Narry, our first PAID job and the goodbye!!

On November 12^th we (Götsch, Max, Zippi and I) arrived in Naracoorte, South Australia, a charming little town with a population of about 5 to 10,000 people (figures variate… ;)) )

The reason why we ended up in the middle of nowhere was because our first job was waiting in Naracoorte!! The job agency area4work offered us a bud bushing job on a vineyard. Basically, as a bud busher you have to cut away buds which are coming out of the tree’s trunk. That’s it… It is not the most demanding job in the world, however it shouldn’t be underestimated. We worked from Monday to Friday eight hours per day and as you can imagine it can get really, really hot. The heat is also the reason why we start work at 6 o’clock in the morning. It would be impossible to work on the vineyard in the afternoon.

There are two things in Narry we couldn’t live without it. First, the public library which offers us free WIFI, and second there is Woolworths which offers a wide range of affordable food. Apart from the public library and Woolworths there are some other important locations: Subway, Red Rooster and McDonald’s which opened just a few days ago (and of course we were really excited about it!!!).

The nightlife in Narry is pretty cool. You may think of Narry as a small town where there is nothing to do on a Friday or Saturday night… but you are wrong!! So far, I think that the best parties we’ve had were in Naracoorte! Basically, there are three pubs: The Bushman’s, Cellabrations (yes, that’s how you write it) and the pub next to our hotel (no idea what’s its name) AND there is one night club called SHAPES!

However, apart from the pubs we had some really cool parties in our hotel room (room no. 24), including the bud bashers Christmas party which was a great success!!

On our inspections of the local nightlife we met some really cool people and the best of living in a small town is the fact that you get to know the locals pretty easily. That’s how we met some really cool guys, most of them sheep shearers (I think it’s the coolest job in the world, seriously)! I’m not sure what you think of when you think of sheep shearers but let me explain it like this: sheep shearers are in general incredibly good looking, funny, easy going AND because of their job they have an incredible body. Sorry, for all the guys reading this blog, but that’s the way it is… It has to be mentioned!! J Another interesting fact is that many of the sheep shearers living in Narry are actually Kiwi’s which gives them some extra credit!! =)

Summarizing it can be said that we had an amazing time in Naracoorte and all of us will remember it for the rest of our lives!! In particular we want to thank Jose, Nadine, Emma, Mari, Maarja, Sophie and Siobhan with who we laughed together, suffered together, drank together and partied together and that’s why they contributed in making it an unforgettable experience!!!

For the next four weeks Zippi and I will be separated from Daniel and Max. While the both of us are flying to New Zealand to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the beautiful land of the Kiwis, Daniel and Max will stay in Australia!! That’s why we will update you separately from each other!! ;))

We will stay in touch!

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Roadtrip East Coast - get the party started

After leaving Cairns we expirienced for the first time here in Australia how it is just to drive thousands of km without any idea where to go. we just stopped when we were tired or we saw a place which we liked.

We saw some of the most beutiful and famous beaches of the world like Mission Beach or Airlie Beach, did a tour by bus through the biggest sand island of the world on Fraser Islands and enjoyed the high waves on Byron Bay.

In the end our finale goal was Naracoorte in South Australia because our first payed job on a vineyard was waiting there. But before the hard work life started we enjoyed every minute of the roadtrip.

Of course we were partying a lot on our way and met a lot of people. One of them was Max from Germany and Clemont from France! We spent some great days with these 2 guys in Airlie Beach and at the end we established a band named "Jumping Crockodiles" (only problem: nobody can sing and just Max is able to play more than 5 songs on the guitare... but no worries, we will make our way to the top of the australian charts =)). When we left Airlie Beach Max decided to come with us. Hopefully we meet Clemont again to reunite the jumping crockodiles =).


On our way to the south we stopped as well in Brisbane, the third-biggest city of Australia. The traffic was horrible, but the city was really nice (even if we didn see a lot)! and we met in our hostel some people from Sydney again! oh, i forgot: the lagoon in brisbane is really worth to see it.

