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New Weblog

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:42:54 GMT

This Weblog has moved to:

http://nesware.net/nes/oz-nz/blog.php

Please continue there :-)

The split-up

Sat, 27 May 2006 11:00:18 GMT

The Split-up

First the important news:

Alex is going to SUSSEX UNIVERSITY next 3 years. After months of applying and waiting, friday may 26 was the outcome. He will be in holland in august for a couple of weeks and from england he can easily go to amsterdam once in a while to meet everybody who's there.

After Sydney Boris joined the Broers. Driving north for a while they arrived at Seal Rocks, just to say hi to Brenda who worked on a surfcamp at this beautiful beach. Saying hi can take a long while, as the three of them got stuck there, working as well. For 3 weeks they prepared brekki, lunch and dinner, cleaned and partied. All this for free food, accommodation and of course free surf lessons. They and all the other so called helpers had an amazing time.

But Boris got a bit bored and left for Byron Bay. Four days later Alex followed him, this would mean the first split-up with Ernesto, ehmm.. Melvin his new name, who wanted to stay for another week. Alex would wait for him in byron bay an work for a bit. To bad he got bored again in two days, so he left byron. With Boris he hitchhiked to Bangalow an wonderful place, Billykart races were going on that day. They spent two hours there and after another hour and a half they got a ride to Brisbane.

In Brisbane they booked their Fraser Island tour, and so they kept going north. 3 days and 2 nights on the island. This beautiful largest sand Island of the world with more sand than the sahara was the destination for 25 backpackers with 3 four wheel drives, a lot of booze and the mood to party. Pictured are not going to be shown on the internet because they had two throw away cameras, but when you meet us ask for the pics because it was gorgeous.

After 3 great days on fraser it was the may 26 and alex got his even better news, !sussex!. To bad Hervey Bay was not a big party place to celebrate. Later that night Boris got the idea to go back to Brisbane. Hitchhiking 400 kilometers. The next day 4 British girls who were on their tour took them, in a Toy Story painted van, all the way to Brisbane. Alex is now deciding whether to work for Greenpeace in Brisbane or to wait for ernesto and go fruitpicking, who just arrived in Byron Bay from surfcamp.

The Narrator

crazy canberra

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 02:08:15 GMT

Crazy Canberra

So the guys picked up Brenda from Melbourne after spending a couple of days around Phillip Island, and set for Sydney.

First adventure of the trip was a hike through Wilson's Promonotory. Very well prepared (NOT!!!!) they slid on their hiking boots (aka sneakers torn down to bits) stocked up their power food (bread, peanut butter and nutella, they have no small camping stove) and packed their tent (one leaking tent which was too small for the twin air matress).

All day long it was beautiful weather and as they we're hiking, time seemed to be on their side. They started a bit late, but walked on in a good pace. Until the track changed. It became a bit more climbing and knocking away branches and plants and as it got later during the day it also started raining. They didn't make it to the camp they booked that night, but hell, who cares. So in the rain they set up their tent and blew up the air matress. It kinda fit in the tent, but that's saying much. It made the tent leak even more and after 30 minutes Ernesto (sleeping in the middle) realized he started to feel the ground through the matress. Brenda and Alexander were still in denial (about everything really: not hungry, not cold, not wet, not on the ground, not feeling as a failure). It was one of those nights you are awake, thinking 'they' will find three dead backpackers in a tent the next morning, or at least a headline in the news paper: "Helicopter Trauma team rescues three dutch fools from near death."

Fortunately with a good dose of humor and denying physics the morning came. The hike took it's toll, but the views were definately worth it. (Again no pics this time)

After this they followed their trip through the wonderfull coast of Victoria and eventually arrived in the wicked, awesome, lively, joyfull Australian Capital Territory (ACT) with the capital of OZ: Canberra. This city was built in the early 1900's with one purpose in mind. Building a boring hometown for all the politicians as far away from any accessible highways as possible so they will only bore eachother and will not be distracted by anything nice while governing the country. Nothing more to say about it, they stayed for two hours of which one in the supermarket.

The next morning they woke up with the most beautiful view in Morton's National Park in New South Wales, and continue's their trip to Sydney. The coast south of Sydney is less travelled than the coast north, without any good reason. It's beautful, and weatherwise a much better destination than the great ocean road in this time of the year.

Four nights in Sydney. Alexander picked up Boris from the airport and caught up with Zsa Zsa who was in Sydney already. (Boris and Zsa Zsa are two of Alexander's highschool friends). Yesterday Brenda said good bye, unfortunately, because they had a really good time with her. 24hr jokes a day, zero boring or serious moments in a week.

And of course (as usual) in Sydney there's more people to meet than time to do it. Daniel (from NZ trip) colleages from September, friends from Christmas and all time travel buddies (e.g. Aryan). Keep in touch!

