Castlemaine, Great Ocean road and South Australia

So the last two weeks have flown by. We arrived in Castlemaine on thursday afternoon, Nov 18th. It was so lovely to see our grandmother Bibi again. It had been 14 months for me and 10 months for Andreas. We love our Bibi. We were all staying with Bibi's son and his wife and children. Since the home isn't to big we tented out in the backyard. The weather was first cool when we got there, but it warmed up beautifully for the weekend. We celebrated little Annie's 1st birthday on the Saturday. This is Bibi's first biological grandaughter. She was enjoying having the time with her grandaughter.
On the Sunday we drove into Bendigo and walked around the lovely city and did some shopping.

Monday morning we left and drove South towards Geelong, grocery shopped and then headed out onto the Great Ocean road, one of the most famous beautiful scenic drives of Victoria. Though the day was so sunny, clear and warm inland, once we headed out on the coast the sky was so foggy. We could hardly see anything. Thankfully we didn't drive to far along the coast that day. The next day was beautiful, warm and completely clear. We saw beautiful coastline, and also did a detour inland and did a tree top walk in the Beechforest. We saw the gorgeous famous Twelve Apostles, limestone pillars left standing when the coast around them has been eroded away.
We camped in Port Fairy that night.

The next day we drove into South Australia. We had these expectations that it would be so nice and hot in this state. What a disappointment! It has been so cool, quite cloudy and windy and even periods of rain. The whole week we have been here. Even the locals are saying it is a very unusual cold snap!
We're very glad we have each other to snuggle up to in the tent!
We saw Coorong National Park along the South eastern part, then we went to Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was a beautiful area with great scenery but again so windy and cloudy that we mainly just drove around it. Then we headed into Adelaide for 2 days. It was cloudy with minor sun and the city was great to drive around in. Compared to the other 3 main cities of Australia we have been in, Adelaide was definitely the best road wise. Wide multi-lane streets and very simple road grid. We went to the Migration museum which was very interesting and did a bit of shopping. We also went to a small Baptist church in the morning, very sweet people.

The last 2 days we have been in the Clare Valley. We have enjoyed the lovely famous Barossa Valley, finding we enjoyed the Peter Lehmann wines the best. Then today we had a super long walk, about 17 kms along the Clare valley wineries. We really loved the Sevenhills vineyard which is actually run by Catholic Jesuits. It's a super old winery over 160 years old. Originally created for altar wines, they later expanded to make great table and fortified wines. They had a beautiful church, an old crypt and a lovely ancient cellar. At least the weather was nice and warmer this afternoon.

Neerim, Victoria

Well it has been 2 weeks since my last blog, and about 17 days since we left New Zealand. Right before we left for the South Island we had a house/farm sit confirmed in Neerim, Victoria. Since we already were planning on being in Victoria for alot of November, we were very happy to have a 16 day house/pet sit.

Well today is our last day and we are happy to be out of here. The homeowner lives on an acreage and has quite a few animals. 5 horses (which are darling - 2 geldings, 3 mares), 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 chooks, 1 guinea pig, 1 cockatiel bird. Plus a cow, but she required no work, she had a whole huge field to herself.

We did like the location of the place, only 80 minutes from Melbourne or the beach. When we first arrived we were quite dissapointed at how cool the weather was. It was windy, rainy and cloudy for over 3 days. A high of about 15.

We went to Melbourne for the first time that week and checked out the Old Melbourne Gaol. It was such a neat experience. One of the most interesting museums we have been too. We took a number of photos. We also checked out some of Melbourne downtown.

The first weekend was our 9 month anniversary and a beautiful sunny day and we went to Phillip Island. It was a busy day there and a great beach. Unfortantly we didn't bring our swimsuits to get full body color and we also didn't wear sunscreen. We both had shoulder, arm and knee burns. Thankfully not to bad though.

The next week was lovely weather. We went to Melbourne again and checked out the downtown, the older buildings and shops.

We also went to a beach in Inverloch. It was a quiet day since it was during the week and nice and warm. This time we had sunscreen on and got a nice comfortable tan.

The animals here at the home have been interesting. The dogs Cash and Annie are complete opposites. Cash is a 12 month German Shepard and very hyper. However he is quite intelligent and listens pretty well. Annie is 13 yrs old and very calm. However I don't if she has ever been trained. She doesn't seem to know any commands.

The 2 outdoor cats are fine, obviously very low maintanice. The one indoor cat Kimba, has been a complete headache. Though we change his litter box every 2 days, he has a kidney problem and urinates alot. Whether his box hasn't been dry enough or he's just wanted to be a pain he has peed in the house over 10 times. So annoying and smelly! Andreas and I have deceided we will NEVER have a cat! They are cute at times but the hair is just too much.

The 5 horses are very beautiful. My favorites are Cocoa, Raz, Clancy. Though I really like Zeph too, but just this last day he has been acting so scared and spooked of us. We need to take the rug off him, as the weather has gotten warmer but it's dragged too low and we think that's what's making him scared.

We went to Melbourne again on Sunday and went to the Victoria Art Gallery (it was great!), Victoria and King's Domain gardens and visited the Remembrance Shrine which was in the gardens. Great learning opportunties!

Today Cash attacked the old chook. He was already defeathering her when we noticed. I was so upset to see him doing that. Poor chook barely moved when Andy picked her up and carried her to the coop. Just a little cackle. She was not bleeding and we have checked her throughout the day and she is still breathing. Though moving very little. We are not thrilled to have to tell the owner this :(

Now we will be off to Castlemaine to visit Ronnie and Bibi and family!

