East Coast

Hello Peepz,

Great to see you reading my blog again, thank you for that! How is everyone doing?

I started writing like I did before, describing my three weeks what I did on what day. But I guess that will be a bit boring to be honest, because it is a lot of the same. And I want to try to make a shorter version for you guys. (Read: I really try…)

So the East Coast of Australia, I started in Surfers Paradise because I had just three weeks left. From there I was travelling with Greyhound, this is a hop on- hop off bus. So my Itinerary looked like this: Surfers Paradise -> Byron Bay -> Noosa -> Rainbow Beach / Fraser Island -> Rainbow Beach -> 1770 / Agnes Water -> Airlie Beach / Whitsundays -> Magnetic Island -> Cairns / Great Barrier Reef -> Daintree Forest.

I will tell you my highlights of the city’s I have been in starting with Byron Bay, because Surfers Paradise was just a beach day for me.

Byron Bay: I stayed there for three nights and experienced the hippie vibe over there, the best thing I my opinion was the lighthouse walk. Nice do do something challenging again and get something in return. I spotted some whales in the sea and the view was amazing! Byron is also famous of the nightlife, so I experienced this myself with a few or maybe few few drinks. Main beach of Byron is pretty nice as well.

Noosa: I love Noosa and I know that because I already have been there before. This time it was just for meeting up with my friends. I finally saw my Finis friend Anu, who I hadn’t seen in 6 months and my Estonian friend Liisa, I worked with in Montville. From here we stared our East Coast trip together.

Rainbow Beach/Fraser Island: Rainbow Beach is a lovely place, however we had to be there for our Fraser Island experience. Fraser is famous as the island you can drive your 4WD on. Almost the whole island is covered in sand, off road roads and hills. In a big 4WD room for 8 people we stared our tour, actually I did because I began with driving. We went to Lake MacKenzie which is a lake of fresh water. The driving was fabulous, not easy though, so even more interesting in my opinion! The beautiful view point and Champagne pools were stunning. And the cherry on the cake (no idea if you can use this in English, but Dutch people will understand me) a couple of wild Dingo’s, camping, sand boarding and meeting awesome people made this trip absolutely fantastic!

1770/Agnes Water: the most Northern spot on the East Coast for surfing. Yes that was exactly what I did over there. I took a lesson together with Anu, Liisa and two Austrians (Verena and Laura we met at Fraser Island) and had an epic afternoon. We even got some great pictures from our surf skills. Surfing is so much fun even if you are not good at it (just still like me). And a campfire in the evening was nice and cozy. Great hostel (Cool Bananas), lovely people, awesome surf school!

Airlie Beach: somewhere I really looked forward to. I love the ocean, I love snorkeling and I love being on a boat. Our 3 day sailing tour to the Whitsundays started from here. Sailing on a big Catamaran with a flat ocean and a lot of sunshine. We had the possibility for snorkeling up till 4 times at The Great Barrier Reef. What an amazing marine life and reef I have seen, so many turtles and rare and big fish. But of course the view of the famous Whiteheaven Beach was magical. Jeeeeee….. How beautiful can a place be. No words for it! You have to experience it. And the sailing tour: stunning sunsets & sunrises, great company and amaaaaazing food. You can imagine how this trip was like! Everyone should have an opportunity to do something like this at some day.

Magnetic Island: yeah… the name of the island has it’s reason I guess. Still travelling with Verena, Laura, Liisa and Anu we arrived on this Island. Spotting wild koala’s and rock wallabies was one of the main goals. But we got some perfect views, a lot of fun and driving in our renting car was great either. I did the Wild Life Sanctuary over here too. Again cuddling with a koala, holding a snake & turtle, padding a crocodile & wombat and learned a lot about those animals.

Cairns/Great Barrier Reef: I had to say goodbye to my friend Any. She had time and wanted to stay longer at Magnetic Island (I definitely see why). It was sad, but I will assure you: we will see each other again somewhere in the world!! From Cairns I had the Great Barrier Reef trip together with Liisa. I booked an intro dive but wasn’t sure what to expect. I started that day with a snorkeling session, which was absolutely fantastic. The reef was so colorful and so many fish. I love it. Then the explanation for diving. I was a little nervous. Necessary? No absolutely not! Now I understand why so many people are diving. It is magic, a different world, so free and beautiful to see the marine life from that close. Again turtles and even a white reef shark, I have seen amazing things. I enjoyed it so much that I went into the water a second time. Again an fantastic day, again realizing it has to do something with/on/in the ocean. Love it, love it, love it!!

Last but not least, Daintree forest: A daytrip just to experience it. I had the most enthusiastic tour guide ever and he really made my day. He had such a good vibe, information and humor. I was thinking that I hadn’t seen any wild crocodiles in Australia (it was okay, you can’t have everything). But seriously on this trip, I saw at least SEVEN! Out of the water, not moving, some were bigger than others but what an animal. I also spotted a wild cassowary, a big blue bird which is really rare. Next to that it is really special to see how the sea and rainforest can be that close to each other. Great day, great views. I ate dinner (Domino pizza) and a drunk a beer together with Liisa while we were watching the sunset at the beach. What else do you need on your last day in lovely Australia?

