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My third weekend in Australia. I still haven't found a house, and I have a bit of a flew ( 'k zin ziek) as you can see on the images where I'm wearing all my warm clothes + jacket + scarf. This can't stop me from joining a trip with some IAESTies to Ballarat and the authentically restored mining town Sovereign Hill. The place seems to be very touristic, but still it's nice to see the mining infrastructure and all restoration has been done using methods from those days...
Aha, I'm feeling better and ready for some charity work. The Australian nature calls for help. As you might or might not know, there a big draught going on in and around Melbourne, so some parts need a hand from us.In Benalla, we planted a strip of trees to preserve the natural environmental conditions for the local animals, some of whom are only rarely spotted in the region nowadays. On saterday evening we had a very good meal prepared for us, and sunday afternoon my first Australian barbeque... A nice compensation for the hard work :)
Apart from the dark and rainy start on saterday, this 3 day Sydney trip turned out to be the hottest sunny weekend I'd had here this far! Great Sydney contrast with cold Melbourne...
12 trainees, 3 days, 2 cars, 1 GREAT ocean road, 0 sun, and an awful lot of kilometres... Thé road trip you have to do when you're in Melbourne. About wild waves, great views, raindrops, waterfalls and barbies...
The Grampians National Park. Situated about 250km north-west of Melbourne, these rocky mountains have impressed me very much and I haven't seen enough of them. They had a great bushfire in januari 2006, and now the bush is beautifully recovering: the black bark of the trees in contrast of the fresh green grass and leaves is to the eye as chocolate fudge is to the tongue. Very hard to capture that on camera to be honest...
This 1 day hike seems to be one of the most popular hikes in the North Island of NZ. Tramping along the 18km track through the volcanic region around mt Tongariro en mt Ngauruhoe, brings me through a huge variety of landscapes and colors. A wonderful experience, definitely deserving to be on top of the NZ tramps hall of fame.
The active volcanic region around Rotorua and Taupo has lots of tourist attractions on offer. There's a few thermal parks to choose from, and having missed out on any of them while traveling (I considered them too touristy), colleagues Adrian, Nick and me decided to check one out on our free Sunday afternoon. There are indeed some bubbling, boiling, steaming and mud spewing holes in the ground, it smells, looks and probably feels like hell. It was cool to see, but I have to admit that all the pamphlets and brochures are a sophisticated tourist trap (for which I fell), and the city park in Rotorua town center is as impressive. Nevertheless, I've got some nice pictures, which has definitely something to do with the sky being magically lit by the setting sun...
This smaller city on the east coast has a beautiful black-blue pebble beach upon which the pacific waves are thrown with an impressive display of natural force. Swimming is not allowed, but that's probably not the reason that nobody tries... Apart from this natural beauty, nature has had also a huge impact on the current architecture in the city. After the 1931 earthquake, which destroyed pretty much the whole town, most buildings have been rebuilt in the Art Deco style, which was current at that time. The result is a nice and colorful city center with lost of surprising art deco elements hidden on the facades above the shops.Close to Napier is also Cape Kidnappers, reachable by a 10km walk along the beach, between massive waves on one side and huge cliffs on the other. Beautiful. I spent 3 nights in Napier, but I wouldn't have mind staying there a bit longer...
The capital city of NZ, built between and eventually on the hills of the southernmost peak of the North Island. I liked the city with it's sunny docklands, hills with city views, enjoyable Cuba street mall, vast botanical gardens and foresty cemetery.
After Wellington, there's one more stop on my to do list: Coromandel peninsula. It is however 600km north of Wellington, so a few stops along the way wouldn't hurt. First stop is Wanganui, with a short hike in Whanganui National Park. The next day I move on to Kawhia, with it's wonderful pitch black sand beach and hot water springs - which I missed because of the tide...
My last 3 days in NZ are well spent in Whitianga. The cosy town in a bay on the east coast of the peninsula allowed me to get some (very) short introductions to sea kayaking and snorkeling, as well short hikes to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water beach, where we again missed the hot water springs because of the tide (and human errors).