Que pasó?

A ton - and at the same time not much. Work, work, work, some skiing, good dinners, pub time, and more. The term just ended and soon the campus will be mostly free of undergrads. Time to get more work done! No more classes, no more TA, just my volcanoes and me. Can't wait :) Susi started work last week, bought skis and a season's pass, so hopefully spring skiing will still last for a while! Maybe I should bring my snowboard over from home, to mix it up a little. We're finally starting to look into buying a car, so we can get out of the city now that spring is here.
I've managed to finish a few books I still had lying around, and we watched a bunch of old and new favorites. Amazing to see that Donnie Darko is still epic even after watching it for probably 15th time! We also started a new addiction: The show "The Killing", American remake of the Danish original "Forbrydelsen" (Kommissarin Lund). Then there's of course How I met your mother, and all our other regulars that help us to get through some of the rainy days. 
We went to see The Asteroids Galaxy Tour a few weeks ago at the Venue. Brought back good memories from back in our Atomic Cafe days (gell, Sarah!). Great show, and Mette Lindberg made us pretty jealous in her epic golden pants. Almost like our outfits during Rock'n'Roll times! I might even have been able to wear those shiny pants back then. Guess I could try here too, but wearing a pair of golden, very sparkly and glittery pants to uni might get me some weird looks - I get those enough from people who know me, so I don't think I need them from strangers in addition. Ok, that was a lie, strangers give me weird looks too. But hey, who says that playgrounds are only fun when you're 4?? And everyone should walk and run with their arms out like a plane! Speaking of which, the other day the bus driver on the bus I was on had to get off to hook the bus back onto the electric cables. On the way back he totally did the plane move to get back on. Epic! I fell in love immediately, I'm sure I've found my soul mate. I don't think life gets any better! Might post some moments from the past few weeks in a bit. The one below is obviously from way back, pretty sure I couldn't pull this one off anymore. Good times nevertheless!

 

Phantoms and Ghosts...

... are here, by my side.
Things have been busy, as usual. Skiing, class, gym, research, chillaxin, teachin, and more. Especially the teaching part has been amazing. I've been hanging out with around 50 kids in grade 3-4 to teach them about volcanoes, plate tectonics and other cool earth-sciency stuff. And they're sooo excited about it! Makes me remember why I got into this whole business, and why I still love it. This is particularly refreshing since I've had a bit of a downer in terms of motivation lately. On the other hand, a little low also means it can only get better as the year progresses - which is a good thing, right? Speaking of which, it's already March!! How crazy is that?! Less than 8 weeks until I'm flying to Germany for a bit, and soo much stuff to do until then. If only the day had 48 hours - at least.
I haven't had time to spend a ton of quiet minutes lately, but a little bit here and there always works out. Went for a nice walk a few mins ago hoping to see some aurora borealis, but no luck. The full moon, the water, the beach, the city skyline and of course the illuminated, snow covered mountains made up for it though. It was also good to sort through some thoughts and tidy up my brain. For some random reason - probably just the way life works - almost all the phantoms from my last southern hemisphere fall/winter that I had buried quite successfully managed to come up again within the less than two weeks of each other. How do these things happen all the time? One, two, three, there they all are, standing at my doorstep and trying to squeeze back into my life. The one and only song accompanying this, one of my all-time and old-time favorites from 2001: Phantom/Ghost - Phantoms and Ghosts
In addition, two paint updates, one from earlier this year, and another one from some different, crazy times almost two years ago.

 - Phantom -

- Once upon a time -

Hey there, 2012!

Things have been pretty good so far! Susi and I are enjoying our cozy little apartment, there has been some good day and night-time skiing, and  NYE was nice, but pretty unspectacular without fireworks. We did a weekend trip to Vancouver Island with Emily, where we spent Saturday and Sunday in Victoria. My personal highlight was the National Geographic Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Royal BC Museum, which of course is totally non-specific for Victoria :P We're now finally regulars at Darby's, the little pub just a block away from our house.
I was super unproductive at work for the first two weeks, but things are improving since last week. A plan for the year is slowly developing: In a committee meeting this coming Tuesday I'm gonna try to define a few clear goals in terms of my research. There's a few conferences/workshops/collaborations coming up that will hopefully enable me to travel a little bit. Two one-week trips to Germany are coming up in April and August, and potentially another one in September. My supervisor Mark is gonna go on sabbatical starting in September, and has emphasized several times now that we're more than welcome to join him there for a few weeks. Guess a skiing trip to Colorado is in order towards the end of the year then :)
After what felt like the longest time ever I finally got around to buying some paint. The first production of 2012 is done! Check out some pics from various events during the last view weeks as always on my Picasa page.

