Finally I managed to install and design my new bilingual! blog and now I am thinking about what to write at the beginning. Probably ‘Hello world’ is the most common 😉 . Just kidding. This blog is going to be partially a replacement of my old blog ‘Trip to Ireland‘ (czech only) and I am going to post here also some my  thoughts, pieces of my writings, interesting (and crazy 😛 ) trips we went to as well as some culture events. Shortly everything I will want to write about.

Many people asked me why I stopped writing our diary from Ireland and I must admit that I slightly missed writing also. Therefore I decided to create this blog and I hope that I will not go silent like the last one. So, here we go …

Written on 25th September 2006

G’Day mates 🙂 ,

the subject should better be "Adventures from cycling on New Zealand", but I do not want to change the used style 🙂 .

As I wrote last time, we headed on a trip taking 22 days of cycling around the North Island of New Zealand. We did not have any plan at all, so we did not have to rush anywhere. I always made up a plan for the following day the evening before while my friend was cooking (he is a good chef, by the way 😛 ). New Zealand is a beautiful country, I just did not realise how many hills is there 🙂 . The whole North Island is positioned on a subduction zone where the oceanic Pacific plate slides beneath the continental plate. The resulting volcanic activity has created a number of large volcanoes and thermal areas as well as many "just" hills all over the island. We found out that quite late after a few days of our trip 🙁 . The South Island is supposed to be a flat area with the only mountain range (quite high though) but more suitable for biking 🙂 .

But it did not put us off. We had some problems with our physical conditions at the beginning, when I went as fast as "a devil", my friend "crawled" behind me and I had to wait for him all the time. Our conditions got to equal after a few days. I got a bit tired, my friend got better and in a past few days we exceeded an average speed 20kmph sometimes even with mandatory biscuit’s breaks. We were lucky about the weather as well, because from 22 days we got just 5 rainy ones. We got wet a bit four times but it was not that bad (because even my non-waterproof jacked did not get soaked completely) and we spent the only day, when it was raining whole afternooon, by playing desk games in a warm hostel.

We really enjoyed our ride, countryside is wonderful around here. However, we also experienced moments when we (at least me) wanted to throw our bikes away and go by bus. It happened last Monday and Tuesday when we were moving from the most southern point of our trip, the Wanganui city, to the west. Unfortunately there was very strong wind blowing to our faces at that time (and for the rest of year probably as well 😉 ). We found out on TV in the evening that the wind speed was 75kmph. We managed to ride just 60km instead of planned 90km in 8 hours on bikes and after that time we gave up. Our legs were quite sored. It was quite depressive when your average speed is under 10kmph and we had to peddal even down the steep hills otherwise we would possibly go backwards 🙂 .

Everything got better last Wednesday when we could see a dormant volcano Mt. Taranaki. Just imagine quite a flat landscape and in the middle 2500m high cone with snow on the top. Wonderful view. Of course, we went around that volcano (and it took us three days) because we wanted to see it from all angles. We also went up to 900m to see a waterfall there. Unfortunately the weather was not as good as we wished. After first day without any cloud we got the other two days full of clouds and we did not see Mt. Taranaki anymore and got a bit wet. Local people say that if you can see Mt. Taranaki, it is going to rain, if you cannot, it is raining 🙂 . People living around that mountain get about 7000mm of rainfall per year.

Also our bikes were not exactly touring ones 🙂 . Unfortunately we got mountain bikes and mine was a bit small for me. We found that out during our ride. When oil disappeared from all parts, our bikes started making strange sounds, I got a few broken spokes and also got a broken axis from my rear wheel (but I went with that another 50km to the nearest town – quite difficult have to say). My friend lost (it just fell away) the rear rack about 300m from our hostel today in Auckland 🙂 . But our bikes could carry our load and we managed to get everywhere. I got our tent and all camping equipment including a petrol stove (about 20kg of load), my friend got about half of that weight.

But let us return to the beginning. We left Auckland by train through uninteresting suburbs and then headed along the coast down to Miranda Hot Springs where we took our first hot bath. It was that good for my muscles that I went there the next morning as well. Then we went around Coromandel penninsula which took us about 4 days. The road was quite flat at the beginning but it started undulating later that day. However, we went across a bloody steep hill the third day’s morning near Coromandel town. The road goes up for about 3km from 0 to 400m. You can certainly imagine how hard it was to get to the top. It took us more than an hour to get there but we had lots of time to enjoy a nice view. We were also admired by many people with cars on the top of the hill when we reached it 🙂 . A few days later we got even quite famous for a night in a small village. It happened when we went for a dinner to a local pub and all people sitting there passed us earlier that day when we were climbing a near hill. So we entertained a whole pub, I with my telling of our advantures and my friend with his expressions (some man noted that everyone should have checked my expression and than his, my excitement and his unbelief (but he liked it 🙂 ).

