Beautiful Australian beaches, Noosa

Sunday-Monday 22.-23.02. was time to explore the east coast of Australia. It is really pleasant area of Australia, no dry land, no desert soil. Just greenery and the roads which reminded me US. Though Australians hate Americans and say that they don't like all that bla-bla-bla US thing, it seems they have copied it a lot.

Beaches of Australia are just gorgeous, with white sand and see-through warm light-blue water. I also learnt to love big waves, breathing in when it is right time, jumping into them and having so much fun of getting exhausted.

Watching how people live their surfer's life here, is just fun. Everybody is walking, a surf board in one hand and enjoying time catching the waves.

Noosa, where we stayed for 2 days, is a lovely small resort with nice restaurants and ice-cream booths. There is also the National park of Noosa, where you can walk next to the beach side, hoping to see some koalas up on trees. We had not that luck this time though.

Have to say Australia is better than i had expected, similar to New Zealand because the nature is beautiful and people are lovely. But it is huge, it is massive!

Australia

On early morning 21th of February i started my first trip to Australia and flew to Brisbane. It took 3.5 hours to fly from Auckland to Brisbane and i was there at 8:25am. Lovely warm weather, around 25-30 degrees welcomed me there.

Driving around and walking in Brisbane made me think what´s the place like. Definitely a peaceful and friendly city, a river running through it, lots of skyscrapers.

The weather there is nice as well. Australia has 2 seasons: winter and summer. It is the end of the summer at the moment, mostly sunny, with heavy showers and degrees around 30-35. Autumn, from March until May, is a bit cooler and winter - from June until August - they say is just pleasant. At daytime degrees around 20 and in nighttime maybe 5.

Kiwi land and Kiwis

New Zealand is something totally different than the rest of the world indeed. No rush, no nervous competing with other people. When i think back to Estonia and to whole Europe, generally i remember just endless meaningless competing about everything: who has better car, who has more beautiful house, who is or owns whatever... I've done it myself there as well, but now i feel i've got enough.

People care here about each other. When you walk in downtown, you probably don't notice that - people on a street as usually. Maybe some more smiling to you, and certainly more attention if you turn to someone. But walking around here, where we live, in a suburb called Manukau is really pleasant. We are new faces here, but people say Hello to us on the street. And smile. Another beautiful custom is to turn to you and say your name. For example "Good morning, Ave", "What have you been doing today, Ave?", "What do you think about going for a walk, Ave?". Small things, but make feel like you are someone.

I've met a nice Swedish couple who told the same - it is so relaxing to be here. Away from rushing, worrying and competing.

Nice thing is, that life is not as expensive as it is in Estonia.

Some examples:

- our rent place costs 102 New Zealand dollars (NZD) per person, approximately 700 Estonian kroons, per week. It is pretty normal price, can even say a bit too expensive for a suburb and you can find the same price rent place in downtown as well (look at the website where we found our place);

- we have a swimming pool for free here;

- some outdoor movies and concerts are for free, sponsored by Auckland City Council;

- a daily newspaper NZ Herald costs 1.70 NZD (around 12 EEK);

- really really good sushi in downtown per piece (which is at least 2 times bigger than in Estonia and made of tasty fresh things) costs 2.20 NZD (around 15 EEK);

- Villa Maria wines start from 8.99 NZD (around 60 EEK) in supermarkets;

- you can get a simple Japanese car for 1000 NZD (around 6500 - 7000 EEK).

Welcome to New Zealand!

My birthday is usually in winter, but in this year.. in summer :)

It is my birthday today and i am 32 now. I like being it. And here is a short overview how have i been spending the day.

I woke up pretty early in the morning and got a lovely birthday hug from Marge. The house where we live, was empty by 8am - everybody rushed to work and Marge to her English lesson. So it was time to spend it on my own, to get greetings from my mum and friends in Estonia.

I made a short walk around and found lovely horses just some hundred meters from our place. I think i'll go to say Hello to them as often as i can starting from today. Horses, though not those close to our place, wear blankets here. Is it to protect them from sun.. i don't know... i think it is not for keeping them worm, it is really warm here anyway.