Next destination Queensland!

Great Ocean Road to Melbourne

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 11:34:52 GMT

The Great Ocean Road to Melbourne

As I said: more to come now.

So they left Mildura, on to their next adventure. Of course they didn't make enough money for this. Because fruitpicking is more like slavery. If they pay they pay an amount which only looks nice in small coins. But small coins don't look nice, so overall it's paid BADly.

Alexander did some research about the state of Victoria and the road to Melbourne. What to do and what to see. (Ernesto would of just jumped onto the high way and gone straight to his destination, only to find out what he missed there and then gone back.) The Grampians National Park being the first nice stop on the way. They drove for 40 KM, realized they didn't say bye to Paul, drove back to Mildura, said bye to Paul and finally at 1:30 in the afternoon left Mildura again. (Mildura has this Boomerang effect- although no one seems to like it, everyone goes back one or more times.)

As Paul warned already, the Grampians National Park was recently (jan/feb 2006) wiped out by a forest fire. Only the southern parts of the park would still be accessible. But being a park in Australia (where everything's huge - so the southern part of the park is maybe bigger than some european countries) and being on the road, it would still be a good place to go to.

And indeed. The northern part was black on the ground and white in the sky. Cloud and rain over a devastated park burned to the ground. Well... not to the ground. These gum trees and eucalyptis and all other ozzie native trees seem to regenerate pretty fast after a forest fire. They've been trained for centuries. Most trees had new shoots coming out on every side of the tree and grass wa growing on some spots too. Weird nature... And making the visit even better. The southern part of the park was still in tact. Only some traces of forest fires from 1999 1992 1987 etc. etc. etc.

I am skipping all the sleeping in the van parts because it will only be about how they brush their teeth and make up their bed and cook their dinner. Which is not interesting. Have a look at yourself tonight and imaging doing that in a van. That's what it's like.

So they went on to Portland. Not on the Great Ocean Road, but on the coast and according to the Lonely Planet Australia 2004 a place worth visiting. And it was. Massive waves breaking on the beautiful coast at the petrified forest and visits to the weirdest 'museums' they've ever been to. (Culture!!!!!) They learned about coast guards in the 1880's, hunting whales and when they were almost extinct, protecting whales and about the history of the oldest town in Victoria, Portland. Who was the mayor and what tools the dentist used 70 years ago.

After that they set direction towards the Great Ocean Road. Now I understand the name sounds a bit corny, but ask the boys, when you drive there, you know why it's called the Great Ocean Road. Not because it's on the Great Ocean, because it's not on the Pacific. It's actually along the Southern Ocean, facing Antarctica. But just because the Road is Great. Even with rain and wind it's still beautiful. The Children's Cove, The Grotto and the Twelve Apostles are all along a rugged yellow lime stoned coast, where waves meters high crash into the coast line. The current postcards don't resemble the real coast because the water has changed it. E.g. one of the twelve apostles collapsed july 3rd 2005 (coincidentally the same moment ernesto collapsed in the vondelpark @ marleen's birthday, after partying too much on his own birthday - and her's)

After a certain point the limestone coast made way for rainforests (where strangely enough it stopped raining), light houses and waterfalls. All this making it a beauty of a trip ending in a city which was completely unlike they exptected it to be. Not that they did have any expectations, but they were amazed to, again like before, find another metropole in the middle of nowhere.

They drove into Melbourne at night time, so the with-lights-decorated-bridge welcomed them into this capital of trends, new wave avandgarde, hip stylish lifestyle and other fashionable things that don't even have a name yet. Melbourne is so stylish it got stuck in the future. Everyone is so up to date in their own style that tomorrow's trends are out of fashion. Even the people stuck in the 70's or 80's themes wear things that were very avandgarde and ahead their time then. Here and their time portals warp people back from the 21st century to have a look if their style is hip enough and everybody is walking in and out of art galleries like they are checking out other people's stuff who are checking out their stuff. Even in this cheap internet cafe somewhere in a back street where junkies walk around the computers are better and faster than in most business centers and the junkies and prostitutes outside are dressed in style. But because no one has time to send all the fashion to the outside world, because they are too busy following the trends, no one else in the world know's about this. E.g. while typing this message my pants went out of style and back into style 3 times and I need to buy new shoes. But that's just because they're worn out.

Other than that, the boys met up again with some 'old' friends, who they've known all their life in Australia (since september) Emma, Brenda and Matt and will be heading up to Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane soon.

But first they need to taste the new pizza topping someone just came up with.

Ps. sorry for the long descriptions, I'd rather upload the photo's but apparently it's currently not hip to have image processing software on internet cafe computers. Pictures will come though.

