Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands

Our Tomato

Heart beat..

Wilsons Promotory

Wedding Gabi & Antonio

Fiji

Autumn Walks

The summer is gone.. slowly the days are getting shorter and colder.
Fortunately we have plenty of sunshine. During the weekend we take advantage of that and spend as much time outside as possible.
Which is easy, having a vast choice of walks and sights around our place.

Today we hiked from a beach near our home to Manly, a village nearby. 4hours bushland, cliffs and beaches. It is hard to imagine that we are still in a 3 million-people-city..

Back at home Tati is enjoying her new hobby: bread-creations. Matthias makes sure that she doesn't get interrupted.
Tatis bread is something - whether sour dough multi grain or french baguette, you can't beat her fresh and unique art!
The bread falls under the category: how to survive in a breadless country:-)

We wish you a happy mothers day!!

Easter, Friends & Family

Meanwhile a great surprise: Sven & Brigitte arrived in Sydney. We have never met them before but these two friends-of-a-friend-of-a-friend won our hearts on the spot!

From an evening together in the world famous Sydney's gay parade 'Mardi Grass' to a full day of breakfast, wondering around and ending up the night at Balmoral beach, we were really glad that Thomas got us in touch with them!

We do have the feeling that this “being at the end of the Earth” has its advantages.

Whenever somebody thinks of traveling to Australia, there is also somebody to say: 'Hey, I know somebody that is living there, why don't you contact Tati & Matthias?'

That was also the way we got to know Veronique, another friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend that arrived here after New Year and surprised us with a phone call of the kind: 'Hey, I am a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend and I am coming to Australia!'

We just love it!!!

This 150cm of French-German mix is a big laugh, great spirit and not to forget: the best cook we ever met! Having her cook for you is just like going to the best ever restaurant ever and being able to watch the show!! Incredible!

It it just like a message in a bottle coming from home and bringing us precious gifts!

That is a picture of Tati, Veronique and Gabi, Tati's sister, enjoying Tati's birthday picnic outside! Yes yes, Tati's wrinkles are getting happier and happier every year!! :-/

Oh yes, that is another great piece of news!! Gabi, Tati's sister also arrived in February, for a two year trial in Australia! It is great to have “Big-Sister” nearby, to talk, cry and share our achievements together!! Roller blade in the Centennial Park together, discover vegetarian restaurants in Sydney, or just be near in case one need a hand to move houses!! :) That's what sisters are for!!

As I said, just a lovely bunch of message-in-a-bottles.... carrying around the world important pieces of us... and bringing those really important parts to our not-so-desert-Island!! One by one!:-)

But back to Brigitte & Sven.... we are excited that they share a dream with us: to migrate to Australia:-)

The same way we would love to see Barbara & Meike landing here in Down Under!! We met them in New Zealand during our World Trip. See some pictures at the New Zealand part of our World Trip.

Yes, Meike, Sven, Brigitte & Barbara... we ARE waiting for you! :-)

And Easter came, Tati & Matthias's 4th Anniversary together; we went north, to the Bouddi National Park. Armed with our tent... that, we already realized... is not water-proof!!...

although, for a $20 tent, we must admit it does what it promises! We prayed for good weather and there we went!

When you look at those pictures, can you tell that this place is only at 90km from Sydney???? Mind blowing!!! Incredible coastal hike, mix of rock formations, cliffs, beaches and jungle. It was a perfect chill out from work.

Splashed away all worries and left us with the feeling of: Life is really Magic!

Matthias' Parents in Australia

February came with the expectation of Matthias' parents arrival in Australia. After overcoming the mental barrier of the immense distance between Germany and the Land of Oz, Ursula & Gerhard's decision to come made us extremely happy.

One thing is to explain how Australia is, or at least try to explain it on the phone. Another totally different is to be here and see, smell, fell and touch things for yourself. Those are smells, colors, people and feelings that no picture or description can convey.

Of course, after the decision to come, they still had to face the 24-hour flight from Germany to Sydney! Which they did much better than Matthias and myself. No complaints about jet lag or long flights!! They simply loved their 2-day stop-over in Singapore, checked out all the food stalls and tested all fresh fruits from the markets. Their only complaint... there is just no time enough to try it all! :-)

These two are world travelers by nature!

After 3 days chilling out in Sydney and enjoying breakfast in our garden, there we went... south... all the four of us! One week time to catch up and discover the beautiful south coast together. They rented a camper-van and we followed with our car & a tent.

Driving on the left hand side of the road was the biggest challenge for Ursula & Gerhard. Used to the right side driving, getting their Camper van to stay on the left was a big sweat at the beginning. After cutting close at some bends and gettin

g used to big trucks coming on the opposite direction without freaking out, and having Ursula shouting desperately: 'Oh God, you are too much on the left!!!! Ohhhhh.... not so much on the right!!!!' :-O

But there they went, bravely on the roads, and after 2 days they were at home in the Australian way of living! :-)

Fully flexible, stopping in all National Parks on the way south. Enjoying together the amazing nature: flowers, trees, bush lands and sharing our happiness with our neighbors Kangaroos!

They, of course, always came quite close to check what we had brought for breakfast! 'Sorry Mate, nothing for you!' :-)

Jumping from one National Park to the other, from one astonishing beach to the other we went together all the way down to Eden, 400km south of Sydney.

There we parted, Ursula & Gerhard made their way to Melbourne and the famous Great Ocean Road while Matthias and Tati had two days to go back to Sydney... work was calling!

