Sunday 11 February 2018

Australia, the second encounter

(for english scroll down, please)

Wohoo, mar csak kb 12 nap lemaradasban vagyok! Szoval jojjenek is a fun factek.



Eloszor is egy meglehetosen rovid 14 napos megallot tartunk ebben a hatalmas orszagban/kontinensen. Harom fobb celunk volt, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, no meg ami kozte van.



Nem lattunk merges kigyokat, csak par pokot, meg piocat, szoval ez az ut is biztonsagos volt eddig.

Elso allomasunk Brisbane volt. Ujra Milaneknal, ezuttal nem volt meglepi, es mivel dolgoztak igy talalkozni se tudtunk olyan sokat. Brisbane egy nagyon pozitiv kisugarzasu, nem tomott de megis hatalmas agglomeracio. Csak kis osszehasonlitas: akkora, mint Peking de csak 2.4 millioan elnek. Kb 15szor nagyobb mint Auckland, es 30-szor nagyobb, mint Budapest.




Ropke masfel nap alatt vegigneztunk par muzeumot, galeriat, usztunk a folyoparton levo mesterseges tengerparton es setaltunk a hangulatos csaladbarat setanyon. Felultunk az ingyenes hajora, ami a varos kulonbozo pontjain kot ki. Nagyon szep a varoskep, este meg egeszen lenyugozo. Milan es Virag is becsatlakozott az esti setara, es mivel meg ok se voltak a hajon, igy ok is atmentek turistaba egy picit.





Azt kell, hogy mondjam ha nem lenne sok capa az oceanban es nem lenne annyira meleg, akkor ide tudnek koltozni. Ami meg nagyon tetszett a hatalmas gyikok,spontan chilleznek a varosban; valoban 40-50 centis allatokrol van szo. De ugy altalaban rengeteg allat el Ausztraliaban, ami megint csak nagyon pozitiv szamomra, aki szereti az allatfotozast es allatleseket.



Brisbaneben nagy szerencsenk volt, mivel tarnsfercaron keresztul sikerult nagyon olcson kocsit szereznunk, radasul pont egy aggyal ellatott campervant, ugy erzem 120 dollar 5 napert igazan barati.:)



Szoval Slartibartfastot meglovagolva hamar nekilattunk a videknek, hogy megtapasztaljuk a kontinens adta szepsegeket.

Petty

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Wohooo! I only have to catch up with "Raffly" 12 days. So let's talk about fun facts! :)





First of all, we have only a very short 14 days long stopover in this huge country/continent. We basically had three main goals Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne... and anything in between.




We haven't encountered any deadly snakes, only a few spiders and leeches, so I considered our trip safe so far.

So, our first destination was Brisbane. We met again with Milan and Virag. This time there was no surprise, also since they were working, we could catch up only a little bit. Brisbane is an exceptionally pleasant,, not crowded, yet a huge agglomeration. It has a positive vibe. Just a quick comparison: it has the same size in area as Bejing, but only living 2.4 million people. It is 15 times bigger than Auckland and 30 times bigger, than Budapest.





During out very quick one and a half day trip in the city, we explored a few museums, galleries, we swim in the artificial beach on the riverbank and had a nice walk on the superb family friendly city walkway. We hop on the free city ferry, the City Hopper, that took us to multiple locations of the city. The view on the city is quite nice and the night view is strictly spectacular, spiced with some awesomeness. Milan and Virag joined the night walk too and since they haven't been on the ferry either, they turned into foreigner tourists for a short while once again.








I have to confess, if it had not been so hot and had not been so many sharks in the ocean, I would move in this city. It was especially positive that huge lizards were spontaneously chilling in the parks. But generally speaking there are a lots of animals on this continent, that is again a huge plus for an animal watcher like me.



We were quite lucky, since we managed to rent a car through transfercar.com.au. In fact it was a big campervan with built in bed. This for 5 days for 120 dollars is honestly a supercheap deal.






So on the back... or on the wheels of Slartibartfast we rode on the countryside to experience the beauties that the country is offering us.