- Poppy Love -

Pics

Some photo impressions from the last few weeks, at least until I can find the time to pickup some paint.

Skiing on Cypress Mountain

Union Square, San Francisco

Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver

Winter walk in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Viewing the North Shore Mountains from Canada Place, Vancouver

This is how much we could see skiing on Monday...

... and this on Sunday! View from Whistler Peak

More.of.the.craziness.

So these past three weeks have been *insane* in both good and bad ways. A little summary coming from a weird headspace.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or real places is by no means coincidental. Listed not necessarily in order of appearance.
Awesome new apartment. Xmas market. Sandra visiting.  Beers. Worst exam in the universe. More beers. San Francisco. Darby's Pub. Volcanic tremor. Skiing plans. Xmas care package from home. Sightseeing. Sun and over 15º C for an entire week. Assignments. Glühwein. Need to start painting again. Naam. More Xmas market. End of term party. Tea. Soup. More beers. Moon. Mountains. 3-timezone-videochat, hell yeah. Shopping. Laundry. Smile. Transforming into a North American. Grading. Grading. NZ memories. Skype. Presentation. Maxi-Feli-Juli-Kathi. Lemon pie. Stanley Park. Volcanoes. Elementary school kids. Tequila. Victoria's Secret. 14 days until Susi. I wish I had paint. Paint. Paint. Jose Gonzalez. Birthdays. 1960s Mustang. Aging Mac. Smile. Blue. Crazy? Probably.

Bringing back the boxes

Only one more week, and this term is finally over. Ok, there will be another week with assignments, an exam and a presentation, but let's not focus on the unimportant details...
The last weeks were definitely less stressful than the beginning. I made time go skiing every week, and - who would have guessed - the conditions are getting better and better. This week they had 2 lifts open, and a bunch of different runs. There's a lot more snow now, and we had beautiful sunshine accompanying our Friday morning skiing outing. The views in Cypress from the lifts and the slopes are amazing: You can see Vancouver and surroundings on the one side, and the island and ocean on the other side. It doesn't get any better!
Next week is going to be another milestone: For the 4th time this year, my life is packed into a bunch of boxes. I'm moving! By now I'm more than used to it... Plus, the fact that a) things are not moving to another hemisphere, or continent, or country, or city, but just a few blocks away, so packing doesn't have to be perfect; and b) I won't have to think about whether or not I might need an item within the next few months since I'm gonna have everything *right away* makes things a lot easier! I can't wait to finally get to my new place, and make it mine. Of course, it'll be until Dec 28, when my dear roomie Miss Susi I. is gonna arrive until the most amazing of all apartments is complete, but my moving next week is the first step!
Yet, I won't get to enjoy much of it for a while. It's this time of the year again, which for some reason all faculty that I've ever known despise, but most students love: AGU! This time next week I'll already be in San Fran, and hopefully have managed my way through the first meeting, and of course the icebreaker! Yay for free drinks :) It's probably gonna be at bit stressful, meeting a bunch of potential collaborators and talking science pretty much 24/7. On the other hand, I get to see sooo many old friends, people I haven't seen in weeks, or months, or years. Catching up with people from Vic and other places in NZ, some of my SAGE colleagues from the US, and of course my homies from Munich should be good fun! In addition there's the fact San Francisco in December. If everything else fails, at least I can do some shopping, hang out around the huge Xmas tree at Union Square and of course have some clam chowder in sour-dough bread bowl. *yum*! I might even completely forget that there's still homework to be done and an exam to write afterwards... :)

Song of the day: Pink Floyd - The Fletcher memorial home

Breakin the silence

It's been 2 months since my last blog, and a million things have happened. I mainly didn't blog because I was crazy busy. Coming back from fieldwork I had to catch up on almost 2 weeks worth of classes, plus a bunch of basic maths and physics that I've never learned properly and hadn't used in years. Fun times... not so much! I spent most of my weekends working on assignments, and not only didn't I have time to do anything, I was also lacking power and creativity. I produced exactly one little sketch since I got here, and am not happy with it, to say the least.
Things got a lot better in October though. More spare time, so I could finally start settlling in properly. Got a gym membership for my addiction, started doing some yoga again, enjoyed a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert, went to watch a few movies, tried some restaurants, pubs, and more. One thing I'm particularly happy with: My new bike, Ranger.

