because my roommies had to catch the 8:00am bus.

This time I shared my room with 3 girls though looking at the list the day before I thought it would be a bloke-only room. So as well as I they where kinda surprised to find a guy organizing his stuff in the room when they entered. Today it turned out what went wrong... I was on the list for room 308 which was indeed a blokes room but they gave me the key of 306! I was only about to find that out this morning when I booked myself in for 2 more nights in this hostel (Rainforest Retreat, Franz Josef, NZ). It's really close to town (3 minutes walk), it's cheap ($18,- a night), has good and HOT showers, has good overall facilities (internet, kitchen, big tv, etc) and is quite modern and everything.

But, how did I end up here? (And can I dump that here in a mere 35 minutes as 2 of my 5 recharche-internet-cards are not working and I have to fix that at the reception of the hostel.) Well, the last night in ChristChurch was a remarkable one and a very good start for my trip... It started helping some stuntmen with a high-bike act (where the guy sadly mistook my both rings as being with someone or so, haven't they heard of "jewelry"!?), then did some killer-pool where I almost won. (Thanx to the fact that I seemed to have 3 instead of 2 lives, well, it wasn't me who was cheating...) A couple of drinks later I got approached by a guy who would get $10,- if he'd kiss a guy on the cheeck. (No worries 'bout that and when he retrieved the $10,- from his friends he gave it to me straight away so I got some free beer that night ;-P) As I really got the vibes that evening and the band was suddenly with 4 ppl and playing quite well I ended up dancing centre-court. Really freaked out that night, unfortunately temporarily lost my glasses on the dance-floor (followed by me on it's knees and to be retrieved by a guy sitting on the couch who saw me crawling around...) in makin a bit of a fool out of myself but hey, I didn't really care THAT much and had a great time freakin' out completely there. For some odd reason some old guy (could've been my dad) offered me a free beer which I happily took from him as I was in the mood of getting moderately pisseed. Funny was that inside a girl asked me where the f*ck I did get that energy from and outside some blokes told me that they where pretty impressed by me dancing. Ah well, I had a great time and even if I DID make a complete fool out of myself, I wouln't care less. I'll go home within a month and will never see them again and when I'm back in Christchurch it's a month later and they've forgotten me anyway.

Plan was to go to bed early as I had a bus to catch at 7:25am but I found my pillow around 2:00am and was kinda wasted the next day in the bus... The bus took me from Christchurch to Kaikoora with a bus full of strangers. Slept in the main hostel, TopSpot which turned out to be pretty allright as it was straight on top of a hill with the Alps and the ocean as a really beautifull backdrop. A part of the group went dolphin-swimming and whale-watching, I decided not to do anything of that as my budget is a bit tight after so much diving in Australia. TopSpot is sweet anyway, they have a cat (who turned out to be 19, she could've been 10), a record player (vinyl!) and a woodfire. Next day the trip went to the top of the south-island and to exchange drivers and a big part of the group @ Picton. A big part went to the north-island, I stayed on the south-island with some of the group members which I didn't knew very well at that time. We ended up with "Smiles" (our first driver was "Nancy", as they always nicknames and Nancy didn't dare to do the Nevis so earned the name Nancy Boy, his real name was Scott.). It was Smiles birthday and he decided to celebrate that that evening in the drivers lodge in Nelson. So after dumping our stuff in our rooms @ Prince Albert Hotel (which had dorm-rooms but was way too expensive for what it got you)) we went up to the sacred area and had a small party there. After a while we went downstairs for a couple of pints and later on downtown to a poolhouse for some more. Was kinda allright, hooked up with a couple of guys and finally went back to the hostel around 1am as I was sick of the party at that time. (A local tried to deal some drugs with us, that's the point where I decided to hook off, they where way too pissed anyway and I was quite sober when I left the party.) 10 minutes later I found the hostel where I expected it and got to bed, just to be woken up an hour later by a roommate who had hit it a little TOO hard and puked for an hour in the in-room bathroom. In-room bathrooms are really nice, no long walks to a big shared one but if one of your roommies gets sick it's pretty nasty as you really have to listen to his nasty sounds. Ah well, we survived the night and in the morgning I fell a bit sick. Think I had too much smoke and air in my stomach as my throat felt like I had swallowed raizorblades and sea-urchins. But luckily I didn't throw up and got to the bus in time, just to wait as I was on standby and had to wait for someone not to show-up that day. Those where a couple of painstaking minutes, the town was dull and unfriendly and I started to like the group so I really wanted to piss off. After 15 minutes Smiles decided that there was indeed a nowshow and gave me an OK sign to get on the bus. I almost jumped into the air and gave a big dubble-thumbs back, tossed my stuff in the bus and jumped on. Next stop was Westport in the rugged westcoast of the island but not after we've visited Lake Rotoiti in the northern-end of the Alps. That was awesome, snow on top and ice-cold water in the lake...

[Murf returns to his story after spending some hours downtown to get some souvies and a towel, which he lost a couple of hostels ago, relying on a small toilet-towel allone. Now suited with a cool All Blacks towel with a silver-fern print on it...]

Good, after Westport we headed to Greymouth to do some shopping for food and for the 80's party in Mahinapua that night. Too bad only the $2,- shop, The Warehouse and the supermarket where open so it was a bit difficult to get some descent stuff. Kinda shitty as in all towns before none of the 2nd hand shops where open. Well, I ran out with some car-sunscreens, a couple of pingpong balls and loads of sticky tape. Back in the buss everyone wondered what the hell I was going to do with those sunscreens and to be honest, I didn't have a clue either. Back in the buss we picked up the guys from the Rocket Buss who came straight from Christchurch and went down to Mahinapua. Along the way we did some walks and at the end of the day ended at the famous Mahinapua Hostel where the only official inhabitant of the settlement was "Lez", a 79 year old bloke who more or less kicked out all other inhabitants and solely lived there for the Kiwi-Experience and their party's and some friends of his.

This is the party where anything can happen and almost everyone gets pissed. And it happened. After a massive dinner (made by Lez and Smiles) some went to watch the Lion's game on tv and I went straight to my room to create my outfit for that night. As 80's was the theme and I only had sunscreens it was a bit tricky but I ended up like some odd combination of Ziggy Stardust and a robotman, my body, legs and arms covered in silverscreen, my yellow pants, my fluo shoe-laces and on my head a red shiny wig. When I finally entered the bar people looked, looked again and started applauding. No-one expected this outfit and most of 'm agreed that I definetely should be the winner of the dressing-contest that evening. I ran of straight to the bar, being still a rather shy personality I was a bit scared and really needed a pint of beer straight away, not used to so much attention. (People approached me the whole evening making compliments about my outfit. Strange as lots of 'm where quite well dressed but aparently I was by far the most original one.) The party was a fairly good one, not as good as the nights I spend in Christchurch but with the whole Kiwi-group together it felt really nice. Too bad our driver got so pissed that the contest was off so no free drinks for me that night but hey, I had my fun. And indeed all night people where fuzzing around eachother. Some girls really drooling around the better-looking guys in the group. With the 3 of 'm, he probably coul've had a threesome that night, if he would. I wouldn't, the girls where cute but not THAT cute... They seemed like 16 or less though I heard one of 'm talking about her drivers-licence the next day and they seemed to be buying alcohol legally so they must've been 18+. But no, not for Murfie, with a couple of way too good lookin' lads around there's no such thing as getting laid with any of the girls for a Murf.

Round about 1:00am I decided to go to bed, my head still fuzzy, my throat sour like hell and livin' on Paracetamol and vitamin pills. On the way out I busted 2 people of our group fuzzing around with eachother, obviously planning to do little more than just holding hands. When I was in my room I thought it might be handy to repack my bags so that I had an easy time next morning and while sitting in just my yellow pants suddenly the door opened. Same bloke, mumbling something like "Oh, this is, erhm, not really what I expected", a second or 2 later a familiar female face peeked around the door. Busted for the 2nd time in a row by the same person. Sorry folks! I apologized to them for being in the place where they wanted to be but there was nothing I could do about it, I was really tired and wanted to go to sleep.

Ah well, they found their quit spot next door regarding the giggling and funny noises coming from there. All walls where cardboard so privacy was a complete no-go anywhere in the building. I hope they had their fun but I had the feeling it was just for one night as the next 2 days they where no-where near eachother.

Next morning everyone seemed pretty dead and most of 'm must 've gotten pissed like hell that evening. One of my roommies tried to jump in his bed and almost fell out, the guy in the bottom-bunk yelling "What!? You've fallen out of your bed!?" "Well, now close the f*cking door and go to sleep!". Funny things.

Next morning we headed to Franz Josef, doing a big uphill walk of around 1,5 hours as a sort of warming up for the glacier walk next day. Me walking not close to anyone decided to put on his discman with Puddle of Mudd (Come Clean) loud on my headphones and rushed up and down the mountain in record-time. Took some nice pictures on the top and went down. I HATE going down, it's less tyring but just nasty and your toes hurt like hell. But it was a very nice little walk and definetely a good warming-up for the next day. After yet another couple of hours (and surviving the Can-Opener-bridge, so called because if you don't take the bridge right it'll tear your bus open like a can, luckily Smiles didn't make any mistakes and got a warm applause from the bus when we where at the other end) we where in Franz Josef, Rainforest Retreat to have a relaxed night. Wend to bed not too late as the next day was a busy one, doing the full-day glacier walk as I already told on the top of this entry.

And now I'm here in Franz Josef. This morning I booked for 2 extra days but that was a mistake. Tomorrow morning I'll go skydiving (12.000 feet!) which is in Fox Glacier so I deciced to let 'm pick me up here in Franz and after the dive drop me off in Fox so I can spend a night there in a hostel. Booked the skydive (pickup @ 8:45), bought a phonecard and called the hostel to book myself a bed. Went back to Rainforest and asked 'm to cancel 1 night so that I can stay in Fox tomorrow. And so it's done. I'll have to book my Kiwi Bus for thursday right now, pickup in Fox and then go down to Wanaka on thursday. I'll check my Lonely Planet to see if I'll stay an extra day in Wanaka or if I just head off to Queenstown.

Queenstown must be the adrenaline-capital of the southern hemisphere and is liturally surrounded by bungee-ropes but I probably skip the bungee as it's a little too expensive to my taste and I simply don't feel like it. But I do have 2 chances, in Queenstown I'll take the Bottom Bus to go all the way to Dunedin, Stuart Island and Milford Sound and after that I'll be back in Queenstown. When I'm back I'll spend a couple of days there before I take the bus which heads straight to Christchurch again. But we're talking about the far future right now, I'll have to be back in Christchurch by the 30th or the 29th and as it is just the 7th right now I still have plenty days to burn along the route. Maybe do some ski-ing in Queenstown, what I heard is that it's probably the first ski-field opening in New-Zealand... I haven't done any skiing ever but it must be pretty allright to at least try it for a day or 2.

Well, that's it for now. I'm curious how the next group will be and if I have little more connections with them than with this group. Don't get me wrong, it was a great group and after a while I really felt cool with 'm but I certainly lacked some connection with 'm.

My head is still fuzzy BTW, bit flue-ey, sniffing and coughing all over the place and not feeling too well. So I just might stick somewhere to recover a bit. Ah well, I have my daily pack of tea. I'm getting used to the backpacker life, today having my lunch (sandwiches and liverwurst) downtown Franz on a bench and tonight having instant-noodles as dinner. I like it :-)

My first balinese bang!

Kay here a quick update for as far as I can.
I did my two day tour the 4th and 5th. Was a lot of drivin. But saw a monkey forrest. Where monkeys actually used you as a tree. Which was funny because some girls didn't liked that very much. After that went to a crater lake. (yes was a actual volcano, but there not that rare, even some still active volcanos at present)And a lot of culture teachin from our guide. Then we went to a waterfall, where we were guided by children (for money off course). That night we had a lovely dinner, with as desert a balinese dancer. And I am still very fascinated by balinese dances, I might go for a day course. After the balinese dancing we went to the beach for a fire with a lot of games. Lot of sculling competitions. My first bang came from a italian in the honeymoon game. Where you have to bang baloons between each other in all sorts of kamasutra ways. And egg throwing and catching off course. After that a midnight swim. And some sleep, although my roommate snorred. So had maybe 2-3 hours sleep. The next morning for breakfast we went to a hot spring. For an hour bath, which was lovely. Then breakfast and some snorkelling on a sort of reef. With heaps of fish. Saw my first seasnake. And a crown of thorns who was lost. After that had a short snooze. Had a quick foto stop for a working large volcano on the way. Than raced to a woodcarving place, which wasn't spectaculair. A real balinese house, which is a big differece with western houses. Facinating. Then went to a silver factory where I fell in love with a huge silver necklace. Which was *slik* 6 miljon Rupiah. Eventually after a lot of bargaining and luck I paid 1.5 miljon Rupiah which is Eur$150,- or AUS$200,-. Still a lot but for a real silver handmade necklace a bargain. After that home.

Because I got sick that day I had a long night sleep. Today wasn't much better although a lot of people tried to help me out. Keep getting a lot of medication which eases it at least a bit. Stil feel very crappy. Just booked in another week at this hotel. Try to sick this out a bit first and then will go and see.

Love
nicky

Balinese diffrence...

Ok that headline sounds very promising. No idea if that what it is going to be. Lot to write/type. Going to do my best. But time is money. So will keep it a bit of a short story. Leaving Sydney wasn't very hard. Except for leaving all my family behind. Getting on the plane was fine. With no problems. I taped my bag up before gettin on the plane so nobody would be able to plant any drugs in it. Which made my bag look like a green mummy. Was quite overweigted, but the lovely lady let me through. (thank you australian airlines ;) On the plane 2 very dull movies. With missing my family and a bit of overthinking. (bit closer to home) Had horrible airplane food again :s Landing was fine. Customs was horribly organised. Took me over half an hour to get through. Then finding my bags back. My mummy wasn't any where to find. After half an hour searching and looking nothing... Starting to worry after Murf his customs storie... But suddenly my loyal mummy rolled over in my direction. And we happily left the building. No worries with claiming some woodstuff etc. Finding my trip to the hotel was a bit harder. Because of all the guys who try to convince me that they would bring me. (it's hard as a young lady here and all the attention ;) A lovely lady brought me to a small minivan. (which i gave the all known headbump, because I am to tall. Coming to the hotel it wasn't very luxurious, but a good price for the things you need. And i got my own room, with bathroom (don't think to much) and a pool in front of my door. First night was relax and hanging in the bar. Drank to much and ended up faling asleep early. Next day I didn't really dare to go out, because of all the stories. But a lovely lady gave me my first look around. Looked like something I can do. (gettin all the people of me who tried to sell me stuff.) But still that day i spended in the pool and the sun. That night a couple of people went out to dinner. And they invited me as well. So we went to this lovely restaurant. Had a gourgious dinner for EUR $4,- or AUS $6,- Went back to the bar. Did a bit of pub cruisin. And went nicely to bed. Today finally dared to go around in Kuta. Which went pretty wel. Still went to the pool and laying in the sun. Tomorrow i will go on a 2 day tour around bali. To see a bit more and get feeling for places. Tonight have an early night. Some food in the same restaurant. And a lovely Bintang. That is round about my story. Excluding the very cheap prices and the situations on the street. Just a quick story that I am ok and safe.

Love
Nicky

2 days, 3 nights in Base Backpackers, Christchurch, NZ

Plans where to jump on the Kiwi-Experience this morning but unfortunately no bus so I was forced to stay another day in Christchurch and booked my bus for tomorrow morning, 7:45am. Not that that was really a pity, "Saints and Sinners" is a quite nice bar, belonging to and downstairs Base Backpackers so I booked in for yet another night making it a total of 3 nights @ Base.

I had some quite nice conversations monday, yesterday didn't really talk to anyone but still had a good time drinking a couple of pints of TUI's (which is even better than the ozzie TOOHEYS) and hanging around. Christchurch is extremely relaxed, wandered around the city and parks yesterday en today and feel totally relaxed right now. It's even better than Cairns. Cold, really cold, try to smoke a cigarette in your longsleeve at 11pm and Schotchmen start yelling that they'll quit as this is killing. But surprisingly the cool weather adds something to the Christchurch feeling, it just feels right to sit in your Driza-Bone on a bench in a park and doing nothing at all then just listening to the sounds around you.

So that's it for now. 'Will go for some food (McDonalds or something) and then make my backpacks Kiwi-Experience ready and take a shower before I head to the bar for some company and maybe 2 or 3 pints. Bit sad if I have to wake up my whole room at 7:00am because I'm too stupid to make sure that the only thing tomorrow I have to do is put my clothes on, grab my bags and go.

Tomorrow I'll head up north with the Kiwi Expericene to Kaikoora (?) and from now on I'll probably start updating once a week, once every couple of days again as my days will be less empty than the last 3 :-)

BTW it's just 33 days before I'm finally home. That's really just a month. And what do I miss most here? Still my friends and family at number one but food-wise I miss my "patat speciaal" and my Grolsch. (Nah, the last one not REALLY as Cascade, Tooheys and TUI are really damn good beers and you can even get Guiness on tap here!)

TTYL!

Murf

So long and thanx for all the fish!

Well Murf left it up to me to finish the Australia story. (As it should be, because I started it as well) Murf is save in New Zealand and I am flying tomorrow to Indonesia, Bali. Don't know how much internet I am going to have. But don't try to reach me over my mobile phone. Because that isn't mine any more. I'll contact you as often as possible. And otherwise you just have to wait till I am back in Holland. Because that is only 31 one days to go. And after that long period I been gone it is only a short while.

What did I (&murf) do since we updated you last? Well our highlight was getting rid of the car. Me playing the nice and understanding one. And Murf playing the pain in the ass guy. Lets say that brought us quite far. Our car is worth I think $500 dollar of scrap. But after some hidden (good) cards we were able to fetch $1850,-
That brought us a very nice surprise. We devided that and exchanged it to the currencies we needed. Which made murf quite a bit richer. But it even made me a millionair!!! (long live a very low Rupiah) Off course there are photos from this (probably) once in a lifetime uppertunity. But they are burning them on disk now somewhere up the road. So hopefully next time if my connection and everything allows it. Otherwise Holland is my next stop.

For me it means today a hell lot of packing, sending, and other left overs. My bag will be nicely packed in bubbel plastic because of the fact that a 27 old Australian woman is sentenced 20 years. Because baggage handlers put 4kg of drugs in her bag. (or so she says, her bags were unlocked so quite stupid everybody could have entered.) So my bag will be locked. Plus it is very easy for me to find out if people went through my bag or not. Feels a bit scary to fly. But I will get through.

Last word about australie. I wanted to do this trip already for 6 years. This is a wish coming through. I love to finally have met all my family. And it is all been worth it. Thanx for the experience I will never forget.

So long and thanx for all the fish!

Love Nicky

Murf in Christchurch, NZ (and customs was nasty...)

As you can see in the subject, I just arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand. This morning woke up TOO bloody early (6:30) to catch my plane to this kinda cool (liturally!) country. It must be below 10 degrees as I really do need my Driza-Bone here. Check in was fine, flight was without any trouble except from a little turbulence somewhere halfway. But unfortunately they didn't really like my face or my passport or my dive-knife because I got queried at least 3 times on where I was going and what I my plans where for New-Zealand. At the end it turned out that they really wanted to check my bags and hear some more from me. Honesty works best, I do have a dive-knife with a blade of around 12cm in my backpack and though it was not really a problem afterwards they where still a bit concerned about that and wanted to check it out. They also checked out my diary for traces of drugs but that might be partly because I was so stupid to leave it in the airplane, next to my Lonely Planet. I realized that seconds after they pulled me away to check my luggage and some officer was so kind to retrieve it from the airplane. Djeez, stupid action of me, a Lonely Planet might be just inconvenient to loose but is replacable, my diary definetely NOT. Anyway, I was glad that no one was waiting for me at the airport so I had plenty of time. But I did have to go again through the X-ray with my backpacks, now with the official next to it who could confirm that the big metal object in it was indeed a dive-knife and fully legal. But you have to answer an awfull lot of questions. To speak with Doroty (the fish from Finding Nemo): "Just keep swimm^wsmiling, just keep smiling."

Not that I had any trouble with that, after all it IS their job to prevent anything or anyone illegal or dangerous entering the country and I can perfectly imagine that they picked me out. Ah well, they where very friendly and cooperative at customs so no need to complain. They where just doing their job and actually them doing it so thouroughly makes me feel quite safe.

But here I am, in an internet cafe almost next-door to Base Backpackers where I checked in for 2 days straight. Their bar opens within half an hour at 5pm. Straight out of the airplane I jumped into a red bus taking me to Cathedral Square for $5, walked slowly to Base (while smiling that I really arrived in New Zealand), checked in, dumped my backpacks in a room where 2 blokes where asleep and ran off. First to a tobacco store (yeah I'll quit again, but not now), then to the Cathedral Square to smoke a cigarette and take some cheesy pictures of the cathedral and the silverish statue and now in the internet cafe. Unluckily there is again a time-difference which is even bigger than in Australia so while I'm writing this here at 4:35pm it's just 6:35am back home. I'll survive. Tonight I'll celebrate my first night in NZ and my first night in a hostel ever. Plans are taking the Kiwi Experience on tuesday morning. So first a day of checking out the town a bit.

And I'm getting hungry now, see if there is any mail and then probably looking for some place where I can find some cheap junkfood. I should cook but not now. I'm happy being here...

BTW traffic DOES stop here at pedestrian crossings and I already heard some dutchies in Base but decided to kinda ignore that fact and say nicely "Thnx M'te" while they stepped aside when I plummeted up the stairs to my room.

TTYL!

Murf

42 days till I am home!!

As my memory has quite a lot of holes in it. I won't be able to give you a day to day report. (which would be kinda boring anyway) So I just give a couple of things that happened lately which made a diffrence in our lives. At first I want to tell a little story which Murf forgot in his last update. When we 'broke' in at Anita's her neighbourwatch. (really lovely if everybody knows everybody and everything from everybody) So after a couple of confusing rounds and a distressed call from Pat and Guy. I finally found out that everybody thought that there were some people robbing the house. Luckely I could call Anita to give her the message that it was us. And afterwards we all had a good laugh about it. Long live older people who watch each other.

Another thing which people have been asking me is; where is your flightscedual? Well I will update that after this one straight away.
What happened more. We have mainly been cleaning out the car. Sending a lot of packages home. Next to that get everything sorted out etc. Been away shopping a day in Sydney. Bought some discount books and cd's. Yesterday we went to the embassy again. And they fixed finally our visas!!! Long live white paint. So we will see if I get there. But it is all approved by the Indonesian Counsel. And we could finally go to bali.

Yesterday we had a bit of a talk together. And decided that we put a lot of effort in our relationship. But it ended up that there was still something missing. So we decided to split up as good friends. This is the reason that Murf will not join me to Bali and will go a month earlier to New Zealand. So we will arrive both in the same weekend.

And today brought us back to the flightcentre. Murf just changed his tickets and the dates are already updated I saw. And I just booked for a whopping AUS$142,- a hotel for a whole week. Including breakfast. And a choice between a jungle tour or white water rafting... That is a not to bad price.

Well think thats it.
Love
See you soon
Nicky

Shitney!

Fin, because Nicky is busy turning on poor little bastards at TMF-Chat I do my duty and update SWS once again. Tough job... Anyway, we indeed decided to stay another day and after a day of useless shopping around and seeing surfers at the beach we decided to meet up with Brady again as he must've been approaching Byron at that time. Indeed he was, just arrived in town and while we where still watching surfers at the beach he'd come to us with a new girlfriend. (Well, AFAWK not his girlfriend-girlfriend but just a girl griend, but who knows...) We had a quick "hey, how are you"-chat and after a while they'd go for coffee and a place to sleep. To bad our campsite (and our plan to have a bite at HogsBreath) didn't seem to appealing to HER so they decided to go for a ho(s)tel and unfortunately it ended up with having no big beer-booz at the campsite or anything anywhere near having to do something with alcohol. As we where quite tired and didn't hear from them before 8:30pm (while we were already asleep, as the sun goes up at 6:30am and down at 5:30pm you really adopt to this strange biorithm) we'd split as we didn't want to spend yet another day at that way too expensive caravan park. Next morning we picked up our photo's at the photoshop and went to the lookout. As everything in Byron that was also a payd location. Bastards. But hey, they're not too bad, instead of parking our car there for 10 minutes (which would've set us back another $6,-) we decided to take a U-turn at the top which was luckily for free. View was kinda ok, and down we went, along the coast, via MacLean (a Schottish village with all telegraph poles in Scottish kilts) to Coffs Harbour. The original plan was to go to Hoggs Breath, the movies and then asleep but I was kinda tired, Kingdom Of Heaven seemed a bit too long (2:25h) and too heavy (lots of hack 'n slash) for the evening so it ended up at Hoggsbreath only after we found a nice campspot along the river. Hoggsbreath was great, the first time we tried together (in Cairns) ended up in misery as I was nauseous like hell and couldn't eat more than a single bite. Shame because Hoggsbreath is really what "De Beren" is in Holland and "TGI Fridays" in de USA. Awesome food, lovely and honest waiters and waitresses and a really fair price in a very groovy environment with all elvis and other stuff around you. After enriching them with a couple of bucks on a T-shirt, 2 fridge magnets and a lighter (I officially don't smoke anymore but occasionally I do and an Australian Hoggsbreath lighter is definetely a cool thing to give a sweet looking girl if the asks for a light, not?) we went "home".

Next day we'd go to Holland Downunder. We'd expect something like Madurodam but than a lot smaller and less professional. It turned out a LOT smaller and erhm, amateuristic. Really just a backyard with a couple of self-created Dutch buildings. But nevertheless the idea was cute (only the trains should be DUTCH trains, not just standard ancient cokes locomotives) and they had a clog (klomp) making at the end. As we travelled the furthest to get there we got the clog. So we're now the proud owners of a real clog, made in Australia. What will customs in Hollands think about that!?

Next to the Clog Barn (as it was also called) was a dutch restaurant where you could get all dutchie stuff like croquettes and licorice. DROP! We where craving for it after 4 months without so we bought a couple of bags and are still enjoying the taste of home. (Later in Sydney we discovered just a simple shop who had Venco for a fair price so while typing this I'm eating Venco Mintnopjes...) After still missing the cinema we went to a comic gallery. Bit small but it was really fun to see. Definetely a must-do if you ever find yourself in Coffs Harbour.

And after all that stuff? We finally picked up the car to go to some family of Nicky living in Sawtell. (Hi Pat and Guy!) Had a very nice night there with a lot of chatting (luckily Annelies printed all our stories and sent them to them by mail as they don't have internet), some picture viewing of their trip to Tassie and New-Zealand, a really good glass of single malt whisky (18yo, I only forgot the name but it was great, thanx Guy) and a lovely comfy bed and shower. I was impresses by the fact that Pat AND had read THHGTTG AND had the original tapes of the radio-version. Not only that, she had the LP of "The War Of The Worlds" and could tell me that there was a book about it as well, which off course she had read... Impressive.

Next day our movie started at 1:00pm in Coffs so we departed a little before that. In Coffs we enjoyed "Kingdom of Heaven" which is a MUST SEE, 2,5 hour historic epos, from the makers of Gladiator. Not too fast, not too slow and with enough hack 'n slash to keep the fans of that happy as well. But mind you, it's a historic movie. The only thing which really lacked IMO is that the soundtrack was SHIT! (Unlike Gladiator.)

Next stop Nambucca with a wall of gravity in the sea. If we had our own spraycan we could spray our own piece there. Too bad we didn't have that. Not that it would've been really usefull, the rain was pouring down at us and it was getting dark already so Nicky hopped out of the car, took some pics and hopped in while I wisely decided to stay in the car... The idea was to stop that night at a rest-area somewhat an hour driving from Nambucca but for some odd reason our car thought completely different about that. Quite soon after Nambucca we suddenly heard some awfull noise coming from the engine with a sudden loss of around 50% of the power. Pushing the pedal to the flood did basically nothing and even flicking it to 3rd gear, hit it and flick it back to 4 didn't do what it normally did, restoring our power and letting the engine run properly again. So we decided not to trust it and as it was cold, dark and we where tired we dumped the car on the first available campsite or rest-area. It turned out to be a campsite, Nicky running out of the car to get the official stuff done as soon as possible while I kept the car running, afraid that after shutting it off it wouldn't start anymore.

We had a bit of a strange night, worried with what happened to our car and if she finally gave up just a couple of hundred Km's away from our final destination. But luckily our regular morning checks (oil and water) revealed the problem, simply one of the spark-leads had come off the distributor and so let the poor engine run on 3 instead of 4 cylinders. That explains. After reattaching the cable (and filling her with some extra oil) we started the car as if nothing happened. PHEW!

We continued our way to Newcastle via a lot of tourist drives and stopped at a convict-build goal. We where lucky, the rain stopped for half an hour so we had the chance to see the goal in it's full glory (and lock ourselves up for a minute in one of the cells). Had a nice chat with the lady who yelled something about lights which reminded me of the fact that I left my headlights on... Luckily that didn't drain the battery so after visiting the goal we could continue without trouble. As it was getting late (already, it really goes fast if your day only has 11 hours of daylight and you don't leave before 10:30) we decided to start looking for a rest-area. Before we reached that I realized that we'd meet our 20.000Km mark within an hour and went to a bottle shop to get some booz to celebrate it. At the 20.000Km mark I swooshed the car aside on an exit lane, getting some nice hornsounds from a car who wasn't too pleased with me standing there taking a picture of our odometer and went on. I celebrated our mark at a rest area with a whopping one whole beer... (But it was Toohey's so it was kinda allright.)

Next stop: Newcastle. One of the bigger towns along the eastcoast. Not really a cool town, even the Lonely warns for car-theft there (where did we hear that before?) and it's a bit grey-ish but the cathedral is impressive (impressive by it's size, not really beautifull and with big parts of 1998 it's a fairly new church) and the art-gallery, I would say something nice but no, it was kinda boring though some of the contemporary art was kinda ok. It was just way too small and not really interesting pieces. Totally unlike the one in Brisbane which was really stunning.

As we suddenly realized it was our really last day on the road we didn't travel straight down to Sydney but decided to find a nice campsite a litte south of the town. And we did. Getting there was a bit of a hassle, I wanted to turn right, seeing too late that that was completely impossible and having a nice honking concert from my fellow roadizens (you know when you're getting close to a big city, they become more and more unforgiving for human error) and a pissed off Murf we finally found our place. Next to a big lake, surrounded by water, on top of a hill and one of the cleanest amenities we've ever seen it 'd set us back a whopping $17,- Not bad. And we DID celebrate our last night there. With a little bit of beer. (And a little bit of some really nasty pain suddenly coming up under my lungs, which luckily dissapeared after 10 minutes of rest.)

And next day in the afternoon we DID arrive back in Sydney after driving more than 20.000Km. That was yesterday. Anita was not at home but we had the keys and could get in easily. Installed ourselves nicely on Anita's chairs and watched tv (StarWars II was on!) all night. (After first putting our laundry in the machine, really neccecairy as you can not get every stain out of it by hand.)

Today we went to Maroubra, the Indonesian Embassy to finally fix our visas. Too bad the dude was not in untill thursday but the guy helping us DID admit that it was their fault and that they'd fix the problem as soon as possible. So we'll come back thursday or friday and see if they can fix it up before we leave to Bali next week. We also went to Flight Center to recheck my flights (and all MY flightnumbers are now publishes one article below, Nicky has the same to Bali only after Bali she goes home and I go to New Zealand) and ended up in this internet cafe.

A bit strange to be back "home" after travelling half the continent, bit strange to have tv and light at night, really strange that our road trip is now really over. But hey, a new adventure awaits...

Autralia Zoo, Brisbane, Byron Bay

Nicky busy with a shitload of email and /me just finished with it. Happily sitting in an internet cafe in Byron Bay where they're playing pretty good music to keep you typing I assume it's my job to update you about the last week of travveling. And, it will be one of the last entries while really on the road. It's the ninth of May right now, we're planning to be back in Sydney around the 19th. So just a mere 10 days (and ~800Km) to go. After that it's 10 days Sydney and off to Bali. Off course we will keep you updated the whole time as we won't just sit on our asses in Sydney and Bali. (Though just doing that WILL be a big part of our activities, both to save some money and simply to relax and get some breath after 4 months of non-stop traveling and before 1 month of exciting New Zealand for Murf.)

