G'day from Oz!

Here we are again with another update, from Australia this time! Finally in the land down-under! We've always dreamed of coming here and now we're here! Unbelievable!

Australia reminds us a bit of the USA, everything is oversized: the cars, the tv's, the malls, the meals and much of the people. The weather is great (hot!! between 35 and 40 C!) and the people are friendly.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Good to hear from you!

Denis, thanks for the update from Ansell, glad to hear all is going well and the company did not completely go down the drain :-). Keep on rowing the boat(s)!

Brisbane
17 – 20 January 2009

We arrived much much later than planned because of a delay in Christchurch. But it worked out well for us because the rental company had already rented out our car, so we got an upgrade to a gumoungeos outrageous 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero! Marcel gasped and revolted of the colour and Lisette shrieked of excitement. It was not our intention to get another big car after the huge campervan experience, but we decided it's best to downgrade the size with small steps at a time :-)..

We arrived late at our hotel in Brisbane. FINALLY a nice warm shower with an indefinite amount of water and space to turn, a normal-sized toilet which did not need emptying, a double bed in which we can step in and out and a TV!! What luxury!

We saw ourselves in the mirror for the first time.. oops..!

Two weeks of outdoor living has taken it's toll, we looked scruffy, unclean and we've gained a lot of weight.
We have a lot of workouts to do...

Nightlife is great in Brisbane. There are more restaurants than people and everybody is dressed hip and trendy, big diffence with New Zealand. We ended up in a fancy nightclub with a terrace overlooking the river. We enjoyed some new Ozzy cocktails with lots of alcohol.

We called it a day after 2 cocktails as we were very tired of the 5 hour waiting at Christchurch airport. We were looking forward to sleeping
in a real bed. And after drinking the complimentary bottle of champagne we got from the nice manager, we counted the sheep we saw in New Zealand and slept like babies.

The next morning we went to a Koala sanctuary and got to see and cuddle koalas, walibis and kangaroos for the first time in our lives! It was very exciting! They are really as soft as they look! We also saw Tasmanian devils and dingos. A real ozzy wildlife experience..

Next days: shopping, shopping, lunch, dinner, drinks and more shopping..

Surfer's Paradise
20 – 22 January 2009

Finally beach, sun and surf! What a complete different world! Surfer's Paradise reminded us a bit of the Costa del Sol, but warmer, a little classier and more surfy.

We saw our Kansloze friend Ronald N's twin brother! Ronald, how could you leave your twin brother behind in Australia to perform on the streets?

We took surfing lessons and it went quite well! We both actually managed to stand on the board for a mini-second after a gruelling 2 hours of constant rolling over, almost drowning in the huge waves and getting smacked on the head by someone else's surfboard. Of course bystanders had an amusing time watching us. Marcel's balance is way better than Lisette's, so he actually did pretty well. Lisette decided to go on a crash diet after seeing herself in a bikini on the photos..

Photos: we will publish the photos shortly, once we find a CD reader.

We visited “Tropical Fruit World”. It sounds corny, but it was actually very interesting to see all the exotic fruit actually growing on trees! We got to taste a few and we got to pick the fruit ourselves and had a feast on all the macadamia nuts you can eat (in 10 minutes).

Okay, it was corny, but we learned a lot and got to taste fruit we've never even heard of before. Lisette actually knew a lot of the exotic fruit from her grandma's garden. So she had a trip down memory lane.

Photos below: once again proof that men by nature are hunters and women are collectors.. Marcel picked the fruit and Lisette ate them.

Lamington National Park (“The hinterland”)
22 – 24 January 2009

They call it the Hinterland, not quite the Outback. It's in the middle of nowhere, but not quite the place where they will only find your body after months of searching :-). No kangaroos on the road, just cows and then endless forest.

Waaayyyy out in the Hinterland is a Spa called The Lost World. We decided to go there after being so sore and bruised by the surfing. We deserved it! The place was really in the middle of nowhere in an endless rainforest. Lisette had a bit of a freak-out moment when she saw the oversized spiderwebs everywhere, but thanks to Marcel's spider watch, it all went okay.

