Thumbs-up for New Zealand

Christchurch is a wounded city. But in the automn sun, with trees in the most vivid colours and people with their new winter clothes ready to be used, to us the town still held the most charming appeal. We spent two nights and a day there, and the nights was spent in an old jail - gone hostel. Most rooms were old cells and one could clearly see what is was 15 years ago. To us it was the place with the best beds in all of NZ (especially after Kings Cross in Sydney). It was also the only hostel that had its very own coffee machine.

 The Jailhouse accomondation

After beeing told on severeal occations that hitch hiking is so easy in NZ we decided to give it a go. We pretty much just walked out on the highway towards Queenstown and put our thumbs up flashing the little cardboard sign we made that same morning. The third car that passed us stopped. Two gentlemen, one older, one younger, gently told us that we were standing in the wrong place to hitchhike, we had to get out of the city. So our first hitch just took us ten minuts out of town. There we waited for 5 min before another car turned over. This guy named Ollie was a musician doing a Phd in social studies and left to tour Europe in a couple of month with one of the several bands he played in. He was going to Duneden, so he left us at the turnoff going into the country so we could take the more scenic route towards Queenstown. The turnoff was a bit straned so an old Pastor stopped and told us, like we heard before, that we were in the wrong place to hitchhike. He drove us 5 min to a place called Pleasant Point. During those 5 min he had a monologue about how we are all born in sin, and we must all be born again. When we thanked him for giving us a ride his last words were "remember what I said". After all this we thought we deserved a brake and went into a cafe that had the most delicious carrot cake made by man in the history of the earth. Then we got stuck. Pleasant Point is not really on route to anything. We figured we needed to get to the highway back towards Duneden, and walking into a little gas station someone offered to drop us back there. By this time is was quite late afternoon and hitching in the darkness held no appeal to us, but then, saved again. A girl approched us and told us we werent going to get anywhere this late, but her parents were going back past Pleasant point. Anyway. Long story made short. A nice old couple drove us 40 km past their house to the village of Lake Tekapo so that we got onto the touristy route to Queenstown. Dropped at a hostel in the darkness we were eternally gratefull. And when the hostel had a fireplace, books and comfy chairs, our first day of hitchhiking was complete.

Ride nr 1

Ride nr 2

Ride nr 3

Leeedgen - wait for it- dary Carrot cake!

Ride nr 4

Ride nr 5

 Livingroom at Lake Tekapo YHA Hostel!

The next morning we had a look at the little stonechurch placed between the majestic mountains, on the edge of the lake before we continued our journey with our thumbs. First person who passed us going out of Lake Tekapo stopped and tok us to Twizel. He was a nice middleaged man going home. Half an hour of throwing rocks to each other with the lack of cars actually passing resulted in a hitch with a guy who was actually returning to NZ after 5 years in USA, moving to Queenstown. Chris was an amazing ride who took us by Lake Wanaka, just for the sight, and offered to drive us whereever we wanted in Queenstown.

 Ride nr 6

Ride nr 7, that we enjoyed the most, all the way to Queenstown!

We realise that being girls we have a clear advantage putting our thumbs up for transport. Also the difference between female and male drivers is very clear. Wheras the men always wave sorry if they cant, or just recognise our presence by the road, women always look straight ahead, actively ignoring us. (I almost feel a little ashamed on behalf of my own sex). But hitching sure has been a good experience for us in NZ.. We are New Zealand lovers.

Åssi doing her thumbs-up:)

Paul, the movie!

