Long time, no Blog

Hello everybody, now follows a summary of our last two month of travels through Australia, beautiful NZ and our Trip to Kuala Lumpur. Sadly, Internet and electricity was very reduced due to camping in the last months and while traveling we did not find appropriate time to tell you about what we had seen…
Therefore, enjoy the read now and don’t be mad with us for not uploading pictures. All the pictures can be found in the respective German articles-the photos’ names give you the location.

After enjoying surfing close to Sydney, we travelled inland for a mixed Farmstay/Jackaroo-Jillaroo-School in Leconfield. This working property really grew to us during our 11 days of mustering cattle from horseback in wild pursuits in the bush, castrating, branding and tagging calfs, fencing and the loading of hay. We met awesome people there, not least the amazingly fit and nice 93year-old owner Brian, and just as awesome animals. Sina so loved racing after cattle with her slightly hyperactive Abby and even Joni felt the fascination of horse riding after working with his old and trusted Billy. We had to take our leave far too early – after only having had internet reception from the top of a hilly paddock a few kilometres away, Sydney really seemed quite bustling. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our last days discovering the Manly Beach Area and the Blue Mountains.
We then flew to Christchurch which really was a lot smaller than we expected. After a few too many days there for our taste, we finally picked up our Campervan. What an amazing way of traveling we discovered! Especially since NZ really offers a lot of free camping spots, toilets and showers for self-contained campers such as ours. Our complete route can be seen in the category ‘Route’. During the next 6 weeks we mostly had the most beautiful late summer- and autumns weather. In this we hiked on Akaroa Peninsula (got to love that place!), visited beautiful Mount Sunday (the lonely filming site of Edoras in the LotR movies) and of course Mount Cook which gave us beautiful moments under the star skies over Lake Tekapu and Pukake. Further South we went visited honourable Dunedin, the beautiful Catlins National Park and crowned the backlands-experience by hiking the Kepler Track. Via Nelson Sound and postcard-beautiful Queenstown and Wanaka, we travelled up the western coast towards Abel-Tasman-Nationlpark, where we spent two days sea-kayaking, tenting and hiking. Passing through Nelson on the way, we took the ferry to Wellington. There, we gladly spent a few days, strolling through town and the amazing Te Papa Museum, visited the ‘Beehive’ and seeing a government debate and -most important for Sina- went to the Wetacaves. Here, in Peter Jacksons own company, both the LotR- and Hobbit-Triologies were born, though now also multiple other blockbusters. A tour through their workshops gave background-insights while allowing us to handle or admire movie relics. After following the North Islands western coast for a few days, we went back south to beautiful Cape Palliser with it’s black beaches-having the amazing experience of ending up in the middle of a colony of frollicking and sunbathing seals, which were not in the least perturbed by us. As the weather began to be more autumnal, we then went northwards to Taupo, catching one of the last clear days for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing aka. Visit to Mordor. Due to the worsening weather, we enjoyed a lot of beautiful rainbows in the 1,5 weeks left but also engaged in payed activities such as Black Water Rafting in the glow worm caves of Waiomo. Here we climbed though the cave system, jumped backwards down waterfalls into dark underground lakes and floated under the glowing ceiling of the glow worm cave. We then had an experience of Maori culture when spending a day, including a delicious Steambox Meal, in their cultural centre in the geothermal area around Te Puia. And, another highlight for both of us, visited Hobbiton in Matamata. There, the movie setts left for fans to visit in informational tours and very lovingly cared for. The two hours passed much two fast and after a complimentary drink in the ‘Green dragon’ we had to say goodbye again to this special place. We feel that we will definitely have to come back for one of the night-time tours!
Despite the rainy weather we continued to Northland, visiting the Kaori trees, beautiful beaches and bay of islands (though sadly not using them, again because of the weather) and continuing to Cape Reinga, Ninety Mile Beach and the giant Te Paki sand dunes, where we had a thunderstorm forest, followed by a minor sandstorm at the dunes. What experiences!
And with that, our time in the camper was already over. We had to overcome the hinder of a regional power deficiency after the storm, so no petrol station worked, but then we went back to Auckland. After visiting some suburbs, we returned the Campervan and enjoyed the blessing of accessible hot showers in the suburbian hostel-the part we most missed in the Campervan.
Auckland neither had a lot of sunshine for us, but still we saw the city centre, its’ big graveyard of many beliefs, some parks and, from atop Mount Eden close to the hostel, many of the 50 volcanoes Auckland is built on.
Then we left this beautiful country, in which we met so many nice people, behind and flew to Kuala Lumpir, from where we are writing now. Being back inAsia somehow feels much more like holidays and we already are back in the mode acquired in our last journeys. Although the muggy and hot weather came as a slight shock after living quite comfortably in autumnal weather. Still, the bustling markets, special smells and sights and not to forget, the superb street food gave us an instant homily feeling. We wandered through the streets of all district, visiting the Petronas Towers and eating our fill at the various stalls and food courts of Chinatown, where our hotel is located.
Tomorrow, we will continue to China and are very excited. We have no idea about what lies in store but we are confident to have a great time. We will probably not be able to communicate too much from there, but will give a sign of life at our arrival in Hongkong after 3 weeks at the latest.
So far, all we can conclude is that we are feeling very blessed to be able to make this journey. So far it has only brought us closer together and, to forestall the worried questions we have been asked, still getting along and in love. 💑 You will hear more about our travels when time and Internet restrictions allow. Bye bye😘