Hey guys!
Just a short note to tell you all that we are having a great time, the last couple of weeks we have been on jeep safari, sailing tour, diving a shipwreck (with sharks!) and skydiving! We have had so much fun here in Australia and now we are going to Hong Kong tomorrow morning and then home on Sunday...
Though we are a little sad that our adventures are soon ending, we cannot wait to see you all back home in about a week! Thanks for reading our blog ;)
Sunshine, love and kisses
Elka and Tinna
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Citylife, beaches, festival, and farmlife
Good Day our beloved friends and family!
Last time we left you was when we just arrived to Sydney here in Australia. There we ended staying nearly two weeks and we had a wonderful time. The first days we stayed in hostels in the centre, then we went couchsurfing for five days and finally we took a couple of nights in the centre again before we headed off North along the beach.
Our stay was pleasantly accompanied by Elka’s friend from University, Valborg. She just moved to Sydney to study Biochemistry there for a year. Well done! We had some great fun together, loving the beautiful weather, Bondi Beach, the Opera House, Hyde Park, a little shopping :S, the Botanic Gardens and some really good nights out in Kings Cross and downtown :) We also met up with the lovely Swedish girls that we travelled with in California + New Zealand and we had such a good time all of us together! With them we also went to Manly Beach, the Rocks, the Opera House once more :), and had a picnic, chilling out in Darling Harbour.
Valborg got us in contact with a really nice guy called Mark, who had this couchsurfing going. For those of you who haven’t heard about couchsurfing, it is a concept where travellers meet through a website; some are on the road and others have a couch to offer. The idea is then that you, as a traveller, stay for free and get an opportunity to meet the locals, whereas the one offering the couch often has been travelling earlier and enjoys being able to keep meeting different people from interesting cultures as you do when you are travelling. Mark has a great apartment in North Sydney with magnificent view of Harbour Bridge and Sydney. In the evening wild parrots came to the balcony to be handfed! We had our own room (luxury!) and stayed at Mark’s place for five great days.
Then we had a couple of stressful days since the deadline for Universities in Denmark was the 15th of March! So we jumped off the travel life for a couple of days and made choices, applications and CVs :) Despite tears, blood and sweat ;) it all ended good and we got it send in the last second! Well, actually we do not know if it ended good, that answer we will get in the end of July :S
Concluding, Sydney was one of the big cities on our long journey that we have enjoyed the most! (And that includes competition from Havana, Quito, Lima, La Paz, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Auckland!) All of them were amazing as well, and of course it will always be a generalisation to compare, but Sydney was high on the list of star quality in our eyes ;)
We then bought a one-way bus pass up the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns giving us possibility to jump on and off as many times as we want within two months. Our first stop came to be Port Macquarie; a small-town atmosphere with quite nice beaches. This town also had the loveliest Koala Hospital, which we visited and came very close to the cute teddy bear-like animals in treatment. Wonderful place! Furthermore, Port Macquarie has one of the biggest rock climbing centres, and this being one of our new favourite activities we took a couple of hours climbing around there :)
Next destination was hippie Byron Bay, a small spot at the easternmost point of Australia. People here are quite down-to-earth but still it is a small town with a great hype. We arrived Wednesday before the Easter Holiday, one of the busiest times in Byron due to the big annual 5-day Blues and Roots Festival. However, we were lucky to get two beds in a hostel throughout the weekend and we then got a last minute cheap offer for some 5-days ticket and took the deal. We had the best time there, just summer, sun, beaches, music, and beautiful, interesting people. Our daily programme was: wake up, eat breakfast, go to the beach, have lunch, go to the festival and finally sleep a little, then repetition the following day ;) At the festival we listened to many talented Australian artists, among others Xavier Rudd and stunning Angus and Julia Stones. Some of the international names we saw were Keith Urban, John Fogerty and Sinead O’Connor.
After the festival we bought tickets into the country to visit Bettina and Phillip Lynn, some friends of Tinna’s parents. Bettina and Phillip live on a big organic farm with their two children Peter and Kathrina plus cattle, horses, dogs, chicken and a big goat industry. In addition, on the hill near the house they had a big group of wild kangaroos living there! We spotted them a couple of times very close; they are so funny animals. The family on the farm were so welcoming to us and actually we got quite homesick because we felt so much at home! We stayed there for nearly a week, enjoying the lovely atmosphere and experiencing the life on an Australian farm. Among others, we helped to gather the cattle from the fields on horseback, and we helped injecting, weighing and sorting the young ones. One day we almost stepped on a very, very dangerous snake, another day we had this huge hairy spider on the ceiling over our beds! Furthermore, we went with Bettina to have a lesson with Chris Bayne teaching us about natural horsemanship and making us ride all gaits with nothing on the horse’s head, only using our legs! We could make the horse stop, canter and bent with nearly no signals, very impressive. Moreover, we went to the annual cattle auction which was a true experience of the culture in the bush – the smell, the dialect with which the men speak, and the way they all dress with cowboy hats, checked shirts, jeans, and cowboy boots.
Our stay at the farm gave us a whole other side of Australia and it was so much fun to see and experience ‘the bush’ as they call it. In a way it seemed to be more ‘real Australia’ than the touristy route along the east coast.
Now we just left the farm and we are heading to Byron Bay again and thereafter Surfers Paradise followed by Brisbane. We look forward to learn surfing and to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef further North :)
We send you all our best thought and we look forward to seeing you when we get back in a little more than a month’s time! Miss you!
Elka & Tinna
Last time we left you was when we just arrived to Sydney here in Australia. There we ended staying nearly two weeks and we had a wonderful time. The first days we stayed in hostels in the centre, then we went couchsurfing for five days and finally we took a couple of nights in the centre again before we headed off North along the beach.
Our stay was pleasantly accompanied by Elka’s friend from University, Valborg. She just moved to Sydney to study Biochemistry there for a year. Well done! We had some great fun together, loving the beautiful weather, Bondi Beach, the Opera House, Hyde Park, a little shopping :S, the Botanic Gardens and some really good nights out in Kings Cross and downtown :) We also met up with the lovely Swedish girls that we travelled with in California + New Zealand and we had such a good time all of us together! With them we also went to Manly Beach, the Rocks, the Opera House once more :), and had a picnic, chilling out in Darling Harbour.