While some dutchies next to us are speaking Dutch (REALLY annoying, there is a reason why we NEVER speak Dutch, even not when we're absolutely alone) I realize that you can never walk anywhere and NOT run into a couple of Dutchies. In Brisbane even the dude from the parking lot spoke dutch, or more, belgian. But still. He regognized our accent (the first one in MONTHS) and let us out for $5,- instead of $7,- Not because we where Dutch but because we came and left early...

So what did we do after Hervey Bay? Well, we went to Brisbane and ended up a couple of Km's before Brisbane in The Australian Zoo (home of Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin). Off all people. The zoo was pretty cool though, nice bird and crocshow in a massive, 5000ppl theatre. We missed the snake bit while cuddling kangaroo's. Not too much of a problem, snakes are small, the theatre was huge and I don't think we missed THAT much on it. Had lunch afterwards, cuddled some more kangaroo's, tried to miss the zillions of crocodiles which is almost impossible as he REALLY has a croc-fetish and left. But not after first getting one of the day's best surprised. A bloke sitting behind a couple of drums, drumcomputer, guitar and didgeridoo's giving a faboulous show. Bit trancy, relaxed music. We found out the dude was called Matt James. Off course I bought the signed CD (Transporta), played it in the car and enjoyed the vibes. Off course he has some samples on his website. I don't have the chance to listen to them here but give it a go.

Because there was a nice rest-area with a LEGAL 20hr overnight stay just 10Km north of the zoo we decided to go back there for the night as it was the safest, most reliable and closest place where we could stay.

Next stop: Brisbane. Parked the car, had breakfast (Subway is really making a fortune out of us, there was one straight when we got out of the parking lot and we where HUNGRY) and went walking through the city. As not really interested in massive shopping (the problem with shopping is it costs money AND we where simply not in the mood) we walked straight through the CBD to the info center and decided to go to the museum and art gallery. The museum was a bit dull though the section about transport was kinda allright. (planes and automobiles always are cool to see) Well, the entrance was free... Next door was the art gallery. Also free and THAT was absolutely worth every dollar we payd for it. ;-P No kidding, some old work witch we both like but not really seem to adore and a huge section of modern contemporary art. Photographs, sculptures, the lot. Really impressive, there was an exhibition of highscool students around the state which was really impressive and more really interesting modern art. Anyway, left the shop with a sign "FCK" (you all know the Kentucky Fried Chicken sign? Well, that one, exactly, but just a little mixed up.) and some postcards and left town, straight running into the english blokes we met on Fraser...

Hmmmzj, I shouldn't write about KFC while I'm hungry and missed my lunch. Now I'm REALLY getting hungry and afaik there is no KFC in town. (But probably something else like a bakery, which will do.)

We wanted to go to the Goldcoast and wildcamp there for the night, checking out the goldcoast the next day. We didn't, checking out the goldcoast nor wildcamping. The goldcoast sucked, hotels, hotels, hotels, hotels and as a desert some hotels and wildcamping didn't feel the right thing to do as even the Lonely Planet talks about numerous car thefts. So we got ourselves a nice spot at a way too expensive ($24,-) caravan park. Next day looked for the info center, got almost lost, and decided to go straight to Byron Bay. (And not stopping at the Dracula Restaurant Nicky wanted to try out.) And here we are now. At an even more expensive campsite ($25,-) but STRAIGHT into the center of Byron. Hogsbreath is next door and instead of taking the car, parking it and then walking into town we can simply leave the car where it is an walk, that's faster than even starting our car.

We might stay another day, though expensive it's good to rest and relax a little (reading, reading, reading, shopping, eating, snacking, reading, reading, reading) before we head off to Coffs Harbour (family) and Sydney. With a bit of luck we'll meet Brady tonight or tomorrow to have a drink, or 2, or 3, or... If we get universally pissed now (I LOVE that word, universally, anyone seen the movie "Hackers"?), no worries, we can basically crawl back to our van. Handy!

And That's It For Now! We're going for lunch I think. TTYL!

Murf & Nicky

So long and thanks for all the fish!

This is going to be a rather mixed up story. Storylines are for wussies, I didn't update my diary for ages and just started 20050429, we're bloody surrounded by Dutchies (more about that later), my screen blinks at a lousy 60Hz, my keyboard SUX and the internet connection is SLOOOOOOOW! But hey, it IS my time to write some stuff now. For some odd reason still 500 people a month are somewhat interested in our writing stuff (off course a big HI to all just bumping in through Google or trying to comment-spam the lot which is still kinda effectively made impossible), for those interested have a look at our STATISTICS page (so that I can look at the statistics of the statiscics to see how many people are interested in the statistics) Off course those stats are more usefull for us than for you, not only as a measurement of interest but also and very important to measure the amount of data used by our websites so that I'm not suddenly surprised by a huge bill from our Internet Provider, IAF. (Not that I'm too afraid for that, it's a small joint and I used to work there before I left to australia and had someone else do the dirty stuff...)

Anyway, my diary starts around 80Km south of Rockhampton where Nicky updated the weblog the last time. And for some very odd reason there are only short, more or less funny, remarks on that:

• While driving through a coastal road east of Rockhampton we wanted to stay at an nice parking spot along the beach. A more or less friendly local wasn't that sure if we wouldn't get chased away there so we decided to take off again and drive a little further. After an hour or so we decided to plunge ourselves in a rest area with a clear sign "NO OVERNIGHT STAY" in front of it. Quite obvious that the other backpacker van standing there with the windows covered up was absolutely not staying there so we decided to park our van behind it, covered up and slept like a rose. Without being sent away. Next morning we looked around, aparently there where more backpackers with the same idea, not less than 3 campervans and 2 Ford Falcons stood there very clear NOT having spent te night over there. Sure...
  
• While getting petrol (unfortunately a daily thing, lucky the petrol is only half the price of back home, too bad this van sucks it twice as hard as my homecar so the price-per-Km stays the same for us) Nicky went out to pay. (Always let the girls do the hard work...) Anyway, she ran straight into a guy who told her that he wanted to move overseas. For one very good reason: The creditcards always looked so groovy and the Australia ones where just dull unless you had an upperclass CommonWealth card which was reasonably spiffy.
  
• Again while driving through the night (after we've seen The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy in the Rockhampton theatre) we where looking for a place to sleep. We found a rather dodgy place, along the hiway in a very, very small village, straight across a pub. But being officially a rest-area and containing a covered up Ford Falcon we decided to stay, parking gently ajacent to the Falcon. (Really, covered-up ancient Falcons are nearly always backpacker cars.) Afraid to be sent to a campsite the sleep was a bit nasty but aparently they where used to it so nothing happened. Well, we got woken up by a boomcar making my car-stereo at home feeling miserably miserable and while at the toilet at 5am some idiots found it neccecairy to yell and shout at eachother, fighting out their hourly on-the-road family fight but we made it. And surprise, surprise, next morning we counted not only the Falcon and our own car who, again, absolutely did NOT spent the night there. "No-Camping" signs have a reason you know...
  
• Not really special but still cool was the Rockhampton Zoo. Free for all and everyone. Not really spectaculair but finally with the chance to see casowary's, who are kinda hard to spot in the wild.
  
• Rather sad is the fact that Nicky while deleting all dull photo's on her digicam thought our platypus was a turtle and deleted the one and only evidence. And she still feels very bad about that. Poor girl.
  
• While doing something more cultural than a soo, visiting a church (still Rockhampton) we ran into a lady who was 100% convinced that we where Canadians. Again. It took her a while before she believed that we where really just Dutchies. Always nice to get those compliment, I bet that the dutchies we ran into yesterday did have absolutely NO clue that their neighbours are just living a couple of hundred Km's away from them, maybe even less. Keep it that way, we still do NOT want to talk dutch 'till we're back home. Oh, we bought some nice stickers from her with all kinds of groovy holy images on it. Nice for on my laptop. They deserved it, the church was kinda awesome. Really modern, just a mere 100 years old but with windows... Ah well, there are (analog) images from them who we might send out to anyone wanting to see 'm.
  
• I should say something about the Town Of 1770 and Agness Waters but apart from that they looked small, we had a nice lunch at the boat ramp and that they're somewhere on the east-coast of Australia I really don't know what to tell about them.
  
• Having a couple of films ready and wanting to have some dupes of our underwater pictures (who worked out quite well) we went to a shopping mall with a bookstore and a 1-hour photoshop. The photoshop to develop the images, the bookstore to kill some time and find some more to read as we where both kinda running out off reading material. (Not really but we like to believe that lie so that we have a nice excuse to buy more books.) After a while an annoying beep came from the Target (a cheap, big, clothing store). Seemed like a burglar alarm but no-one managed to turn the bloody thing off. After another while suddenly the fire-alarm went on. Up to every shop to close immediatly and anybody leaving the mall straight away. Turned out to be false alarm but still a strange thing to happen. Nonetheless the damage was not too big, we got 1 photo unprinted and 2 doubled. The bookstore was very happy with us, we kindly left the store with 6 books, worth just over $50,- as all but one of 'm where labelled 50% off. Nice catch! (BTW Murf ran out with "Bravo Two Zero", "The Real Bravo 2 Zero", "The Street" and "The Street 2", Nicky with 2 parodies on the LOTR, The Bored Off The Rings and .?.?.)
  
• As The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy (THHGTTG) was finally out in the theatre and both read the book (almost, I finished it just a day after the movie, the full version that is) we decided to go and prepared for a bit dissapointment. Well, to be honest, it IS a Disney and it goes quite heavily off the book halfway the movie it think it still is worth it. The voice of Marvin is really well chosen, the Vogons are as they should be, the voice-over with parts of the REAL HHGTTG are absolutely nicely done and how they are on Earth V2 is pretty neat. It's not big-budged SCIFI nor completely analogous to the book but it is definetely not bad. BTW and I did got to magage to get a movie poster. That's one of the cool things here, there are always lots of spare movie posters you can get for $5,- or so, even from movies just out 1 day in the theatre like THHTTG. I even got a full-size banner of Constantine. Impossible to send home but we'll find a way and it's awesome to have such stuff.
  

And from here it's storytime again. After leaving Rockhampton we went south to Bundaberg to have a look at the place they create the world-famous Bundy Rum. We arrived somewhere in the afternoon, sped to the coast for a campsite, ran into a caravan park who was just about to close (at 4:30pm, bit early if you ask me) but managed to stay, pay and get a key for the toilets. That's how they keep their site clean of unpaying customers, just lock the toilets and showers and hand over a key to every paying customer. Very smart. The only reason why we go to those sites is because we want a shower, a relaxed night and a decent toilet. So it really makes us pay and probably we're not the only ones...

Next day we went to the Bundaberg distillery. Cool tour. Free coke and stupid talking so-called hyper-modern lockers where you had to leave everything with a battery in it because it might spark. Safety. They'd already burned down the factory years ago. We stared with tasting the melasses. That's the sugary stuff where everything starts and it tastes pretty much like: Dutch Licorice! Oh holy. No-one liked it and we where yelling that it was soo good and where we could buy a tube of the stuff. They must've thought we where joking and that the joke was not really funny but we where completely honest and serious at that point. As true Dutchies it REALLY tasted awfully good and better than all that horrible aussie licorice. But hey, that's something in a duthcman's genes I presume. They have "drop" flowing through their veines. The rest of the tour was good though a bit set-up (the guides fully trained in their pre-made jokes, making them ALMOST sound original, almost) and because half the factory was shut down because it was a saturday there wasn't much activity. What I found a bit remarkable is that I suddenly realized that it doesn't really matter which spirit or even beer you make. The main process is basically the same. You mix some stuff with yeast, filter it a couple of times, let it rest, filter it more, destillate it a couple of times and put it on a big vat for a certain amount of time. Funny that they used american oak there, the same as one of my favourite whisky's was matured on. But the taste of this rum is absolutely nowhere near a single-malt whisky which they said it should compete with. Nor was it as sweet as Jamaican Rum. So sorry, if I want rum I'll go for the sweet Jamaican stuff, if I want something for in my coke it'll be the cheapest 40%+ booz available and if I want something like whisky I'll grab a bottle of 12yo+ coming straight out of the distilleries of Schotland. Nonetheless, the tour was OK.

Important fact: 20050430 Murf finished THHGTTG! (And is now reading The Salmon Of Doubt and The Street simultaneously. The first from Adams, the second about a Melbourne copper, perfect toilet-reading stuff.)

Next stop after Bundy was Hervey Bay. As we really wanted to cut our expenses we stopped just outside Hervey. (They reall pronounce it here as HArvey insted of HErvey, strange ozzies.) Next to a petrol station on an empty lot ajacent to 2 main hiways with nothing more than a truck-trailer standing 30 meters away from us. Bit fuzzy there but away from the street and hidden behind the bushes still a quite nice backpacker place. Next door, straight next to the petrol-station we found another car, next morning... Parked absolutely more rudely than we. We spend the day on the marina, next to the boat-ramp, observing zillions of people rigging their boats. We wanted to go to THE island, X-mas, erhm, shit, what was it again? Nicky: Fraser Island. Thnx. So we went to a booking office with internet. Send some email there (why not, we had nothing to do anyway) and book the trip. We ended the day at a caravan park next-door as the bloke in the shop was surprised that we didn't get caught on our free spot. Later we discovered a covered van straight next-door to the shop on a really clearly marked NO CAMPING site. Sleeping??? No, just f*cking probably. Sure.

Lunch was another story. Really wanting to cut on our budget we went to Woolies (a giant supermarket) instead of Subways (a sandwich store) and came out with 2 giant French breads, some fetta cheese, a capsicum (I still don't understand why it's called capsicum instead of paprika like we do at home, it's the same bloody thing.), an Hungarian salami, some olives, lettuce and all, worth a shivvering $17,- total. Seemd a lot but really, after having our with the most-stuffed sandwich I've ever had we where so stuffed that we didn't went for dinner at all and saved the rest for the next morning. Good work Nicky, you really DO know how to make massive sandwiches. And next morning we had it as breakfast, me eating just half of it on the boat to Fraser because I and it was soooo stuffed.

By now I wanted to ask Nicky to put down the Fraser story so that I could work on my email but nah, I'm here anyway and she'll live a couple of hours in the park next-door with a book. Have to develop 3 rolls of film anyway, it goes FAST on Fraser. Not that there is really much to say about Fraser, it's really a very big sand island. Bit like Terschelling but just a bit bigger and absolutely NO sealed roads. Not even gravel. Just sand tracks. We took a bustour as we both didn't want to drive ourselves over the island for a couple of reasons. We liked to have some company, a tour guide and the 100% chance of getting bogged a couple of times are all reasons to do it this way. And so we went off. A bit 4x4 truck picked us up at the bus stop next door to the booking office, our car nicely parked behind it. An hour ferry to the other side, and we where on the island. We started with a big ride and a small 20 minute walk through the rainforest ending by an introduction round where luckily the only thing you had to tell was your name and country. Me absolutely hating those kinda rounds hid behind a tree straight away in an attempt not to draw attention to myself, too late realizing that just that action put ALL the attention to me. OOPS! Anyway, we shared the bus with a group of oldie germans (one guy annoyingly really with his videocam glued to his eye), a couple of ozzies (Adelaide), a large group of backpacking UK chicks and a guy, a couple of UK blokes, and a couple of young germans. Kinda allright group. Next stop was then Lake Wabby. Funny because not only the bus was called Wabby but Wabby is also the name of Nicky's cuddle rabbit which she carries all around her trip. (And now she tells me that I should say that the cuddle Wabby was almost dead so she did some surgery on it, saving his leg from amputation. Well, here you go, I said it. ;-P) Lake Wabby was good. Jumping out of the bus the German girl approached Nicky as she saw that she was wearing a New-Zealand necklace and broke the ice for the rest of the trip that way. Smart move!
After a 2Km walk through the forest and over a sandpitch we got to the greenish lake and made ready for a swim. Off course I absolutely HATE natural water but after diving a lot of times I'm getting over it. Hessitated to go deeper than my toe (it was COLD) I suddenly jumped in looking at some english chick who was too afraid to go in. "Hey, I'm way less chicken than that" I thought and with a big SPLASH I was in. Swam to the other side, did some float-exercises (after 27 years of not being able to float I suddenly managed to do it, strange), swam a little more and went back doing some headrolls and other foolish stuff. And then the clouds came in so we had to get out and back to the van. 2Km walking, really trying to do it fast as the clouds got darker and darker. We managed to get to the bus, being not too wet.

We had lunch at the operator's resort and went on to the north part still being chased by the rain. The main hiway is on the east-side on the beach. Fun track, driving 80Km/h over a beach in a quite large 4x4 truck. Went passed some of the more interesting parts like Indian Head, passed the Maheno Shipwreck (that's for the next day) and up north to our sleeping spot for the night. Dinnertime. Got a couple of tents to sleep in and got a nice BBQ as dinner. Had some talks with the germans and ozzies, had a couple of drinks (well, I had a couple of drinks) and went to bed. Night was nasty cold, raining all over the place and a group next-door singing very loud. But we survived the night and I got up TOO early. As Nicky forgot to pack both diaries and something to read I dumped myself in the shed to wake up with a mug of coffee. Breakfast, departure at 8:30am and off to the Indian Head in the north part of the island. Climbed the hill, had a nice view over the island and got down again. Next stop: Maheno Shipwreck. Finally without rain so a nice place to take a couple of shots. Back in the bus, down south to the second lake off the tour after a view of a sandformation which showed all the different colours of sand of the island.

Lunch at their resort again, wraps this time, everyone really looking very sleepy and the english girl behaving stupidly hysterical.
As Nicky told they hid themselves with 3 in a toilet, one to go whatever she had to do on the toilet, one to keep the door closed (it really seems to get kinky here) and the 3rd one... To look for SPIDERS!
For g*d sake, if you go to Australia you WILL run into spiders and other nasty creatures. No one really likes them, Nicky is kinda fobic about them as well and even I don't really want to shake hands with them but this was ridicoulous. Ah well, they where not really used to anything at all aparently, even the best looking girl (looking a bit like a combination of my sister and Kirsten, *YUMMIE!*) changed her clothes a bloody 4 times a day or so. On a camping trip.

The second lake was turtle-lake with sweet little fresh-water turtles. No-one wanted to go for a swim, all tired and the weather wasn't great but it was a nice rest. And then back in the bus to go back to the boat again. A big 1,5 hour drive across the island to the west beach, Moon Point. The boat trip was a bit bumpy (though nothing compared to what we had on the reef) but nice. Specially because suddenly we saw some dolphins swimming accross the boat. The whole boat yelled, off course as it is not something you see daily. Great sight, must 've been a family of around 4-6. Sweeeeeeeet!

On the boat the german couple invited us to go bowling that night, as we had a quite good contact with them during the trip we agreed. So 8pm @ Woolies it was. The bowling center however just closed their doors so up 2 ad-hoc plan B, movie. Triple-X 2. The Hitch is Disney and the german bloke really wanted to see Triple-X being one of the better action movies. And it was. I mean, the story was shitty but that's not what it's about. It's about megalomanic sound, blistering explosions and heavy fireworks. And it was good. I don't like the scary parts they always have to put in but as soon as the action started I was happy. We would've gone to McDonalds afterwards but it was too late. Pointed them at our website (this one, nicely written in the dirt onto the back of our car) and off we went, all our own ways again, probably and hopefully with an email when they have internet and in the mood to write. (Hi guys!)

And that was it. Here we are, in the internet joint annex booking office 1Km from our campsite. Silently waking up and knowing that we won't leave within a couple of hours as I have some serous mail to wade through. Though I forgot to tell about a small story at the campsite. About Dutchies and their rudeness. Really, it's funny but after being around lots of non-dutchies you suddenly realize dutchies have a certain rudeness over them, specially when on holidays.

We came at the campsite and got #69. Drove to the spot and to our surprise it was already half-taken by some rental car. So we opened the window and asked the people kindly to move their car as that was our place. They did, fast. And they came to my window. To tell in a bit too clear dutch accent that the supervisor of the place would leave in 30 minutes anyway so that we could basically stand wherever we liked, as they did and even could steal electricity. 10 minutes later the car was parked next to our van again. Really, no nasty words whatsoever but this is tipically dutch and I am NOT proud of it. Poor bastards probably didn't know that we could've been neighbours. If even Canadians think your Canadian, how could a dutchie notice by your accent that you're dutch...

Townsville to Rockhampton - and how some boat trips can be a bit dissapointing.

They rang about our car that day, the repair costs competely would be $1100,- But to keep her running $500,- should be sufficient. We went for the last one off course. They started and would ring if they would be done. They never rang so we went down to check it out ourselfs. They had to order some parts so it would take another day. Which brought us in one problem; the van is our tent. And I didn't feel like screwing our bed out and take it on my back to the tent ground. So they made at least sure that she could move and we would bring her back the next day. They were so kind that, because we were leaving the next evening for our dive trip, we could leave our car the full 3 days with them. So they would have time to fix it. And we had a free place to stall it.

That for the car story. We also ordered a couple of diveknives at Prodive Townsville for our trip. They insured us that they would be on the boat. This trip should give us the uppertunity to dive 'The Yongala' Which is a shipwreck with a long story. But the excentrick thing about it is that it sank on a sandbank. And that there is bassicly after +-80 years a compleet reef housed on the wreck. It should have a huge variety of fish and coral. Next to that I wanted to improve my photoskills underwater. So I wanted to rent a camera on the boat. Which wasn't possible. So I bought a cheap ass underwater camera in the shop. ($45,-) If you are carefull with this one you should be able to replace the film a couple of times and it still should be waterproof. But nothing guaranteed. The next day after dumping our vannievan and our bags at Prodive we went nicely to the boat. We met already a couple of fellow people before that and had a bit of a chat. On the boat (which resembled nothing more than a iron tub) the first surprise was that I shared the boat with 13 guys... Should be a nice trip isn't it?

Starting off that we left by night. It would take us ~7 hours to get to the reef. Which was in the night. Nobody bassicly slept that night because the boat moved and moved and moved and moved etc. Luckely everybody took their medication already before the night so nobody got seasick. (even I needed this trip medication) The next day we did 4 dives. There was a strong current. Waves were pretty high. So getting on the boat was very hard. Especialy because they only threw out an anchor and the boat made 180 degree turns. No way you could navigate to under the boat. So it was a lot of hard swims. We saw a lot of new stuff though. Group of barracudas, giant clams and big whale shark. One of the dives was Murf and My navigation dive. Which we needed to become finally advanced divers. Thank god that was over. We had to do one exercise along a rope. Which was funny because our divemaster let the line walk over a coneshell. And you learn one thing while diving; always stay far away of coneshells. Because they shoot neadles with defence poison. And that paralises you. That already learned something about our divemaster. Murf went on with a navigation speciality. I went with him but did that dive a lot of photografie. Shot one film in one dive. Later on turned out to be a very good film. With white tip reef shark and stingray on it. This dive turned out to be our longest dive so far as well; 46 min. The night dive that night went shitty. People kept flashing lights in my eyes (blinds for at least 5 min & divemaster who warned us for it kept shining in my eyes as well) and kicking out my regulator. Next to that Murf went wrong with his exercises because he was tiered and nervious. That night we slept better than ever.

The next morning they changed reef. We got woken up by an anchor getting thrown out. The first dive we noticed that this boat (in comparison to Pro dive Cairns) threw their anchor out straight in the reef. And damaged a lot of coral with that as well. That morning we saw an animal Murf had wanted to see already for a long time; Crown of Thorns. This animal is basicly a seastar. With lots of legs and spines. It pukes over coral to eat it then back up with the pieces of coral. (Ieuw) We got swept away by the current quite far and had a huge surface swim. Shot the rest of the dives a second roll. But we were to deep. So is to dark. We didn't do the night swim because of the increasing bad weather. They already prepaired us that we wouldn't be able to do the Yongala because the waves would be to high. (we would be out of the protection of the reef) But we would move reef.

The last 2 dives ended up to be in the same, not to exciting reef. With a bad vision as well. Big bummer. Going back to shore costed us 8 hours of a lot of wobbling. We made at least 45 degrees with the horizon. Off course I got seasick. That night we would all go for a beer. But this trip was so shitty we didn't even went. We picked up our car ($600,- auts!) and some food and went fast asleep in the caravan park.

The next morning we would do some last stuff and finally leave. We went for my photos and next to that to pick up our knives. Because they weren't on the boat so we should pick them up. Coming in to the shop we actually wanted some refund from the shitty trip. That wasn't possible but we could get a discount on the daytrip? We were leaving and next to that it still would have costed us another $190 per person. And we had to stay in Townsville for another 3 days. So no way. That pissed us off already reasonable. Next to that our dive knives were send to the boat so we would have them straight if we came of. With one misunderstandment. They weren't given to us. So they ended up on the next trip. So they were nicely out on the reef. And would be back on monday. We agreed on sending them to my Sydney adres. But it pissed us off quite well and we left straight of Townsville.

Since then we are moving quite slow downwards. Although still faster than I thought. We stayed around Mackay for a little while. To do some internet and see a movie. Went to a national park in the neighbourhood. (2 hour drive) And coming in we saw a real live PLATYPUS. Really a little tiny small one. He was sooo cute. (just as cute as all the other ozzy wildlife which is new to us but still) After that we ended down in Rockhampton. Which we pressumably stay for a couple of days. To see the (free!) zoo. And go to the beach. Etc etc.

Lots of love
NIcky
Ps I know we write to much and that a lot of people just can keep up anymore. But I just like to share my stories!

big update...

Murf wanted me to make up a nice story about how we travelled to the moon and back by hitching a spaceship. (lovely if your boyfriend FINALLY finds out how great the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is. Ps movie comes out end of this month) Think that I just stick to the truth right now.

Heading out of Cairns didn't went that fast. Needed to do some things over there. So we spended the night on one of our regulair campingspots out of town. Spended the night there and headed out to the Tablelands. After seeing heaps of waterfalls in the rain. (Wheater was pretty crap for an amount of days) We spended the night along Lake Tinaroo. But after that left the Tablelands pretty quickly. Is a lovely environment. But not when it is raining. Then we went to Paronella park. Which is basicly a park built by a spanish chap with a castle etc. And you can stroll along. Sounds pretty boring but is actually quite romantic. The ticket included also a couple of tours. Such as a bushwalk with a guide who tells the story. A bushwalk with a guide who explains you a lot about the certain types of food and medication for the aboriginails in the forrest. Then we had a nightwalk which was quite cool, with al kinds of lights. And off course an aboriginal performance. The best one so far that I have seen. So we just went twice. And that is all included in the entry fee. Which is quite nice. Spend ther 2 nights. The morning we left was a bit a hassle. Because our van decided that it was too cold and humid. But after looking very nice at some park employes the jumper cables came out of the magic hat. And we gave her a nice kick. She had to work but gave trouble the whole day through.

Then we went down to Ingham. Where they should have the highest single drop falls. 268 meters (out of my head so don't pinpoint me on that.) We spended the night there after dragging our van up there. Was lovely. the next day did some walks which gave us view of a big lizzard and a rock wallabie. The waterfall was amazing. After hitting it very easy down we had lunch at a thee house with amazing view. Was very very lovely. Then drove down to Townsville where we stuffed ourselfs with info. Went to the movie. And then to our campground. Where we already stay for a longer time. Did soem shopping/movies/musea. And today brought our car away to a mechanic with the message that if it would fall apart in Sydney that we are fine. But till then it has to go. They gave us a good laugh and were fine. Still waiting for a call what it will gonna do. Also checked for diving again. And still considering a live aboard here. But you will hear.

And before I do forget. After calling my parents and brother yesterday. I want to say; HAPPY BIRTHDAY. To my dear brother who is already 17. And my dad already reconed he needed a walking stick.

Love
Nicky

Reef Encounter liveaboard dive trip, Cairns.

Good, while Nicky writes the last lines of the trip from Cairns to Cooktown and back to Cairns I'll start writing a nice little story about just 2 days. But as those days where packed with no less then 6 dives there is plenty to tell. Unfortunately we have NO pictures of the underwater world, we could have taken a camera down there but the viz (visibility) was kinda shitty and the reefs where nice but not as astonishing as the reefs we'd seen with ProDive. Nevertheless it was a good trip and with 6 dives (including one qualifying boat-dive for our Advanced Open Water AND a night-dive) it was great fun AND a nice confidence builder for the both of us as all 6 dives where unguided.

Good, the story. The wakeup was EARLY. I mean, we're both used to getting up when the sun rises but this time we had to get up at 6:45am and be ready and in front of the hostel our friends stayed at 7:05am. Luckily we already packed our bags for 95% the night before and we where there at a nice 7:10am. Too bad the transfer was not free (as they told us at our booking office) and it was a walkable distance so kinda unneccecairy but hey, we where sleepy anyway so we didn't care that much. (Would you care for a whopping $8,- total?) Couple of minutes later we where at the wharf, still 5 minutes walking to the pier our transfer-boat leaves from. Around 8 it came in, being nothing more than a crappy old though not really small boat from the 70's. Quite clear that they used that boat solely for cheap-ass dive/snorkel/boomnet/reef-cruise daytrips and transfers to their bigger (and way more luxurous) liveaboard. As it was a fairly small boat and the sea fairly rough it bumped a lot, the whole lowerdeck was filled with really pale looking people, hiding their faces in their towels. Kinda stupid though, that's about the worst thing you can do when being sea-sick. Just hop onto the stern (rear), breathe fresh air and watch the horizon. Or be smart and use 2 KWELL's just an hour before you go. Me being quite sensitive to sea-sickness had absolutely nothing and stayed hapily on the bow of the boat while chatting with fellow divers. The inside presentation and briefing was a bit shitty, no intercom so they had to yell. Some dork tried to sell his reef video's and was strawling along the boat to make a nice video with the people on the trip on it to sell to them afterwards. Too bad that he found a group of 8 on the bow of the boat, all turning out to be just using this boat as a transfer to the liveaboard so absolutely no use for him and his camera. Anyway, we found another couple there, who also went to Cooktown to dive and had the same problem as we, no boat, no divemaster, no diving. Though for them the divemaster-problem was not really there as they where PADI instructors themselves. (Which turned out to be very handy for us afterwards but that's for later.) We warned them for Port Douglas, not to go there as (as you coul've read in Nicky's story) you can only go down with an instructor. Bit sad if they use the same rules on them I presume and I have the feeling they WILL. "Divemaster? Instructor? Course Director? (The highest level you can achieve.) No, sorry, you HAVE to go down with one of our guides..." Really, If I was an instructor I would book the trip and then gently loose the guide and tell 'm to piss off when they'd yell at me when again at the surface. But hey, who am I, just some jerk with his 15th logged dive in his logbook an a way too big mouth.

Anyway, after a 2,5 hour bumpy ride we where where we should be, Hastings Reef and got transferred to their large liveaboard safely moored at the reef. The sea a bit rough the transfer on a tiny glass-bottom-boat was a little wet but we managed to get on the boat safely. And the boat was GOOD. Only filled with 25 people (half of it's capacity) and luxurous as a middle-class hotel with diner served at your table and even the multi-share rooms being just 2 seperate beds with a PRIVATE bathroom that was kinda ok. Bit too much for us actually, we don't need that kinda shit but hey. At least we had unlimited shower time which turned out to be very nice to wash the salt off after every dive. So lunch, and then a quick briefing for our fist dive, starting at 13:30. As you cannot share a dive-computer we got a dedicated BCD, cylinder and octopus and a number on the board to remind you of which was yours for the trip. Some of them lacking a compass and me wanting to improve his navigation skills we'd swap it straight before the dive with a divemaster with his own gear so I was free to go and could finally work on one of the things I failed during my training. (But hey, I still got certified!)

First dive.
Entry 13:40, exit 14:15, maxdepth 13,9mtr, bottom time 20 min, location Hastings Reef, GBR, viz shitty (10mtr).
As I forgot to remember the topology of the reef AND forgot to set a decent compass direction we plunged into the water, swimmed around a bit and got nicely lost... Saw my first sea-fan and the regular stuff like a complete toilet, (Hmmzj, that's not really regular.) and some bannerfish etc. Too bad we also saw a lot of dead coral and completely missed the coral-garden in the neigbourhood because I missed the bommie which you could use as a navigation point towards the garden. Nicky got trouble with her buyoancy, descent was therefore a bit shitty and probably due to some stress I sucked my air out in 20 minutes so we had to surface pretty soon.

