Several weeks have passed since our last letter.
From Cairns we drove to Alice Springs. Day after day of nothing- Australia
is very vast. Every day of nothing looked slightly different though, which
made the journey interesting. In the middle of nowhere, we finally saw
some kangaroos. Paul, our camper, was nice to us and took us everywhere
without incidents. The only negative thing about him are his drinking
habits: 15 Liters per 100km! He’s just as bad as we are… Somewhere in
the Outback, Reto lost his hair. After an extensive search, we had to
leave without them.
We got stuck in Alice Springs for a week due to flooded roads, the highway
up to a lenght of 7 km and depth of 6 m. The highway has never been closed
for the past 12 years and in this period not in the whole century, so we
felt pretty special to experience something so unusual, Jehhh. After the
floods, we came to a red rock which was obviously some tourist attraction.
Many people stared at the thing and even climbed on it. It was definitely
worth seeing because at dawn the rock changes it’s color. Another spot
worth seeing is the King’s Canyon and the Olgas.
From Adelaide we drove through Meldbourne and back to Sydney. In the
Valley of Barossa we tried some of the famous Australian wine which was
absolutely delicious. New Zealand’s wine is also very worth trying.
On a southern island, we spotted some wild koala bears. They have a
peaceful way of living; sleep takes up 20 hours of a day. The rest of the
time they eat or look for the next place to sleep. Sexual intercourse is
not a big issue- it is over within 30 seconds and only done during the
pairing-season.
At the beginning of March, we flew to kiwi-land. Unfortunately we
haven’t seen any kiwis yet, but we hope to spot some of these exotic
birds before leaving in two weeks. We had a visitor from Norway during our
stay in Auckland: Caterine will join us on our adventurous trip through
New Zealand. On the route from Auckland to the east coast, we saw several
volcanoes. We even jumped out of an airplane at 12000 feet! After 45
seconds of falling, our parachutes opened, this kick of adrenalin was very
good. It is the first time that Bene and Caterine took off together, and
hopefully next time they will land together too!
In the meantime, Bene and
Reto’s bellies have become larger. It doesn’t quite make sense because
we’ve been jogging daily, eating healthy and laying low on the beer. The
other day, it took Reto a good 10 minutes to squeeze into his swim trunks.
He claimed that the trunks had shrunk during the last wash…How could it
be possible when washing with cold water!
Greetings from Downunder
Bene, Catrine & Reto
