NZ update

This is how you look after spending some hours spraying broom. The chemicals have som dye in it to help us know where we've been or not. Monday and tuesday was my workingdays here and we spent them along the Jolly River. Up early in the morning and proper big sandwiches isnt something I mind :) On the way back and forth from Jolly River we drove past Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook. You can see the peak covered in snow in the back, thats Mount Cook. Pretty good to still be covered in snow when its closing into fall. Its about 3000m high.. I think people have been winding people up for a while now and it certainly didnt get any better when i turned up. The reason for that is that Robs hair is starting to look more and more like a rug you could use for washing floors. Some mentioned sheepdog, but apparantly that was mean to the dog. So one day Rob decided it was enough. "Thats it, Im getting a haircut tomorrow. Ill find someone to chop it all off. And Jenny + Nina was more than happy to do that! Look, you can actually see his eyes! On thursday someone decided it was time for me to climb Little Mt. Peel. Its 1311m high and is quite easy to spot cause its pretty much flat all around it. Tok 1 1/2 hours and was really really exhausting! But a good nice view from the top! This was the way I walked down. Followed the south ridge all the way down to the flats! Was a killer for my knees... View from half way down the mountain. I am very pleased to tell you guys that Nina have bought her first car! A 1991 Subaru Legacy! STATIONWAGON! No, im not pregnant or marrying someone. Not any plans of starting a family any time in the future! ... Now, the next challenge is to remember to drive on the left side of the road and getting used to the gear being on my left side and not the right. Been trying to shift with the doorhandle a couple of times already. Yep, its my car already!

Bouldering at Castle Hill New Zealand

Coming to New Zealand was GREAT! After a week in Cairns and some days in Sydney I was extremely happy to put on pants and a longsleeved shirt and enter the flight to Christchurch. Arrived in Chch around 12 and five minutes later Clarky came and drove me to Peel Forest. Slept till 11 the next day! After a great breakfast Rob came over and we decided to spend the day at Castle Hill, one of the worlds best bouldering spots! Just look at it, and this is just a tiny part! Where to go, where to begin? Not easy with all this to choose from! After messing around at the spot for some hours, and almost melting away in the heat, we decided to go for a drive to a little riverspot and have a dip. Nice massage from the flowing water! :) Came back for a second try at the rocks, and found that it was easier without the baking sun. This is Robs idea of climbing. Please notice the rubberboots. Real Kiwis dont bother with climbing-shoes! After a long day we got back to the Larcombehouse for dinner. Possibly the most welcoming people on earth!

Sydney

So Im back in Sydney again. This time Im staying at a Hostel called Tokyo Village. Its in Surry Hills, which is kind of a long walk from everything. But the hostel is very nice, not a partyplace and many of the people staying here are working in Sydney and therefor here for a long time. Im staying in a 10bed-room! It is okey, but not much place foy your luggage. The WiFi is extremely expencive, but I found out that there is a library nearby with free internet!

A very neat thing about the hostel is the fact that they offer their guests free rice. They have a ricecooker in the kitchen and it is always warm rice in it, which you are welcome to eat. Helps with my foodbudget, thats for sure! All I need to buy is some salad and some tuna or chicken! And, if I dont use any money on food, I can use more money on clothes and experiences! :)

I came here on Tuesday after a superearly flight from Cairns. Two flights actually - it was cheaper ;) Because my last flight was a little delayed, I arrived at Tokyo Village at 12:30 only to discover that the reseption was closed between 12 and 16:30!!!! Major disapointment! I was lead into the TVroom where I was told i could leave my luggage, and then had to wait FOUR hours! Watched some TV, walked to the store to buy some food, read some in my book, watched some more TV....

After finally getting my roomkey and everything sorted (I feel like i overpaid on the stay, but I couldnt be bothered fighting) I got a map of Sydney and set out to explore. I was told that George St was full of shops and such, so I started walking up there. There is soo much people here. Ended buying a new dress before turing round and heading back to the hostel.

Yesterday was a long day. After reading in my book the day before I found out I had to visit the Australian Museum. Im reading a book called "Down Under" by Bill Branson, and it is very funny. So I took my sunglasses, wallet and a sweater and started walking. After 15min I discovered that I had forgot my camera. I couldnt be bothered turning around, but I probably should have, cause it turned out to be a day full of cool things to see. And that is the reason why this blogentry is writing only. Sorry.