After three weeks Ursula & Gerhard returned to Sydney for their last week in Australia, full of stories, pictures and adventures!

Can't tell how happy we were to have them here, and how hard it was to see them go!

Hiking in Tasmania

End of January... finally vacations! Not exactly a big one, only 5 days, but we decided to take full advantage of it and fly to Tasmania. :-)

Yes, exactly where the Tasmanian Devil is... although nowadays almost extinct and to be seen only in Zoos. This small island at the very south of Australia is known by its natural beauties and its incredible walks. So to say, a Hiking mecca.

We have never been there before, but at least for Tati, the image of Tasmania was of an incredible mountain area, very lush! And together with the lush part, of course, rain, lots of it! Great walks, but muddy ones... of course!

And that was Tati's mindset while preparing for this trip, she could totally see herself in a 3 day incredible hiking, but wet from head to toe!

As a bit of background information... We must add that, we do love hiking, more than anything. It doesn't matter how hard or how long... but we do always pray for the NO-WET-FEET God.

:-))

Yes, we admit, we are really chicken in this respect.

In New Zealand we saw, with great astonishment, all the hiking Kiwis (New Zealand folks) crossing rivers and muddy areas. Straight through, in and out, and there they went... splash splash splash splash trail along.

The very same cross would take us an extra half hour of strategic movements with the goal of arriving at the other side, with DRY FEET... of course. :-)

So, this Tasmania idea, came with a big range of excitement but the mental preparation that we would also face 3 days of ... the unavoidable... WET FEET!

Read the Tasmanian Hikes Guide Book and you will find, clearly stated: Be prepared for all types of weather!

It didn't mater how often Matthias would look in the weather forecast and swear that it would NOT rain...

There we went, mentally prepared for lots of water falling from above and well armed with rain gear!

We arrived in Launceston Airport in the afternoon, got our rental car and off we went to “Walls of Jerusalem” National Park.

The first striking thing was the tiny size of the town and the slow pace of Tasmania. In this 300km diameter Island, lots of cows, sheep and agricultural land, hilly sites and tiny tiny towns in between.

Try to get something to eat after 6pm and you will get only one answer: „Backtrack 15km and you will find the only 24hour bakery in the region between Launceston and Cradlle Mountain & Walls of Jerusalem.“

It doesn't matter if you would like to have bread or not, that will be the only place that serves something eatable between 6pm and 8am.

The second striking thing is that every place has the best Pie or won the Pie Competition. Makes you wonder how many “first” places they have...

Bread and pies inside our bellies, we slept in the car, a big Holden Commodore that turns into a great King size „bed“ if you fold the back seats.

At 11am the next morning we were at the trail head.

And, no, it was not raining. But, of course, we thought, it is just a matter of time. Put the feet in the trail and off the rain goes!

But so far so good.

This first day was a 6-hour only uphill to win the 700m altitude to get to the plateau where the Walls are. Starting in a dense forest to end up in a high altitude vegetation range.

The third striking thing for us was, that indeed, the vegetation was looking much less lush that what we have expected. A little bit like a dry season feeling.

But still, we thought, it was just a matter of time...

Getting in the plateau was just like getting to wonderland. Lake after lake, it was almost like the whole area was a big lake, with some parts of it covered with a funny type of grass. Now and then a river would break through the grass and make its appearance visible, almost as a reminder that we were, in fact, walking above the water. Mix that with the amazing stone formations of the wall and it is difficult to take the awe expression out of your face.

In order to protect this incredible delicate mix of water, grass, bushy vegetation a board walk was put up and making for a highway for the hikers. From time to time you would spot a Kangaroo jumping around and showing who was owning the place.

We put up our tent near one of the lakes, having Kangaroos and some little black snakes as neighbors.

Yes, yes, snakes are something you have to be aware of. But as Matthias said, they are only little baby snakes that sometimes by accident would cross our way. :-/

And there we spent the rest of our 3 days, hiking around to all paths we could find....

Climbing many summits...

And just enjoying being there...

Being able to see stars as clearly as traffic lights, the milk-way like MILK... :-)), and chatting to one or other hikers we would meet on the way!

One of the talks was with a biologist, making a survey on the park. He was kind enough to tell us that the little baby black snakes were on the very top of the 10 most deadly of the world. Something really good to know after have almost stepped in one and spotted 5 of them in only 2 days. Imagine how many of those little ve

nom creatures are living nicely around the area!

At the very last day, we decided to do one last ascent to one part of the wall before packing our stuff and going down to hit our way back.

You can see that the view was more than worth the effort! The problem came when we arrived down in our base camp and realized that we ha

d run out of fuel to cook lunch. We had also run out of snack food and the only thing left was fast noodles... that are fast... but still need hot water to be cooked. With no neighbors to ask for help and too hungry to start a 5 hour walk to the car park...

Matthias, winning the best price for improvisation cook, was able to make the best uncooked-noddle

salad I have ever tasted in my life!! Not that I have tried many.. or any.. before, but I tell you, for a mix of uncooked-fast-noddle, onions, paprika and carrots and cream-cheese, it was tasting superb!

And yes, it did rain! Once, at night, we were sleeping and we never got wet feet.

The forth thing we learn

ed during the trip: Tasmania's capital city Hobart, is the second driest capital city of Australia. And to own this price in a desert-like country like Australia, you have to really be dry!

At the end, Tasmania is indeed a Hikers Mecca, beautiful walks, but this lush, rainy and muddy idea ... was not exactly the reality! Only: when it rains – it RAINS!

Our prays for the DRY-FEET Gods were heard!