I have noticed, even I tried to keep it small it didn’t work. I think Australia is just too good to be true. Every time it is blowing me away of how beautiful or special it can be, how relaxed I am if I am here. And ready for leaving this amazing country? I definitely was NOT! But of course I was curious about South East Asia and I booked my flight, so I took my plane and said goodbye. I don’t even know how to end this blog, how to say goodbye to all the beauty. I think the best way is: I’ll be back Australia!!

Every single person I met: thank you for making my last 10 months the best of my life so far. Australia, New Zealand thank you for having me! What a bless, what a love and what an experience. WOW!

Lovely people back home, as I said, thank you again for reading! At the moment my last week started. So I will enjoy my spare time I have left. All the best for you all! And you can find more pictures in the East Coast album.

Kisses and hugs from Ozzie fan!

Westcoast: "Oh my beautifulness"

Hi there folks, how’s everyone doing?

As some of you might know, I have been travelling along the West Coast from Broome to Perth. After looking for a job for a month in Brisbane and working in Montville for three months, I was really excited to continue travelling again. It was a bit strange to leave Montville, because I liked working there, I liked the people to work with; however I am in Australia to see the country so let’s do it! I flew to Broome where the weather was nice (read 30 degrees), close to the beach and a nice hostel with swimming pool. Great start!

On the Wednesday evening I walked into my hostel room, time for preparing my bag for starting the tour. And guess what? Two of my roommates should become my tour mates in the next morning.
A big 4W drive bus arrived with big letters ADVENTURE TOURS, that must be ours. We took a seat and drove 600 kilometers to a big Cattle Station. A group of 21 people with all different age groups starting from 24-75 years. We had some dinner talked a bit more and went to bed. An early morning appeared, 6am was departure and we drove up to Karijini National Park. It was promising after many great experiences from a lot of people in this part of Australia.

We had arrived the campsite, which should be our accommodation for the next three nights. Two person’s tents were set up, with a stretcher and a swag, great to go camping again! There was only one problem: the forecast told us it was going to be cold, especially during the night. However, first time for a swim in a gorge. Beautiful rocks, bit of a climb to get down but it was a beautiful spot with a waterfall; I should tell you, the water was quite ‘refreshing’. A nice Spaghetti Bolognese made everyone a bit tired, in combination with cold/fresh air because it was an early night.

Waking up was different than the day before.. After a “good morning” the question was: “How did you sleep”? And believe me, 95% answered with: “It was freezing” or a similar fraise to that. However, we survived and time for another walk at another gorge. You start walking, talking with your tour mates and then: WOW. Three beautiful lakes where you could swim in, amazing scenery with the rocks and perfect blue water! Trying this beautiful water was something I wanted to do, so I went in the last lake. The information centre informed us with some history about the environment and aboriginals. In the afternoon we played games, drunk beers and so on.

After another freezing night it was time for some adrenaline, named Canyoning. Maybe you will remember it, if not; I did this in New Zealand. Some clumsiness, some laughing at each other and yes we wore our Canyoning gear (which means 3 layers of wetsuits) and drove to the entrance of the gorge. A place with the oldest rock formation in the world, how awesome is that! What a day with: tubing, rock climbing, abseiling, swimming and traversing. It was quite chilly, but great adventure, beautiful views and great company.

The last night in Karijini National Park was the warmest. Not because of the temperature, but I learned that I had to wore more layers. Now you probably ask yourself the question, how cold is cold? I will answer this for you. The first night was 3,6 degrees, the second night was 2,1 degrees and the third night was 2,3 degrees; no heaters applied. I found out a sleeping bag for 15-8 degrees is not enough in this case! That sounds funny doesn’t it? Let’s say: “You’re never too old to learn!” Our group existed out of a bunch of Australians and what they just kept on saying was: “You’re from the Netherlands, you should be used to the cold”. Hard to explain that we live in nice, warm and good isolated houses. Anyhow it was an awesome experience, and the beauty and awesomeness of Karijini National Park was it definitely worth!

Time to head off to Exmouth. I am a quick learner, okay not always true but we had a long drive ahead so I was smart this time and clamed a seat in the front. Lots of space, Kim was keeping me company and together with (driver/tour guide) Zane we had an awesome day! Starting with a sunrise and driving during sunset made it even better. The time flew by. Arrived another campsite this time with a nice warm campfire, had dinner and had a couple of drinks at the campfire. What a lovely evening.

