Another part of our journey finished so time to write another blog :) Going into the last phase of our trip and that feels quite strange! On the one hand you look forward to seeing everyone again, but on the other hand the list of places we want to see is getting longer and longer! Well, I guess that just means that we got our work cut out for us in the years to come.
Our New Zealand trip ended with selling our beloved General to a nice couple of French backpackers that hopefully don't completely trash her. We actually sold it the day before our flight to Sydney, how's that for timing? To catch our plane we got up just past midnight and hopped on an empty airport shuttle to the international terminal. On the flight we did the normal routine of watching movies and failing to get some sleep. We landed on Sydney airport at 7 in the morning and made our way to the apartment of an old high school girlfriend of Willemien. Both Sarit (the girlfriend) and her boyfriend were working already so we planned to discover Sydney by ourselves and meet up with them later. After a quick shower and breakfast we went to the Sealife Aquarium at the Sydney Harbor. Awesome stuff! Lots of fish, turtles, more fish, huge sharks and rays and more fish! Too bad the manatee where on a holiday to escape the construction sounds coming from the harbor. For the rest of the day we just walked around Sydney Central and went to the Opera House, just in case we wouldn't get another chance. It's really weird standing in front of such an iconic building. On tv you only see it from the sky. In the evening we met up with Sarit and her boyfriend and had a wonderfull night full of dumplings :) Was great meeting you guys and thanks that we could stay for the night!
Again an early morning start as we had to catch the 7:30 train to Wagga Wagga to meet my family. A short 6 hour train ride which didn't even get us out of New South Wales. Michelle (daughter of Ian and Emilie) picked us up at the trainstation and after picking up Cameron (son of I&E) we drove to the family mansion including swimming pool, veggie garden and (overgrown) tennis court. Tea, ANZAC cookies and an amazing lam roast were devoured as preperation for climbing "the Rock" the next morning. The Rock village has a big rock called The Rock which you can climb for views of the surrounding country (too bad it was misty). Here we saw our first kangaroos up close! Also we met Ivo, Sue, Louis and Bridgitte from Albury, even more family! In the evening we went out for diner at the Thirsty Crow Brewery which has awesome beer and pizza's. Duncan (also son of Ian and Emilie) came with the brilliant idea to have a round of dumpling roulette! 6 dumplings on a spinning plate and one of them is very very very hot. Emilie provided some spinning action and Roger, Duncan and Cameron had to eat the dumplings that stopped in front of them. Let's just say Duncan very much regretted playing the game...The following day we went to watch Cameron's soccer match and baked a Dutch apple pie for dessert! nomnomnom. After visiting the Wagga "Zoo" and having lunch with Ian and Emilie the next day it was time to continue our travels.
To help us on our way to Albury we could lend the Nissan Pulsar SSS, a 25 year old race monster! That was a bit different from driving The General. In Albury we went straight to the airport to meet up with Ivo. He run's the family company SmartAir (charters, training and repairs) together with his brothers Pim, Eric and Taco. Both Ivo and Pim were there and showed us around their hangar. We joined Pim and his family for tea before we went to see Sue's (Ivo's wife) hockey match. Afterwards we had diner at Sue and Ivo's place and discussed what we could see during our time in Australia. One thing we wanted to see was Bonegilla, the migrant reception center close to Albury where the immigrants were housed before they could find more permanent jobs and housing. Piet and Clara (van der Stijl, sister of my grandfather) Mol immigrated in the sixties with their 6 children Pim, Bart, Emilie, Ivo, Eric and Taco and stayed at Bonegilla for a while. Conditions at the camp had improved since its opening after the second world war but still the facilities were very minimal. It was very interesting to see what was left of Bonegilla and get some idea about living in such a reception center. Back in Albury we picked up Bart from his work and drove to his house (formerly his parents house) next to the airport. Here we met his wife Marla, and daughter Ingrid and her boyfriend Jimmy Jo, Caithlyn (daughter) and