The long journey to Sydney
January 20 & 21 After the usual good-byes Simon and I stepped through the security control at the hovercraftterminal about half past eight in the morning. In the departure lounge a child was learning English with an electronic teacher. Nervous? Nah, instead I was looking forward to the best six months in my life so far. The flight (SK6827) to Kastrup departed roughly nine o'clock. Besides me sat a couple about my age, the guy English and the girl Swedish. Simon sat across the isle. I exchanged a couple of words with my neighbors, they where going to England I think. Just outside the harbor breakfast was served, along with a descent rolling of the sea. An interesting fact about catamarans is that when the rough sea hits the bottom in the middle it sounds like the boat is about to break in half, as I promptly had to explain to the couple besides me. The breakfast tasted superb despite the rough sea. After a short bus trip into the departure lounge at Kastrup it was time to crash the tax-free shops. The flight (SK507) departed at 1045, two hours later we landed in India. Well it looked like India, but it was in fact Heathrow Airport in London. After three hours of browsing around in the shops. We boarded the flight (NZ003) to Auckland via Los Angeles at 1515. About a good ten hours, after a couple of inflight movies and some food, the plane landed at LAX for an hour. After another good ten hours, with additional inflight movies and meals plus that I managed to sleep a couple of hours, we reached Auckland.	January 22 The local time in New Zealand was six o'clock. Every thing seamed very calm and quiet, probably due to the fact that the ears had gone numb after more than twenty-five hours in a jetplane. Outside the terminal there laid green grassy planes giving us a nice "sneak preview" of what where to come in about tree months. The flight (NZ101) to Sydney departed at 0800. After two flights with descent seats these where flat and worn, but the flight was pleasantly short. After 29.5 flight hours and 22708 kilometers, accomplished in 40 hours, we had reached Sydney. Half an hour later the loss of Simons backpack was a fact, and resulted in a quick visit to lost goods. Then, to tired to think about bus-routs, we took a taxi to our hotel. The Hotel Metropol where to be our home for the first week. After a quick, and need I say a wonderful, shower I phoned Cathrine and arranged to meet her at the opera-house. Simon and I took the bus to Wynyard and with only minor problems found our way to Circular Quay and the Opera-house. Together we went to McDonalds in The Rocks for some lunch. Although I lost my appetite after 40 hours traveling it was a good feeling to be in a beautiful city together with good friends just relaxing. After lunch we wandered around in The Rocks and Circular Quay. The sun shone from a deep blue sky, and I managed to burn my self the first day.

The first day with Golden Holden
February 1 Early in the morning we took the train to Sydney to meet Cathrine at Circular Quay ten o'clock. Then Simon and I took out money to the car and we all went to immigration in The Rocks. Cathrine borrowed the money to extend her visa. Now it was time to go to Kings Kross and buy the car, a golden Holden Kingswood with a 4.2 liters V8, we decided on a couple of days earlier. After hard negotiations Cathrine and I managed to get us some camping gear and an icebox. Now the adventure began. First we had to drive to the NRMA office down town. That went without any problems. But on the way back it started to happen stuff. I was driving, and had to get to a parallel street to the right, the first was three lane and one way towards us. But the next one had tree lanes and entrance was allowed so I turned into it. I assumed it was one way in my direction. At the next intersection we where going to turn right so I placed me in the right lane. The light was red. Standing there waiting fore green I se that the traffic from the left where standing still. One was a touristbus, and another a driving-school car in front of a Mercedes. The driving-school car, on the inside of the bus, was getting nervous and started to back up. Resulting in that he/she backed into the Mercedes. Who started to honk his horn frantically. The light turns to green and I turn to the right. Now the car that stood behind me at the red light drives up on my left and says "Was it one way there or what?".	Then it starts to occur to me what really had happened back at the red light. It hadn't been an one way street, I stood in the lane intended for traffic against us. The bus who stood still wanted to turn into my lane, so did probably the driving-school car and the Mercedes. Well at least I wasn't alone to make that mistake. Now of to Bondai we drove. In Bondai Simon and I booked a hotel rum at Thelellen Inn. And after a stop at a café we where of to Katoomba, Cathine lived in Sydney for the moment. The trip to Katoomba became quite an adventure actually. We had just fueled Golden Holden and I was driving. The light ahead was red an there was standing a car in my lane so I quickly signaled left and changed lane. Then suddenly Simon shouts "watch the bus". I try to throw the car back in the right lane, but as I turn the wheel the hear the bodywork start to crumple against the front of the bus. We came to a stop just after the lights and the busdriver comes walking across the intersection. He says, with a slightly guilty voice, that he thought I was going to stay in my lane. And I asked him, with a similarly guilty voice, if his bus was OK. But he said not to worry about the bus. Golden had only sustained a minor dent in front of the rear left tail-light, so we drove on towards Katoomba. In Katoomba night had fallen and having no real map of the place we had to guess our way home. At last after some driving around in the dark we, by chance, came up on 32 Campbell street, home sweet home.