After a good night of sleep, we foresaw a fantastic day ahead. Jumped on the bus, swop the vehicle “bus” for “boat” and drove on the ocean. We got some swim gear on: wetsuit, snorkel, mask and flippers. Some explanations of safety instructions and then it was time for jumping in the water. Snorkeling in the beautiful Ningaloo Reef. Amazing sea life, like: a turtle, octopus and lots of colorful fish. We jumped on the boat again and went further into the sea. The boat stopped, time for the ‘real’ activity: “swimming with whale sharks”.

Oh my beautifulness, what a special activity is this. What a bless we had the opportunity to do this. Such a big ‘fish’ in his natural environment and we could swim along with them. Such a beautiful skin, such clear water and lots of opportunities to get an awesome picture with it as well. Wow, wow, wow. Oh and I forgot to tell how awesome the food was, how awesome the staff was and how awesome the weather was. Just a perfect day. Even when you think it couldn’t get any better, it happened. Humpback Whales showed themselves. More than one, more than just shown. They waved, they dived, and they came close. Jeeeeeesss, what a luck and happiness on this day. Being in/on/at the water here in Australia is Indescribable!
Unfortunately we had to take a seat in the bus again. Drove a bit and arrived in Coral Bay where bunk beds in a building where waiting for us. Great to see how good or funny people are in pool and table tennis with some boos. What a day, what a day and what a blessing, wow!

Still reminiscing from yesterday a new day appeared. A part of the group went for a manta ray tour, similar to the whale shark day. A part of the group would rent some snorkeling gear. But Coral Bay would not be Coral Bay, if there was not a beautiful opportunity to see coral in the bay. A little sleep in, enjoyable morning and a beach day it was. Beautiful reef, so close to shore and so shallow. The sea life is amazing, the coral is stunning and the beach is super relaxing! Great, great, great. Watching the sunset with a beer was definitely the way to end this beach day. Once again the evening turned into a competition play yard with lots of fun. Thank you Ningaloo Reef for those amazing days!

Long drive day 6 ahead, to get to Monkey Mia. Apparently a famous place, not sure why and what to expect. First, back to thousands of years ago, stromatolites: the first breathing creatures on earth. They look like a rock but apparently feels like your hand skin. The sunshine with clouds turned this place into a breathtaking place. The second stop was another beach, a rare one for Australia this time: “Shell Beach” exactly, a beach full of shells. The water was so clear and nice, perfect photo shoot spot. Monkey Mia is located in Shark Bay, really good, a bay with a lot of sharks. There is just one resort/hostel directly at the beach. We watched the sunset and repeated the night like all the others.

For the next morning there was something special on the itinerary, feeding wild bottle nose dolphins. Aaaahaa there we go, that’s the reason it’s that famous! We could line up till our ankles in the sea, in one straight line. The dolphins were swimming in such shallow water right in front of me and the water was perfectly clear. With some nice close up pictures as a result. And to make the morning even better, Angie (one of my friends) got chosen to feed the dolphin and she picked me to come with here. I was literally in front of the dolphin, so amazingly close. And during the second feeding time, I could come again that close to this beautiful animal. Wow, wow, wow! Unfortunately the dolphins live in Shark Bay and got attacked by sharks a lot; most of the dolphins had a lot of scars.

We’re getting closer to Perth but still a lot of kilometers to drive, so made myself comfortable in the bus again. Beautiful scenery from the bus, and a stop at Kalbarri National park for a short walk. However, short or not, it was beautiful again. Then we were a bit in a rush so we could stop at Murchison Gorge. Nice climb down the rocks to get to the gorge, yes yes stunning! And walking back during sunset was even better. Strange to realize it is the last night, but time for some games and drinks again.

Last day, early day, pancake breakfast, long drive ahead. Still some activities on the itinerary. Pinnacles Nambung National Park, weird that it seems like a rock, it feels like it and actually it is a tree root. Still in the dessert, so everything is orange and in the background you see white (I mean white) sand dunes and the sea. So many different landscapes in one area. And instead of just watching the sand dunes, we used it for sand boarding. The boards were not that good, but still a lot of fun. And there it was, Perth, the end of the tour. Unbelievable what I have seen, what I have done and with great company. To end this tour properly we went out for dinner with some lovely people from the tour. Thank you all for made this happen. I enjoyed everything so much!

One last day on the West Coast, the trip to Rottnest Island. It’s famous for the Quokkas, another native animal of Australia. I should describe it as a mixture of a rat, wallaby and maybe a squirrel? However, the happiest animal of the world in my opinion. Next to that, there is more for visiting Rottnest Island. It has beautiful views, great to explore by bike, almost no traffic, some history and the chance to spot sea life like my friend and I did: dolphins! I couldn’t wish for a better ending of this trip.

Sorry for the enormous story and the waiting time of a new post. At the moment I just arrived in Bali and have more amazing adventures of three weeks East Coast. That will be published soon. Pictures of the Westcoast are to be found in the album: Westcoast.

Thank you for reading about my adventures again! Cheers, xx!!

Road trip Sunshine Coast

Helloooo hellooo!