her girlfriend Gemma, adorable Rottweiler Boef, dancing Cockatoo Chucky, psychotic Parakeet Henry, Moos the cat and Caithlyn's cute chiwawa's. This became home base for our time in Albury. The following days we went bike riding around Albury, had awesome crocodile pies and did a wine tasting with Bart and Marla. Bart drove us towards the mountains where we had a walk followed by a home diner with Eric. And we went to the movies on our chill-take-a-rest-relax day. We also had a wonderfull diner with Pim and Judy and their kids Lochlan + fiancee Sarah and Tristan + fiancee Ashley. Ow and their dogs as well, combined there were 5 including two huge german shepards. Tristan had just bought a Mitsubishi Tritan which was still way to clean for a real australian 4WD. This had to be remedied so we joined Tristan, Ashley, Pim and Judy for a 4WD through the Yackandandah (yes thats a real name, but locals call it Yack) forests! Afterwards we had a great afternoon in Beechworth (inculding beer tasting and more pies!), an old goldminers town. It was almost time to drive to Melbourne and meet up with Lars, but before we left Tristan and Ashley took us shooting! We had some fun on Ashley's grandma's farm shooting at the trees with the rifles :). Afterwards we had to say our goodbyes to everyone and hit the road for Melbourne. It was awesome that we could meet and stay with our family here in Australia!! Thank you guys so much for having us. You see a country differently when you are with family and we enjoyed every minute of it :D It's about time my parents go and visit...
To help us on our way to Albury we could lend the Nissan Pulsar SSS, a 25 year old race monster! That was a bit different from driving The General. In Albury we went straight to the airport to meet up with Ivo. He run's the family company SmartAir (charters, training and repairs) together with his brothers Pim, Eric and Taco. Both Ivo and Pim were there and showed us around their hangar. We joined Pim and his family for tea before we went to see Sue's (Ivo's wife) hockey match. Afterwards we had diner at Sue and Ivo's place and discussed what we could see during our time in Australia. One thing we wanted to see was Bonegilla, the migrant reception center close to Albury where the immigrants were housed before they could find more permanent jobs and housing. Piet and Clara (van der Stijl, sister of my grandfather) Mol immigrated in the sixties with their 6 children Pim, Bart, Emilie, Ivo, Eric and Taco and stayed at Bonegilla for a while. Conditions at the camp had improved since its opening after the second world war but still the facilities were very minimal. It was very interesting to see what was left of Bonegilla and get some idea about living in such a reception center. Back in Albury we picked up Bart from his work and drove to his house (formerly his parents house) next to the airport. Here we met his wife Marla, and daughter Ingrid and her boyfriend Jimmy Jo, Caithlyn (daughter) and her girlfriend Gemma, adorable Rottweiler Boef, dancing Cockatoo Chucky, psychotic Parakeet Henry, Moos the cat and Caithlyn's cute chiwawa's. This became home base for our time in Albury. The following days we went bike riding around Albury, had awesome crocodile pies and did a wine tasting with Bart and Marla. Bart drove us towards the mountains where we had a walk followed by a home diner with Eric. And we went to the movies on our chill-take-a-rest-relax day. We also had a wonderfull diner with Pim and Judy and their kids Lochlan + fiancee Sarah and Tristan + fiancee Ashley. Ow and their dogs as well, combined there were 5 including two huge german shepards. Tristan had just bought a Mitsubishi Tritan which was still way to clean for a real australian 4WD. This had to be remedied so we joined Tristan, Ashley, Pim and Judy for a 4WD through the Yackandandah (yes thats a real name, but locals call it Yack) forests! Afterwards we had a great afternoon in Beechworth (inculding beer tasting and more pies!), an old goldminers town. It was almost time to drive to Melbourne and meet up with Lars, but before we left Tristan and Ashley took us shooting! We had some fun on Ashley's grandma's farm shooting at the trees with the rifles :). Afterwards we had to say our goodbyes to everyone and hit the road for Melbourne. It was awesome that we could meet and stay with our family here in Australia!! Thank you guys so much for having us. You see a country differently when you are with family and we enjoyed every minute of it :D It's about time my parents go and visit...