A bit further on the way we visited Hot Water Beach, which is a piece of beach where you can find hot water under the surface. Everyone can dig his own natural spa then. It was something for me, of course. I hired a spade in a close coffee shop (yes, it is not a typo – interesting marketing idea by the way) and started digging. Unfortunately I could not find the right hot spring. Then I got an advice from people in a hole and started digging next to them. It was hot water in one half and cold in the second one. After about one hour of lying there a big wave destroyed all our spas 🙁 .

We also visited the breath-taking rock formation on a beach called Cathedral Cove, which is something like an arch created by water. We met there our first cyclist friend Kamila from Germany. Kamila hired a bike just for a day but we met her a few times later and she also introduced us to our five-days co-rider Ole from Germany. Yep, that guy went with us for five days and over 200km. He was a nice guy and he loved the word "beautiful" in all collocations – with dinner, landscape, road, just all the time 🙂 . Ole got the right touring bike but once when we went on gravel road, it was quite funny to watch the fear in his eyes and proper weaving between stones. My friend Kukin and I did not care, our tires were not possible to puncture (almost 🙂 ).

But let us go back again, we used a bus from Coromandel penninsula, after checking out a gold mine in Waihi, and went to the centre of the North Island to Rotorua city. We had to stay here for three days instead of planned one. We tried zorbing, when you are put into an air ball and thrown down a hill. I tried the wet version when I got also water into my ball and I could lie on water all the way down, while my friend tried the dry version when he was tied up inside. When he finished he did not look well at all 🙂 .

We also went for riding of karts, it is called luges here. There was not any engine but a big hill we went down from. It was an amazing ride (we got five of them) but it was a bit spoiled by heavy rain and our wet backside from luge and cable car up the hill 🙂 . The first ride was a scenic one, we had to proof that we know how to ride (there was just one lever – a break) and then we could choose between intermediate and advanced. We went both and also took some pictures on the track 🙂 .

We spend the rest of days in Rotorua by cycling around Lake Rotorua and by visiting a mud bath and a thermal area called Hell’s Gate (good choice of name). It was full of boiling lakes various colours there, sulphur smelled everywhere (like in a whole central area of North Island) and also boiling mud and a mud volcano were there. It was quite interesting to live in a city where you can smell sulphur all day, something smokes there all the time, where there is a fence with boiling mud instead of flowers in a park, and a lake full of steam. We got used to it after a few days.

We also went to visit a Maori village to find out something about Maori culture. Maori are the first people who came to New Zealand about 1000AD. As usual the arrival of Europeans decrease their numbers and put down their culture. Nonetheless we experienced quite a good performance in an open air with a huge dinner. Everything started when a guy asked us where we were from and always said a few sentences in the language of that country. To my big surprise, he knew even how to speak Czech. I asked him later where he had learnt it and he showed me lots of papers with basic phrases in 72 languages 🙂 . Then we saw the right Maori village, we were shown old customs, tools and weapons and we also saw a poi dance. Poi is something like a ball on a rope and you can rotate it. Maori men used that for their wrists, women for dance and music. They were really good at it. The chief learnt us Maori dance later, when we were supposed to jump on one leg, shake hands and heads, loll out our tongues and look all around at other people. In the end the chief congratulated us to getting crazy. Good joke 😀 . He got everyone.

On the next way we stopped on place called Wai-o-tapu, where you can experience a real geyser. It is regularly "set off" at 10:15 every day. The natural cycle of that geyser is between 36 and 72 hours but some wise man in the past found out that geyser can be regulated by soap. It works as following. There is a hot water under ground and above that is some cold water working like a cork. A special quantity of hot water is needed to release this cork. However if you put some soap powder into geyser, it destroys surface tension and hot water can go up. We stayed there watching geyser for about an hour then.

