Quality family time

Our trip up north was long, event less and boring. It took us almost 12 hours to get from door to door and even though  that seems like a long time with a lot of "happening potential" I can not recall one thing that is worth remembering. Oh yeah... we made rice-cracker sandwiches with butter and salt and mine was super awesome(!!!), but that was pretty much the highlight of the trip. These Australian trains are so unbelievably slow. A lot of people we talked to actually said it would be nice to catch the train, because you get to see a lot of stuff on your way, but it does get boring after a while and the further inland you get, the more everything starts to look alike.
Never mind. We survived it alright and I had sworn never to insult the Australian logistic system again, after I've been to Indonesia.
We changed from the train to a bus for the last 30 min. from Armidale to Guyra and got picked up there from Gran.
It was really lovely to see my family again.
We stayed at Sal's place, so we could be there to help with the kids any time.... it didn't work out in the morning though, we always slept in too long. It wasn't really sleeping in though because I used to wake up at 8 o'clock but Bekki called it a sleep in.
We spent about two weeks in Guyra and enjoyed every moment maybe because it was so relaxing and we could always do fun stuff like riding the buggy. That was so much fun and you could do doughnuts on the paddock and the kids loved it when we took them for fast rides. We spend most of our mornings organizing things for our travels such as booking a hostel in Nadi and looking for contacts or hosts in CA, which didn't work out in the end :(
We often went to Gran and Pa for lunch had a chat and they helped me a lot with my passport renewal form... The second day on the farm Pa called to say that the little ducklings hatched, they were soo damn cute and reminded me a lot of our goose last summer. We helped Gran raking the leftover leafs from winter one day which was good for her and for us because my body needed some physical activity.
The kids usually got back from school in the afternoon and we played with them outside, did some drawing and helped with homework for the rest of the day. Sally worked a few days a week and got back late.It felt great to help and to take some work off her. We baked a lot and made ice cream when we didn't know what to do.

It was Amelia's 21st Birthday the first weekend and we all went to Armidale for a lovely family get-together. The food was beautiful, thanks to Ann, and we had three cakes for desert, one of them our first proudly self made ice-cream cake and definitely not our last one( A self made cookie-base, vanilla-malteser-crunch ice cream, raspberry ice cream and chocolate, chocolate-chip ice cream, garnished with fresh strawberries and chocolate) yummmm.
The whole evening was very harmonic. It felt so good to see how well everyone gets along with each other, which is a rare gift in such a big family, and the Birthday speeches for Amelia were literally eye-watering.

One day (it was hard to keep track which day of the week it was) we drove to the Wollomombi Falls about 40km from Armidale. They fall into a huge gorge that was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago and are with a height of approx 220m Australia's second highest waterfall. The view into the gorge was enormous. It is 200-300m deep and the track runs right along the edge. It was a very nice day, warm and clear but we couldn't get down to the water because the steep slopes down the hill were closed which was the only unfortunate thing about that day.

Ann invited us to her place over the weekend and so we drove there in her old car which we used while we were there. Saturday was sunny and warm and we decided to go swimming at "Bluehole", a series of rapids and waterholes flowing between huge rocks. We took Elly and her friend Maddie with us. It wasn't the best place to swim because the water wasn't very deep but we had a fun time climbing on the rocks, looking for rapids we could slide down and having a swim when the water was deep enough. Tim found a very long and wild rapid which he and Maddie slid down from half way because the top end was quite bumpy. Tim and the girls had an awesome game of Trouble (by the sound of it) and we made a pumpkin soup with too much garlic and pastries with too much salt for dinner.
Ann had to work late on Saturday and early Sunday so we took Elly out to Dumeresq dam to meet some friends. We took a little kayak which turned out to be a good decision and we had a lot of fun paddling, swimming and sunbathing, even though the water was a bit muddy.
In the evening and over the next day we spent some time with Ann which was great. We had lunch together and went through Armidale's book shops on the search for a good traveling book.We went back to the farm Monday night after dinner. On Tuesday Sally took Jack on a drive to a unknown destination to get him a birthday present. They came back a few hours later with two little calves in the back of the car. Naturally we didn't do much else than be with them, feed them and let them out for a run.
Gran and Pa came over for dinner on Wednesday. It was our last evening on the farm and our second lat in Australia. The kids performed a dance act for us in which I had to join in in the end...
It was so very hard to leave my lovely family again but it felt good to know that it won't take me as long as it took me the last time to come back.
We drove Ann's car down to the bus stop and got on to the bus at 1:35 a.m. that should take us to Sydney one last time.