Valborg got us in contact with a really nice guy called Mark, who had this couchsurfing going. For those of you who haven’t heard about couchsurfing, it is a concept where travellers meet through a website; some are on the road and others have a couch to offer. The idea is then that you, as a traveller, stay for free and get an opportunity to meet the locals, whereas the one offering the couch often has been travelling earlier and enjoys being able to keep meeting different people from interesting cultures as you do when you are travelling. Mark has a great apartment in North Sydney with magnificent view of Harbour Bridge and Sydney. In the evening wild parrots came to the balcony to be handfed! We had our own room (luxury!) and stayed at Mark’s place for five great days.
Then we had a couple of stressful days since the deadline for Universities in Denmark was the 15th of March! So we jumped off the travel life for a couple of days and made choices, applications and CVs :) Despite tears, blood and sweat ;) it all ended good and we got it send in the last second! Well, actually we do not know if it ended good, that answer we will get in the end of July :S
Concluding, Sydney was one of the big cities on our long journey that we have enjoyed the most! (And that includes competition from Havana, Quito, Lima, La Paz, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Auckland!) All of them were amazing as well, and of course it will always be a generalisation to compare, but Sydney was high on the list of star quality in our eyes ;)
We then bought a one-way bus pass up the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns giving us possibility to jump on and off as many times as we want within two months. Our first stop came to be Port Macquarie; a small-town atmosphere with quite nice beaches. This town also had the loveliest Koala Hospital, which we visited and came very close to the cute teddy bear-like animals in treatment. Wonderful place! Furthermore, Port Macquarie has one of the biggest rock climbing centres, and this being one of our new favourite activities we took a couple of hours climbing around there :)
Next destination was hippie Byron Bay, a small spot at the easternmost point of Australia. People here are quite down-to-earth but still it is a small town with a great hype. We arrived Wednesday before the Easter Holiday, one of the busiest times in Byron due to the big annual 5-day Blues and Roots Festival. However, we were lucky to get two beds in a hostel throughout the weekend and we then got a last minute cheap offer for some 5-days ticket and took the deal. We had the best time there, just summer, sun, beaches, music, and beautiful, interesting people. Our daily programme was: wake up, eat breakfast, go to the beach, have lunch, go to the festival and finally sleep a little, then repetition the following day ;) At the festival we listened to many talented Australian artists, among others Xavier Rudd and stunning Angus and Julia Stones. Some of the international names we saw were Keith Urban, John Fogerty and Sinead O’Connor.
After the festival we bought tickets into the country to visit Bettina and Phillip Lynn, some friends of Tinna’s parents. Bettina and Phillip live on a big organic farm with their two children Peter and Kathrina plus cattle, horses, dogs, chicken and a big goat industry. In addition, on the hill near the house they had a big group of wild kangaroos living there! We spotted them a couple of times very close; they are so funny animals. The family on the farm were so welcoming to us and actually we got quite homesick because we felt so much at home! We stayed there for nearly a week, enjoying the lovely atmosphere and experiencing the life on an Australian farm. Among others, we helped to gather the cattle from the fields on horseback, and we helped injecting, weighing and sorting the young ones. One day we almost stepped on a very, very dangerous snake, another day we had this huge hairy spider on the ceiling over our beds! Furthermore, we went with Bettina to have a lesson with Chris Bayne teaching us about natural horsemanship and making us ride all gaits with nothing on the horse’s head, only using our legs! We could make the horse stop, canter and bent with nearly no signals, very impressive. Moreover, we went to the annual cattle auction which was a true experience of the culture in the bush – the smell, the dialect with which the men speak, and the way they all dress with cowboy hats, checked shirts, jeans, and cowboy boots.
Our stay at the farm gave us a whole other side of Australia and it was so much fun to see and experience ‘the bush’ as they call it. In a way it seemed to be more ‘real Australia’ than the touristy route along the east coast.
Now we just left the farm and we are heading to Byron Bay again and thereafter Surfers Paradise followed by Brisbane. We look forward to learn surfing and to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef further North :)
We send you all our best thought and we look forward to seeing you when we get back in a little more than a month’s time! Miss you!
Elka & Tinna
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
From kiwis to kangaroos :)
We just arrived to Sydney in Australia – what a beautiful city – we can’t wait to explore it and the rest of aussie-world! The last time we left you was in Queenstown, New Zealand, and the day after our last blog we went paragliding… Great fun! And actually quite relaxing ;) Jumping off a mountain - not as scaring as we thought it would be! Really nice views of the colourful New Zealand landscape from up there :)
Queenstown is cosy little touristic town with lots of things going on all the time, we strolled around the streets, enjoyed the good nightlife and had some good fun there :)
Next stop on our NZ roundtrip was Milford Sound, one of the touristic hotspots in this country. Milford Sound is a fiord settled in absolutely unique scenery, with tall mountains peeking high above the water, powerful waterfalls twisting down the black rocks and glaciers and forests nearby. The gateway to the fiord is just a harbour with a couple of houses, two hour’s drive from the nearest town. But since the cheapest boat trips on the fiord are in the morning (before the major tourist buses arrive) we wanted to stay near the harbour so we drove there the night before. Luckily, we found a lodge in-the-middle-of-nowhere where we could use bathroom and kitchen, and then we rolled down the seats and slept in the car :) The following day we had a very nice cruise around the fiord on the small boat “Friendship” and we went very close to the cute seals sleeping on the rocks.
