Last few weeks

After the cyclone and oil on the beaches and sea we thought we’d had all nature disasters by now. Just before we prepared for a weak surfing with Adam another cyclone would hit the coast. We really started to worry about some sunshine on the Sunshine coast.

We forced ourselves in the water, despite the few good surfing waves, but we wanted to be on the board anyway. At Alex Headlands we were able the get some good ones. With all the weather this was one of the best spots, so all surfers were here, making it difficult to catch the few good ones. Luckily it’s also a beginners bay and the good spirit of the advanced surfers made us get the ones we could.
Lots of peddling, heavy arms and muscle ache the next day, we surfed well!

Weather predictions still weren’t great but we packed and drove North on Sunday. Chantelle and Richard let us use the “Ute”, a real Aussi car (the Australians say: “every guy has to have a ute!. 12 days on the road with a beaut of a ute. A big engine to overtake everyone and everything on Bruce Highway no 1, the highway that leads traffic from Darwin to Cairns, counterclockwise.

With all our camping gear over 1000 km north. This time 2 tops to keep the tent dry.
A two day drive to Airlie Beach, a touristy coasttown south of the Whitsunday Islands. Don’t get misled by the name of the place, because there is no beach at Airlie. It’s a startingpoint to visit the islandgroup and the Great Barrier Reef. Every 2 shops there’s a tourop to book a trip. We wanted to go to the reef, but not a 180 people, 3 hour to and 3 hour back, snorkle struggle trip. So we decided to do a Catamaran trip along the islands and see some fish there. But the promised coral, fish and swimtime didn’t really do it for us, so we cancelled the free trip and camp stay we got for the next day and headed back south, a bit disappointed.

Agnes Waters for some reason was stuck in our memories from stories of friends and along with the Town of 1770 a place where we, heard only a week ago, that that also is a good Reef and surf spot. So, off to a small village on the coast with a riverside campsite. 5 nights we slept under an amazing sky with the southern milkyway, great scenery, nice people and wildlife

Next to Agnes Waters is the little town of 1770. Captain Cook landed here in the same year. Nothing more that big expensive homes on the mountain wall, a riverside campsite, a café and two little companies organising Reef trips. Also, Agnes Waters is the most north place to surf on the Eastern coast of Australia. For us it turned out to be the perfect place to stay our last week.

We’ve had a great week with lots of sunshine, 2 days of surfing and finishing off with a fantastic trip to the Reef (30 people and 5 hours of wide range snorkle time). We say beautiful coral, fish a seaturtle and 2 sharks! We were happy to discover, again, that we had to follow our gut and our hearts.

Looking back we have done a lot and seen a lot, but not as much as we would have thought we would at the start of the trip.We might have had bad luck weatherwise, because we have seen almost every disaster and weather this country can handle, but even more reason to return to this beautiful place with knowledge we didn’t have when we first arrived. The country is big, unimaginably big and too much to see in a small area. The trip to New Zealand was the extra we wouldn’t have wanted to miss. The family took us in with open arms and accepted us in their lives, a very pleasant feeling.

The heavy bags are packed and ready. Hopefully we don’t have any overweight tomorrow :D

Love, Mijke and Robbert

Here's a link to the pics

Australia last few weeks

Countdown has started

To all our English reading friends; welcome to our weblog, in English.

Today we posted two messages in chronological order. You'll find part one and two of our New Zealand trip at the bottom.

Back in Australia we got the news that a cyclone is on it's way. That means a lot of winds, rain and high surf.

Although we we're really up to surfing we thought it was better to stay out of the water. A too rough a sea with story high waves. Looking at the good surfers is always fun. So, what do you do when your plans are blown away... You pack your bag and head off to the Australian Zoo. The park that is made big by Steve – Crikey! Loooook at it, it's beauuuuuuutiful – Irwin. At this zoo we could see most of Australias wicked animals. From crocs to kangaroos to kookaburra's to wombats. If you are wondering what sound a kookaburra makes, turn on your speakers and imagine yourself sleeping in bed at 5 o'clock in the morning..... Don;t you just want to laugh just as hard as them? We do!!!!
That's why we don't mind that these funny birds wake us every morning (a lot of aussies do mind it)



Click play to release the kookaburras.


The cyclone has moved to sea and we we're ready for another day at the beach. We thought! The cyclone hit an oiltanker at sea which lost most of it's load. A big stretch of the beach is now covered with oil! A big environmental disaster for Australia and a big holiday disaster for us. So we went to have a look at the mess at the beach instead.



Last weekend we we're invited to camp in Noosa. We stayed at Noosa river and this time not in a tent but a giant motorhome. We've had a great time with the family and had a wonderful warm and sunny weekend despite the bits of rain.

In the meanwhile the oil is as good as cleared and we've been in the surf twice already. Today was excellent. We finally met up with Adam and he took us to a great spot where both Mijke and I caught some very good waves!!

Here's the link to the album for some more pics.

Australia month 3 week 1

Ozzie greetz, Mijke en Robbert

New Zealand - part 2

Because the timetables on several roadmaps didn't match with ours we decided to leave the rain at the westcoast and to drive north in one stretch, off to The Abel Tasman National Park.

The park is known for its beautiful nature with walks and kayaktrips. Motueka is a town from where you reach the park easily. From the i-centre we booked a taxi–hike–taxi trip and a kayak–walk–sailing tour for the day after.

A watertaxi took us to a bay in the park. From there we walked through the park to another bay where the watertaxi picked us up again. After a nice and hot walk we had plenty of time for a swim.
On the way back in the taxi the sea was rugged and the kayaks in the water were having a hard time. Oh oh, we have to do that tomorrow!



