NZ North

Me and Matias arrived to Auckland fairly late on 31st of January. We figured we'd need sim cards and some data as the two of us were planning to stay 6 weeks in NZ. After immigration etc we found booths for Spark and Vodafone and based on some Google search we decided to go with Spark. But at their store I learned that their sims may not work as they should with my Honor 8 so I ended up taking Vodafone and Matias opted for Spark with his Samsung Galaxy S7. They cost the same amount and had 3GB of data for 2 months with 200 min of calls and 200 sms in NZ. (We didn't notice any difference with the connections but with Spark you can get 1GB extra data per day in "phonebooths" a.k.a wifi hotspots in bigger towns, so that's a nice bonus)

Hotspot

Getting away and to airport

The easiest way is probably to take the SkyBus which operates 24/7, but it does cost 18$ one way (17$ online) and it's a bit cheaper if you buy the return ticket also right away. But if you feel more adventurous, want to save some cash and have some time then you could take the 380 airporter bus  and change once if you are going to/coming from the city center. Without local transportation card (AT Hop, also available online) that will cost around 13$ and with Hop less than 8$. If you're traveling with more than two persons in a group, taxi/Uber would also be an ok option.

So yeah, this time me and Matias hopped on the SkyBus and went to stay in Bamber House near Mount Eden and my mum and sis went to a hotel in the city. The first 36 hours we didn't get to do much as the weather was really wet and grey. After Australia's sunny days we thought "uh oh.. is it gonna be like this the whole 6 weeks..?" luckily that was not the case.

Lovely weather in Auckland

Cruising around

On Friday the sky opened up a bit and that was nice as we went to pick up a SUV from Ezi car rental. (We got a tip from a kiwi living in Brisbane and this was the company she uses the most. The car was a really nice last year's Toyota RAV4 with adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, back up cam and a smart key so we can definitely recommend this company).
We drove to pick up my mum and sis, packed ourselves and our stuff to the car and started our journey towards Whitianga. We only stayed there one night and in retrospect two nights would have been better, but in short time one can only do so much.
The drive didn't feel very easy. It was serpentine road up and down and when I wasn't driving, I got a bit nauseous. That was also the case with the backseat members so at some point we had to get our minds out of the serpentine and feeling sick (or cuckoo). So we started to play a game. A game that I remember playing as a kid, which gets kids (and adults) to focus on something else as the time flies.. what was it, you may ask.. :) So everybody picks a color and gets a point for every oncoming car that's the color you picked :) Soo simple! And then you just select a score like let's say the one with 21 points wins. My sis picked a successful color and was pretty much unbeatable the whole time. And the time went little bit faster 👍

Whitianga & Hot water beach

Once we got to Whitianga we unloaded our stuff (me and Matias stayed at On the Beach Backpackers Lodge and mum and sis a little bit further from the beach) and then we decided to drive to Hahei Beach and more specifically to Hot Water Beach. We knew that there one needs a shovel to dig deep enough to get to the hot water and in order to make a nice pool for you and your mates. We didn't find a shovel rental place so we just went on checking the beach.. and what did we see.. loads of people digging and chilling on weird pits. We were little skeptical at first but as we walked closer and then stood in a hot water vein for a bit (like a second, it was freaking hot!) we were convinced that the water is actually really hot there! We found one abandoned pit and stood there for awhile. It was fun and enough for us. Our feet got a nice burn and must have gotten younger as the skin almost peeled off :D

Hot water holes

In order to have a full hot water beach experience you should have some time, shovels and beer but we didn't have any of those so we headed back to Whitianga for some food and chilling.
I really liked Whitianga and our hostel. It was basically on the beach so we finally got to witness a sunrise with Matias :) also with more time, we could have gone kayaking as they were free of charge in our hostel 👍

Hot water beach

Sunrise in Whitianga

The smelly town of Rotorua

After Whitianga we headed to Rotorua. The drive was something like 3 hours, mainly because of the serpentine roads. Getting closer to Rotorua the scenery got really unbelievable.. all the green humps and bumps with sheep and cows.. it just looked like Hobbiton and I could just imagine little hobbits wander around, drinking Hobbit beer and have fun all day long (except the few fellows with the ring and all..)

Humps´n bumps

When we got to Rotorua we instantly noticed the smell.. it was like the whole town had eaten beans and eggs for breakfast :D
Little by little we got used to the smell but still from time to time we got a little whiff of the interesting odor and wrinkled our noses a bit :D
First day was for strolling around in the center and the in the park there. We soaked our feet in a thermal pool and witnessed some bubbly ponds. We didn't have too much time as mum and sis wanted to chill in their hotel's spa area and we wanted to see how did the Rotorua disc golf park look like.

We have found out that there are quite a few disc golf courses in NZ, but it was a surprise that many of the courses did not have permanent baskets or proper tees. This one in Rotorua for example offered a good place to practice but it was difficult to find all the tees and we weren't able to play the whole round.

Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland

The next day we woke up rather early and started the engine again. It was time to see some thermal action! In Wai-O-Tapu area there are few free options if you want to experience natural hot pools and see some bubbling mud lakes. There is also the thermal park that offers a chance to see a geyser show, or might I say geyser blow as they briefly talk about the geyser and then activate one with some sort of powder to make it shoot water high up. After the geyser show we headed to the park and it was like walking into some child's colored book. There were pools filled with boiling mud and water pools colored from bright orange to toxic green.

Thermal pools

On the way back to Auckland we still had a little bit of time left so we drove to the place where they had something called OVO aka putting one or two person inside a ball and throwing it down a hill (this was supposed to be the original place where they started this madness). Matias wanted to have it a go and had a good time sliding down the hill :)

Ready for rollin'

Auckland Auckland

For the last days together in NZ we rented an Airbnb in Kingsland. It was so nice that my mum and sis finally had their own rooms, we had two toilets (always a luxury) and a nice balcony with a view.
We went sightseeing around the city and strolled around in the Winyard Quarter which was really pretty. Mum and sis visited the zoo as me and Matias tried to find a frisbee golf course from Monte Cecilia park, but there weren't any permanent baskets unfortunately so we just hung around there and threw some shots just for funzies.

Kingsland

Winyard Quarter

All good things come to end and we had to say bye byes to my mum and sis. We had at this point two months to go and it sure felt really empty after they left.
It wasn't fun to be in Auckland anymore as the place reminded of them and I missed them already. Luckily we only had one more day in the North and then it was time to fly to the beautiful South island :)

Travel light

- Sini

Our route so far

Down under in Brisbane

We traveled from Surat Thani to KL to Bali and finally to Brisbane on 9th of January. The trip took almost 24 hours (we didn't get any sleep) and then it was time to meet the infamous Australian border officers at 6 am.. Matias had a wooden souvenir from Bali so first time ever it was time to take  the red line. The process was quick and easy to our surprise. Few questions and sniffs from a cute lab and we were good to enter the country. After some coffee we pondered whether we should get our prepaid sim cards from Vodafone or Optus. Google search didn't give a clear answer so we ended up with Optus which had a better deal at the moment. With 15$ we got unlimited calls and texts in Australia and 10GB data. (It was more than enough, after 3 weeks still had 8GB left 👍)

We took an Uber from the airport and went straight to meet our new lovely Finnish friends Solei and Sirpa. We had been in contact for months with Solei but this was the first time actually meeting the sisters :) Also it was so lovely that they had Finnish coffee, cinnamon buns and Finn Crisps (with Salami) there waiting for us. We were in heaven!
We chatted quite a bit and got to hear the valuable local tips on what to do around the area. Thanks to these ladies we also got to experience the local life little bit as Sirpa had arranged us to be housesitters and dog watchers for a week.
Housesitting is quite common in Australia and I hear there is some pages where you can register and you might find free accommodation like that and end up spending part of your vacation petting cute dogs and chilling at the backyard in the sun with a pool. That's what happened to us anyway :)

We had a car in our use for the first week which was great. It was scary though.. to drive a MANUAL car for the first time on the other side of the road. The shift stick was on the left and the signal on the right and window wipers where the signal usually is... So like our new Finnish friend Mika says "the tourists always have the cleanest windows" 😂. Well we sure had it like that. We had some car trouble after visiting Aldi (local Lidl) for the first time.. After visiting the shop and buying all the food, the car didn't start! Oh crap! Luckily the car owner's dad lived nearby so I called him and he came to give some extra power for the battery and he had it replaced so we would not have the same trouble again.

Our street with the quirky car

The north Strafford Island and Brisbane city exploration - week 1 

Solei and Sirpa say that one of the best places to visit (on Earth I think :) ) is the Straddie island. It's easily reachable from Brisbane and especially from Cleveland/Ormiston area where we stayed. The ferry ticket costs total of 14$ or 20$ per person depending which company you choose. You could also take your car there but it's more expensive and there is no point if you are just visiting for one day. The ferry trip took something like 20-30min I think and then there was a bus waiting at the harbour, ready to take people to Point Lookout. The return bus ticket was around 10$ each and the trip to other side of the island took maybe 25min. At first the bus ride gave me a feeling that we were in Ruissalo Turku, with the exception of road signs about koalas and kangaroos 😎 When you get to Point Lookout you'll find a couple of restaurants, beaches and also good public toilets, but the absolute must is to do the Gorge Walk. I mean really, you gotta do it! Even after seeing the pics that Solei and Sirpa had, that could not prepare us for the views and wildlife we got to see.. It was astonishing! We ended up seeing two kangaroos, stingrays, seaturtles and one undefined whale/dolphin/shark creature. We could have spend longer time there, but we were worried about the little doggies so we just spent few hours on the island and went back to our petting and belly rubbing duties :) (these little dogs that were on our watch, Keksi and Pertti*,  were so cute and affectioned! we really fell for them ❤️
*The names of the dogs might have been changed due to protecting their privacy :) )

Doing the Gorge Walk

A roo

The next day we hopped on a train and travelled 50 minutes to Southbank which is the cultural center and quite laid-back urban city area with many restaurants and a beautiful riverside. We wondered around for some time and ended up enjoying some greek food at Zeus restaurant and some live music at a park. It was very nice and with time and more money, we could have stayed longer there. But again the belly rubbing duty awaited us.. or so we though!

