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