Second dive.
Entry 16:00, exit 16:45, maxdepth 12,2mtr, bottom time 32 min, location Saxon Reef North, GBR, viz moderate (15mtr).
We went down with Chrissie and Brady and as their nav skillz where a bit better we followed them. When Nicky pointed me at a couple of X-mas tree worms and how to annoy them I finally got it. So the rest of the dive I was harrassing them by waving my hand 30cm above them making the water flow. *ZIP!* And they're gone... Retracted in their tubes till the water is safe again. Nicky got the giggles when I was playing my little game underwater and behaving like a little boy who just found a new stupid game to play. Stupid it was but oh so funny ;-) Brady found a tiny Calamari sea-urchin hidden in a rock. My first one and I was very happy to finally see a sea-urchin here. The're cool. (Though the Calamari just has very tiny spines, not the huge ones I've seen in Egypt.) Also found a blue-spotted stingray on the bottom. After 32 minutes we had to go up to the surface as Nicky had trouble equalizing her ears and lost the group. Surface-swim to the boat and preparing for our 3rd dive of the day. (A nightdive.)

Third dive.
Entry 19:35, exit ~20:00, maxdepth 12,9mtr, bottom time 24 min, location Saxon Reef North, GBR, viz night & shitty.
As the sea got a bit bumpy we had the biggest giant-stride till now, a nice big meter from the divedeck to the water. *SPLASH!* Down with a torch on our first night-dive with just the 2 of us and no instructors whatsoever around. Scary but kinda cool to do... Saw some typical things you only see at night like lionfish, a sleeping green turtle and bioluminescence. The last thing really rules, hiding your light to let your eyes adopt to the darkness (and you see a LOT underwater just by the shine of the moon and the boat) and then waving your hands through the water. *PLING!* Tiny little ligts, like stars, but just for a second. You really must've seen it to enjoy it but it's fun. And only seen at night :-) We got chaced by Trevalli, bit predators who use the beam of your torch to find prey. Shining in on a Nemo-fish or some other lovely cute creature can mean *MUNCH!* and exit fish... Too bad Nicky wasn't that happy underwater in the dark, she kinda freaked out as the lost me a couple of times. Luckily I never lost contact with her and at the end everything was kinda allright but still a scary experience for her. Hopefully next time she's more confident and it will go better but it IS kinda freaky going down in the dark as the only way you can see what's up and down is the direction of your bubbles and the water in your mask. We got up to the surface and it rained! Heavy current, tyring swim and very choppy sea. They really had to drag us up the dive platform, submerged half a meter, toss us on our knees (*BANG!* Murf hit the platfor kinda hard...), and reeled the whole platform up the boat. Nicky got an unfriendly divemaster and so did I as the told us the limit was 10 meter and Nicky accidentally hit ~14,9 meter and I hit 12,9 meter as I tried to follow her and not loose her out of sight. The way they did it was a bit annoying, they could've asked questions but ok, we're just baby-divers so in one way I can imagine they where not happy. Nicky simply didn't hear the instruction not to follow the achorline all the way to the bottom and leave it at 10 mtr.

Fourth dive.
Entry 6:35am, exit 7:10am, maxdepth 21,4mtr, bottom time 24 min, location Saxon Reef North, GBR, viz moderate (15mtr).
We got called out of our beds at 6am... *YAWN!* That's kinda hard, you're half asleep and then slip in your wetsuit to go down. But it's worth it. We got into the glass-bottom-boat for a one-way underwater swim to the boat, following a kinda deep wall (the bottom being at 26 meters). They told us OpenWater divers not to go below 18 meters, being an SSI certifier they did NOT really understand that we're allowed to go down to 30 meters with our adventure dive in our pockets. Ah well, nobody complained that we hit 21 meters on that dive. We had to do our first backward roll entry ever (SCARY!), ascended with the group, followed the wall for a descent time, and found a white-tip reefshark swimming around! A moment later we discoverd a second one sleeping on a sandy patch with the swimming one next to it for a second. They're small and harmless but pretty cool to see them in their own environment. And the white tips on their fins really is cute. We saw a Moorish Idol as well (for you Nemo-fans, that's one of the fishes in the movie) and when surfacing we discovered 2 green turtles almost at the surface aparently going for some air as they can NOT breathe underwater but take air from the surface and then live on that for max 8 hours. (Try that as humans...) One of them found a nice little snack in the form of some jellyfish and I waited a couple of seconds to observe it. Really cool to see, I've seen turtles knibble on coral but never eating jellyfish. Surface swim back to the boat, nasty current again.

Fifthdive.
Entry 8:35am, exit 9:10am, maxdepth 13,9mtr, bottom time 29 min, location Saxon Reef North, GBR, viz moderate (10-15mtr).
For me this was really a great dive. The wildlive was almost familiar but I tried to focus on my navigation this time and that worked out quite well. Swimming in a fairly straight line to the reef, swimming around for a while, finding a giant clam, a giant sweetlips at a cleaning-station (with all little cleaning fish around him while the sweetlips was lying at a rock) and an unidentified very ugly and scary fish at another cleaning station. This monster had around 6 rows of very tiny teeth in his mouth and with a cleaning fish in it that was wide open for the world (and unexpecting divers) to see. After our tour I navigated back to the boat and found the anchorline quite where I expected it. Did our ascent following the line and popped up at the surface around 5 meters from the boat, to complete surprise of the lookout. She was looking at 30 meters and more and it took some time before I got her attention and she saw my big OK sign :-> I came out of the water with the biggest smile on earth as I was so proud that my navigation was good enough to find the boat back and come so close to it at the surface...

Sixth dive.
Entry 10:35am, exit 11:10am, maxdepth 14,2mtr, bottom time 25 min, location Hastings Reef, GBR, viz moderate (10-15mtr).
Being back at the reef where we messed up completely at the first dive and wanting to see the coral garden as everybody was so enthousiastic about it I tried to print it in my head and have some proper orientation and compass directions. We did, found the bommie, found the toilet again (and now I can pinpoint you WHERE that is on a map), swimmed through the corridor and... Ended up in the coral garden! Bit nasty entry, we had to pass a very shallow patch to get into the garden (which was beautifull but Nicky really has trouble with zigzag dives and officialy you shouldn't do them anyway but sometimes you don't really have a choice) and suddenly there was coral everywhere. Couple of giant clams, LOTS of corals (hey, that's why it's called a coral-garden), and the usual fishes down there. Later we found out that there was a deeper entry to the garden, but that was back on the surface when looking at the coral from the upper deck. Just for fun we did some underwater head-rolls. Never dit it before, had some air left and just tried it. Fun, you loose your orientation for a secont but it feels extremely free. Swimming back we thought we'd found the boat, till we where at ~8 meters and saw the stairs. Signed "NO, WRONG" to eachother as this must've been another boat but we had to surface quite soon as I was running out of air so we surfaced next to it. And indeed, it was the TUSA boat, not ours. Signed OK to whoever liked it and did a surface swim back to OUR boat... Oh, I saw a goatfish Nicky missed :-) (As she missed a green turtle at the nightdive as well, she pointed her light at the animal but afterwards told me that she did not see it and with one hand occupied with your torch you can not make the "turtle"-signal...)

Hmmm, and that was it! We did 6 dives in a row on our own, unfortunately in worse conditions than we had (shitty viz and lesser reefs) but still very good. Back on the boat we talked again with the PADI instructors and suddenly she realized that with our boat-dive and our backward-roll we met the requirements for the Boat-Dive Adventuredive as we where diving from boats all the time already. So whe was so kind to officially sign the dive as being an adventure-boat-dive (she WAS on dinghy and noticed that our entry didn't even look if it was the first time) so leaving us only the navigation-dive to become Advanced Open Water. That is a serious one, you really have so swim a square to get it signed off, something for one of our next trips.

After the dive we got back to the taxi-boat with the group, we could stay little longer on the liveaboard, $120,- for 3 extra dives, but not being entirely confident with the coral, nor the viz nor the operator we decided not to and just stick to what we've had done. After all, 6 dives in little more then 24 hours is for us unexperienced divers a lot and to be honest, enough. So back to shore, looked at the boomnetters who got towed behind the boat on a net till they lost grip, and went for some dinner. The rest of the group (now existing of a total of 6) went to The Woolshed, we wanted unhealthy food so got to KFC (Murf) and McDonalds (Nicky). Promised to go to the Woolshed afterwards but where simply too tired (sorry guys) so headed back to our van. Looked at the beach where people where dancing on realaxing housebeats with fire-diabolo's, fire-bars, fire-whatever, (a GREAT show, some of them really know how to work it) and walked back to our van for a well-deserved night of sleep.

And that's where it ends so far. Night was good, Nicky finally got some sleep, tonight or tomorrow we head OUT of Cairns, do the Tablelands and then follow the shore back to Sydney, looking for some great diving sites along the way. (With the wreck of the Yungala and the Sydney Harbour already on our list.)

TTYL!

Murf

on our search for diving (Cairns-Cookie-P.D.-Cairns)

We spended the next two full days in Cairns. With heaps of fun and 'regulair life things' like movie, shopping etc. After that we finally said goodbye to our free camping spot behind the diving centre. Which we abused a bit longer than they expected. We went to an aboriginal show. Which was lovely, small, interesting and cozy. Instead of the big massive show we expected. They were 5 shows on 1 ticket. Which included; boomerang throwing, speer throwing, aboriginal history, western last century history and a show with musical instruments and a bit of traditional dancing. Was very cool.

Then we decided to go to Cooktown. Which soon became 'Cookie'. First we decided to make a little detour to Cape Tribulation. Which was absolutely gourgious. Rainforest meets reef. Strange view. We stayed at the campside for 2 nights. We couldn't go snorkelling in the reef because of the wind that brought in a lot of Bleu bottles. But we were able to get fresh coconuts of the beach and drink out of them. Or eat them. While doing some of the walks around there we found a 1-1.5 M lizzard. Quite harmless, but very impressive. The day we left I first took a refresing dive in the waterhole at the info centre. Swimming in between the fishies. Murf thought it would be a bit too cold. So I had a solo swim. We went to a rainforest centre but that was a bit too expensive for us. So we rather did the free boardwalk a little bit further on the road. Didn't see any Cassowary. Although more than enough warnings. We started our drive up to Cookie. Through the inland road because the coastal road is 4x4 drive only. Inland is almost 100% sealed. Except for 30 km where they are working on very hard. We slept that night somewhere along the piece of dirtroad next to a swamp. In between piles of cow dung. (not everything is heaven.)

The next day we arrove in Cookie. First too booking centre where we had a new worker so we just dropped al our request and left so she could sort that out for us. We went for breakfast and some driving around in this tinnie-tiny (right spelling is appriciated) village. Looked a bit dull and dead. But hey. Seen grassy hill. Which wasn't really mend to drive with our car. But she made it. Then went to campsite and had some relax time. Then back to the centre. Our aboriginal tour was a bit expensive. The diving trip was a whole diffrent story. From the 2 opperaters only one was functioning. Though the boat was out for repair and they didn't have a divemaster. (always required on board)The owner was completly stressing to get that done. So if we could call back later. With us were two other people who we started to have a chat with. Ended up at a 4 star restaurant next to the booking centre for dinner with the four of us. Which was fun because they pretended to be very chique. (do you have a reservation?) But the serving and food were not really of quality. (food to late, missing pieces of orders etc.) We had a good chat though with Brady and Chrissie. They did do the coastal road and barely servived with their backpacker 4x4. Also did there open water course in Cairns with Pro-dive two days before us. And also looking for new dive spots up north. After dinner we called back, the lady wasn't home. So we searched for some drinks to ease time till 9 to call again. All the pubs though were closed. We ended up at an RSL that closed at 9 and gave us enough time to have a drink. After calling back she could not give us any news and if we could come to the booking centre in the morning. Everybody went home and to sleep. The peninsula camping where we stayed was not very luxurious. But cheapest in town and showers and toilets were the cleanest that I have seen so far. (and no animals hanging around)

the next morning we got breaky at the bakery. In Murfs' opinion they have the best pies he ever tasted. I haven't tried them. Then to bookingcentre again. No Brady and Chrissie. And no lady of the ship. The centre said that she wasn't possible to do anything for us. So we went to Cookmuseum where I really wanted to go. Was a bit expensive for what they offered. But was nice to hang around for a bit. Where lot of diffrent expositions about the history of the town. (aboriginals, gold rush, chinese, captain cook, the building etc.) After that we found Brady and Chrissie outside apparently waiting for us. Because the four of us were almost the only backpackers in town we wouldn't have been that hard to find. We all decided to go to Port Douglas to see what they had to offer on diving. So imagine our van who doesn't drive faster than 80 km/h and backfires especially on hairpin roads a lot. And Brady and Chrissie's 4x4 who didn't drive more than 60 km/h uphill. But 90 km/h on flat roads. Ow and there car squeked a lot and lost some times a couple of parts. Should have been a funny sight. Especially after our backfires while people suddenly turned there heads. We had a lot of fun on the road and annoyed the traffic quite a lot. (not on purpose but that is just the combinations of the cars and there limitations) After arriving in Port Douglas (all the way till there we had this coach full of elderly people behind us or in front of us) we went straight for info. Turned out that you are only allowed to go down with a dive master. And as just certified people you don't want to be taken by hand. So after making that very clear we clearly went back to Cairns to see what we could sort out. (Chrissie has to fly back home quite soon, so a live aboard trip should be booked quite fast)

So we drove the coastal road to Cairns. The city we wouldn't return to because we already stayed so 'long'. We ended up back again. After dropping in a info centre our cheapest option would be a 2 day live aboard with 6 dives for the next day. We had to pay some extra fees. (hiring exuipment and reef tax) But for $330 we would be settled for two full days and 6 dives. Sounded good so we booked the 4 of us in. We ended up for some food at the night market & Rattle and Hum. Then an early bed because our pick-up was at 7.10 and we still had the pack everything. Sleeping over we did like many backpackers just at a parkingspot in town. Was a free spot and possible as long as you don't draw to much attention. Although we already seen backpackers hanging out there laundry out of the van and just with open door cooking etc. And parking our van for the couple of days that we were on board shouldn't be to much trouble as well. So that saved us storage. That's so far. Murf wants to type the rest ..

Love
Nicky

*oeps* Talking about updating when you are nog awake. I only forgot to mention Murfs' new haircut... (Beatles meet 21st century) With spiffy blue, purple & purple. (light en dark) Next to that fully blond. Getting use to but really cute.. *grin*
*oeps nr2* Blowing our second tire on a grid before Cookie. And next to that a 20 min quicker murf with replacing it. And I am hoping we don't blow another one, because that one is for me :s
*oeps nr3* I forgot the night after Cookie which we spend in The lions inn hotel. (or pub/cafe) Run 100% by woman, so always decent drunk guys. And we celebrated Brady's birthday there. Murf replaced 'drunk' (1st time for everything) our car from the front of the hotel to our campingspot behind the hotel. Everything went fine. And the pub is in his original old state. Fun Fun Fun.
*... I think I had them all right now...

Certified adventure divers speaking.....

Well ok, just asked Murf what we done last Tuesday and Wednesday. Short answer; shopping, reading and shopping. So not that important. Reason why I write this? I kicked Murf to his emails and took the writing stick forsfully back.

But to start off with the most exciting part of the last week; diving. Thursday was the big day when it al happened. Armed with a swimming gear and learning books we entered the most hated classroom. Where I just ran off from. The whole morning nothing but theorie and boring tests. After that my first experience with underwater breathing. And putting in each other your diving gear. Very funny and diffrent. Really have to get used to it. The standard easy to learn practises under water were piece of cake. Going down in the middle 'deep' piece made it already more exciting. Bit scary and offcourse you mess up your equalising. So you have to get up to straighten your ears again. But then your finally sitting with your knees under 3 meters of water. Bit scary. Strange and a complete diffrent world. After that and your proving of swimming skills. (10 min float and 16 laps swimming) You were done for that day and had even homework. :s That night exhausted and numb we just went to bed. Got up freakin' early. Though not extremely because we could park our van behind our practising building. So only a 2 min walk. 6.30 was waking up time so we could learn a bit. Murf became a bit sick so we had to drive in the morning to a gasstation for a reasonable toilet. Not fun for the both of us. And messed up our learning. Murfs' learning so badly that he only could learn half of it. And the final test was that afternoon. Not really nice. But we had to do with it. The whole morning we spended in the pool doin more practise. Going down, coming up. Kneeling on the to rough floor. (goodbye knees) And keep attaching and detaching everything of your gear + tank. Very boring but necessairy. The afternoon was first lunch at the nightmarket which was very jummy. And off for the shop for info and uppertunity to try masks. Which is an important part of your gear and the most personal. Next to that we had the uppertunity to by some own gear. With a backpacker package in front of our nose. With cheap flippers, glasses, snorkel and boots. Murf and I couldn't resist. Next to that Murf wanted a hooded vest for under water to keep himself warm. Because after his last dive in Egypt he was freezin. So bought one of those as well. Long live creditcard. Because gear is expensive. Even with extra discount we paid almost a $1000 on gear. Which we could use on the boat as well to test it out. After that we went back in the class room for more and more theorie. Pieces of tape and then questions. Blegh. Felt like really school again. Then the final big test. Would we make it or not? Murf still didn't get part of the theorie. But we had to and there was a retry on the boat. Within minutes we filled in the test. With loads of help of our instructor, Chris. So everybody actually made it!! With only 5 out of 50 wrong we were easy passed. After a lot of congratulations and yelling we had some bad news. Pickup time for the next morning to bring us to the boat. For us that was; 6.20 After the course we had to eat and then pack. Which we did half and hoped that we didn't forget the rest.

The next morning I wasn't completely awake. But still managed to get everything in the bag. Except for some medication Murf couldn't find. But time was running out and we had to go for our pickup point. Which we nicely made on time. We got drivven to 'our' boat and boarded. Still half asleep we did al the necessairy paperwork. And waited for the boat to leave. After 3 hours we were on the place of arrival. Couple of people were already quite seasick. I didn't feel to well either. And Murf looked absolutely horrible. But there were people looking less happy. Just before the place of arrivel we had to get geared up for our first dive. We unpacked our bought stuff and found out they forgot his hooded sweater. So the diving was expected to be a bit chilly for him. The sea was abnormal blue and you could see the reef laying underneath the surface. Which was quite cool. After getting in the water we nicely followed all our learning. We went down and entered a complete new world. After regrouping all down and sticking to your diving buddy. (never dive alone) We had a short tour. Which involved seeing and stroking a sea cucumber. Lots of fish. And coral. To new to this world we probably missed a lot anyway. After that we went easy up again and went to the surface. There we did some practise on things we should be able to do. Halfway I got disturbed by a creature I would have rather skipped. A bleubottle or stinger. Never been sting before. And not nowing what to do. I completely freaked out of the pain. After help from someone in the group I went still half crying through the rest of the exercises. Went the uppertunity came I went as fast as possible to the stairs to come aboard. The whole ship didn't contain anything but the pain would float away. Which it did. But it kinda got me good and it didn't looked very pretty on my arm. Why didn't Murf helped me out? I heard later that he was freakin' at the other side of the group, because a part of his fears from Egypt drifted up. So he had his own hard time. But with the scar in my legs and the words that this was very rare to happen this badly I went back after the lunch for my second dive. Our second dive was less spactaculair. We went down and sat bassicly on the sand between the coral. And did a lot of practising. I went up on Murfs' air as practis required. On the surface we had to navigate our way to the boat while not looking. Went fine. Just before going aboard. A stinger fatched me again.... Just as bad but right arm. Still hurts like hell. But now knowing what to do I reacted a lot calmer. And responded a lot better. After getting aboard the cook baked us a gourgious cake, which was very welcome. Then after every dive you fill in your logbook. Depts, circumstances, pressure group and your experience underwater and what you did with every dive. After the second dive the boat moved to an other part of the Milln reef. So we could do a nice dive before dinner. This time we went again through all procedures to go down. Did some practising and had a underwater tour. Saw some fish including the chocolate dip fish, bumphead parrotfish, batfish and the giant travelli. You see so much fish you can't name. But some fish are easier than others. After that everybodies energy was drained. Luckely we weren't allowed to go on the nightdive. So we spended the night looking at the most gourgious moonrise and sunset ever. (my batteries went flat, sorry) And checking all the lights from the underwater divers on top of the deck. That night had a bit of a bad night sleep because of the ocean that kept banging against the boat and the ship that kept moving. Thank god my and Murfs' seasickness already sunk a good way down. The next morning wake up was at 7.00 With a the nice thing that we were diving before breakfast. And we already moved that morning to another part of Milln reef. Nicky with her not easy getting up way, wasn't to pleased. And then I am expressing my morning mood softly. Because of my sleepyness and a foggy mask I didn't got a lot of the underwater tour that morning. I just did all the exercises half asleep. After coming up I had breakfast. So I was quite allright for the next dive. And already quite excited. Because the other group certified itself already with this dive. We didn't because of a group of bleu bottles that came in. But this dive would be the last necessairy dive with just one excersise and a big tour. We saw a turtle that dive. Who was chearfully nibbling on some coral. After an easy snorkel back to the boat. (just as gourgious at some points as diving) Then we were sertified open water divers. *applaude* That felt so good that we booked ourself in for a adventure course so we could dive to 40 meters instead of 18meters. But first we had one free dive. Including underwater navigation and completely being on your own with your buddy. When we got geared up. We were going down. No problems. Navigating was for me because Murf didn't got that skill very well. And he is used to me navigating in the car. So he that it was easier to leave it up to me... Our instructor (who did all our water practise with us) Sam waved us out with the words; My nest is flying out. Which almost made me choke in my regulator. But going down the freedom is at that point ultimate. Just your own way. Found all the recognition points and navigation right. So plenty of time to wonder around. Saw 3 stingrays. One turtle who floated stoned before our noses away. A couple of big schools of fish. Bumphead parrotfish. Who are absolutly huge. And I still love the little group of humbug damsel fish in the fingercoral. After getting legally lost in a part of the coral Murf and I found a way out by swimming underneath a 'bridge' of coral. It was coral all around at that point and loads of fish. Murf was running out of air on that point so we did a nice and slow descent on the way back while swimming back to the boat. We didn't make that a 100% but we nicely snorkelled back the last little piece. As a first dive was this absolutely a thing you cannot describe in words. Perfect is too empty. And doesn't fill it in right. But wouldn't now how else.

After dinner we started off our adventure course with a nightdive. We moved to a new reef; Flynn reef. Where we would meet Brian. A giant green turtle of a meter/1.5meter wide. And he was indeed fast asleep in his cave. Saying a he, i mean a she. But they only found that out after naming her. Didn't saw a lot exciting. But as a dive it is a completly diffrent experience. That night I slept wonderfull. The next morning waking up at six was no problem. Diving 15 min later went lovely as well. It was our deepdive. As well for our adventure course. By entering the water I got stung again by a bleubottle. But at this point I could react pretty cool and there wasn't any trouble. Pain gets less as well. We went to a depth of 25 meters and did some stupid test. (pointing out nr 1-20) To see if we would suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis. Which is not harmfull. It just lets you respond a bit in the way that you are high. Gigling and strange behaviour. Solving is just going a bit up. Just one girl got the giggles. Me and Murf were fine. Did saw 2 lionfish this dive, a turtle, school of little fish. And there were a group of Bumpheaded parrotfish fast asleep beneath the boat which looked awfully cute. All the way from the dive we had a Spinal emperor swimming along with us. Which was very curious but also very big. Funny fish. We had a safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes to adjust to the pressure. So you prevent decompression illness. Which is a serious illness. After that went up with no problems. After that we had breakfast!! And after moving we had our last dive. For our adventure course but also of the complety row of dives. We did a photodive which contained a lot of watching out with how to take a picture. Because conditions are quite diffrent. Saw a couple of Nemo's! Had a lot ot fun. A lot of trouble with the camera as well. So I made a lot of shitshots. And didn't even got my film filled. Murfs fotos are quite alright although he will tell you diffrent. Got stung again by bluebottles. This time Murf as well. Had a lot of fun. And said goodbye to the reef with pain in my heart. After 3 hours back to the shore we got our first drop of rain in days. Our luggage got unloaded and we got to the shop for paying and finally picking up Murf his hooded vest. Which he hugged out of the fact he finally had it. But we still had to pay for 2 adventure courses, 5 t-shirts, drinks and some other stuff didn't made that bill any cheaper. Without knowing the price and just swiping the creditcard. We got brought home. For us to the dive centre. And our van, who was loyaly staying behind the centre. We unpacked the whole lot. And Murf found his medicine back. In the pockets of his paints. So he had them with him all the time. After unpacking we had a goodbye dinner with the whole group. And went nicely to bed.

We decided to stay a couple of more days in Cairns because we enjoy ourselfs so much. Next week we will have move I think. But that you will hear the next time. For now enjoy the Nemo fotos. And all the other of his friends. We probably pick a movie for tonight and have an easy day.

Love Nicky
Ps 95 days before my return. And in a week I can celebrate my 200 days being away. Time seems to go flying. Just for the fact we have 1.5 months to get back to Sydney. Than half a month to sort out paperwork, our car and see some musea etc. Then we have a month in Bali and then I will be home again...

Darwin to Cairns in 2 weeks...

Because I have the most to do on the internet I decided to update this one as well :-) Meanwhile a couple of new pictures are uploaded at a thriving 1Kb/s or so (the upload window doesn't seem to go away but I have the time anyway so I don't really care), so by the time you read this some new pics should be on the gallery. Unfortunately we forgot to take our USB2SDCARD tool (to make it possible to grab images directly from Nicky's digicam instead of a burned CD and THUS being more up2date) so I only have this CD, but not to worry too much, probably tomorrow we'll return and upload a few of the pics currently on Nicky's cam. Ah well, enough to tell I think. The last update in Katherine was nothing more than a yell that we where safe for Ingrid, our cat 5 cyclone right at our doorstep. We heard that it even got the news back home, so can imagine that you where quite scared. But nothing to worry about, never where we really near to Ingrid (it's been at least 300Km away from us) and we where out of the Darwin region way before it could strike. Actually, in Darwin we decided to go down ASAP but off course WITH seeing Kakadu on our way south. So we did, went to Kakadu, the info center and spend the next 2 nights at an official camping to keep ourselves updated with the weather-status AND near someone who could evacuate or warn us if neccecairy. Fortunately none of this was neccecairy as Ingrid processes slowly along the cost and didn't seem to go on shore so we had a couple of nice days at Kakadu. To be honest, because of the wet season most of it was closed and it was not THE experience we both hoped but it was absolutely interesting and nice to see. Pretty interesting WAS that quite close to Kakadu you can go on all sorts of Jumping Crocodile trips and off course we did. Slowly moving over a seemingly quit river they hang out some food and suddenly you see something moving in the water. A saltie! (Or, for those who are not yet used to aussie-slang, a saltwater crocodile.) At that moment you realize that that water is a quite hazardous place if you manage to fall overboard of the ship, salties DO eat human. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, they don't care, human is nothing more than just food for them. And they do jump. Basically a natural behaviour for them, (BTW spacebars on the run are quite annoying, cheap internet, cheap rotten keyboards an a rotten upstream) they use it to grab prey on the side of the river above their heads. And almost the complete croc comes above water. 3 meters of massive murder machine. WOW! On those trips 2 of the passengers get the chance to feed one themselves (with meat, not theirselves off course) and Nicky got lucky this time. So with something that looks like a fishing rod and a Kg or 4 of meat hanging at it she swong the thing above the head of croc "Anna". Jumping was aparently not on her program, just a small jump came out of her but at least Nicky can say that she DID feed a salty. Nice.

Good, as I told we left Kakadu quite soon though it was quite allright as we didn't want to get involved with our lovely cyclone and drive quite straight to Katherine to do our usual stuff like developing pictures and in this case, update the internet to let you all know we're safe. I almost killed the persons in the photoshop there because they where extremely clumsy (4 different items on one order was a bit too much for them, they handled my precious negatives with their bare hands straight on the surface instead of the edged AND they shut off their digiprinter 10 min before closuretime so we couldn't check if they burned the right images on CD), anyone going there do NOT take the newsagency/photostore in the mainstreet but just go to the one in the shopping mall across Woolworths. The last one mainly being a pharmacy but with a lot more relaxed and professional personell. As the lady behind the counter told us it was not uncommon that the other shop messed up, here development street broke down and now she has actually people just waiting with their films till that thing is repaired instead of going to the other shop.

From Katherine we headed further south again, doing part of the Stuart Hwy double as there is NO other route to the east. There is, sure, but only with a couple of permits to cross aboriginal land and last but not least, a sturdy 4x4 as most of the tracks are dirtroad and have nasty river crossings, even in the dry. (Or in a kinda dry wet as we have now.) Slept 30Km south of Katherine on a rest-area as it was getting late already. (We do that a lot, they don't complain as long as you don't really camp there and they're free.) Next day was finally the day where we would say goodbye to the Stuart Hwy and hello to the Barkly. Where the Stuart goes south-north from Port Augusta to Darwin, the Barkly goes west-east from Three Ways (25Km north of Tennant Creek) to Cairns. Not completely true, it DOES start in Three Ways but it ends little south of Cairns and it doesn't do a complete cross-country like the Stuart Hwy does. Anyway, we serviced ourselves (and Vannievan) at the service station, bought a magnet to prove that we where really there and headed east on the Route 66 of Australia. Still in the middle of the outback, desert all around us and more to come. Only Darwin, Katherine and Kakadu helped us out of the dry and fly-filled red-center for a while but being around 600Km south of the ocean Three Ways is really center of the outback. Off course you see that there is NO rest area in the neigbourhood if you need it so we drove a little further, almost 800Km that day and found ourselves a rest-area just 200Km from the Queensland border. This one, as remote as it was actually stated that it was allowed to spend the night there. In the Northern Territory ALWAYS true (according to our information) but still gave a relief. Grabbed a coldie (yes I mean beer, though it was not cold unfortunately), made some pictures of the sunset in the desert and went down under to dreamland. If after driving the Stuart Hwy you think the outback doesn't get any emptier, try the Barkly. It DOES get empty, our first impression of Queensland was a very empty one. No shrubs, no trees, nothing, just endless Km's of just little bunches of grass, if any. Still no sandy-desert (we didn't and won't pass them as they are off the track for us and 4x4 only) but really impressively EMPTY. Makes you feel quite small, driving in your minivan through this landscape of desertness knowing that you might be the only human in a patch as big as The Netherlands.

Next day we headed towards The Isa (Mount Isa for non-aussies or again, those unfamiliar with the aussie-slang), after driving along the longest mainroad in the world. Officially the mainroad of Mt. Isa goes from downtown Isa to Camoweal, ~188Km east of the town, all being hiway. The first night we spent at the movies (Hitch, absolutely a must-see feelgood movie!), had a marvellous view at the town during sunset and parked just 200 meters out of town on a road-train rest area, maybe 100 meters away from a caravan park. Lucky we didn't get caught there, for sure they wouldn't like THAT. But hey, police patrolling the city lookout (probably for hiding backpackers finding it a nice place to spend the night and couples (or married men with gay- or cheating habits) finding it a nice place to be "romantic") we didn't dare to dump ourselves there... So we took the gamble just parking outside town. Because of the darkness we couldn't see where we really where, the next morning brought us this amusing surprise. Didn't get caught and have yet another backpacker story to tell this way ;-P

Mount Isa beeing a copper/silver/etc mining town had some nice surprises for us though no cheap silver as ALL of it is exported straight away in big blocks and nothing is kept in town for low-price sales to poor backpacking tourist like we. Unfortunately. But, nonetheless Mt. Isa was interesting. Went down a mineshaft to get a wonderfull presentation of underground mining throughout the years, starting somewhere around 1930 and ending in the present and future. The trip was guided by a bloke who used to work underground for the last 34 years and clearly knew his stuff, telling all sorts of annecdotes from his years underground. You know BTW that it's very confusing uploading pictures of the Stuart Hwy (NT) while you're typing a story about your trip on the Barkly Hwy (QLD)? Anyway, the mine was unfortunately not a REAL mine, though dug out like a real mine with all the original stuff. The mining companies shut down all tours in their mines and let the town basically suffocate. So they (the town) decided to dig their own mine, so that they still can profit from the tourists who want to see a real mine. And they did it good, the mine looks and feels genuine and it IS. The only difference is that it was never comercially used to get silver, copper or whatever out of the ground. There is a price to that off course, $45,- for an almost 3 hour during guidance through the mine. You get what you pay for, not only a very experience guide but also hands-on demonstrations of the equipment being used and you get dressed in a mining-overall to get the image complete. So, for sure something to do if you ever manage to find yourself in Mount Isa.

