New Zealand 30.04.-31.05.2010

I just "created" a new blog for my new Zealand trip:

http://www.mymapblog.com/keks_1983/

Cairns (26.04.-29.04.2010)

Francesco and me

Kathi and me

Cairns is going to be my last stop on the east coast. I realised how time flies. Six weeks of travelling up the coast are already over. And I’m on my own for the first time. It was a really weird feeling on the first evening. I walked around the town, along the water and felt really lonely. So I called Michaela and chatted with her for a while. After that I felt better. And then I remembered that I knew someone who was in Cairns as well. A really funny german girl from Bavaria named Kathi which I met on Magnetic Island. So I sent her a text and we met the next day.
We chilled on the Lagoon next day, walked around and I met some friends of her. And I talked to a guy named Avi from Israel who is flying to New Zealand on the weekend so I might see him in Auckland. I also saw a lot of other guys who stayed on Magnetic Island or which I met somewhere else on the east coast. The world really is a town. I also called Nele and it was sooo nice to talk to her. I should have done that earlier. But it was as if we hadn’t been apart for such a long time. I really wish she could be here with me…

I had booked a snorkel-trip on the Great Barrier Reef for my last day in Cairns.
And guess who was on that as well? Francesco from Italy (I also met him on Magnetic Island) and we both laughed when we saw each other. We had breakfast with coffee, tea and muffins and then started to sail out to the Great Barrier Reef. Our first stop was in front of a Island to go snorkelling. It was a bit cloudy all day, but the Reef was just beautiful. So many different colours and shapes. And so many different kind fishes. I even saw a big turtle. Back on the boat we had a nice lunch with seafood, salads pumpkin pie ect. and started to sail to the second spot. The Reef was not so big and much deeper but you could still see a lot. Francesco had a underwater camera and he is going to give me the pictures when we meet each other in Melbourne again. What an amazing day….

Townsville 08.04.2010, Magnetic Island 16.04.-25.04.2010 (Surprise, surprise)

I just arrived in Cairns and realised that I didn’t write my diary for the last 2 weeks. My time on Magnetic Island was just awesome I worked in the X-Base Hostel for free Accommodation. But lets start from the beginning…
Will and me took the Greyhound Bus to Townsville on the 8th of April. We stayed in a cheap Hostel for 24$ a night. Next day we explored the town and realised there is not much to see. We started to walk up a track to a little mountain but it was just to hot and we were exhausted so we turned around half way. But we still had a good view over Townsville. So we laid on the beach for a while before we walked back to the hostel.

Next day we took the ferry to Magnetic Island. I already was in love with it before we arrived. The Island is totally green, full with Palm and other Trees and has a lot of beaches all around it.
Our hostel there was really cheap (in both ways). We chilled a bit at he pool and then walked to the X-Base Hostel to surprise Michaela who found a job there in the kitchen.
She was asleep when we arrived but a girl from the reception went to her room to wake her up to tell her that there was a surprise for her. So we were hiding behind the desk and jumped out when we saw her. And she was really surprised to see us.

We had a drink at the bar in front of the beach and she told us that the hostel is desperately looking for staff. Will and Michaela chatted and I didn’t listen, I was just thinking about what she said. So after 20min. I went to the reception to ask for the Woofing job. Josh just wanted to know my name, checked with the lady in the kitchen and then said I could start on Sunday. I can´t believe how easy it is sometimes. He didn’t even ask me questions or wanted to see any documents.
Michaela was happy that I was going to stay with her but Will was a bit upset cause the normal plan was to travel up with him to Cairns. But I just had the feeling that it was the right thing to do…