After Milford we drove off towards Dunedin, a city known for its nearby easy access to pristine wildlife. Here you can go see penguins, sea lions and albatrosses on the beaches (but you have to take a tour). Unfortunately, Dunedin greeted us with endless amounts of rain and we never got off to see the animals :( But yet we had already seen penguins when driving down the west coast. Luckily, Dunedin also showed to be hometown of NZ’s largest chocolate factory “Cadbury’s” :P Hence, we went for a pleasing factory tour! Another thing we did in this city was to see the world’s steepest street – quite impressive! And Elka took the walk up in the rain while Tinna waited in the car ;)
Last stop in NZ was Christchurch where we stayed at the Icelandic couple Svava and Hilmar’s place in the mountainous suburb of Lyttelton. Svava, Hilmar, their two kids Birna and Arni, and Svava’s brother Sibbi were very welcoming to us and we enjoyed our stay there a lot! Among others we went to the cinema with Sibbi and to the local pub Wunderbar, which must be the craziest decorated bar ever! Dolls hanging from the ceiling, gasmasks within the light bulbs, hidden bathrooms, a lamp made of hair curlers, and a lot more... But it was cool! In Christchurch we also went sightseeing in the atmospheric city centre, went swimming in the sports centre and finally, went to a climbing centre with Svava and Hilmar. This was our first time climbing, so we got some instruction and then we just went climbing on our own. It was so much fun! We liked it a lot and vowed that we will do it again, and again... ;) Really good exercising as well – you should try it! :)
Well, this morning we left our car in Christchurch airport and flew into Sydney with really beautiful view of the harbour and the opera house from the plane! So now our 2 month’s adventure in Australia is about to begin, but we have made no plans yet – as we like it :) First we will now take some days exploring this seemingly very interesting city...
Hasta luego amigos!
Elka and Tinna
Queenstown is cosy little touristic town with lots of things going on all the time, we strolled around the streets, enjoyed the good nightlife and had some good fun there :)
Next stop on our NZ roundtrip was Milford Sound, one of the touristic hotspots in this country. Milford Sound is a fiord settled in absolutely unique scenery, with tall mountains peeking high above the water, powerful waterfalls twisting down the black rocks and glaciers and forests nearby. The gateway to the fiord is just a harbour with a couple of houses, two hour’s drive from the nearest town. But since the cheapest boat trips on the fiord are in the morning (before the major tourist buses arrive) we wanted to stay near the harbour so we drove there the night before. Luckily, we found a lodge in-the-middle-of-nowhere where we could use bathroom and kitchen, and then we rolled down the seats and slept in the car :) The following day we had a very nice cruise around the fiord on the small boat “Friendship” and we went very close to the cute seals sleeping on the rocks.
After Milford we drove off towards Dunedin, a city known for its nearby easy access to pristine wildlife. Here you can go see penguins, sea lions and albatrosses on the beaches (but you have to take a tour). Unfortunately, Dunedin greeted us with endless amounts of rain and we never got off to see the animals :( But yet we had already seen penguins when driving down the west coast. Luckily, Dunedin also showed to be hometown of NZ’s largest chocolate factory “Cadbury’s” :P Hence, we went for a pleasing factory tour! Another thing we did in this city was to see the world’s steepest street – quite impressive! And Elka took the walk up in the rain while Tinna waited in the car ;)
Last stop in NZ was Christchurch where we stayed at the Icelandic couple Svava and Hilmar’s place in the mountainous suburb of Lyttelton. Svava, Hilmar, their two kids Birna and Arni, and Svava’s brother Sibbi were very welcoming to us and we enjoyed our stay there a lot! Among others we went to the cinema with Sibbi and to the local pub Wunderbar, which must be the craziest decorated bar ever! Dolls hanging from the ceiling, gasmasks within the light bulbs, hidden bathrooms, a lamp made of hair curlers, and a lot more... But it was cool! In Christchurch we also went sightseeing in the atmospheric city centre, went swimming in the sports centre and finally, went to a climbing centre with Svava and Hilmar. This was our first time climbing, so we got some instruction and then we just went climbing on our own. It was so much fun! We liked it a lot and vowed that we will do it again, and again... ;) Really good exercising as well – you should try it! :)
Well, this morning we left our car in Christchurch airport and flew into Sydney with really beautiful view of the harbour and the opera house from the plane! So now our 2 month’s adventure in Australia is about to begin, but we have made no plans yet – as we like it :) First we will now take some days exploring this seemingly very interesting city...
Hasta luego amigos!
Elka and Tinna
Monday, February 25, 2008
Kiwi explorers...
Hey, hope you are well!
We are now in New Zealand were we have been for a bit more than two weeks. And what a beautiful country! Wow, nature here is stunning and leaves you with nothing left to ask for! Plus people are super friendly and helpful :) The country is though very touristic compared too many other places that we have been to on our tour. The population here is about 5 million and the visitor number is 2.5 million every year! It also seems as if there are more travelers of older generation here than in South America where most people we met where 20-30 years old.
Well, enough about that. Now, let’s talk about travel adventures ;) As you might remember, last time we wrote here we were in Fiji. So, more or less chronologically, here is what we have been up to since then:
Our week in Fiji was not as the Fiji you see on postcards. When we arrived a hurricane had just passed, so many places were flooded, the water was rather brownish, it was quite windy and we had rain every day... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay a lot, the Fijians treated us really great and we used the stop there to regain travel-energy, getting ready to a new chapter of our trip here in the Pacific. We went to a tiny island called “Robinson Crusoe” and there we stayed for the last four days of our stopover. This was true relaxation with an absolute minimum of activity mainly due to the rain, but also because the island was so isolated. We did do something though ;) We went snake hunting (and caught a couple of them!), fishing, lying in hammocks reading, making jewelry of coconut shells, playing many silly games (but very funny since we won!), kayaking, watching a little show made by the natives (tune: Kiss me honey honey, kiss me!), and taking showers by filling a bucket with cold water and then pouring it over ourselves :)
So, we arrived to New Zealand which welcomed us heartily. We flew into Auckland with absolutely amazing views of the island and the many beautiful colours in the land and water from the plane, the sky was blue and the weather just great! (Which it seems to be all the time here!) We were picked up in the airport by Kenneth (a friend of Tinna’s parents) and he took us to his place in the country with Icelandic horses! Here we stayed for five days and had a great time; we truly enjoyed to be reunited with the horses and the tölt :) We stayed in a cozy cottage near the house and Kenneth and his wife Snejina gave us a very warm welcome!