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I went on a road trip along the Sunshine Coast. I did this together with my friends from Argentina I met in Brisbane. They are travelling with a campervan and they picked me up here in Montville. We started our road trip at the Buderim Falls. We suspected a short walk so Mariel and I wore flip flops, but eventually it turned out that it was quite a long walk, how funny? Luckily it was an easy walk so not too bad for our poor feet. However, the falls were really nice. Later that day we arrived at our hostel in Mooloolaba. Did some grocery shopping and had dinner. We went out for a beer and played some games in a pub.

On the second day of the trip we started with a stand up paddle boarding tour. The hostel was offering it for free, definitely something we had to do. And guess what? It was really nice. It is quite a balance sport, but once you get the balance it is not that hard anymore. After that we had some swimming pool rest (try to get some tan) and visited the beach. In the evening we had our lovely barbecue dinner at the beach and we talked a lot. We learned a lot about the differences in our cultures and enjoyed the lovely evening. The next morning we decided to go surf. The hostel was renting the surfboards for free as well (I know, how awesome is this hostel that everything is for free?!) and asked them where to go. I was teaching Fernando and Mariel how to stand up and went into the water. The current was pretty strong so it was not easy to stand up at all! It didn’t really matter, because we had lots of fun. I gave them a bit of the surf feeling and the weather was awesome! After our surf session we continued our road trip up to Inskip. We arrived at 5pm ish and set up my tent. We literally ran to the beach for watching the sunset, otherwise we would have missed it. It was stunning! The sky was orange, pink, yellow or whatever color, just awesome! In the evening it was time for playing the Dutch game “regenwormen”.

The next day I started my day with a beautiful sunrise at the beach. Had a good breakfast and went to some sand dunes with a lookout spot. Waaaauuuw. Every single time I am impressed by the fact that Australia has so many beautiful spots. It’s just stunning. We spend here a couple of hours and took a lot of pictures, you just never get bored of it. Then it was time for another beach. What a lovely day was it. And again we ended our day by playing games. The next day in the morning we packed up everything and drove back to Montville, because I had to work in the evening. Maybe it sounds as a boring trip, but it was a really good break and awesome to being out of Montville. And it was great to sleep in a hostel again, went for camping, saw amazing spots, enjoyed the weather and learned more about the Argentina culture. Nice nice nice!

My hours are a bit bad lately, what brought another opportunity for travelling. This time I went with my housemate (read co-worker) for two nights to Stradbroke Island on recommendation of my other co-worker. We booked a hostel for two nights and there the new travel started. By public transport it takes forever to get somewhere. Luckily our other housemate could bring us to the train station in Palmwoods which decreased our travel time from 6 hours into 5 hours.

So after a long travel morning we arrived at the Island. Dropped our luggage at the hostel and took the bus to the lookout point. Over here we were meeting a friend of my housemate and did the Boardwalk along the coast. It was a short walk, but again with amazing views. There were kangaroos and lots of beautiful views. We walked back via the beach, went for a swim and watched the sunset. We only made one mistake: we thought we could walk back on a sandbar -> WRONG!!. The water was increasing so quickly that we almost got in trouble, it was scary at that point but now we can laugh about it. In the evening we met some lovely people in the hostel.

On the second day we decided to rent a surfboard. Again I was teaching the others how to stand up. The sea conditions were better this time, so we spent a few hours in the water. I managed to stand up almost every time, which made it so much fun for me. Next time I will go further into the sea and try to stand up at the blue waves. In the afternoon we had our late lunch in a nice chilled out café and a lazy evening on the couch with some wines.

On the last day we planned doing a hike to the river. We woke up, the weather was good, and so we got up and ate some breakfast. After breakfast it started raining and it seemed like it was not going to stop for the whole day. We rearranged our plans into a shopping day. We went on an early ferry and went to Brisbane. We spent basically the whole day over there and took the last train back to Palmwoods where our housemate picked us up.

The time is passing by so fast, I can’t even believe it. So I have been thinking about my travels after Montville…. On the 19^th of June I will fly to Broome, the 21^st I start a West coast tour for ten days down to Perth. I will stay in Perth for 2 nights and fly back to Surfers Paradise (Gold Coast). From there I will travel for three weeks along the East coast where I will catch up with my lovely friend Anu I met in Tasmania and will travel together from there. Of course I will do all the highlights of the East coast. On the 24^th on July it is time to leave this beautiful country (by myself) and experience a completely different culture in Southeast Asia. This will be for the last six weeks of my travel year, because on September 4^th I will be back in the Netherlands. It’s scary, crazy and such mixed feelings that the end is getting closer. So I realize now what I have to do even more then I am already doing: “ENJOY” before it’s over!

Next to all this my work is good, my house I life in is funny and my co-workers are awesome. I keep on meeting new great people which is even better and I think I am lucky with sunny weather and 23 degrees during fall. Sounds not bad, does it?

PS: more pictures are in the album: Road trip.

Thank you all for reading, it was a pleasure again.