Luckily the next day the sea was very mild and with a small group of 6 people we could really enjoy the views and the furseals laying on the rocks. After a proper coffee break it was only a short peddle to the next part of the day. A short walk across the mountain led us to another bay with a large Catamaran. Here we would sail back to Kaitiritiri, the town where the watertaxi dropped us yesterday.

About 15 passengers were on board the catamaran of captain Alan. He first motored us out to a couple of sites. After that he asked Mijke grab the helmstick so that he could raise the sails. You should have seen the eyes of the others. The captain let Mijke sail the whole journey and eventually it came to a race between him and Mijke who could sail the boat the fastest; 10.6 during the competition.



Totally satisfied we arrived back at the cabin. We wanted to stay a day longer to go to sunny old Golden Bay but unfortunately the cabin was already booked for the following night. After a phone call to a holiday park right at Golden Bay we we're making ourselves ready for a nice day at the beach

That's what we've hoped for. Reality was different though. After arriving at Pohara it came poring and we didn't spent much time at the beach.

The next day we were off to Nelson, the arts and craft “capital” of the island. For over 20 years they hold a fashion show with wearable art which we viewed at the museum of Wearable Art.

The last day of the trip we went to Hanmer Springs to stay in their famous spa's. A beautiful ride through the stretching nature. De so called famous Springs weren't as special as we'd hoped. The sulfur smell was just too much and it was basically more a family swimming pool than a proper spa. We enjoyed the hot pools and the picture taking....

Well, that brings an end to our New Zealand trip and we're getting ready to be back in the surf in Australia. New Zealand is truly a wonderful country where we will definitely return.

Here are the pictures of the last week in New Zealand

New Zealand - part 2

Greets, Mijke en Robbert

New Zealand - part 1

For the second part of our holiday we're off to New Zealand. We have three weeks to discover the southern island. With a hired car we cruise through the countryside and sleep in cabins at several Holiday Parks.

First we fly to Christchurch where we pick up our car and stay the first night. Although the counter has more than 244.000 km we could have seen from the outside that this piece of metal is rather old. Noting down all scratches and putts on the form the lady kept ticking spots off on our directions. A thick fat scratch on the form would do the job!

And old it was, we discovered that after the first night. De battery had run flat! Hm, maybe a good idea to turn the lights off next time... The trip first went to the the nearest fellow traveler who could help us out. Luckily we could continue our trip quite quickly.

In Oamaru we saw very tiny pinguins (blue ones), which we couldn't put on a picture.
Dunedin (say: Duneedin) is a nice collegetown where we checked out all of the Peninsula. On a little sandbeach we could come really close to a sealion taking an afternoon nap. On top of the hill, next to a field full of sheep (what else) we visited a local organic sheepswoolshop. We had a nice chat with the lady owner and bought a warm sheepswoolen scarf because the New Zealand summer is quite like the Dutch summer.

That one long pants just didn't do it for us. Because after a week we could cook soup out off it, so we needed an extra pair. So we went to the local Kathmandu in Invercargill. And we are so fund of those hinking pants...

The highways in NZ are extreemly long and straight. You still wonder where the road will go after the hill. Off course, straight ahead again. It gets a little boring after 3 hours of flat land, straight roads and being surrounded by sheep all day long. Beeeeeeeeh.



View Larger Map

At Milfort Sound we made a boottrip through the Fiordlands. Despite the rain it was magical.

After Te Anau we went to Queenstown where we boogieboarded off a river! With guides we went down a river where pussys take a boat. HA! We just took a piece of carbon and a pair of flippers and crashed ourselves between the rocks!!
We really loved Queenstown with all the nice little streets, cafes and shops, but unfortunately we already booked two nights ahead and had to leave again the next day.

We hiked up to the base of Mount Cook. Before we got there we drove passed a magical lake. It was still very cloudy and rainy, but it as if the weather was clearing up, which was impossible with the rain and all. The reflection of the lake colored the the bottom of the clouds a beautiful turqoise.
Like as if a big swimming pool was build in between the mountains. The lake Pukaki get this color from the minerals out of the glacier water.
Fortunate for us, because this was basically the spot where we picked the southernn island for, the weather cleared during the day and we had a wonderfull time and made the best pictures.



Lake Tekapo is also such a lake only less turqoisy, but still very impressive. Because the weather was keeping up the good work and because we had a nice lakeview ensuite cabin we decided to stay an extra night. We also really needed to doe some washing and a day “off”.

At this point more than a week has passed already and we had to make decisions of what we really wanted to see and do. That meant skipping a town here and there.

Glentunnel is the next stop to continue our trip to the Westcoast via Arthurs Pass. That's one Holiday Park we will skip next time. An old shabby Park with nothing there except an 18 hole golfcourse on the side. So we gladly used our free afternoon and played 7 holes.

The ride through Arthurs Pass was beautifull. Top that with a capuccino in the sun and good walk in the woods and there's another perfect day.

It got even better when we arrived in Hokitika. After dinner we drove to the beach for one of the most beautifull sunsets we have ever seen. Check out the pics. We didn't shop them, honest.



Then, a highlight of the trip. We had a Helicopter ride on top of the Frans Josef glacier where we walked over the ice! Just incredible.



So, now we're getting ready voor the last week already. Going north to the southern island. Abel Tasman Nat. Park with hopefully better wetter too.

From a rainy Greymouth, love, Mijke en Robbert

Here are the pics of New Zealand so far

New Zealand part 1