Yet, we had to move on on our adventures so we decided to hire a car for the rest of our stay in NZ (cheaper than taking the bus!). Then we headed northward to a small village called Paihia in Bay of Islands. This was such an idyllic spot! The weather was great (25-30 degrees, blue sky) and the village was situated right at the beach looking out to the beautiful bay with islands and crystal blue water! Furthermore, Paihia had a whole street of hostels filled with young backpackers. So we parked the car and went surfing through the hostels till we found the best ;) The following day we enjoyed the beach, went playing tennis, made a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, chatting to some fellow travelers. This felt like true vacation and not the stressful, tough backpacking, haha ;) Actually, here in NZ we haven’t eaten out at all – uhm, except a couple of times at Subway… Well, the next day was a beautiful one! We went on a catamaran out in the bay and had a lot of dolphins swimming along all around the boat! They are such wonderful animals, wow... We were actually supposed to swim with them, but because some of them had babies we couldn’t. Still, it was a marvelous experience – they were so close to us! Jumping beautifully two and two together just like in the movies ;) The boat stopped at one of the islands where we walked to the top and enjoyed the stunning view. Then we snorkeled around in the bay and had barbeque at the boat. Nice!
That evening we headed south again. Elka was driving and Tinna had the Lonely Planet guidebook. Tinna was reading about the surrounding and suddenly she read that one of the best diving spots in the world was situated nearby. And the book said it was a great place to learn diving! So we took a quick decision, stopped at the next hostel where the owner called the dive center for us. They agreed to start a four day course the next morning at 7.00! So we got two beds at the hostel and jumped in them :)
The first day of the course was in the classroom learning a lot of theory. It was just the two of us and an instructor, Will. Second day was more theory, exam and then our first dive… in the swimming pool! So we swam around there with all the equipment, learning all the hand signs and safety cautions, getting used to being underwater and controlling our buoyancy. Finally, the third day we went in the boat and out on the open water! The site we were going to dive is called The Poor Knights Islands and is a marine reserve. The trip out there was about 45 min. and both of us were scared to death sitting there in the boat looking at the terrifying, deep, powerful ocean. But we arrived, put on all the equipment and jumped in the water. As soon as we got started it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined, it was actually quite interesting! A whole new world that opens under the surface of the water! We went down to 12 meters and were diving around for 50 minutes! After lunch we did another similar dive, but we moved the boat to a different spot, so the fish and vegetation was different… Simply unbelievable to swim around in the water seemingly weightless and studying all the life. We saw several Sting Rays, Moray Eels and hundreds of different fish. They were all so pretty and very curious, we could nearly pet them and many of them followed us around! On the fourth and last day of our diving course we also went out to the islands, but to two new spots and here we went down to 18 meters and did some absolutely breath-taking dives! It just kept becoming more fun as we became better divers. As we ended we got our certificates and we are now both Open Water Divers and can dive all over the world :) Very proud, hehe… Before this both of us were quite scared of the underwater life and now we agreed that challenging ourselves like this was such a great feeling and a major victory within us. It refreshes your mind and strengthens your confidence to learn completely new things ;)
Well, let’s move on! After the course we headed further south and stayed one night at Kenneth and Snejina’s place where we received a sending of licorice and pålægschokolade from Denmark :) Hereafter we drove to Rotorua, a center of geysers, hot springs and Maori culture (the natives in NZ). All this we visited and it was quite interesting. Then we drove further south to reach Lake Taupo, NZ’s biggest lake. The scenery here was truly beautiful, so we went hiking (or tramping as they call it here) up to the top of Mount Tauhara in the burning sun… Yes, we were rather sweaty after that hike! But the wonderful view of the lake from the top made it worth the effort :) Finished in Taupo we headed towards Wellington and picked up a hitchhiker on the way, a young man from Scotland. He was going to Wellington to find work and was good company in the car.
Since we wanted to go rather quickly to the South Island, Wellington was a short stop for us. We left with the ferry the morning after arrival and came to Picton on the South Island by noon. We soon realized that we had landed in the centre of the wine district on the South Island, so we stopped on a small village called Reinwick. The owner of a gorgeous little hostel gave us a map of the 25 wineries in the area – most within walking distance – and then we decided to be cultural and went on free wine tastings :) Walking from winery to winery. It was so interesting and fun even though everyone was (much!) older than us plus we learned a lot!
So, after digesting the wine stop we headed to the West Coast of the South Island and drove down it, admiring the spectacular scenery in this rather remote area of the country. Stayed one night in a quite sleepy town called Greymouth. The day after we met up with the Swedish girls we traveled with in California, went hiking to the Franz Josef glacier and had some quality time together ;)
Having said goodbye to our Swedish friends (they were going north) we headed further south and ended in Queenstown, which is where we are now. Queenstown is a buzzling small town full of tourist and energy; a mekka for adrenaline-sports and outdoor activities... So you never know what we will do tomorrow! ;)
That was about it for now… We miss you all very much, we really do!
Cheers,
Elka and Tinna
We are now in New Zealand were we have been for a bit more than two weeks. And what a beautiful country! Wow, nature here is stunning and leaves you with nothing left to ask for! Plus people are super friendly and helpful :) The country is though very touristic compared too many other places that we have been to on our tour. The population here is about 5 million and the visitor number is 2.5 million every year! It also seems as if there are more travelers of older generation here than in South America where most people we met where 20-30 years old.
Well, enough about that. Now, let’s talk about travel adventures ;) As you might remember, last time we wrote here we were in Fiji. So, more or less chronologically, here is what we have been up to since then:
Our week in Fiji was not as the Fiji you see on postcards. When we arrived a hurricane had just passed, so many places were flooded, the water was rather brownish, it was quite windy and we had rain every day... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay a lot, the Fijians treated us really great and we used the stop there to regain travel-energy, getting ready to a new chapter of our trip here in the Pacific. We went to a tiny island called “Robinson Crusoe” and there we stayed for the last four days of our stopover. This was true relaxation with an absolute minimum of activity mainly due to the rain, but also because the island was so isolated. We did do something though ;) We went snake hunting (and caught a couple of them!), fishing, lying in hammocks reading, making jewelry of coconut shells, playing many silly games (but very funny since we won!), kayaking, watching a little show made by the natives (tune: Kiss me honey honey, kiss me!), and taking showers by filling a bucket with cold water and then pouring it over ourselves :)
So, we arrived to New Zealand which welcomed us heartily. We flew into Auckland with absolutely amazing views of the island and the many beautiful colours in the land and water from the plane, the sky was blue and the weather just great! (Which it seems to be all the time here!) We were picked up in the airport by Kenneth (a friend of Tinna’s parents) and he took us to his place in the country with Icelandic horses! Here we stayed for five days and had a great time; we truly enjoyed to be reunited with the horses and the tölt :) We stayed in a cozy cottage near the house and Kenneth and his wife Snejina gave us a very warm welcome!