After Mount Isa we headed little east to Cloncurry, going off the Barkly at that point and taking the less-taken Matilda Hwy, driving towards Normanton. This is where you finally leave the 2-lane bitumen and end up at the famous 1-lane strips where you really have to look out for road-trains and other heavymetal, towards and from behind. These strips are too small to let 2 cars pass without one leaving the tarmac completely. (Or both leaving it with 2 weels.) Road-trains and other trucks go first in any case (they can NOT leave the tarmac unless it's in an emergency) so be carefull, watch out, and be prepared to go off the surface as soon as you see something big thundering towards your bullbar with around 100Km per hour. Mind you, we're still talking about hiways here. It makes driving hard though very interesting. There is something strange about these roads, they make you realize your really in a remote area of a country far away from home, at least me really giving the aussie-feeling. And aussies patch their roads quite funny, there ARE 2-lane strips on these roads but they suddenly pop up and dissapear. Not that they start in one city and end when the bitumen (or the money) is finished, no, they just take pieces of one-lane strips and lay patches of 2-lane on some places. Sometimes on potentially dangerous ones (which makes sense) but as often on places where it seems completely unneccecairy and out of place. And they do move funny things along these roads. First beeing pushed away by a pace-car we already felt something oversize was coming our way. Far away on the dirt we waited, and waited, and suddenly something HUGE popped up. A house! WHAT!? Yep, a complete house, straight on the back of a giant truck, followed by its shed, probably made in Mount Isa and having destination Camoweal as we saw those houses a lot in this service-station-on-steroids.
We've seen this before, a little more south in Victoria but that was on the side of the road. It was kinda surprising finding this on the middle of a one-lane road...

Further up the road we needed bread. So headed into Normanton, a tiny settlement in the gulf-region, still the largest town around. Not really THE place to be. Aparently not really used to strangers there, the first lady almost looked us out of her store. The next one was a lot friendlier (we needed lunch and the first one didn't have anything usefull) and even pointed us to a park nearby. Declined the offer and had lunch outside her shop but nonetheless a better experience than the first one. Still not a town we need to visit again. 7Km south of Normanton we headed further east on the Savannah Way, looking for a rest-area. Off course, again not to be found so our first stop was a service-stop in Croydon to re-fuel and re-oil our car and somewhere outside Croydon we parked the thing on a rest-area.

Next day we headed further east on this very touristic road. NOT really touristic was the detour we took, starting a couple of Km's east of Croydon, heading south, east and north and after ~ 150Km ending straight in Georgetown we took a track which was absolutely very scenic but... Well, read for yourself. The track started as a fairly normal dirt-track as we did before in Tassie. Heading south, no problem, turning left and heading east, even less troublesome as the road changed to one of the best dirt-tracks ever seen. One you can easily drive 80Km/h without ever being afraid to loose your car on a bump. Off course it had it's rotten pieces where suddenly you felt like a milk-shake but it was absolutely a nice drive and the scenery was pretty ok. Actually, as still a bit afraid of dirtroads after our Tassie-incident I needed this track to get confidence again. So that was good. But, the as we turned left hell started. The first river-crossing was fairly easy, Nicky out of the car walking barefoot through the river in front of our van (no salties here and very shallow so no worries) to see where the concrete was and if there where any unstable pieces. Only 20cm of whater and no strong current nor hidden nastynesses so we crossed the whole 30 meters slowly but steadily and easily. The next part of the track (around 42Kms in total) was less easy though. It started with a sign "high clearance only", as our van has a fairly high clearance (in other words, it stands high on his wheels) we weren't to afraid for that and started on the track. But it turned out a little trickier than expected with lots of potholes, bumpy tracks and worse, kinda muddy and sandy river crossings. Glad that it was a dry wet instead of a wet (otherwise we couldn't do the track at all, meaning driving 100Km straight back) we managed the first few crossings with a lot of hassle, almost getting stuck a couple of times but by means of luck and probably some decent driving capabilities of yours truly we got through the first 20Km. And then horror happened, a little too muddy, a little to deep and a mistake in judging the right track our van got stuck. Tried to rock it back and take the other track but unfortunately by that time the rear wheels (our driving wheels) got digged into the mud too deep to get out on ourselves. Puzzled we stopped the engine and looked up to see how the hell we would get out of there. This track was rarely used, maybe 1 or 2 cars a day so we had what you call a little problem. Luck was with us, looking up the hill a kinda old and crappy looking 4x4 showed up! Walked towards the vehicle and tried to speak to the person in it. Another challenge, the guy in the vehicle seemed older than his pre-WWII truck, was even thinner than I and could barely speak. It took a while before I realized that the blode did UNDERSTAND what I needed but we managed. And off course he only had a really thin rope with in his car, by far not enough to pull out our 1750Kg minivan. By this time Nicky got her brains together when I yelled "rope" from the hill, realized that I had brought a climbing rope for common purposes (she cursed me for that when I arrived here, being utterly useless in her eyes) and that we might try that one. Well, climbing rope is strong but it is NOT designed for pulling out vehicles. Having nothing better we attached the rope to our car and to the 4x4 and just prayed. Probably all three of us. The poor 4x4 had some trouble finding grip on the steep hillslope, the rope squeeked, but slowly and steadily our van started to move! The rope held, the 4x4 was strong enough and after a couple of minutes we where up the hill. Cut the rope (by no means you can untie that nut), thanked our saviour extensively and went both our own ways. He where we came from and vice versa with still 20Km to go before we would reach the civilized roads again. To be shorted, the rest of the road was as nasty as the first 20Kms, stretching the capabilities of our van and our hearts to the maximum. We definetely missed a couple of heartbeats on that track as the only proper technique of doing those crossings seems to be just to get up the hill, steer into the right direction, hitting the gas and just plunge down with 30-40Km/h, using the weight and momentum of the car to get through the dirt and up the hill again instead of getting stuck, relying on the trackion of your rear-wheels which isn't there. (It's MUD...) That's SCARY. You don't have any control in the down-section and just have to pray that you don't hit any rocks damaging your car, blowing a tyre or two, get stuck in the mud instead of up the hill or simply loosing the control of your car completely and ending up somewhere off the track or worse, on your side. After this any other type of road seems easy as cutting through butter with a hot knife and any other surface seems ironed. Being scary like hell it WAS fun though, we made it to the bitumen again after uncountable nasty downs and where pretty proud of ourselves that we did this track with getting stuck just once. The next town (Georgetown) we first got petrol, got info about the lava-tubes a bit further on the road and celebrated our survival with a roo-burger (the lady in the general store asked if we where interested in one instead of the meatpie and sausageroll we ordered) and a pause on their bences. The first lady told us that it WAS a 4x4 track and not even made tidy because they normally do that before the dry starts, the second lady welcomed us very warm. So, another tip for if you ever get to this part of Australia, do NOT do that dirt-track unless you have a very sturdy 4x4 and some experience but DO stop in Georgetown and get a rooburger at the general store. (And say hello to the lady and her husband from us.)

After our adventure we needed a piecefull place to spend the night so went off to the Lava-Tubes a bit further to the east. Well, the campside was pretty doable and fairly cheap ($12,-) but the park was IMO a bit too commercial. You're only allowed to get into the tubes by a guided tour (as they say because it's too dangerous, as I believe because it's private property and they make nice profit out of tourists that way, Kakadu is with it's salties much more dangerous and you CAN go in there for free), the walks are fairly limited and the tour... Ah, it's a nice place to be and if you're a geologist it might be very interesting but our half-day tour was a bit dull. The guide seemed like a school-teacher (one of those dusty ones) and the lava tubes are simply not THAT spectaculair. So IMO you won't really miss a thing if you skip it and if you do want to visit it, stick to the 2 hour tour, do a walk up to the rim of a crater (nice view, again not REALLY specteculair) and after that visit the waterfalls in the west. We planned to spend 2 nights there, ended up with one and headed of to Cairns. Simply because the park was too commercial and not interested enough to spend longer than a day. Spend the night little south of Cairns in a village/suburb where I did forget the name. We planned halfway but unfortunately there are no rest-areas, so we had to drive through the dark for 2 hours (nasty as it was a long and very winding road, straight through the Great Dividing Range), and after a fuel stop and asking there we ended up on a rest-area being the only one in the neigbourhood. It said "no camping" but having the attendant of the fuelstation saying that it was allright for just a stayover we learned that those signs mean that you can not CAMP but can spend the night there. (Other backpackers even did put their tents down.)

Next day (yesterday) we then finally arrived in Cairns, being the backpacker capital of the far north. Suddenly we realized that we forgot a whole month and instead of having a month and 10 days to go back to Sydney we have 2 months and 10 days. *OOPS!* So we decided to relax here a little, went shopping yesterday, booked ourselves into a camping 15Km north of town for 3 days (both not being in the mood to explore the nightlife we prefer the ease of a more quit campsite) and booked our diving trip. That's correct, we're going to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Even better, we booked our 5-day PADI Open Water course, starting thursday and giving us not only an Open Water certificate at the end but also 3 days liveaboard. That means that the whole training is split in 2, 2 days theory in a classroom combined with practical training in a pool and 3 days on a boat on the reef itself. Luxury, the boat has hotel-like facilities and for the first time we get a complete cabin for ourselves. As the reef is 60Km outside the shore it takes a while to get there, therefore almost all companies offer this livaboard option. It simply gives you more time on the reef. Not only for diving (our course contains 4 training and 5 fun-dives, including 1 or 2 night-dives) but also for snorkeling and just relaxing aboard a multi-million-dollar dive vessel. Not really cheap (my creditcard was ~ $1300,- lighter when paid for the 2 of us) but probably definetely worth it. For me it's something I want to do for the last 3 years (I've done an instructor-guided dive in the red-sea in feb 2002 as part of my honeymoon with my previous girlfriend and got addicted but never took the big step.), Nicky just gives it a go and doesn't want to do things half. So that's for the near future. Tomorrow and wednesday we'll spend our days basically shopping and probably lying on the local beaches. Thursday till monday we're busy with our training and afterwards we'll see what we'll do with the rest of our 2 remaining months. Probably going up north, into the peninsula and then going very slowly down, back to Sydney.

The weather is still tropical but not too extreme, around 32 degrees in the shade. That's far less than what we had in Darwin and the outback. It must be as this temperature feels comfortable and even a bit chilly to me.

Good, that seems to be it for now. Nicky is going out shopping and looking if she can find a shop where they have male-skirts (yes I want to wear a skirt, maybe a scottish, maybe another more dark style), I need to check my email now but offered to write this story. Is a bit bigger than expected so it took me, erhm, 3 hours I think.

Tried to find an IPod or an Iriver (what do they cost back home? The 60Gb Ipod Photo is here just $699,-) but failed as also on this part of the world they go like hot pies across the counter... Even HarveyNorman couldn't help me out so I try again in Brisbane or Sydney. I DID found my woolen liner for my coat though (size 5XL), and the hood. Not the hat but we have still 2 months for that.

Ok, next time probably some diving stories. For now, up to my emails and other neccecities...

BTW the uploading of the new piccies (60 in total) is finished, so have fun!

Grtz,

Murf (and Nicky)

For all the unrestless souls... (We're safe for Ingrid.)

Hi there, just a small line to let you know that despite of having Ingrid (a cat 5 tropical cyclone) in the neigbourhood we're save. Ingrid seems to be heading for Darwin now, after 2 days spending in Kakadu N.P. we're back on the Stuart Hiway, Katherine to be preciesly. That means we're way inland again, even heading more south tonight towards Tennant Creek (we hope to make that tomorrow) and we're completely out of Ingrid's fury. So, no worries for you all up there. Sleep tight... :-) The rest of our Kakadu experience we'll update somewhere else, might be Cairns but hopefully a bit earlier.

BTW one funny thing, just 20Km outside of Darwin, heading towards the entry of Kakadu our car suddenly stopped, smelled and didn't want to start again... (Very nice at a traffic light with a Road Train straight behind you.) Called the local ANWB and when the bloke looked at it the thing started and since then it worked as never before. Cool!

CYA!

Murf and Nicky

The Didge, the Driza-Bona and the Vannievan

Finally safe arrived at the very end of the Stuart Hiway, Darwin. We've made it, crossed the outback, seen Port Augusta, Darwin and everything in between. (Off course we skipped the dull parts...) Next stop will be Kakadu N.P., just a few Km's away from here but as internet is cheap in Darwin we decided to update you "Right here, Right now." (Remember Fat Boy Slim?) Anyway, today we almost drained my creditcard, drowned is maybe a better expression. After looking for a decent coat (I got bored of my other one and don't have a warm coat for New Zealand) and a proper didgeridoo (hard to find, even in the area where along the hiway you see 2 meter high termite mounds for hours and hours) and after our crying story about our vannievan today we got a bit lucky, finally. We made a decision about the car, we keep it. Selling it only gives us $1000,- back on schrap-metal and a decent 4x4 is at least $9000,-, oil is much cheaper than that ($10,- for 5 liters) and the car SHOULD make it all the way back to Sydney so we bought 20 liters of cheap-ass oil (thank you Woolies!) on which we should be able to make it all the way to Cairns. We cuddled our car, ripped of the ads of Travellers Autobarn and some Koala Experience stickers they put on, and hit the road. Maybe the higher spirits liked our caring decision to stick with our car, for some odd reason we where also succesfull in 2 other things. I'm looking for a decent coat since we left Tassie and saw my first almost-to-the-ground oil-coated Driza-Bone horseriding coat. That must be THE coat for me, but unfortunately the XXL was a tad to small to my taste. I've found my 5XL today at a horseriding/outdoor shop here. Bit strange, the climate is far too hot for these coats (I got almost boiled inside it, though they had airco inside there.), but hey. The only thing missing, a floppy hat (have to go back to Katherine for that) and the hood. (Enoclue where I can find that one, but we'll cross the factory on our way to Sydney so I should be succesfull somewhere.) $225,- poorer but a LOT happier I left the store. (Erhm, WE left the store, with my coat in a nice paper bag.) Oh, should I remind you on the fact that trying on a heavy coat when your shoulders are burned is NOT a nice feeling? ;-) Next on our quest was THE aussie instrument, a true playable digeridoo and VOILA, also that succeeded. Getting into a didge-shop for the second time we found an instrument that is around 150cm long, 15cm thick and without any abo paintings on it but with a sound we both totally got in love with. Looking for a design you like is hard (and this one we both liked, a bulge on the side and the lovely wood shining through it's transparent cover), finding the sound you like is even harder. Tried around 20 didges there, all in different designs, tones, sounds whatsoever. It's tone is a very deep and droning D, playing it makes your whole body resonate. Must give a true natural high. Off course now is the time to learn how to play it properly... Topping it up with a learn-the-didge CD, a music cd from a didge prof with a very heavy ongoing, modern beat (Boneman) and a wooden bowl we left the store with $496,- less on my credit-card. KATJING! Ah well, we now have what we searched for so long...

Yesterday wasn't a totally boring day either, travelling from Katherin (still a very lovely city just 315Km south of Darwin) up north we went swimming in our first rockpool (with waterfall). The water was a bit cool for the time of year (24 degrees celcius) but it was absolutely lovely. And, if I may give a tip to all people-in-love out there, go kissing under a waterfall... It's marvellous ;-P But DON'T forget your sunscreen (15 or higher please), as I did. Seriously, swimming in that rockpool with the catfish, garfish, archerfish and lots of other species swimming around your feet was lovely. After weeks of hot weather and lots of sweating this was the refreshment we where both waiting for. The night we spend just 80Km south of Darwin on a $5,- paid campsite at a service station.

Darwin is not too interesting to us but with just 100.000 inhabitants a LOT less scary than Sydney or Melbourne. (FYI Sydney is with 4.2 million inhabitants 42 times as big as this city.) And off course we found our stuffies and souvenirs here (finally got a decent aussie T-shirt as well, a little less obvious with a batik/abo print on it) so we're pretty happy being here. But, after reading and answering our email we'll leave town and head to Kakadu and then back to the Stuart Hiway, turning left just a few Km away from Tennant Creek, direction Cairns.

And that's basically it for now. Probably forgot a lot what I really wanted to tell but well, that's for later. First feed some salties ;-P

The Outback - Port Augusta to Katherine, from Desert to Tropics

Hi everyone, while Nicky updates our adventures from Adelaide till Port Augusta (and gets furious about a mail from Travellers Autobarn where you will hear more of later on) it's my turn to do the track from Port Augusta till Katherine, just around 315Km south of Darwin. In km's quite a long track, in time not too much as we did it in little more than a week. We moved out of Adelaide on feb 28th (monday), time now is tuesday 8th of March. To change my habits I'll start from the beginning instead of the end so I'll start when we left Adelaide. We decided first to drive around in the area for a while to see the world's biggest rocking horse and then go up north to Port Augusta. (PLING! Toss in another $2 coin for another 15 minutes of internet, time flies here...) Climbed the horse off course and then headed north. That is, that was the plan but we got horribly lost in Adelaide, stuck in the rush traffic and missed the hiway up north so it took us another 1,5 hours to get out of town. That day we stopped a few km's south of Port Augusta on a free spot, so that we could go to the port (in SA also called Port Augutter because of the sewage-like smell when you enter the city) quite early to do our neccessities. We had to find a doctor because Nicky seemed to have a bladder infection for already a month or so and meanwhile we wanted to develop some pictures and do some groceries. So we did, went to the medical center, got some medication, went to Woolies, the photoshop, the pharmacy and at the end to the Medicare building to get some of the money spent on the doctor back. Flawlessly, by the end of the morning we could leave town again and head up north into the Outback. The last petrol station in town was immediatly the last in 200Km or so so we decided to fill up our tank AND the reserve 20 liter bottle we bought specially for these remote area's. Up north we planned to visit Coober Pedy that day but that was a bit too far so we decided to stop a few Km's before that and dump our vannievan aside the road in a rest-area as usual. Next day finally to Coober Pedy, I expeted quite a lot of this town as it is THE opal capital of Australia and most of the town is underground. It turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment. The town was quite nice but really the only thing they have is opal and you get crazy about the many opal shops around. Nicky got a set of nice opal triplets as earrings (basically the cheapest you can get, a triplet is nothing more than a black base, a thin slice of white opal on top, then a very thin slice of the precious and expensive blue opal, topped with a transparent cover of another material) and that was about it. Took a few pictures of the opal fiels outside town and we left, not staying there for the planned 2 days but leaving it to just 2 hours. Still we lost some time there so we stopped a few Km's before Marla that day. Next day was a BIG trip, all the way from Marla to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, indeed the famous and very sacred Ayer's Rock and The Olga's. We arrived somewhere in the afternoon and as expected NO free camping anywhere in the neighbourhood there so we where forced to take an expensive payd campsite of $26 a night for our minivan off course exclusive the park's entrance of $25 per person (for 3 days). But hey, you're not seeing those mountains every day so even as backpackers on a budget you'll pay for it. Did the sunset that night but unfortunately it was too cloudy to make it really spectecular. It even rained little that night, the second time that day, in the middle of the bloody DESERT... Next day again Uluru but now driving the way round the mountain to see it completely, getting out of the car and taking some pictures. Some people believe you're not allowed to take pictures at all, that's not trough. The trough is that you're not allowed to take pictures of certain places as they are sacres sites. The whole mountain is sacred, therefore the Aboriginals don't like it if you climb the rock (which we didn't, both out of respect for the people and the fact that the walk was closed due to extreme temperatures) but they seem to have accepted that western people like to take pictures of what they see. Not that they get really poor out of sacrificing some of their sacred sites, they get $100.000,- a year AND 25% of the park admission fees. It's really a big touristic thing there. Bit sad, too busy, too touristic, too much for us. Because the main population goes to Uluru we took the road to Kata Tjuta (The Olga's) just 50Km further in the park. Less touristic and absolutely different. Where Uluru is the largest Monolith in the world, this rock contains several rocks, sticking out of the ground like giant heads. Pretty cool to see and my panoramic photo of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta worked out quite allright. (From one lookout around halfway you can seem them both if you just turn your head.) Funny thing is that actually the weather changed and it got cloudy. Nonetheless the temperatures where extreme, it must have been around 40 degrees or more. Doable because of the dry desert climate but incredible how much water you suddenly drink. Early back to the park that day to relax a little and to have some sleep for the next morning where we would see the sunrise at Uluru. We did, from the sunset area to see the sun come up behind the mountain instead of behind us. Failed a bit, the sun came up next to the mountain but hey, it was a good attempt and maybe less specteculair, probably something many tourists don't see as they all go for the specteculair sunset and sunrises. And then, back to the Stuart Hiway (Uluri is 250Km straight west driving from the main hiway), very early in the morning to go back north again and visit Alice Springs and the Flying Doctors. RIGHT... We made it to Alice, got scared (the infocenter people where unfriendly, some idiot tried to drive into my bullbar when I got out of the way of a busdriver unloading the side of his bus, we met an english speaking Dutch lady at the photoshop who didn't recognize we where Dutch, and the town got an overall unfriendlyness over it), and ran away. Skipping the Flying Doctors and everything else which might be there to see we did what we had to to (getting milk and developing our pictures) and got back onto the hiway as soon as possible. We crossed the official border between the desert and the tropics somewhere around 50Km north of Alice though it takes a long time before you really see the transition. Couple of Km's before Aileron we dumped our car aside to sleep, knowing the next day would be a VERY long one as we wanted to go to Catherine because the car started using LOTS of oil again and we didn't trust this at all anymore. In fact, it uses lots of oil since we bought it but the outback seemed to make it just a little worse, even 25W60 didn't help at all and now we're burning and leaking around 1 liter every 200Km's though we don't know exactly as everytime we check (around every 400Km's) the tank is simply below the low-level. Weirdo's walking around here, they actually have a UFO capital and off course we had to cross it. Nothing more then a service station and some campground they told that they where UFO sightings here. Not really surprising if you keep in mind that there are 3 RAAF bases in that neigbourhood. But hey, it got us a nice couple of fridge magnets and them another $7 of income. A little north there WAS a nice attraction, the Devils Marbles. Large round marbles of solid granite. Even a spliced one, and yes pictures of that will come online as soon as we have burned the lot on a cd again. (So another month waiting for you.) Had our time and small walk there and up onto the hiway again as Katherine was still a long way to go. But then, just little north of that, KABOOM!, and an slightly out-of-control minivan. You guessed it right, rear tyre blown to shreds. Nearest civilisation: ~100Km. Environment: Middle of the desert. Temperature: Too bloody hot. Nothing left to do than get under the car, get the spare tyre out and praying that our jack and other tools worked as they should and that my first tyre-change ever would be a good one. Ah, it's Murfies law to blow a tyre in the middle of the outback (not really, every backpacker will blow a tyre once) but its Murfies will to do it properly. Had a hard time getting the spare one from the back and getting the blown one off but after that it went smoothly and a good hour later we had a shredded tyre horizontally under the back and a perfectly working one vertically under the car and after some neccecairy hand and face washing (I was BLACK, even darker than the natives here...) we where on the road again. Drove untill sunset and then stopped at the nearest parking space. Turned out to be a payd one at a service station (Dunmarra) but getting a shower and a quiet night of sleep for just $10,- is not really bad and I absolutely needed that shower. That day was one of the longest ever, we drove 800Km's and from 8 am to little past 7 pm with just some rests in between but actually I wasn't too tired at the end and we did almost make it to Katherine which was just 350Km away or so. The night turned out to be tropical, way north of the Carpricorn we where really getting into the tropics now. You could see that as well. Where the desert is mainly red sand with shrubs, bushes and sometimes a field with small trees (no, no Sahara here, not where we went, this is simply another type of desert) the tropics contains large trees and precious flowers. It's kinda funny to travel from the hot and dry desert to the almost as hot but very humid tropics in just one day. The transision sets in quite slowly and then goes fast and suddenly you see creeks with water in it instead of just dry rivers. After a very hot and uncomfortable night (sweaty!) we headed more north to Catherine, where we are right now. We arrived yesterday, went to the visitor information centre to get some info about the town, Kakadu and a park in the neigbourhood and then headed off to a Ford dealer to check out our car, AGAIN. Left it there, walked to town (30 minutes, finally giving our butts some excercize) to see if I could find my Driza-Bone coat size 3XL or 4XL (off course not, probably Darwin or Cairns, or the factory in Bundaberg on the eastcoast), got a decent lunch (Subway, always very healthy) and went back to the dealer at 5pm. "We got bad news, bad news or bad news." "Well, then give me the bad news please..." By that time I already knew what he would say, the unavoidable "Sorry, we can not do ANY about this, the only solution is a new engine, refit this engine or simply sell the car and get one which is more than a piece of schrap metal." Well, he didn't call our car a piece of schrap metal but agreed with me when I uttered "So our car is basically not much more than a piece of schrap with weels?" Sad, very very sad and though we suspected this already since Tassie it's still quite hard to hear. $5000,- of almost worthless metal. *AUTCH!* And there are not really many options. Refitting the engine is with at least a cost of $3000 a bit too expensive and as the guy has serious doubts about the age of the car (it says ~166.000Km but he doesn't believe that that's anywhere NEAR the truth as the engine is way to worn-out for that) it might not be the wisest idea anyhow. So what's left is selling the car to some dork and getting a decent one, then probably buying or renting a 4x4 so that we have a decent excuse to get rid of this one on one hand and making the second half or our trip more interesting for us by taking offroad tracks OR just dealing with is, buying lots of cheap-ass oil, refilling around 4 liters every day and praying that the entire engine won't blow up somewhere in the middle of knowhere. That means that we have to stay on the main tracks and that's bit of a pity as we like to go into the forest. But with a car in this condition it's a bit too risky. Today we got email back from where we bought the car, Travellers Autobarn, mentioning that it's basically our own fault and that all they can do is giving us a $500,- cheque to spend at TAB. Hell NO! Yes the temperature was very high when we got it but they didn't tell us what the temperature should be (some cars run hot, some run cool and we got it into the mountains in the hottest days of the year so off course it runs hotter than normal), and yes it leaked water and oil but we refilled it everytime before it got empty. That is imo THE procedure so save it. As soon as we got back in Sydney we brought it back with all the major and minor issues found on the car for them to solve. Exactly as they told us. "Just take it to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days, then return and we'll fix whatever is wrong with it." We did and now this. Sad. No refund of the towing cost, no refund on the costs we had to make in Burnie ($600,-), no nothing and left with a piece of metal worth $2000,- only if we bring it back to TAB in Cairns or Sydney. If the car makes that and if they don't start nagging about the ditch in the left-rear. And unfurtunately that's where today's story ends. We'll go to the Ford dealer today to pick up some paper declaring his doubts about the age of the car and to get some info about our alternative (loosing the car and renting or buying a sturdy 4x4) and then go to the nature reserve 30Km east from this lovely town. Hopefully getting back some piece in our minds. Bit of a sad and isn't it? Ah, we'll live. It's just that this is one of the not-so-nice aspects of travelling around. But we keep our heads up, find an alternative, probably invest some more money (in car or in liters and liters of oil) and just have fun. We're just half-way our trip and have a LONG way to go before we're back in Cairns and nothin' is gonna stop us in that. You bet!

Good, the plans for the next part are clear. Head to Darwin, then to Kakadu National Park, maybe up north to Gurig NP (4x4 only) and then to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef. As with the Outback it's very unclear when we'll have internet. Now it took us more than a week, the next one probably the same. Only past Cairns we're quite sure about our connections as that track is THE backpacker track so there are plenty of opportunities there. (And hopefully some cheaper than $8 per hour as it is here.) That's it for now, I'm going to work on my email. People who got cards from us, please let us know if you liked them :-) We're sending out our own photo's now instead of postcards to give it a personal touch and to give an impression of what WE saw here, not some photographer. And again, please leave us your postal address. Sometimes we just like to send out cards and have more card then addresses...

TTYL!

Murf

New pictures of februari...

Thanx to Michael we where able to upload some pictures directly from the SD card of Nicky's digi, no month behind, no seeing already dated pictures but hot from the cam online on our gallery.And here they are! Have heaps of fun with it :-)

Off course comments are welcome both here as on the gallery itself.

Cya!

Murf

Murf's turn, Adelaide

Well, I presume it's my turn again. Nicky still asleep in the backroom of Michael, her cousin, me behind his computer because some stupid dog next door didn't stop barking for the last 3 hours and I'm very awake (and anoyed) right now. So what do you do then, right, the same as at home when you can't sleep, boot up the nearest computer available (off course in this case with full permission of Mick) and do the usual stuff like email and weblogs. But first I'm gonna find some longsleeve and a map, my diary is still a couple of days behind (updated the 17th) and with a map in hand it's mutch easier though it's not too much of a problem now as the last few days where not THAT exciting. (Though fun, a bit of relaxing is not bad after a full month traveling.)

The last coupla days (we arrived here last friday, feb 18th) we spent in Adelaide, socializing with Michael and his daughter Jessica, shopping, visiting musea and relaxing. Today we're planning to bring the car away to the mechanic, to get it desert-ready. Actually we're planning that the last week since monday but going to town without a car is no fun as the area where Michael lives (Elisabeth Downs) is an hour driving from downtown Adelaide and we have absolutely no clue how the bus-system works here. Not really willing to find out either so today we probably stay in. The weather forecast is not that bad, actually we hoped for rain to give us another reason to stay in but it's just cloudy and 25 degrees. Next tuesday there will be rain, too bad we're probably in Port Augusta by then as we plan to leave on monday morning and then head straight to Port Augusta. After that nothing but desert for the next coupla thousand Km's... Oh, BTW, we're now in South Australia, that means the time above is not entirely correct. You have to add 30 minutes to OUR time. Ok, enough about now and here, back to where Nicky ended a week ago.