The next big experience was Tongariro crossing a bit southern. There are three big volcanos in the middle of North Island, Mt. Tongariro (the smallest), Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu. It is possible to go skiing on Mt. Ruapehu, which we intended originally, but I was put off by a local man who I asked about a skiing condition. He said: "If you are from Aussie, it is a paradise, if you are from NZ, it is ok, if you are from Europe, it is a waste of money.". So we exchanged that for crossing of Mt. Tongariro. It was a guided day walk because the top is still in snow and ice. We got even two guides, young guys, everyone got hiking shoes (who had not got his own) and cramp-ons. We started at 1100 metres and went to 1900m. I started the walk in T-shirt and shorts and on the top I was quite happy I had got my winter jacket (first time I used it in three months of carrying it, by the way), a hat and gloves 🙂 . We did not have to use cramp-ons in the end because on the steepest part our guide made steps and we just walked in them (it was quite slippery). There was a beautiful view from the top and was quite interesting to find places without snow and with hot soil. It is really just a dormant volcano, not everyday I can walk on the top of volcano 🙂 . The way down was even better. One of our guides had a shovel and slided down about 200m on it. I followed him later on my jacket. It was really good experience together with throwing of snowballs and getting dry in the middle of snow on hot stones.

Then we went along the Whanganui river to Wanganui city, the most southern point of our trip, as I wrote above and then to Mt. Taranaki. The last three days we spent by riding on the road called the Forgotten World Highway, where we really met just a few cars a day. The landscape was beautiful, so different from the rest of the island. The whole way was full of heritage places, one of them was the only village in 150km’ range called Whangamomona. This village claimed itself a republic in 1989, they have borders, border guards, president elections and they have also got their own passports, which we could buy in the local "hotel". We had a chance to speak to the first lady, quite drunk must say. Everyone was a bit drunk that night, they must have been celebrated some kind of bank holiday 😉 .

I also went for a three hours walk through a bush where I was supposed to experience how landscape had looked like before people came here. It was really hard walk, walk was marked by signs on trees and a track could be just in my dreams. I wished I had a machete sometimes because I had to go through ferns, spiky bush, went through mud, had to use my hands to climb up hills and down as well, went accross gorges and streams using fallen trees. Shortly wonderful experience for someone like me (my friend did not go 🙂 ).

We had to cycle 90km long part without any civilisation through hilly landscape last Sunday, the last day of our trip. I have to say that we were running out of water and force, hills were quite steep and my friend laughed to my enthusiasm when I claimed at nearly every curve that behind it there must be the final city :-). In the end we reached Taumarunui, took a necessary winning photo and the next day, on Monday, caught a bus back to Auckland.

We also had a few funny stories which cannot be unwritten (sorry Kukin 🙂 ). It happened the other day in Rotorua when I sent my friend ahead (usually I went first) and he was supposed to wait for me at the turnoff to Blue and Green Lakes, which we passed day before. When I reached the turnoff, of course, my friend was not there. I supposed that he continued but when I did not catch him on the way uphill, realised that he did not notice of 2m high sign next to a road and got lost. Unfortunately I got a puncture that day and having spare tube but no airpump I was a bit in trouble. I was saved by a guy called Jack from near holiday park who lent me a compressor and I could inflate my tube. I met my friend later that day about 10km further when I came back from "Burried village". About a hundred years ago a volcano erupted at that area and burried a few villages by mud. I went to see the excavation.

The next story is again about my friend and happened near the Republic of Whangamomona. I went first and stopped near a sign announcing entering to the republic. As usual I shouted at my friend (who went just behind me until recently) to take a picture. Because I did not get any answer, I turned my head and saw my friend, riding directly to me with his helmet in his hand, holding it in front of his face and looking into it. The crash was just a matter of few seconds. My friend hit my rear pannier bag and kissed the ground a moment later. My bag was all right while my friend got a raw knee and bend his front wheel. Then I could laugh for almost an hour while my friend was jumping on his wheel trying to fix it 😀 .

Of course we got much more experiences and I filled up whole my travel diary I got from my flatmates Ondra, Lida and Palko. Kukin also managed to put some photos on the server http://australie.aikidoprosek.cz/ (not working anymore – pictures will be added to my gallery).

We met a lot of people from different countries during our trip and I had a chance to talked to many people from NZ and OZ as well. We also met four Czechs. First couple were two girls travelling by car and going back to Auckland and then back to the Czech Republic. One of them was from the next village to mine and she even knew my mum because my mum used to teach her. The other couple were our friends Kure and Smejki. We met them just by accident in a supermarket in the middle of North Island. I tried to talk to them and I found out that they were travelling by bikes, their trip had been good so far and they had got wet once. Our conversation was just from my side (as usual) and so I wished them good trip after a few minutes and went to talk to other people to a hostel 🙂 .