Yet, we had to move on on our adventures so we decided to hire a car for the rest of our stay in NZ (cheaper than taking the bus!). Then we headed northward to a small village called Paihia in Bay of Islands. This was such an idyllic spot! The weather was great (25-30 degrees, blue sky) and the village was situated right at the beach looking out to the beautiful bay with islands and crystal blue water! Furthermore, Paihia had a whole street of hostels filled with young backpackers. So we parked the car and went surfing through the hostels till we found the best ;) The following day we enjoyed the beach, went playing tennis, made a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, chatting to some fellow travelers. This felt like true vacation and not the stressful, tough backpacking, haha ;) Actually, here in NZ we haven’t eaten out at all – uhm, except a couple of times at Subway… Well, the next day was a beautiful one! We went on a catamaran out in the bay and had a lot of dolphins swimming along all around the boat! They are such wonderful animals, wow... We were actually supposed to swim with them, but because some of them had babies we couldn’t. Still, it was a marvelous experience – they were so close to us! Jumping beautifully two and two together just like in the movies ;) The boat stopped at one of the islands where we walked to the top and enjoyed the stunning view. Then we snorkeled around in the bay and had barbeque at the boat. Nice!
That evening we headed south again. Elka was driving and Tinna had the Lonely Planet guidebook. Tinna was reading about the surrounding and suddenly she read that one of the best diving spots in the world was situated nearby. And the book said it was a great place to learn diving! So we took a quick decision, stopped at the next hostel where the owner called the dive center for us. They agreed to start a four day course the next morning at 7.00! So we got two beds at the hostel and jumped in them :)
The first day of the course was in the classroom learning a lot of theory. It was just the two of us and an instructor, Will. Second day was more theory, exam and then our first dive… in the swimming pool! So we swam around there with all the equipment, learning all the hand signs and safety cautions, getting used to being underwater and controlling our buoyancy. Finally, the third day we went in the boat and out on the open water! The site we were going to dive is called The Poor Knights Islands and is a marine reserve. The trip out there was about 45 min. and both of us were scared to death sitting there in the boat looking at the terrifying, deep, powerful ocean. But we arrived, put on all the equipment and jumped in the water. As soon as we got started it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined, it was actually quite interesting! A whole new world that opens under the surface of the water! We went down to 12 meters and were diving around for 50 minutes! After lunch we did another similar dive, but we moved the boat to a different spot, so the fish and vegetation was different… Simply unbelievable to swim around in the water seemingly weightless and studying all the life. We saw several Sting Rays, Moray Eels and hundreds of different fish. They were all so pretty and very curious, we could nearly pet them and many of them followed us around! On the fourth and last day of our diving course we also went out to the islands, but to two new spots and here we went down to 18 meters and did some absolutely breath-taking dives! It just kept becoming more fun as we became better divers. As we ended we got our certificates and we are now both Open Water Divers and can dive all over the world :) Very proud, hehe… Before this both of us were quite scared of the underwater life and now we agreed that challenging ourselves like this was such a great feeling and a major victory within us. It refreshes your mind and strengthens your confidence to learn completely new things ;)
Well, let’s move on! After the course we headed further south and stayed one night at Kenneth and Snejina’s place where we received a sending of licorice and pålægschokolade from Denmark :) Hereafter we drove to Rotorua, a center of geysers, hot springs and Maori culture (the natives in NZ). All this we visited and it was quite interesting. Then we drove further south to reach Lake Taupo, NZ’s biggest lake. The scenery here was truly beautiful, so we went hiking (or tramping as they call it here) up to the top of Mount Tauhara in the burning sun… Yes, we were rather sweaty after that hike! But the wonderful view of the lake from the top made it worth the effort :) Finished in Taupo we headed towards Wellington and picked up a hitchhiker on the way, a young man from Scotland. He was going to Wellington to find work and was good company in the car.
Since we wanted to go rather quickly to the South Island, Wellington was a short stop for us. We left with the ferry the morning after arrival and came to Picton on the South Island by noon. We soon realized that we had landed in the centre of the wine district on the South Island, so we stopped on a small village called Reinwick. The owner of a gorgeous little hostel gave us a map of the 25 wineries in the area – most within walking distance – and then we decided to be cultural and went on free wine tastings :) Walking from winery to winery. It was so interesting and fun even though everyone was (much!) older than us plus we learned a lot!
So, after digesting the wine stop we headed to the West Coast of the South Island and drove down it, admiring the spectacular scenery in this rather remote area of the country. Stayed one night in a quite sleepy town called Greymouth. The day after we met up with the Swedish girls we traveled with in California, went hiking to the Franz Josef glacier and had some quality time together ;)
Having said goodbye to our Swedish friends (they were going north) we headed further south and ended in Queenstown, which is where we are now. Queenstown is a buzzling small town full of tourist and energy; a mekka for adrenaline-sports and outdoor activities... So you never know what we will do tomorrow! ;)
That was about it for now… We miss you all very much, we really do!
Cheers,
Elka and Tinna
Friday, February 1, 2008
Waterfalls, swamps, Brazilian beaches, Hollywood, and San Francisco...
No - this blogsite is not dead! And yes - we are still alive! ;)
Oh, it so long since we've written here, don't know where to start..! Guess from the beginning would be good. So...
After this we set off towards Cambo Grande in Brazil. Here we quickly found four-day tour going into the swamp area of Pantanal, known as the best wildlife spotting area in South America. We had a great journey in the jungle living side-by-side with alligators, piranhas, jaguars, monkeys, mules, amadrillas, deers, raccoons, tucans, hundreds of beautiful bird species and lots of animals we don't know the names of. We were a group of six young people, two guys from Holland: Jan and Roel, a girl and a guy from Israel: Sivan and Adriano and the two of us + a strange guide. We went driving, walking, sailing and riding on mules to explore the area. Lived in a rather touristic camp at the riverside, but we had so much fun together!
