I left Hervey Bay the next morning, heading for Noosa. Lovely place, you can walk along a costal track through the Noosa NP, I even saw a Koala there ( no cheating this time), sitting on a tree, not moving at all. Spend a lot of time at the beach of Alexandria Bay, less people- but there are definitely not just big waves you have to watch out for. Kept on heading south on Dec, 23rd, passed (=skipped ) the bitumen-towers of Brisbane and Surfers Paradise and finally made it to a small place called Murwillumbah a little off the beaten path, which seemed to be the spot where I would spend christmas, althrough I had no idea if there's anything going on there for christmas. We went to climb Mt. Warning the next day and after heading back the europeans prepared all different kind of christmas meals... after I took some pics of the sunset behind Mt. Warning I put my kanguru-steaks on the BBQ and had them with potato salad as christmas dinner later on. As every night we had ice cream, I shared a mud cake and 2 french guys came up with some tropical fruit, so we had a yummy dessert. The next day, which is christmas day over here, we had a large christmas- lunch, and christmas - cracker with stupid jokes,crown-hats and a little toys in them. I really enjoyed myself, I think it was all about the people I met over there which made me feel comfortable and at home, couldn't have found a better place, I never expected to have such a nice christmas over here ( after seen quite some awful touristic places/hostels along the eastcoast) , specially as I didn't even know where I would end up just a few days ago. On Boxing Day me and the 2 french guys hitchhiked over to Nimbin, it had something of a comedy, one girl standing at the road, it didn't took long till someone stopped, and then the 2 guys, who were hidden by the next bend of the road so far, showed up and joined in. For those who've heard of Nimbin, well there's nothing more to add, for those who haven't heard of it..don't worry, it just shows that the 70ies weren't your decade. Stayed there for a night before I headed down to Byron Bay, I felt like I could have rolled my clothes and smoked them afterwards. I just stayed in Byron Bay for the night before heading down to Bellingen, where I'm right now. We did some nice hikes in the Dorrigo NP today, rainforest and lots of waterfalls. Gonna start the "race" down to Sydney tomorrow, I don't wanna miss out on the fireworks!

Froehliche Weihnachten allen daheim! Merry XMAS to all the people I met on the road!

Started the Whitsundays - sailing trip on a sunny afternoon - I just loved Whithaven Beach, amazing white sand and cristal-clear water, we put our stingersuits on and swam to the beach, did some snorkeling later on and watched shooting stars in the evening in the sky above us, while our captain put some christmas songs on and danced around with a santa-claus-hat. Back in Airlie Beach I couldn't wait to catch my bus down to Agnes Water, I've already wasted to much time in that boring "Gateway-to..." - city. I really loved Agnes Water and Town of 1770, nice small places, lots of things to do there, did a motorbike-tour which was f...... brilliant, unfortunally I had to leave that place way too soon as I had to get to Hervey Bay to catch the ferry to Fraser Island for a 3 days 4wd- safari. We drove along the eastern beach of the island, camped at an aborigini- campsite and had a BBQ while some dingos strolled around our tents. Lake Mc Kenzie was fabulous too, you can drink the water while swimming in it...and I loved the sand dunes we had to cross to get to Lake Wabby. Just returned to Hervey Bay and I'm still trying to get rid of the sand.

I left Cairns and the eastcoast for a trip to the tablelands, we walked through rainforest to see huge fig trees and went for a swim underneath the Millaa Millaa falls. I stayed at a cozy place in Yungaburra for a night and did a little bike tour the next morning, wasn't that funny though as the 2 guys I biked with had to wait for me at the top of every small hill, I'm such a vimp! I felt sorry for them as I kept them from going back to the van soon to hear the last cricket score,hahahaa! We did some canoeing in the afternoon which was way better, a wallaby was sitting at the lakefront while we paddled by, and after painting ourselves with colour from the ocre stone ( used by aboriginals ) we headed back, but didn't make it back without turning our canoe into a submarine, I'm still wondering how we managed to tip over and fall into the water, but as usually it was the best part of the whole trip, let's just pretend we did it on purpose to prove that the canoe can be full of water and still hold two people without sinking. I left that lovely place and headed back to Cairns to travel down along the eastcoast. After a short stopover in Mission Beach ( I saw a cassowary over there!) I went on to Townsville to take the ferry to Magnetic Island. Hiked around the island to see all the bays on the northern and eastern side of it, and I've been there just in time for the full moon party. I went to the Billabong Sancuary in the south of Townsville to see some snakes, crocodiles, emus, wombats, more wallabies, another cassowary and of course koalas ( that's cheating, I know! ) before heading down to Airlie Beach, where I'm right now, waiting for my Whitsundays trip to start.