my new amazing friend Ranger

As you can see, he's a true beauty. Amazing color, perfect size for someone like me, who isn't exactly born to be a star basketball player, or reach things on the top shelf ;) Switching from Kettler Alurad to Maruishi wasn't too much of a step: Both brands seem to produce super light bikes. Of course Ranger's arrival doesn't mean I don't like my good San Juan anymore. But he's back home with the family, enjoying his retirement days, and resting so that he can give me rides on my Germany visits. I'm sure the two of them would get along quite well.
So far I haven't used Ranger a whole lot, mainly due to the fact that it's slowly getting more and more wintery. We've had a beautiful fall, with an apparently surprisingly large number of sunny, clear and cold days. Vancouver in the fall is simply beautiful, and I'm so excited to finally get proper fall colors, something that I really missed in Welly.

View from my porch on a cold morning a few days ago

Went for a really cool little hike in the snow last Sunday with a bunch of people from my lab, enjoying the sunny day and the view from the mountains. 6 people, 3 dogs, snow, sun and amazing lunch afterwards. I really don't need anything more. Only 3 days later, Kirsten and I went for an hour of skiing out to Cypress, making the most of our season passes. They only had one run open, and it was raining quite a bit, but it was fun nevertheless. When have I ever been skiing as early as Nov 9??? Earliest skiing ever, and will definitely be followed by more, now that I spent half a fortune on my season pass :)

Winter wonderland on our hike to Hollyburn Peak last Sunday

Kirsten and me doing some rain skiing

The successes of the week didn't stop with skiing: I finally got my phone back on Friday, after it had been in repair for several weeks. Fingers crossed that it will be ok now *knock on wood*. Also managed to call my grandma for her birthday, which hopefully put a smile on her face. Saturday was all about getting out of the city: Ted and his roommate took me on a fishing trip. The weather wasn't super awesome, but at least there was only a wee bit of rain, a lot better than in Vancouver. Fishing-wise we were unsuccessful, but it was nice to see Vancouver Island, Whistler, the mountains and just to be outside. I took my camera and went on a little photo exploration. A good way to get some artsy feelings out of my system, until I get around to finally buying some paint, brushes and canvases to get back into painting, which I have neglected since I left all my stuff in NZ. Pictures from the trip yesterday and some more Vancouver impressions I collected during the last weeks on Picasa, where I also made an album with fieldwork pictures, for those who haven't seen the pics yet.
In addition, flat hunting started this week. After telling our landlords early in the week that I will be moving out I started calling up people and going to flat viewings. Housing situation in Vancouver is very similar to Munich, and to some extent Wellington. There's a huge demand, and landlords can pretty much charge you a fortune for a crappy place, at least in certain areas. I wanted to stay reasonably close to UBC and downtown, and that of course on a limited budget. However, after only looking a 3 different places I got lucky: The ground floor of a cute little family home, 5 blocks from the beach, close to shopping, restaurants, cafes and major busroutes, between UBC and downtown. The house has a nice, south facing backyard, so I'm already looking forward to summer time! I'll be moving at some point in December, and my new roommate Susi will be arriving from Germany a couple of days before New Year's Eve. Good times ahead!
This semester ends in 3 weeks, and I'll be off to AGU in San Francisco for the first week of December. It's gonna be nice to catch up with everyone there! Hopefully I'll get around to giving another update before that, or otherwise for sure afterwards. Now it's time to get back to my cosy Sunday, finish baking cookies and living the good life! See ya all soon :)

