Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and the hooooooooooooooot Outback!!!

After we arrived in Melbourne and we did some shopping (everyone of us is now the proud owner of new all stars =)) we started our second road trip: Great Ocean Road and Outback!!

First stop: Lourne!! The guys spent here already some time because they celebrated New Years Eve here at the Falls Festival. Oh, btw: the guys are too lazy to write the blog to tell what they have done so fare during we girls were in NZ, so we update u shortly. After they had to leave Narry (yeah, they HAD to leave, just ask them why =))) they visited the Grampians National Park and went then to the falls festival in Lourne. Due to the fact that they had no ticket, they were walking every day for 2 hours through the forest (and it is an Australian forest with heaps of dangerous animals =)) to get on the campground and than they managed it somehow to pass the security control and to get on the festival. So they had the chance to see the kooks, the naked and famous, arctic monkeys and heaps of other bands. On the third of January they went to Melbourne and waited there for us.

So, back to our road trip and our fist stop Lourne. The guys showed us around and we took thousands of pictures of the beautiful coast!! The views we had on the great ocean road were just awesome!! we visited all the touristic staff (12 apostles, London Bridge, ...) and we tried to visit the famous lighthouse. But it was already really late when we arrived there and everything was closed, so we had the really great idea just to climb over the fence and to go to the lighthouse without paying and without permit =). but we didn’t realize that there were cameras everywhere and as well security guards who started looking for us as soon as they realized that someone is on the area! in the end we were running around like crazy to escape from the security guards and to get out of the area . it was really funny, but we had no chance to see the lighthouse =((

After we were done with the great ocean road we spent some days in Adelaide! we stayed at an awesome hostel and we met so funny people there! one of them was Steve from France, we were laughing our ass off with this crazy guy!! (the chair is brooooken, me cannot believe =))))).

Adelaide is full of Italians and one of them (Giulio) told us about a good place to stay in Darwin! but we will tell you later on more about it! Adelaide has as well heaps of good Italian restaurants and good shopping possibilities, but we were so broke that nobody could afford to buy something. after some sight seeing tours and a trip on the river with a paddle boat we decided to leave Adelaide and to finally go to the outback!!

So we started driving, and driving, and driving.... and again driving and driving and driving! as soon as we left the cities we had no reception anymore with our phone, cheers Vodafone for that =)). the outback was really, really hot.... and the bad thing was that we were just sleeping in our campervan, and this time we were 4 people!! so we had absolutely no space to sleep and it was soooo hot and some of us (it was max =)) had to go to the toilette about ten times during the night =))!

We passed a lot of little places in the outback, one of them was Coober Pedy! how can we describe this place... I think the Lonely Planet found the right words: an apocalyptic hell hole! it is in the middle of nowhere and really famous because it is the mining Mecca for opals. but it can get there really hot, around 50 degrees. so we spent not too much time there. next stop was Uluru or better known as the Ayres Rock. It was really impressive to stand in front of the ultimate symbol of Australia. We watched the sunset there and walked around the rock. Of course we didn’t climb on the Uluru, because it is still a holy place for the aborigines. even if some of us (it was max, again =)) wanted to go anyways. but luckily the climbing track was closed because it was too hot. the next day we visited the Olgas and the walking tracks there were as well closed because it was over 42 degrees. but we didn’t care and did the track anyways... and it was soooo hot. but the view was stunning and it was so awesome to walk through this bizarre and dominant rocks.

after we got back from Uluru and the Olgas we arrived in Alice Springs and we did some cool stuff there: Manu visited the Ghan Museum and Daniel, Max and me went to the reptile centre where we could touch lizards (one of them shit on me, very funny =)) and hold snakes there! and yes, Daniel and me did it!!! I was close to cry and it was disgusting but we are really proud that we did it!

after Alice Springs we wanted to go as soon as possible to Darwin, because we had definitely enough from the outback! so we just kept on driving the last 1500 km of our road trip. we stopt at some interesting bars like in Daly Waters or Tennant Creek and had a funny night in Katherine, where we visited the Katherine Gorge National Park (but everything was closed because of the wet season).

From Katherine it was not far to Darwin and so we arrived after 12 days in our new home town! it was raining like crazy, but it doesn’t matter: we really felt like "coming home" finally...