Peter, Hot Balls, Pumpkin

Saturday 10 February 2018

Goodbye New Zealand!

(for english scroll down, please)

Itt ulok a hatizsakos szallason, Melbourne-ben. Holnap repulunk az USA-ba es en meg mindig Uj-Zelandrol posztolok. Ezen teny fenyeben, ugy dontottem felgyorsitom picit az esemenyeket es az utolso kb masfel hetet egy posztba megprobalom belezsufolni.


Mint ahogy legutobbi irasomban emlitettem, eppen Szabinal vagyunk Christchurchben. Hogy a tura faradalmait picit kipihenjuk, ugy dontottunk, hogy masnap elmegyunk balnalesre. Az alig 150 kilometere levo Kaikouraba kellett eljutni, ahol az elore lefoglalt Cessna gep mar vart rank. Igen, megint csak kituno tanakodasunk eredmenye volt a dontes, hogy eleg egyedi lenne felulrol nezni az allatkakat. Sasszem megfigyeleseinknek meg is lett a jutalma, sikerult egy darab ambrascetet megfigyelni, amint kb 8 percre feljott levegot gyujteni ujabb taplalekszerzes elott. Massziv allatka meg igy messzirol is. :)




Aznap este mar nem aludtunk hostunknal. Ugy ereztem, ha haladni akarunk meg le kene vezetni, ugy 150-200 kilometert, hogy masnap mar Abel Tasman partjait, dzsungeleit tudjuk elvezni.



Persze, nem eszik a kasat ennyire forron. Napvadaszatunk elert arra a szintre, hogy elkerulhetetlenne valt az eso, igy az Arthur Pass os megallonk utan Nelsonba landoltunk, ahol kis toltodest kovetoen szakado esoben elindultunk arra, amerre a legkevesbe esik.




Az esonap nem is jott olyan rosszul, picit megpihentunk, robbanos kiscicaztunk, neztuk, ahogy esik, esik, esik... ESIK!
A kovetkezo nap, a radar kep mar mutatott par szarazabb foltot, igy mi rogvest nekivagtunk, hogy megint meglegyen a napi kilometer. Felkocsikaztunk valami erdeszeti uton egy turat keresgelve, bolyongtunk eldugott farmutakon, majd az estet azon a parton toltottuk, ahol szilveszterkor is ejszakaztunk. Ezuttal meg egy kis szorfozes is osszejott a jeghideg vizben.



Az eso elment az ido kiderult, igy megint vezettunk. :D Vissza Abel Tasmanba. Farewell Spit es Kajakozas a Goldan Bayben fokalessel egybekotve, boven megteritette az esonapokkal elvesztett orakat.





De kozeledik az utunk vege... egy-ket nap kalandozas utan elindultunk eszakra a komppal. Meg Wellingtonban osszefutottunk Agival, aki a lakasat odaadta nekunk korabbi itt tartozkodasunkkor. Szemelyeben egy valoban remek es szereny not ismerhettunk meg, johogy meg is hivtuk egy kis hamburgerezesre, kis hala kifejezeskeppen.





Ekkorra mar megint elfogott a faradtsag, de meg pottom 300 kmet moccantunk, majd valahol egy utmelletti kis erdocskeben, egy patak tarsasagaban felvertuk szallasunkat.



Reggel mielott Aucklandbe ertunk volna meg neztuk par vilagito kukacot Waitomo cavesben, majd jott egy nap pihi abszolut semmittevessel, hogy en ossze tudjam magam szedni a kovetkezo nagy kalandra Ausztraliaban.

Na, azert meg nem zarom le a posztot, Atit meg elvittem egy kis snorkelezesre Goat Islandhoz, szerencsemre a viz annyira tiszta volt, amennyire en meg sose lattam azelott, igy valoban nagy elmenyt nyujtott a hinarok es halacskak lesese.