epic everything

So here I am, more than three weeks in my new home already. Ok, to be fair, I spent half of the time in the US doing some serious hanging out and working a little, so not actually three weeks at home. Yet, it's been great! Vancouver is still this amazing place that I had in mind from my visit. Fieldwork was awesome too, it always amazes me that I can get paid for doing some camping and climb a bunch of volcanoes :)
But let's start in the beginning: Arrived in Vancouver after some serious stressing out in Toronto. I basically didn't realize that I would have to go through a bunch of controls, so when I booked my flight I didn't really realize that less than one hour layover wouldn't be such a good idea. Either way, after passport control, immigration, picking up my 2 regular plus one oversize bags, going through extra customs for shipping stuff and beating everyone in line at the transfer check-in I made my connecting flight. Poor people next to me though, since I was basically soaked and had to stay next to them for another 5 hours :P
Keaghan picked me up at the airport, so I had a great welcome beer with him and Amanda. The next days were mainly heaps of errands to run, ID to apply for, social insurance, health insurance, the usual blabla.
Left for fieldwork 11 days ago, and had tons of fun: Crater Lake (Oregon), Medicine Lake and Lassen volcanoes (California), super sunny weather, successful fieldwork (took around 3000 pictures of rocks, do I need to say anything else??), camping, wilderness. Highlights included almost getting killed but survived a rockfall, finding a potentially dead body that later turned out to be just a tent, and an intense hail- and thunderstorm. Pics will be up soon!
Now I'm getting into class mode, and of course more settling in. Can't wait for October to start, less things to do, more fun and approaching the skiing season. Also can't wait for all my stuff from NZ and Germany to arrive. Stay tuned!

One more sleep...

... until it's "Pfiadi Bayern" and "Hello Vancouver". I'm quite excited, all my bags are packed (although way too full, as always), my room is (abnormally, almost terrifyingly) tidy, and I managed to get almost everything done that I had planned (always one or two things that I don't get around to). The tiny bit of my life left here in Germany got even tinier thanks to some serious cleaning out. I'm waaaaay more relaxed than when I moved to Welly. Partly because I managed once, so I know that I can do it again. Also, I already know people, have seen the university, the city, my flat, etc.
Summer finally decided to give me a nice goodbye performance: We've had temperatures over 30˚C and serious sunny days for almost a week now. Good times, seeing people one last time, hanging out in the sun, enjoying some nice beer. Hiking on Sunday left me pretty sore, but a dip in the lake afterwards might have prevented the worst. The last few days felt a little like the big summer holidays we used to have during highschool times. Not really having ANYTHING to do except one or two minor errands every 3 days or so, mainly chilling in the sun, drinking beers, eating ice cream and doing nothing, and being able to read something like one book a day. Can't remember when I last read one book a week, and more than that seems like it was in a different life. However, even though the slacker life is pretty amazing I'm glad that I can get back to work, have some routines and start thinking about volcanoes and other awesome geophysics again. *Nerd alert*
Either way, I'm off now. News from my new home will hopefully follow soon, latest after I get back from the US from fieldwork at some point in September! :)

Jag älskar Sverige!

It's incredible how time flies! It feels like just a few days ago that I was travelling through Oz, but somehow it's only another week and a half until I finally embark on my trip to my new home in Vancouver. The time in between brought heaps of fun and travelling:
The last weekend of July brought back some memories from good old times. Karen had arrived on Thursday already, and we had some time to hang out in town, even though the weather wasn't exactly summery. On Saturday we had a "Wellington-Reunion"-BBQ with a few people, which I (and hopefully everyone else too) really enjoyed! Sunday was sightseeing day in Munich for all the out-of-towners, including original Bavarian beergarden-experience.
I tried to use the next two days to let my voice recover, which I had lost almost a week before due to a little cold (hello - summer!? something clearly went wrong...). Not quite successful, so I decided that sounding like a rusty watering can is the latest trend. Wednesday we left for Sweden, only Sarah, Melli and I at first. The 3 days in Stockholm were awesome: A lot of sun and warm weather, pretty decent amounts of vodka and gin, a cool town with cute islands and nice, old buildings, and not to forget a great language. Moved into our little cabin in the middle of nowhere on Saturday, and spent another amazing week: Some sightseeing in towns closeby, awesome canoeing on a series of 3 lakes, more vodka, gin, martini, beer, ..., 6 of us girls in our cottage in the forest with sauna and some serious skinny dipping in the pond in front of the house - do I need to say anything else? ;) We're still debating whether this trip should become a tradition, which would probably also be benefitial for my Swedish skills! Sverige, du är fantastiskt! (Pictures will follow, but probably not for a few weeks)
Got back on Friday and spent the weekend in Alsace with the homies. Leaving for Leeds tomorrow, and when I get back it's only 5 more days before I'm heading to Canada! I'm starting to organise my stuff here and there, deciding which parts of my life will be left behind in boxes again. I'm almost an expert now. Otherwise there's not much new I guess. At the moment I'm more than usually addicted to the songs on TVNoir, I'm enjoying that I have the time to actually read some books, recently got into "My name is Earl", and I'm in desperate need of a hair cut. Exciting times in life ;)
My creative output has been pretty low lately. I made a few paintings and drawings, but I'm not quite convinced of their publishing quality, and there's no good scanner at home anyways. When I'm in Vancouver my energy will definitely go towards making my new home cosy, but maybe once I'm all settled and fall kicks in there will be another artistic pulse. In the meantime, here my last piece of work from Welly, "A sensation of summer", created for the one and only Kommissar Karsten Killerplauze.