After my adventure up Mount Difficult (my wounds are healingg, my right knee however seems to have given up, as soon as I start walking it starts buggin' me, not very painfull but just a bit nasty an uncomfortable) and doing our groceries in Horsham (before that we actually visited our first aboriginal-art site, which was so dissapointing that we decided not to visit the next one) we went on. Back on the road again. Actually going back to the Princess Hiway, who follows a great piece of the aussie east and southcoast. That's where we started, leaving Sydney our first main road WAS the Princess Hwy and we followed that for a long long time, departing it only for a couple of detours, Tassie, the Great Ocean Road and our trip through The Grampians. Halfway on our trip, just before Bordertown we crossed the next state border, this time that of South Australia. I almost yelled Nicky's ears of, finding it quite exiting that we where now in the 4th of the 6 states we will visit down under. (The other ones are Northern Territory and Queensland, after we did New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) No evidence however, you can't stop on a hiway just to take a picture of a roadsign saying "Welcome to XYZ". The hiways here are not more than a single 2-lane road which in Holland we'd call a B-road, that is, as long as you're in the country. Aproaching big city's like Adelaide they turn into our well-known multilane monsters. Smashed throuh Borderdown, headed off to the coast again to a nature reserve (Coorong NP). Actually that wasn't as exiting as I expected it to be. It was nice but it became quite clear that both of us where extremely spoiled by Tassie. Untill now nothing can even remotely compete with the beautifull nature we've seen there. As Nicky was VERY tired after 350Km of driving we decided to park in a rest area. Unfortunately not well hidden, with traffic passing us at 15 meters all night long annd no facilities whatsoever, only a litter bin, but it worked. Next day we did 2 walks in Coorong. The first one was through a previous Chinese settlement with a well and saltlakes surrounding. Learned some about Chinese merchants setting foot on land near Adelaide. The second one promised the view of pelicans but too bad. More funny that we walked into a german couple (45yo) kissing who felt kinda busted and talked in german to eachother wandering if we did see them kissing (or maybe even more?). Very unfortunate for them that we DO understand german ;-) Good, next stop Victor Harbour. A free ferry to cross the river, straight running into the famouns wine region of Australia. Not that we're really familiar with wine so we tried to skip the whole wine tourism and do alternative things. Harder than it seems, the region doesn't have much to offer if you're not interested in wine though we had some fun there. Slept on a hill 7km north of Victor Harbour, our first spot on the hill next to a couple who did a little more than just kissing. Decided to watch sunset and then go down the hill, to a less visible point behind a big bush. That worked, some privacy and the next morning just a couple of people walkin with their dogs and such. Next day visited the city centre to do some souvenir-shopping (that's addicting!) and to send out a couple of packages home with mainly our own memories in it. Impossible to take them all home ourselves this is the way we get important stuff home before we're there. It's not too expensive and hopefully the people at home even enjoy getting our memory-tubes :-)
Next thing sending home will be my photo's and negatives, insured and with a tracking ID on it. Should be around $20,- which is not too bad for sending 2 months of photo's to the other side of the world.
Cause we planned not to be in Adelaide before friday we had to spend another day in this area so we went too McLaren Vale. First through a small town which name I forgot to grab some info and visit a Catholic church. Off course we walked into the wrong church first, the one we where looking for was on the other side of the street. A small, lovely church with the windows somewhat different than usual. Normally they show holy bible scenes, this one showed scenes with the actual environment in it. The other thing special about the church is that there where sightings there. Off course we didn't see it but it feels funny to be in a place considdered very holy. Churches here are a bit different than those overseas. As the history of "modern" Australia started around 1800 all churches are much newer than those back home and the building style is different. The churches are small and more farmer-churches than the big and impressive 17th century cathedrals in europe. As with all the buildings here, you really can see that the modern Australia is quite young compared to europe. A big contrast here, on one hand Aboriginal Australia which is VERY old next to the modern Australia wich is very young. In that town we visited some small galleries, same as in McLaren Vale. I ran straight into a beautifull painting which I really wanted to buy but with a price of $1600 it was just a little bit above my budget ;-P (Though my late valentine present for Nicky, a couple of earrings, was much more affordable and bought in the same gallery.) The night we spent at a paid camperpark as so close to a big city there are not many free spots and I really was craving for a long, hot shower and drinking beer without beeing afraid to be chased away. Well, it was quite cheap, $18,- is definetely not a bad price for an unpowered site with all facilities you can dream of. Kitchen, shower and a nice (but small) camping ground. Friday evening we finally arrived in Adelaide. What a relief, the city is still a big city but MUCH smaller and relaxter than Sydney and Melbourne. Went shopping (what else do you do in a city) and at evening headed off to Michael and Jessica. Took us around 2 hours to get there with only a global map of the suburbs and 2 detailed maps of both downtown and Elisabeth. Ah well, we at least had the chance too see something of the environment. Both in a movie-mood we decided to take Jessica to the theatre on saturday. Not one but 2 movies! (Spanglish and Meet the Fockers) After that we made it a movie marathon at home, both girls convinced that I really had a lack in my movie-education. So off to the video rental and grabbing Lord Of The Rings 1 and 2 (3 was on their movie channel) and Shrek 2. Talking about cheap prices here, we got those 3 movies for a week (Shrek for 3 days) for just $6,-. How about that!? We got through the weekend with lots of movies, 7 in less than 36 hours as "George of the Jungle 2" was also on TV. I think I did some catchup now and as there are a couple of movies about to come out here we will visit the cinema at least every month but probably more often. Survived the weekend, the next days where filled with shopping, some more shopping and some cultural stuff yesterday. First headed off to an aboriginal centre which started off with a didge demonstration. That was faboulous, the guy really knew how to play his didge, takes a LOT of practise for us to achieve that and we didn't really practice the last 2 weeks. Ah well, we have a couple of months to go. The rest of the exhibition was a bit dissapointing though exept from the shop. Nicky ran into the shop, browsed through the paintings and fell totally in love with a painting. No way that she was leaving the shop without that painting and I must admit that I got the vibe to. After a moment of reality we decided to buy it... $220,- was left of the original $360,- and at the counter it got even better as she could take it home for $200,- Ok, not really cheap but I think the painting is really worth it and both beeing art-lovers sometimes you know you simply should do it. I almost did with my $1600,- painting but that REALLY was above my budget so I decided to buy a postcard, hopefully beeing able too reproduce that on A3 format. We don't have a picture of Nicky's painting though and right now it's already on it's way to Holland. Post-office across the street and too scared too damage it we decided to ship it over right away. Insured and with a tracking ID it's now somewhere on Adelaide Aiport, waiting to make it's 18.000Km trip home. Our next stop was the main Art Gallery in Adelaide with both old paintings and very modern contemporary art. The old section was interesting but I still go for the modern art thingies. Too much too see there, fell in love with lots of those paintings, photographs and other things, taking home just a $16,- souvenir made by Richard Tipping. A doorsign saying "Sorry, we're OPEN" on one side and "Come in, we're CLOSED" on the other. Yes I love those kind of mind-fucking things. Check www.artpoem.com for some more examples. And actually that's where my story ends. Not entirely, as Michael's stove blew up (really, while making dinner on tuesday we suddenly heard a big BANG from the kitchen, blewing the door of the oven open, rearranging the pots and melting the curtain to the wall, luckily no-one was inside the kitchen) we got to Red Rooster yesterday to have a fastfood-day here. And off course as my name is Murf they ran out of chicken... (For those not knowing Red Rooster, it's a bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken but then with the possibility to buy quarter and half chickens.) And that is really where it ends... Right now I'm going to the mechanic, leaving Nicky at home as we'd forget to ask Michael for some keys and we can't get in without them. Should be a walking distance back though I haven't got a clue where the mechanic exactly is. We'll see. (And when I'm back I start reading and answering my email.)

BTW for those questioning why we keep our lovelife a bit to ourselves, no worries, we're doing fine together. With the occasional fight here and there but most of all lots of love and hugs we're having a great time together. It's not always easy, living 24/7 in extraordinary situations with a person who you barely knew before you where separated for 3,5 months but we're working on it. Main reason not to mention it here too much is because SWS is not meant to keep wining and drooling about us, it's about our TRIP down under, not about our relationship.

BTWII
Though we have heaps of fun around here life is not always easy here and we DO miss you all at home. That's why we're sending out postcards and emails to get a more personal message out. We both have an addressbook filled with adresses but if you have the feeling your address is not in there please drop us a note. You might recieve a postcard from the southern hemisphere on one day...

BTWIII
We try to update more recent pictures today. As this computer has a USB connection we should be able to connect Nicky's digi straight to the computer to get new pictures online. Just hold on...

Miss ya all!

Murf

Hey nicky logs a 2nd week in a row...???

Or just put it the other way, Murf is plain lazy and very behind with his diary. And because I updated my diary yesterday it is a bit fresher in my mind. Last time I left you guys in Devonport. That is not to far away from where we are now.

After lining up for the ferry and waiting a long long time.. But long live the Harley Davidson club that travelled with the same boat and I could drewl at in the meantime.. Because I have a secret love for motors, especially Harleys.. After boarding we got our stuff and wrote some cards. And got both homesick instead of seasick. After hugging each other we went to bed. Which didn't really worked out for the both of us. So the next morning we were both exhausted. And we wanted to discover Melbourne for a day so we could shop and arrange some stuf. It was raining all day very very hard. After calling my mom for an hour outside in the rain next to a busy street for an hour. We got some souveniers. And went to info center for some stores. We went to the Victorian NRMA for reclaiming our towing costs. (Corinna to Burnie) Which didn't work out because we have to claim them back at the NSW departement. So have to call them and arrange that with them. We surched for some stuff for Murf which didn't work out either. So got back to our car and found out that my bag was soaked instead of waterproof. So tryed to dry that in the back of the car. Which worked out fairly good. Meanwhile we drove to Travellers Auto Barn in Melbourne to reclaim fixing costs. Which didn't work out and we have to fight that out by email with the manager... So that will be continued. After getting very sick of Melbourne we decided to start that day already on the Great Ocean Road. Very touristic.

We spend the night in a forest nearby Lorne. Completely drained and exhausted. Next day we drove after a lunch with seaview to Apollo bay. We spend a fair bit of our day there. Also because we found out that Murfs' photobag was full of water of the Melbourne day. So trying to get that dry was another quest of that day. And all is saved except for one photo. From Apollo bay we went to a lighthouse which was too expensive for us. So we went to a little bit before the twelve apostels. And did break our rule; never pay for a camping spot. We did that night (princetown) and had a gourgious hot shower! Was very very nice after a couple of weeks no shower.

The next morning contained a lot of walking and different views of the twelve apostels. And a lot of same kind of rocks but different shapes. After getting tiered (or tyred?) we drove on to Warnabool. Where we had a nice high surprise. The info center where we drove to had a nice car with a numberless plate and ozzy flag. Next to that there were standing 2 'bodyguards' outside. We just walked in and asked for info. After that we asked the lovely lady what was going on. Was some kind of high party including the gouverner of Victoria... So we just ran in to his high party in baggy pants and t-shirts. Funny contrast.

We didn't spend there to long drewling the windows. We drove straight of for the Grampians. And because we were very exhausted we just parked it on the first campingspot to find. Which contained some travelling pensioners. Which was very funny to have a chat with at the campfire. That day was also a very big wildlife day. Murf and I saw our first wild Kangaroo crossing. Till then we only enjoyed wallabies. A kangaroo is a little bit bigger; 1.5 meter. So that was a bit of a scare. That night around the campfire we got surrounded by brushtail possums. Round about the size of a big cat. But very funny animals to see.

Our second day we spend in Halls Gap to see the town a bit. Which costed round about half an hour. (that small) O no, not lying a bit longer because Murf booked a climbing day for Sunday. Then we went 2km back to a cultural centre. Where we spended the rest of the day for shopping, info and food. Ending up coming back with; wildcamping is legal (jippie!), clapsticks (aboriginal music instrument), walking maps and a didgeridoo!! We decided to get a cheap one so we at least could practice so if we were buying a real one we at least were able to play it. After that we random drove around and found a gourgious wild camping spot.

The next day we went to see some waterfalls. And climbed up the Pinnacle. Which took me so long that when we came back we could go straight back to find a campingspot again. Lazy as we were we camped at the same spot. (our first time to spend more than one night on one place...) The next day, after a short night, we got up early for Murfs' climbing day. That was with one guide and him. Murf was already very excited since he booked it. After a long drive and a hard walk up. (which took because of me a lot longer, because I am very bad in climbing) But finally up Murf went up a grade 10 climb. And I was there to support and take pictures. It was a bit hard but he came up on his own power. The second climb was a grade 12. Halfway Murf just collapsed. He couldn't go any further. His guide was already up and I was down. We couldn't do much more than just talk him up. Which we did with some problems. And some pulling up from the guide. After getting him up and down. He was f*cking proude at himself. As he should be. And thankgod he came up otherwise he would have never wanted to climb again. Than we walked down again. And offcourse because of exhaustion Murf needed some breaks. And I because of clumsyness, rolled a little bit down the mountain. (I misplaced my foot) But all was well, justed a bit scratched. After getting back in Halls Gap. We ate somewhere random. And got the car and got back to 'our' campingspot. Where I spoiled Murf and we just went to sleep.

The next day Murf still walked like an old man. But to keep his muscles going we did some small walks. (after saying goodbye to Halls Gap and the camping spot) And my muscles as well because they had a big day, the day before. But we did well. And slept in the wild somewhere again.

Today we going to have a driving day. But first finding a big town and develope pictures, doing groceriess and doing this internet thingy what we do every week.

So this was the internet. Now picking up the pictures and then go to Safeway. (Woolies/Woolworth in other area's of Ozzy) We are by the way this morning in Horsham... (after asking around in this computer shop where we actually were.. :-s)

Lots of love
Nicky

Ps I think Murf has uploaded some new pictures again at the gallery.

....and another week of Tazzy

Okay where did Murf ended last time... Ah with my digital camera failing. Well, that luckely solved itself after some sweaty hours and a second shop who was able to put them on disk. (sorry guys, forgot to take the disks this time so no new pictures) After we done al that stuff in Hobart we wanted to run as soon as possible from there. Not because it wasn't nice, but it was so crowded after al those days in nature.

So we drove off to our next free camping spot. Which was next to a big lake in the middle of nowhere. Like first big town was about 70Km away. But never the less we spended our night next to a German van (they shipped it over) with a German family. And a car full of Dutchies. Who ignored us very (not) friendly. The German man was a hobby machanic and checked our car up. Which was still leaking. He told us that it looked bad. And could break down any minute. But then again it could drive for another couple of days as well.

So the next day we chearfully went on and saw the Gordon dam. Drove an awfull lot because we had a long way to go. Only popped in in an animal shelter and hospital. Saw a lot of native animals. Ended up sleeping next to a powerstation. And had a toilet building with electricity! So that was very good for my mobile phone and rechargeble batteries. The next day we drove through the biggest national park. And did some nice walks in the rain. Drove through Queenstown and Zeehan. And found a sign that said no petrol for the next 167 Km. So glad we just tanked.

After a couple of Km's (50) We had to take a pond over the river. Which was fairly expensive. But even beter was that our car broke completely down in those few 100meters. So bad that we had to get a tow. But how do you phone in a area so remote that the next town is 2 hours driving. Next to that the town you are standing in has exactly one street and 2 inhabitants. Ow and a satelite phone. Which costed us a lot of money. But we had a tow... the next day. We were towed for 2.5 hours before we had a town with parts. Don't ask us what that tow costed. And we slept on the parking lot of the garage. To get it fixed the next day. Which costed again more money. Hopefully we can get it (most of it) back on the mainland, but that has to wait to Melbourne. This whole situation ment that our ferry back had to be postponed again. The phoneline was fairly busy because of a big storm that had a lot of fun in Melbourne/Sydney/Devonport. But after some sweaty hands we got through. And postponed to Monday.

After fixing the car we wanted to get some testdrinving. So at our 6 months anniversary we had to hang around to wait for our car but after that we simply drove a bit and had a good 5 course dinner at a chinese. And trying to find our free camping was not done because they just put down 'no camping' signs. So we just hid our van behind some bushes for the night. (that is pretty hard with a white van) But all good. The next day we went for a long long driving day. And including the long dirtroad we broke down up. 150 km winding dirtroad in the rain. Should be a good stress test for the car. Ended up as a stress test for Murf as well. Because on the last 200 meter of the dirtroad he lost control over the car. And smashed his but in a rock. :-S Unfortunately no duck tape to fix it. (long live the iron backstep who saved a lot) But a little bit of wonderwork with our swiss army knife did wonders. And the but of our van may not be that pretty anymore. It looks good enough. After an aftershock hug we just drove on. And had a fun laugh. That night we wanted to sleep in an National Park. But when we drove in we discovered that this was different than all the parks we already had seen. It was so touristic and crowded! (thanx to all the 1300 cyclists that visited that day) So we fast drove off and found ourselfs a new last spot in Tazzy in the middle of nowhere.

This morning we drove off to Devonport for our boat. Which leaves in about 5 hours. But we just dribble around in a city day. That should be it for this week.

Just gonna answer some more emails and you hear more next week.

Lots of love
Nicky

Ps The last 5 days were awfully chilly. Not to mention bloody cold!!! And a lot of rain as well.. But then again, it's something else than all that sun... ;-)

Tasmania! (Eastcoast to Hobart)

After I updated my private weblog with a piece of nonsense about my first snake-encounter it's time to update SWS again. Dropped Nicky on another computer to do her webmail & other things (and to get her pictures on cd, which fails for 50% so probably the SD card is DEAD, if so that's kinda crappy, not only 150 images gone but also we'll need to buy a new SD card, which never very cheap...) and taking my turn to let you all know about the last few days in Tassie.

Well, here we go. Off course we made it on time to our boat, fortunately not beeing the very fast puke-vessile but the rather slow (9 hour, 21h00-06h00) "Spirit of Tasmania II". Had a quite good trip, not to bumpy and at night had my first taste of Tassie, beeing a glas of Cascade, one of the best beers I've tasted untill now... The night was a disaster however, though Nicky slept quite well on her seat, I was too long for these seats, had almost no sleap, dropped myself to the floor 3 hours before arrivel and slept there for another 1,5 hours. You can imagine the next day was horrible for me. Tired like hell and then having to drive for a couple of hours is NOT really like fun. But hey, I shouldn't complain beacause actually that day was a pretty nice one. We drove to George Town to get some gasoline (again!) and a decent map of the island. Beeing twice as big als Holland and containing the most beatifull nature you can imagine you can simply not do a usefull thing with your all-aussie map. So we got a quite detailed thing with all dirtroads, touristic spots and even small walks on it. The guy told us that doing Tassie in 1 week is insane, he sounded a bit annoyed even. As we're now in Hobart and our ship SHOULD leave tonight but telling you that it departs the 4th you can see that he WAS right after all... And even that is a little bit to short, you can spend at least 2 months here and not beeing bored whatsoever. Even better, I think you could spend a year on Tassie and having as much fun as you'll have when doing whole Australia in one year.

Anyhow, our end-station that day was a nature reserve on the north-east coast, inhabited by lots of walabi's. After a nice talk at a gas-station with a couple who actually did the same and where surprised that that wite van was ours and that we put a housenumber on it (42 off course, as you all already know) we went on to the dirtroad leading to our camping spot. 10 minutes before we left we noticed another van, no, a truck, a, well, something best described as "Mobile Home". It must've contained at least 3 bedrooms, a full-blown bathroom, a fully utilized kitchen and a living room and I wouldn't be surprised if it even contained a garage and a small towncar. SICK! But hey, not all people like the simple life like we do...

20Km of the best dirtroad ever later (driving 80Km/h over it, without any trouble) we found the spot and indeed inhabited by walabi's. Those fluffy tiny ones, curiously running around our van, scavenging for some food. (Not ours, not begging, they're absolutely wild animals, they simply where looking for their own food on the grond, whatever that may be.) Amazing spot that...

Went to the Columbia Falls & Ralph Falls walks, the first the highest(80m) waterfall in Tasmania, the second one a very sweet tiny (but HIGH!)stream falling down from a few rocks. The day ended at Binalong Bay, we only did an easy 100Km that day to have some rest. There we had some trouble, first the car got stuck in the sand where a very helpfull aussie helped us out with one of the biggest 4x4's I've ever seen. Even he had little trouble pulling out 1750Kg of car but after he got grip we where out... Next spot, firmer surface, another try. Smaller spot, more cosy, so we stayed there. While Nicky was getting the car night-ready I liturally ran to the sea and there it was, right in front of my eyes, dark brown/black, at least 1,5 meters long, 10cm thick and staring a little bit disturbed at me... A real wild aussie SNAKE. Hell, really something for me, my first encounter with a wild snake, and not a tiny one, no, directly this quite big variation... Well, I was obviously more scared than the snake, he/she looked op, I looked back and it decided to continue with what it was at, snaking around. Off course my walk back was little slower than the way to the sea.

Next day off to Hobart, the "big" city on the south coast of Tassie. Off course we had our walks and nature that day, should be no surprise as Tasmania's nature reserves cover 50% of the island, and after lots of dirtroads, rain an fog we ended up in a $$$ neighbourhood of Tranmere, South-Hobart. Actually we ended up in a $$$ lot of the neighbourhood, the next house was 500m meters away, at least. They where still developing the area. Our first plan was to park on top of a hill but with a "no camping" sign I didn't want to take the risk. So Tranmere. After a very restless night (for me that is, I was afraid like hell as some cars where across us, maybe having a drugdeal or as Nicky thought the more relaxing sex thing) we moved on very early. Though my night was extremely bad, I however got the chance to see a Hobart sunrise which was very beatifull and off course we had lots of fun with the idea that we actually parked (and peed) on an empty lot worth probably tonnes in a real upperclass area of Hobart. You can imagine that :-)

Sat, Jan 29th tells my next diary entry. The day we ended up in Bruny Island. Down from Hobart (which we skipped entirely) to the ferry and on to the island. Heading south to a lookout point in the middle of the island (only 40m wide, duny landscape) and on to a "small" walk on the south of the island (Adventure Bay) to wake up. Me joking about that we should be glad we didn't have to climb that hill (pointing to the quite high cliff to the right) we started the walk, beeing 3,5 hours according to our information. Well, now close your eyes and think of my nickname... Exactly. We DID have to climb that cliff, the total walk was around 5 hours and we took the hard-way up. Extremely steep uphill climbs, even hairpins on the walking track as straight-up was impossible. Nicky hates those climbs, I love them. They're way better than those nasty things downhill. After around 4 hours walking we reached the top, ~250 meters above sea-level. Gorgious lookouts though and absolutely worth the climb. Not only for the lookouts but also for the fact that we've beaten the mountain. Me tired as hell from the last night actually got enough energy to finish the track.

Somewhere in the evening, after that track to the camping at the neck of the island. There me with my tiredness messed up with our stove. Suddenly the whole thing went on fire instead of just the cooking pit. Reaction though was good and succesfull, first throwing sand over it to cut off the air supply, than directly shutting off the gas. The fire was gone within 5 secs and no serious situation occured but off course it was a little scary. Nothing to worry about for you guys at home, people make these mistakes when tired and we're both awake enough to prevent those. Well, this is how we learn. Next time I KNOW how to attach a new bottle and it won't happen again. Same with the car, I know what it can and can't and next time I can prevent those situations like getting stuck in the sand.

Good. 14:41 says my clock and we still have ~200Km to go before we're at our final destination tonight so we have to rush a little. Next day we moved back to the Tassie mainland, after seeing some more of the Bruny nature and lighthouse. Tried to make it on time to Hobart to develop our photo's and update the website. Hobart however still seems to live in the stone-ages, all shops where closed at 16:00 on saturday. So we bought some souvenirs and went off to our endpoint, a forest little south-west of Hobart. No sleap for Nicky this time, afraid as she is alone in the forst. (Poor girl, but opposite to me, I'm afraid in a city in our van.) Morning walk to a tiny lake and off to the Tahuna Airwalk, a construction 50 meters above groundlevel. Did the walk, which was great and dumped our car on the free camping spot very next to it. This one was actually guarded! Very very nice, 100% free and someone actually taking care of you and wishing you a good night. Lighted, flushable toilets and a very safe feeling we went into the night. Well, now we're here. Sitting downtown Hobart while it's HOT outside. Temperature changes rapidly over here, this night it was extremely cold, now the water drips from our foreheads. Tonight we'll be in the forest again, right in the middle of the biggest nature reserve in Tasmania. From now on we'll head north and within 5 days we end up where we started, Melbourne, actually celebrating our 6-month anniversairy on the boat to the mainland.

Plans are to get our car fixed again (still warranty, it still leaks oil and water), then head a little west and then north, into the red centre. But, that's a story for MUCH later as it takes weeks to get there.

Oh, a small addition, Nicky just uploaded SOME pictures to the gallery so you have some visuals of what we see here.

At last I want to say that it's absolutely great here, our van starts to feel like home now and we see the most gourgious nature you can imagine. So no regrets beeing here and finally really on the road and enyoing our adventure down-under. (But, still missing our friends and family at home, for sure that we think of you a lot!)

Murf

a little less luck

Because Murf is taking Yada under construction takes I will write a piece about the last week. For a start we weren't that lucky. We brought our car to the garage and we could pick it up that night. We tryed to pick up our Bali visas. Which went wrong because they gave us visas for the wrong dates. And because of the tsunami we can only change that on a later stage of our journey. So for now we have a visa till the 11th of april. :s After hanging around in the city. (internet!!) We wanted to pick up the car... Didn't work because the leak turned out to be a broken waterpump. So they were replacing it. We could pick it up the next morning. The next morning we got a call that it would be that afternoon because the waterpipes were leaking. And they had to be replaced. So we went shopping for some stuff for our journey. And went to buy some sandals for Murf. Which was a lot of calling from home because all the sizes go till 12 and he has size 13. But after 75 calls we finally got a store which sold them. So into the city for the shoes. (Which we got with discount!) And an early dinner because we couldn't pick up our car yet. During dinner we got a call that the temperature of the engine still was to high and the radiator was probably blokked. So we could pick it up the next morning... :-S Because they had to replace it. Next morning we gave them a call.. Ordered the wrong one, would be done that afternoon. We went that afternoon and finally got our car back. (phew!)

That night it was packing. And the next morning we hit the road. First to Bulli lookout. Stunning. Then to Kiama for the blowhole (hole that blows though the build up pressure of the waves in a cave underneath the hole) that could reach up to 60M. But off course when we went there, he didn't want to blow. After that we pretty much drove along the Princes Highway (main way down) with some touristic drives on the sides. Halfway the afternoon we drove straight into a thunderstorm. Which was so heavy with so much rain that we had an early stop that day. (because I didn't want to drive any further in that weather) So we parked at a picknick spot right after Batemans Bay and had food in the van. And as a toilet a hole in the ground. (which is the main picknick toilet along the road.) The next day we pretty much just drove. Till about Eden. Where we visited a killer whale museum. And spended just some hours in reading local fisserman stories and look at whale bones. That afternoon we just crossed the Victorian border. And set up camp. (a couple of K's before Cann river) Just a camping spot again. The next morning we had a 'cuppa' (cup of coffee or tea) with some fellow travellers. (although they already done this for at least 10 years) Had a nice chat and got an adress to stay over if we wanted to later in our journey. After a nice cup of tea we went driving again. With just a couple of touristic drives and a walk in a piece of rainforest. Eventually that brought us in the middle of nowhere along the beach. Where we set up camp behind some dunes.(Woodside beach) Was very cold that night. (The lower you get the colder the summer) But was fun and got some very nice pictures.(forgot to bring the discs so can't update any, sorry sorry sorry)

Yesterday we wanted to complete the trip to Melbourne and stay over in the city in our van. Before Melbourne just a stop at a little town to sort out our boat trip to Tazzy. After that went to Phillip Island. Where they have the smallest pinguins. (15 cm.) Was very qute. Although you can't tell the difference very good between an seagul baby and small penguins. So we were told afterwards that we saw both and not only baby seaguls. (as we thought) Because the have a lot of seaguls on the Island. And because of the breeding time ,which was when we were there, there were a lot of baby seaguls. Bought some little souvenirs and left for Melbourne. Where we discovered after a couple of hours that you can not possibly find a sleeping spot in your van in a big city. So exhausted and tired. Almost crying we drove straight out of the city. After some 'food'. (KFC) We felt a little bit better. But after half an hour drive we gave up and just parked somewhere next to a house and went to bed. This morning early up. To go to Travellers Auto Barn. Because yes our car gave us another signal. We were leaking oil. And some other minor problems. Instead of getting it fixed and go into town. We had to drive to some outer suburb to get it fixed. And stayed till late in the afternoon waiting till our car would be finished. After that straight into the city to get some internet. And we actually have to hurry at this point to get to our boat.

Love
Nicky and Murf

little add to murfs post

Murf just forgot the mention all the gourgious walks we done. (really a lot, good to build up some conditions AND losing some weight.) And next to that all the lovely sunsets/downs we say. And off course the beautifull thunder storm we enjoyed the whole evening. Which was an amazing thing to see from out of our van.
Love
Nicky

The Blue Mountains....

Well, from here it's up to me (Murf) again, to tell you something about those few days in the Blue Mountains. To begin with, weather forecast was horrible, to be more precize: extreme heat (30-40 degrees Celcius) and NO rain! Very good, sounds like a perfect stresstest for both us and our van, and it was :-) But hey, we're backpackers so we don't mind. First day we went off from Sydney to Katoomba where the famous "Three Sisters" rock-formation is. Halfway we got off the Great Western Hiway to visit the house Nicky's mom lived for 6 years, Carpenterroad 224 in St. Mary's. After the neccecairy proof we've been there (*CLICK!*) we went on to Katoomba. There we got out the car, had a few walks through the beatifull forest, took some pictures (DUH!) and after a couple of hours headed down to take the 45 degree "train" uphill. After that we where so tired that we headed off to the car which was parked 200m away from "Echo Point", from where you can see "The Three Sisters". Free from 17:00h-09:00h and with a perfect view straight over The Blue mountains. Had dinner, slept, had breakfast and before 9 we were on the road again. Had our morning 10 min away from Echo Point... The nature over there is really astonishing, found a small lake with a waterfall. Even got the chance to shoot a couple of Black Cockatoo's. (On photo that is...) Next up to the "Jenolan Caves". I really wanted to see those, Nicky had seen enough caves in her live but as we're doing this together we went there. It was somewhere around 2 hours of driving, straight to very steep and winding slopes. Well, driving winding roads might seem scary, the truth is that I really like it. You need 100% concentration not to make mistakes but it's fun, steering your 5 meter van around tight hairpins, up and down the hill. At evening we arrived, found a piece of tarmac used as a parking place and asked the local guides if it was ok and safe to spent the night there. It was, even better, it had a shower, bbq, toilet & even electricity! No other cars where there, we actually cooked on our (well, Anita's) mini-stove and had a great time. (and a *little* "fight" because we where both really tired) Next morning to the caves then. 9am after a 15 min walk downhill we found the entrance, payd $24,50 per person to get in (got discount on our VIP cards, normal price for this 2 hour, 1200 steps trip in the River Cave was $27,5) and at 10 we started our (guided off course) tour in the cave. In my opinion, it was absolutely GREAT. Beatifull reflections down there (at the underground river), lots of nice stalac*thingies* and a refreshing 15 degrees. Our guide was pretty ok, even told us about a nice mountain thing north of Melbourne where it's good to climb in the wild. (If I have the chance I will do that for sure, it would be my first nature-climb instead of the indoor walls I normally climb) At the local souvenir shop we got our Aussie-Hats, both at $55,- which is quite cheap for a good, suede hat.

Then up to Lithgow at around 13:00. With not really much gas in the tank we where a bit worried that we could make it to Oberon, the nearest town 30Km away from the caves. Off course you expect what's coming, there where some trouble getting there. Halfway an accident happened with a motor cycle, road blocked and at least 2 hrs before the road would be cleared. The other options was a detour of 10Km, partly over dirt roads. And off we went, not scared of dirt-roads we went back a few hundred mtrs and right on the dirt. Driving on dirt is strange, scary, but a great thing to do. You're driving on marbles and have to take extreme care not to get off the road, it really stresses your driving skills but that's exactly what makes the fun of it. Off course I was VERY carefull, but it was also a good test for our car (it was still 40 degrees celcius). Thanks we FOUND Oberon in time with still ~15 liters of gas left and headed off to Lithgow. As we wouldn't take the highway we took a small road, got a little bit lost on again more dirtroads but finally found Lithgow without too much hassle. (Ok, we had to stop the care once to refill the coolant-water, one of the few thins wrong with the car, leaking 2l every 100Km or so and liturally boiling over within 10 minutes.) Well, Lithgow was a bit depressing, so we went straight on. After an extra hour of driving we found Mount Wilson, still in the Blue Mountains, a few Km off The Great Bells Line of Road, ~15Km away from Bell. Up the hill was a parking spot (in the middle of the forest) where around 10-15 tents and campervans stood. Seemed like a perfect and safe place to spend the night and it was. Finally had some rain and thunder, really welcome after weeks of extreme heat. Next day (Sunday, day 4 of our little trip already) we went back to Sydney. The car had to be fixed on several points so we HAD to be back today to get it all done. And here we are now. Yesterday Anita was very happy to see us again, so was Rita (one of her neighbours) who was a bit worried, 2 kids on their own in the bush. :-) Had a good night sleep (it cooled down to 20 degrees here) and this morning we brought our car to the garage. They're now working on it (radio, cooling water, 3rd gear, etc) and with a bit of luck we don't have to take the train home. If that's the case we'll hit the road tomorrow morning to begin our trip around Australia. If not, hopefully wednesday. Well, that's it for now, I go to do my email and after that let Nicky write some more about our first 4 days on the road.