The upcoming trip was the most demanding busride so far - 26 hours - to Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is a huge country! However, we managed the ride without any major damages on our sensitive bodies ;) In Rio we stayed at Copacabana in a chilled hostel a few blocks from the beach. We knew we had very limited time in the city, so the first day we signed up for a guided city tour, which is normally strictly against our policies, haha.. Yet, the tour was rather effective, we got to see many of the major highlights in Rio and the group was quite small. First we drove up to the huge and wellknown statue of "Christ the Redeemer" overlooking the city, then onwards to the legendary stadium "Maracana", the carnival street "Sambodromo", the ultramodern "Cathedral Metropolitana" and finally we took the cablecars up to the mountain "Pao de Acucar" (sugar loaf) with splendid views of the fabulous city, the beaches, the mountains and the sunset in the background.
The following evening we went clubbing in the neighbourhood of Lapa which was a true experience of Brazilian culture! People, food and music all over the streets like no other place we have been to. We went into a Samba club full of locals and had a great time - and wow - those Brazilian Samba-girls know how to dance! ;)
The Sunday was used to change hostel since we wanted to stay on the Ipanema beach aswell, having heard it should be the best. Here we found a funky hostel only 100 m from the beach and had some delicious seafood.
Next adventure was to take the very oldfashioned street trains up to the gorgeous neighbourhood of Santa Theresa and of course we had forgotten to charge the camera! Such a shame in those beautiful surroundings! However, we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the cute architecture fully insted :)
The following day we went on a very thought-provoking tour to the absolute slum of Rio called "Favela" in Portuguiese. This was the area where the motion picture "City of God" was filmed. It was moving to get an inside view of the slum and the poor conditions in which these people live. In Rio you really feel the huge gap between rich and poor.
To digest all these impressions we ended our stay in Rio de Janeiro with a nice nap on the Ipanema beach - and a thrilling swim in the huge waves (never gonna do that again, arg!)
Next thing on schedule was a crazy 40-hours of traveling (bus-plain-plain-plain-bus) ending in cold Hollywood. The city of broken dreams... And what a contrast to South America! It took about a week to climatize and get used to the westernized world again... Oh we missed the sun, the Spanish, the Indians, the handicrafts, the nature, the real backpackers, the down-to-earth atmosphere and everything else about SA!
Nevertheless, we did have some fun in the crazy North American world :)
We lived right at Hollywood Boulevard and the first day we wandered to the Chinese Theater, had fun with the famous hand- and footprints and took a guided tour inside. Then of course we walked the Walk of Fame and observed all the totally crazy people on the streets of Hollywood (who would honestly want to walk around all day dressed silly up as Superman, Jack Sparrow, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and many many others!?). It's a mad world.
That Friday night we tested the nightlife in Hollywood on a great pubcrawl with the hostel staff. Here we met three fantastic Swedish girls (also staying at the hostel) with whom we had so much fun!
A bit tired our true sightseeing-spirits hadn't left us totally that next day, so we took the public transports to Venice beach. It took forever to get there - the public transportation in L.A. is terrible! So we were looking even more forward to getting our car the following Tuesday. Still, Venice beach was a blast! Wow, so many strange, beautiful, sad, cheerful, ugly, scary, lively and mindaltering people in one place. So many different styles and cultures. We viewed the sunset until we were freezing, grapped a latte and jumped on the bus back to dear Hollywood. Onboard the bus we were talking Icelandic as always and suddenly a man behind us says "Erud tid ad tala islensku stelpur?" (Are you speaking Icelandic girls?). A tall, beardy guy looked at us. We were literally chocked - the first we met from Iceland! He told us about his life as a photographer in L.A. and about his mother who is a fashion designer with a store downtown. He gave us his phonenumber and the address of his mother's store, so we could go and see her if we wanted.
When we returned to Hollywood the whole street was closed and the police was crazy getting people off the streets and sidewalks. We tried to get a climpse of someone famous (yes, we have become real star-stalkers during our stay in Hollywood), but we never found out what all the fuss was about. Then all of a sudden they re-opened the street. So much trouble for what seemed like no reason. We could nothing but laugh - those Americans are a bit silly.
In the evening we met our Californian friend, Paula, whom we got to know in Peru. We ate together, went to a cafe and a club, but unfortunately we were too tired so we went to bed early.
Sunday afternoon we took the subway downtown to visit the Icelandic woman, Stella, and her shop "Stelladottir". This was a very special old woman that we will late forget. You have to see the pictures :) She was so friendly and happy to get visitors! And of course we quickly found out that she once bought a car from our wellknown grandfather, Svanur! :D She made and designed all the clothes herself (with assistance from her four cats) and she invited us to Icelandic dinner with lamb and browned potatoes! We were very tempted and it was so sweet of her, but we knew that we had to get back before dark, so we said no thanks with big holes in our stomaches :(
Monday was another adventure. We had been told that we could get free tickets to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" if we just got early to the NBC studios. We woke up at 6, but again the public transportation in L.A let us down and we were there by 8:30! So cold in the winter climate waiting for buses, subways, whatever! Luckily the five of us got our tickets (the three Swedish girls included) and later that day we went to a great, quite intimate "live on tape" show with Jay Leno. It was so much better than in the TV and we laughed ourselves to tears!
Tuesday was the day of departure for our roadtrip up the coast to San Francisco. We got the car in the morning and the three Swedish girls decided to join us in the car. Maria, Aasa and Fia. We were all excited, but also a bit late getting our buts out of L.A. So we ended staying in a motel in Pismo beach (about four hours north of L.A.) for the night. And we tell you, this motel was exactly like the ones in the movies! Scary.. The next day we drove off early on the scenic route along the pacific coast with the sea on our left and the rocky mountains on our right. Nothing else. Just before SF we stopped in charming Monterey. We almost had an expensive seafood meal, but ended on McDonalds :S No, we are not proud but it is so much cheaper! (Quote Fia: It's sooo sssheap!)
San Francisco stunned us as an amazingly big, but beautiful city. Though it was raining constantly we could not help loving it, especially compared to snobby L.A. The first day we spend cruising around in our beloved silver Kia. We visited Fisherman's Wharf, "Crookedest Street", Cow Hollow, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge + Park, Haight Ashbury (hippie neighbourhood), and BestBuy :)
Next day we went in pouring rain to explore the famous Redwood Forest. And it was very impressive. But it was also very wet. In the night the hostel had Karaoke Night and Maria and Aasa were great! ;) By the way, you might keep your eyes out for Aasa in the next Eurovision, haha...