Later i made a nice breakfast for myself: omelet with mushrooms and ham, and some green salad. And then it was almost midday and was time to go to Auckland downtown. It takes pretty long time to go there: first to walk to Manurewa trail way station, which takes about 35-40 minutes and the same time to travel by train to downtown. But i have enough time and it's just a pleasure.

In downtown i visited the Immigration office, a lovely church and spent time in my favourite park Albert park, drinking really good chai latte and eating sushi. Beautiful day!

Later we came back from the downtown with Marge, bought some meat and wine for the evening. It was raining while we walked from supermarket back to home. It was warm summer rain, good for skin and we were so happy, walking there with huge bags :)

In the evening i celebrated my birthday with our house mates Julie, William, Marge, Anthony and Lisa. Some friends also came to us and we had lovely dinner with BBQ, salad and wine. Muffins made by Julie and ice cream made by Kiwis.. and a lovely frog (on the pic with me) form a French guy Anthony... and some lovely SMS's and talks over Skype with friends in Estonia. Perfect birthday! :) Pics of the day are here.

And here you can see some pics, what i've made on my walks around our place here and on beachday 08.02.2009.

Maori village in Rotorua 04.02.2009

I still haven't had chance to see real Maori village and saw it finally on 4th February. It was an incredible adventure to enter the village, surrounded by many Maori people. Their behaviour is totally different than we have got use to see. They protect their people and homes, being pretty frightening at first. When they understand that you are a friend and come in peace - and this is what tourists definitely are - they let you in and offer nice entertainment to you.

This visit was also worth to go and see, hoping that it all was real-real what we saw.

Must also say that they are really friendly and nice, the Maoris. And what a funny language and names they have, some examples are here:

Te Puna Ariki - Tohunga (Medicine man)

Te Ao Huri - Rebel musket warrior.

Look at here for more information.

Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland 04.02.2009

Wai-O-Tapu is New Zealand's most colourful and diverse volcanic area, located close to Rotorua in north island. I spent there some hours, admiring those innumerable colours of every tint and hue displayed in pools, lakes, craters, steam vents and mineral terraces.

Walked between pools filled with hot water, mud pools and geysers. Listened and had a lot of fun of those weird voices of bubbling mud and water.

Seems like everything is here, in this pretty small country: caves, mountains, beautiful beaches both with black and white sand, geysers, volcanoes... everything... even snow in the mountains.

Look at here for more information about the place.

Waitomo caves on 03.02.2009

On 3rd February i had an incredible adventure: to go caving in Waitomo caves, approximately 2 hours from Auckland city. Definitely one of the most experiences i've ever had.

The adventure started around 11am, when we were driven to the middle of nowhere. We just went by a bus through farmlands, very private and quiet places, hundreds cows spending their days on the fields, and no one of us could never ever think what was there inside the ground where we were driving on.

The funniest part was to put on wetsuits, rain boots and a hammer, also lots of equipment like ropes and belaying pins and to walk some hundred meters in summer heat over fields to the place where the inside wonderland started.

First look down was amazing. It was a hundred meters deep cave and we were starting to go down there on ropes, belayed tightly. It was awesome.. hard to find words to describe.

Reached down there, had a quick lunch. Probably the most exciting lunch one might ever have.

And then to the water! The water in the bottom of the caves was around 12 degrees, i guess. And you know what - there are eels in this water, which eat sheep and cows (who have been unluckily fallen down to the cave) and they are sometimes 50 kg-s big!! Oh no, when i later got to know about it... i just thanked God that i didn't understand there in the caves what the tour guide was telling us. Terrible! And i can imagine the eels actually were there in the water, just i did not know that and couldn't also see as it was really dark there.

Our way in the bottom of the caves went on, we got through some really narrow points and jumped down to the water from 5m height, having no idea what was going to happen with us after the jump.

It was all so exciting, all those 6-7 hours in the caves and total darkness.

Definitely one of those must do things in New Zealand! Some more information you can find here.

Beachday 1th February

Today it was a great beach day, sun was very bright and the weather was around 25 degrees. We went to a beach, lied down in the sun and enjoyed relaxing. Driving there was very scenery - hilly landscapes of north island of New Zealand, horses, sheep and cows in the fields. It's amazing, just a few minutes drive from our place is countryside already!

The sun is really active here. It wasn't too bad today when i had a sunblock on. But for some days my forehead and neck were really sun burnt and tender.

Pics of today are here.