Silja: Sydney – Perth

 As you may have guessed from what Niklas and Lisa wrote in their posts: Sydney was wonderful and we had such a great time! Our friends took us on a motor yacht cruise through Sydney Harbour and to a secluded cove where we all swam and had a barbeque on the boat. The boys dived off the boat and even little Lea could not get enough of floating in the water, even though she literally fed the fish after swallowing some saltwater. (Her comment: "Oh, that is just a little strawberry."and judging by the colour it was.)

Other days were spent at and in the pool in the garden and at Manly Beach.

As I said: We all loved it and it was sad to say good bye!

We took an early morning flight to Perth, excited to pick up our new home for the next four weeks.

The taxi driver had a hard time finding the sheds in the roadwork area. It then turned out that we obviously have been victims of fraud, since the agent whom we made the booking with, gave us a price and contract over $1000 cheaper than what Apollo wanted to charge us. The deposit was also made to her, not Apollo. Long story short: We lost a lot of time and money and are still having various trouble with this rather old motorhome. Looking at the bigger picture though: Everything is well!

Still Sydney...

We struggle a bit adapting to the heat, but since we are heading South that should get better. We spent two days in beautiful Perth, where there is so much to see that we will have to spend more time there on the way back. 

Woodman Point, a regional park, was our next stop. We went to the beach in the morning and the snorkeling was great: Lots of fish, starfish, crabs and even a stingray!

We are now in Mandurah, where we booked a dolphin cruise. Even though we were so unlucky not to see dolphins, I still thought it was great to cruise through Venice-like canals, but the kids were so not impressed after having been speeding through Sydney's waters on Kylie and Alex's boat. (That day now ranges second to Disney Land!)

Lisa og Charlotte leker kafé / Lisa und Charlotte spielen Café

 Jeg fikk en ny venn, som heter Charlotte. Hun ble min beste venn. Vi danset, vi lekte kafe og vi malte. Det er veldig artig med Charlotte!
I går kjørte vi båt hele dagen lang.
På bilde ser dere meg foran Harbour Bridge i Sydneys havn. Når jeg er stor skal jeg bo i Sydney!


Ich habe eine neue Freundin gekriegt, die Charlotte heisst. Sie wurde meine beste Freundin. Wir tanzten, spielten Cafe und wir malten. Es ist sehr lustig mit Charlotte! 
Gestern sind wir den ganzen Tag Boot gefahren. Auf dem Bild seht ihr mich vor der Harbour Bridge im Sydneys Hafen. Wenn ich gross bin, werde ich in Sydney wohnen!

Niklas: uke 12 / Woche 12

Jeg og Henri på båten

 Niklas hopper fra en båt for første gang
Nå er jeg i Sydney hos en familie. I går var vi på en båt og kjørte til to strender. På den første stranden hoppet jeg og Henri fra båten. Ved første forsøket slo jeg hodet mitt men på andre forsøket klarte jeg det!

Niklas springt zum ersten Mal von einem Boot 
Jetzt bin ich in Sydney bei einer Familie. Gestern waren wir auf einem Boot und fuhren zu zwei Stränden. Beim ersten Strand sind Henri und ich vom Boot gesprungen. Beim ersten Versuch habe ich mir den Kopf angehauen, aber beim nächsten Versuch habe ich es geschafft!

Kylie lar meg styre båten!

Christchurch

Niklas in the new center of Christchurch

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 We were not quite prepared for what met us in Christchurch. It has almost been a year since the devastating earthquake on 22nd of February and still the whole citycenter is closed off. A soldier guarding one a the bridges into the center, letting builders in and keeping silly people like us out, spelled it out for us: There is not really much to see any more...
He sent us to a makeshift shoppingsenter built out of shipping containers and on our way towards it we became aware of the depressed feel to this still devastated city, where lots of people lost their businesses, houses, loved ones or lives. Sooner than planned we left what felt like a war sone and moved south towards the sea, where found Orton Bradley Park. What a great place run by very friendly people! They had old village houses to visit and several walking tracks, an adventure playground and a sheep farm, where they let us watch the sheep sheering the next morning. We were allowed to pitch in, collecting the woll off the floor and then compress it. We all loved it and Lea refused to get out of the big bag full of cuddely, (smelly) wool.
Our last day in NZ was spent at Willowbanks Wildlife Reserve, where we got to see Kiwis(!!!) and lots of other animals. That was a great way to end our stay in NZ, we thought - and then we could not leave the country. Due to tecnical problems our Emirates flight to Sydney was cancelled and when the rebooked 350 people, total chaos broke loose... We spent the night at a hotel (great dinner buffet!) and then we came back the next morning at 5 o'clock to learn that we could not take that flight either. Finally we got to Sydney via Auckland at lunch time - but that is a new post altogether.

Silja compresses wool, inappropriatly dressed.

Lisa: Lisa er sterk!

Hvordan tror dere fikk vi til dette bilde?