We arrived back home around 6pm only to find only one dog in the backyard.. that was weird at first but after looking all over the place, we realized that Pertti had gone missing! OMG! I called the owner's mom and she calmed me and said that Pertti has done it before and we should not worry too much about it or go look for him.. but we worried and went out looking for him and called his name hoping so badly that he would appear from somewhere.. but nothing :( after returning home we just sat by the open front door and waited.. and waited.. and waited. We must have looked so sad and desperate there. I started to search local missing dog sites from Facebook and at first we got nothing, but then at 10pm I saw Pertti's photo on Queensland lost pet registers site!! OMG we found him! Maybe 15 minutes after that Pertti was back home with us. We were so happy! Pertti on the other hand seemed very nonshallant and was playing it very cool. We learned that he had found the tiniest and quite high up hole from the fence and escaped from there and wandered a bit until a neighbour from the nearby street found him. Pertti ended up having great time with the neighbours and enjoyed some BBQ and got lots of cuddles also. Hah.. that little furball! Phiuuff luckily this story had a happy ending 🙏

After that episode we weren't too keen on going far from home and it was 37 degrees out so pool and some BBQ suited just fine for us. It was a wonderful place to housesit and the dogs, like I said, stole our hearts a bit. We also felt really good having our Finnish friends and the owner's parents support there as we tried the local life :)

Keksi

Week 2 

I have been in Facebook groups like "Australian suomalaiset" and "Brisbanen suomalaiset" (local FB groups for Finns) and I saw this one guy telling that he rents cars with affordable prices. After chatting with him we learned that he also has a homestay option at their own home, also with affordable price and it includes the nice company of Mika and Elina, the other Finnish travellers and two beautiful dogs :) So with the help of Solei and Sirpa again and after saying goodbyes to the doggies, we hopped on a train on one afternoon and traveled to Kuraby, Brisbane. Mika came to pick us up from the train station so we didn't have to climb up the hill in the heat with all our stuff.
Their place in Kuraby is nice and it gives you a homelike feeling as it is the actual home for Mika and Elina. Mika has helped various Finnish working holiday travellers to get their things going when moving here down under so we highly recommend starting your Brisbane life from here.

We rented an automatic car from Mika and put it in very good use from the get go as we drove to the Gold Coast. Our friend in Finland has said that Surfers Paradise is a marvelous place so we had to see it for ourselves. And it was pretty! Amazingly long coastline, lovely city feeling with restaurants and shops and highrise buildings. We spend few hours there and then continued our way to Currumbin and oh I found heaven there on the beach! Some spots had silky smooth sand so I could not do anything than just lay there for a bit. I was so offline :)

Enjoying the silky smooth sand

Coffee @ Hard Rock Cafe 

The next day it was time to do our duty as Finnish citizens and we drove up to the consulate to cast our vote in the presidential election. It was our first time doing it abroad so it was really an interesting experience. After that we drove to Mount Coot-tha as we heard that it would have an awesome view of the city. I think it would been even better to visit there around sunrise or sunset but the view was pretty cool daytime as well.

Mount Coot-tha lookout

After playing tourists it was time to put the gamefaces on and play some frisbeegolf (disc golf). Around Brisbane area, there are few courses but what was odd was that we were the only ones playing! We visited three different parks and in one of them (Logan) we met a local lady who said that in her 10-12 years living near the park she has never seen anyone play this game.. :o what the heck! I mean it's not easiest to get proper discs here as they don't sell them in the local sport shops (we googled).. but still! Though I must add that the weather was maybe too hot so maybe it's more like a winter sport for the Brisbanites.. well anyway we were amazed but extremely happy we had the courses to ourselves :)

Can you spot the basket? 

Weekend fun at Eat Street North Shore 

We heard from one fellow Finn at Mika's that there is this awesome event that happens on the weekends at the Northshore. It's like a food festival kind of, with something like 70 different stalls and many options to buy food from different parts of the world and enjoy live music and other shows at the same time, maybe with a glass of wine or beer. It costs only 2.5$ to get in. We first walked around and checked what the place had to offer and then decided what we wanted to eat.
We started to get hungry so we first tried small hot dogs for starters and then headed to South American joint where I took a beefy bun and Matias had a plate full of everything. We finished the foods with a nice local Out and a Bout pale ale.
We highly recommend to visit this place!

Huge portions, happy stomachs

how to get there? 

If you have a car then you could drive there, but we definitely recommend the ferry option. I don't remember how much the ferry was because we payed with GoCards, but it was not more than few dollars. The trip took about 40minutes from Southbank and it was a lovely way to see the area. The way back especially was wonderful as you can see the city lights in the dark.

- Sini

Brisbane city lights

Our route so far