Travel Blog of our Honeymoon around the World
Christchurch is the biggest city of the southern island. It was hit terribly by a series of earthquakes in 2011, many buildings are still under maintenance.
A silent witness is the temporary memorial “185 white chairs”, in memory of the 185 lives lost.
Nevertheless, it is still a very charming city with many nice buildings and locations and well worth a visit.
An early but comfortable flight to Christchurch, New Zealand.
First thing to do: get local SIM cards for our mobiles. It was amazingly easy, mobile internet was working before we even had paid. And we had provided zero personal data. Great service from Spark store at the Airport.
Next: campervan! The mandatory paper work as always, but still on time to stock up at Countdown (rebranded from Woolworths), checking in at the campground, going for dinner and finally making our vehicle a place to live for the next four weeks.
A long drive back from Fraser Island to Brisbane, a little bit of sightseeing (kangaroo point) and packing for next day’s early departure to New Zealand.
Just a hang-out day in our resort. Some easy kayaking and relaxing at the pool. Well… we’re on vacation, aren’t we?
Fraser Island is actually a big sand dune (largest sand island in the world) with forests (only place on earth where tall rainforest grows in sand), sweet water lakes, resorts and long 4WD tracks. Today’s tour was with a 4WD bus and covered most of Fraser’s highlights: refreshing bath in Lake McKenzie, walk in the forests of Central Station, drive on the beach-highway (80 km/h) along the 75 Mile Beach till Maheno Shipwreck and the Pinnacles and finally a stop at Eli Creek.
We skipped the optional scenic flight, but admired the fact that the 75 Mile Beach is a beach (obviously), fishing spot, national park, highway, campground and even a runway for aircrafts.
The dingo warnings made sense, we spotted one along the way. Dingoes were introduced around 4000 years ago in Australia and the ones on Fraser Island are considered “pure” and need to be distinguished from wild dogs.
I’ll remember our driver Martin (Bruce Willis’s doppelganger) and his sense of dry humor: once forcing a tourist car to drive back to a pass-by, commanding a 40-tons beast, he commented the scene with “Yeah, mine’s bigger than your’s… rarely got the chance to say this!”. Hilarious!
A long trip with several means of transport until finding a honeymoon gift in the fridge of our room in the Kingfisher Bay Resort.
We returned the car and flew to Brisbane, our starting point for a tour to Fraser Island.
We set sail to the famous Whitehaven Beach, known for its fine and white sand (98% silica) and the beautiful landscape. As we were rather close to the beach already overnight, we could avoid most of the day-tour tourists in the morning. After lunch we sailed to an amazing snorkeling spot and could confirm that the word “Great” in “Great Barrier Reef” is well-deserved. A wonderful start into 2019!
Our sailing ship “Prima” accommodated 11 (out of maximal 12) guests plus two crew members (captain Sas and cook Beke). We had a cabinet for ourselves – small but with a little bit of privacy. Before noon we set sail towards Whitsunday Island. Captain Cook discovered it on a Whitsunday (German: Pfingstsonntag), therefore the name. We traversed the hook passage, went snorkeling and anchored for the evening.
After a nice dinner at sunset we were in good mood for games (Twister and “Eat my box”).
To our big surprise (and shock) a squid joined the party – believe it or not, it jumped out of the water into our boat, just to be accidentally being stamped by one of the guests. A black trace of ink was a lasting proof. Our fellow travelers showed how to make a good meal out of the poor guy. Dinner out of one instead of “Dinner for one”. Happy New Year!
It was basically a driving day and a chance to wash – while enjoying a liquid honeymoon gift from the today’s resort. Airlie Beach is a famous starting point for trips to the Whitsunday Islands and to the Great Barrier Reef in general. Many young backpackers also stop here and make party.