The spa was stunning! We had half a day of spa, and then went for a long walk through the beautiful rainforest. Lisette's ever-watchful eye for spiders and snakes brought us to the waterfalls and little lakes safely. But we had a major leech (= “bloedzuigers”) incident when we arrived at the lakes: they were dropping out of the trees and sucking themselves into our clothes and skin! Lisette got bitten twice and decided to call it a day and almost ran back home (no more watchful eye..).

Australia Zoo

24 January 2009

On our way to the Sunshine Coast we passed by the Australia Zoo. This is the Crocodile Zoo of the famous Steve Irwin; the Australian Crocodile Hunter who got killed while playing with a stingray. He is a national hero in Australia! We must say it's quite impressive to see a croc show in the Crocosseum where the main attraction is feeding a giant croc. Those are scary monsters, we hope not to run into those. You also see a picture of us together with what is suposed to be the largest saltwater crocodile found; 8,4 METER!!! By the way, saltwater croqs are the most agressive croqs in the world. Should we stay away from the water?

New Zealand, South Island

Not so many comments from you this time :-(. Only from our little sister (in-law). Thanks Michi! Hope all is well with you and the baby!

Today is our last day in New Zealand, we leave for Australia tomorrow. Although NZ was not number 1 on our list of places to go in the beginning, we've decided we'll come back here again. This is the most amazing country ever! It was like living in a mythical prehistory on the planet. Like Tolkien's world: one of deep hidden valleys, barren wastelands, remote mystical mountains and lush, low valleys, and we found all these places throughout New Zealand. We would advise anyone to go, except we want NZ to remain pure and untouched like it is now..

Kaikoura
8 -9 January 2009

After a stunning ferry trip from Wellington to Picton, through fjords and crystal clear blue water (and tripping over the masses of Dutch people, including the same we saw in Rotorua) we drove another 2 hours towards Kaikoura. Kaikoura is famous for its whale watching. We came across many seal colonies along the way, nice but smelly.


Today is a special occasion: it's Marcel's BIRTHDAY !!! 41 years old! We celebrated with a glass of NZ champagne on the camping grounds and a nice dinner and a small birthday cake at restaurant the Green Dolphin. Not much of a birthday party, but see it as part of a 3-month birthday party!
The Garmin GPS Forerunner 405 Lisette bought for Marcel does NOT work our Linux laptop!!! Crap! If anyone knows how to convert it, please let us know!

The next morning we had to get up early for the 4 hour whale watching trip. We left at 7 am, with a warning that it would be a rough boattrip. And it was! After about an hour the whole boat was throwing up, including us. Marcel was probably the sickest one on board, thrtowing up every 5 minutes and he probably also caused the rest of the boat to be sick ;-). Poor Marcel was purple by the end of the trip. But it was worth it! We both saw a whale for the first time so close. We took about a million photos, but the sea was so rough, that we couldn't get a good steady shot. But the photos will be great once we photoshopped them :-).

After such a rough morning, and us both being so sick, we decided on a snooze on the parking lot before moving on. We had a long 6,5 hour crossing ahead of us from the east coast to the west coast (Hokitika, near Greymouth)

Hokitika to the Glaciers
9 – 11 January 2009

After a very rainy overnight stay in Hokitika we had another 3-hour (scenic) drive towards the famous glaciers of New Zealand: Franz Josef and Fox glacier.
Again, the drive was sheepless. Still a mystery what happend to those sheep. They must have been traded in for cows because that is all we saw.

Our first impressions of South island (besides no sheep) are that it has a much more rugged and diverse landscape than North island. We immediately saw what Peter Jackson saw: this is where the Lord of the Rings actually took place. You automatically start to imagine Hobbits and elves and other creatures living in the different worlds that pass by every 10 minutes.

Next stop Franz Josef glacier. This place was very touristic and the guided walks were all full. We could however get very close to the glacier without a guide and it was impressive! The gletsjer is growing, which brought up the discussion if global warming is actually taking place?
Picture with us: on the background is the Franz Josef glacier.