Bye bye
The Narrator

Mildura

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 10:47:57 GMT

Mildura

Hi all, it's the narrator here again. After New Zealand the boys flew to Sydney, where they met up with some 'old' friends and picked up their new van. The new van's a Nissan Urvan and is called Nissi (or Nissy or Nissie or Nissey - that depends on who's writing and probably whether it's US/UK/AU/NZ/NL english)

But that's not the point of course. The point is .. not relevant here...
They found out on the freeway of Sydney (on their way to Mildura - 1000 kilometers west) that the fifth gear wasn't working...

Just wasn't there.
Fifth gear was like neutral.

Kind of a bummer, because also the high beams, kilometer odometer and speedo weren't working. Well... keep a smile on your face, take a clock and look at the road signs and the map, and you can kinda figure out how fast you're going. While trucks and roadtrains were overtaking with a lot higher speed then they, they calculated that their average speed was 60kmph (for US-ers that's about 40 mph) and their top speed 70 kmph... it took 'em three days to get to Mildura.

Their they met up with Aryan, Jennica, Evelina en Paul. Had a few beers, a few weeks of boring fruitpicking and a lot of sun. And eventually even rain! Which seems almost like a miracle in the outback.

Ernesto passed his driver's license test. Alexander had his 20th birthday. Paul got back to motorcrossing and got 3rd, but will be first soon. And all the other's have their own weblogs you can follow. (Aryan, Jennica and Evelina - and all other backpackers - please reply with the URL to your weblog so the rest can find them!)

For those really interested in what they did. They picked oranges, pruned orange trees, picked grapes and yelled at their bosses. And drove tractors. Probably the best part of all...

Then they left and more about that later...
(only a little bit later... more like now..)

North Island

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 04:07:12 GMT

North Island

Finally w're in New Zealand, they thought after a hard 3 weeks of partying. It was time for the beautifull landscapes of ~~Middle Earth~~ NZ. They w're gonna buy a car, but after seeing a van to cheap to let go, they bought it him, the Bumbelbee (named after their first hitchhiker).

Auckland was not that pretty, but after seeing the first waterfall in Whangarei everything changed. While saving themselfs a lot of money by cooking in hostels/campsites ( 0,-$ )and than leaving to find a parkingspot to sleep ( 0,-$ ) they visited the dolphins at bay of islands and a beautifull beach near doubtless bay, though it surtenly is a bay, captain Cook said it was doubtless a bay few hundred years ago. Before picking up Emma and Annelien in Auckland they went to Kauri Forest, with trees over 2000 years old and 5 meter thick.

Going south now it got a bit thighter living with 4 people in a van, but the country not less pretty. They went to Raglan, NZ BEST surfing town, saw the FIRST glowworms in Waitamo Caves and pretended to be Hobbits in Hobbiton, at the ONLY remaining Lord of the Rings set. Seriously, THIS is how every atraction in NZ is promoted. Like the HIGHEST Bungi and the TALLEST hangbridge.

But now something of more importance they arived in Rotorua, Queenstown of north Island. The whole city smells like ~~ernesto~~ roted eggs, but you can do some cool stuff over there: Go to a Maori Cultere evening, very nice. See Mudpools, by the way that's why the whole city smells. Go luging, like karting but without engine, you just go downhill and ZORBING, what?? Yeah ZORB. You go inside a plastic ball, nes and alex went together, and they roll down a hill. It's crazy but fun.

Still their job had to be done, and getting much closer to their target, it got harder. The Tongariro Crossing, one of NZ great walks, passing Mt. Ngaurahu, better known as Mt. DOOM. Almost reaching it nes found out he forgot the ring (: so everybody sent money cause we have to go back to NZ next summer :)

After the 4 friends had hard time driving the Forgotten World Highway and mist heaps of scenic things because of driving during the night. Also Mt Taranaki a vulcano at the coast, was not a big succes rainfall spoiled their stay. Maori tellings say Mt.Taranaki and Mt. Reapehu had a battle, the first lost and was sent to the coast. Who wouldn't belief that?

Arriving in Wellington it was time to split up, but not before nes had his first accident. This made the only day in wellington a day of finding car wreckers and trying to fix Bumbelbee.

Goodbye Emma and Annelien, Goodbye North Island

the Narrator

Last Days in New Zealand

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 03:06:17 GMT

Last days in New Zealand

We've done it! We sold the van today. We weren't really sure if we could, cos it needs some repairs and everyone sells their car in Christchurch. So lotta competition and not a very good van.
Two locals bought the van, to use for weekend trips.

The damage of New Zealand.