We simply must write a something short about the movie "Paul". Some of you might have heard or read or even seen this movie which is currently in the cinemas. We saw the movie in Byron Bay several weeks ago and we almost fell of the cinema chairs laughing. As you know, the two of us, Sanna and Åslaug, travelled around Australia in a campervan and, like a last minute decision our german friend Paul came with us. The van outlet we used was called Spaceships (our car's name's Potter). The movie "Paul" is about 2 british geeks who are doing a roadtrip around USA in a campervan, they almost crash into another car and there they meet Paul, an alien on the run. Paul ends up hitchhiking with these two geeks, Graeme and Clive, driving around with all the adventures that come their way. Now we couldn't help but see the similarities, between the two trios, us and the movie. We lived and drove the campervan everywhere, parking where we could, bbq-ing outisde, dancing in front of the van to the car stereo, just like the movie. Since we were so in the middle of it, we found it quite hilarious. Especially since Paul in the movie is an Ailien and we drove a spaceship at the time, the sentence "Paul, you can't even drive a spaceship!" became a classic quote during the rest of our trip.

Don't worry Paul, we're not going to make any further comments about resemblance. It doesn't do us any favours either ;)

I recommend everybody to see this movie and think of us. The language used is not the same, but similar and the humour and good mood the movie has, sure reflects our roadtrip as well!

Okay, maybe a little...

Team Potter: Its time to be awesome!

Sunny in Sydney

Our arrival in Sydney was memorable! Åslaug who truly is an excellent driver does not really have much experience with driving in big cities. And with a not so great Sydney map or any real idea of where we where, the time drving in the city was a more tense and stressed one than during the rest of our trip. We did find it straight away thanks to luck and great intuition (female if I must say so myself.. sorry Paul) and Åssi handled it with impressive skills. A week in Sydney went by quickly and I'm suprised at how much I liked it. I imagined Sydney to be a very big city but the city centre is small (you can walk everywhere), charming (so many beatiful places two go) and diverse (you get everything from the beach to the fancy opera house to the red light district in a very small area). Our stay started very diffrently from how it ended. The two first nights we stayed by the central station and we went clubbing, had the free city tour and went to a show in the Opera House (how cool is it to be able to say that!). We saw a comedien called Nina Conti who is one of the best people in the world to speak out loud without moving her mouth. So funny we were rolling of our chairs!

Nina Conti Poster in Sydney! Awesome!

Saying goodbye to Potter, listening to our roadtrip music one last time on the stereo (thanks again Paul for all the great music)

Then we moved to Kings Cross because the hostel rates are a lot cheaper than city central. Kings Cross is the red light district and the view from our hostel was 2 strip clubs, McDonalds, liqour shops and "Pleasure Den: everything adult". Kings Cross was quite the experience but with the police regularily controlling the streets and so many people out it felt safe enough even friday night out alone.

Autumn being a lot more noticible in Sydney than anywhere else we were in the Oz, our visit to Bondi (pronounced Bondai) and Manly was not for the beach sake itself, but it was beautiful to see even on a rainy day. We also saw the lovely botanical gardens and had an evening in the rotating tower where we watched the sunset over the skyscrapers. Wow!

 Paul in front of the Harbour bridge, the Opera house is litteraly right behind us.

Sydney by night

Two days before we left we said goodbye to Paul who was off to Bali and Asia for 3 months, and so we broke up team Potter. We had ten final rounds of the card game President and Bitch (Boms og president) and wrote the outcome on our arms in indian henna (the kind that stays for weeks). Sanna: President, Paul: Swiss and Åssi; Bitch. The game will continue when Team Potter reunites sometime, somewhere in Europe.

Our last coffee together as "TEAM POTTER"

The last day we had in Sydney we visited the Norwegian seamanschurch in Manly beach where we enjoyed waffles and bought chocolate (firkløver) and Riceporride (risengrynsgrøt, that we later made on our arrivel in NZ). Friday the 6th of May was a big promotion of the movie "Water for Elefants" and there was a big red carpet thing going on in the middle of town. We were there and waited for 1h30min before we saw Rob Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon walk by. It was mostly noticed by the crowds screaming at the top of their voices. The celebraty sight wasnt that impressive but if was fun seeing the fuss around it!

 Assi at the Norwegian Shop with the norwegian food at the Norwegian seamanschurch! (Thats a lot of Norway:)

Water for Elephants, Red carpet Promotion!

Botton line is, Sydney is the kind of place i could study or live for a while. The city centre and atmosphere appealed to me in a way I really didnt expect and its well worth a visit from anybody! (next blog preview; we love NZ!)