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2 Girls, 2 thumbs: New Zealand part II

Finally the 16th of December arrived and Manu and me could leave Australia after a month of work on the vineyard and a couple of days in melbourne. Destination: of course, New Zealand! (again: the first country for us were we went twice on holidays).
But this time we decided to spend our time in NZ in a completely different way than the last time. First step: we didnt rent a car, we just depended on hitch hiking. We've heard from other backpackers that hitch hiking is really common in NZ as well as it is really save. So we decided to give it a try and if it is not working we just take the bus.
We arrived in Auckland late at night and the very next day our big hitch hiking adventure started. We were standing with a small "Bay of Islands" sign and heaps of fun in the middle of Auckland and tried to get a ride. And it worked out! 4 hours later we arrived in Paihia, a small and nice town in the Bay of Islands. The weather was again not really good, so it rained a lot but we didn't care! On a boattrip we saw dolphines, the hole in the rock and on a stopp over on a small Island we discovered propably one of the most beautiful places in the world, I reckon! Manu and me immediately fell again in love with this amazing country, sometimes described as the most beautiful end of the world =)
After a couple of days we decided to hitch hike back South and after a night in Auckland at Steve's place (a very nice guy who gave us a lift and invited us to stay at his place) we arrived in our new destination: Taumarunui! Again, a small village in the middle of nowhere, but not really far away from the Tongario National Park.  But the real reason why we went there was cuz we wanted to visit Joel, a friend of us we met in Narry. He works in Taumuranui as sheap sharer and allowed us to visit him at the shed during work. Manu and me had the possibility to try for a couple of hours the work as woolhand.


Joel was so nice and lent us his car for a couple of days so Manu and me could visit the National Park and drive to a real Italian Pizzeria with real Italian Pizza. Thank you Joel, you were a great host!!! :)

On the 23th of December we had to leave Taumarunui to get to Hastings cuz a friend invited us to his place for Christmas. But before we went to his place, we stayed a night at another friends (Seth) place (as well sheap sharer, a friend from Narry) and we joined him to a sheap sharer party. A really funny get togheter with heaps of people from all over the world. I would say it was a really interesting party ... with really interesting people....  =) Thanks Seth, for showing us a different side of NZ!! =))

On the 24th in the afternoon we met up with Brad and Rob, two guys we met the last time in NZ in Whitianga. Manus and my plan was so far to spent Christmas Eve at the beach with a camp fire, heaps of Tequilla and some snags. But the guys had other plans, so Manu and me had to wait again for our first camp fire =). First of all we were driving to the Te Mata Peak and wow, the view was just stunning! You can see whole Hawkes Bay from there... breathtaking!! 10.000 pictures later we were driving back to Brads place, were Tequilla, vine and heaps of  Marshmellows were waiting for us. We sang Christmas Songs with the guitarre (even if singing is the wrong word for our screaming), took a ride on Santas Sleigh and were drinking prosecco.



The next day the real Kiwi Christmas started. It is quite diffrent from what we know so far from back home... first of all: its summer and you are sitting outside in shorts and shirts. The whole familiy is coming togheter for the whole day and its all about eating!! And we have to say: the food is deliscous!!! So many different things and everything just incredible good!!It starts already with the breakfast: there are heaps of fruits, Croissants and Yogurth and again Prosecco (drinking is a big part of the Kiwi culture, maybe thats why we like the poeple over there so much... it reminds us of home =)). After the breakfast it is time for the presents! So much fun to watch kids unwrapping their gifts =) and even Manu and me got a present: chocolate!! But the bad thing on Christmas in the middle of summer is the fact, that you have to show yourself in a bikini at the beach after all that food. Manu und me were eating soooo much all day long, that we basically could roll around =). And after a short visit on the beach in the afternoon we came back to eat more for dinner =)) 

Just like described above we we spent 4 days at Brads place! Thanks to the whole familiy and especially Denise for everything!! And of course we would like to thank Brad and Rob for the invitation who were great hosts, too! :)

At the 28th it was time to say Goodbye to Hawkes Bay and  go to Gisborne, because Manu and me were the proud owners of 2 tickets for the Rhythum & Vines Festival!!! Back on the road, Manu and me were really lucky again! We met Kaleb and Kane, 2 really funny guys from Palmerston North. We decided to stay at the same campground, which in the end was really good for Manu and me because we had absolutley no idea how to build up our tent =).We found a really nice place next to the beach and yessssss, finally we got our first campfire!!!! Cheers for that guys!! And thanks Kane for teaching us a new word: pins and needles =) Due to the fact that Manu and me were so exited about the campfire we decided to sleep on the beach that night (and waked up because of a tractor which was driving around us to clean the beach...)