48 Days and Nights
1 Van (named Hommel)
1 Rental Car
Hommel 5439 Kilometers
Rental 1751 Kilometers
Total 7100 Kilometers (we don't understand how we drove exaclty that round number, but we did) - 4440 miles
804 Liter (223 US Gallons) of petrol
6 liters of motor oil
Average of 60 kph 118 hours of driving

31 nights of free overnights sleeping in van (no hostels or campsites)
5 hours of IPod playing per day, total 240 hours
total of 36 hours waiting on italian friend (taking pictures, taking shoes off, putting them back on, drinking coffee with snickers or getting cash from ATM)
(then again, he waiting 4 days on us, to arive in the south island)
8 tumbles in 30 seconds zorbing - what's that?
2 x 134 meters (2 x 440 feet) bungy jump
12 luge rides - what's a luge!?!?!?!*&#@
6 unexpected running-into-s of renate and roel on both islands

1194 foto's
4 hours of film

5.427.881.292 sandflies (little buggers)

New pictures in the image gallery!!!

South Island

Road Signs

A few more in the North Island

Update you later!
Ernesto

The South Island

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:33:06 GMT

Hi All,

So far we've travelled a lot in New Zealand. We went through the North Island first. With Emma and Annelien. All the pictures are on our image gallery.
Alex will tell you more about that later (won't you alex?)

Anyways... when we got to the South Island, Daniele joined us in our van "Hommel". We met him in Sydney a couple a months ago and now we are doing the South Island with him. We started at the Abel Tasman National Park (just after Nelson, which doesn't deserve much notice). We kayaked the first day and hiked for two more days. Beautiful place that park.

After the park we drove to Nelsons Lakes, walked a bit and took the road to the west coast. We stopped everywhere along the road to do nice little things. The next day we arived at Punakaki (or whatever it's called) and visited the pancake rocks and the blowholes, which didn't really do much that day.

We drove through Greymouth and further to the Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier. Very popular sites and beautiful walks. We followed the road along the coast towards Haast. When we took the Haast Pass over the mountain the next day Hommel started to sound funny (not ha-ha funny). And the automatic gearbox started acting even (less ha-ha) funnier.

We joined the AA (partner of the ANWB) in Wanaka and they came to help us. He told us the ATF fluid was completely dried up and if we were lucky the problem would be solved by filling it up. I kinda had the feeling we already wrecked the gearbox.
So we did, and yes, Hommel drove off again, but unfortunately with weird shaking in low gear and heaps a more problems along the road. But we made it to Queenstown where we booked into a campsite.

Queenstown is the town of extreme sports. As soon as you drive into town, you are welcomed by 3 skydivers cyrcling over the town and tons of adds for bungy, rafting, sling shots, swings, swoops luge or whatever they came up with now. Alexander and I did the Nevis Bungy Jump. The highest bungy in New Zealand and probably second highest in the world. 134 meters...... very exciting.

Daniele and us decided to rent a car and put Hommel up for sale. With the car we left for Milford Sounds. Milford Sounds and the Abel Tasman National park must be the two most beautiful places we've seen. This small town is the north end of the fiord lands. Only accessible by boat or walking tracks. No roads lead to the rest of the fiords.

After an increadibly beautiful time we drove south. Along the east site of the fiordlands, passing huge lakes, to the south coast. At the southcoast we found two very nice spots. Monkey Island (Alexander was very happy to see his family here) where we spend the night. And the next day, Curio Bay. This hidden secret of New Zealand is home to the very rare yellow eyed penguin and the hector dolfins. So the next morning we took our swim shorts to the beach and started swimming towards the dolfins, in ice cold water. This is the South Ocean with water coming from the Antarctics. It hurts your skin swimming here and after 3 minutes your body starts feeling very hot (somehow). But all this is ignored as soon as the Hector Doflins aproach you. They will swim around you and jump in the waves breaking on the beach. Increadible how they are curious and come towards you. And no 120 dollar trip to book either. Just jump in.

We followed the coast up to Nugget point and started driving to Dunedin when I received a phonecall. A potential buyer for Hommel. We drove straight back to Queenstown (4 hours). The next morning another guy called. Unfortunately both didn't wanna buy our Hommel. So we drove Hommel to Dunedin with Daniel folling us in the rental car and picking up hitchhikers along the road. When we got to Dunedin we parked the van and took the car to the Otago peninsula. Just off the city some hills and cliffs arise in the ocean (east coast by now). The only colony of a type of albatrosses on the main land here. All the others live at sea on small islands. And at 10 PM we went penguin spotting again. This time the blue penguin.

We booked a hostal for tonight. We will continue our travels tomorrow. We hope Hommel makes it to Christchurch eventually.

For now, all a good night. As soon as I get the chance I will upload the pictures of the South Island too. They are gorgeous.

Ernesto

Beautiful New Zealand

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 02:55:16 GMT

Beautiful New Zealand

New Zealand is beautiful... so far and we haven't seen the incredible part yet...