Cuddles and kisses to you all! Cheers

Back to work

G’day g’day. How are you?

It’s been a while that I posted something, and it proofs that travelling is all about the unexpected adventures. I planned to stay for approximately three months in Brisbane and guess what? I am not there anymore!

My flight from New Zealand was to Brisbane, I got straight to Breeze Lodge Hostel in Kangaroo Point where I had my job interview for the position: “Social Media & Event Coordinator”. The people who know me, knows’ that I was studying “Organizing Events” back home and that this sounds like the perfect opportunity for me. I got the job and started with full excitement. I came up with activity ideas, learned more about the surroundings and explored the city. I stayed with lovely people in the hostel and later on I got my own bedroom. This was the first time in six months that I had my own bedroom and I was as happy as a child. The job was for free accommodation, so I needed to find a paid job next to it. Applying for jobs was like a day job, because you could apply for so many jobs without hearing a thing back! Eventually I found a job in a new venue as a barista, I was happy and it sounded like they could offer a lot of hours. But of course it was different in real life: I started with 8,5 hours, then got 6,5, then 4,5 and finally just 2,5 hours a day. And they gave me 6 days off. Do you believe that? I couldn’t and wasn’t happy with it at all! So I quit this job.

Then the manager of Breeze Lodge wanted to talk to me, and I kind of knew where the conversation was going to. She was really busy and hadn’t enough time to coordinate my job. So she and her business partner decided to stop with the Event Coordinator job for now. So all lines where open again. I didn’t have to stay in Brisbane, because I had no job at all. I started applying for jobs in whole Queensland and in one day I had a job offer. I received a phone call: “We are located in Montville, we can offer a lot of hours when you are good in your job, you got $26 dollars an hour and can stay in the staff house for $104 a week.  Let me know by the end of the day if you take the job, otherwise I will give it to someone else”. I couldn’t even believe what was happening, but what I did know was that I had to take this opportunity. I want to save money in a real short time of period so I can travel as soon as possible. So I called him back and told him I wanted the job. I had to leave Brisbane in five days and I still had a lot of activities on my bucket list. So I was really busy in the last couple of days. I visited the City Botanical Gardens, the Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, the look out from Mt Coot-tha, and the sunset at Kangaroo Cliffs. And something I wanted for over six months.. hold a koala. You can do it in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, so I had to visit it. I did this together with my lovely friend Miku, I met as my co-worker in the hostel. We had an amazing day together and the koalas are soooo cute. To celebrate my last day in Brisbane I decided to go out and have some fun, and believe me that was what I had. Maybe one beer too much, but hey it is all about enjoying your life, right?

And here I am, in Montville. It is a small town at Sunshine Coast but a bit further land inwards. It is in the middle of nowhere. The owners have two venues, the pub and the restaurant. I work at both. I already knew that every time you start a new job it takes some time before you feel comfortable. Yes, there is again much to learn for me. But I will do the best I can, so I can start making a lot of hours pretty soon. The staff house I live in is kind of old and not the cleanest place I have ever been in, but the people I live with are great! I have my own bedroom again and upgraded my boring room with some personal pictures. Let’s say a perfect place for me to live right now because there is no opportunity that I can spend a lot of money. All about saving money and get more experience in another company. And of course, improving my English!

In the last three weeks I work in Montville now, I met a couple of locals. Some where customers and offer me to spend a day or night with them, other people tells me that their daughter loves driving foreign people around and show and tell them a lot about the Sunshine Coast and others are co-workers. Absolutely a great hospitality the Australian people show me, absolutely amazing and I will take the offers.

Next to that, I am still travelling. So when I had two days off I decided to go two Noosa with one of the people I live in the staff house with. We did the Coastal Walk and it was absolutely amazing and stunning views. I was so relaxed and calm and we were lucky with the weather, it was so good. After that we took a couple of beers and watched the sunset at Laguna Lookout, wow! What a beautiful spot is that and it was such a clear nice day for the sunset. Eventually we arrived in our hostel where I walked into someone familiar; I met him at Breeze Lodge so it was good fun to meet him again.

The next day, Ralph and I wanted to do something. At the hostel you could rent a kayak for free (I love places where they offer you things for free) so we jumped into the kayak on the river. It was good fun and we saw army’s off crabs on the sand bars. In the beginning of the afternoon we went to the beach. I literally enjoyed every single second of it. Noosa is great, Noosa is like holiday, what an amazing weekend!

I will do more often some trips like that in the next weeks. Tuesday I will go on an adventure with the couple I met in Brisbane. They have a campervan and we are going to camp for four days. I am already really excited for that.

So even when you haven’t heard from me in a while, I am still doing really well. I am still enjoying this beautiful country and the amazing hospitality from the people they live here. I finally can save some money and start making plans how I would like to end this wonderful year.

I would like to say, thank you again for reading my blog. It is quite a long story and there is so much more to tell. So please feel welcome to text me in person if you want to know more about anything. Enjoy your day and the nice weather you’ve got now!

