Byron Bay and its surrondings....

Tonight is our last day here in Byron Bay, we leave tomorrow after a full week in this beautiful, small, surfer/hippie paradise. I think of all the spots we have visited so far on our little journey this place has won a special place in our hearts! I will just let the pictures speak for itself below. I just realized I never took any pictures of the town center itself, but weeell it would not have shown any justice anyway! Just imagine many cozy (apparently my favorite word throughout this blog) cafés and restaurants, musicians on the streets, cute stores and just a general a relaxed beach vibe.

So far I have seen 1289 different bird speeches I have never seen before, wallabies, a koala, and weird stuff crawling around on the ground. We ended up in a night club were the theme was “paint party” (jesus, hello 2008) where the girls were topless (to Erik’s and the other guys in our company’s delight.) We rented a car with three other people that we met at our first hostel here and we drove to Nimbin (which everyone talks about here). In my opinion a superoverrated town (or in other words, just one street in the middle of nowhere) which is nicknamed the small Amsterdam in Australia. Well, living in Amsterdam it rather reminds me more of the creepy, small backstreet of Amsterdam. 5 ladies offered us their special cookies and one particular charming gentleman asked if we were interested in speed or maybe some LSD. After that very short-lived visit we drove through the gorgeous countryside and went for a hike to a waterfall. I can honestly say I am NOT a hiker, I get at least 4 blitsers on my feet after just walking, in proper Nike-shoes, for one hour. And this shit was not a normal hike, we honestly had to climb over major fallen rocks which was a particular hard challenge for me and the other girl since we almost are of hobbit height. Well it was worth it in the end, stunning. The guys jumped in the water and afterward witnessed that their balls had shrunk to grape-size because it was so cold so I did not feel bad that I didn’t jump in.

So has one might have guessed, Byron Bay was just the ideal place to celebrate my birthday. When I woke up in the morning Erik was already gone, and I had got a super cute video from my family where they sang to me (family tradition honored-check!). Then Erik told me to come outside (our new hostel is one of the best we ever stayed at, just by the beach and with a big back garden) and there he has prepared a breakfast with some of my favorite things in the world- egg and avocado! The rest of the day we just lay on the beach and played around with the big waves. In the evening we went to a restaurant (never do it otherwise) and had some Greek food. They had the BYO policy which many restaurants in Australia has, it stands for “Bring Your Own”. We could just buy a bottle of wine for five dollars in a liquor shop and bring the bottle to the restaurant. Such an amazing idea that I wish the rest of the world could adopt! Afterwards (with very many glasses of wines in our bodies) we went skinny dipping in the moonlit ocean, also something that was on my to-do-in-life-list. Just an amazing day in other words!

Tomorrow we fly back to Sydney where we will spend three more days, then on Saturday we fly up to Bangkok and then our South Asian adventure begins! It is low season there now, which means that the temperature during the day can rise up to +39 degrees and the air can get extremely humid. This will be a challenge in itself and will probably take a while to adjust to. But we are so looking forward to it! Only in one week from now we will be on the 8-hour bus from Bangkok to Siem Riep in Cambodia. But I think we will return to Australia one day, pff…how will we be able to get back to the normal office life in Europe after this trip is a question that remains…

Sydney!

Last Wednesday we flew over from New Zealand to Australia, Sydney. Gotta admit I was a tad nervous to go through the security check, mostly because people (like my mom and Erik’s grandmother) has given us some serious warnings after watching Border Security on TV haha. But of course it is waaay blown up on TV, the border control went super smooth and honestly the border control in Auckland was twice the size and much stricter.

It tooks us literally 30 minutes to collect our baggage, go through border control, take the train to the city center and to arrive on our hostel. We had a grand welcome, there was free drinks up at the rooftop. One hour later we got wasted on the famous goon wine (bag-in-box, extremely cheap wine that kind of tastes like vinegar). Brilliant welcome and an awesome hostel. Met some really nice guys (from England of all places, who would have guessed that) whom we spent the upcoming days with.