The big tidy up

I loath tidying up. Yet there are some moments when I just have to do it. These past few days I've had such a moment. As I mentioned in an earlier post this year, cleaning and tidying up always gives me the impression of a tidy life. Not necessarily true, but definitely good for the mood :)
Since I'm still homeless, tidying up isn't the way it usually is: Normally I would have to work my way through piles of clothes on the floor, important and unimportant documents scattered between acrylic paint and pencils, photographs, plants, candy, tea and beer leftovers. Ok, admittedly, you can actually find most of these things in my temporary home. But what I've been tidying up is different: A wardrobe full of surprises!
When I left Germany in early 2009, I was feeling lazy and I was also convinced I was gonna be back for good after two years (silly me...). I threw out some things, but most stuff just got dumped at my parents' place, and has lived there in a big wardrobe ever since. Now that I'm here for a bit, the time has finally come to throw out a whole bunch of things.
There are clothes, of course. Despite my mum's protest I got rid of almost half of the clothes I had left in Germany. Even if certain things will come into fashion again at some point, I doubt that getting rid of belly tops from the late 90s is gonna be on my "things I regret in life" list!
But the wardrobe had more than clothes: my old album with little poems and wishes from my primary school friends, some issues of the magazine of the German Rock'n'Roll and Boogie Woogie Federation with pictures from all the different championships, our highschool yearbook from my final year and - best of all - a short diary that Jo and I wrote 8 years ago during a 3-week vacation in Argelès-sur-Mer. I had to laugh so much that I actually cried reading it. For those of you who speak German: check out the page!

one week in

Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Lang Lang, Open Air at Odeonsplatz

As so often, time flies! It's one week now since I got back to Germany, only two weeks left till we depart to Stockholm. My days are busy but awesome: catching up with long-missed friends, going for runs and swims at the lake, enjoying the good Bavarian beer, going to the movies and concerts, bars and restaurants. Went to Tollwood 3 times!! I kinda forgot how awesome summer in Munich can be. Riding home at 2 am on the back of Melli's bike in a skirt and jandals without being cold, swimming in the lake, or hanging out in the Biergarten - simple things but truly amazing :)
On the downside, I'm chronically neglecting my work. Revisions on the paper are due soon, so I should get going on that, but for various reasons I keep pushing it off. The time in Oz seems like a distant memory, despite the fact that I was in Melbourne only two weeks ago. I still haven't realised that I won't see Wellington for a while.
Good news from who's gonna be probably the most awesome new mum in the world made it to Germany though, so a trip back to NZ at some point next year is a definite must! It's nice to have all these little reunions lined up for the coming years, even if the dates aren't exactly fixed yet: Munich, Leeds, Wellington, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, to name a few. Makes me realise that the world is actually a tiny village, and that distances are shorter than they seem, even more so with Skype and email. On the other hand, reading about ice cream online doesn't even closely compare to actually having a nice 2 Liter box of Tip Top Hokey Pokey and eating it. Words of wisdom... ;)

Germany and ice cream - or The Beginning of Limbo

So I'm home. What exactly that means, I'm not sure yet.
Saying goodbye to NZ was tough, but a good amount of gin and tonic during my various flights made it a little less horrible. Arrived in Munich and went for a beer straight away. Good times! Now I'm hanging out at my parents' place, trying to focus on all the work that I'm supposed to do. Sitting in the backyard in the sun when it's 30ºC really isn't too bad, but also not exactly an environment that's gonna help me concentrate. Instead of working on my paper I spend most of my time picking all sorts of berries from the trees, reading glossy little magazines, playing with the cat and eating ice cream and cookies. Went for a run yesterday and today, and I am learning: As opposed to yesterday, I actually managed to run on the right side today and greet people with "Guten Morgen" instead of "good morning". Success! And glad to see the small things in life can still make me happy :) Yet, I have the feeling I'm neither here nor there. I think maybe I got lost somewhere between NZ and here. Can't wait to actually have a real home again, 6 weeks from now.