Lots of love, Kirsten! 

New Zealand 6: big smile

Hello there guys. Ready for the final story of New Zealand? Whether you are or not, here it comes!

From now on I should stay for a couple of days in Queenstown. Something I needed, because travelling from out of your backpack is pretty hard sometimes. I decided that I deserved a good sleep in and woke up at 10.30am. I started to apply for jobs in Brisbane, had some chill time and in the evening went to some bars with two of my travel friends.

The next day was not much better, nice sleep in, groceries, applied for jobs, cooked dinner and had a movie night.

On the third day I set my alarm, woke up and went to my pick up point. It was Funyak day. Do you know what that is? I didn’t had a clue either to be honest. I booked my New Zealand Adventure with a Travel Agency, sometimes I got surprised. We drove for one hour and then they explained what to do. I started with a Jet boat trip, not too bad to do it again, and later on we should jump into an inflatable canoe. That was just great because we let the river do the job. The guide told a lot about the environment and we went to a really really beautiful place. It was a good day!

Maybe you remember from my previous post, I had to reschedule my Swing. So that was what I did this morning. For people who don’t know what it is: it is like a swing in the playground but then between the mountains, start at an absurd height and you are swinging for 300 meters. They tried to get me scared, but I already did the Bungy so this was peanuts. Never mind. I spent my afternoon on the beach at the lake and had a drink in the evening.

How does it sound: walking, climbing, abseiling, sliding and that all in one activity? I should say it is brilliant! I put on a great wetsuit outfit again and went for the Canyoning. Even though we wore good wetsuits the water was freezing. But it was so much fun. Literally in a canyon abseiling, sliding into the water, they drop you in freezing water and I volunteered to jump in it as well. It was adventures, different then a lot of other activities and it ended too soon if you ask me. I think it proves again that I am an outdoor person.

Time to leave Queenstown and continue my way to Mt Cook. I saw this beautiful mountain from a distance before, so I was looking forward to go there. We arrived at the accommodation early in the afternoon so we could do a hike track at Mt Cook. I choose to do the Hooker Valley Track. The wind was so strong it almost blows you away, but it had a special effect which I enjoyed. I had good company to walk with and even when there were a lot of clouds it was beautiful to walk between the glaciers. Oh and maybe a nice fact to know, Mt Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand.

When I left Mt Cook the next day, there was one thing that bothered me.. I need to get an opportunity to swim with dolphins. It seemed impossible, so I booked rafting to end my trip with an amazing activity instead of just be bored in Christchurch. (I think I thought I hadn't done enough activities yet). However, after a stop at the world famous church at Lake Tekapo and some driving we arrived at the place we could hop on the shuttle bus to the rafting place. Once on the river we started quite, time to explain and practice. It got a little more difficult after a while and that changed to difficult. But we listened well to our instructor and we managed to stay upright. We went for a swim, it was more floating trough the river and the current decide where you are going. The whole rafting trip was absolutely amazing.

It took still two hours before we arrived in Christchurch and I used that time for some research. I literally visited all websites nearby Christchurch about Dolphin Swimming or Shuttle buses which go there. I couldn’t find a solution for it. You probably think now, what is the problem? I had just one day left. I had to sleep in Christchurch so I could only do daytrips, because my flight was the next day at 6.50 in the morning. And I couldn’t find any shuttles which were waiting for ending the dolphin swim. But as I told you before Dolphin Swimming is something on my bucket list for years. And swimming with wild dolphins is rare so I took a risk, a huge risk. I booked a return bus to Kaikoura (3 hours drive from Christchurch), booked the dolphin swim activity with Stray (otherwise there were no spots available) and hoped for the best. I distracted my thoughts and went to a festival in Christchurch in the evening. It was nice.

The next day I woke up early, made my ass to the shuttle bus and ask them what time they should go back to Christchurch. They said we are leaving Kaikoura at 3.30pm. I was nervous and excited at the same time. The dolphin swim should end at 3ish, but they can’t make any promises. When the dolphins are not close to the coast they have to go further. At least I arrived in time to start the dolphin swim. Jumped into wetsuits and other gear and got on the boat. After a while the sign was there. We were allowed to go in the water and swim with them. There were maybe hundred of dolphins around! You had to make noise and behave weird, because that interests the dolphins. I went in the water for four times. There was even time to make pictures of them after the swimming. I couldn’t get rid of the smile on my face. It was absolutely the best thing from whole New Zealand!

But now the second important thing, will I make it in time to catch my shuttle bus back to Christchurch? I explained the situation and they told me that the bus will wait for me. I reassured a bit, but not for 100% until I saw it with my own eyes. YES I MADE MY BUS! The best day of my life, I took a huge risk and everything worked out perfectly. Sometimes you need to take some risks. In the evening I said goodbye to Annette and Leonie while joining a beer. What a perfect day was this. I can’t even find the good words to describe what I felt that day. I couldn’t wish for a better last day of an amazing trip through New Zealand.