In total we managed nearly 1300km in 22 days on bike through hilly landscape without any previous preparation. I think it is a big success that we are alive and can walk 😀 .

We are going to give back our bikes tomorrow and will go to buy some souvenirs. Flying back to Cairns on Wednesday early in the morning for three days where I would like to go diving for the last time and then we have three days in HongKong. Then just back to Dublin, my friend directly back to rhe Czech Republic, I will stay one day in Dublin and then I am going to the Czech Republic for two weeks as well. Then my holiday will be definitelly over 🙁 .

How we will get on in Cairns and HongKong I will write in the next and last email.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who I forgot to send it to.

Pavel (Inža)

Written on 1st September 2006

G’Day mates 🙂 ,

I am writing to you again, this time from New Zealand. We moved a bit on the east last Wednesday but I will start from the beginning.

I wrote about Sydney and Opera House last time. We went to Bondi Beach by train and bus the next day and swam there in quite cold water but in huge waves. I could even surf without any board, just had to swim up and catch a wave. Once I went for about 20 metres on a big wave. Then we walked along the coast on cliffs and back home.

On Monday (the previous one) we took part in a group tour to Blue Mountains. These Mountains are blue because of eucalypt trees that grow up all over mountains. Their oil creates a mist and that creates the blue effect. It is the same like with sky. We went by a small bus and the driver took us to many lookouts (viewpoints). We saw waterfalls, Australia’s Grand Canyon and also went on the steepest railway in the world. The inclination was 51 degree. When we sat down, I was wondering why we almost lied but when it moved, I got it. It went quite fast. Down there we had a walk through a rainforest where my friend and I were "hunted" by our guide because we were too slow and wanted to see everything. We also went to the Sydney Olympic City. There is lots of stadium and even houses for accomodation on one place. It is huge and empty at the moment. We got back to Sydney by a ferry and saw whole city in the night from Parramatta river.

The last day in Sydney we spent by visiting the maritime museum where we could enter an old destroyer and a submarine from the World War II. The submarine was quite small and I asked an old mariner how they lived there. He told me that if you once lived in submarine, you can sleep everywhere. True. Then in the evening we went to Canberra by bus.

Originally I wanted to explore Canberra first, then to hire a car second day and went to Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) but I got a crazy idea (which my friend did not like 🙂 ) in a bus. I thought up that we could hire a bike in a hostel and go to CDSCC by bike. It was supposed to be just 40km one way. Unfortunatelly we got lost on the way there (did not take any map) and arrived to CDSCC from the other side after we went at least 50km. It was worth of it. We heard a very good lecture for small children (there was a school trip that we joined 🙂 ) about the centre, Mars, Space and about sending of probes to Mars and we also saw the latest picture from those probes. It was cool because children had lots of funny questions, i.e. if there has been anyone from Jamaica in the Space 🙂 . The guide tried to interest children and adviced them to become astronauts. He said that when the first man had landed on Mars, it would be good if he was Australian. He did not want to hear again something like "a small step for a man but a big leap for mankind" but "G’day Mates!" instead 🙂 . He also said that the famous video from Moon with Neil Armstrong was received here in that centre. They had got some trouble in USA and they got the pictrures upside down. So Neil had to wait for a while hanging on a ladder until the Australian centre was able to see Moon and received pictures.

Luckily we did not have any problem on the way back to Canberra, we did not get lost this time. The road was quite hilly and my friend walked up almost every hill. I made a fun of him that it was like on New Zeland only rain was missing 🙂 . He hated me for that. If we had gone the same way to CDSCC, I might have given up as well. We arrived back to hostel quite tired but we did not get any sore muscles the next day.

We wanted to explore Canberra the next day and then go to Melbourne in the night but it was raining all day and unfortunatelly public transport did not work that day. Drivers were on strike. So we changed our plan, jumped on a bus in the afternoon, say goodbye to Canberra and left to Melbourne.

