Mount Tamborine

Publiziert am 3. Januar 2012 von Katharina

Happy New Year, guys!

2012, it’s already been a long time ago, when I started my travelling.
So far so good! But guess what, it’s getting more interesting in 12 weeks. The reason is my sister, she’s gonna join my for my travelling to New Zealand and maybe a bit further. :)

I’m still in the mountains and had some nice, but also rainy days up here. I like my work in the retreat and every day is a different day. I’m busy and “doing a great job”, according to my host. The team who I work with, is also nice, even Carolynn from the reception. After meeting her the first time, I didn’t expect that I would like her one day. She’s a special person, though. The last day 2011 and the first day of 2012 were as good as a play. I had off! :) Cruising through the mountains on a hop off and hop on tour was just the beginning.
While I was going from one tasting to another, I got drunk before midnight. Well, before I started “drinking”, I did
a Skywalk in the rainforest, so I saw at least sth. The cheese factory and the MT Brewery were my next stopp. Beer wasn’t that good, but who cares if you’re in good company. :) So, we went
together to our first winery, tasted a few wines and went to the next one. The whole afternoon was gone, when I returned to the retreat. Tired from drinking “everything” together, I went to sleep. Penny, a friend, picked me up an hour later. Originally, we wanted to go to a pool party, but I went again straight to bed. Around 9:00 pm I woke up and found out that Penny had also some drinks and weren’t able to go to the neighbour. We stayed at her place and watched the fireworks
from Sydney on TV. ;) What a nice NYE! ;) I didn’t regret it.

My days are counted here and I gonna miss it already.

New adventures are coming soon, so I’m not too sad! ;)

Many greetings from the mountain

Kat

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Noosa & Brisbane

Publiziert am 25. Dezember 2011 von Katharina

After my trip to Fraser I left Hervey Bay the following day and arrived in beautiful Noosa. Noosa is a nice little town along the Sunshine Coast. A lot of retired people live here, but it’s also famous for triathlon competition. I had one day less than original planned. My choice between Australia Zoo and walking around was quickly made. A canadian guy and another german girl joined me along the coast line and then back via rainforest to the NP entrance. We’ve been walking for three hours and saw two dolphins, a turtle and an eagle. :) On my last half day I went with the other guys to the beach and watched them surfing. I’ll try that maybe next year in Surfers or Byron Bay, let u know!

My bus trip to Brisbane took two and a half hour. The little roll hand luggage was worth it to buy, but I have to sort sth out anyways. Brisbane is the capital of QLD and therefor the biggest city. It became my favourite town here in Australia, as it’s so perfect. Close to the River, nice people, beautiful surroundings, stunning buildings – em – great! Steffi and me spent the most time together. Unfortunately our free botanical garden tour and the Tai Chi lesson were called off. They stopped this offer during christmas time. :( Walking in and around the CBD made us tired, but just before dinner
time we found the best place for a BBQ! Spontanously we bought some food and met again later after getting the rest stuff from our hostels. We didn’t stay in the same, so it’s been always a bit complicated where to meet and do sth. Kangaroo Steak and Salad for me and kind of hamburger in wraps and salad for Steffi. It couldn’t be better. On my last whole day we (Steffi, her friend Catalina and me)
took the bus to Mt Cootha where actually a good view over Brisbane is. The cloudy and rainy weather didn’t give us the expected view
and the next bus to town was an hour later. So we stayed at the restaurant with having a cappuccino, tea and a choclate. Our last evening was supposed to be our going out evening. A XXX for me and
a sparkling wine for Steffi in one of the harbour bars was the beginning of a nice farewell eve. The choice between ice cream and cake for a desert wasn’t easy, but we made it. Sharing a choclate mud cake and a raspberry white choclate muffin at a late time. :) Delicious! My last half day I used for shopping, but didn’t find anything I fall in love with. Anyhow it saved at least some money. Three days before Christmas I left Brisbane and took the train to Mt Tamborine.

Now I’m staying with a nice and busy family in a five star eco retreat over christmas and NYE.
More from here next week.

Merry Christmas
Kat

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Hervey Bay & Fraser Island

Publiziert am 20. Dezember 2011 von Katharina

OMG! Again a few weeks are gone.

Hervey Bay is a nice small village near Fraser Island, the biggest sand island of the world. After checking in, in one of the best hostels I’ve ever been, I enjoyed a beach walk and went food shopping. The beach path was busy, as there still was a triathlon on. I didn’t want to change with the participants, as it was really hot & humid. Bamboo Land was chilly the last two days before I left. The day ended with a few showers and dark clouds around Hervey Bay.
In my dorm was a german girl, who wanted also to do Fraser. So just before closing of the reception, I booked the same two day tour and luckily got a seat. The following day I hired a bike and drove 5 k’s to the longest pier in town and watched the fisher doing their job. ;)

Pick-up time was at 7am, so we (Steffi & me) got up around 6:15 am to have time for a relaxed breakky. At the tour desk, the travel chick told us that they haven’t got enough seats for both of us. Anything went wrong with Steffi’s booking, when the responsible person wasn’t in. Damn it! They offered us to pay an extra night at the hostel, but no more discount or anything. As we do wanted to go together we decided to go on the same tour two days later. Therefor we had to change all our bus and hostel bookings. But it worked out for us! :) As a reward we bought a kilo ham leg from ALDI! :) That was a yummy meal, oh not just one at least three times. ;) We enjoyed two more sunny days in Hervey Bay and were really excited to go on tour. When we looked out of the window on our day, we couldn’t believe what we saw. Rain, clouds and again rain! How could that be, tour rebooking and then such a bad weather. We were so frustrated when we arrived at
the office. Another try to get some discount ended up negativ! :(

Our tour started with six germans, two brasils, an english couple, a spanish girl, an irish guy and a german guide. He moved 17 years ago from Hamburg to Australia. The weather conditions didn’t change much the whole two days and the trip was just average for me. We saw a dingo, stopped at the main spots, like Lake Wabby, Champagner Pool, Indian Heads, the Pinnacles, and finally but not at least at Lake McKenzie. We had two 4WD cars, one was driven by our tour guide
and the other one by a backpacker who wanted. The spanish girl broke the 4WD so the rest of our first day and the whole second day we only were able to use the 2WD. That sucked, as we often had to pull that car out, after getting stucked in the sand. :( All in all everything was disappointing.

