English message:-)
Door: Patty
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Patty
14 Januari 2012 | Nieuw Zeeland, Taupo
Hello everyone!
Let's start with an english message this time, before I run out of time again after the dutch one;-) I just realized my last message in english was written in Noosa, what a long time ago!! Sorry!
So I'll start with Melbourne! Melbourne is a great city!! I really loved it, compared to all the boring little towns in Australia! One day I did a whole day tour to the great ocean road! In the morning it was cloudy and rainy and sooooo cold brrrrr:-( The views were beautiful, but it was too cold to be outside the van! Luckily it cleared up after lunch and the afternoon was nice and sunny! The great ocean road is so beautiful!! One of the most beautiful things I saw in Australia! Beautiful coastline and beautiful rock formations everywhere! I did a helicopter flight over the 12 apostles and that was great!! The other day in Melbourne I just walked around in the city. The weather was very nice that day, so it was great just to walk and sit outside near the river. The city is really beautiful and I was very happy to be in a real city again! I could have stayed more days there, but I had to catch my flight back to Brisbane.
Brisbane was nice as well. Not that nice as Melbourne, but still a nice atmosphere! I walked around the city and in the evening I went for dinner with Sara, a Swiss girl that I met in Cairns.
The next day I took a bus to Byron Bay. In the bus I met a dutch girl and guy and we decided to cook together that evening. Very healthy pasta with a lot of vegetables! Nice! And we drunk some beers with it, even nicer haha! My hostel in Byron Bay was horrible, the worst one until now! All people were rude and loud and they were very proud at the fact they were drunk the whole day. Great for them.. I really wanted to leave earlier, but everything was fully booked:-( The next day I the weather was finally very nice and warm, so I went to the beach with the dutch girl Leonie, and in the afternoon we went for a walk to the lighthouse, together with the dutch guy Vincent. A very nice walk with beautiful views everywhere! After coming back in the center we had a pizza and then went to our hostels.
The next day I was very happy to leave for Coffs Harbour. Coffs Harbour was actually quite boring, but I was just soooo happy to be away from Byron Bay! So it felt like paradise in Coffs Harbour! Very good and quiet hostel, and a quite nice town (for a couple of days it was ok). There were nice beaches, but the weather was bad again, so I didn't go.. I just walked along the creek, and to the center of town which was about half an hour to walk..
After Coffs Harbour I went to Port Macquarie. I planned to stay here for one week, so over Christmas, but the town was toooooo boring:-( The first night I cooked together with Leonie, who was also there.. Very nice! At night I went for some beers with my roommates, but the center was sooooo boring! There was one nice pub, and some others with the worst atmosphere ever seen, and cockroaches everywhere in the streets, iiiii. So I went back home after a while, and decided that I did NOT want to stay at that place for Christmas. The next day I went to the koala hospital, which was very nice! They do a very good job over there! Then after I searched for buses, to change the date of mine, and for hostels in Sydney. I thought they would all be fully booked, but they weren't.. Just at the moment I wanted to book a hostel I got a message from Rosie, one of the girls from the family from Sydney I met in Vietnam. And I was invited at their place for christmas! That was so great!!! I couldn't be happier that moment! I booked a bus for the next day and wet to Sydney! I stayed at the family's house for 4 days and I loved it! They are very nice and it was so nice to have some good nights of rest (I don't sleep very good in the most hostels). Christmas was nice, but strange to have Christmas in summer.. It didn't really feel like Christmas.. We went to the christmas carrols and the night mass in St.Mary's cathedral, and to some family lunches/dinners. All were very nice! The last day in Pennant Hills I visited the Koala park around the corner with Rosie. Very nice! The koala's are soooo cute! And we could feed kangaroos! I loved it!! In the afternoon they took me for a tour around the Olympic Park, before they drove me to my hostel in the center of Sydney. Was nice to see all the stadiums, and the parks around them!