DAY 1

Erik and I went on a free city tour to get some orientation around the city. We have done this in almost every big city we visit, Auckland, Paris, Edinburgh etc. It’s always so good in order to get to know a city quick and get some interesting background story. In the evening we drank goon-wine again with our roomies and ate 2$ hot dogs at the rooftop.

DAY 2

Went to the Beach of all the beaches- famous Bondi beach! It was much smaller in real life, that was a bit surprising. But still a lot of amazingly hot surfer dudes and big waves so that made up for everything, thihih. We spent the evening at the rooftop again drinking more goon aaand…can’t remember the rest.

DAY 3

Took the ferry with the other guys to Manly beach. Unfortunately, it was sooo much smoke all over Sydney. Apparently there has been a controlled fire 110 km away by the Blue Mountains, and the smoke was everywhere. In the afternoon it got a bit better though. Manly was so nice, I think I might have preferred that place to Bondi beach. Very relaxed beach town vibe and SO much tasty sushi.

DAY 4

Took the train to the Blue Mountains, the weather was a bit grey and it was still a bit smokey after the fire so I didn’t know if it would be worth it or not, but for only 2,5 $ to get there and back it was SO worth it. So pretty, a very different place. Took a hike there. Interesting, considering the fact that we did 0 hikes in NZ which is the “land of the hikes”, seriously. In the evening we checked in to another hostel, literally across the street from the amazing one. It doesn’t have a rooftop, but I guess I can live with that for now ^^

TODAY

It’s raining. Haven’t done shit. Free pizza at the hostel tonight though. Will drink some goon. Jej.

TOMORROW

The sun will be back, so will probably go back to Bondi beach. The day after we will take a flight to BYRON BAY. Looking forward!

Over and Out!

Back in a hot pool!

For already a few days now Erik and I have been back travelling (which for us means going back to do absolutely nothing all day). We left the farm last Thursday and took directly a bus to Blenheim “to get a change of scenery” for a weekend. Well, I am happy we did because that made us appreciate our beautiful Kaikoura even more! Blenheim is incredibly depressing, the only highlight there was a pet shop in the city with some cute kittens.

On the first evening away from the farm, hanging around in the cheap-ass camping site together with vineyard workers, we felt very sentimental and missed the animals so much (even Erik!). I just couldn’t believe I would never see or take care of the dogs, Bambi, Teddy-the-donkey, Timmy-the-sheep, Acorn-the-pony and many of the other characters again. It was really such a great experience which I am very grateful for. But trust me, it was not like we did not have proper tough days there too. But all in all, I would definitely do it again. Erik, hmmm, maybe not :P  (I knew him working there was only to make me happy, and for that I am very, very grateful). He is now totally convinced to have a dog in the future though so mission accomplished!

We are now back in Kaikoura and will stay here until Friday, then it’s back to Auckland and to the north island oh my god time has passed! We are chilling in the most amazing hostel here. Very small and personal, with a big garden and a hot pool! I think I might even have time to finish reading the book that I started with like 2 months ago.

We are slowly but steady starting to plan for our Asia trip. I feel like that’s when our biggest challenges await! Sure travelling in NZ and Australia is an adventure, but it’s still very western culture (obviously) and first-world countries and super comfortable and safe. Truth be told I am a little bit nervous about Asia and all it’s risky business haha, but that goes to show how spoiled and naïve I am in a way and what good and cool experience it will be! We fly into Bangkok in a month from now and we plan to take a bus from there to Cambodia to start with. We will seeee! Right now I will practice my non-existing Yoga skills and “live in the moment” and just soak up these last few days in my beautiful New Zealand! (I mean, just look at this freakin gorgeous view while I write these words!)

NZ- and I am quoting Terminator now- I’ll be back!

Erik piloted a plan (almost) all by himself for 30 minutes around Kaikoura! So scary! Trust me, I did not take this picture but was safe and sound on the ground. He looks damn hot as a pilot though, mm! :D

Old MacDonald had a farm E I E I O

We have been one full week on the farm now and have a couple of more weeks to go and I thought it could be worth giving an update!

