Last time I wrote, almost 2 months ago, I just arrived on South Island in New Zealand. I stayed there for two weeks and got to see quite nice places. Unfortunately, it was not nearly as overwhelming as some people have said it would be. Ok, I am pretty biased by South America. New Zealand simply can't keep up with that. I made some nice hikes in Franz Josef (glacier hiking is great!) and Mt Cook though. A brewery was on the schedule too :o)
Queenstown in the south of South Island reminded me more of Playa del Ingles on Canary Islands ... same people ... same action ... but 24 flight hours away ;o) Had some fun nights out there. My trip to Milford Sound, they call it the number 1 attraction in NZ, was drowing in rainfalls. My last stop on South Island was Christchurch. We had a great night out there too, since many people of the Magic Bus had their last stop.
By the way, I took a lovely sunset picture of the cathedral.You can google and have a look what it looks like now. Anyways, in the end I spent 3 weeks on the Magic Bus experiencing NZ and got to meet quite a lot of nice people. This made all of the trip a great experience, although travelling in a tourist bus is not necessarily my most favorite way of travelling. Luckily I left Christchurch 3 days before the earthquake. I got the news when I was waiting for my flight from Auckland to Melbourne ... creepy feeling. Well, I managed to avoid yet another natural disaster. Thanks for your talisman, Silke!
In Melbourne I met up with Serap who just came straight from Zurich to start her slightly extendend holiday ;o) Though she was kind of unlucky in choosing her holiday destinations ;o) Having New Zealand and Japan on the list made her reconsider her plans ;o) We started the Australia trip with a couple of days in Melbourne. I really like that city. Great places, great people ... a good place to have tons of fun! Great Ocean Road was worth the trip, too. Although at that stage my enthusiasm about travelling had already been severly reduced ;o) After 5 months of travelling I really got tired of travelling. I think Serap had to suffer a lot from that. But at least she was enthusiastic about everything ;o)
Next stop was Tasmania. We booked yet another bus trip to get our lazy asses carried aound the island. Tasmania itself is interesting, but also not as unique as expected. We were a bit unlucky with the weather as it was rainy and quite chilly. Nevertheless, I got to see loads of animals. I loved that. Kangaroos, Wallabys,Tasmanian Devils and alikes. The people on the tour were also great. So the trip turned out to be great fun in the end. Highlight was the night out in Hobart in the end where we got to meet real Tasmanian natives ... they are scary ;o) Its probably the same effect which you have in small mountain villages ...
From Tasmania we flew to Sydney, another fanatastic city. A lot to see during the day, a lot to do during the night. I also managed to find the Austrian fugitve Alex W., who is nowadays hiding in Sydney ;o)
In Sydney Serap and I split our travels, since Serap decided to stay longer in Australia and not go to NZ and eventually Japan ;o) Probably a pretty good decision. I drove up north to Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and Fraser Island. Was fun, but the weather wasnt that good either. After rainy days on Fraser Island I went back to Brisbane to have a good St. Paricks Day Party. Another good night out :o)
From Brisbane I had to fly back to Melbourne to continue travelling on my around the world ticket, which probably was the biggest waste of money during all of my trip. But unfortunately it's best to learn from mistakes ;o) Summarizing my time in Australia I have to say I really enjoyed it. I had great fun and met many nice people. My alcohol consumption drastically increased during my stay in Down Under, what I interpret as a good sign ;o) I will certainly come back to Australia!
Last Monday I left Australia and flew over to Phuket in Thailand. Here it is raining a lot and the meant to be week at the beach is somewhat drowning. Phuket without sun is not necessarily the nicest place on Earth. Also Phi Phi Island in rain is not as beautiful as it could be. But snorkeling was still good. Well, just another 2 days and I will finally have my return flight to good old Germany! I am really looking forward to that. All those chicks with dicks here are scaring me ... time to go home!