In the museum they had a very cool interactive table. It had a video of the ocean and the beach with spiders, snakes, sharks and jellyfish in it. If you held your hand over it, the different creatures would react the way they would if it was real animals. Infoboxes popped up with information about the creatures. I almost screamed, and actually jumped half a meter backwards when I accidentaly held my hand over a funnelweb spider and it was magnified ten times! SCARY. For those who dont know it, Funnelweb spiders are very common in Sydney (yuk) and extremely dangerous. Also, they are big and hairy and scarylooking. The kids where running around me loving the interactive animals, whilst I almost cried because the spider had "bit" me. Then one of the men working there came over to me and tried convincing me into playing with it! I refused. I moved over to a tiny Redback spider. Also lethal! And he could with a smile around his face tell me that he had found one of those in his backgarden the other day. "I brought it to the museum. Should be around here somewhere. I can bring it over if you want to?" Half a minute later, I was out into the streets, feeling like I had spiders crawling all over me.

My next stop was Paddys Market. The Ground level is just like an asian market. Theyve got a huge fruitmarked and hundreds of small booths which sell everything from nurses outfist via fake Iphonecovers to aboriginal paintings and I <3 Australia T-shirts. I found myself two pairs of sunglasses. Got the price down from 20$ do 18. Pretty sure theyre only worth 5$.....

The upstairs of Paddys Market had a foodcourt and lots of different shops. Got out into the sun again and started walking in the direction of the harbour. Walked all the way to Cirkular Quay, over to the Opera House and sat down when I got to the Botanical Gardens. It is a huge park-area. Really nicelooking, and you can walk all over the place, lie in the sun and enjoy the view of Sydney Harbour with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Walked back towards the hostel through the Gardens and when I finally opened the door, I realised that I had been walking for 6hours! No wonder I was hungry! Todays and tomorrow plans are not made yet, but hopefully I will remember my camera so that this blog can get something more interesting than words in it! :)

to be or not to be

THAT is the question when temperatures are 35degrees and more and your room only has aircondition between 9pm and 6am! The past days Ive spent trying to survive.. Sweat is running from every part of my body and I look like something out of a horrormovie. There seems to be no way of cooling down. That was until I did a lifechanging discovery. The shopping-sentre has aircondition! 100 stores at a nice 25 degrees all day!

For those of you who think that Ive spent half my travelbudget the past days - I HAVE BEEN GOOD! Yes, I have been through every store in the building, and in my head ive probably spent 100 australian dollars. (Multiply that by 5 and you got NOK) And to be fair, what I would get for those 1000dollars would probably have costed me 15000NOK back in Norway. But most of the time Ive actually been in Coles, Woolwarths and Freesch.. Foodstores!

Someone once had a brilliant idea here in Australia! Lets out discounts on food that is near its expirydate! And not just half price two days before it goes bad. Nooo, lets start four days before with 10%. Then 33% and The day before or same day its 66 or 80% off. Which is really good for me! Gotten some supercheap dinners of it. But mostly bought myself treats like small chokolatecakes and stuff. How can I NOT buy it when its only 4NOK ?

Other than spending very small amounts of money in stores, Ive checked out the Cairns esplanada and cityLagoon. It is SWEET ! The beach here cant really be categorized as a beach. Its all covered in mud, and The difference between low tide and high tide is about 1km! outwards! Thats a long way to walk when you wanna have a swim. And you would have to avoid falling in the mud and getting a crab in your pants.. (krabbeklo i undikken noen? dårlig humor? ok!) Second thing - the ocean here is full of all kinds of nasty stuff. Irukandji.. Small jellyfish you cant see, but they can see you - and kill you! Not to forget about sharks and crokodiles. But the lagoon is nice. Its a big swimmingpool right next to the harbour. Or on it? Its got lifeguards, bbqs, some sand and lots of shaded areas where you can lie down and read a book. And you dont have to pay to go there. You have to pay a little to use the bbqs - but that is probably just the cost of gas. I had a little swim there today :)

Havnt really done much other stuff. Sitting online on the free WIFI is one of my favourite activities.. Right under the fan in the livingroom. Of course - i know the olpympics has started. Actually saw the whole opening ceremony. Lillehammer is still best at that! ;) And hopefully tomorrow, Ill get to see the mens moguls! One of the few sports Australia got competitors in. Or one that is - Dale Begg Smith - expected to win a medal if not gold.

Good night to those of you who bothered reading this boring thing :) Up bright and early to cheer for the Swedes in moguls!