Last Stop on our Road Trip was the surfer paradise Byron Bay. :) It was just amazing there! We really fell in love with the small town and the breathtaking landscape from the very first moment. Highlight was the trip in the middle of the night to the lighthouse on a hill over the beach of byron bay. Just awesome!!!!

After Byron Bay we just kept on driving the 2000 km towards Narcoorte, just stopping to sleep and eat. Except from the stop in Ballina at the machanist because Max's car broke down. But in the end we arrived safe at Naracoorte on the 12 of November.

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Back home – back in Australia

Hi guys,

The last few weeks we have been quite busy so sorry for not updating our blog!! Anyways, you shouldn’t miss what’s going on in Australia.
As you know we flew from Auckland to Cairns and surprisingly for the first time we were on time for our flight and we had no troubles… Five hours later we landed in Cairns and the first thing we did was to take off our jackets and jumpers because it was really warm. That’s how we imagined Australia!!!

In Cairns we went to the Cairns Beach House, a hostel that promised us we could work for free accommodation. That’s how we got our first job in Australia. And for the next two weeks we were working behind the bar of the Cairns Beach House. Because you have to work 15 hours in order to get free accommodation we managed to work only for three days per week for five hours. A pretty good deal… don’t you think so?? Anyways, the work was absolutely boring and after the first week we couldn’t wait to leave the hostel. It was a crappy hostel and our room mates were (let’s say it in a nice way) strange.

The problem was that we needed to buy a van before we could leave Cairns so we waited for Götsch in order to check out some vans. On the 19th of October he finally arrived and we started to look for vans.

To be honest, we were not really motivated and we were kind of lazy. BUT again, the luck was on our side. We met a German guy in our hostel and we found out that he wants to sell his van. So we talked to him and he just sold us his van for a really, really good price. This made us the owner of a blue Mitsubishi Starwagon which we called OUTBACK JACK.

Cairns is pretty cool but I think a week is more than enough to see Cairns. However, because of our job and the van we were forced to stay in Cairns for two weeks. In these two weeks we did some pretty cool things. We spent a lot of time at different beaches, did a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef and went diving and snorkeling. Went to visit Kuranda – the village in the Rainforest and did the Barefoot-Tour were we saw beautiful waterfalls, lakes and a lot of rainforest.

There is one more thing you should do in Cairns – going out (pics on fb). And that’s exactly what we did. We went out, and went out, and went out… Cairns is a really good place to party! So don’t miss this when you are there!
We also watched the rugby finals in Cairns and because we had to work and couldn’t really follow the whole match we kind of missed the fact that the All Blacks won the world cup!!! (We really thought the All Blacks lost and we were really disappointed). No idea how this could have happened, but everybody was applauding and we asked ourselves the question if everybody was supporting France… ??!!?? So in the end we realized that the All Blacks won and we were really happy about it!! =)
On the 28th of October Ole (the German guy) finally sold us his van and we started our road trip down the East Coast. Hit the road Jack!!

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One car - two girls: New Zealand II

Hey folks,

we are back again!! ;) Ok, so after our great night in the TV room we finally got to see the rugby match Canada vs. New Zealand! Of course we supported the All Blacks – New Zealand’s rugby team! Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that the Canadians were incredible hot and we couldn’t stop to take pictures of them! ;)) In particular the one with the beard took our breath away. ;)) The match was not as exciting as we hoped, because New Zealand was already qualified for quarter finals and dominated the match. However, we had a really good time and the atmosphere was amazing!! The next day we left Wellington, escaping the terrible weather down there. Our next stop was Napier! As we spent just one night in Napier there is not a lot we can say about it. But the view was stunning and Hawk’s Bay is worth a visit! Leaving Napier, we headed up North to Rotorua. The funny thing was, we had the possibility to choose between two routes: one was the short one (2,5 hours) one was the long one (7 hours). Guess which one we have chosen???? ;) Right, we chose the long one. BUT we had no idea that it would take us seven hours to get there. Unfortunately, the streets were unsealed and reminded us a little bit of the streets that lead to the Stilfser Joch. So we were just able to drive a maximum of 30 km/h. So seven hours, one broken tire, no idea where the spare tire was and no reception later, we finally arrived in Rotorua – thanks to two Kiwis who stopped and changed the tire for us! 