Then I stayed another week in the center of Sydney! Sydney is so great!!! I love the location around the bays and harbour, with stunning views everywhere, and nice beaches close to the city! And finally the weather was nice!!!! The first days not too good, but the 31st of december and the first days of January sunny and warm, perfect! I did a city sightseeing bustour, walked to Darling Harbour and the Paddy's markets, and to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge! GREAT!! I catched up with the swiss girl Sara again and we decided to go and see the fireworks together! We had to be very early for a good spot, and after some trouble with safety guards that told us the wrong way (thanks guys, it's your fault we walked an hour longer than we should have done if we decided to go where we thought we should go! grrr) we found a very good spot among all dutch people! Nice for me, a little bit less nice for sara, because we were speaking dutch most of the time: sorry Sara!! The weather was great, so it was not bad just to sit there, to chat some and wait for the evening. Although it's crazy you have to be at a good spot 12 hours before the fireworks start!! I'll never do that again!! There were just four toilets for thousands of people, ridiculous!!!!! The cue was along the whole street and we had to wait 45 minutes to go to a dirty smelly toilet iiii. Sydney definately doesn't know how to organise an event this big! Well, in teh end it was all worth it, because the fireworks were very very beautiful!!! Especially the ones at the Harbour Bridge, and we had a really good view to them!! Instead of parties that start after the fireworks (as we have in holland) all parties start very early in the evening, and finish really early. So we went home, or better, tried to get home. It was sooooo crowded that it took me over an hour to get to my hostel!!! Pfff..
The next day I went to Toranga zoo with Rosie and Sarah (the other daughter from the family I stayed at for christmas) and their little cousin! The weather was great again, a very nice day to be in the zoo! The zoo is very beautiful, lots of animals, and nice views over the city!
And the last day in Sydney I went to teh Art Gallery of New South Wales with Rosie, and after that we had lunch in Hyde Park, before I had to take the train to the airport for my flight to New Zealand!
I arrived in Christchurch after midnight, and after a good night of sleep I met two dutch girls in my hostel the next morning and we went for a walk together. It was quite cold, but at least it was sunny! The city center of Christchurch is still closed.. Lots of buildings have collapsed during the earthquake of last year, and some others look ok, but probably they aren't from inside.. There is one little street with containers in which they made shops and restaurants, that was very nice and I had a great pita gyros and a frozen yoghurt! We also went to the botanical gardens for a coffee..
The next day I took a bus for Tekapo. Tekapo is a very very small town next to Lake Tekapo, but it was sooooo beautiful over there!!!! I was very lucky with the weather, it was quite sunny the whole day! So I went for a walk along the lakeside to a little church, and then back to the center. My hostel was located very close to the lake, with stunning views from my dorm and the communal rooms! I really enjoyed it there! The lake was beautiful light blue when the sun was shining, and the mountains behind it looked a bit like the ones in Mongolia!
The day after I travelled on to Queenstown, a nice town at another lake. I walked around town and along the lakeside and had some nice dinner at a thai restaurant. The second day I did a day tour to Milford Sound. Again the weather was very good! A bit cold, but nice sunny!!!! The drive to Milford Sound was long, but soooooooo beautiful!!!! High mountains, nice lakes, waterfalls, little rivers.. I loved it! And Milford Sound itself is great as well!! We did a 2 hour boat tour and the views were great everywhere, mountains (some with snow), waterfalls, seals!
The next day I travelled on to Franz Josef. That day was my birthday, and I must say that it was never that nice weather at my birthday haha! Warm and sunny! Could not be any better! In the evening we arrived in Franz Josef and I did a helicopter flight over three glaciers and Mount Cook, the highest mountain of New Zealand! That was soooooo beautiful!!! The views were very good, because it was so clear! It was quite expensive, but definately worth the money!!!
The next day I just walked around Franz Josef and relaxed a bit, before I took a bus to Nelson one day later. In Nelson I arrived in the evening and I left again in the morning, so I didn't see a lot haha. I just went for a walk in the evening, and found it very boring, so I was happy I didn't have to stay there.
The next day I went to Picton! The weather was sooo good again!! Picton is a very small town, but quite nice! I just walked to the seaside and sat down in the sun with some food:-)
The day after I took a ferry to Wellington. The views on the way there seem to be very beautiful, but unfortunately it was raining and foggy, so I didn't see anything:-(
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is a nice little city located on a beautiful bay! The first day I walked through the shopping streets and I was just happy to be in a city:-) And the second day I catched up with Rebecca and Robert, two people from New Zealand I met in Beijing! They showed me the city, we went up tpo the botanical gardens with the cable car, and visited the Te Papa museum. Then we drove to the top of the hill where we had great views over the city and surroundings! And we went for dinner in a restaurant with great desserts!!! It's good I don't live in Wellington, because I would go there every week haha! mmmmmmmm
And today I arrived in Taupo! The town is boring!!!!!! It's at a big lake, the biggest fresh water lake one on the southern hemishpere! But the weather is not really good unfortunately:-(
Tomorrow I'll travel on to Rotorua!