And we bought a VAN!!!! Looks like shit, rolls like a tank... we pimped it yesterday...

more pics on hyves
http://www.hyves.net/index.php?l1=ms&l2=pi&l3=al&l4=show&album_id=6959589

bye bye
ernesto

(the narrator is on holidays!)

The surprises of New Zealand

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 02:30:43 GMT

The Surprises of New Zealand

Januari 5th 01:00 (1AM), after 3 weeks of partying, non-stop drinking and lack of sleep, Ernesto thought he could catch some sleep and have some rest before they fly to New Zealand. Alex walks into the room...

Alex: Yo, Nes, Shall I check what time we're flying on the 7th? Like morning or evening... or well, don't worry i'll check it tomorrow.

Ernesto: Good idea.. check it now.

Alex is going through the paperwork...

A: Ehmmmmmm... Nes, I was gonna make a joke, but ehmmmmmm, we're flying tomorrow morning at 9:20

E: What?... can we change to booking?

Alex makes a phonecall to the booking number and comes back

A: Only office hours dude... we've gotta fly tomorrow...

A & E: Oooooooh noooooooooooooooooo

So they start packing their backs, though the night. Drunk Hans tries his mental support... (hehehe..) and stays up till 6:20 when they have their shuttle bus pickup at the hostel.

They sleep a little in the plane and the bus to the hostel in Auckland. They check in. Ernesto goes to the toilet and Alex sees a woman hanging from a balcony across the road.

A: Nes nes! Get your phone, call the police....

So they run downstairs to the reception of the hostel and then outside. An other man from the hostel (who's been an ambulance driver for 15 years) stops the trafic and tells Ernesto to start en keep talking to the woman. So there he is, in stead of dreaming about flowers, beaches and beatiful women in Sydney, he's talking to a suicidal junky in Auckland.

It takes the police (after they arive) an hour and a half to talk the woman out of it. Finally the help her to step off the railing back on to the balcony. That deserved a Whopper cheese meal at the Burger King.

They just slept for 15 hours, but still are not really able to walk and talk clearly. More sleep is coming!!!

Wish them luck!

The Narrator

Kangaroo Island Roadkill Rally Tally (and more)

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 07:54:42 GMT

Kangaroo Island Roadkill Rally Tally (and more)

The Outback adventure was over, the guys left for Adelaide. After one night 'partying' with Chris and Aryan they rented a car, hadding to Kangaroo Island.

Renting a car was not to easy because alex is not 21 yet and Nes doesn't have a drivers licence. How they got the car. Nes told them 'Well, I lost my licence, can I fax it later' that was ok. So Alex became the co-driver.

To bad Chris couldn't join, but the was to small for 4 persons anyway. So Aryan, Nes & Alex went off for Kangaroo Island. In four days they saw lots of beautifull stuff, like seals beach, remarkeble rocks, lonely whitesand beaches, kangeroo's, koala's and heaps more things.

Their opinion? 'It was very very beautifull, but boring (we had fun, but there was no one else to have fun with :( )and we drove a 1000 kilometres, with an average speed of 50 k/h on durt roads. After 5 o' clock you can only go to the pingiuns.'

After they the first few dead kangaroos on the side of the road, they started the Kangaroo Island Roadkill Rally Tally Highscore, wich on the end was like this.

Winner: Kangeroo, 17

followed by 14 Wallibys

8 birds

7 possums

2 t-shirts

1 shoe

and 1 koala.
The 42 unidentified shettered bones might change the score a bit. They smacked a kangaroo themself but only with the side of the car, after the kangeroo thought it was dying, it looked suprised to be able to jump away before they even could get out of the car.

After introducing roadkill rally tally, they also came up with Kangeroo Island Rollercoaster Ride. Turn off your engine, go down and up 7 hills in a row, wich was possible because each next hill was not as high as the one before, to bad this was only possible once.

After this new adventure they were few days in Adelaide, wich is a very nice city, met some friends from sydney, relaxed on the beach and went clubbing. By the way they returned there car without any problem.

the narrator

(I'm sorry I'm a lazy ass, this is already 4 weeks ago. They told more nice stories to come)

Pictures of Adelaide

Pictures of Kangaroo Island

Good fun

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 07:49:27 GMT

Of course the boys are misbehaving a lot too. Like:

1. Dressing up statues in every city they get too
So far pictures of Sydney, The Outback and Kangaroo Island
Still to be uploaded Adelaide and Mildura
Soon to be done: Brisbane

images

2. Road signs are all over the place in Ozzie. Sometimes they just take photos. Sometimes they play the sign themselves.

images

3. Or just being bored in the bus and take unlimited pictures of Buffs. (Thanks Irma and Menno for the buffs, they come in handy)!
What's a Buff? Have a look.

images

Logging off!