We spent last weekend just by walking around city and because we were a bit tired of museums we relaxed a lot. First day we went to the highest building in the city (again supposed to be the highest building in the southern hemisphere) and look down around the city. Nothing special, no special building to see. Then we left to Federation Square, which is a square full of modern art buildings. No building is rectangular there. We got a unique program for the evening. We went to see a footie (Aussie Rules football match). It was organised by our hostel and we watched a video about rules first. It is something between Gaelic football and rugby, hard to explain rules because I had not got them either 🙂 . The most important thing was, however, that our team won. After that I went with a few friends from the hostel to a night club where there was no entrance fee and drinks were for free from 11pm till 1am. I got a bit drunk in two hours and when they wanted me to pay for drinks, I just left home (music was crap anyway).

We went to see Old Melbourne Goal last Sunday, but it was not so good exposition. I have seen much better in Ireland. They had just boards with description of life of some prisoners there. The most famous was some guy called Ned who was something like Jessie James. He got a gang and used a special metal armour. Finally he was shot to his leg and hang up.

Last Monday we hired a car for two days with my friend and went to the Great Ocean Road. We had been thinking about this or Philip Island, which is famous for seeing little penguins at dusk, but the Ocen Road won. The first day we went to a beach where the biggest surfers competition takes part every Easter, saw a few waterfalls and lookouts and went through the Great Ocen Road. Nice view from there and we got a good weather too. We also went to see a lighthouse on Cape Otway and whole area and met a guy that showed us a place with Koalas on the way back. Koalas were on every tree here and my friend took loads of pictures of them. It was also different to see hinterland here. Everything was green and more similar to Ireland than to dry Australia how we saw it on the north.

We slept in a "hostel" where we were alone with my friend and I succeded in closing door of a bathroom in that way that I could not open it again. I had to get out of there through a window 🙂 . The next day we went to see lots of rock formations like London Bridge, twelve apostoles, Blow Hole etc. Hard to describe, that must be seen on pictures (and we got about 300 of them). Then we went to see a big waterfalls and after that we went on the top of a dormant volcano called Red Rock to see sunset. Unfortunatelly it was cloudy and we saw nothing. I always fell asleap on the way and my friend laughed at me all the time 🙂 .

Next day (last Wednesday) we flew over to New Zealand to Auckland and spent whole Thursday by relaxing and reading guides (I had not read anything about New Zealand and only knew that they have got ten times more sheep than people 🙂 ), planning our cycling trip and looking for a bike rental company. Originally we wanted to head off on Friday but we were told in the rental company that they need a day to prepare our bikes. So we had to move our leave to Saturday. The first stop will be near Hot Springs because we want to get warmed up a bit.

Today we went to explore Auckland then and again from the top. They have got a tall building called Sky Tower but we did not want to spend money for it. Instead we walked to the highest volcano (Auckland is built on a volcano area) in Auckland, Mount Eden. It was a hill with 50 metres deep crater and a beautiful lookout all over the city. In the evening we got finally our bikes and left our backpacks in the rental company together with swimsuits and souveniers 🙂 . Tomorrow we are heading off then.

At the moment we are in a time zone UTC+12, that means 10 hours ahead compared to Czech Republic and 11 hours compared to Ireland. I also got a new phone number +64210574246. It was fun to choose a SIM card because there is just one operator here and it has got just one offer. A shop assistent laughed at me and wondered why I had chosen just that tariff (quite expensive by the way) 😀 .

Anyway, I had run out of all my money, which I saved for whole trip, after two months but I have been saved by my best roommate Palko (he must have slept when I was telling him that because he could not remember 😉 ).

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who I forgot to send it to.

Pavel (Inža)

Written on 20th August 2006

G’Day mates 🙂 ,

as I wrote last time, Kukin and I went to try surfing two weeks ago. We were joined by Anna (our friend from Sweden), Richard from Canada and Adam from UK. We were a small group and had got an excellent instructor that explained us everything on a beach first and then sent us to the sea. Waves were big and it was quite difficult to surf in them, but when the instructor told me when to go, I managed to stand up and even surf for a while. After a while I thought I was an expert and tried to catch waves on myself. I rarely succeeded and usually a head of my board got into water and I fall down over it to my face. Unfortunately we have not got any pictures from that because there was nobody around to take them 🙁 .

In the afternoon we got kajaks for free and went down a river. We found a cool beach close to the sea where a current was so strong that it was imposible to swim against (and I am a good swimmer 😉 ). It was quite difficult to get back on our kajaks. In the evening we went together to a restaurant for a dinner and then headed to an Irish pub. I got a pint of Kilkenny bier (very good by the way) and got even shamrock painted in the pint head. I admired it and asked a bartender if she was not from Ireland. She was not 🙁 .