How is it going, MATES ??? Obviously I made it to the land of the austr - aliens ! But I think I owe you some words for the pic's below, I didn't mean not to write for 2 weeks, I've just been to lazy, sorry about that! Alrighty, where did I stop the last time? Dunedin...it took me 2 days just to learn how to pronounce that name.....went to the chocolate factory over there, I loved the smell of the chocolate, but the tour was a waste of money, as I've seen how they do it when I was in first grade, so I just went in there for the free samples, but they didn't hand out many, I should have known it, what did I expect of a city with scottish roots ??? I went to the Otago Peninsula and saw lots of wildlife over there....many birds like oystercatcher, shags, white herons and pukekos.....penguins coming in from the sea and walking back home to their chicks in the late afternoon, fur seals hanging out on rocks, and as it was very windy we saw an albatros flying over our heads- it was huge!!! You might think what's the buzz about all those animals lately, why is she constantly freaking out about them, but it's just so different and special to see them in their natural environment ( at least to me by now). I decided to go back south again to see the Gatlins Coast ( southeast coastline of the south island ) aswell, and it became one of my favorite places in NZ. Even the weather seemed to fit exactly for what we did...when we went to see amazing beaches the sun was shining, and when we drove to the rugged cliffs of Nugget Point it started to rain hard and we had a little hail (!) storm with lightning just to create the right atmosphere ( when we reached the lighthouse the sun came out again, of course ). And we spotted a lot of wildlife aswell ( sorry I just can't help it ), sealions lying on the beach right under the sand dune we were standing on, just amazing!!!! I didn't have much time left after that, I went on to Lake Tekapo ( the lake with all those lupine- flowers and the small church in front of it ) for a short stopover and then on to Christchurch, where I spend my last days in NZ, sitting on the square with the old church on the one side and some modern buildings on the other, many cafes and a musician singing now and then reminded my of Leipzig in the last days of June. I saw some christmas decoration somewhere, but I couldn't convince myself that they didn't just forget to tear it down after last christmas. Anyway, I left the land of the flat possums and headed towards the land of round possums, arrived in Cairns on Dec, 1st. Did snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef of course and TOOK TON'S OF PICS....... of all this colourful fish, big and small ones (whose made strange noises while sucking at the corals), those amazing CORALS , and not to forget of that huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge grey fish that appeared somewhere between the corals underneath me and made my heart stop beating for a second before I headed back towards the others without being able to stop giggling about my own foolishness....the pics are all saved in my head, took them only with my eyes, sorry guys!

He guys, I'm really tired of all those complaints !!!!! You don't like my writing - well that will save me a lot of work - no more words, just pics.