Port Douglas

So, ive had two expensive, superfun days! Got up at 6 in the morning on Wednesday to be picked up by a bus and driven to Port Douglas. Spent the 1hour-drive sleeping and was almost awake when we got to the HaBa boat in Port Douglas. Had to leave my flipflops outside the boat before I was handed snorkelling-gear :) The crew were really relaxed and knew their stuff. As the boat started to head towards the Great Barrier Reef we got some info from a incredibly gay-sounding australian. But he sure knew what he was talking about and could tell us some secret about the diving spot we were heading to. The reef was incredibly beautiful and the fish didnt seem to be bothered with us swimming besides them at all. I was almost afraid that some of them were gonna have a bite of me, special the big Parrotfishes. We hung out at the first spot for maybe two hours before we got onto the boat and inside for some lunch. You could always know where the six american tourists where, they were the loudest aboard the ship! I was quick to get into the water again after lunch and headed off in one direction on my own. I was kind of dissapointet that there werent any fish around. But then I saw a shark! It passed me on my right side and swam with its scary head going from one side to the other. My heart was going at 300beats per minute and I could hear the soundtrack of Jaws in my head as I tried to be completely still. Then it turned around and came back towards me. It swam past me maybe two or three meters away, and I just managed to lift my camera up and take some photos while I prayed that my flash wouldnt go off. Swam as fast as I could back to the boat and showed the photo to mr Gay. He could tell me that it was a Grey Tip Reef Shark and that I was really lucky. They didnt see them often any more! I also found where the Nemo-family was hanging out. And a huge fish who was hiding underneath some coral. Dont know the name of it.... Here it the school of Parrotfish. They eat the coral and you can here them munching away if you dont breathe too loud. Its really loud and the fish are huge! Between 20 and 60cm! The always swim around in a school and either a female or a male is the leader (cant remember which it was.) Anyways, if the leader die, then one of the others go through a sex-change, and then they become the leader of the school! Cool ae? Thursday was jungleTourday! Didnt have to get up as early as the day before cause I got two free nights at Parrotfish Lodge in Port Douglas when I booked the HaBa-tour! Sweet, cant say no to free stuff!The first stop for the day was a Wildlife Sanctuary. Saw lots of birds, some koalas, a python, crokodiles and wallabys! The photo above is a Cassowary. Its a rare, native bird of Australia and we saw one in the wild later that day! just chilling in the sun! Mosman Gorge! Went for a swim in the river and enjoyed the sun on the rocks. After lunch, we headed to a Daintree Rivercruise looking for crocs! We saw two tiny once, one medium, and a 4meter long one! The photo is of one of the babies, do you see him? After Daintree River, we drove to Alexandra lookout. You can see Daintree river running into the ocean, and in the background you can see all the way to Port Douglas. Drove down to Cape Tribulation were we had a look around and walked along the beach, then a long drive back to Port Douglas. After checking out of Parrotfish Lodge I had a walk on the 4mile beach in Port Douglas. It isnt a beach I would go swimming at, only between the stinger nets. You can barely see them in the background. They keep the Irukandji away. Irukandji are the tiny deadly jellyfish, and they are all over North Queensland! Right now in chilling in the shade at Reef Backpackers. Went back there today. It has been a SUPERhot day! Had a walk around Cairns and it was 36degrees! I didnt stay in the sun too long, dont wanna be too pink you know! ;)

Cairns

Arrived in Cairns today. Living at a place called REEF BACKPACKERS. Loving the place. Clean and airconditioned and with a pool, and less than 100kr a night! ;) That leaves me with more money to do fun activities. Tomorrow is the time to book fun stuff for the rest of the week. Spend some coins :S

Had two nights in Manly Backpackers, but didnt like that place at all. Complete partyplace with people coming into the room at 4 in the morning, dead drunk, claiming that i was in their bed. I pretended to be asleep, and they went away. The place was also really dirty and smelled of puke. Bought my food and ate it elsewhere those days.!

Gold Coast

These parrots might look cute, but theyre a royal pain in the ass. You dont know theyre there until the afternoon when they start making so much noise! You just want to dug a whole in the ground to get away from it.. Me on Broadbeach in Gold Coast. Dangerous sun in the Cancer state! Sunset. Nice and almost chilled. Doesnt look tempting at all........

Australia hates me!

It is really throwing all its got towards me. Sore throat: CHECK, sunburnt shoulders: CHECK . Well, it is probably my own fault being the most stupid traveller in the world. Sleeping with the fan on all night, and going outside in cancerstate Queensland without sunscreen.

Am on the gold coast at the moment:) really nice place, but the weather have been varying. yesterday i had a nice walk along the beach as the sun was setting. lots of people surfing and bathing, and just as i was 200meter away from my apartment, the skies opened up and a massive rainfall fell over us! got soaking wet in 2 min! woop woop.

nice to go inside and take a shower after that! now im at starbucks, got to get back and get my beachtowel, the beach is waiting for me. YES, i do have sunscreen. 30+, happy?