Bye,

Murf

from 8 januari

The weekend we had a quite and relaxing time. I wanted to take it calm because we had a couple of rough days And Murf obviously had some struggles still with his jetlag. (just like me a lot of sleeping. No other serious problems) So we had a lot of rest with a lot of reading and talking. On Monday we got out last little bit of paperwork out of the way. We got free maps at the NRMA. Because of the membership we got with the car. So we left with about 10 maps of Australia. Then we fixed Murfs Medicard beccause last Thursday we didn't had the correct papers with us. But this time it all worked out dfine. After that we had a big surch in Maroubra. Where the Indonesia Counsil was. We arrove and filled in the paperwork. The most itime took us to find an ATM for some money because the Visa's were $60 each. So after an hour there we were already on our way back. We came home and were glad to have everything done with. Yestereday we started off with some big shopping at Marrickville shopping Mall. Around the corner of Anita. We got everything we could and especially could carry.. Which was mainly food and some small stuff. At 4 we rang to see if the car was already ready. Yes it was. Soo we went there. But after an hour trying and a lot of letting down of our plastic mondy we had to give up. Our daily limits gave us only enough t opay for half the car. So we had to go back by train. Dissappointed. The next morning we ended as soon as possible in front of the store for our car. And after some info and payments we could finally take our baby home. Driving went some insecurity. And a little tour through the city because I wasn't quick enough to point out hte turnoff. (and some roadworks after that) But we got home. The second time of shopping was our final stuff Which we succeeded for actually very fast. And fairly cheap. At home we sat down after soime packing. For realising that we had a KFC discount coupon. And exact 15 min to get there and order. So back to the shopping mall again. Murf got already more sure in hte van. (about twice the size of his own car) So in time. At home after dinner we started to pack the car. And it finally starts to feel more and more like our car. Tomorrow the finishing touch and 2/3 ddays to the Blue Mountains. But tonight we are tired. Also because of the hot weather which will stay to at least sunday. Bush fire alarm is code red in NSW and SA already had a fire with 9 dead. Most surprised in their car. So that will be an extra eye for look and ear for local news on the radio.
Love Nicky

Well, here I am...

Well, as you can see, here I (Murf) am... In Sydney, Australia that is. Didn't have the chance to update the weblog after dec 30th but now I'm in an internet cafe somewhere in Newtown, Sydney. Let's start from the beginning... The 31th I got one of the most rememerable newyear party's I've ever had. Lots of friends, lots of alcohol and lots of hugs from people I won't see untill august. It was really, really good. Thanks people to give me an incredible time with you. Next day Schiphol Airport. Almost everyone I wanted to be there was actually there. It didn't make my departure very easy, instead it was quite hard but it's all part of leaving. Friend who I don't see crying very often actually cried. Impressive. We had a few hours together before I went to customs and leave Holland. ~18:00h i gave everyone a big hug and left. The first hour was quite hard, I was sitting somewhere at the end of the airport just waiting for my plane to leave. I was quite lucky though, 25.3Kg in my bag instead of the allowed 20Kg, just because I had some presents for Nicky to bring with me. (Candy "drop" and a big book) Plane left as expected, a little bit more than one hour later I was in Germany. Next plane to Singapore, had dinner at around night, had a fairly good sleep in the plane (needed that, it was a long day) and landed on Singapore's Shangi Airport around 18:00h Singapore Time. The first (and obvious thing) was that it was HOT out there. Almost 100% humidity and around 25 degrees celcius. Minivan to my hotel at the end of the city and straight to my room. Went to bed as early as possible (~21:00) because the next day a city trip was planned. Because of some aftershocks (I think) I woke up 2 times in the morning, quite scared because my sheets moved. Kicked around, shouted and fell asleep again. 7:30 my phone rang, it was my tourguide to tell me she would pick me up at 8:30 at the hotel entrance. 9:30 the actual tour around the city begun. That was absolutely cool. Singapore is a strange city/country. It only has skyscrapers, even factory's are in those buildings and Singapore is GREEN. They spent around 16 million SGD dollar a year to keep it all in good shape. You really won't recognize the factory's, they're in exactly the same buildings as offices are. In there (we went to a gems & metal factory) you'll find the workers. Upstairs there was the showroom. It's really easy to spend 1 million SGD there, just buy a couple of "paintings" and maquettes, 50.000SGD each. Incredible. Also visited a Hindu Temple, right in the middle of Chinatown. After that we went uphill to a great viewing point on the second highest hill in Singapore (~150m above sea level) and from there you had a great view at the city's harbour (one of the biggest of the world), downtown Singapore and Sentosa Island. (The main attraction in Singapore for both locals and Singaporians with several beaches, an underwater world and everything you can imagine.) I used the public transportation the second day to get me around. No organized trip was planned but I didn't want to wait 8 hours just for my plane to leave so I went to Sentosa Island. Public transportation is GOOD over there. No timetables, just busses ariving and departing every 15min max and an extremely clean, fast and reliable underground system. From the hotel to Sentosa took me around 45 minutes. Not a very long time if you imagine that Singapore is quite huge, it has ~1.5 million inhabitants, and that I had to travel from the north-west end to the south-east end. Sentosa was strange but ok. Used the cable car to go up the same hill I went the day before with a great view again. It soars somewhere around 60 meters above sea level and the trip takes 15 minutes. Well, back at the hotel again and waiting for my minivan to take me to the airport. Had a good chat with the driver, it was the same as on the first day. It's absolutely forbidden to smoke in a vehicle but on the first day we did. It was sunday, no cops around and as simply dissapears in the wind was his excuse... Check-in at the airport went smoothly, again no complains about my 5.3Kg overweight, just a somewhat smiling officer. (They only smile over there, they're asians remember...)

Airplane took off, 7 hours later I suddenly was in Sydney at 6:10 local time. I got a little bit nervous then, to see Nicky again and to pass customs and the Immigration Office (for my Working Holiday Visum) but it all went extremely smoothly. No strange checks, no hassle, no nothing, just showing my candy (no problems there) and getting out of the arrivals to meet Nicky and her aunt Anita. Strange moment, a hug, a kiss, a few dutch words an off to Anita's house in Enmore. (a suburb of Sydney) From there English was the only language for us, even when just talking to eachothere. Even my diary changed to english now because I'm already so used to it that Dutch simply sounds strange. Didn't do much that day, had a walk, developed a film, had lunch in the local park, arranged my Bali and New-Zealand tickets (in fact Nicky did, I was way to tired to think and act properly) and went back because the next day WOULD be a very busy day. And it was. Hmmm, Nicky just reminds me that I forget one big thing. We actually went out that first night. Some of her friends where leaving Sydney and we might not see them agains. So we went to a bar downtown and had a great time. Drank some beer, had a talk, a hug and went home around night. Her friends where a bit surprised about a few things like the fact that we speak english to eachother and that even after a 7 hour trip and some jetlag I was not really tired and I joined Nicky to the bar. Nicky was surprised that I actually survived talking English in a busy bar... Ok, next day... (thursday) We arranged a lot of things this day. First we went to the Travellers Autobarn to have a look at a car and the rules. Took the rules with us, headed off to Hyde Park to have a lunch, arranged my Kiwi Experience trip at the Travellers Contact Point, got the address of the Indonesian Council, got myself a VIP discount card, and some minor things and headed back to the TAB to actually get ourselves a car. Well, at least try to. But... We succeeded. By next wednesday we'll be the lucky owners of a Ford Econovan from 1987 which is pretty young for a backpackers car. It's quite cool, has a big bullbar on it's nose, a 2-person bed and a stand-off at the back so we have a bench to sit on. I've had my few Km's of driving on the left. Quite scary but luckily I didn't hit anything and actually the driving went quite well. Which is surprising because it's quite strange to have the big part of your vehicle on the left side and suddenly driving a car about twice the size of my own 205. Well, Nicky just remembered me of the fact that officially this is my car as well. It's on my name. So now I have 2 cars, one in Holland, one in Australia. One quite new car from 1998 (my 205) and this huge thing. It's really cool to drive a minivan, we'll have plenty space to store all we need for the big trip and to live in it the next 5 months. We'll hit the road next thursday for a 2-day trip to the Blue Mountains to get used to camping, the car, the traffic and everything. After that we'll stay just one night here and then hit the road for the big trip.

Then yesterday (Friday), we went to the local zoo. Off course by public transportation which remembered me of the Singapore System. No timetables, just busses and trains every 15 min max. Took a boat the zoo entrance, had a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and had a walk through the zoo which was quite good. Went back, had a walk through the Botanical Gardens (with the famous flying foxes, maybe thousands of them) and headed off home again. Again another good night sleep and well, here I am... Sitting next to Nicky, enjoying the fact that I'm here and at the very start of the biggest and most exiting trip of my life. Really looking forward to the Blue Mountains and the rest of the trip. We'll keep you updated off course. To all the people up there, I really do miss you all and don't forget that I'm having a great time already.

Bye!

Murf

28 till 2 januari

I drove up to Byron Bay with Mel and James. After a lunch in Byron. I and Jessica went to the beach. And Mel and James went over to some friens. (they ended up meeting up with a lot of friends and staying over somewhere. They came home in Sawtell the next day) The beach was to cold, but i did got in for a swim. After freezing to death and drying up a bit. Jessica was captured by a man that was making a sand sculpture. We looked at that for a long time. Micheal, Pat, Guy and the friends they went up for. (to Byron Bay) Pat and Guy wanted to be home before dark. So they went away early. I stayed with Jessica, Micheal and his friends. We ate at a restaurant which was very good. After a long goodbye. Micheal, Jessica and I went back home. It was already dark. We ended up on the wrong side of the road and went up to Brisbane.... We realised in time and turned around. Back to Sawtell. Still it took us more than 3 hours. We were home at half past 12. The next morning Jessica woke me up to see if I wanted to join her to the beach. To go bodyboarding. At the time we went Micheal joined us as well. Jessica let me ride her board a couple of times. Which went very well and I actually caught a couple of waves! Micheal went home a bit earlier then us and lent me his board so I could bodyboard with Jessica together. After a while we got cold and went home for a hot shower. In the evening I went with Micheal and Jessica to the carnaval. (kermis) Nearby Sawtell. I had a fun time with them. Seen lots of rides. Mel and James also dropped by for a little while. But didn't stay that long. The next day we (Mel, James and I) went home. And dropped by at Sophia for a little while. Because she stayed as a holiday in another house a little bit upcoast from Sydney. After that we went home and James and Mel went to a party of a friend of Mels'. The next morning I had my shower, breakfast etc. And went out for a long walk. Had already the feeling that something was hanging in the air at home. But when I came home I wasn't prepared for the letter there that asked me to leave. and that they would celebrate New Years Eve on their own. I called Anita to see if she wanted to take me in the house for the 2 weeks that are left for me here. (in Sydney) Wasn't a problem and I took all my stuff over to her. Annelies (my other aunt) was at Anita's as well. I called Michael because he had offered me a New Years Eve celebration as well. He wanted to see Anita and Annelies anyway. And was so kind to pick me up as well. So I still could see the fireworks. Also thanx to John a freind of Michael for the lovely evening. Michael and Jessica brought me back to Newtown and stayed there for the nicht as well. They left on New Years Day to go back home. (Adelaide) And I was completely out of business (exept for laundry) the rest of the day. Today I kicked myself. And I am repacking my back/day packs the right way. (in my hurry I messed that a bit up) Fixing some clothes. And went with Hans and Anita to buy some rugs for Hans' appartement at a sale. Did also did some groceriess with Anita. Wrote this updateand will soon return to my back/day packs.

26-27 December

Sunday I had my usual morning habit. And ended up in an off day. Wasn’t too happy and just wanted to be left alone. The family though wanted to drag me to the big banana. No idea what it was. So just went along. It ended up to be a enlargement of a banana. (like it said) Apparently you have enlarged images all around Australia. And people actually make it a sport to see them all. The banana wasn’t just a choice it was because the local product is/was bananas. We had a train journey with a lot of information about bananas and the history behind it. Was pretty interesting. After that we went tobogganing. I started to de-mood a bit. After a bit of fuss we decided we al would meet up at a beach in Coffs Harbour. I had to get my bikini so drove home with Michael and Jessica for swim stuff. When I arrived home I actually just wanted to be alone so I decided to stay. Had a lovely time in front of the TV in a quiet house. That night we had left over food a chat and a bed. And off course TV. We tried to get some news about the tsunami.
The next morning after a shower, breakfast and checking news on the internet/TV. We went to the pet porpoise pool. Just heard something about watching a dolphin show. But it was much more. It was a pool developt to have damaged and sick animals. They make them better and let them loose in the wild again. They ended up with some animals who couldn’t be able to go back to nature again. So that when the show came in. It was a show with dolphins and seals. They also had in the small park; kangaroos, birds (example; penguins), turtles, sharks etc. And I stroke a dolphin! ;-) And played with the ball. Feed the penguins and fish. After the pet porpoise pool we went to some relatives of pat. The couple had an 8 months old twin. Was really cute. Had a fun time. Although I got puked under by one of the kids. Was good that I had a spare skirt with me. After a bit of persuading we took them with us for a barbeque at home. Louisa (friend of Mel) and Georgie (organisator of the cruise) came over as well. As they were traveling to Byron Bay. And used Pat and Guys’ house as a stop in between. So we ended up in the house with 14 people. Which was a lot of fun. Peter and Runekai (the couple) were very fun and nice. I had a very good time. The food was good. The drinks were very good… So I actually ended up very drunk. And went to bed a bit early. This morning actually not to much trouble with a hangover or headache. Feel pretty good. Everybody is running around because the plan of today is to have a day at Byron bay. (Surfers paradise) I am done, now the rest…

23-25 December

We had a really easy start. At 13.30 we left to Sawtell in the neighborhood of Coffs Harbour. The journey takes between 6 and 10 hours. Depending on the weather and traffic. It took 7.5 hours. After a really relaxing travel. With loads of breaks. In the evening we had a little bit of food and then went after a chat to bed. I sleep with Jessica in one room. Jessica is the daughter of Michael, whom is my cousin. Jessica is 15 (11 days older than you Elise ;-) We had a fun talk. And went to sleep. The next morning I woke up through al the strange new sounds. After a breakfast and a shower I still didn’t know what I was going to do that day. I ended up walking around Sawtell. (Which isn’t that big) So I ended up walking on the beach. Jessica was on the beach as well and we walked in to each other. We had fun with talking and walking to the (small) main street. Just admired some shops and getting scared of all the prices, which were to high for a backpacker. After checking the cinema and deciding to fill up our afternoon with Bridget Jones; the edge of reason. (Yes, again) We changed at home and got to the cinema. Film was again very amusing. Jessica liked it as well. After the movie we had a quick dive into the sea, but because it was cold and windy we went back fast. We had pizza as Dinner because Pat had an of-evening. After dinner we went for a drive to admire all the Christmas lights at houses. And people made a pretty big effort of it at some points. We even went to a big garden which was opened for the good cause and was decorated with loads of lights. It even contained a harbor bridge and an Opera House. When we came back we just had a little chat before going to bed. This morning we had an easy morning. After a slow warming up we all gathered in the living room and opened the mountain of presents that laid underneath and around the Christmas tree. I had bought for James a frame and put some photos in it from Mel and him. For Guy (my uncle) I bought a Von Dutch t-shirt. For Pat (my aunt) I bought a broche. For Jessica I bought a little bear (with the softest ‘fur’ I ever felt) and a little mouse hanger. And last but not least I bought Mel a cat. Which I promised. It was a little statue (piggy bag) of a cat which looked so cute I just needed to buy it. Then what did I got? I got a shirt (devil woman) and a silver bracelet from James. A beer and wine of Jessica and Michael. A towel and shirt from Pat and Guy. And from Mel I got a dirty dancing cd, a Christmas card, a shirt, flip-flops and fake chemical snow. All things were very nice to get. A big thank you all!! After that we had a little lunch, because we had to wait for the turkey to get ready. And played a lot with the snow. (bit of water and then you get heaps of snow) When the turkey was ready we had a huge Christmas lunch. Which was great. We had after the lunch some drinks and went to the beach. After the beach we had a shower and went on to dessert of the huge lunch. And now we are all pigging out having a chat and drink. And getting a good closure of this great but strange day. (for me it felt like Christmas in July)

21 december; after birthday party

And after a week I had a final birthday night. And now I finally have to accept that I am 19. The night was one big bang. It was my musical night. Dirty dancing!! And there was some dirty dancing going on... Johnny was very musculair. So good for me he was shirtless for half of the show.. And as good old dutchie I was going for an underwear peek. Which was satisfying after the break. Lots of undie showing.. Ow and the rest of the crew was good as well ;-) A lot of dancing and good music. You can compair it a bit with Saturday night fever the musical. A story that can't go wrong. And is highly entertaining. And off course with all the famous lines; Nobody put baby in a corner ;-) After the show we got a bit of food. And i can tell you; I had the time of my live....

20 december; relax

Just a short 'story'. Went on Friday to some shops and Manly and watched some dvd's. On Saturday I went to the beach. And watched some dvd's and sat behind the computer. On Sunday I walked a bit around Manly and went home. Funny to see that it takes 1.5 hours to come from Manly to Sydney. First a ferry for half an hour. Where in Manly the sun shone in the City it was raining. After that you have a bus for almost an hour to Bondi. Where the rain just stopped. Watched another dvd before going to bed. (and returned James' key) And before some good food. (indian) Today fixed some clothes and did some stuff around the house.
That was practicly it. Very boring...
Love Nicky
Ps still getting used to a warm Christmas, but it is still very odd. Although beggars wear christmas hats. And restaurants are playing Chrismas songs.. It still doesn't seem right.

16 december; I don't like roadworks!

Tuesday I tried to make a long walk to a park I still wanted to go to. And I wanted to buy a copy of the hitch hickers guide. I ended up checking out the guide and not buying, because it was pretty expensive according to my budget. And I thought it was to hot to walk any further. So I went down to the beach again and had a nice swim. After that Mel called, because Sophia had called her... She had a 2 day job for me. On thursday and friday. So I said yes to everything at that point. After seeing Mel that night I went to bed early.

Wednesday I had a quiet start. I packed some stuff because I would leave for a couple of days. In the afternoon I went to the city. Because I thougt that I would be able to get THE guide a bit cheaper. Bad luck for me. But I did found a cheap copy of the da vinci code. Everybody is talking about it so i figured out it might be worth reading. And it was cheap any way. So I ended up that afternoon spending a couple of hours reading at Cockle bay in the sun. (really good) At 7, I made sure I went for Central station. Because Amanda, Nana and Randy were waiting there for me. (the girls I met in New Zealand.) They invited me for a late birthday party. So we went for dinner in this really cheap place. the food was very good, though. After that we went to a pub/bar/club (or however you want to call it) We had a nice time, with drinks, guys and dancing. We went to bed at 2 AM

And on Thursday I had to get up at 7.15 AM. So after not that much sleep. (4 people on a room with all their own sleeping habits/coming home time) I needed to be at the station at 7.45 so I got dressed and made myself a bit presentable and went off. That wasn't enough for crossing a roadwork, though. I did made sure that I walked around the truck. But forget all the parts that were on the truck. So I got hit in the face. Pretty hard acctually because I walked pretty fast... No problems. Got to the station and got the right trains. Was on time to get picked up by Sophia. Got to te work. (covering up 1150 books with another girl. Got paid by the book.) So I just started because Kate (the other girl) had already started. Had a small lunch. And worked together so hard that afternoon, that we acctually were done at the end of the day. So exhausted but happy. And $200 dollar richer. Instead of going back to Bondi I stay a couple of days with James. To explore Manly. And lay on a different beach... And James stays with Mel for a couple of days, so I am here alone... :D
But at this point my head has finally realised the hit. It begins to hurt a bit... :s

13 december; pissed but happy

Like the titel says, I am writing this while I am pissed. So excuse my grammer etc. Yesterday I had a long walk along the city for some christmas presents. After that I went to Manly by ferry. By that time there was a thunderstorm with loads of rain going on over the city. But when I got out on Manly the sun was shining... Because Mel and James were already at Sophia's. (where the party was) So I was picked up by one of the other gasts who hadn't drunk. I ended up getting picked up in a silver BMW. Two seats... A gourgious car. Ended up at the party with a surprise pre-birthday cake. Lovely time as well with Mathilda and Rose. (Sophia's kids) Slept at James'. And today I went back with Mel and after that the train and bus. At bondi I opened my presents. Got a forever friend keyhanger of my boyfriend and pyjamas of my uncle and aunt. The rest sended me cards and some money. After that I did some house stuff. In the evening Mel came home. And we went out for diner with Reg, Christopher, Louisa, Mel, James and me. After I got a pair of nose rings from James, which will be really handy. Mel got me some gadgets and a card for the Dirty dancing musical!! That will be next tuesday... We went for a good dinner at one of the cafe's at bondi road. We had lovely waiters. And to much booze. That's why I am a bit pissed... Just having some contact with holland, before I go to bed...
Ps no phone, so no job

[redactional addition by Murf]
And off course Nicky forgot to mention the absolutely great present she got from Sabine... A self-made book with photo's and childrens songs and such. Shame on you! ;-P
[end note]

14 december
And for the ones that are fussing about incorrectness of my entry. ;-) (which is pretty obvious because I drank too much) I am very happy with Sabine her little booklet. Which is a good quick look at home without using the internet. I love it and will use it more often. Something else is forgotten. And that was that I usually wish for some snow for my birthday. We had instead of sun yesterday a lot of heavy thunderstorms. And in one storm we had hail. (ice falling from the sky) The pieces of ice were about 3 cm big. And it was a delight to have over here. Although a bit ironic because in holland i never get snow.
And pissed in my entry of yesterday isn't pissed as in angry. But in drinking too much....

11th of december; job, drivers licence and birthday

after 2 days of doing just some small things. Like cleaning dishes, writing cards, doing groceseries and looking some tv. Still 2 big things happened today and two days ago. Two days ago I finally called for an appointment to get my learners permit. But instead of the email that told me that I would be able to take the test. The lady on the telephone told me that I was only able to drive in New South Wales and in none of the other states. So that was a big dissapointment. And be able to drive in other states would be a big hassle. So I had to give up that. Including my idea to drive all around australia. So we have to stick to the old plan of driving half of australia. With another big challenge; driving through the desert from south to north. Which probably takes round about 2 weeks with one big stop; Alice springs.
The second thing was that I finally gave in and went to the Belgium restaurant and ask for a couple of days work. Why I had to gave in? My auncle (guido) is a good friend of the owner. And off course Mel as well. So it would be a nice thing to do for them. But I wouldn’t be getting a job just for me. Today I had a try out for a couple of hours. And tomorrow I will get a phone call to see if I can stay or not. If not it was still a good thing. I could get some experience in being a waitress. Which I had never done before. But I stop writing and get a bit of food. And them go off to the beach. Because after the thunderstorm yesterday, today is a bright clear day. (27 degrees)
Ow and yes I am counting the days of to my birthday. I have no idea what that day is going to bring. But I do know it doesn’t feel like my birthday is coming up. The weather is all wrong! Although it is a nice thing to have the upertunity to celebrate my birthday for once like this. I collecting all the little packages and letters that everybody is sending me and will save them to my birthday…. So it will feal a bit more birthday with opening some ‘presents’
Love
Nicky

till 7th of december; luxury with a turn

Sunday I got invited by James and Mel to come to a cruise a friend of them had organised. Curious as I was (and keen to get out of the door) I went with them. I ended up in a small boot with round about 15 people. Eating seafood and drinking champagne. And even brought to me while I lay in the sun on the deck. Sometimes a smill dive. It was gourgious.I fell on the boat but a bleu bruise on my knee was all. After the cruise we had a drink in a cafe. Then I went with mel and James to James' appartement and had some food and watched a dvd. I decided to go home.When I walked to the ferry my foot hurted. After a run to make it to the ferry in time it hurted awfull. On the boat I sat with my foot high. And had a fear that I sprained it on the boat while falling. I walked from to the boat. Very slow and very painfull. In the bus it still didn't improved. The walk from the bus to Mels' place I did crying, screaming and cursing. After sitting on the couch and calming down I asked to some people (my mum and parents of a good friend of mine) if there was any possibility that i broke it. Negative. Probably heavily sprained. The next day no bruise nor swollen. So no apraining. Probably overstreched something in my foot. Monday morning I walked pretty bad but it became better really soon. After spending a day on the couch watching movies it wend good actually. And today on tuesday I can walk properly although I still can't make some movements with my foot. But I will go for a small walk because I am crazy sitting al day in the house. ..

till 4th of december

Today actually starts with yesterday. Yesterday I decided to finally go to Newtown. Which is the alternative side of the city. They have a lot of cheap and second hand shops. Where better to get you're christmas presents? So yesterday morning I went with Mel to work so it saved me a busticket to the station. At mels' work waited to our big surprise, my auntie anita and Hans. Her partner. She lives near newtown. And because hans justed moved to a new appartement there also needed a lot to be done. So after a bit of talking we made out that I would help anita and hans the first day a bit in hans' house. Hanging up stuff. (They are both not to tall) After that Hans cooked for us and I and Anita went back to her place. I loved by the way the car of Hans which anita is driving. (I will try to catch a picture of that, I forgot my camera :s) I slept at Anita her place. In the morning we drove to some shops she had to be. We had lunch. And after that and some chatting I went in to Newtown to go shopping. I had to buy 6 presents. After a day I have 3 presents and for the other 3 I have at least an idea for 2 presents. So just one to go...
Last thursday I finally started with some running and exercises. And the next day turned out no muscle pain. So that was good as well.
Wednesday I finally walked out the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach. I usually never came further that Tamarama beach. (before you think it is a reallly long walk. It only contains this three beaches) It was nice and I had a fun time. My sunburn wasn't fully recovered but I at last could wear a pair of pants.
Tuesday was... Ehmz More sunburn. Still hurted like hell. Still the same sarong and duckwalk. And watched all day tv.
And Monday was my sarong. I was so sunburned that I could not wear any pair of pants. My back hurted so bad I actually could not sit or lay down. Although I did with a lot of pain. And then it was the trick to lay as still as possible for as long as possible. As you can imagine I did absolutely nothing that day.
Sunday was funny. Mel came back from New York. (the first week was Miami the second week was New york) She was totally jetlaged and really tiered. James brought her in from the airport. They were both going to sleep that day but I don't think they slept that much. ;-) That day I just decided to leave James and Mel alone. And finally after 1.5 months I decided to go for a day on the beach. First went to a small market along the way to the beach. After my first dive in the sea when I came back I walked in at Amanda. she is the english girl I met in New Sealand. I knew she was here but she would ring me when she would go to bondi. (I forgot my mobile that day) So I was lucky to walk in to her that day, because the beach was absolutely stuffed. It turned out she still travelled together with 2 girls of the Danish group of New Zealand. We had a fun time that day for a couple of hours. And then went back home. At the evening I already felt a little bit (a lot) of burning coming up.
And I got my New York presents; a watch with the statue of liberty on it. And a t-shirt which said; Do not call me a bitch I am much more evil than that.... And after a few days when she was completly unpacked she gave me an I love NY t-shirt. Which I absolutely do not. But it is nice to go running in or something...

Do not call me a bitch, I am much more evil than that ^_^

22 november till 28

For as far as I know.
You can see in my last entry that I went pretty depressed sinds I quited. It wend deeper. I ended up sitting crying behind my laptop, speaking to people. The last couple of days I have my ups and downs, but it goes better. Not great but better. What did I do.. I can't tell day by day. But most of the days I did absolutely nothing. I had one day that I went to the city to get the new zealand and the australia lonely planet. A second day I went to the left side of the beach to explore that. The rockformations, waves and creatures in small waters were pretty interesting. Lots of pictures which will follow. Yesterday I went to the city to visit 2 markets. Did bought some small stuff. And my biggest concern the last few days is christmas. I need to buy presents... And that always brings up questions and a lot of searching. I know that in Holland everybody is making up for Sinterklaas. Know that all the small touches are already brought in in the city. And yes with a christmas tree, snow, old santa with lots of clothes and everything that is also used in Europe christmas. I gave up total hope for a job. And am looking around for stuff to keep me occupied till end of this year. So if anybody has some spare typing work.....
Love you! And I will get better.
Ps1; my birthday is in exact 2 weeks and one day. If you need my house adress email me; nicky@somewheresouth.net
Ps2; I know more people than just my mom who read this site, so I would love some comments....
Ps3; gallery.somewheresouth.net contains all the pictures so far....

till 22 november

Wednesday; My first day of work. A day of working together with a second girl (anabel) which also had a first day. We had our 'leader' with us; rasmus. (yes as in the band) We walked a complete day with him to learn how to handle some situations. After some encouriging word we had a few try's with him next to us. So if we would fail he still would back us up. At the end he gave us a few houses by ourself to try out. I did one contract all by myself without making a mistake in my story. So I was pretty proud at myself when I went home after a long day.

The second workday went a lot less plesant. It was for a beginning boiling hot outside. And because of the load of beginners Rasmus had to take he gave me and a few other 'second days' back up each other. With the upertunity to have a few of your own houses if you dared. It seemed all fairly easy to me. So I took of by myself. After one street of houses I broke down. I couldn't do this. I feld horrible. But because I refused to give up so easy and because I also felt a bit ill. I sat the day out and talked to Rasmus who gave me friday off. So I could recover till next week.

Fridaymorning Jeroen woke me up really early. Because he came home and didn't have any keys. He had an idea where his pasport should be so he called a few times to several departments of the airport. And then he found out that his pasport was sent to the Dutch ambassy. Where he had to be anyway that day. So he took off to get his passport. The rest of the day he spend sleeping. I went through the day relaxed with a lot of reading. In the evening I cooked and packed a box which Jeroen would take with him home so I didn't need to drag that along on the end.

On saturdaymorning Jeroen woke me up early again. This time to say goodbye. (after that I went to bed again ;-) Saturday i spend reading againg. (it was a really good book!)

Sunday was a complete diffrent story. The appartment was a 'bit' messy. So I spended the entire day doing laundry, dishes, bringing away garbage etc. (in a relax way...not to much of a hurry) At night I watched the final of Australian Idol. (Shame on me for following it) And had a long chat with Murf and Sabine. And went to bed early because I had to go to work tomorrow.

Monday (today); Rasmus already called me yesterday that I had to start an hour earlier. So got up early did my stuff and got to work. I already decided that that day would end in my decision to stay or not. Day begun good with some training. (like every day) I first have to explain that the building I work in is controlled by 3 owners who work together with the big boss of the company. So after Rasmus had left for a meeting an owner stapt forward to me and asked me some questions about my apperance. (my clothes and period of working) After that he asked me to remove my nosepiercing. In a tone which didn't want any struggling. I said I couldn't because he is fairly new and then I had to start all over again. (it will just close in that period) He became a bit mad and said (after asking who my supervisor was) that I could leave for the day. I was closing my jacket straight away, and he asked me to leave this instant. When I grabbed my bag in a separate room he looked me straight to the door. Checking if I would leave. I don't liked to be handeld that way after a week of working there. Or at least a week of travelling (one hour to the job and one hour back) and spending more money on this job so far then I earned. So I went of mad and already sended a textmessage to Rasmus to say I am sorry but I don't liked to be handeld this way. So that I will quit. I didn't get anything back so I am curious if the message came through. Otherwise I will hear tomorrow if they ring me up to see where I am. But no way they get me back. So that brings me back at the job marcket. And another week spoiled. I only have to 4th of januari to work. So I'm curious if I will be able to get a job, because it is a really short period... :-s Wish me luck.....

11 november till 16 of november

Did the 11th go any better the rest of the day? No, exually not. So I just skip on to the day after. Very exiting because my 2nd and 3nd interview were on the program. In the morning Mel brought me in to the city centre. So I just needed just a short while in the train, to my next point. (in the same city centre as well) After a bit of surching I found the entrance and the office. I had a short peek that morning in my adds that I had cutted out. So I knew that I was applying for a salesjob over here. The conversation went really well. They were pretty enthousiastic about me. And offerd me a second interview straight away. On that monday. With one big hint to dress a bit more fancy and lose some earrings.. Normaly I just refuse, but the need of a job is too big. So ok. But first the 2nd interview of the day. Applying for a nanny. Which went pretty good. They offerd me a job straight away. Which I had to refuse because I needed to work with christmas as well. But they were going to find me a next job. So we will see. Because I was at that moment in Paramata. Which is a long way travelling from the centre. So I decided to go and have a touristic look. I ended up in a shopping centre, off course. Had a great lunch in the sun. And then got off for some fancy clothes for monday. I ended up talking to a kiwi guy that worked for unicef. We had a nice chat and because he lived in bondi as well we decided to have a drink in the future. So I gave him my number. And asked for a tip to find some cheap fancy clothes. he pointed me a $10 shop out. Al clothes for $10 or less. I found there a nice pair of paints and a nice black jacket. $10 dollar each. So I have myself a nice suit for $20. Pretty cheap. Because of the interviews of that day I wore some nice covering decent clothes. Which I practicly swam out of. So I went home straight away. When I came back in Bondi I couldn't stop with dragging around with my suit who was gourgious and lovely and so cheap and..... Even till Mel and James came home. After a lot of oehhhs and ahhhs they finally got me in some decent clothes and we went of for a movie. Bridget jones diary, the edge of reason. That was so good and funny!!! I loved it. After the movie all the four of us went straight to bed.