 

Rotorua is famous for geothermal activity and geysers, so the whole city seems like burning. However, the smell is awful and two days later we left the town. But before we drove up North to the Coromandel Peninsula, we decided to do a horse trek. And it was just amazing. For two hours we were riding through the incredibly beautiful landscape of New Zealand. Remember: Das Glück dieser Erde, liegt auf dem Rücken der Pferde! ;)) (P.S. Monika’s ass is still hurting!!) 

 

Our last stop in New Zealand was Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. From the very first moment we fell in love with this peninsula and in particular with Whitianga, a small town with a population of just 3500 people. We met some incredible nice people, saw amazing landscapes, climbed the Shakespeare’s cliffs, lost each other, met Mr. Tequilla, had bbq, watched rugby at Smitty’s Sports Bar and Grill, watched some great movies (which some of us didn’t understand), cuddled with the cat of our hostel, went to the hot water beach and tried so hard to get to the New Chums Beach, which was HIGHLY recommended by our Kiwi and German friends, but unfortunately it didn’t work out because of high tides. So in the end it was soooooooooooo good or a better way to describe it: it was FUCKING AWESOME!!!! =)))))

After we went back to Auckland and finally saw the ONE TREE HILL (no tree hill ;) ), we took the plane to the warm and sunny Cairns, where our first job was waiting for us!

New Zealand, maybe we will see you again!!!! ;)))

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One car – two girls: New Zealand I

A lot of things happened since our last update! This makes it difficult to know where to start… Ok, let’s first talk about our flight – that we almost missed!

The day we wanted to fly to New Zealand we got up early to fit all our stuff into our backpack, to have some really nice breakfast and then take the shuttle to airport to be there early enough. Somehow we managed it (please don’t ask how we got that distracted) to leave the hostel that late that we arrived at the airport 45 minutes before departure. Unfortunately we forgot that it was an international flight and that we were supposed to be there two hours in advance. Thus, when we arrived there, the gate was already closed. Only because of our incredible charm and our Italian accent we managed to convince the good-looking South American guy to open the gate for us. A few security checks later (which Monika tried to refuse with the great explanation that we are late and we need to get our plane) we got aboard facing an applauding crew. =)

Arriving in Auckland we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the city! After the long party nights in Sydney we used the time in Auckland to calm down and to relax a bit. The third day we rented an old Nissan Pulsar – the perfect car for us and left Auckland, driving down to Lake Taupo. After a few kilometers we got used to our automatic vehicle and to drive on the left side of the road. On the way to Lake Taupo we saw two hitch-hiking backpackers standing next to the street. So of course we stopped and turned around to give them a lift. However, because it all happened really fast instead of switching on the signals, we switched on the windscreen wipers (because they were on the wrong site) and drove on the right sight. Try to imagine the face of the two guys seeing us stopping next to them. It was hilarious! ;))) Nevertheless, they were brave enough to get into our car and we had a good time together at Lake Taupo. Monika and me did a sailing trip on Lake Taupo, something you should consider to do if you are in this area. Luckily, the weather was great and so we could take some really nice pictures of the Lake and the Huka Falls. 

In order to save some money we decided to sleep in the car – a decision we regret still today. First of all it was f***** cold and Monika got a really, really bad cold that night. Second, while driving around in the middle of the night to heat the car we realized that the name of the forest where we parked our car was called THE FOREST OF SCREAMS. We tried not do think of why this forest is called like this. At four o’clock in the morning we left the forest to drive down to Wellington because we had tickets for the Rugby match Canada vs. New Zealand. In Wellington we decided to sleep in a TV room of some random hostel - to save some money again. It worked great until 1 o’clock in the morning, when a guy came in and wanted to know our room number. Of course we had no room so he told us to leave. Because Monika felt really bad and it was raining like crazy outside we begged if we can stay in the TV room. Luckily, the guy felt really sorry for us and allowed us to stay in the TV room.

So far, so good! We will keep in touch!

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