The last day was prison-day. We visited Alcatraz, which was a great experience. Fortunately, it wasn't raining so we had perfect opportunities to explore the famous island. When we got up to the prison on top of the island we got headsets and then we walked around in the prison individually listening to the 45-minute audio tour. It was so interesting and a great way of getting into the history of the prison and the famous escapes.
The rest of the day we spend shopping (Quote Aasa: It's sooo sssheap!) and visiting Chinatown.
Sunday we drove back to L.A. and got beds in a mixed dormitory in the same hostel in Hollywood. The dorms have 6 beds, so we were 5 giggling girls and then this guy from New York. That poor thing. He was in Hollywood to go to an audition for a Pringles commercial the following day. Seeking the American dream...
Monday. Our last day in Hollywood. And America for that sake. Paparazzi-day. Sooo exciting!
We started out with a lovely lunch at "In-n-out Burger" - yes we are getting into the American lifestyle ;) Then we headed off to Beverly Hills, cruising around in the fancy streets to spot celeb houses! Haha! It was so much fun! Like some finding-the-hidden-treasure game :) And we started off stopping at Sylvester Stallone's house with more than 10 fancy cars in the driveway. Then followed Jim Carry's, Dr. Phil's, Tom & Katie's, Britney Spears' and the tree that Lindsey Lohan crashed into resently, hehe... Yes, we are now true star-stalkers and just wait, it become worse ;) Just to add, the reason we knew it was their houses was because the Swedish girls had already been on a guided Starline tour around the area, hihihahahoho...
We finished the day by driving through Rodeo Drive and all its fancy designer stores. Suddenly we saw a little crowd of people gathered outside a Gucci store. We huried over there and quickly found out that Mariah Carey was inside. We got all excited and pulled our cameras out. After a little while she came out, she was so beautiful, positive and smiling. There were quite few people (but some crazy paparazzies!) so Mariah came very close to us when walking to her car (but with some serious security guys!). And we were starstruck! Such a good ending of our Hollywood adventure ;)
A couple of hours later we were off to Fiji and this is where we are now. Comfortably hot here compared to California, but raining :( And Tinna has been in bed for the last two days with a 40 degree fever, but has now recovered so if the weather is good we are off to island-hopping tomorrow.
Let us know how you are. Miss you all so much!
Elka & Tinna
Oh, it so long since we've written here, don't know where to start..! Guess from the beginning would be good. So...
After Buenos Aires we headed to Iguazu, amazing waterfalls at the border of Argentina and Brazil. Stayed at a hostel with swimmingpool which was enjoyed fully in the hot and humid climate! We spend two days exploring the extraordinary waterfalls with our English friend Joe from both Argentinian and Brazilian side - seing the top, the sides and underneath.
After this we set off towards Cambo Grande in Brazil. Here we quickly found four-day tour going into the swamp area of Pantanal, known as the best wildlife spotting area in South America. We had a great journey in the jungle living side-by-side with alligators, piranhas, jaguars, monkeys, mules, amadrillas, deers, raccoons, tucans, hundreds of beautiful bird species and lots of animals we don't know the names of. We were a group of six young people, two guys from Holland: Jan and Roel, a girl and a guy from Israel: Sivan and Adriano and the two of us + a strange guide. We went driving, walking, sailing and riding on mules to explore the area. Lived in a rather touristic camp at the riverside, but we had so much fun together!
The upcoming trip was the most demanding busride so far - 26 hours - to Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is a huge country! However, we managed the ride without any major damages on our sensitive bodies ;) In Rio we stayed at Copacabana in a chilled hostel a few blocks from the beach. We knew we had very limited time in the city, so the first day we signed up for a guided city tour, which is normally strictly against our policies, haha.. Yet, the tour was rather effective, we got to see many of the major highlights in Rio and the group was quite small. First we drove up to the huge and wellknown statue of "Christ the Redeemer" overlooking the city, then onwards to the legendary stadium "Maracana", the carnival street "Sambodromo", the ultramodern "Cathedral Metropolitana" and finally we took the cablecars up to the mountain "Pao de Acucar" (sugar loaf) with splendid views of the fabulous city, the beaches, the mountains and the sunset in the background.
The following evening we went clubbing in the neighbourhood of Lapa which was a true experience of Brazilian culture! People, food and music all over the streets like no other place we have been to. We went into a Samba club full of locals and had a great time - and wow - those Brazilian Samba-girls know how to dance! ;)
The Sunday was used to change hostel since we wanted to stay on the Ipanema beach aswell, having heard it should be the best. Here we found a funky hostel only 100 m from the beach and had some delicious seafood.
Next adventure was to take the very oldfashioned street trains up to the gorgeous neighbourhood of Santa Theresa and of course we had forgotten to charge the camera! Such a shame in those beautiful surroundings! However, we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the cute architecture fully insted :)
The following day we went on a very thought-provoking tour to the absolute slum of Rio called "Favela" in Portuguiese. This was the area where the motion picture "City of God" was filmed. It was moving to get an inside view of the slum and the poor conditions in which these people live. In Rio you really feel the huge gap between rich and poor.
To digest all these impressions we ended our stay in Rio de Janeiro with a nice nap on the Ipanema beach - and a thrilling swim in the huge waves (never gonna do that again, arg!)
Next thing on schedule was a crazy 40-hours of traveling (bus-plain-plain-plain-bus) ending in cold Hollywood. The city of broken dreams... And what a contrast to South America! It took about a week to climatize and get used to the westernized world again... Oh we missed the sun, the Spanish, the Indians, the handicrafts, the nature, the real backpackers, the down-to-earth atmosphere and everything else about SA!
Nevertheless, we did have some fun in the crazy North American world :)
We lived right at Hollywood Boulevard and the first day we wandered to the Chinese Theater, had fun with the famous hand- and footprints and took a guided tour inside. Then of course we walked the Walk of Fame and observed all the totally crazy people on the streets of Hollywood (who would honestly want to walk around all day dressed silly up as Superman, Jack Sparrow, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and many many others!?). It's a mad world.