Melbourne, the city of Lars and busy traffic. Rogers best friend Lars has also been travelling the world and is now based in Melbourne. A good place to meet up and take a road trip together. On our first day in Melbourne we had a nice look and walk around the city with master tourguide Lars. In Australia Melbourne is famous for the most bizar sport ever, called AFL (Australian Football League). It's a combination between rugby, soccer and handball and there are just 5 rules in the whole game which is played on a circular field. No fighting is NOT one of the rules, so even before the game started there were some skirmishes. And since the referees can't send anyone of the field during the game...We had the fortune to watch St. Kilda vs Carlton. Let's just say it weren't the best teams in town ;). The next day's the three of us went on a road trip along The Great Ocean Road! A famous route along the coast towards Adelaide where you can see The Twelve Apostels (limestone rock formations in front of the coast), some amazing surf beaches and even parts of a native rainforest. We had amazing weather and the fortune to see more kangeroo's and even koala's munching down eucalyptus leaves from up close Nomnomnom. We did a bit of freedom camping in our borrowed 3-person indestructable tent. Lars was the only one that had some sleep as he had a real pillow!
When we returned to Melbourne we said our goodbyes to Lars (after beating him 2-1 in pool) and for the night we could stay at Michelle's place (daughter of Emilie and Ian). Together with her and Alex, another son of Ivo and Sue, we had a lovely lunch before Michelle dropped us of at Melbourne airport so we could catch our flight to Brisbane!
In Brisbane we met up with our dear old Voldkatrain friends, Gus and Jess :) We arrived in the evening and we went straight to a nice night market to have some very good beers and grub with a bunch of friends of G&J. Sweet! The next morning we visited a nice food market and went towards the Gold Coast to Bayleigh beach. Here we chillaxed at the beach and had a nice walk around in which we stumbled accross a lot of wildlife in 30 minutes. This is what we saw: Two whales! together with a few dolphins taking the surf; a little very dangerous brown snake having a sunbath; a big lizard and two sea eagles with some prey in there claws...al four of us were quite stunned since they also hadn't seen whales before! After a nice picknick lunch with fries on a sandwich (Typical Aussie Tucker) and fresh juice we headed back to Brissy. The next day we had to have a hangover breakfast consisting of some very nice burgers with G&J and their friends because they all had gone to a friend's engagement party the night before :). Since G&J have normal lives with jobs we entertained ourselves these last days in Brissy visiting some museums, having lots of coffee's at very nice cute places and preparing for our last phase: Singapore and Malaysia!
We are definitely coming back to Australia some day because this visit was way to short! We loved spending time with our friends and family. Now it is time to put on the backpack again and go melt in the tropics!
Love you long time
Rog and Mieno
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When we returned to Melbourne we said our goodbyes to Lars (after beating him 2-1 in pool) and for the night we could stay at Michelle's place (daughter of Emilie and Ian). Together with her and Alex, another son of Ivo and Sue, we had a lovely lunch before Michelle dropped us of at Melbourne airport so we could catch our flight to Brisbane!
In Brisbane we met up with our dear old Voldkatrain friends, Gus and Jess :) We arrived in the evening and we went straight to a nice night market to have some very good beers and grub with a bunch of friends of G&J. Sweet! The next morning we visited a nice food market and went towards the Gold Coast to Bayleigh beach. Here we chillaxed at the beach and had a nice walk around in which we stumbled accross a lot of wildlife in 30 minutes. This is what we saw: Two whales! together with a few dolphins taking the surf; a little very dangerous brown snake having a sunbath; a big lizard and two sea eagles with some prey in there claws...al four of us were quite stunned since they also hadn't seen whales before! After a nice picknick lunch with fries on a sandwich (Typical Aussie Tucker) and fresh juice we headed back to Brissy. The next day we had to have a hangover breakfast consisting of some very nice burgers with G&J and their friends because they all had gone to a friend's engagement party the night before :). Since G&J have normal lives with jobs we entertained ourselves these last days in Brissy visiting some museums, having lots of coffee's at very nice cute places and preparing for our last phase: Singapore and Malaysia!
We are definitely coming back to Australia some day because this visit was way to short! We loved spending time with our friends and family. Now it is time to put on the backpack again and go melt in the tropics!
Love you long time
Rog and Mieno
