The long drive

Hello everyone,

We are excited to be on the road again and rolling into different cities on almost everyday. We have had a few long driving days but as a Canadian, we are used to driving long distances. The countryside is beautiful and the vegetation is completly different from Canada and New Zealand. We were even lucky enogh to see a kangaroo on the side of the road. It was just sitting there waiting to cross. We have also seen some that haven't been as fortunate. We have driuven from Cairns down the coast and are now in Bundaberg. It's a small quiet city which allows us to camp pretty much anywhere on the street for the night. It's frowned upon but we have been trying to budget and don't feel like paying for a campervan park. We just use the showers by the beaches and try and get water from the local parks. I know we're cheap it gives us more money for when we get to Fiji.

Between Bunderberg and Cairns, we have stayed the cities of Townsville, Arlie Beach and St-Lawrence. The coolest place was St-Lawrence because of the stars we saw at night. The city is on the railway line and very small and nobody stops there but we where tired of driving and it was a free place to stay with toilets. It was nice. We are now able to swim at the beaches since there are no more jelly wish this far south. The water is nice and niot cold so we are going to the beach as much as we can.

Today, we went to a the Bundaberg Rum distillery and had a tour. It was very interesting. They make almost everythign from scratch. This rum is primarily made from a molasses base. We even had a little taste test at the end. We had a good time and now are going to find a place for the night.

We are probably going to head to another beach tomorrow and relax, go for a run and make some food. Life is simple for us right now and we know this is all going to change in the following months. See you all in about a month or so.

Love Christian and Karina

PS To all our Kiwi friends, we we're saddened to hear that you lost to Sri Lanko in the Cricket. We hope your Rugby team doeas better in the fall.

The Great Barrier Reef

Hey all! Having a blast in oz!!! We started off in Sydney for a few stunning days!!! What hot and sunny days! We got ourlseves all organized for the big road trip and even managed to do some fun tourist things. WE popped by the zoo and checked out the bizarre Oz animals and did a walking tour of the harbour and the opera house...really pretty! We even met up with an old friend from Ottawa U days! It was so much fun! Sydney is a beautiful city and it doesn't stop moving! really active people. Lunch hour was jampacked with running groups and personal trainers all around! We also got attacked by local cockatus in the park trying to snatch our carrots and hummous...healthy little thieves!

We left the big city and flew to Cairns to start the JOURNEY!!! We picked up our ghetto van...really hilarious...but it works! It has great artwork/spray paint and nice sayings across it (the back of our van reads "A KINKY MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE!!!" Love it! But it stores all our crap, and we have now our little house oh wheels! Besides we'll never miss it in a parking lot! It's called the Speedracer but it has a hard time making it over 95km/h.

BUT a little dissapointment is that there has not been much beach swimming, namely a friendly swimmer called the BOXJELLYFISH! EEEKKK! so we've been sticking to the netted off areas that are safe and sound! BUT atleast its HOT here...winter and 30 degrees! YAA!ANYWAYS, highlight so far, we went snorkeling at the great barrier reef! IT WAS AMAZING!!! We saw rays (dn't worry mom, I made sure I was way above it and stayed my distance!!), small white tip reef sharks (3feet), Christian saw a 6 foot black tip reef shark, I missed it, I must have just turned around...good, I would have freaked out! We also saw tons of other tropical fish, beautiful colorful coral and a huge tuna! It was so fabulous, like a real life Finding Nemo world come to life silly how thats my only reference, but it was just like that, with little communities of coral, fish living amongts it, highways of fish swimming along, star fish as bright blue as the sky...It was so fantastic...you have go to do this once in your life! Christian and I went on a boat and we were in the water for about 4 hours. By the end I was blue and frozen, but I just didn't want to get out! We were smilling and trying to explain to the other under water what we saw but we would just laugh, get water into our snorkel, and keep going! We did this in Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the reef. A world heritage location. It was a tiny little community, and we were really happy to have gone there.

The north, Cape Trib, was a rain forest, really lush and full of life. We stayed at a natl campground. That means cheap and all you have are loos and fences to protect againts the crocs. I was thrilled with the fence! On our first night there I was doing the dishes, all I heard was some Ozzie pull up and yell "OY, poisonous snake" I litterally jumped into the van and didn't come out till the morning. It was 7:00pm!!! So the dishes didn't get done till the morning!! FREAKY!!! Also saw a monitor, cousin of the komodo dragon...a HUGE lizard. It's been interesting! A real life zoo. I'm always looking around, sure that a croc will jump out and eat me. BUT we are now in a little city called Townsville, heading down the coast. We've been exploring the beaches and the small towns and the forests. We hope to get a few hikes in, but the mountains and hikes aren't anything like NZ, not nearly as organized or accessible. So we'll stay close to the beaches...we plan on doing some surfing (without the jellies!!!) a little further down south and some island exploring! Time is flying by! We'll put some pics up soon. LOTS OF LOVE!!! Hope everyone is great! Karina and Christian

Australia

Hello everyone,

We are know in Sydney, Australia wainting for our flight up to Cairns. From Cairns, we will drive a camper down all the way back to Sydney. It should a cool drive down the coast, trying to find different beaches all the way. We hope to get some surfing in and go and visit the great barrier reef. From there it will be a day to day thing, trying to find different cool things to see and do. We can't wait to see it all.