The 3 of us rented a little Topless car the next day to explore the Island. I was the driver (which I really enjoyed), because Will is to young and Michaela can only drive Manual.
First we drove up to Horseshoe Bend, walked through a little market, bought some Ice-cream and chilled on the beach. In this time of the year it is not allowed to go into the ocean without a stinger suit. It’s the season of the Stinger fish. If they touch you, you get paralysed and are not ably to move. So that means you would drown.
But they mostly have little areas in the ocean with a net around it for swimmers.
Then we drove to a Koala Village to do a guided tour. The tour was guided from a ranger who explained a lot about all the Australian animals they have there.
The first ones were some little turtles and the next 2 different Kakadu’s. We could hold the first one, put a seed on the lips and he ate it. The second one was just for petting. And then I´ve seen my first Wombat. He was soooo cute. The women explained a lot about a blue tongue lizard, but all the girls (including me) were just fascinated about the cute little wombat.
“The next in line” where the crocodiles. They had two different kinds. The salt water and the fresh water. The salt water crocodiles would never attack a human being but the other one does. So she made a joke and said we just need to look at the nose if we ever see a crocodile in nature to see the difference. We could hold one of the crocodiles and after that a photographer took pictures of everyone with a Koala. They can actually bite if you move so we had to stand very still. And last but not least we had the chance to hold a snake. And I did hold one. I wasn’t scared at all. The snake did wiggle around me and I could feel the strong muscles. I always thought they are slimy, but they are not at all. We had another brake at a beautiful beach before we went back to the hostel.

I spent the next two weeks with working (25h, 5days a week) doing housekeeping, played pool, chilled on the beach or swam in the pool. And I also enjoyed spending time with Michaela again (I thought after Brisbane I would never see her again). Our room-mates where so much fun as well. There was Damien (everyone called him Frenchi - guess where he is from) , Andy from England and Michaela. After Michaela left on Thursday a Girl named Jacki from England arrived. She was such a fun person and I told her in the first half an hour everything she needed to know (including the X-Base Gossip). I even went fishing on the beach for the first time in my life. I always thought it is very boring but Damien teached me some French and he learned to count to 10 in german. So if you have someone to talk to its fine I guess.
The Woofers get two free meals a day. So I always ate Muesli with Yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. For dinner we could choose between a few different meals. Beef and Vegetarian Burgers, Nachos, Caesar or Garden Salad, Calamari and Spaghetti with Meatballs and Garlic Bread. It was all really yammi (I tried everything of course) and my favourite was the Vegetarian Burger. On Mondays they had barbecue for dinner and I always put to much on my plate.

A lot of travellers had left their books in our room, so I read about 5 books in those 2 weeks. The best one was “handle with care” from Jodi Picoult. I love her books. They are depressing and I almost cried when I finished it but you can´t stop reading and she also makes you think a lot about life decisions.
The last night was the best night I could possibly have. I got free beer from the bar, we were laughing, dancing and I took pictures with everyone. At night time we went swimming in the pool and I had so much fun. I jumping in the water a million times. I only had 1 hour sleep but I didn’t mind at all.
It was really hard next day to leave this really “Magnetic” Island and saying goodbye to everyone.

04.04.-06.04.2010 (Sailing Whitsunday’s)

The sailing trip was awesome! I enjoyed it even better than the Fraser Island trip. I could have stayed for another few days! We had a lovely group of 18 people. Five couples: two from England and one each from Wales, Mexico and Switzerland. Two guys and one girl from Germany (of course Germans are everywhere), two girls from England, Will, Lizzo and me. The sailing trip started on Sunday at 1pm. Unfortunately it was cloudy all day long. And when we stopped in front of an Island for the night it started raining. But we played a funny game inside. We had a muesli box and everyone had to try to get it with the mouth without touching it. You are also not allowed to touch the ground with your legs or arms. When you get it you can just rip as much off as you want. So the box got smaller and smaller. It was really funny watching people doing crazy VERRENKUNGEN trying to get the peace of paper. In the end there were only a guy from Wales and a girl from England left.

It was 6am Monday morning when the motor started so we all got up early. The weather god was in a good mood. The sun was shining today so I ate my breakfast outside. It´s really nice if you don´t have to cook or prepare food for a few days.
First stop was Whitehaven Beach. And it really is Heaven. The most beautiful place of earth I´ve ever been to in my life. The sand is really soft, white and contains 98% Silicane. The water is TUERKIS and it is just Paradise. In the afternoon we stopped at two different places to go snorkelling. It started raining again but I didn´t mind because we got wet anyway and the water was nice and warm. Only the view was not the best but you could still see a lot of different fishes and reefs. I totally loved it.