Big kiss,
Patty
Let's start with an english message this time, before I run out of time again after the dutch one;-) I just realized my last message in english was written in Noosa, what a long time ago!! Sorry!
So I'll start with Melbourne! Melbourne is a great city!! I really loved it, compared to all the boring little towns in Australia! One day I did a whole day tour to the great ocean road! In the morning it was cloudy and rainy and sooooo cold brrrrr:-( The views were beautiful, but it was too cold to be outside the van! Luckily it cleared up after lunch and the afternoon was nice and sunny! The great ocean road is so beautiful!! One of the most beautiful things I saw in Australia! Beautiful coastline and beautiful rock formations everywhere! I did a helicopter flight over the 12 apostles and that was great!! The other day in Melbourne I just walked around in the city. The weather was very nice that day, so it was great just to walk and sit outside near the river. The city is really beautiful and I was very happy to be in a real city again! I could have stayed more days there, but I had to catch my flight back to Brisbane.
Brisbane was nice as well. Not that nice as Melbourne, but still a nice atmosphere! I walked around the city and in the evening I went for dinner with Sara, a Swiss girl that I met in Cairns.
The next day I took a bus to Byron Bay. In the bus I met a dutch girl and guy and we decided to cook together that evening. Very healthy pasta with a lot of vegetables! Nice! And we drunk some beers with it, even nicer haha! My hostel in Byron Bay was horrible, the worst one until now! All people were rude and loud and they were very proud at the fact they were drunk the whole day. Great for them.. I really wanted to leave earlier, but everything was fully booked:-( The next day I the weather was finally very nice and warm, so I went to the beach with the dutch girl Leonie, and in the afternoon we went for a walk to the lighthouse, together with the dutch guy Vincent. A very nice walk with beautiful views everywhere! After coming back in the center we had a pizza and then went to our hostels.
The next day I was very happy to leave for Coffs Harbour. Coffs Harbour was actually quite boring, but I was just soooo happy to be away from Byron Bay! So it felt like paradise in Coffs Harbour! Very good and quiet hostel, and a quite nice town (for a couple of days it was ok). There were nice beaches, but the weather was bad again, so I didn't go.. I just walked along the creek, and to the center of town which was about half an hour to walk..
After Coffs Harbour I went to Port Macquarie. I planned to stay here for one week, so over Christmas, but the town was toooooo boring:-( The first night I cooked together with Leonie, who was also there.. Very nice! At night I went for some beers with my roommates, but the center was sooooo boring! There was one nice pub, and some others with the worst atmosphere ever seen, and cockroaches everywhere in the streets, iiiii. So I went back home after a while, and decided that I did NOT want to stay at that place for Christmas. The next day I went to the koala hospital, which was very nice! They do a very good job over there! Then after I searched for buses, to change the date of mine, and for hostels in Sydney. I thought they would all be fully booked, but they weren't.. Just at the moment I wanted to book a hostel I got a message from Rosie, one of the girls from the family from Sydney I met in Vietnam. And I was invited at their place for christmas! That was so great!!! I couldn't be happier that moment! I booked a bus for the next day and wet to Sydney! I stayed at the family's house for 4 days and I loved it! They are very nice and it was so nice to have some good nights of rest (I don't sleep very good in the most hostels). Christmas was nice, but strange to have Christmas in summer.. It didn't really feel like Christmas.. We went to the christmas carrols and the night mass in St.Mary's cathedral, and to some family lunches/dinners. All were very nice! The last day in Pennant Hills I visited the Koala park around the corner with Rosie. Very nice! The koala's are soooo cute! And we could feed kangaroos! I loved it!! In the afternoon they took me for a tour around the Olympic Park, before they drove me to my hostel in the center of Sydney. Was nice to see all the stadiums, and the parks around them!
