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!