On Friday two weeks ago we left the others and went through Brisbane to Surfers Paradise. We were a bit sad because it was first time in 10 days we were on our own but we went on a beach and admired local skyscrapers. We also went to a farmstead for 24 hours where we tried horse riding, shooting from a shootgun (I am an excellent shooter because I hit 7 flying targets out of 10 and an old farmer asked me where I had learnt shooting so well). We also learnt how to whip and throw boomerang. Shortly we have become cowboys and my friend Kukin also got a sore back side 🙂 . The first morning I got and old horse which wanted just to feed itself but in the afternoon I got a ponny and felt that it was possible to "drive" it 🙂 .

Back in Surfers Paradise we went to an observation deck of the skyscraper Q1, which is the tallest residential building in the world. It is 322 meters tall and it takes only 43 seconds to get up by a lift (and I did not feel any movement!!). I was cool view from the top all over the city full of skyscrapers and water canals, allegedly Brisbane should be seen (70km far). So cool. Kukin wanted to take photos of the city in the night and waited on the observation deck while I went on the beach and swimming to the sea. I got an idea of signing two of us on the beach and Kukin took a photo of it. It was not gramatically correct but my heel was too sore to write it in a proper way. Our signature was about 7×20 meters and people admired my work after I had finished it. It was a good fun to watch them 🙂 .

Last Monday we went to SeaWorld and saw plenty of dolphins (and a show with them when people rode dolphins, dolphins were jumping a few meters up from the water and threw people to the air as well), sharks (it was even possible to swim with them for extra money) and other sea creatures. They had got also polar bears; one of them was in water and wanted to climb a glass. After that we went to watch a show of water skiing and a show with seals.

The same day in the night we headed south to Byron Bay and met Anna (our friend from Noosa) again. The next day we went together for a walk around a national park and watched dolphins and whales (nice and relaxing 🙂 ). We also took a must-have photo on the Australia’s most easterly point which is about 4km from Byron Bay on cliffs. Kukin liked a local lighthouse 🙂 . I wanted to see a sunrise from this point so I got up at 5:30 the next day, wore up, went out and … realised that it was raining. It was first time in over one month that I experienced rain here in Aussie, so I went to my bed again 🙂 .

We hired a car from Byron Bay and went to the national park Mt. Warning where you can climb the highest mountain in this area. The top of this mountain is the first place in Australia where you can see the sun rising before anyone else. To climb the top took us over two hours and we managed to get about 700 meters higher. The last part was a vertical climbing using chains. The view was worth of it.

The same day we left Byron Bay and also said goodbay to Anna. During the night we went to the "next" city Port Macquarie, which took us about seven hours. We saw all local historical buildings and beaches here. The next day my friend went on a beach while I headed south on feet to visit Sea Acres National Park about 7km from the city centre. It was a rainforest (a bit dry 😉 ) and I almost stepped on my first snake. It was such a green snake, maybe poisonous, but I survived and all of you may see me again 😛 .

Last Friday night we finally arrived to Sydney. We had to skip a lot of stops because our time is running out and it is impossible to skip Sydney. Immediately after we got off a bus I got homesick as we were standing on a place between skyscrapers, where we could see the sky only above our head in a small rectangle and I could not see any tree. It was very unusual for me (a boy from a village). I realised that Dublin and Prague are not so bad cities 🙂 . We accommodated in a seven!! floor’s luxury hostel and the next day went to explore the city.

We climb the Sydney Tower, which used to be the tallest building of the southern hemisphere and we could experience a wonderful view all over Sydney. At this stage I liked this city 🙂 . The part of an entrance ticket was something called OzTrek which was something like a movie about Australia with common advices how "to survive". It was a bit pointless for us almost "locals" who have been in Norhern Territory and experienced stucked car in a creek, crocodilles, moskytos etc. After that we went to the famost Harbour Bridge and went also to a Pylon Lookout to get known a bit about building and history of this bridge. The bridge used to be the biggest in the world, built in 1932. After it was built there were 6 lines for cars, 4 for trains, 1 for cyclists and 1 for pedestrians on the bridge. All that was built by people without any safety equipment (like helmets, harnesses etc.). Briefly an excellet work.