 

 En dag var vi i en park - en veldig fin park, hvor det fantes en labyrinth og et skjevt rom med en stol, som kjørte oppoverbakke uten at man måtte skyve den. Baller trillet også oppoverbakke og vannet fløt oppover. Veldig merkelig!

I det siste har jeg sett masse dyr, som pinguviner, delfiner og sel. Vi tok mangete fine bilder. Dette  er den mest sjeldene pinguvinen. Vi kom gansker nærme. Den hadde akkurat hentet mat til ungene sine.

Einmal waren wir in einem Park -einem super Park mit Labyrith og einem schiefem Raum mit einem Stuhl, der bergauf fuhr ohne geschoben zu werden. Bälle rollten bergauf und Wasser floss hoch. Sehr seltsam!

In letzter Zeit haben wir viele Tiere gesehen, wie z.B. Pinguine, Delphine und Seehunde. Wir machten viele Photos. Dies ist der seltenste Pinguin. Wir kamen ganz schön nah ran. Er hatte gerade Futter für seine Jungen geholt.

 

Niklas: Uke 10 / Woche 10

Vi så 2 isbreer. Senere var vi i en labyrint. Der var det mange vanskelige veier. Etterpå tok vi dette bilde og huset var festet på en stang langt nede i jorden og vi sto sånn at det så ut som om vi holdt huset.

Wir sahen 2 Gletscher. Später waren wir in einem Labyrinth. Dort gab es viele schwierige Wege. Danach machten wir diese Photo und das Haus war an einer Stange im Boden festgemacht und wir standen so, dass es aussah, als würden wir das Haus halten.

Silja: Franz Josef Glacier - Fox Glacier – Milford Sound – The Catlins

 We drove towards the Southern Alps and the views became more and more stunning. We arrived in Franz Josef, a buzzing little town where you can book helicopter flights and glacier tours everywhere. The other places are either motels or a cafés.

It was possible to drive relatively close to the glacier, so it took about half an hour to walk the path with maaany other pilgrims towards the receeding glacier. Since we were not allowed to get close, the experience did not stand out from other (Norwegian) glaciers we have seen.

The view of Fox Glacier, which we visited later the same day was better and Lisa and Axel, who were a bit ahead of us, watched a huge ice block break off. Lea, Niklas and I just heard the thundering noise. We had fallen behind because Lea had stumbled over a rock and we had to wash her bleeding knee in the nearby creek. On the way back Niklas ran and tripped over the same rock and we had to wash his bleeding knee in the nearby creek.

The maze at "Puzzling World"

Our southward journey from then on was dominated by one thing – sandflies! They were everywhere and in incredible numbers. It is a little fly with a  bite that is extremely itchy for days.

They do not really seem repelled by our insect repellant, so we bought the local stuff which turns out to be more than ten times as poisonous and now I am afraid that it will kill me before it kills them (- and it will definetely not go on the kids, who run around in long clothes and buffs in warm weather...) We all run, actually, because it is the only way to get rid of them. We ran to viewpoints like «Knight's Point» and «Ships Creek», where we saw seals and we ran to «Blue Pools» and «Fantail Falls» who have such descriptive names that I need not say more.

When we arrived in Wanaka the worst was over and we had a great day at «Puzzling World», an amusement park with a huge maze outside and rooms full of optical illusions inside. Great fun for all of us! Team «Niklas and Silja» just about beat team «Axel, Lisa and Lea» in the maze, which took about an hour to complete.

In Queenstown we realized for the first time, that «the Kiwis» were on holiday, too. The place was absolutely packed! This is where you go when you want to bungyjump, paraglide, kayak, mountain bike...you name it! Helicopters were lifting off constantly, hovering over speedboats on the lake.  With three kids and being almost double the average age, we stuck out like sore thumbs.

Te Anau, which is even closer to Milford Sound and offers the same combination of a big lake with beaches and nearby mountains had a much more relaxed feel to it. Lovely place! From there it is a 120 km drive to Milford Sound, which tour-operators do in a day. It took us two days with New Year's Eve spent right by a river in one of the many campgrounds run by the DOC (Department of Conservation). I am so glad we took that rather long journey into Fiordland and I have a feeling that we were very lucky with the weather.

We continued southward and spent a nice day in Invercargill. Their tourist information is a gallery and a museum at the same time, situated in Queens Park, where they have a playground, a small zoo and gardens. We did not get much further that day and stayed on a campsite at a beach near Fortrose together with kite surfers and other travellers from around the world and in the evening we all gathered around a campfire on the beach and exchanged experiences and tips.

The next day in the Catlins was incredible: At Waipapa Point we saw a sea lion on the beach and found wonderful little fossils of snails. Only a few kilometers further, in Curio Bay, we got to see a petrified forest and yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest penguins in the world! They got out of the ocean and headed for their nests that were hidden in bushes, passing right in front of us! When we got to the next beach, Porpoise Bay, we saw numerous Hector dolphins (also rare!) playing in the waves and checking out people swimming in the water. Sometimes they even jumped, which Axel managed to get a photo of. Lisa, who has a thing for dolphins and whales, was over the moon – and so was I!