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 04:03:10 GMT

King Browns, Dampers and Outback!

inally! I found the boys again. (This is your friendly narrator typing) I lost them in the Outback and it took me weeks to locate them.

A month ago they left for Alice Springs on their 10 days trip through the Outback of New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Day 1
Train ride from Sydney to Broken Hill. This express service runs from Sydney to Perth in 70 hours. Broken Hill is 16 hours. No watches, no phones, no schedule. Just life as it comes. Wake up at dawn, eat when you're hungry and sleep when it's dark.

Day 2
Train arrives in Broken Hill. They were picked up by Flick, the tour guide from Battours. The group: 11 passengers 1 driver.
They visited the Flying Doctors and drove to their first wildernis campsite near Koonamore.
For the rest of the tour they were supposed to sleep in swags. (what's a swags?).

Day 3
They visited the sheep farm (where sheep sheering was done just a week before they were there). So no hot action, just a smelly shed. Then they drove to their next camp site. The aboriginal community Iga Warta. With a pool and a shower (showers are very uncommon in the outback).

Day 4
Initiation with the aboriginals by the tribe elder. Face painting at the ocker site. They were very fortunate to see one of the most venomous snakes on the planet from a 8 meters distance in the wild. The King Brown (Pseudechis australis, No. 2).
After the face painting they had a nice walk to a sacret wall painting site.
One of the other tribe elders had his 40th brithday and the tour group was invited to come and celebrate. An emu and kangaroo (shot earlier that day) were cooked in the ground at the bon fire, the original way. With the meat comes a damper, bread baked in the ground.
After a very nice celebration with picture of 40 years of an aboriginal's life and lots of music and dancing, the travellers went to bed to rise and shine the next morning, off tho their next destination.

Day 5
Leaving Iga Warta with a hell lot of road ahead for the day. The most arrid part of the tour. Past the salt lake and a weirdo's sculpture tourist shop in the middle of nowhere. The guy wasn't even their. Supposedly he is a freak.
Passing Williams Creek (population 2), the driver though they could make it to Coober Pedt on the gas they had left in the tank. They'd to 400 km on a full tank normally. This time, because of the extreme head winds, only 250 km. They ran out of gas 20 km from Coober Pedy. Luckily two cars were behind them, with friendly dutchies, helping them to get some gas. This was probably the most adventurous part of the trip.

Day 6
Waking up in Coober Pedy, in a mine. 70 percent of this opal mining town lives under ground. They did a mine tour and misbehaved very very much!
Back on the road to the Northern Territory along the Stuart High Way where they found their next campsite just off the road.

Day 7
Next desination: George Gill's Ranges. Activity: Hellicopter ride. w00t!!!
Then they looked for a water hole in the hills, had a nice swim and set up their camp near Kings Canyon.

Day 8
At Kings Canyon they made a 3 hour walk, and swam in the garden of eden. Another beautiful (and very popular) water hole. They had to get used to the idea of other people around them though. :-S
Then the drive to see sunset behind the Olgas casting red light on the sacret mountain Uluru.

Day 9
Sun rise at the Olga's behind Uluru. Beautiful skies and colors. They wanted to do the walk through the valley of the winds, unfortunately this was closed, because of incredible heat. In stead they did the walk around Uluru. People still climb this rock, but the aboriginals ask you not to. After spending so much time with the very generous tribe, the respected their wish. (Climbing the rock is like playing a loud game of football in a cathedral).

The tourguide had a very nice idea (since we did Uluru and Olga's in 1 day, we could add another destination to our trip. She new a camp site very close, only 600 km away.... hahahaha)

Day 10
Relaxing day at the campsite 600 km further (but only 60 km from Alice Springs). Aryan, Chris, Alexander and Ernesto thought it would be nice to have a climb over the hill and swim back through the river. But the hill appeared to be a lot more than a challenge than they prepared for. Steep cliffs where only rock climbers with equipment could go, the 4 backpackers on flipflops had to return. But the return route they took seemed to be the same kind of challenge. So they had to go all they way back the way they came. On treir return, they just swum the river up and down.

After this they drove to Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a very laid back town (population 20.000) in central Australia. City folk would think: does anything ever happen in this ghost town? After 10 days of sleeping under the stars, and staying in the outback, you think: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrch! Traficlights! Cars! People! SMS-es on my cellphone! Activity! STOP! Let me go back!

Quote Ernesto and Alexander: This was probably the most incredible tour we ever did.

To see more pictures of the tour go to the image gallery.

Cheers,
the narrator

Dikke Prima!

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:54:47 GMT

Dikke Prima!

osh gosh gosh we had a lot a fun the last few weeks.