And as you noticed, this blog is way too long. Sorry! But I can’t tell enough about these six weeks in this country. What a wonderful experience, great views, great people and even better activities. Speechless, or maybe not;)

And thank you all for reading every single blog I wrote. I have to say, I am kind of happy that this is a final post. It takes a lot of time, but I enjoyed it as well. Soon I will share some progress from Brisbane don’t worry.

I case you have, enjoy your holiday if not good luck with work. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Cheers, xxx Kirsten

New Zealand 5: Adrenaline

Good afternoon!

It’s already time for the second last story about New Zealand. Just to remind you, I was in Wanaka.

I had an amazing start this day. The activity was called, U fly: the opportunity to control your own stunt plane. Together with a pilot you are going up in the sky in the airplane. He told a little bit more about the airplane and about the environment. After some practice stunts I did two stunts myself, this was freeking amazing. After that the pilot showed a lot more stunts. The weather was good, my pilot was nice, and the view was awesome! What a lovely and special activity, maybe the best one so far! In the afternoon I walked along Lake Wanaka, which gave me some great views as well.

And it was already time to leave Wanaka, I wish I could stay there longer because it is such a nice place. But Queenstown here I come.. To see Wanaka for the last time from a good view I did the hike at Mt Iron. It was kind of steep, but the view was again totally worth it! We also had a stop at the bridge for a bungy jump to convince people to go for it. In the afternoon we arrived in Queenstown. Explored the city a little and had a nice dinner.

The good thing is they didn’t had to convince me for the bungy, because I already booked it. It was the Nevis Combo: the highest Swing there is in New Zealand and jumping of the bridge from 134 meter. When I arrived I was a little nervous, totally normal I guess. You are not jumping from a bridge every day. We had to wait quite a long time, what was pretty nice actually. I could see everyone coming back with a big smile on their faces and still alive;). It was my turn. Three, two, one, bungy.. and I jumped. Such a weird feeling. Then you came to the point you are going up and falling down again. That was the part I started screaming for a second because you don’t feel you’re attached. That gave an extra adrenaline kick as well. I get excited about it again now I am telling this! Unfortunately the Swing was cancelled because there was too much wind, so I rescheduled it. Later on that day I met Heidi again. We bought our drinks, went to the park where live music was and enjoyed the weather. For dinner we queued ourselves in line at Ferg burger.

Next day I went with Annette to Arrowtown, a small fancy place in style of the gold rush. Not that special but I had a good time together with Annette. In the afternoon I jumped on a boat again. This time on a Jetboat. This is a large Jetski place for a lot of customers. The boat is crossing over the water quite fast and make 360 degrees turns in between. Great experience! I love to be on the water so it couldn’t be bad at all.

After a couple of days in Queenstown I started my trip to the Deep South. My first night should be at Gunn’s Camp. Before we got there we drove to Milford Sounds. We stopped a couple of times for making pictures of the great views. Once arrived at Milford Sound we jumped on the cruise ship. You literally floated between the fjords. They are huge and really nice to see. After this we made a walk at the waterfall as well. The accommodation Gunn’s Camp was different than all the places we stayed before. There was no fridge and the power went off at 10pm. Back to Basic.

I started the next day with a hike track from approximately 2 hours return: Divide Summit. You walked between the tops of the Mountains in that area. The river you could see from the top, divided the mountains from each other (Great name I guess;).We continued our way to Bulls, the place where you have to catch the ferry to Stewart Island (most Southern Island of New Zealand). It was such a long day in the bus and ferry, some good stops in between but I was happy when I finally arrived at the hostel.

The next day was already the last one of my Deep South trip and I had to return back to Queenstown. In the morning I had a sleep in and played some games. Later on I walked to a beach pretty close to the hostel. It was nice! The water was still a little bit dirty because of the cyclone there was before, but I still enjoyed the view. Sophia and I had good fun! In the evening I had dinner with Leonie and some drinks with Lachlan and Sara, good fun to finish the day with.

I am sorry for the length of the blog this time, but I did some amazing activities and like to explain it a bit better to understand what I did. I hope you are not getting bored about my adventures, even though I still enjoy to write about it. I experience every single day again. I should say, thank you again for reading about it, have a beautiful day and hopefully to see you tomorrow on my last one of NZ. I think you know where you can find the photos;).

Cheers!

New Zealand 4:

Kia Ora, let’s do week four!

I think Wellington is quite a good place, unfortunately I haven’t seen anything of it because I got sick. I spent almost the whole day in bed. The next day I drove to Abel Tasman. We took the ferry from the North to the South Island which took three hours. We stopped at a place where we could go for a swim. Really nice spot, our bus driver called it ‘Little Paradise’. In the afternoon I arrived at the accommodation literally next to Abel Tasman National Park.