A place to stay...

...for good?
I could really get used to this. Sitting on a big couch with a huge TV (Pay-TV), a kitchen, veranda, garden,a cat and a dog etc.
But I'll let you catch up with me. We came back to Sydney because Dylan's next door neighbors asked us if we wanted to look after their house while they were away. We thought that it would be great to have a house while we were selling the car so we could get all our stuff out and set it up for potential buyers to look at it without seeing a terrible mess, and so we moved in on Saturday the 1st of October. It was a lovely old house, overlooking the ocean with a big back yard (with a trampoline) and a beautiful living area which used to be a huge veranda and, even though it's inside now, kept its beach house flair and its airiness.
We realized the advantages of having a house that very night, as a thunderstorm hit Newport with rain and cold temperatures. But we sat inside,in front of a lit fire, dry, warm and not squashed together without any space to move.
We enjoyed that week a lot. We cooked big meals, baked bread and made ice cream, we spread out all our stuff, we bought food for a few days in advance, we did all our washing and so on and so on...
It was a bit tough to get used to having a dog and a cat because that meant we had to get the feeding times right, go for walks and put up with barking and whining, but they where cute little things and it got better every day.
We also loved the company of our great neighbors, the Barbers, who we had over for dinner one night which was great fun.
Mostly the weather was beautiful in the mornings and cold and rainy in the evenings and we didn't spend much time outside. I had one surf on a quite big day which was a lot of fun but it turned out that Bekki's board was broken too. With both our surfboards broken we didn't have too many reasons to leave the house, apart from walking the dog.
We tried to advertise the car through the internet without any major success ( the only inquiry came after the car was already sold) and decided, after a few nervous days of waiting, to advertise it in the backpacker scene of Sydney. We made flyers and took the bus into town to distribute them in the backpacker hostels around Kings Cross and the central station. I didn't think we would have any luck with that but already after the third hostel three German backpackers came running after us who were very interested. They visited us in Newport, took one look and a test drive and bought it. We agreed on a price that suited both parties and they left us, car-less and with a big whole in our hearts. Don't understand me wrong though. We were very happy to sell it but it had been a good companion and friend for all of us over here and I'm sure he will have a special place in our hearts forever.

At the end of the week I finally managed to catch up with a few of my friends which was great, I borrowed a longboard and we had a long surf and a beach day and went out for dinner that night. It was cool to hang out with them again, it feels so much as if I had never left, and it's always a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed that time Newport. Having a house all to ourselves gave a little insight into how life would be living there and I loved it. I feel very much at home there and can definitely see myself living in that area one day. It is almost sad to leave that place behind again and to give up our house without a fight...

On Tuesday the 11th we took the train/bus to Guyra where we planned spending our last days on Australian soil. With still a lot to organize and book the farm seemed to be the perfect place and it would be great to go back to my family to spend some more time with them. The trip took almost 12 hours and we were very exhausted when we arrived at the bus stop where we got picked up by Gran.
It is definitely a different way of traveling when you have all your stuff on your back but we'll get used to it. The hardest part though is to decide what you keep and what you through away because of all the luggage limitations of airlines, transports and of course your own carrying capacity.

In the meantime...

Hi folks, here we are again and I know that it has been a while and for sure too long since my last update but it is just so hard to find enough time between doing nothing and being lazy. And there isn't too much to write about.
Anyhow, almost one month has past since we set our foot into Australia again but our Indo-adventure seems much longer ago and further away than that. It is incredible how fast time goes by sometimes and how quickly memories fade away when you don't keep them close. I notice this every time I travel but what I also notice is that those memories are saved somewhere in our brains and that they come out again, when you meet the people you shared those times with.