We sailed for a few more hours and I even did stir the boat for a while. The most of us were sunbathing and Tom played the guitar for a while. We also took some group pictures.
There were potatoes, beef and three kind of salads for dinner. We were sitting on deck later and watched the amazing amount of stars. After a while we heard some splashes in the water so we searched with our torches and saw a few big fishes swimming around. Some of us were sure that there was a little shark in the water but no one believed us next day.

So next morning when I went snorkelling I didn´t felt so comfortable because I was afraid to see a shark. The water was really deep as well and there was not so much to see. We sailed back to Airlie Beach and arrived at about 11am.
Our whole group met at a bar called Beaches tonight to celebrate. We got free beer and wine and cheap dinner there. Anne the german girl had goon in her bag so she was absolutely wrecked after a while. She danced funny in front of the live band. I didn´t had cash on me so I asked at the bar if I could pay with my credit card. But because they said only drinks up from 10 Dollar I bought a cocktail for 13!!! Dollar. And it wasn´t even good. But oh well. I still had a fun night.
But again Will and me had to say goodbye to Lizzo. She is taking the bus to Cairns to fly to Adelaide in a few days.

Wednesday, 31.03.-02.04.2010 (Fraser Island)

The briefing at our Hostel started at 7.30am. We watched a movie about Fraser Island and a guy from the hostel told us all the important stuff we needed to know. He said we are the last group to do a self-drive on Fraser Island. How lucky!!!
He split the group into smaller ones with 8 people in each group. I was together with Will, Annie, Lizzo, Stephan (France), Oliver and Michaela (both from the UK). All together we were 32 people in 4 “cars”. The first stop was at the Palace Campground were we loaded our tents and camping equipment. That took longer than everyone thought. Finally we could take off to Woolworths to buy our food for the next 3 days. Our group bought a lot of stuff like Sausages, Burgers, Bread, Salad, Pasta, Pasta Sauce, Fruit and Chocolate Bars. But it came only down to 15 $ for each person.
The ferry took our 4x4 Wheels to Fraser Island.
Fraser Island is the biggest Sand island in the world. The long beach on the east and west Island are used as streets and “inside” the Island are sand paths through the rainforest.
Our first stop was at Lake Wabby. A lake just in the middle of a little dessert. Almost everyone had a swim. It gets dark around 6pm at night in Australia, so when we arrived at the campground it was just light enough to set up our tents. And with campground I mean a little area behind the sand dunes without any toilets or showers. Just nature camping. The car lights helped us to cook our barbecue. It was a beautiful night with full moon and we had a little party at the beach.
But again I didn’t sleep good in the tent even I had a sleeping bag this time and next morning it started to rain and didn’t stop until about 12pm. So we decided to leave the tents at the campground. But we still got soaking wet, because we had to load the rest of our stuff into the car. Just as we took off it stopped raining and the sun came out. The drive along the beach was just amazing. We had our lunch brake at Indian Heads. We hiked up the hill where we had a beautiful view over the ocean. A view Sting Rays were floating in the water. Unfortunately because of those animals but also because of sharks and Blue Bottles it’s against the law to go swim in the ocean on Fraser Island. But that didn’t bother me much, because the Island has a lot of beautiful lakes to go swimming. The next destination was a little Lagoon surrounded by rocks in front of the ocean. The most important thing to bring to Fraser Island is a swimming suit.
From there I wanted to have a go with the car in the deep sand and on the beach. I was a bit afraid but it was easier than I thought. I had a lot of fun driving along the beach. And everyone said I was a smoothest driver in the deep sand. The last stop before we drove back to the campground was a little river with the freshest clearest water I’ve ever seen in the outdoors.
We bought to much sausages and burgers so we had another Barbecue instead of Pasta that night. And then I saw my first dingo walking around our tents searching for foods. You are not allowed to feed them even if they just look like cute dogs.
We had a sunny day on Friday. So everything was dry when we loaded the car. Our last and only destination today was Lake Mackenzie. It just looked like heaven. A little “ocean” in the middle of an Island, with white sand and the water as clear and blue as it could be.
Back at the hostel we unloaded the car and got our bond back. And then I had my first shower in 3 days. That felt absolutely amazing. Lizzo took the Bus at 9pm and Will, Annie and me went to “Pizza hat” for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening at the bus stop. And when our bus arrived Will and me had to say goodbye to Annie because she took the bus back South to fly back home to Ireland in a few days. We all cried and I was really sad to leave my best friend. We had the best few months together.