In all honesty Erik and I suffered from a big cultural shock the first couple of days. From glamorous (ehh) camping life to a very different farmer life. But we have adjusted more and more and suddenly picking up different type of animal diarreah poo feels like a piece of cake! ;) The owners of the farm are very friendly and we are woofing together with a german guy (who is a typical handy-man, which is very good since Erik and I are the total opposite). We are working every day, but three times a week only from 8.15-11.15 and the other days to 16.15. A typical day can look like following:

• Up at 7.30. Damn we sleep good here. Completely exhausted, even on our shorter days since we usually bike in to the city which is a total of 8 km). Feeding time at 8.15. Our least favourite are the pigs, freakin' huge and super annoying and they eat garbage. Seriously if I would slip and fall on to the ground I think they would eat me up in 10  minutes. The rest of the animals are supercute and excited for food, and they have all such different personalities. There are 13 lamas here and feeding them is a challange...they are bigger than me and I am fighting for my life while giving them food (kind of). They havn't spitted on us yet and they are actually quite cute...especially from a distance. But the owners do a lot of lama trekking for tourists here and it would be interesting to join once.
• Change and fill up their water. Since there is over 100 animals on the farm this takes a while...at least feeding is more fun since they actually get excited to see you (the food). They couldn't give a rats arse about the water. Except the ducks. The ducks love water time.
• Poop time! Best time of the day, of course. Haha. Erik is seriously thinking about breaking up with me and run far, far away every time its poop cleaning time ;) But we are starting to get pro's! You can call us "The Poop Pro's" from now on hahaha (please don't).
• Preparing the food for afternoon/ next day. Ever wondered what a lama/wallaby/sheep/a bambi eats? Well think no more, now you can just ask us in the future! haha
• After lunch time its' time to do different projects if you work the full day....Erik is for example the gardener  here and I am painting a door...only been here a week and the door is still not finished but that's a different story...
• 15.15 feeding time and water time again. Done!

My dad think this sounds like hell on earth, haha, but I enjoy it more and more! It is not as hard work as it sounds like and we can often bike in to civilasation after work for some drinks and to see people instead of animals. I am getting more and more attached to these animals though..especially a particular three-legged border collie dog who is just the cutest thing on earth...

Both Erik and I (especially Erik) are very much city-folks. Haha. We like things clean...and luxuries (okay especially I am very comfortable...I like the good life,yupp). But we are learning a lot from this experience, and I promise I am not forcing Erik at all to be here, even if some people might think so... ;) 

We have booked our ticket from Christchurch back to Auckland 23rd of April, and then we have about 10 more days left on the north island before we fly of to Sydney!

Tonight we are off into town to partyyyy. It is St. Paddys day today of course. Luckily Kaikoura is an extremely touristic town so there is a nice international crowd here!

These are the murderpigs I mentioned...this guy looks like a grumpy old man and snores louder than my dad during most of the day

Me and Erik are either considering to become "pigvegetarians" in the future OR enjoying eating bacon even more after this...we havn't decided yet... ;)

Okey so PLEASE ignore my horrible hair/outfit, I know I look like a run-down Britney Spears here on the farm but hey...it is not all about the looks right (eeh yes it is!). Erik has completely forbidden me to EVER post any pictures of him in his farm-uniform so I gotta respect that...haha. Charlie the Wallaby is such a character...a very gently girl.

A common view here

I saved three baby chickens that was 1 day old when I found them! They were bullied by a goose...however now only two remains :(...nature has her way...

Erik and Jess the-three-legged-dog, a love story...

This farm is known for their popular, odd accomodations we help out to clean sometimes...they are on tripadvisor "Wacky stays".

Bambi came here when she was only 2 days old...now she is 7 years. She thinks she is a pony but love to get a good scratch like a dog....(once again, ignore my britney-hair)

Very relaxing here...especially with a glass of wine in your hand

Kaikoura beach....then I have many more pictures of me in different resturants in the city eating and drinking, however that will be too many "selfies-with-a-glass-of-wine"-pictures...