But have look at my pictures! :)

A Noosa and Brisbane report is following soon, definately before christmas! Can’t believe it!

Kat

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Bamboo Land

Publiziert am 7. Dezember 2011 von Katharina

Everywhere around you are bamboos, heliconias, gingers and much more! Welcome to Bamboo Land!

My new host for almost 12 days now. When I started my work here it was hot & humid (up to 38 degree celsius). Since two days it’s raining more or less. I’m not used to it anymore, but I still like it. Haven’t got much water-proofed or water-repellent clothes anymore. Damn it! I’m used to the heat! :)

My work is quite simple and variates between potting, cleaning plants for the shop, weeding and moving plants in the greenhouse. The working hours are also relaxed. Start is 08:00am till 09:45am – SMOKO – 10:15am till 12:00pm – LUNCH – 01:00pm till 02:30pm – FINISHED! :) Weekend is also off!

My two dutch workmates left me already last week. So, I’m again by my own. :( The host is busy and work long hours every day. The hot days, I usually jumped in the pool for a cool off after a “hard” working day. Watching movies and running are my other doings here. Not exciting!

Last weekend I rode by bike to the neighbour town Childers. An awesome and shocking trip!

Well, Childers is actually a pretty small town, I loved it. It’s surrounded by some vinyards and orchards, perfect for backpackers. So I saw lots of them in town. I needed two hours from Howard
to Childers (30 k’s) and another two back. The highway was busy with cars, trucks and me of course! ;) The shocking part, I was again object from bloody magpies, which tried to attack me! Why am I always next to there nests, while they are breeding? Luckily, my helmet protected me. Nothing happend! :)

After I’d done half of my return way I felt my legs and my bottom. At that time I knew I’m gonna having sore muscles the next days. But it wasn’t that bad, except my knee. Rest for the following days – easy
with so much rain! ;)

Back to Childers, just before I left I saw this sign! Home-made ice cream at “Down Under Snake Zoo”. Perfect! It was sooooo delicious, but I’ve still felt it on my way home. My stomach didn’t like it. The Zoo was just 5 mins away from the Highway, but unfortunately on the top of a steep short hill. It’s not the fact, that I wasn’t
afraid to drive the hill up. I didn’t think about my down hill drive, which I should have better done. The misfunctions of my brakes almost ended my trip. I don’t want to know, how funny I was acting on my bike when I came to the t-junction, where already a car was waiting to turn. Jesus! Who wants a snapshot, if anyone would exist!? ME! :)
I’m still alive!

Well, I booked my bus ticket and my hostel to Hervey Bay a few hours ago. I hope the weather is gonna change soon as I’d like to do the Fraser Island tour beginning next week. Please cross your fingers! But otherwise, I guess I still have the chance to do it from Noosa.

Two more working days and then I’m off. I’ll try to take some more pictures for you tomorrow.

Have a good week!

Kat

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Bloomsbury

Publiziert am 28. November 2011 von Katharina

It’s crazy! Another month has passed since I left Cairns. Where’s the time? In four weeks is Christmas, my second in Australia, by the way. My next destination is Howard, near Hervey Bay. I’m staying there on a Bamboo farm.

Back to my travels from Cairns to Bloomsbury where I’ve been the last two weeks. Well, I joined Cathy for this part again and we had some more nice days together. A short visit at Mission Beach with some landing skydivers. Then we head onto Townsville, where some heavy dark clouds forced us to stopp at a trucker service station. The next day we drove via Bowen,famous place, if you know the movie “Australia” to Airlie Beach. Bowen is “Darwin” in “Australia”. For the set up they had built a huge set next to the beach of Bowen. Only a few information signs are left there. After setting they erased all the buildings and therefore all memories. In Airlie Beach we decided quickly not to stay in a hostel, as we both didn’t want to spend too much money. Airlie Beach is a nice little town with lots of tourists and backpackers. The reasons are the famous Whitsundays! Beach, white beach and again white beach, probably lots of party on a 3 day and 2 night tour. Nothing what I really needed. I don’t give a shit on beaches, in the end they are all the same for me anyway. I had a good run on the other site from Airlie Port, which I probably enjoyed more than a tour. We packed our stuff after another night again and drove to Dingo beach and the Cedar Creek falls. Our last night, before Cathy dropped me off at Bloomsbury service station, we slept close to the O’Connel River.

Ray, my new host father, picked me up and we drove around 20 k’s back to his and Beths’ house to
the foot of the mountains. 7 k’s on dirt road, but then nature pur! :) They had about 800 cattle on two paddocks. Unfortunately all the mustering were already done. So, I painted a lot and helped a bit with fencing. It’s a bit different to that one I did in Hyden. Ray uses wooden posts instead of metal ones. Cattle is rougher and heavier than sheeps. Got a lot of good food, enjoyed twice a run, horse riding and line dancing and once hiking. :)

Next report and some more pictures are following soon.

Kat

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