Monday, 29.03.2010 (Noosa to Hervey Bay)

Back in Noosa we had to wait for about 3 hours before the Greyhound bus left to Hervey Bay. So we spent the time on the internet and buying some food for the bus.
Our package included 2 free nights in the Hostel called “Palace”. So we had enough time next day to wash some clothes and pack a little bag for our Fraser Island Tour. We also went down to the beach. The first time that the ocean was totally calm and the water was really shallow. Will, Annie and me had a room for ourselves which was really nice. Elizabeth arrived Tuesday evening from Brisbane.

Friday, 26.03.- 29-03.2010 (3 days camping at National Park Noosa)

Normally I enjoy camping. I slept in a tent for 3 weeks at my tour at the West Coast of the USA.
But it was much more comfortable because I had a sleeping bag and a pillow and I didn’t had to worry about snakes and spiders. We slept in a big tent in hammocks the first night. It was really chilly that night and I woke up a thousand times. So I was really tired next morning. Our 14km!!! Kayak tour started at 9.30am. For some reason Will, Annie and me were always the last ones. I was sitting in the back and stirred the boat. After a while our whole group entered into a big lake and paddled along a little river for a little brake. Then we took the way back on the river to cross that big lake. The lake was really shallow, only about 1 meter deep. We got out of our Kayaks at a little beach and walked to a little pub for a bigger brake. I didn’t took my shoes, which I regret after 10 min., because we had to walk on little stones on the street. Paddling back took about two hours and we were all really exhausted when we arrived back at our camp.
The Kayaking next day was much easier. We paddled on the river towards the other direction, across a lake again and left our Boats at a to walk to the beach on the other side. The ocean was a bit raff but I still went into the water twice to cool off. When we walked back it started to poor so we got absolutely soaked. Its amazing how the weather can change from one minute to the other.

Thursday, 25.03.2010n (Brisbane to Noosa)

We took the 3 hour bus at 10.15h to Noosa today. I slept the most time. We checked in at the “Backpackers Resort” and walked to the nice little beach afterwards. Back at the hostel Annie and me had a nice Hawaiian Pizza and chips for dinner. BTW it´s funny that Australians call them Chips, Americans say “French fries” and germans order “Pommes”. And the “real” chips are called crisps.
I learn at least one new English word everyday. But my accent is still very American J

Wednesday, 24.03.2010 (chilling day in Byron Bay)

We all suffered from the alcohol last night so we only washed our clothes today, went to Coles to buy some chocolate and I had a swim in our hostel pool. But then we attended the Karaoke night at the Irish pub. Will and me were singing “sweet dreams” and all 4 of us sang “summer of 69”. The whole pub full with backpackers was screaming their lungs out. The last night for all of us together. We have to say goodbye to Michaela tomorrow. She´s going to stay in Brisbane looking for a job.

Tuesday, 23.03.2010 (Lagoon)

The next beach in Brisbane is 1 hour away, but they have a nice little lagoon in a park and that’s were did go today. It was lovely. They had a sand area around it and we went swimming for a while. Then it started raining so we waited under a roof until the sun came out again. I ate the rest of my pancakes that Will and me made for breakfast. After that I got really tired so I had a nice nap at the “beach”. We spent the evening in the Irish pub with 2 guys from Canada (Evan and Nick), had some beers & Co. and danced.

Monday, 22.03.2010 (City walk Brisbane)

I just came back from a huge city walk. We (Michaela, Will, Annie and me) did the one that was recommended in the “Lonely Planet” book. It took us about 4 hours. Brisbane is a nice city with a lot of old buildings surrounded by modern ones. They also have a nice Botanic Garden but I still like the one in Sydney better. One street reminded me of Washington D.C. and all the bridges reminded me of Düsseldorf in Germany. And Brisbane has the most bridges I’ve ever seen. From our hostel you can see at least 5 bridges in all different kind of shapes. We bought dinner at the little restaurant in our hostel. Annie and me had baked potatoes and pork and Michaela ate a burger. That was the best food I had in a while. Normally we cook a lot of pasta or rice for dinner.