Fantastic Fraser and Beautiful Byron

Fraser and Byron

Down the eastcoast of Australia there is SO much to see. Magnetic Island, Withsundays and Fraser are just some of the most known spots and they all offer amazing trips with snorkelling, diving, breathtaking sights and good company. Its probably good value for the money but it still cost so much we didnt dare do any before we got to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world and only four wheel drives can drive there as the roads pretty much just consists of sand. We met these four random dudes who'd been there on a three day trip, and the light in their eyes and awe and enthusiasme in their voices soon convinced us that this was something we couldnt miss. A one day trip would be just affordable and give us a little taste of the Island. And what a taste! When we were buying the tickets we realised that its Easter the boat was filled with kids running around, easter chocolate and holiday spirit. The program of the day consisted of bath in lake Mackenzie, the clearest, softest and best tasting(!) water I've ever swam in (my hair has never been softer) a walk through the rainforest, lunch at one of the resorts and driving down island highway, the Beach. Its kind of funny seeing speed limit signs just stuck down in the sand. A ship wrecked on the beach a long time ago and thats still there, like a big lump of rust threathening to fall down on the children (and us) stupid enough to stick arms and heads through the old windows and openings. Its was an amazing day, the weather was perfect and running around the beach with Team Potter has made it one of my most fond memories on this roadtrip.

Straight from Hervey Bay and Fraser we had one nights stop in Noosa (a small surfers town where the rich meets the backpackers on the waves) and continues to Surfers Paradise where the rich pretty much just meet themselves. We met the two british girls, Julia and Rachel, that we met in Singapore there and seeing them again was great. Surfers Paradise was nice to see, but having skyscrapers on one side and an overcrowded beach on the other didnt really do it for us. We had our easter egg hunt sunday morning on the Surfers Paradise esplanade, and easter breakfast with eggs, salad and fresh bread on the grass next to the sidewalk where people had their Easter sunday morning stroll. Its was a perfect easter morning, and it was the morning we set off to Byron.

Noosa Main Beach, pretty crowded because of easter!

Our first surf spot! More floating around on a board getting used to the feeling than anything else...

Surfers paradise, skyskrapers meets the beach..

Easter egg hunt on the Esplanade!

Easter breakfast outside Potter.

Byron bay is legen- (wait for it) dairy among eastcoast autralia backpackers. The place for laidback packpackers who look to surf and party. And thats pretty much what we did. We did a day trip to Nimbin (the most hippie town you can imagine, its like the 70s raped that town and it never got over it) We went looking for some outback aswell but got lost in the rainforrest. In Byron "The Pass" is where all the real good sufers hang out. Everything from old, long bearded men to little girls with pigtails rides these waves with an air of easyness that we can only dream of. I enjoy padelling around on my board, feeling the excitement when a beautiful wave forms and falling/crashing into the water when trying to stand up. Its certainly a new experince and lets face it people, surfing is COOL! Our days in Byron dissapeard between rain, coffee and Cheeky Monkey's (a bar with no dancefloor just different leveled tables where youth from all over the world dance the night away). The aftersurf texmex burrito still lingers in our minds as we now make our way further south to the end of our roadtrip. A week in Sydney still remains, and we pray to the lords that the rain we've hade the last 3 days will stop (no fun being interrupted in the middle of breakfast outside in a parking lot by a shower that no umbrella or raincoat will keep you dry from.)

Live music and awesome sunset in Byron Bay.

Nimbin! Something quite different...

Potter all full of surfboards!

The Pass.

Paddling around waiting for waves.

A real windy day with pretty big waves. A little scary and cold!

Surfer Sanna!

I will honestly say that these last 17 days we travelled with Potter will be remembered with love and a smile, and Team Potter is talking about a eurotrip some summer to come. (FUn Fact: The distance we travel from Cairns to Sydney is like driving from Denmark to Greece in Europe!)

Team Potter!! All smiles on Fraser Island :)