After a good night sleep I woke up quite early. I booked an activity for the whole day and started with a kayak tour. I saw a couple of seals with little baby seals, it was really cute. After three hours I finished the kayak part and started walking. It was a walk just for 30 minutes or so. The view was absolutely stunning at one point. When I arrived at the beach, I jumped on the sailing boat. The weather was so good, which made the sail trip awesome. Great company, great views, great weather, we played a game. Great time!

On day 25 of my New Zealand trip I did something pretty scary, I went with the helicopter to 16.500ft and jumped out of the plane. Yes, you’re right I did skydive. The free fall was going so fast, they told me it was 65 seconds but it felt like 20 seconds. The view was indescribable, you are so high up and you can watch so far! It was a fantastic experience. I wasn’t even scared at all. Later on I arrived in Westport where I practiced my surfing skills for two hours again.

The next day we travelled to Franz Josef with quite a few stops in between. The first stop was at Pancake Café, where you could do the Pancake track as well. A small walk and perfect for making some nice pictures. I also visited the caves, nothing too special but nice!

Franz Josef is famous because of the Helihike. You’re getting in a helicopter and they bring you up the mountain. Then you will hike on a glacier. Unfortunately it was the day of the cyclone, so everything was cancelled. And not just cancelled, we lost power because trees were falling on the power cables and on the roads. The weather was bizarre, the wind was so strong and the rain so heavy. And because of the weather conditions it wasn’t sure we could leave the next day. The roads were closed, they didn’t had a choice they had to get rid of all the trees on the roads first.

We finally got the answer, we could leave but we changed schedule. Instead of going south to Wanaka we drove to the North up to Christchurch. We missed some beautiful stops along the way because of this, but at least we had a nice bed to sleep in. The next day we continued driving from Christchurch to Wanaka. The view during the drive was absolutely epic, so I am not complaining too much that we missed some great spots. In the afternoon we finally arrived in Wanaka. I went out for a drink and enjoyed the nice Lake Wanaka!

Dear readers, thank you for keep on reading. Have a great day. As you probably know, you can find the pictures of week four in Album New Zealand 4. Lots of love!

New Zealand 3;

G’day again!

I was still in Rotorua. Have you ever dreamed to go in a huge inflatable ball? And make it even better to put some water in and rolling downhill? Yes, that was what I did. I have done three different tracks, all really good. In the afternoon I went for the Luge. You go up hill with a gondola. You get your Go Kart and the only things you have to do are steering and use the brake if necessary. You get your speed because you’re going off hill quite fast. Three different tracks as well, and the advanced track was the best’. Everyone compares it with Mario Kart, and for the ones who knows me.. I had a lot of fun!

The next day I thought it was a great day to relax instead of being busy, so I booked Hells Gate (a thermal spa). I don’t want to be too lazy so I started with a walk from approximately 30 minutes trough the volcanic park. Once in the spa I covered myself with mud in the mud bad and left it on me for 20 minutes. Continued with two other spa’s, totally relaxed for the rest of the day. It was great!

I left Rotorua that morning and drove to Lake Aniwhenua, a town where another Maori Tribe lives. We played some traditionally Maori games, I learned the Haka and made my own bracelet from leaves. After that we had our dinner: the Maori Hangi, which means they steamed our food in a pit with a large fire in the ground. Awesome that Stray offers this place in their itinerary, to learn more about the Maori Culture!

After Lake Aniwhenua we went to a place called, Blue Duck Station. That’s probably why Stray has the slogan: Further off the beaten track. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, no cell phone service and the Wi-Fi way to expensive. Before we arrived there we had a stop at Haka Falls, this was the roughest waterfall of the country and it was hell blue. Nice spot!

In the morning I started with a Bush-Safari (4WD). Amazing to drive off road in the nature and learn more about the Blue Duck, his behavior and living area. The second activity was horseback riding, not really the matter of course for me. But I heard such good things about it, so I had to try it myself. My horse was Ben and he was perfect. He was a good listener and really relaxed. What a good afternoon was this. I just sat in the saddle and could enjoy every amazing view we went in the mountains. And to finish my day I tried some shooting, clay pigeon shooting to be exact. I managed to hit 5 out of 10, not to bad for the first time. The kickback of the gun was pretty intense though.

On day 20of the trip there was an activity scheduled, I was looking forward to for a really long time: The Tongariro Alphine Crossing. A hike from approximately 20 kilometers with stairs, uphill, downhill but overall the best views I have ever seen in my life! It was tough, because I am not use od to do hikes this long and tough like this. But it was totally worth it. So many different views, sometimes I couldn’t even believe my eyes. Wauw, wauw, wauw! In the beginning of the evening I could feel the tiredness of my body already.

On the last day of week three we had to drive a lot. We drove from Raetihi to Wellington. We had a couple of stops in between, but nothing too special. At the end of the day we arrived in Wellington where we had our free dinner. Free dinner? Yes, yes.. of course I took that offer, I am a backpacker.

Thanks again, I hope you enjoyed and see you tomorrow. Xxx Kirsten!