We spent the first week in Sydney and now that I try to remember what we did back then it all seems very blurry and uncertain but I remember that it was freezing cold and that we wished ourselves back into warmer weather. We drove up to Palm Beach to say "Hi" to Beck's old boss and she offered Bekki to help her out over the weekend. We also met a guy from Avalon, he overheard us talking German in the supermarket and invited us to his place for dinner. He was a very interesting guy to talk to and we're still planning on playing a game of Skat one day, when we find someone else to play with.
All in all the week there wasn't very exiting, the weather was bad and I didn't have much to do, so I was glad when we eventually hit the road on a very early Sunday morning. We headed south, towards Bega, a small town in south NSW which is only known for its cheese and near which the Leser-Family lives. They have a funny history with us German travelers that can be traced back to Jonas S. and his school exchange. Bekki had met them last year and promised to come back to spend some more time down there.
It took us almost 8 hours to drive all the way with a lot of breaks (...oh, I do need to go to the toilet) and a continuously aging car but we were welcomed very warmly into their home. The Lesers are such a nice family and we had a really great time staying there. Mostly we enjoyed really relaxed mornings with yummy muesli and coffee while the kids where at school and had busy afternoons playing football, helping around the house and doing stuff.
We got a lot of planning done too. We managed to book a flight to L.A. with a 10 day Stopover on Fiji, which is very exiting, we planned a trip to Melbourne and we got started on the big Project of selling our car...
I had a really great surf at Merimbula, not far from Frogs Hollow, which is a beautiful spot with nearly perfect and very long lefts, peeling down over a sandbar. It was small when we were out but still fun to ride and we had a good time.
On Thursday the 22nd we took a night bus down to Melbourne (from 11pm to 8:45am) to visit Till's and Jonas' friend Belinda. It turned out to be a bad decision to go on the night bus because I can't sleep on travels (have I already mentioned that...?) which meant I had another 40 hour day. Melbourne was great though. Because we arrived early we had a look for a nice cafe to get our morning coffee and we found a great place in a side street full of colorful painted walls with street art. It was a matching first impression to what we discovered the next days. After this first day in the city and with some thoughts about buying a PSP or not I ended up with a new pair of cool shorts instead.
We were happy to come to Belinda's place in Coburg in the afternoon, she picked us up from the train station and after a short unplanned stop, the tire went flat, we arrived at her house and were very thankful for a hot cup of tea and a soft bed.
We couldn't stop praising the well organized public transport in Melbourne, every suburb is well connected to the CBD through trams and trains and it is heaven compared to what you find in Sydney.
Over the weekend Belinda showed us some of the cool places around the city. We had a wonderful lunch in Brunswick which is a more alternative part of the town with lots of unique little shops and cafes, a bit like the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg. There was a small local art market with heaps of cool stuff like self printed T-shirts, cards and, best of all, a stand selling little cacti (Hahaha, how cool is the plural of cactus). The next day we had great breakfast at the Queen Victoria Market, a huge market with heaps of stuff, from food over any form of fabric and clothes to souvenirs.
We really enjoyed our stay in Melbourne and had a great time with Belinda, she is such a cool personality, and I'm definitely going back, even if it is only to surf Bells.
To avoid the hassle of another unslept night we took the train/bus link back to Bega where we spent a few more days before we drove back to Sydney. I had another surf at Merimbula bar which ended badly for my board which broke its nose. That was particularly annoying when you consider, that the board was just recently fixed and that this will cost me another 50-100$.
We took the long trip to Sydney in two stages with an overnight stop somewhere south of Wollongong. I wanted to go for a surf in Bulli where there is another world class wave but the swell came out of the wrong direction and it was far to windy so we kept driving. The road along the coast is really beautiful with great views from rocky cliffs and it was a nice, sunny day (you don't feel the wind in the car) and we did enjoy that part of the trip.
Sydney greeted us with great blue skys and quite warm temperatures. We had a good time being away but it still feels good every time I come back here.

I am very sorry for the lack of pictures, my laziness was absolute, but in a few years it is anyway going to be me who hates me for not taking any...