We had a great last few days in NZ with Lou and Jay. It was nice to spend some time with our friends and just relax a bit before we headed off to another country. We have really well treated by them and had great homecooked meals. It was amazing to be around them and the little man. He's such a good kid. We hope we are natural parents like Lou and Jay. Eden is a cute kid. He's going to be a lady killer.

Sydney is great. We love all the parks that are all around the city. It's a hugh city and all we really saw was the downtown area, the Opera house, the Zoo and the harbour but it was really nice. We jogged around the different parks and had a great time at the zoo looking at the different australian animals. The platypus, kangaroos and koalas were really cool animals, very different then at home.

It's been cool but I can't wait to be near a beach and work on the tan. I know you guys are steal dealing with the beginning of Spring. We are at the end of Summer and it's around 25 degrees outside. It's nice to be back in summer weather.

Later

Christian and Karina

Some more

Hello everyone,

The first pic is of us in Kaikora on the east coast of the South Island. It was a lot of fun and we got to see some seals. It's a lot different then on a lake but it was really exciting.
This pic is of Mount Cook. It was awesome to be camping at it's base.
The third pic of us at Meullor's hut.
The fourth pic is when we were on the boat heading towards the Ship's Cove in the Queen Charlotte Trail. There was a big pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were playing in the wake of the boat, jumping up and down.It was an excellant experience.
The last pic is from the ridge of the Queen Charlotte Trail. The trail was like a roller coaster, up and down and we had a great view all the time. We did the walk really quickly and enjoyed it.
We hope to put a few more pics up in the next two days.

Later

Christian and Karina

More pics

Hello again,

The first pic is of us on the Franz Joseph Glasier on the west coast of the south island.
This is a pic of the sunrise when we stayed in the hut in the Kepler track. It was beautiful.
This is the ridge of the Kepler Track that we did. It was awesome.
This is a pick that we took on the north island in the Corrimandel. The beaches are real nice.

This is a pick on the Abel Tasman of one of the many beaches that we were able to relax on while we had a leisurely walk on the track.

A pic for everyone

Hello everyone,

Here is a pic for everyone. We were just finishing the Kepler track and had a great day. It was an wonderful day. We should get a few more pics up soon.

Christian and Karina

Last days.....

Hello everyone,

We are on our last day on the South Island. The last three days, we hike and bike the Queen Charlotte Trail in the Marlborough Sounds. The biking was a lot of fun on the first day although our butts were a little sore. Then we blitz through the last two days. It was realy beautiful and we enjoyed the ocean and everything. Today, we take the ferry back to Wellington and hang around with Lou, Jay and little Eden for the last few days in NZ. It will be nice to hook up with them and look after the cute little baby. We should have time to put some pics up from NZ in the next few days.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Christian and Karina

SAVE BURMA

Last week on the South Island

Hello everyone,

Karina and I are great. We have been enjoying ourselves since Christchurch. Christchurch was cool. We went our for Korean food with John on our last night together and had some Galbi and it brought back some great memories. Then, we got a lift up from Christchurch to Kaikoura from John and said good-bye to him for who knows how long. We hope to see him soon. He has some great adventures coming up in Kenya and the Middle East. We wish him the best of luck and can't wait to hook up with him some time soon.

In Kaikoura, we planned the last few days on the south island. We have a bout 5 days left here and 8 days in NZ. We also went kayak on the ocean and saw some fur seals. They were beautiful animals. We were about two meters from them, watching them swim around and lounge around in the sun. There favorite past time by the way. It was cool to be in the ocean in a kayak although we weren't used to all the waves. It's not the same as on a lake.We walk around the small small city and saw some of the first whaling buildings. We enjoyed ourselves.

We are now on the last leg of our trip. We take the train up from Kaikoura to Picton. The train was fun and different. It beats the bus cause you walk around a little. The scenery was amazing along the east coast and now we are going to visit the Marlborough sounds for a few days. We are going to walk and bike the Queen Charlottes trail. This will be cool because we are going to take a boat ride up to Ships Cove and then bike back 1 day and then walk back the rest. It will be easier then Abel Tasman because we won't have to carry our big bags the whole way. The boat company transfers our bags to our next camping site. Then we leave for Wellington on the 12 and spend a few days with Lou and Jay. Then off to Ausltalia.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Easter holidays. It's a little tough on us because we miss our family and friends and would like to be with you all but we know you would rather be in our position.


Happy Easter everyone,

Karina and Christian

Mt Cook and Meuller's Hut

Hello everyone,

After relaxing from our trip on the Kepler Track, we visited the south of of the island. Then we went to Dunedin to visit John's old stomping ground. We went out and had a blast.

Today, we went to visit Mont Cook and walk up to the Meullor Hut. It was amazing. The climb was a little hard but we had a beautiful day and could see the ice falls around the glaciers. They were amazing. Then we climb to the nearest mountain and had a great view of the surrounding areas. It was amazing.

Tommorow, we are off to Christchurch and will say good-bye to John. We will have a great time. Then we have a week by ourselves on the south island. We hope to see some daulphins and go kayaking. We may some mountain biking in the Marlborough Sounds. It depends on the weather and what we feel like doing. We are having a great time and appriciating our time here.

Later

Christian and Karina