New Zealand holiday

Well the last two weeks have been great. Andreas and I decided to do a hop over to the South Island of New Zealand. We didn't know when we would next go to New Zealand and since Australia and New Zealand are "neighbors" so to say, we knew this would be the best time to see it.

It was such a wonderful time, we had great weather, out of 10 days we had only 2 cloudy/rainy days. It was a nice comfortable temperature of about 18 degrees and the scenery was majestic.

The day we arrived into Christchurch, we bought some kebabs and did the long drive to Queenstown, where we stayed for a full 4 days. We rented a little Nissan Pulsar (manual, small sedan). It had great mileage. About 6 litres per 100 km. We were so happy with it and Andreas definitely was comparing it with our "Mandy Mazda". Our car has average mileage. On the way to Queenstown I started realizing my kebab was not sitting with me well, and felt quite nauseous. But all we could do was take a couple of rest stops and keep driving. We were staying in Queenstown with a couple friend of Andreas.

We arrived at Steve and Mary's past 11:00 pm. After a mint tea we went to bed. Thankfully we had a great sleep and I felt much better the next day. We explored Glenorchy and Queenstown that day, did a couple short hikes. The next day we went skydiving! It was so awesome and such a great experience. There was only one instructor jumping that day, so Andreas and I took turns. He did the jump first. When he came down and told me how awesome it was, I didn't feel nervous but excited. We had a nice 20 minute scenic flight up to 12,000 feet. The instructor was a Korean named Yuan. He was really nice and thorough and had done over 900 tandem jumps before. We had a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains. It was a clear, sunny day. Yuan opened the door of the plane, helped me put my legs out and then.....out we went. The freefall was a good 45 seconds and went so fast. We were dropping at a speed of 200 km/hr but we were so high up it wasn't scary. You could barely see the ground. The air was just whipping past. After the freefall, the parachute was opened and we had about a 5 min float to the ground. Though this was a pricey activity it was so worth it!

The next day we went to Wanaka with Steve and Mary, had a lovely lunch and then did a long walk/hike by Lake Wanaka. It was such a warm day. We had dinner that evening with Steve and Mary's senior friend Alan. He cooked the dinner himself and it was pretty tasty!

Sunday we went to a church service in the morning at the local Anglican church which was hosting a Jazz style worship. Had a good walk in the afternoon, with Andreas, and he also went to the golf course with Steve after lunch. In the evening we went to Steve and Mary's church. It was a good service and the people were very lovely and friendly.
Steve and Mary are such a lovely couple, so hospitable, comfortable, kind and very generous. I felt so at ease with them and could see why Andreas liked them so much. It was such a gift that they opened their home to us and made us feel welcome. We want to be like that in the future. When we left Monday morning it was quite emotional for Andres and even me as well. We invited them to come to Canada and visit us. We'd love to see them again soon!

Monday we drove to Milford Sound and picked up 2 hitchiker backpackers (at different places). First we picked up Joel (he's German) and drove him for an hour. Shortly after we dropped him off we picked up Geri (she's Canadian!). We drove her to Milford Sound. It was such a beautiful day at Milford and the fiord was gorgeous. We did some short hikes around the area, then went to see a cinema show that evening that is shot from the air of the Milford/Doubtful Sound fiords. Majestic!
We stayed in Manapouri that night at a backpackers lodge.
The next day we went to Catlins. On the way we stopped at Invercargil and Bluff (which is the Southern most tip of NZ). This was on the southeast of NZ. We stayed at a really nice beach house, and there was only one other guy there. The accomodation also came with 2 outdoor cats. But I let them in and they were so friendly. Immediately curling up beside us or sitting on our laps. The house had a beautiful view of the beach/ocean.

The next day we drove up back to the West Coast to Haast. As we got closer the weather got quite cloudy and cool. When we arrived at our motel and unpacked, we walked around the town then went back to the motel and made our dinner. Watched abit of TV and went to bed. We had driven long that day.
Thursday we drove to Greymouth. On the way we stopped at 2 glaciers, the Fox glacier and Franz Josef glacier. They were magnificent. We walked to some great look out points. The weather was rainy but not bad. We stayed at a Top 10 holiday park cabin that night.
The next day we drove to Blenheim, and stopped on the way at the Blowholes and Pancake rocks at Punakaiki. Really neat. A nice walk around the area as well. We stayed at another Top 10 park that night.
Saturday was our last full day in NZ. We drove back to Christchurch, but on the way we stopped in Kaikoura. There were so many seals in the area. They were very interesting to watch and some were sunning themselves on the rocks and grass. It was easy to get very close to them and take a picture. Though a large group of them tended to produce an unpleasant stench. We did a lovely walk at the coast in Kaikoura first along the top of the hill, then on the way back along the beach. Saw 2dead seals by the beach :(
Then on to Christchurch. We returned our rental car and the owner drove us to our hostel. We walked around downtown Christchurch for a couple hours, Andreas got his hair cut cheap, and we ate yummy hokey pokey ice cream. Then we went to bed early as we had to be up by 4 am to get the shuttle to the airport. Unfortantly there were a few drunks outside the steps of the hostel and they were talking loudly late into the night. We didn't sleep well at all.

Sunday morning we flew back to Sydney and headed into the state of Victoria. We have a short housesit for 2 weeks in Neerim South. It is in the country and a beautiful area. We are looking after 2 dogs, a few cats, a bird, 5 horses, 2 chooks and a guinea. It's mostly just feeding that needs to be done though.

Our time in New Zealand was awesome. It was very special and significant for us as this is the country where we first met. And excatly 9 years ago. Okay the North Island of NZ, but close enough!