I went to St. Arnaud to do some hiking in Nelson Lakes National Park, it's a very quiet place ( except the birds, they are really noisy, but that just shows how quiet the place is !! ) . I took a shuttle to Kawatiri Junction a few days later to make sure that I would be there in time for that stupid backpacker bus to pick me up along the road to take me to Punakaiki, because I wasn't sure whether I could hitchhike to that junction in time as there weren't many cars passing through St. Arnaud, especially not in the morning. It was one of that cloudy rainy mornings - the backpacker bus showed up just in time...at 9.45 it came around the corner...and passed without stopping. Couldn't stop laughing, that was just what I had dreamed of the night before, but who needs that bus anyway. I had to get out of the middle of nowhere, so I started hitchhiking, I went to Murchison first, then on to that crossroad close to the westcoast where one road goes up to Westport and the other one down along the westcoast and got picked up by an older guy. He turned out to be the owner of an old historic goldmine near Charleston, so I got a free tour through the mine when we arrived in Charleston. He told me that I might even have seen him on german television, as there was this german fellow called Hardy Krueger who made a film about the ( true nature of the ) Westcoast of the South Island and the people living there back in the late 70ies, and he stopped over in Charleston to do some filming here and even helped him building his place ( Has anyone seen that film? I guess I missed out on that one!) . Anyway, I had to go on, I finally found someone to take me down to Punakaiki ( along that beautiful coastline, althrough it was a little too cloudy ) , and this guy even spoke a little german, as he was living in Frankfurt for a while... now even the Kiwis are starting to talk german to me...AWFUL!!!!! After a late lunch I walked over to see the Pancake Rocks in the afternoon, and the bus that was supposed to pick me up in the morning was having a photostop over there right then, so I walked over to them and heard the busdriver talk to somebody about that junction he had missed in the morning...he was pretty happy to see me, I think the expression on his face when he realised who I was while still wondering how I made it here was even better than the expression on my face when I saw the bus passing by in the morning.... anyway, I did a nice hike the next day ( and it was sunny, so I could see all the cliffs and hills ) , a little hike called Truman Track ( huge waves and rocks at a lovely beach after walking through some native bush/ forest ) and a longer walk towards the Paparoa NP...I liked the vegetation, lots of huge trees with moss on them, palms and fern that always made you wonder what may be behind the next bend of the path...the hidden valley of the dinosaurs maybe??? I left Punakaiki in the afternoon as I was running out of groceries, I went on to Greymouth , did some food shopping over there and left the next morning, heading towards Franz Josef ( Glacier ). On the way over there we did a lot of touristic stops, pretty annoying, but at least we stopped at a deer farm where a Westcoaster told us about how they made a living back in the good old days when men were men and sheep were scared...and no auckland-to-christchurch-in-a-day-with-a-bungy-jump-option-tourists ( like us ) were roaming the islands, this guy was awesome, I liked his rough westcoast-sense of humour ...you could also try some possum pie over there...possums are those little animals that were introduced to new zealand and ( as so many things that were introduced) became a plaque they can't get rid off anymore, destroying the native bush over here....one of the most common local activities/sports ( right after rugby, of course ) is to race along the streets after sunset to hit as many possums as possible....Kiwis are pretty concerned about/ occupied with everything that was intoduced some time ago, which just shows their efforts to save their amazing natural enviroment, but it's a little odd too when you think of the fact that they were introduced themselves.....ohh, I think I'm starting to ramble.....ok, I arrived at Franz Josef in the afternoon and did a hike to see the glacier, I couldn't get very close as there was a flood 3 days ago that destroyed parts of the path leading to the glacier and a little bridge and I didn't want to get wet feed while walking though a river as it was already cold enough on that rainy afternoon. The next day we went on south, passing FOX ( Glacier) and Lake Mathesen, which is called the Mirror Lake, because it reflects an amazing panorama of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman on a sunny day...... as it was cloudy and raining straight, I don't need to tell you what the lake reflected....originally I wanted to stay there for a while, do a glacier hike on FOX Glacier and go for some hikes around Lake Mathesen, but I changed my mind when we got there, didn't make much sense to stay and wait for better weather, so I just went for a short walk to see something of the lake at all, just accompanied by some hardcore-Japanese, we were completely wet after 1 minute. I arrived in Queenstown in the evening and went to a bird park the next day to spot some Kiwi-birds, couldn't stop giggling when I saw them jump around and racing along very fast, like a way to big Kiwi-fruit with legs and a long beak, pretty unique. The next day I took a tour down to the Fjordland NP and made a cruise on the famous Milford Sound. I stayed in Te Anau for 2 nights to do some kajaking on the Doubtful Sound which was way better than the cruise on Milford Sound. Since it's more difficult to get to that second fjord ( you have to cross a lake with a boat and a mountain pass by bus to get there), we were almost on our own in that remote wilderness. I returned to Queenstown a day ago, did some wicked rafting on the Shotover River this morning and gonna head towards Dunedin tomorrow.