Arjan and Sander were in our hostal a couple a weeks ago. The introduced the new dutch term 'Dikke Prima' (Fat Okay). They went to Tasmania for a couple a days and came back to the Wood Duck Inn in Sydney.

Pics of Arjan, Sander and Selma and Chris
You know what what Alex and I say about that? Dikke Prima!

We finally had our georgious swedish roommates. (Unfortunately they were really boring) But four other swedish backpackers in our hostal made up for that completely. We've had a couple of swedish lessons and Jag Pratar Svensja Jetta Gut! :-)
The night before they left they wanted to drop a party and allowed me to give the party a name (only funny for those who speak swedish)

Mutta Smutta Party Pics
You know what we say about these parties? Dikke Prima!

And about a week ago we went to Manly Beach (and took some pictures this time)
We say: Dikke Prima!

I've had my last day at work today. Tomorrow some time to pack and get our stuff sorted. And then 10 days in the Outback! We promise some beauty pictures

You know what we say about this stuff? Dikke Prima!

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:24:33 GMT

Hey, we hadden nog wat fototjes. Een mix van allemaal dingen.

Eerst de car market, hier (ver)kopen backpackers hun auto's aan/van elkaar..

Dit is waar nes werkt, pavillion on the park.. We hadden er nog een nieuw soort uitzicht bij: Mist Zoals niet te zien op de foto, was de top van de sky tower niet meer te zien. :P Oh, ja we hadden nog spare foto's van de eerste week. Beter laat dan nooit. Een paar foto's van het olympisch park, en als er iets is dat de australiers hebben onthouden van de spelen, dan zijn het wel de nederlanders met hun heineken-tent. En dan Blue Mountains national park. Een natuurgebied, een van de middelgrote (oppervlakte is ongeveer nederland), vlak bij sydney. Het bekenste plaatje daarvan is die van 'the three sisters'. more pictures will be added soon... well maybe not soon, but more will be added!

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 05:37:20 GMT

Wood Duck Inn

e've been in the hostel for a while now. Leonard, the nightmanager, left last week. We had a little farewell party night. Gone out for some food, a party with a bunch a Irish party meisters and then we went out for drinks with a whole a people bunch from the hostel.

Leonard and Nes

Philip (FR) Sorcha (Ire) Leonard (Ire) and Nes (NL)

David (FR)

Alex trying to hide behind the camcorder... :-) BTW: we have some nice films too!!

Interview with Christine (NL)

As you can see, it was the take-a-picture-for-farewell-hour.

Alex blowing kisses to the Netherlands and other countries around the world. Bye-bye

That's all folks!

All work and all play make Nes and San rich spending boys

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:11:15 GMT

All work and all play make Nes and San rich spending boys.

hey've been working a lot last weeks. Alex works 12noon to 8pm, home at 10pm. Ernesto works 8.30am to 5pm normally, so waits and cooks diner for Alex. But occassional 11am to 1am shifts make his feet a little tired. :-S (He bough insoles last nite, worked like a charm today)

They're having heaps a fun in the hostal. People come and go. They are now officially part of the steady crew there. Mainly dutch and irish people in the hostal. Often swedish and canadian. Sometimes belgians, americans, brittish etc. (No germs anymore!!) :-P

They walk to work every morning passing many trafic lights with their really distinctive aussie sounds. As soon as the pedestrian light hits green, it sounds like a laser gun shooting (or a japanese woman sneezing).

Well, they even didn't get the chance to write something here themselves. Because they are having tons of fun. Spending their hard earned wages and tips on beer and tips. :-)

They say hi to everyone.
Bye bye,
the narrator

Are we lucky or what?

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:44:33 GMT

Are we lucky or what?

he new group of dutch backpackers arrived yesterday (about 20). They had a BBQ on the roof top of our hostal yesterday. After their BBQ we went for a drink with them, of course.

have a look at the gorgeous view from our roof top terrace

by night

in the morning

(i'll add a sunset picture too, will take it tonight)

we've had some rainy days too last week

and alexander being happy

I am doing some official work, as a waiter in a very fancy restaurant/lunch room http://www.pavilion.com.au I am also doing some freelance interaction design stuff for some people I know. :-)

We're moving to another room today. We'll share a room with 2 swedish nurses!!!! I can already feel weird pain in my leg... And alexander needs a health check up too!!!

Are we lucky or what?

Een Update

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:49:18 GMT

Halo Allemaal..

Ff een korte update, geen foto's helaas, want ik kom net van me werk...

?werk?

Ja, we hebben allebei ewen baan gevonden..

Nes werkt in een chique bar heel centraal bij de botanic gardens..