That Friday night we tested the nightlife in Hollywood on a great pubcrawl with the hostel staff. Here we met three fantastic Swedish girls (also staying at the hostel) with whom we had so much fun!
A bit tired our true sightseeing-spirits hadn't left us totally that next day, so we took the public transports to Venice beach. It took forever to get there - the public transportation in L.A. is terrible! So we were looking even more forward to getting our car the following Tuesday. Still, Venice beach was a blast! Wow, so many strange, beautiful, sad, cheerful, ugly, scary, lively and mindaltering people in one place. So many different styles and cultures. We viewed the sunset until we were freezing, grapped a latte and jumped on the bus back to dear Hollywood. Onboard the bus we were talking Icelandic as always and suddenly a man behind us says "Erud tid ad tala islensku stelpur?" (Are you speaking Icelandic girls?). A tall, beardy guy looked at us. We were literally chocked - the first we met from Iceland! He told us about his life as a photographer in L.A. and about his mother who is a fashion designer with a store downtown. He gave us his phonenumber and the address of his mother's store, so we could go and see her if we wanted.
When we returned to Hollywood the whole street was closed and the police was crazy getting people off the streets and sidewalks. We tried to get a climpse of someone famous (yes, we have become real star-stalkers during our stay in Hollywood), but we never found out what all the fuss was about. Then all of a sudden they re-opened the street. So much trouble for what seemed like no reason. We could nothing but laugh - those Americans are a bit silly.
In the evening we met our Californian friend, Paula, whom we got to know in Peru. We ate together, went to a cafe and a club, but unfortunately we were too tired so we went to bed early.
Sunday afternoon we took the subway downtown to visit the Icelandic woman, Stella, and her shop "Stelladottir". This was a very special old woman that we will late forget. You have to see the pictures :) She was so friendly and happy to get visitors! And of course we quickly found out that she once bought a car from our wellknown grandfather, Svanur! :D She made and designed all the clothes herself (with assistance from her four cats) and she invited us to Icelandic dinner with lamb and browned potatoes! We were very tempted and it was so sweet of her, but we knew that we had to get back before dark, so we said no thanks with big holes in our stomaches :(
Monday was another adventure. We had been told that we could get free tickets to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" if we just got early to the NBC studios. We woke up at 6, but again the public transportation in L.A let us down and we were there by 8:30! So cold in the winter climate waiting for buses, subways, whatever! Luckily the five of us got our tickets (the three Swedish girls included) and later that day we went to a great, quite intimate "live on tape" show with Jay Leno. It was so much better than in the TV and we laughed ourselves to tears!
Tuesday was the day of departure for our roadtrip up the coast to San Francisco. We got the car in the morning and the three Swedish girls decided to join us in the car. Maria, Aasa and Fia. We were all excited, but also a bit late getting our buts out of L.A. So we ended staying in a motel in Pismo beach (about four hours north of L.A.) for the night. And we tell you, this motel was exactly like the ones in the movies! Scary.. The next day we drove off early on the scenic route along the pacific coast with the sea on our left and the rocky mountains on our right. Nothing else. Just before SF we stopped in charming Monterey. We almost had an expensive seafood meal, but ended on McDonalds :S No, we are not proud but it is so much cheaper! (Quote Fia: It's sooo sssheap!)
San Francisco stunned us as an amazingly big, but beautiful city. Though it was raining constantly we could not help loving it, especially compared to snobby L.A. The first day we spend cruising around in our beloved silver Kia. We visited Fisherman's Wharf, "Crookedest Street", Cow Hollow, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge + Park, Haight Ashbury (hippie neighbourhood), and BestBuy :)
Next day we went in pouring rain to explore the famous Redwood Forest. And it was very impressive. But it was also very wet. In the night the hostel had Karaoke Night and Maria and Aasa were great! ;) By the way, you might keep your eyes out for Aasa in the next Eurovision, haha...
The last day was prison-day. We visited Alcatraz, which was a great experience. Fortunately, it wasn't raining so we had perfect opportunities to explore the famous island. When we got up to the prison on top of the island we got headsets and then we walked around in the prison individually listening to the 45-minute audio tour. It was so interesting and a great way of getting into the history of the prison and the famous escapes.
The rest of the day we spend shopping (Quote Aasa: It's sooo sssheap!) and visiting Chinatown.
Sunday we drove back to L.A. and got beds in a mixed dormitory in the same hostel in Hollywood. The dorms have 6 beds, so we were 5 giggling girls and then this guy from New York. That poor thing. He was in Hollywood to go to an audition for a Pringles commercial the following day. Seeking the American dream...
Monday. Our last day in Hollywood. And America for that sake. Paparazzi-day. Sooo exciting!
We started out with a lovely lunch at "In-n-out Burger" - yes we are getting into the American lifestyle ;) Then we headed off to Beverly Hills, cruising around in the fancy streets to spot celeb houses! Haha! It was so much fun! Like some finding-the-hidden-treasure game :) And we started off stopping at Sylvester Stallone's house with more than 10 fancy cars in the driveway. Then followed Jim Carry's, Dr. Phil's, Tom & Katie's, Britney Spears' and the tree that Lindsey Lohan crashed into resently, hehe... Yes, we are now true star-stalkers and just wait, it become worse ;) Just to add, the reason we knew it was their houses was because the Swedish girls had already been on a guided Starline tour around the area, hihihahahoho...
We finished the day by driving through Rodeo Drive and all its fancy designer stores. Suddenly we saw a little crowd of people gathered outside a Gucci store. We huried over there and quickly found out that Mariah Carey was inside. We got all excited and pulled our cameras out. After a little while she came out, she was so beautiful, positive and smiling. There were quite few people (but some crazy paparazzies!) so Mariah came very close to us when walking to her car (but with some serious security guys!). And we were starstruck! Such a good ending of our Hollywood adventure ;)
A couple of hours later we were off to Fiji and this is where we are now. Comfortably hot here compared to California, but raining :( And Tinna has been in bed for the last two days with a 40 degree fever, but has now recovered so if the weather is good we are off to island-hopping tomorrow.
Let us know how you are. Miss you all so much!
Elka & Tinna
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