Uploaded a bunch of pics from Oz on Picasa, and going through all of them was actually a really nice little closing ceremony. What a great time! Now I'm organising (or rather stuffing) my time here. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone, but it's gonna be pretty busy. Our little Sweden retreat in 3 weeks from now is gonna be exactly what I need! I just can't believe all the stuff that has happened/will be happening this year. It's been super intense in every respect so far, I can't recall a single week without - as Aiko likes to call it - "excitement", or maybe a trip, or a decision, or a piece of news. Let's see what the next few weeks bring, but I don't expect things to calm down any time soon. Even though my new home, Vancouver, has been decided on, there's still heaps of things I need to figure out. My oil money, for one (thanks, Exxon!): Last time I got oil money was with Jason and Nate in Santa Fe, and we did the only reasonable thing - spend it on ice cream. Well, back then it was a slightly smaller amount, something like $5.20 if I remember it right. But then again, it got us a whole quart of awesome cookies&cream, so I'm just trying to imagine the 200-ish quarts of cookies&cream that I could get now!! I'm not quite sure whether Exxon would approve of this type of expense... Either way, there's still a lot gonna happen this year, and I hope everyone is as excited as I am - despite me being in limbo at the moment! Right now I'm off, time for ice cream :)

Oz #2 - East Coast and IUGG

Continuing my little summary:
part V: Cairns - Sydney
The Cape Tribulation trip was another highlight. Had a fun tour guide who just wouldn't stop telling his stories, saw crocs and spiders and cassowaries.
Took the Greyhound down from Cairns to Airlie Beach, just to hop on the ferry and spend a day on Hamilton Island, hanging out with Fernando and pretending to be a staff member - good times. Another day in Airlie Beach followed, Ocean Rafting in the Whitsundays, stunning views on Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet.
Next stop was Hervey Bay. Spent a day hanging out and relaxing before going on a day tour to Fraser Island, a huge sanddune. Met more really interesting people, saw the humpbacks on their way from Antarctica to warmer waters, watched the dolphins play and dingos roam, and of course hung out at Lake McKenzie with my new love, the coastal carpet python Jimmy and his dad Rich ;)
Decided to skip busy Byron Bay and spent three days in Yamba instead. Great fun, people and jungle juice and some serious doing literally nothing - awesome! Coming to Sydney afterwards quite a shock: a ton of people, huuuge hostel, very anonymous, and horrible attitudes compared to the warm and friendly people in the smaller and more remote Aussie towns. Did the usual touristy stuff: Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, etc. Particularly enjoyed the National Maritime Museum and the exhibition about Scott's Antarctica expedition. Also had a great afternoon reading and indulging in chocolate at Max Brenner's.
Four weeks after I arrived in Oz, time to catch my flight down to Melbourne for IUGG. As it turned out later, I was lucky to get on one of the very last Tiger Airways flights before the Airline was grounded. Also glad we made it safe and sound all the way. Melbourne presented itself sunny and quite warm, and it was nice to catch up with Jess and Sapi again on Wednesday. We started our volunteering duty for the conference on Thursday. A week packed with "involuntary volunteering", talks and posters, a ton of science and making contacts as well as catching up with old and new colleagues and friends followed.
Now I'm back in Wellington, it's raining as hell (of course), and I have to pack and try to process everything I've experienced on the other side of the Tasman. I had an amazing time in Oz, met a bunch of really cool people, thoroughly enjoyed fantastic landscapes and wildlife, and finished my stay with a really successful conference. I learned that Aussies love their boardwalks and their barbecues, and found them similar to the Kiwis - a bunch of very laid back, funny, friendly, helpful, warm and welcoming fellas. It was almost too easy to travel alone, there was always a friendly Aussie offering me rides, helping me out, or simply hanging out for a little chat. Down under, I will come back!
Theme song for the trip was with no doubt (although I'm usually not that much into country): "Raining on the rock" by John Williamson. Pics as always on http://picasaweb.google.com/kathiunglert