The next day the adventure "Rhythum and Vines" starded!! First we spent the whole afternoon  with Kaleb, Kane and their friends playing drinking games. I just have to say "gelato" =)). In the evening we finally went to the festival and wooooow, just impressive!! The whole atmosphere on this festival in the middle of a vineyard was awesome!! We had soooo much fun and the end of the night with Pendulum playing the song from the R&V trailer was perfect!!! Best festival we've ever been to!! The next day we had to say goodbye to Kaleb and Kane because they were celebrating New Years Eve in Taupo (funny, everyone we know so far was spending NYE in Taupo... =)). But we were really looking forward to the life acts Six60 and Calvin Harris!! And again, it was fucking awesome!!! The Kiwiband  Six60 made such a great live performance... wow!! and for everybody who has no clue aobut six60: open now youtube and listen to the songs "dont forget your roots", "rise up" and "someone to be around"!! Im sure you'll love it!!
We really woult like to tell you as well something about New Years Eve.... but because our breakfast that day was Tequilla.... we have absolutely no idea what happend =) We've just heard that we sent some strange text mesagges and were wearing some funny shirts =)) But we met some really nice people: Katie, Jemma and Sean from Wellington! And they made it an unforgettable New Year's Eve! Thank you guys!!!!! We hope to see you someday again in Europe! :)
The beginning of the new year was the same as every year: HANGOVER!! after checking our pictures from the last night to have an idea what happend we decided to hitch hike to Taup, because Brad invited us again to stay at his uncle's place. And as soon as we heard that there is a swimming pool and a jacuzzi we were in.... just the fact that we could sleep in a real bed was reason enough to go there after spending 4 days in a tent without airbeds =)). After some really "funny" hours in the car with 5 guys who gave us a ride , we finally arrived, half - dead in Taupo. But as soon as we saw the mansion and the awesome view over lake Taupo we were fit again and had a great bbq with rocket salad and avos!! Thanks again Brad and Rob and Ben, Caitlin and Aidan!
The next day we moved to a backpackers in Taupo because Brad's uncle came back. At the backpackers we had a lot of fun at the bar, drinking beer and cider and eating BP pies, probably the best pies in NZ. :)


After saying goodbye to Rob and Brad Manu and me took the bus to Wellington. In Wellington we finally had our first experience with couch surfing. We could stay at Mark's place in Porirua, a suburb of Wellington with some other backpackers. Thanks Mark, it was great to stay at your place!! In Wellington we also met Katie, Jemma and Sean again and they spent a whole day with us, showing us around! Thank you so much! After a night out in Wellington were we were on the piss with the three of them and their friends we had to leave Wellington to take the ferry to the South Island!

As there was only one day left, we didn't see a lot of the South Island. However, at least we made it to the South Island this time! =) After we arrived in Picton, we decided to hich hike to Christchurch, were we met Rob again!
A short stop in Kaikoura, which is probably one of the most beautiful places we have seen so far (again... ;) ) and four hours later we were in Christchurch were Scott, the guy who gave us a lift, drove us around to show us all the damages caused by the earthquake! It was really sad to see how destroyed this beautiful city was!
The next morning we woke up by a little earthquake. Kind of creepy... Even if it was not too big! Anyways, our flight was at 8 in the morning so we had to leave the hostel to go to the airport! 3,5 hours later we were back in Sydney! As we had to get to Melbourne and the busses and flights were too expensive we rented a car and drove the same day all the 900 km to Melbourne. There the four of us were reunited again!

At the end we would like to thank all the people who helped and supported us in NZ: 

• Steve: drove us outside of Auckland, offered us a sleeping place, invited us for bbq and drove us in the middle of the night through Franklin Road to see the Christmas decoration
• Shane: gave us a ride from Auckland to Whangarei
• Two people who drove us outside Whangarei (remember J. Keanen)
• The old guy who drove us from Whangarei to Paihia, with a short stop in Kawakawa to show us the Hundertwasser toilet and the train
• Shane (the garage man) who gave us a lift from Paihia to Whangarei
• Gerda and Roland Jakober from Tyrol who invited us to their mansion and offered us Macchiato and Stollen
• Chocolate lady from Scotland who invited us to her mansion and gave us chocolate and allowed us to use her pool
• Aaron who drove us from Whangarei to Auckland and showed us the beautiful East Coast and drove us straight to Steve's house
• The guy who drove us from Papakura city centre to a perfect hich hiking spot
• The strange nudist, who drove us to Hamilton
• The nice maori lady who drove us to Raglan and gave us some apple jucie
• The South African family who drove us from Raglan to Taumarunui and who gave us the tip with the Italian Restaurant 
• MIKE, THE ARBORIST WHO PICKED US UP WHEN WE WERE SITTING NEXT TO THE STREET AND DESPRETELY WERE TRYING TO FIND JOEL
• The lady who hasn't seen anything of NZ so far who drove us from Taumarunui to Turangi
• The Scotsman who gave us a ride from Turangi to Taupo
• Witty, the old guy who drove us from Taupo to Hastings
• Old lady who drove us outside Napier and bought us straweberries and peaches because she was worried we don't eat enough
• The lady who gave us a ride from Napier to Wairoa
• Kane and Kaleb who took us to Gisborne, helped us with our tent and took care of us all the time
• Family from Hamilton who camped next to us for offering us a place to stay and for driving us outside of Gisborne
• The Maori, who drove us a  little bit further
• The 5 crazy guys who gave us a really, really funny lift to Napier
• The Maori who drove us from Napier to Taupo and for offering us showing us around in Napier
• Guy who drove us from Picton to Blenheim
• Ella, the Australian girl who drove us from Blenheim to Kaikoura and who offered us her chips
• Scott, who drove us from Kaikoura to Christchurch, made a short earthquake tour with us and gave us his business card just in case we need to go to the West Coast
• And of course all the people we mentioned above!!!!

CHEERS GUYS, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

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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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