That saturday morning Jeroen left very early to go for a week travelling up. To byron bay and fraser island. So that day I was alone with Mel. (James left also in the morning while I was asleep) We had a fun time. Mel had to pack because she left the next morning for 2 weeks of Miami and New York. (partly for her job) Before dinner we went to Christopher and Greg. To have a nice chat and show me where to be for some help. After dinner me and Mel had a nice walk along Bondi beach. Nice gossiping between girls. And of to bed 'early'.

When I got up on sunday I was alone... All alone. Which was strange but also nice. Mel kicked me the day before to go to a festival in Newtown. (nearby my auntie Anita) So I just went and had a great day of music and looking at stores. And that for $10 Because the whole day was sunny with a bleu sky I got sunburned. (again) So I went off a bit early. Also to make a surprise call to my little cousins in Holland. So after dropped everything at home I went of for the phonebox and rang everybody awake. (9 o'clock sunday morning) After the phone I made some food and watched some tv. And because Mel was away she led me slep in her princes bali bed. So I slept like a princes that night. That morning I got up a bit early to be in time for my 2nd interview. So put on my gourgious suit and my high heels. After being there right on time I had to wait till someone came and pick me up. I got picked up by Rasmus. The interview was slightly different from what I expected. I got a quick view at what my job would be (quick as in I got a couple of hours to walk with him) and then I would have my 2nd interview. But after a few things I ended up being at the street with Rasmus for an complete day. (till 8.15 pm) So when I got back I didn't had any feet left, was exhausted and still had to have my 2nd interview. That went pretty good. (excellent exually) They were still impressed although I was exhausted and looked like hell. So they offered me a job. I went home as quick as possible got some food, washed my suit (a day swetting in the sun doesn't give a nice smell to your suit) and dropped down for the last episode of sex and the city. (which I found out, I missed) After a lot of running I dropped in my bed pretty late and exhausted.

Tuesday; my training day. The alarm went off ridicoulus early. (7.30) I had to be there at 9 but you will see that the bus you always have within 5 min. Doesn't appear for the next 10 min. So I was 10 min late. The whole morning I felt back in school. The tabels, chairs and paperwork. Even the yawning in between. But I learned. Then a bit of more paperwork. It appears they don't contract me. But I become a company they work with. So after today (and having a bit of paperwork to get an number for the company) Company Nicky is set off. And I got home early after doing some groceries. Did completely nothing. Tomorrow I get a day on the streets. If I have to walk door to door already; i don't know. I know I'm working for the electricity company and offer discount. For nothing. So it isn't really selling. Which makes me already feel a bit better. (I usually hate this kind of people.) But it seems for now pretty good to learn a lot of stuff. And next to that i have collegues who are insane. (so that will fit in) But it stays a job where I am not completely sure about.

8 till 11 november

After an entry of Swahili on computers. Here again a bit of my life. I don't update my weblog everyday anymore. For one simple fact; my life isn't that interesting at the moment. The last time that I wrote is in the morning of 8th november. That day I indeed made a long walk along the coastline. From Bondi Beach to Tamarama beach. The walk goes all the way to Bronte but I couldn't find the way. And the sculpture walk ended at Tamarama. So then I went back. Waited for Jeroen to come back from the city. When he came (late) I made some food and we probably watched some movie. Which we seem to do a lot lately. Mel was also in pretty late and forgot to check my resume. The next morning I heard that she was sleeping with James that night. So I took the guess and just sended my resume to as many email adresses from companies that I could find. The 2nd filling of that day was reading my book. Some food and a bit of television. And then your day is full. Oeh that is not true. I overlooked my travelling sceduele in Australia. And there were a lot of things that were not fitting. After a bit of measuring work I emailed murf with an alternative for our trip. You will hear as soon from it as I know what we decided to do. I went the next day to the city to see some things. And Jeroen had to arrange some things. And in the morning I received my first phonecall for an interview. So I planned that in as well for that day. So I went in my fancy clothes to the city. (to cold seemed afterwards.) After getting food and ordering the Australian lonely planet. (I decided I couldn't go without) We got to the travellers contact point. (Jeroen had to arrange his next week trip) After a bit of waiting we decided that I would go to the interview and that we would meet up later on in High park because it was so busy at the travellers contact point. So I went in my fancy clothes to my first interview. (ever!) With my self written resume from not even a week old... To nervess for words. When I came in there were all people from around 25 years old in suits and good looking office clothes.. :S I had to fill in a standard form that wasn't good fitting for my situation. The interview was with 2 candidates in once. It only took 5-10 min after half an hour waiting. The guy talked far to fast for me. So I was already glad I was able to keep up with him. I had one question I didn't understand so that shouldn't have looked to good either.. They would call me the same day to say if I had a second interview or not. And they didn't even called! So after some groceries I came home with Jeroen and I had a mood that was incredibly bad. Then we found out Jeroen has lost his passport. So when Mel came home we were both in a bad mood. I fast fixed some food and got off to bed. After James made us all a nice cup of tea. With milk, because sinds New Zealand I love milk in my tea. And after Mel took a look on my resume. Which she loved by the way. This morning Jeroen went off really early for his Blue Mountain trip. That is going to last a whole day, so I will see him back tonight somewhere. Mel and James got of to work. I already had a horrible morning. (burning toast, loosing earrings etc.) But I also scedueled 2 new interviews for tomorrow. (I need a job!) And the only good news of today is that I'm able to take an exam for a learning drivers licence. (I just got the email) So if I pass that exam, I will be able to drive with a licenced driver next to me.. So murf doesn't have to drive all by himself. That was the only good news of today so far. I better go take a second look for Jeroen his passport and look some stuff up he can bring home already.

4 till 7 november 2004; oeps!

Ow oeps! That was a long time sinds I wrote something over here. But I was a bit sick of the computer. After a dayly rate of at least 2 hours on the computer, you can get to much. But I also have the responsibility of a website, so here I am again. Where ended I last time? Oh jeah the night of 3 november. Thinking back (actually read a bit in a mail Jeroen made so I know what I did which day.) we did on 4th not that much. Just hanging around a bit lazy. And then decided to go swimming. Off course at that point the clouds decide to come up. So it was a pretty cold waterdip. Some shaking on the beach and praying for sun. But after a while we gave up and strode back. We had a hot shower. And because Mel was late we decided to get some food at a local Indian. (after founding out we actually had one) That was pretty good. We watched Spiderman 2 during the food. And had a pretty good time. After a little chat to Mel when she dropped in, we all went to sleep. On friday we decided to discover a little bit more of the coastline here. So we walked a little bit of the walk from Bondi to Bronte. (that we heard afterwards) I already heard from an exposition called; sculptures by the sea. But I had no idea where it was. At the walk I found out. It was an exposition along the walk. With all sorts of modern art. It was gougious! And I have made some gourgious pictures which I will put online, as soon as I am finished with my New Zealand pictures. The art was good to see. And had some strange but funny twists. (an elephant made out of old televisions and a flip-flop bottle for example.) After a nice and rainy walk. I was soaked and Jeroen a little bit less because of his coat. (as long as my camera was dry I didn't care) We got back with a little bit of groceries. At home we had a nice surprise, because Mel had an early day. So she was home already. We ate some left overs at toast and a pizza with the 3 of us. We had a fun night. Mel finished some paperwork while I and Jeroen were reading and some times got on the computer. After a while I got to bed and left Jeroen at the computer. When I went to say goodbye to Mel I had a pretty good conversation. And while I sat there she gave me this gourgious bag! (purse or however you want to call it) I love it! So I went to bed really happy, with the purse next to my bed. The next morning we had an easy start. We wanted to be at James' place at 3 but off course we were to late. But we arrove at 4 or something with loads of food and booze. Jeroen was seated in the front seat to get used on the left driving. Which he did pretty well, because I was scared a lot more the first time I sat over there. Once at James' place Jeroen watched out his eyes because of the appartement. (it is gourgious and big, that's for sure) We had some drinks and something to eat. We actually planned to sleep over there. But after a while Jeroen dropped by and asked if we could go back to Bondi because he felt a bit misplaced. So we went off to Bondi. First thing at Bondi for me was calling my mum. Which ended for an hour chat with my dad, because my mum was gone already to a meeting with someone. But I had a fun time. After the phonecall I went back to Mels' place and knocked on the door so Jeroen could let me in. (I gave him my keys.) We took a goodnight rest because we were exhausted. Sunday was a big off day for me. Jeroen went of for a walk. I just grabbed my book (I really missed that) and sat on the balcony in the sun till I melted away. Just an easy day. At the point that I wanted to make a call to murf I already had the feeling that the moment I would set out of the door that Mel would arrive with the food. And so it happened. But I still made my phonecall first. Took me over an hour. When I came back they all (Jeroen, Mel, James and Louisa (a friend of Mel)) just finished their food. So I ate alone, but I didn't bothered. Lord of the Rings movie one was on television. So I watched that while I was eating. And enjoyed all the placed I've been as well. After a bit reading my book, I went to bed quite early. This morning I had a big surprise. I got toast on bed! That is the first time that Jeroen was quicker than me to make breakfast. So I hade an easy start. (again) I just updated the last pictures of Nieuw Zealand. So you can all have an image with my stories. So please take a look at gallery.somewheresouth.net Some highlights are my first bungy jump and my glacier walk. I just wrote this piece. Jeroen just took off 5 min ago. And I am thinking of making a walk along the beach. About finding work. I applied at KFC but still haven't heard of it. I had to make a resume this weekend. Mel will check that out tomorrow. So I can go send emails tomorrow to some other companies. And then it is fingers crossed for some work. Lot's of love to you all. Mis you very much!!

2 & 3 november 2004; Oenie!

After going to the airport I found myself waiting till the airplane would land. After a lot of passengers were past by I still hadn't found my guy. So I waited longer. (an hour exact) Then there he was; Jeroen!He was exhausted. They found him suspicious (who doesn't ;) And they turned over all his bags. To see what he transported. But he finally was there. I picked him up and got him to Mels' home as soon as possible. We didn't do that much that afternoon. Just talking and watching my stuff from Nieuw Zealand. And we went of to get some pizza. Watched a bit t.v. till Mel came home. Then we got nicely to sleep and found ourselfs up pretty early the next morning. After a long wacking up time. We got a tight scedual to have a little peek on Sydney. So we went walking to Bondi Junction. Then with the train to Kings Cross. Walked trough High Park of to some food. (which we couldn't find) After that to Georg Street. Where we got some food at Woolworth and sat down somewhere to eat. After that we went to Travellers contact point to get some stuff done. Then to walk on the Harbour Bridge. Back along the Warf to the Opera House. And then through the Botanical gardens to Kings Cross. With the train back to Bondi Junction. And from there walking back to Bondi Beach. We were gone from 12 to 20.45 So you can imagine we are pretty exhausted right now. (I even cooked dinner here) So after a bit of t.v. and a nice chat to Mel. (and a little present she brought from Phuket, Thailand) I'm going off to bed.

South Island

And here a little piece about the South Island. If I could describe it in one word; amazing! I loved the South Island. And I already know for sure that I will be back. What did I do; glacier walk, horseriding and 3 bungy jumps. I've seen the most amazing nature, lots of mountains. And a lot of snow. I wanted to go skiing but was a bit pissed when I heard that the mountains were already closed for a week. So next time I will be there for sure in skiing time. I've seen a lot of different kinds of nature in only a short distance from each other. Glacier and rainforrest for example. I had the best time of all over here. And off course to name one place; Queenstown. I loved it there and would have loved to stay another week. I had the best time over there. Just a bit of extreme sports, hanging on the beach and lots of drinking. I'm realy going to mis the island. And will be back for sure....

30 october till 2 of november (morning) 2004

This morning I went out after a long night of good sleep. I went out to the city. To see some stores and by some souvenirs. After a long shopping morning. (finally some useless money spending ;) I went of to actually doing nothing and just hanging around in the t.v. room at the hostel. Because it was to cold to sit outside. Actually a day of completly doing nothing. In the evening I went of to the bar. And found some formiliar people. Had a great night. With loads of stories and laughs. The next morning after a short night. (the cleaning ladies made to much noise in the early morning :s) So I went up with my sleepy head. And went to the second and last touristic place; Hagley park. The day was extremely sunny. So got al my stuff and got out. Bumped into some formiliar backpackers before I came to the park. They told me about this market on the way. So I went there and bought a lovely sheep rug. Which is extremly soft. After that I went of to the park and spend some lovely hours laying in the sun. (without getting sunburned!) After that I went back, dropped my stuff. And got myself a seat on Cathedral Square because I couldn't ignore the sun. After a while I got this conversation with these 2 disabled people. (sitting in a wheelchair) One called 'Roly' he was an alderly guy and then you had 'Wheelz' which was a bloke that was a little bit older than me. We had a lovely time. We went of for a beer. And for some dinner. After that I went out with Wheelz to the bar in the Base.(after I quikly packed my bag) Which had a halloween party. Not many people were dressed up. But I had a fun time anyway. At a far to late time I finally got in to bed. Less than 2 hours later my alarm went of. To catch a shuttle to the airport. My shuttle was to late. But after getting on the airport everything went smoothly. And before you know it you are sitting next to a snorring lady in the airplane watching a movie. And after a smooth landing and some paperwork you are back in Sydney. I had to get home myself because my cousin couldn't lay hands on her car because it was at the garage. So after a bit of hassle with the train I got in Bondi Junction. And walked to Bondi Beach which I regretted later. The bus was been far more easier. But I was finally 'home'. Then the work could start. Doing al my laundry (practicly all my clothes) unpack my bag. Sort all things out. Cooked for Me, Mel and James. And then after 2 episodes of Sex and the City nice to bed. This morning at 6 o'clock I was up and awake. It was morning in new zealand. So I dropped back into bed and got some more sleep. At 9.30 I got op again and got myself done to go to the airport again...

29 october 2004

My leaving date here comes more and more closer. today after leaving Twizel. And only a few stops. (The rain made that some stops were cancelled) I'm lin Christchurch. It feels if I am in a civilised world again. And I can tell you that I don't like it. Nothing against Christchuch though. For what I've seen it is a nice and lively city. But I miss the gourgious scenery. Just had some food an answered some emails. Nothing big. Oh yeah, I'm staying at Base hostel. Which is right on Cathedral Square. (middle of the centre) I like Base (they have several other hostels.) because they always have an indoor bar ;) But I'm checking out the city tomorrow. Love Nicky

28 october 2004

after my bungy I had so much adrenaline! I wanted to go out! (tuesday & saturday are going out nights in Queenstown) But I wasn't in the mood to go alone. But after asking around the complete hostel I ended up sitting alone on a couch in the t.v. room. Not for long because it is not so busy in the hostel and you know everybody. (who's staying there or working) So I ended up with Russel. We talked and listen some music. (Keane) And because he is english and a teacher, he kept anoying me with my pronounciation. Or wrong words that I jused. Or off course words I don't know. But he is a sweet funny guy and after living for a whole week as neighbours I have to leave. And then is travelling not that fun anymore. But, thank god, for email. And then you have Amy. She worked as well as Russel in the hostel. she is so lovely and helpfull. She made my staying in the hostel feel like I was coming home every day. Nothing was too much, always helpfull. And good fun to talk with. but I didn't left on tuesday so what am I talking about. Where was I? Ow yeah, a nice chat with Russel. And for the first time in Queenstown I just took an early sleep. the next morning I was glad that I had a good sleep. Beccause I was going for a day of horseridin. It was gourgious! The scenery and just wobling a bit on a horseback! Halfway we had a big lunch. (and with big, I mean really big) I was already a bit sore in the legs at that point. And had overstretched 2 muscles. But with an afternoon to go I didn't complain. and enjoyed a bit more. There are a lot of LotR shots been done in the valleys where I have been riding. After a while I couldn't feel my knees anymore. (They were already bad before I went riding) so by the time I condidered to go walking, we only had 10 min left. So I did the whole ride. But I'm walking again (see Frans Jozef) as if there is something stuck in my ass. Amy suggested a butt massage. But she didn't found anyone to give it. But because it was my last night, we went out with a few people. I had so much fun! And although I didn't wanted to drink, I still ended up with booze :s It was great! And after a breakfast which was put out in the morning. ( I don't even know if it is usual that early, 7.30) I jumped on the kiwiexperience. Because the drive was pretty long to Christchurch I hopped off in Twizel for 1 nicght. Tomorrow I hop on again and than go to my last stop: Christchurch. Twizel is a little village where there isn't much to do. The only sight seeing thing is a LotR filming spot. nothing done actually. Just a quiet t.v. day. Get some sleep. the hostel where I'm staying has a dutch owner. (went travelling in '79 and never came back) It looks like (for Benelux people) Centerparcs. This guy also knew that 6% of al kiwi's are from dutch roots. That's a lot. But off for sleep now. Hugz!

26 october 2004; WHOEHOE!!

Ok that was the scaryiest thing I ever done. No more scary monsters in my closet before I go to sleep. I just overwon every fear I had. I just jumped 134 meters of a gondel. And it was f*cking scary. My t-shirt is soaked with swet. My heart didn't could go faster. And I never been closer to crying from fear. But Murf you wanted to know everything so I thought I write a little piece about every jump I did over here.

Starting with the Kawarau Bridge Jump(43 meter). This is the most fun jump. And the least scary one. You get tied up with 2 foot to each other. Because it was my first jump I still had the feeling from; oh my god what high. But going towards the jump and standing there I was really calm. No fears and just me and the blue water under me. You have an option to splash if you want. And off course I did one. Although it was a small one because it was pretty chilly. What else? Oh jeah. Once you've jumped they let you down in a boat. And get you back to the nice and firm ground. It's a jump you can do with bare foot. Because I had my flip flops and couldn't jump with them I did it bare foot. Not really more to tell about this one.

Next one is The Ledge Bungy(47 meter). You go up with the gondelier. Where you have a great view from Queenstown. There you have an edge. If you got tied up around your waste and standing for a view on the edge it feels if you jump off a mountain. Into a deep nowhere. It is the best one to ran off. So I did. Although I first freeked out because of the height. But then I jumped and it wasn't that scary anymore. I had some friends with me while I jumped. And there is no better feeling than halfway a jump someone hearing scream; Nicky, you are my hero! And you are just hanging on a rubber string.... After you jump you hang in the middle of nowhere. And they pull you up. Which is far most the scary part. Bare foot is possible. And I had flip flops again, so again bare foot.

Last but surtainly not the worst is the Nevis Bungy(134 meter). This one is the highest in New Zealand. And far out the scaryiest one. You have a drive from 30 minutes to the jump itself. Then you get a look at the side. (I couldn't look so high) After that you go in a gondelier for a few long meters to a station which hangs on some cables in the middle of 2 mountains. The station has a few pieces were you can see how far it is down. (I still didn't dare to watch) After waiting. (heaviest persons first) I was the first girl to jump. I still was in my mind busy with freeking out and nog doing it. They tie first you feet up seperatly. And then attach them together. It is absolutely forbidden to do it bare foot. You have to were good footwear. And then you stand on the edge. Thank god for the trees in the far end. It is a good focus point to not look down. And while your nodding no. And the guy behind you talks to you to just do it. He gives a countdown.And with a deep breath you just jump. I never screamed so loud. And had such a fun time. After 2 bounces back. You pull a red cord which brings you in a sitting position. And then they bring you up. After arriving in the station you have to get back with the scary gondel again. But then it was all worth it. And you did it! (at this jump I overstreched some muscles in my foot)

Adrenaline pumping in your ears and so happy that you did it. Bungy jumping is addicting and absolute fun. But also pretty scary. I loved it! Although I freaked out some times. That's for my bungys in New Zealand..

26 october 2004; excited

In Te Anau I slept a lot after the 4 nights in a row going out. And watched which pictures everybody wore in their wallet. Was a bit scary when someone found me looking at Catherina Zeta Jones. In the evening we had a lovely meal of pancakes. Because we shared in the price it only costed me $2. In the morning of 25 we drove to Milford Sound. We had booked a 2 hour cruise. Which was beautifull. Lots of gourgious pictures. Then we went back to Te Anau for some lunch. And then again in the van back to Queenstown. Back to the same hostel. Were they even knew our names when we came in. It's really a lovely hostel and I can recommend it to everyone. (backpackers downtown lodge) We arrove back at 7. So it was a lot of driving. After our last meal together (indian) we had a little chatting time. I checked out the tv and the pub but nothing nice. So just went to bed early. This morning almost everybody left. So I'm a loner again. Have some stuff to arrange today. And jumping :s the last for a long time, that's for sure. Speak to you soon!

24 october 2004; AU!

Yesterday morning I went for a short walk. Because I keep myself quiet and piecefull for the next 2.5 months. And we had a piercing shop next to the hostel. (1+1=2) I finally took the step and got a nose piercing! (Yes mam, I'm nuts) It really hurted but was worth all the trouble. Nou keep it nice and clean. But should do fine. My travel buddies didn't even noticed because it looked so natural on me. I'm totally happy :D After that I just walked around town. Dropped by at a local market. Got the last of my pasta. And had a wonderfull evening. This morning I left with the 8 people remaining from my kiwi-experience group. (Finnan, Trevor, Paul,(irish) Robert, Jessica,(swedish) Reut,(israelian) Margot(canadian) and myself(dutch)) We 'planned' a 2 day tour to Milford Sound and the boat cruise over there. So this morning we rented a van with loads of trouble and got on the way. 2,5 hours later we were sitting in Te Anau (pronounce like 'teano') with lakeview. Tomorrow we will drive in the morning to the ferry and then go back to Queenstown. Go to the supermarket. HUGZ!

23 october 2004; easy going'

I know I haven't wrote for another day. But there aren't happening a lot of stuff. I still go out everynight. Having great times without spending lot's of money. Yesterday I fell a sleep again on the beach. But this time I had suncream on so I just gained another bit of tan. And spended loads of money. My daypack/small backpack fell apart so I had to buy a good solid one. Which I found in sale for (still) $100. Next to that is my battery of my watch already broke sinds the 2nd day in Auckland. So I brought that away as well. Which costed me again $42 because they had to send it to Japan. I can get it back next monday. So I have to stick around a bit longer. So what left.... Oh jeah I went to the movie yesterday. Collateral with Tom Cruise. Was a usual downtown shooting movie. Nothing special. And I said this morning goodbye to Karin a girl which I happened to travel with sinds Taupo or Waitomo. A long time that's for sure. But we will mail. But that's all for the last 2 days. Next to not enough sleep and lot's of dancing.

Ow and off course my boyfriend is coming in (after 21 hours from now) in 69 days! We finally are below 70, Love you honey!

21 october 2004; off day

I had so much fun yesterday!! We just drank some beer and danced a lot! It was GOOD! This morning someone from our room kicked us all awake in time for our free breakfast. Then I spended several hours on the internet for you guys. Answering emails and updating my website. Then did some big shopping! Because I'm staying longer in the same hostel now, so I can make arger proportions of food and freeze it in. And that means that I can cook properly tonight! Pasta bolognaise. I'm looking forward to that. And off course another night out. My skin is still a bit burned but not as bad as it looked yesterday. But I fucking tanned so much! It's unbelieveble. Not that much to tell today, perhaps tomorrow.

20 october 2004 afternoon; next jump

I went to arrange some stuff in town. Got some dinner + lunch. Answered all my emails. And got lunch at the beach. Where I fell a sleep and got sunburned. So after waking up I had to fix myself up. Because I had to get up for my second bungy. I went up saw the bungy and got scared. When I was at the look-out on top it didn't look that scary anymore. Then I got to the platform. The jump was slightly diffrent. The cord was attached to my waist. And instead of letting me down they had to pull me up. And instead of jumping, it was best to run of. So I did. Although standing on the edge freaked out the first time. The second time I just ran. And it was so good! Although I hung down there in the wind while they were getting me up, and I got scared. Because then you have time to think about it. Where you are hanging and how high. But it was great! Put it on my video again. And left with a big adrenaline rush (and smile). Got pizza here and make myself ready to go out.

20 october 2004 morning

2 Busy days! The night in Wanaka I actually did nothing. And just slept a lot. Although we didn't had to go up early that morning. The next morning we left for Queenstown. Most exciting (althoughsmall) city in the south. It wasn't such a long drive so we had long stops. Our first stop was puzzling world. Where you could try several games. It was really frustrating in the early morning! The building and toilets, everythng was setup for mindfucking. We could write in for activities again. And there was the option Thrillsome. Which basicly means 3 bungy jumps for $300 I already wanted to do the Nevis (highest in New Zealand) 134 meters. But I also fancied a waterdip. Which I couldn't do at the nevis. So I had to do 2 bungys. But then it was cheaper to do three. So yesterday I did the Kawarau Bridge Bungy. 43 Meters of fun! And a waterdip at the oldest commercial bungy. It was so good. And I can share it all with you because I let them tape it all. So I have a good souvenir. After the jump I was so excited that we went off to a few pubs after dinner. (red rock and new world) We had a great time! After a short sleep we woke up early, because the hostel we were staying in was expensive and not worth the money. (discovery lodge) So we have a diffrent hostel today. I pay a dollar more today but with free internet and breakfast! (downtown backpackers) and off for a sunny today!!

18 october 2004

Instead of beer I had bayleys. But it didn't really worked. I was so tiried that I couldn't stop nodding away. So after 2 bayleys I left for my bed. (11.30) My roommates followed 2 hours later. And the first alarm went of at 5.30 Because one of my roommates went of for an early skydive. The other 2 alarme went at 6.45 because we had to leave at 7.30 (so early!) I was so tiried I didn't even felt my legs. Till someone asked. Then I realised how many pain I had. So on and of the bus were like hell. Although we didn't stopped that often, so that was good. Just to pick up the skydivers & lunch. Then we stopped for some sight seeing pictures. Although we had a small ( but still to long for my legs) Walk to lake Matheson. The reflextion is so clear you can't see on pictures what up is and what down is. Then we drover through Haast and left the coast. We then went to Makarora for lunch. For the last part of the track we went between lake Hawea and Wanaka to the village Wanaka. Were I wam now staying. Nothing special so far. Just did grosseries, look at the town and watched the beautifull scenery. (like the to good to be true pictures) Which is really stunning over here. Lot's of moutains with snow. They even had a little bit of snow this morning over here. I wanted to go skiing perhaps. But the mountains closed a week ago :s Had noodles and fruit and read my email. And don't know what to do tonight.

17 october 2004

Dinner yesterday was another noodle meal. And another can of fruit for desert. Then of for the bar for my free drink. And a long nice night. This morning my alarm rang for my day activity. (remember I had to arrange some stuff in town?) I had to be at 9.00 in the Frans Jozef Hiking Centre with loads of food and clothing. Because I went of to climb the Frans Jozef Glacier! We went up till 2.00/3.00 in the afternoon. Which was exhausting because my condition is crap at the moment. I even had momnets that I didn't think I would make it. But we had enought rest and I was walking with the slow group so that was good. It was really beautifull between alle the icewalls. Got also some amazing pictures. But more exhausting than I thought it would be. My knees aren't that good. But they are really awfull right now. And also all the muscles in my leg are so sore!! But it was all worth it. Although I will regret it tomorrow. After we stumbled back to the hostel and had a shower and food most people feel better. But I'm still sore :( But I will put some beers in, perhaps that will work. Just a little line about Frans Jozef. The environment is mostly rainforrest. Which is beautifull. (My hostel has also bits and pieces of rainforrest, it's such a good hostel!!) And off course a glacier in his environment. (That combination is quite unique!) Well I think thats it for today. I'm going to get some beer and check if I can get my muscles a bit better.

16 october 2004

Had a crap night because the matrass was so soft that I thought I wold fall trough it. This morning we had an easy start. After some goodbye words of uncle Les. (owner of the pub) We went off. OUr first stop was Bushmans Centre for a lunch and if you wanted to go to a museum. ( I didn't went) It was quite funny restaurant. They even sold real possum pie! ( I didn't try because I wasn't hungry. And I know that it is a crap excuse) And some unborn chicken (egg) But a lot of funny names for regular food. They had also loads of possum fur. It was even attached to the benches where you sat on. When everyone was finished we went of to some gold panning/ paintball. But it was so cold and it rained so hard that we skipped it. Which I didn't mind, although I would have liked to try some gold panning. then we entered Frans Jozef. The driver (Darren) first got us to a look out point over the gracier which lays next to Frans Jozef. (Which wasn't that good to see because of the rain) Then we arranged some stuff in the town. And now I'm sitting in my room in my cheap (cheapest so far) hostel. Writing some stuff for you guys. And off course waiting till dinner time.
Ps Yesterday on the beach I've been bitten by sndflies. (or at least I think) And my feet are itching!)

15 october 2004

After being sick for half a day yesterday I took a queit night. I just had some food and a nice night of telly. And early to bed. We could sleep till 8.00 this morning. Which is finally a good night of sleep. Then we did after 15 min driven a morning wald. Which would have been gourgious if there wasn't a lot of fog and rain. The sea was crazy with a lot of high an strong waves. It was loverly to hear. At the end of the walk we got to see real seals! After a pop in the bus we went of for lunch and a loverly walk along pancake shaped rocks an waterblowing holes. (in Punakaiki) Then we went of for Greymouth for some shopping for a big shared dinner that night. (and for yellybeans ;) we also picked up some new people. After that we went of for our hostel. Which turned out to be just a few sheds behind the loval pub. the only local pub. Mahinapua is a small middle of nowhere town between Greymouth an Frans Jozef. Which you probably won't find on the map. It is run by some 75+ locals which are really nice. We had a small walk to the beach and a lake. Then we had an awfully good dinner! With meat, vegetables, bread and butter! ( I really miss the last one because I can't take it with me during ttravelling) After a few bayleys in the pub next to the fire place and a nice chat to some people from the bus. (especially Karin and Fiona) I went of to bed. And I'm now going for a sleep. Tomorrow we leave at 9.30 so plenty of sleeping time.

14 october 2004

The kitchen is a small cottage stuffed somewhere in the back. After kooking and watchin t.v. I went for a shower. (Till the hot water ran out, people behind me didn't think that was funny ;) I went back to the kitchen because there was the only telly. There are a bunch of Danish people which I ran in for several times now. They Cooked this awfully good dinner together. And I got all the leftovers! Jeej! After that I repacked my bag and got an early bed. (althought there was a live music evening. So that made a lot of noise) But slept wel and got up at 6.30 :s We got off to Kaiteriteri where we could do activities. Nobody did so we lay on the beach for 1.5 hours. then we drove and stopped for some food and later on for a short walk. We then drove to a valley which had suffered a major earth quake. (8.9 on scale of Richter.) And there was this waterfall which came to existence because the river was blocked. It was gourgious! It was called; Maruia falls. After that we went straight on for Westport. And I didn't suffered from my car sickeniss on the north island but I did had it today. (because of the road that is not as straight as in the north) It's irritaiting. But I ended up in Basels' hostel. Which is nice, cozy and small.

13 october 2004

One day yu are freezing to death and the other day you can swim out of your pants from the heat. Today it was the last option. The boat left this morning from Wellington to Pickton. And halfway (of the 3 hours total) we got sun. And it's been a clear day ever since. The busdrive from Picton to Nelson was hot and long. This morning to the ferry wasn't worth a celebration either. (stuffed in a small bus.) But I am on the south island! It's gourgious. Lots of hills and lots of green. It's gourgious. Sleeping in Prince Albert Hotel. (There he is againg) an is pretty expensive. But just for one night. Going to find a kitchen now ;)

North Island

Just a little so far. And a bit of information. Nieuw Zealand gives home to 4 million people. From which 3 million live on the north island. So there are a lot more people. Nieuw Zealand also gives home to 50 million sheep. (!!) Which mostly live on the South island. My impression of north island is loads of villages and a few citys. But also a lot of land where nobody lives. A lot of green hills. And a lot is cultivated land. The south should be a bit more rougher and mother nature in it's true form. So i'm curious. What brought New Zealand me so far? A skydive with video. Which was a live time experience. And something I wasn't planned to do. But I have to say it was awfully good. And offcourse my Black and White water rafting. Which was totally different. One was mostly in a boat down a river filled with rocks. The other one contained a lot of different extreme sports. And I had my first taste of Maori culture. Which was exciting. And I hope more will follow. That was a short overview of the north.

