vague but exciting …
As the autumn is really nice and rather warm, Santa and I went for some short hikes around Heslach this weekend. The longer I live here and the more I see, the more I begin to love this part of Stuttgart.
Santa and the view on Heslach
a small puppet-theatre we discovered right around the corner
coming down to Wellington from New Plymouth, I stayed outside Wellington for one night (there was a rugby game NZ / OZ so everything was full). Driving towards Wellington the next morning, I decided I wasn’t in the mood for city, so I took Marvin to the Ferry Terminal and got me a ride to the south island of NZ. Taking over was really fun, getting some saltwater over the deck and a strong mindclearing wind.
Over in Picton I checked in at Atlantis backpacker and spent the next day preparing for a four-day-hike along the Queen Charlotte Track. Going for a walk to the Ferry Terminal with Jesse (an american girl) she spontaniously decided to change her ticket and join me. So we just got some more food, packed our backpacks and relaxed with a nice movie (Before Sunrise, with the sequel Before Sunset runnig at the NZ Filmfestival).
The days in the sounds where really nice! Other that the forecast we had good luck with the weather and with some modifications of our (not really existing) plans we had a dmn good time! One morning I even had to chase a sheep around wich tried to get into my backpack ;-). As we traded our return trip to Picton on the way, we hitchhiked back to Atlantis the last day.
check http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/tim/ for pics
The next day she went off with the ferry to the northern island and I hit the road towards Nelson, giving an english girl from the hostel a ride. In Nelson we were just sipping on a nice long black, talking about where we’d been so far, when we realised that we had been neighbours for two months in Sydney!!! We even had talked across the fence once without seeing each other! The world is soooo small, especially down under ;-).
The Wilsons Promontory was just amazing beautiful nature! Aside the class from melbourne wich was hiking the same way, I was completely on my own with the wildlife. The first day was quite rainy, but all my equipment prooved to be well suited for all conditions. The next two days was mostly sunshine so things got really enjoyable. Each day itr seemed like hiking through a different landscape, the first day it was cold rainforest, the second day was mostly eucalyptus forests and following the coastline over heaps of big rocks, the last day was a mix of beaches, dunes, swamps and mountainforest.
Having the class on the same route, I didn’t get too lonely and had some nice talks in the evenings. As it’s winter over here, the evenings were quite short though, as it got dark around 1730. With the darkness all the nocturnal animals showed up, wombats and lots of different opossums. During daytime there were lots of birds around, Ravens and something like a smaller parrot in red trying to get food out of everything they found, not fearing humans. One of those parrot-thing birds even landed on my head! I even saw a coala, which looked quite dissapointed, as he just found out he climbed a tree without leaves to eat on the top ;-).
After all this nature I got a stay at Daniels (living near foster) place, from where Nadine (german girl on the way home) gave me a ride to Sydney via Canberra where we stayed at Bea&Ros’ place. Arriving in Sydney, Nadine dropped me at the BBQ Party at Holly’s house, where I met up with lots of my sydney friends. Staying at Toni’s place for that night. After a few more nights, staying at Eva’s Backpacker in Kings Cross I got me a cheap VirginBlue flight up to Brisbane, hoping for some warmer weather and sun before leaving for NZ. As my flight to Bris was quite late, I couldn’t get in the backpacker I planned to go to, so I ended up in one of the few places open 24/7 still having free beds (there was a big rugby game that day, so everything was full), the Bunk Backpacker, which turned out to be really nice as well. Still quite young (running for 6 mon), really spacious 4 beds with their own shower and bathroom. A pool and SPA downstairs, next to the bar with a pooltable.
Brisbane itself is quite nice and easily walked in one day. Nighlife is one of it’s big features, thus called Brisvegas from time to time.
Looking forward for some nature after partying there, I booked me on a selfdriving 4wd tour on Frasier Island, staying the night before and after at the Backpacker which organises the tour. After a general briefing in the afternoon, the groups (~9-11ppl) swarmed out to buy food and drinks for the three days. Packing a threedaypack in the evening. After a short sleep we got up early to load the trucks and get to the ferry by 9. Driving around on the biggest sandisland of the world was really fun! The narrow trails through the woods and along the “highways” on the beaches, staying in small basic camps behind the dunes for the night. Beeing experienced in outdoors and camping the camp was set up and running in a short while. Water for the BBQ-pasta boiling on the fire, a cold beer in my hand and heaps of people to chat with around the fire. Way different from the hiking in the Prom, where I had to carry everything myself and cut it all down to the bare basics. the days we spent getting amazing views from spots as the Indian Head, spotting sharks and whales below us, swimming in the inland freshwater lakes or even snorkeling in the Champaign Pools, seeing heaps of different fish. Coming home from the island, I stayed two more nights in the beautiful Koala Resort which organised the tour. Relaxing under some palmtrees at the pool. (for just about 10 euros!!!) Right here in the internet cafe I just booked me on a cheap backpacker bus going down to surfers paradise for the last few days up here in the warm north.