En ik, ik moet bij mensen aan kloppen om ze vodafone deals te verkopen, maar er is een goede maar, ik ga tussen 500 en 800 euro per WEEK verdienen. Vandaag was me tweede dag en als beginner heb ik 80 euro verdient vandaag.

We blijven waarschijnlijk nog wel een tijdje in sydney misschien wel een maand, een appartementje zoeken. Morgen gaan we naar eentje kijken, en gister ook al eentje gezien.

Morgen ga ik ook wat testritjes maken, dus dat wordt voor het eerst aan de andere kant van de weg...

Ik hoop dat alles goed met jullie gaat, met ons in ieder geval wel...

We zullen binnekort weer foto's uploaden..

Alexander

De eerste week.

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 03:42:19 GMT

Zo werden we onthaald, door de vrolijke groep van Australian Backpackers. Nadat ik als eerste overal doorheen was en tien minuten moest wachten , kwamen alle 65 medereizigers langzamerhand, limbodansend bij elkaar. En zie hier Chris Het is natuurlijk ff wennen op de onderkant van de aarde, maar dat mocht de pret niet bederven. We hadden trouwens al snel door hoe we de foto's makkelijk op ze kop konden maken, zodat jullie je beeldscherm niet hoeven om te draaien. Dit is em dan,. Ons eerste plaatje van het Opera House. Op dit moment besefte ik nog niet helemaal dat ik er was, maar dat was vanwege ruim 20 uur vliegen. En de sky-line (meteen links van het opera house) mag natuurlijk ook niet ontbreken. De groep was te groot om alles samen mee te doen en werd dus opgesplitst, hierdoor ontstond meteen het heerlijke wij tegen zij gevoel, vooral als je dan een potje tegen elkaar gaat voetballen. Hier kregen we de planning te horen, eerst naar een natuurpark, daarna de regeldag en tot slot de feestdag. Nes kwam met een leuk idee, elk kwartier gaat er een wekker en nemen we een foto van waar we zijn. Dat hebben we even vol gehouden, maar al snel bleek dat we dat niet een jaar gingen volhouden. Als we dan elk half uur 12 uur per dag een foto namen kregen we zo ongeveer 9000 foto's van dit jaar. Hier zijn we dus niet aan begonnen. De komende 10 foto's zijn alle foto's die dit iedee hebben doorstaan. En hier zijn de vrolijke mensen van de crew weer, de slotdag. we zouden die auto wel is ff winnen.Aangezien we die niet hebben gewonnen ook geen foto. Dit was een beetje onze eerste week. We zijn erg blij dat we met deze mensen mee zijn gegaan. Maar nu is het tijd om ons eigen mpad op te gaan. Er zullen nog vele verhalen volgen, en we wensen jullie alvast een heerlijk regenvolle hersft. alexander

Flights CX107 & CX108

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:58:27 GMT

Flights CX107 & CX108

Thank you for coming to Schiphol: Bernadette, Harm, Linda, Kim, Dick, Marleen, Marie-Louise, Hans, Iris, Soraya, Hannah, Charlotte, Jan, Kacheung, Zsa Zsa & Carry

We want to thank Cathey Pacific and Schiphol and Australian Backpackers and bla bla bla...

Zo erg was het nou...

Nog eentje dan.

Broers en Zussen

As proof: it is NOT true what they say: we do have to walk upside down in Australia, and sideways in Hongkong :-/

In the plane at Schiphol.

On Hong Kong.

In Sydney.

Ernesto broke three of these on the plane

Alexander's Playstation Portable in the airplane

Hongkong Airport

Hongkong from the sky

To join the news letter go to http://www.nesware.net

Today is the Day

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 06:29:26 GMT

Set your alarm for 14:05 this afternoon. Look to the sky because that's when we will fly over your heads, and wave you goodbye!
After months of waiting, finally we can take off to Sydney!!! Ladies, don't wear any make-up today, because you will be crying a lot. Alexander and Ernesto will be gone!

Our bank accounts are open to all your generous donations and tax refunds. :-)

Meet and Greet

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:07:12 GMT

Meet and Greet

Last nite we had a Meet and Greet party in Alkmaar.... all the mega jumbo flight '05 to Oz backpackers together!
With OZ quiz ofcourse... and beer and more beer and more...

Apparently a girl next door is going too... we met her there.. like this: Where are you from? Where in Amsterdam? Where in the Bijlmer? Where in Nellestein? Where that dog is always outside? That's your dog?... Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!...
My brother even knows that dog's name... but we never met her...

anyways.. we're still not prepared to the flight... and the trip... but we'll have a great great time

more later---

16 days and counting

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 07:39:24 GMT

16 days and counting

Alexander and I are both getting our shit together... I packed my stuff... it all fits.
We've got our Visa Grand Numbers... 3 more days at work... Farewell parties every day...

I CAN'T WAIT!