12 october 2004

Well yesterday night I had my jummy soup again. But hey it's cheap food. After that I decided to go white water rafting. Although it is a bit out of my budget and I need to be a little bit more careful with my money next week. We ended up sleeping with the whole bus sleeping in one room. Witch was when we entered the room just 3 enormous beds. So I ended up sleeping with 10 persons in one bed. (sorry murf, also guys) This morning got up early and ready to raft. Rafting was kewl! Was level 3, with some level 5 rafts. (highest is 5)After I had a few more broeses. (The ones of the black water raft weren't gone yet)After a 6 meter jump that we could do if whe wanted. (off course I want) And lots of cold water. I ended up onder a cold shower. (which supposed to be warm) Then after a quick lunch I jumped at the bus and we were on our way to Wellington. Which was a cruise of several hours. I am now staying at the BASE backpackers. And after a cloudy morning we have a sunny afternoon. Tomorrow morning I am leaving for the south Island. And tonight I probably head off to a pub.

11 october 2004

Stil a little of unbelieve over my skydive. But there is already a next challenge: White water rafting. Stil not sure if I'm going to do it here in River Valley. Absolutely the middle of nowhere. (you might even not find it on the map) But it's gourgious! The raft river is right in front of the hostel. (Even jused for LotR scenes) There's a small waterfall at the background of the river. You're sitting at the boddem of this valley. It's lovely. It took a long drive with loads of sheep and green hills in the middle of nowhere. But the place is worth it! Pick up this morning was great. Yesterday night I just watched a movie: Miss congeniality. And had soup for dinner. As well as today. I have the whole evening to decide if i'm going rafting tomorrow or not . Because it will be before we leave to Wellington. Day was also really sunny! We stopped halfway River Valley for a walk. We were so close to the snow line that we even got up to go for a snowball fight. After that we had the walk down to Whakapapa. (And youi all still know that wh = f ;) Took about 1.5 hours and crossed several lines of flora. And now I'm sitting on a bench freezing my ass of. Because the sun just left the valley and it is really freezing outside without the sun. So talk to you guys later!

10 october; skydive!!!

Where to start?? Well yesterday after dinner we had a bit of pre-drinking before we went to the pub. Mulligens (I believe that was the name) was a cozy irish looking pub. Then I went of for the Holy cow. Which was a mainstream dance club. (A bit like the Hut on saterdays) It was fun, but not as good as home. So I left at 2. After a bit of sleep. (didn't got that much because people got in and out all night.) Ow and I didn't had a skydive yesterday because the weather was really bad. This morning after a try of sleeping, I gave up and got a shower. (pitchblack because the light was fallen out.) I had an apple because the kitchen got cleaned so I couldn't make a propper breakfast. I saw the weather and asked if I could perhaps skydive today. After a phone they told me I had 10 min before they would pick me up :s So I ran and got some stuff. After a lot of waiting and get ready they put me on the plane. We took off and went to 12.000 feet and minus 4 degrees. I had a tandem jump with a 45 sec free fall. (all I could think of was not to forget to breathe ;) It was amazing and actually undescrible. And best of all; I have a video!! So everybody can enjoy!! Stop for now and have a little time to enjoy my adrenaline a bit more... (Now you all can get jealous ;)

9 october

My pan-pizza went a bit too good. So it was a bit black. But good to eat. Finally a bit of a normal dinner. Just had a chat with Murf before he went to his work. After that I had another bit of paperwork. Than went with some people to the local pub. Was kewl! Had a nice time. After that made a little bit too much noise in the hostel (kiwi paka) Sneaked to my own room. (Went with a bunch of people to Hamish' room) Woked up probably all my roommates. (didn't matter they said) This morning after breakfast at Waitomo. We went straight to Taupo. It is raining all day long! It's awful. Right before Taupo they dumped uh on a walk to Hooka falls. They are gourgious! And the water was so blue! At the end we had a little surprise. We could take a swim in a warm water stream. It was probably heated by come geiser. It was actually hot... Then the stream went to the river. (which goes to the Hooka falls) It was an unexpected experience where the hot water met the cold water of the river. After a swim (while it was raining) we got on the bus to the hostel (Taupo urban retreat) Just had something to eat and went for the supermarket for dinner.

8 october 2004

Well so far for my pizza esterday. It turned out that there was no oven, so we couldn't wasrm up the pizzas. Tonight a new try after a tip from a fellow backpacker. Just heat it up in a pan. (You al know how attached I am to my pizza's ;) After I got pissed because my dinner was based on cookies and an apple. I just had a chat with Hamish and went to sleep. This morning the leaving fellows woke me up. But I just turned over and got back to sleep. Had dinner and went of for some internet for you guys. Yesterday we had an awfull lot of rain. Today is a bit better but stil too much. So just had some chats, some paperwork and a visit to the local museum. (free, because of my rafting tour yesterday) And a bit more paperwork. Boring, he? Tomorrow will be better with perhaps a skydive!! (Yes, I'm going to do it all!!)

7 october 2004

After a few hours starving Hamish pushed some food over. Just to let me shut up ;) No kidding, just was a bit too long starving. Later that afternoon I had a pick-up with some other experience members. OUr driver was wicked, but Kewl! We had an official entrance. With dances and stuff. (excepting hospitality offers and to make sure we were friends) After that we got a peak into the Mari village. And a sort of show which told us a bit about rituals and used music instruments. Ater that show we got to the dining room. OUr tabel was last to eat!! But I have to say that it was extrordinary good foor. (specially cooked in a hole in the ground for the entire day) After that I shopped a bit around. Got a good bye ceremony. And a wicked drive home. Was exhausting and got straight to bed. This morning the packing started all over again. Dropped at the bus and talked so much to Hamish that I forgot to write down the name of our dining town. Or the town we went for a woolworth shop. But I ended in Waitomo. I booked in for 2 nights. Threw my stuff at my bed and went straight to some black water rafting. (5 hours) They first put you in lots of clothing you almost never wear. Wetsuit, short, shirt, footies, gloves, helmets and shoes. Already wet from an earlier trip. :s They send you to this cave where you go abseiling down. then a little bit of swinging down on a rope. ('tokelen' in dutch I believe) Then we got some tea. and a dive in the cold water. We tubed for a little while watched the glowworms. Plus the whole lifestory of them. They're realy disguisting animals. After we got back we had a long walk through the water in the caves. (I just kept falling, clumsy me ;) To go up we needed a lot of climbs. We did it the spectaculair way. We climbed it over small waterfalls! It was so gourgious and kewl! So it was a shame it was already over. Got out of our clothes (taked a long time!) and then had a nice hot shower after al that cold water. When we had changed, we got some nice warm soup and a bagel. Then we went of for 'home'. Just been to the internet and now of for some pizza with Hamish. Going now because I'm hungry.

6 october 2004

Yesterday I just spent the rest of the day with hanging around, watching tv and walking over the beach. Ow, and ejoying the sun which was finally shining. The night I just watched Sex and the city and went to sleep. I had a small room with a guy that had left. So that night I slept alone! (That is a luxery as a baackpacker) This morning I woke up and got the next kiwibus. The driver is a bit dull, but I just have to do with it for two days. We went from Whitianga back over the hills to Paeroa where we had 'breakfast'. Then we had a quick stop in Matamata/hobbiton. (there was the hobbiton viallage of LotR filmed) Then we got to our end goal: Rotorua. I've just been droped of and hecked my room. Went to the city and spended more money than I'm used to. Gotback and found my kiwi traveller!! (hamish) So I'm now in his room enjoying a bit of his luxery... ;) Tonight I will sgo to a Maori concert and get a Maori-dinner. I'm starving, so I am counting of the hours.

5 october 2004

Yesterday was a late evening. So the story of yesterday an d today. Yesterday I woke up after a bad night of sleep (some new bloke on my room just kept snorring)I packed all my stuff and hecked out my room. (got my keymoney back, as is a rule in every hostel here.) I was early so I sat o the trottior in front of the hostel. Eating, waiting and watching how people ran for the rain. It was raining a lot and was very windy. The bus was late so after I froze my but off I could finally get in. Nice and warm. And stuffed with people. At first we drove to Mount Eden. Which is an ex-vulcano. It was pretty stormy on top. We drove ferther to Thames. Where we had our lunch. (long live the supermarket;) After some shopping and eating we went on to Cathedral cove. Which was absolutely gourgious. But along walk to and off it. After that we went to our end: Whitianga. (Wh = f) It was almost a curtain of rain. so I refused to go out. So as dinner I had: a handfull of m&m and an apple. I took a seat in the livingroom to watch Moulin Rouge. But the busriver dragged me to the local pub, with some other people. (can you imagine? me & getting dragged?) It was quite fun time with drinking, bit of pol and gaming. It was late and because I was still tiered (wrong spelling I know) of yesterday, it was even wors tonight. I had a really nice time with a real kiwi from Auckland. He is a travelagent which has to travel along with the kiwiexperience for work. Paid on vacation, I wold like that! We try to meet again in Queenstown to bungy together. But he brought me nicely home and I finally got some sleep! Although everyone had to lezve at 7.30 and they woke me up, I wasn't angry. Because I could turn over and go to sleep again. Because I was staying another day in Whitianga. Today the rain is gone and there is even some sun. (Even the kiwis thought it was awfull weather yesterday and very rare) This day I'm going to see a bit of Whitianga and tomorrow I will leave with the next bus.
ps1; Me and my boyfriend are together for 2 months now!
ps2; In my mind I was with all you guys in Leiden!! I really missed it...

3 october 2004

While everybody in Leiden makes up for a great party tomorrow. (and a beer on me ;) I am making up to leave tomorrow for the first part of my kiwtravel. Today was pretty boing cossed Auckland Domain. Sat by a duckpond for lunch. (breakfast was at Albert Park) Headed to find Pavell rosegarden. Which was a big dissapointment. (probably because it isn't the time for roses.) Got back as soon as possible. Bought a little surprise for myself: choclat muffin. ;) Then came back to the hostel. Had a little chat with Alexander and Steve. (my roomis) Then had a little me-time. Headed off for some cheap food and a night of telly. Pretty boring, he? Well Auckland is a lovely city. (biggest in NZ) But it's a bit the size of Leiden. So after 2 days you almost seen it al. So the 3 day can be pretty boring, although sunny.

2 october 2004

My daddy's birthday!!! And not just one. But his 50st! (Although he will tel you that he became 39, as usual) Sorry daddy for not being there + not sending a card. I will make it up to you next year, promised. Now we will go over to the order of the day: what did I do in mY first day New Zealand. Most of all: walking. And that isn't the nicest thing over here, because they have even hills in the city! (I already foud that out yesterday, but I as to tired to write a long story.) I already decided yesterday that I wanted to go to the Auckland Museum, to find out some stuff about Maori's. Plus for a bit of extra money I would get a real peak of Maori dances and rituals. Due to my VIP backpackers discount card I only paid $11. Which is about 5.50 euro. So not that much. After the museum I found a clear bleu sky, with sun but also a strong cold wind. I went back to Auckland Domain (a huge park) Which I wanted to see tomorrow, but because the museum was in the middle I already took a quick peek. When I got out of Auckland Domain and crossed Albert Park I went to Queen sreet ('main' street in Auckland) Where (to my big surprise)was a free hiphop festival. So I stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. I watched some concerts. And after that I went to see some freestyle breakdance. (and for a few peeks of the guys as well ;) Pretty cool to see a 21 year old guy get battled of by an 8 year old kid. (They were both really good!) After counting my small mony I tried to get some food for it. Mac off course. But hear about this: a big Coke, a mac chicken nd a small french fries for $8.35. Which is about 4.30 euros. Can someone tell me what this in Holland cost? After my food and a news paper (left by someone else) I took a quick peek at some closed stores. But it was so cold that I go of the street and now spending my time at the common room in the hostel. Till tomorrow. Hopefully a nice sunny day in the park.

1 october 2004

Haven't slept that well (That is a soft expression) left at 7.00 for the airport. Checked in (There goes the beep again. Not once not twice but three times in a row before I can go) The flight was boring, food was awfull. But the movie was funny. (Dodgeball) Catched a bus to the centre of Auckland. And I tried to find a city without an Albert street (My dads' name) Well I failed again. They got an Albert road/street/park. And I am now taying in the Albert Park Backpackers Hostel. So this isn't the town either. Just did some food shopping today. (They don't provide breakfast here) And got to the kiwi experience office to book my trip from day to day. (Although I keep it a secret for you guys ;) So here I am now. Really tired, when it's fridaynight, and not late. But in spite of drinking some beer I guess I just go to sleep.....

29 & 30 september

Some times you are so lazy, you even don't have the energy to write something new for your dear family and friends at home. So I will do 2 days today! To make up with everyone. And yesterday wasn't actually such a great day. Just was almost the whole day in the house. Reading about the kiwi experience trip and what are the rules to join. (I already joined so I just needed to know the rules) And read some of the things I will see and things I can do. I already desided to do the world greatest bungy jump. That was a big wish for me when I came over. And now I am going to forfill it. There were also some other activities that sound very good. But that you will here on the day itself. In my 'diary'. What did I do more yesterday? Oh yeah it was really bad weather. Lots of wind and even rain. And because I went nuts with sitting inside, I wanted to go to the beach. (cost me only 3 minutes anyway) So I went out. Before I even set one feet on the beach I spotted the 2 surfers that went with the group last week when I arrived. I said hi and ended up in a little cafe. With a drink and something to eat. (really bad food) So when I went home (began to rain a bit hard) I didn't seen the beach at all. But had a nice dutch chat. Went to bed really late. (4 o'clock or something) Because it would be my last talk to Murf for the next month. So I just was up till half past one before I even could talk to him. But I had a nice time chatting. Mel came home late. From a lunch in New Sealand. (you have a good job or not ;) She was exhausted and went to bed really quick. Wel than we have today.... Tryed to sleep long. But keep waking up. So at 11 I gave up. Take a good shower and ran aroun immediatly. Because tomorrow I will leave for New sealand!!!! So I started to sort out what is staying here. And what I needed to pack. I packed about half of my backpack already. And had some chat with the kiwi experience through mailing. They were really helpfull. And gave me the feeling they were going to be there whenever I needed them. I will drop by at their office tomorrow when I arrive. And find a hostel. Today I actually have seen a bit of the beach after a short walk. When I got home a chatted to Murf for again the last time (you're in love so you have to say goodbye at least 3 times) Had a nice chat. I guess I sorted everything out for tomorrow. Just going to fix some food for now. And just read a bit till Mel is home. And not to late to bed! (I hope) But I need to get up tomorrow at half past 6. Because we need to leave at 7. So going to do some small stuff and then go off. Till tomorrow!!

28 september

This morning I got up pretty early because I had to take care of some things in the city. So I drove with Mel and James to North Sydney. ( they had to work there both.) and dropped me off there. I went to the South side over the Harbour Bridge. Then went to George St. ( One of the main streets) There I found my first goal; opening a bankaccount. After a lot of yes nodding and an adress everything got settled. Next stop was a book store with sale. Which provided me the Bali lonely planet. Which was very welcome because I don't know anything about Bali. After that I went to change some money for New Sealand. (Fourth kind of money in my wallet!!) Then I got to the Travellers Contact Point. I booked there my kiwiexperience bus tour. (check www.kiwiexperience.com and look if you can find the trip which is called; scheep dog Because that is the one I am doing.) Which provides me a 18 days drive and the possibility to hop off and up any time I want to. after that I bought some money for my mobile phone. And then I went of for home. Which kosted me 2 hours walking and 1 time asking if I was in the right direction. (I was) So that was a bit too much. When I got homeI crashed and just called Mel for some food. Louisa came over for an hour to get a chat about James. Yadayadayada. I got some hungry jacks to eat, which wasn't that good actually. And after a while I went off to my bed. Goodnight.

27 september 2004

This morning I woke up a bit early (11.00) Mel was already gone by that time. I just had a nice shower and breakfast and updated some pictures. Updated my storys. Then (because I promised) I went ( finally) to Bondi Beach. It's just a 3 minute walk from heere. And really easy to find. I just walked around a bit with my feet in the water. And enjoyed watching waves and surfers. ( my skirt even catched a wave when I got to deep in the water. I was soaking wet) I didn't go in to the water because I thought it would be really cold with all the clouds. But it was actually kind of warm. But there will be another time. After the beach I looked around for the stores and just did some window shopping. Seen some reallly nice things. Then I wanted to head back to Mels' place and I got lost. :s So bad I even needed to call Mel. I was just 200 metres away. So I was pretty close. When I ccame home I updated the last photos to the map: till 24 september. Still one map to come before New Sealand. Just did a lot of paperwor today. Got some food on my own because Mel was late. When she came home she brought a surprise: James. So he is staying over for the night. They are really in luve......

26 september; afternoon

The waking up this morning just didn't wanted to start. We (I, James and Mel) decided to go to a lunch at the beach because it was just succh a great weather. I ate a lot of fresh fruit for breakfast. And then we took a walk along the shore and made some gourgeous pictures. After we got back to James' appartementwe waited for Sofia and her kids (Rose and Mathilda) to come along for a swim in the pool. Which belongs to the building James is living in. When Sofia and her kids arrived we went of to the pool. At first I was just floating around. But when I (finally) woke up a bit. I ended up playing with the kids. After a while Sofia and the kids went home. And Mel and I headed off after a cup of tea and looking some pictures. At home we rang for a pizza. While Mel (!) was washing my laundry. And I was reading my mail. Pizza arrived and we attacked because we were starving. After the pizza I got out on the street and rang Murf for his birthday. He was so surprised he turned a bit quiet. And he just listened to my voice when I was talking. When I got home, I went strait for the internet. I read my mail and answered it. I will update photo's within a week completely. And update my story's tomorrow. Just went of to bed a bit early today. (01.00) Sleep well, till tomorrow.

26 September; My boyfriends birthday!!

My boyfriends birthday!! And I can't be there... Oh well, I will call him this afternon as a surprise. But that's a story for tonight/tomorrow. I'll go back to yesterday. After arriving very late with my aunts at an octoberfest. (theme was Germany :s) I have seen my aunts only when I was a little girl. So I didn't knew them at all. But right when I saw them, I felt at home. They were just as nuts as all their sisters in Holland. So we have cahtted a bit. Drank something and watched the 'slap-dancing'. Then we got off to James' barbeque. Which was really nice untill everybody left and I got really homesick. So I drank just a bit more ;) And went off to sleep. James and Mel were really supportive, which I really appreciated. I haven't slept very well. But it was enough. Speak to you guys tonight.

25th september; another day of nothing

After dazzling a lot yesterday and talking to my mum. Mel called there would be some frinds over to cook and just for fun. So when I hung up the phone I took a run around because I was still dressed in pyjama's and had no make-up on. When I as finished Mel dropped n with loads of chocolate. (long live my monthly period) And after a while there was Reg and Christopher. Reg is a friend of Mel. And Christopher is his inherited son from 15. I really liked spending time with them. Diner was fabulous. And because I had a nice sleep the conversations went a lot better. After a while James called. (the 'boyfriend' of Mel) He locked himself out. And if he could stay over here. No problem. Althouugh we found it a bad excuus. He could come around everytime, without making up bad excuses. (We were teasing him with that, because we knew he likes Mel. and we also knew that it wasn't an excuse but the truth.) We drank and chatted for a long nice time. It was so late I talked to Murf as well. and I went to bed around 3.30. This morning I woke from the plasterer who came an fixed the ceiling of the bathroom. I turned around and slept a bit more. Woke at 13.00 Which was way too late. We were meeting my aunts at 14.00. So were really late now (15.00) So were off running! Bye bye

I should really think of some good titels

Yesterday after keeping myself busy, my coz took me for a lunch. It was at a little place we got some sandwiches. (they were great!!) And ate them with a gourgious view from the harbour bridge. After that she went off to her work and I was just a bit wondering in Sydney. At the harbour I watched a time a couple of didgeridoo players. It was really chilly that day. 20 degrees but with a cold wind, clouds and rain. It felt more like 13 degrees. So I went back to Mels' office. I changed for some warmer clothes. After we went home we dropped by at an advertisement party. With lots of people I didn't know and free drinks. It was for the announcement of a winner from some kind of contest. Was quite funny. But I was already tired and it costed me a lot of energy to follow all the conversations and to take part in it. So when we left we got some chicken and finaly got home at Mels'. Her appartement is so great!! Her bed is an girl dream of probably everyone. I will publish some fotos later. After eating and a bit of chatting with Mel she got to bed. I was reading my mail. And talked with Murf. It was half past 3 (way too late) when I got to sleep. I felt yesterday a bit homesick, aut all the mails and talks cheared me really up. So i went happy to bed. This morning Mel was already to work. I'm just dazzling a bit on the couch doing nothing. Just reading my mail, eating and fighting with my digicam who has a fight with my card. But I'm to lazy to have a look. Just going to dazzle a bit further. (It was fixed the next day)

an even longer day...

Sorry! Hadn't time to wright yesterday. Here an update. Yesterday morning I had breakfast in the hostel. (too early for a holiday) so we got ahlf sleepy in the bus to pick up some other people. After that we went to the bleu mountains. At first we were brought to a little piece of mountain which contained a lot of wallabees. So it was my first meeting with kangaroos!! And because it was a bit of a touristic place they weren't very shy. So you could approach them till about 10 centimeter or so. It was really sweet!! After that we stopped for teatime... That meant water for me because that is for free. (100% dutchie) Then we went of for the 2nd stop: the fhree sisters. They were lovely and the vieuw was really gourgeous! Took some nice pictures over there. and had some lunch off course. The thisrd stop was absolutely the best. We wen t to the stairs with a 1000 steps. (Luckely down stairs.) We came to diffrent kinds of vegetation. We started with just a bush. But ended in the rainforest. It was so there. Needed to be there to understand. And that was the end. We took the long busride home. (Or normal distant if you look at distances over here.) We decided to barbeque with the comlete group at the rooftop of our hostel. The skyline was amazing. The foord was fairly cheap and nice to eat. and there was loads of beer. (Why did I drank cola :s) They decided to go to a stripclub and I thought it would be cool to join. After we came in the club it all looked like a big joke. People were even falling a sleep.! Even I could do it better! We just drank something and left. We got over to a club. I, in my skirt and highheels was full of energy. So I took the group on to the dancefloor till around 4.30 Because there were already a few left. and the rest was tiered. At that point I already screwed my feet. so they almost had to carry me home. At 5.00 I found myself in a bed. I had to mension that in the club I could especially find it very well with Haiko and Pierter. Haiko has danced a lot with me. and Pieter is just a great guy, with a lot of humor. (No I'm not forgetting you Murf, you are always on my mind.) My phone rang this morning at 8.30 (because I told him so ;) so I was exhausted this morning. I had breakfast. (No idea what I eat and so does my stomach.) I had to pack everything. (It seems heavier everytime I re-pack) And I walked about 5 kilometers with 35 kilos on my back. (can't recommend) And now I am sitting in my nieces office again to tell you guys what I did lately. Tonight a bit more and typing out some stuff. Plus reading my email.

A long but nice day

This morning we had to move to a new hostel for the next 2 days. After a last breakfast in the Harbour City Hostel in the suburb Woolloomooloo. (That is aboriginee for next to the water & sydney is so huge that they work with suburbs) We had a last hand on our backpacks. Lots of people were ccomplaining about the weight. Lucky for them the hostel sended a bus to pick up our backpacks. So we could walk a lot easier the 20 minuts to Eva's (our new hostel) in Kings Cross. (Kings cross is the redlight district in Sydney. Fro Dutchies who know Amsterdam or the local Christine Le duc it's all a big lauch) After that we run off for our Sydney harbour cruise. It was a walk from +- 5 kilometers. (bad at guessing so blame me if I'm wrong) We went to the Sydney harbour by the Opera House. Took a lot of nice photos. We took a photo break at the harbour. By that time the sky was still bleu and the the temperature was 25 degrees. After we entered the boat we went to Watsons bay to lunch at the beach. And to see finally some water. And it was amazing. Bleu water, white beach, icecream and feet in the water. Really lovely. After that we got back on the next boat we crossed the rest of the harbour. Ending with the Aquarium. I called Mel (my cousin) when I was waling and she worked at Georg street. Which was , with a little searching, found. I dropped by and got huffed almost to death. and was dragged around as if I were rare. In her office she first called ou aunt Anita to set a date for a visit. (She was going nuts over the phone that I was finally there.) She would tell Anneliesand I will see both on Saterday. After that we 'legally' called my mum and dad to chat them up. And after that I got an computer to update my website and check my mail. When I was finighed she decided to take me out for some beer and something to eat at the Belgian Beer Cafe. (how ironic, as dutchie in australia eating belgian) And I met her friend which she is dating with. (although she is still in denial ;) And a friend of him. we got a beer with four of us. and some diner for three of us. (friend of Mels' friend left) I ate tartare which was to what a know to raw and to spicy. But I liked it. although I didn't ate it all, because I hadn't that much hunger. Then it began to run late. So after a coffee for Mel and her friend we decided to leave. Mel brought her friend to the ferry and me to the hostel to check in. Evas' is exclusief and the employee didn't seemed to pleased with me at the late hour. It was that my cousin could arrange some names for a job she wanted. Mel gave her card and was just giving a smooth talk. So the girl didn't have no choise then to let me in and inform me about some stuff. She still wasn't to nice when my cousin left, but she helped me and that was the important part. It is a quite luxe hostel (for as far as they can be luxe) I first got a showeer before getting in to bed, which is now. (First I made my bed up. Wabbit is watching over me so I can go and sleep nicely....
Love me....

2nd flight

the tour showed us a nice peak of hongkong.It was a shame that it was alle in the richer part of hongkong. First we visited an old and often visited temple. There were a lot of nice smells ('wierook') Too shame I was carsick and couldn't stay to long, becauseI wanted fresh air. After that we went to Vicroia Peak. An overvieuw which showed us a great vieuw from above. The tramto above was pretty stiep. (+-35%) After the elevator downstairs wegot back in the bus. (still looking pale and naucius) We went to the Aberdeen fishing village. I took aboat ride to get some fresh air. Because it was really hot and the aircontained a lot of water. After the boat ride. (through a canal where boats were ankerd like a harbour) I felt a lot better. We went to a jewelry manufacterer. (very pretty) And as a closure we went to a local market. (Because of the little money I just walked but didn't looked.) We said the busdriver goodbye after a close drop to our hotel. I was glad somebody else knew the road because I would be lost. I and myroommate wanted to refresh but wehad to leave in a hurry for the bus. That costed me a pen.... In the bus the roup nodded a bit off. But after the douane we ate something and we woke up a bit. Then we found a free interne computer from samsung on Hongkong airport. So I sended you a small note,which isn't here yet I see. But now I'm finally in the plain to Sydney. I really looking forward, because Hongkong had a sphere I didn't liked. the pushy and prestigieuw mentality was obviousl. And I likedto see it for once. But not soon again. Ww're ging for the: don't worry mate!! Love You all!! And miss you!!

Hongkong

I'm in Hongkong! Didn't sleep to well last night. (a few hours) But now I can sleep for a few hours more,but I aint sleepy. In hongkong it's hot! We arrived at 07.30 and it was already 29 degrees. It is now almost 10 o'clock and at 12 we get a wak-up call and we get a tour through hongkong. (170 Hongkong dollars= +- 17euro)I'mcureous. The city is so far pretty messy. Buildings have 13 floorswith malls and houses. Pieces of green are just dropped down between this buildings. As wll as the school, with tenniscourt or basketbalfield.There need a lot to berestored or rebuild. so I'ts a noise everywhere. (I like the bamboo 'steigers') We'restaying at a small hotel richt now. Which is a bit curious. (hide, small, sticky walls and so on...) the group seems ok. although I don't really have a connection. But it's fun for as long as it last. Write more tonight.
Ps Airplaned are not made for dutch people who want to travelover 8 hours.
Ps2 For the nerds between us, I had seat number 42G

Leaving

Hello everyone down above!! (and a bit ofdownunder) I'msitting now in my plane to Hongkong and home is about six hours earlier. So Ihave to take a quiick nap because I'm missing six hours of sleep. This morning my telephone rang at 8.30.n After kicking myself and Harmenout of bed,I had just a little while to pack the last stuff. That was so much that I had to pack a second bag as hand lugage. (hoping I will get it with me because there is only one bag allowed.) At 10.00 Jacob finally arrived. (half hour late, as usual) At 10.15 my stuff went in my dads car and I got (probably) the last trip in Harmens" tin can. (I love that car, but he is selling it) When I got to Schiphol my aunt Yvonne and Sabine where already there. Sabine gave me a sweet little duckie shich hangs proudly on my bag next to my kangaroo. At that time Willem, Robin and Bianca arrived. I got a lovely photoframe with a picture of them with Jacob. (Thanx a lot!) After that I reseved my tickets and a checked in. Then I ate something with my friends. Then the hour was there... THE douane.And the point to say goodbye. everybody got a big hug. A few tears dropped, which made it hard for me to leave. But I luf u all!! Miss you a lot. And thanks for coming! At the douane I got a bit troubled and I wanted to run back. But I kicked myself and got through the douane. (With 2 bags and without a bleeping metaldetector ;) found my gate and got to talk with some people of the group which I'm travelling with.I got on board safely. Watched the stepford wives. (Yes I got my own telly on board ;) I ate horrible plain food. (thanx Maaike forthe extra supplies ;) At then lights went down and I zapta bit. Watched a little piece of the docuabout McDonalds. (Won't eat there for the next month) And now watching the Lion King.... But I try to getsome sleep first. (19.30 with you guy, but 02.30 in Hongkong)sleep tight!

Hey everybody!!!

Unfortunately Nicky couldn't logon to the weblog, so I'll post her first message from her...

Hey everybody!!!
Here a little massage from Hongkong airport. the exact stories will follow later but I just want everybody to know that I'm doing fine. the group is great! I'm standing in Hongkong after a day spending there. (really smelly town!) But I have to say it is a nice town and it is funny to have it done once. My passport has had his first to stamps.... And what to tell more than that I'm really tired after 2 nights of little sleep. ( the time-differents is going of of my sleeping time) And my eating patern is totally destroyed. So I hope that tomorrow the normal patern can begin again. It is still tumbs up for my phone to work. (I still don't know for sure) Mis you all a lot!!! I will get a computer in the next week in front of my nose, but I thought send you a mail that everything is fine.....

Ps thank samsung for this free internet connection in the middle of hongkong airport.

Lots of love

Nicky

ps 2 local tiime is 10.45

again a update so far

Tomorrow it will be thursday. One day to go!! Jippie. Just one thing, I'm not the only one to realise. And everybody wants to see me tomorrow. (arrived a lot of phonecalls and everything today.) Not a problem, weren't it that I wanted to pack tomorrow. (I got some stuff I have put aside, but it isn't in the bag yet) So the only solution is to start packing today. It is 20.30 so I better hurry up with al the computer stuff because my mum wants me to go to bed early. She says I look like a wite towel. Hmmmz but my packinglist is done for so far. (as i promised) And I will update everybody within an hour or so. But it will be tonight. So that is for forfilling my promises. *appplaus* to all the people who worked on my weblog, gallery and mailinglist. Luf 2 U all!!! Will speak soon

Just a little update so far...

A few days later. And just a few things done. I have the strange feeling that I really need to hurry next week. But then again; I always do that. (And my parents really hate that side of me ;) But I never failed (so far, but I don't want to think of that possibility) I still need to clean out my room. Haven't made a packing list. And my mailinglist still doesn't work. (That isn't my job, but people are working at it. And it's almost finished.) But I shouldn't complain. People worked hard for me. And I am really thankful to all of them. *applause* But when it's finished everything digital works. And that is the most important after packing. Ow f*ck packing! Ok I promise everybody that when I post the next entry that I have made a packing list. (or something that looks like it) And I will try to have updated everybody that there is a weblog and a gallery. (I know you don't know ;) Hugs to all!