After lunch we decided to take a walk around Lake Matheson, a lake that was formed by a giant block of ice that chipped off the Fox glacier long ago. Another Lord of the Rings fantasy come true. We filmed our own version here (everyone is welcome to see the movie when we're back, but it's pretty embarrassing).

Marcel made an award-winning photo of the national symbol of New Zealand: the fern

You probably won't see this online, but in the background the mountains are capped with snow! You can order your copy of this picture thtough this website for just 100 EUR! It's a deal! :-)

The next morning was the toughest day we had so far, considering how lazy we had become the last 3 weeks. We climbed 700 stairs, down a few, crossed a mountain path and finally reached the ice. There are no words to decribe the beauty of this wonder of nature. The immensity was impressive, the sheer height of the ice walls and depth of the gorges made us feel like tiny little dots on the surface.


A sad part of the trip was that a young couple had ventured off to the ice without a guide 2 days before when a giant ice wall broke off and killed them both. So far they have only recovered 1 body, the other will most probably be found after many many years, if the ice melts.

Towards Queenstown – freedom camping!
11 – 12 January 2009

Lisette is getting obsessed with this Lord of the Rings thing! It is given that the views on this drive were more stunnning than anyone can imagine, but Lisette now swears the story is true. We bought a DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring (yes, we have a DVD player in our campervan!) so we can oeh and ahh over the scenes we've seen. Anyways, here are a few of the many, many, many photos that we took along the way...

Today was a great day, the best. We found the most idyllic spot to freedom camp. It was so very peaceful and romantic on a crystal clear lake and not a soul in sight. Yes, the perfect scene for a horror movie, no one will ever find our bodies. Or, to have it Lisette's way: The 23-legged fanged Creature of the Lake, inspired by the LotR could divour us (campervan and all) in the middle of the night and no one will ever know.. But it truly was romantic. We watched the sun go down and stayed at the lake until the blood-sucking flies found us. Inside was as romantic as outside, we enjoyed the view behind the windows with a glass of great NZ pinot gris.

The next morning while Lisette was enjoying a nice hot

shower indoors, Marcel enjoyed his bath in the icy-cold lake outside (sorry, we censored the good bits..).

Lisette drove for the first time today.. we will not give any further comments on this event.

Queenstown
12 – 13 January 2009

Queenstown is a bustling town full of backpackers of every age. There is so much to do from here, bungy jumping, rafting, hanggliding etc. But everything was so crowded and overpriced! Marcel was suffering from injuries to his hands so we were not very flexible with choices of things to do. Then we thought: “screw it”, let's just enjoy the day and not stress about doing something wild and crazy. We have plenty of time. Lots of restaurants in town, so we decided to indulge in Lisette's craving for spareribs, the New Zealand way! Photos: look for the 10 differences!

Towards Dunedin – freedom camping again!
13 – 14 January 2009

After a few detours on Lisette's request for Lord of the Rings locations :-/, we decided to do something crazy: go offroad! We bought some local apricots along the way and then got off the pavement. Our teeth nearly fell out from the bumpy road towards the end, but again our suffering payed off: after 2230 kilometers through New Zealand we saw SHEEP!!!! Another plus: we camped in paradise again at a lake called Whahirangi (except for the blood-sucking vampire flies...Grrr). But Marcel made up for it by cooking a restaurant quality meal, including good wine!



Dunedin and Otago Pensinsula
14 -15 January 2009

We're heading towards the end of our New Zealand trip, and we're noticing it. The pace has slowed down and we're starting to get sad. Dunedin (pronounced “Dunn-din”)is a boring city, we didn't stay long, immediately left to the Otago Peninsula where we had SHEEP to cheer us up! Is it our imagination, or does this sheep look like some sort of Gremlin?


The scenery here reminds us of Scotland, even the people have scottish accents (“you have a wee little camper¨), and the places have scottish names.


The next day we had another (probably our last in NZ) “WOW” moment (see pictures). But a shocking moment afterwards when the camera suddenly had an error lost all the photos!! Thankfully a photo-expert in Dunedin was able to retrieve them, enjoy!