Sunday, 21.03.2010 (No Sleeping Inn)

We couldn´t resist the good offer they had at our hostel last night. On each Saturday they organise a big night out with some other hostels. We only had to pay 30$, and got a free entry in 4 clubs and 1 free drink in each of them. I normally don´t like those kind of organised party’s but this one was pretty awesome. We met a lot of nice people danced our feet off and came back at about 4am.
So this morning we didn´t had a “Sleeping Inn” (like our hostel was called). We had to check out at 10am.
After we all ate some food at McDonalds, Will and Michaela left to catch the early bus to Brisbane. Annie and me had a nice little nap at the beach, walked around for a while and took the bus at 5pm to Brisbane. If you should ever go to Brisbane, stay at the hostel “City Backpackers”. We only payed 21$ a night. The cheapest and best hostel so far. There is a huge kitchen with nice music playing, so it´s a relaxed atmosphere while people are cooking. They also have a swimming pool and a little restaurant. And the best thing: free internet!

Saturday, 20.03.2010 (Byron Bay to Surfers Paradies)

Lizzo is going to stay in Byron Bay for another week, Will left already in the morning to catch the early bus and the rest of us (Michaela, Annie and me) are going to take the bus at 2pm to Surfers Paradies as well. So we had some breakfast, put our stuff in the luggage room and did a last walk around Byron Bay. We went to the internet for a while, ate some lunch, went to some shops, but it´s just so frustrating seeing all the nice clothes and don’t be able to buy them.
Surfers Paradies is only a half an hour drive from Byron Bay and we got picked up in a Limousine to our hostel. I don´t like this place really much. It´s more like a tourist place and reminded me of L.A. and Miami. It didn´t seemed at all like Australia.

Friday, 19.03.2010 (Lighthouse)

Annie and me were really tired this morning. But we still decided to walk to the Lighthouse. Will had already seen it and Michaela and Lizzo went to the beach. We walked through a little rainforest with a lot of steps up and down and up again and another walk uphill to the most eastern point on the east coast. The view from there was amazing. We even saw about 20 Dolphins playing in the water. I enjoyed the walk back to the hostel more. We walked down the hill and back on the beach. I felt really good after that. We didn’t go out this night, but we had some girls talk in our room.

Thursday, 18.03.2010 (Cheeky Monkeys)

I forgot what we did at daytime. Probably chilling at the beach ;-)
In the evening we had some drinks back at the hostel, played some games and went to a famous bar/club called Cheeky Monkeys. The music was good and we had a lot of fun. Definitely better than St. Patricks day. The nights without plans are the best…

Wednesday, 17.03.2010 (St. Patricks Day in Byron Bay, duda, duda…)

Sometimes when you think it´s going to be an awesome night and you are really excited about it, it can just turn out to be a bit of a disappointment. That’s how we all felt about St. Patrick’s day. We were excited to spend that day all together in Byron Bay. We even made up a song about it.
Anyhow we had barbecue back at the hostel for 5 Dollar and went out in the town in a club called “Cocomangos”. The club was really boring so we left after about 45 min. Lizzo and Michaela went off to get some food, Will went back to his hostel and Annie and me got some Ice cream/Chocolate and walked back “home“. Our room mate Clint got arrested from the police that night, he was just to drunk and the security is really strict over here. Lizzo and Michaela saw him when he was fighting with the police officers. Crystal was there as well and she tried to talk to the police officers, but they wouldn’t even respond. But he got out early in the morning.

Tuesday 16.03.2010 (Byron Bay, Baby)

I experienced two things that I just want to share with you. The first thing was the strength of the ocean. When I got into the water the ocean was so strong it pulled me back towards the beach. I couldn´t even stand in it and to swim was impossible. The other thing was that it started raining after a while while it was still sunny. It seemed there was only one little dark cloud over us. But the rain was actually really refreshing. In the evening I went out for dinner with Clint and Crystal. We ate in an Indian restaurant. I tried Indian food once and didn´t like it back then but this time I really enjoyed it. We had rice and 3 different kind of sauces. Crystal is really spiritual and she loves wearing hippy clothes. So we had some deep conversations about what kind of things we believe in.
When I came back to the hostel Annie had arrived and we chatted for a while. She told me some gossip stories from Sydney.