Today we started with walking through parks and monuments and also went to a national gallery of NSW and then got to the famous Opera House. We took a guided tour and got inside. The building has been designed by, at that time, an unknown Danish architect, which did not know how to build it though. It took another two years of thinking of how to build this and finally after eight years the outer building was built. However the interior (including the opera hall and the concert hall) was still to be built and it took another four years until the building was completed by another architect.

Sydney is an immense city and it would be necessary to spend here a few weeks to see everything. And we have got just four days 🙁 . We are flying to New Zealand in 10 days and still want to see Canberra as well as Melbourne.

Kukin worked hard yesterday and managed to upload many photos to the server http://australie.aikidoprosek.cz/ (not working anymore – photos will be moved to my gallery), where you can have a look at them.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who I forgot to send it to.

Pavel (Inža)

Written on 9th August 2006

Hi mates :-),

as I wrote in the last email, we headed to Hervey Bay last Wednesday. We decided to try hitch hiking because I wanted to try it and also save 57 dolars for a bus. It did not go so good. We stopped five cars (I could talk to drivers all the time but in the end I was a bit tired of talking – does not happen so often :-)) and after that we got only to the half way between Brisbane and Hervey Bay and stayed near a petrol station in the middle of nowhere next to motorway. Because we could not stop another car for more than one hour, I decided to ask at petrol station about a bus going around. We were lucky, the woman called to some company and we got on a bus going accidentally around. We got to Hervey Bay after 10 hours and saved 4 dolars :-).

The next day we set off for a three-days trip to Fraser Island which was the best trip I have done here. The island is creaded from sand with nice crystal clear lakes and beautiful beaches. We had got a car, were driving on beaches and in sand (quite difficult, we got stucked in sand a few times) and slept in a hotel!! It was such a kind of trip where we got a car full of fuel, a map of the island, we got three days with accomodation provided and an itinerary with recommendation what is good to see. I and my friend got two girls from Switzerland to our group so we were four of us and we had lots of fun :-). I swam in every lake we have visited (as the only one, water was quite cold :-)) and in the sea. We were told not to drive through salt water, on beaches during high tide and not to drive in deep sand. Because we stayed a bit late on a place called Champagne Pools (where a man can go to water full of bubbles from waves crashing to rocks and where I built my magnificent sand castle :-)) on Saturday, we drove back on a beach during high tide through salt water and in deep sand :-). Good adventure! My friend was still afraid of destroying the car (because it was his credit card we gave to the company and we had not paid for an insurance :-), girls were screaming and I was driving :-). It took us three hours to drive 60km because we got stucked in sand several times and our clutch got smelly a few times :-). Girls were driving sometimes as well, like devils through holes, the most important thing for them was to drive fast :-). My friend Kukin did not drive but he advised us all the time. I will never forget his "shouting" to grils "a bit to the right side, please" and "slowly, please" :-D. I drove when things got more difficult. We also got to sand blows (it is told that there is more sand than in Sahara desert on Fraser Island) and I rolled down from them. Very funny :-).

Last Sunday we went for a whale watching trip on sailing boat. I was great, we saw a lot of whales and our boat got very close to them. Once a whale was just a few meters from the boat. I also enjoyed sailing but wind was very strong and I caught cold there. It is first time I caught cold here in Australia so I took today for relaxing and getting better. I also met lots of people on the boat and talked all way.

We lived in a new hostel in Hervey Bay which had been opened three days before we arrived there. We got a dormatory room for 12 people just for us and it looked like in a hotel there. Everything new. We have signed ourselves on the fourth line in a visitor book. The hostel is owned by a family, very nice people.

On Monday we moved to Noosa where we wanted to stay just one day. Now it looks like we could leave on Friday :-). It is cool city, beaches, sea, high waves good for surfing. The rest of Monday we spent on the beach and in a pub with another girl from Sweden I met on the sailing boat the day before. Yesterday we went to National park next to the city. We saw lots of birds and also a Koala sleeping on a tree. After that we went for a three-hours lunch to a restaurant, where we got vouchers in our hostel for. The lunch and a glass of wine just for $7!!!

Going to try surfing tomorrow with my friend because we have paid for a two-hours course with an instructor and we should get a kayak in the afternoon for free and can try kayaking on the sea. It is almost ten days we arrived to Brisbane and we have not got back yet. And it is a long way to Melbourne. I guess we will not be able to see everything we wanter, but it does not matter. We are on holiday and enjoying it!!

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who I forgot to send it to.

Pavel (Inža)