Then I stayed another week in the center of Sydney! Sydney is so great!!! I love the location around the bays and harbour, with stunning views everywhere, and nice beaches close to the city! And finally the weather was nice!!!! The first days not too good, but the 31st of december and the first days of January sunny and warm, perfect! I did a city sightseeing bustour, walked to Darling Harbour and the Paddy's markets, and to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge! GREAT!! I catched up with the swiss girl Sara again and we decided to go and see the fireworks together! We had to be very early for a good spot, and after some trouble with safety guards that told us the wrong way (thanks guys, it's your fault we walked an hour longer than we should have done if we decided to go where we thought we should go! grrr) we found a very good spot among all dutch people! Nice for me, a little bit less nice for sara, because we were speaking dutch most of the time: sorry Sara!! The weather was great, so it was not bad just to sit there, to chat some and wait for the evening. Although it's crazy you have to be at a good spot 12 hours before the fireworks start!! I'll never do that again!! There were just four toilets for thousands of people, ridiculous!!!!! The cue was along the whole street and we had to wait 45 minutes to go to a dirty smelly toilet iiii. Sydney definately doesn't know how to organise an event this big! Well, in teh end it was all worth it, because the fireworks were very very beautiful!!! Especially the ones at the Harbour Bridge, and we had a really good view to them!! Instead of parties that start after the fireworks (as we have in holland) all parties start very early in the evening, and finish really early. So we went home, or better, tried to get home. It was sooooo crowded that it took me over an hour to get to my hostel!!! Pfff..
The next day I went to Toranga zoo with Rosie and Sarah (the other daughter from the family I stayed at for christmas) and their little cousin! The weather was great again, a very nice day to be in the zoo! The zoo is very beautiful, lots of animals, and nice views over the city!
And the last day in Sydney I went to teh Art Gallery of New South Wales with Rosie, and after that we had lunch in Hyde Park, before I had to take the train to the airport for my flight to New Zealand!
I arrived in Christchurch after midnight, and after a good night of sleep I met two dutch girls in my hostel the next morning and we went for a walk together. It was quite cold, but at least it was sunny! The city center of Christchurch is still closed.. Lots of buildings have collapsed during the earthquake of last year, and some others look ok, but probably they aren't from inside.. There is one little street with containers in which they made shops and restaurants, that was very nice and I had a great pita gyros and a frozen yoghurt! We also went to the botanical gardens for a coffee..
The next day I took a bus for Tekapo. Tekapo is a very very small town next to Lake Tekapo, but it was sooooo beautiful over there!!!! I was very lucky with the weather, it was quite sunny the whole day! So I went for a walk along the lakeside to a little church, and then back to the center. My hostel was located very close to the lake, with stunning views from my dorm and the communal rooms! I really enjoyed it there! The lake was beautiful light blue when the sun was shining, and the mountains behind it looked a bit like the ones in Mongolia!
The day after I travelled on to Queenstown, a nice town at another lake. I walked around town and along the lakeside and had some nice dinner at a thai restaurant. The second day I did a day tour to Milford Sound. Again the weather was very good! A bit cold, but nice sunny!!!! The drive to Milford Sound was long, but soooooooo beautiful!!!! High mountains, nice lakes, waterfalls, little rivers.. I loved it! And Milford Sound itself is great as well!! We did a 2 hour boat tour and the views were great everywhere, mountains (some with snow), waterfalls, seals!
The next day I travelled on to Franz Josef. That day was my birthday, and I must say that it was never that nice weather at my birthday haha! Warm and sunny! Could not be any better! In the evening we arrived in Franz Josef and I did a helicopter flight over three glaciers and Mount Cook, the highest mountain of New Zealand! That was soooooo beautiful!!! The views were very good, because it was so clear! It was quite expensive, but definately worth the money!!!
The next day I just walked around Franz Josef and relaxed a bit, before I took a bus to Nelson one day later. In Nelson I arrived in the evening and I left again in the morning, so I didn't see a lot haha. I just went for a walk in the evening, and found it very boring, so I was happy I didn't have to stay there.
The next day I went to Picton! The weather was sooo good again!! Picton is a very small town, but quite nice! I just walked to the seaside and sat down in the sun with some food:-)
The day after I took a ferry to Wellington. The views on the way there seem to be very beautiful, but unfortunately it was raining and foggy, so I didn't see anything:-(
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is a nice little city located on a beautiful bay! The first day I walked through the shopping streets and I was just happy to be in a city:-) And the second day I catched up with Rebecca and Robert, two people from New Zealand I met in Beijing! They showed me the city, we went up tpo the botanical gardens with the cable car, and visited the Te Papa museum. Then we drove to the top of the hill where we had great views over the city and surroundings! And we went for dinner in a restaurant with great desserts!!! It's good I don't live in Wellington, because I would go there every week haha! mmmmmmmm
And today I arrived in Taupo! The town is boring!!!!!! It's at a big lake, the biggest fresh water lake one on the southern hemishpere! But the weather is not really good unfortunately:-(
Tomorrow I'll travel on to Rotorua!
Big kiss,
Patty
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