Ugyanekkorra sikerult meg beutni egy talit Andrissal es Valival. Nos, ok egy parocska Becsbol. Andris kollegam volt meg a becsi eraban, es valahogy megmaradt a baratsag, valoszinuleg inkabb neki koszonhetoen. :D Sok meselesem hatasara, ugy dontottek, maguk is megcsodaljak ezt a szupi helyett. Soot, meg minket is kivittek a repterre, hisz kb akkor indultak delebbre, amikor mi Ausztraliaba.

Nagyjabol, igy zajlott az uj-zelandi ut, nekem tobb mint egy Atinak tobb, mint masfel honap kalandokkal es elmenyekkel tele. Kb 6700 kmt magunk mogott hagyva nekivagtunk a kenguruk, koalak, boomerangok, kacsacsoru emlosok es egyeb finomsagok orszaganak.



Petty


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I am sitting in the backpacker in Melbourne. We fly out to the USA tomorrow and I am still struggling with the post about New Zealand. C'mon!!! Based on this fact I decided to speed up the events, so I am going to squeeze the last one and a half week into this single post.


As I earlier mentioned we are currently at Szabi in Christchurch. In order to recover from the hiking, we decided to drive to Kaikuora to do some whale watching. We had to drive about 150 km to get there. Once we arrived the prebooked Cessna plane was already ready and waiting. Yes, the result of our awesome brainstorming was that we wanted watch the whales from above. As the reward for our tireless sweeping, we managed to spot a sperm whale as it came up the water surface to breath for about 8 minutes before going down again for hunting. Even from distance it had considerable body size.








We did not spend that night at our host. I felt, if we want to enjoy the beaches and jungles of Abel Tasman, we have to drive a bit more, maybe around 150-200 kms.



Certanly, we should not rush into adventures that quickly. Our sun chasing drive style got to the point where it was inevitable to get some serious rainfall. So, after our stopover at Arthurs Pass, we ended up in Nelson for a short time, to refuel and then we tried to find a place where it was less rainy.







The rainday was not a bad turn of events at the end. We could rest a little bit, played a few games of exploding kittens and we watched as it was raining, raining, raining.... RAINING!
The rain radar has shown a few drier spots the next day, so we decided to do some driving to meet the daily kilometers quote. We drove up on some remote logging road in order to find some tramping trails, we cruised around in hidden farmland roads and finally we ended up on the same beach we were staying during New Years' Eve. This time I managed to surf a little bit in the freezing water.


Then the rain has gone, the clouds have disappeared, so we drove... again. :) Back to Abel Tasman. I think it is fair to say, that Farewell Spit and kayaking in Golden Bay while watching seals was a fair compensation for the lost hours during the rainy days.








But the end of our NZ trip was closing in... after a few days of fun we headed back to the North Island onboard of the Interislander ferry. We managed to meet Agi in Wellington. You remember? She offered her flat to us back then, when we first visited the city. She is indeed a really friendly, open minded yet modest lady. We could not leave without inviting her for a nice burger to say thank you for her kindness.





By this time my tiredness won over me once again, yet I still made another 300 km driving before stopping on a side road in the company of a small creek, where we set up our next overnight shelter.


Before reaching Auckland we did a last stop to watch some glow worms in Waitomo caves. After that the next day was pure lazyness. I needed a serious rest in order to prepare myself for the next adventure in Australia.


I won't finish the post just yet, though. I still had some energy, so I took Ati to Goat Island for some snorkeling. Luckily, the water was unbelievably clear... never seen it like that, so it was a great experience to see the seakelp, jellyfish and fish chilling around us.



In the same time I managed to scrap some free time to catch up with Andris and Vali. So, they are a couple from Vienna. Andris was my colleauge from the era when I was still living there. The relationship remained after I left, probably mostly because he maintained it. :)
I told him a lot about New Zealand. As a result they decided that it is time to have a closer look on this miracle. In addition they took us to the airport too, since they we departing to the south in the same time as we did to Australia. Thanks for that. :)

So this was our journey in New Zealand. For me a month and for Ati one and a half month full with experiences and adventures. Leaving approx. 6700km of driving behind we are ready to see the land of kangoroos, koalas, boomerangs platypuses and who knows what else...



Peter, Hot Balls, Pumpkin