Alice Springs to Coober Pedy in 48 hours
March 14 After one days rest in Alice Spring we folded together our tent and headed of south, with a quick stop at a bakery to buy a pair of bacon n' cheese buns and a Coke for breakfast. After waving to the tourist bus we sheared campgrounds with a couple of nights ago we hit the highway. About 100 kilometers later we turned the mighty Golden Holden towards the west. In front of us now laid 150 k of Australian dirtroad. The Henbury Meteorite Craters came up on the right side and demanded a short stop, they where kind of small compared to the one I've seen in Arizona. The dirtroad carried on for ever it seemed, but after a few hours Kings Canyon spread itself across a small part of the horizon. That's right, you might think a canyon with a name like that would exceed Grand Canyon in beauty, but no it was a major disappointment. So we steamed on towards the Big Red, Uluru, Ayers Rock. With a quick refuel at the most expensive gas station in Australia, I think. About halfway the funny looking butte Mt. Connor past us on the left side. Afterwards I heard that you actually can camp on top of it, and that it's got a fairly unique ecosystem. We now had tarmac under our tiers, that felt good after almost getting seasick when golden heaved along the dirtroad. I tried in the longest to avoid looking at Uluru. To make it one of those postcard events* but failed. It didn't matter 'cause as soon as we checked in at the camping the sunset was racing towards us. Goodie, this I had looked forward to the whole journey. All there is to say is it was worth the role of film exposed in less than half an hour. Back at the camping it was dinner time. Afterwards we fell asleep in our tent on a very comfortable lawn and under a breathtaking canopy of stars.	March 15 It was cold but I had promised my self to document the sunrise to. Simon stayed curld up in his sleapingbag. The stars where still shining bright from the sky. At the designated site for dawn footage there where so many Japanese tourists I had to climb up and stand on the roof of Golden. Back at the camping we folded together the tent and raced of towards the rock again now it was time to climb it. It was a lot harder than I thought, I mean that thing is really steep, take my word for it. On the top the wind was strong enough to blow the skin of a zebra. Not far away the Olgas spread itself over the red plain, and you could just make out Mt. Connor through the haze. Looking down we saw Golden basking in the sun amongst the numerous touristbuses. After a knee-punishing decent we head of to the Olgas about 50 k to the east. There isn't much to say about the Olgas but the flies like it, trust me. Of to the west for about 300 k and then to the south after a refuel at Erldunda. Heading into South Australia the night fell on us and the mandatory 400 k refuel passed. Now there started to appear gray shadows along the road, some moving around and some just standing motionless. Yes, they where live kangaroos, hopping about in the dark. Simon tried to photograph them but had no luck with that. After dodging and weaving kangaroos for a couple of hours we reached Coober Pedy, and decided to find a place to catch some Zes. A closed gas station looked very inviting, and we fell asleep parked slightly behind it. I was awaken by a really bright light flashing in my eyes and realized there was a man standing outside. He threw us of his property and we found a place just outside town where truckers parked over night. At last some peace an quiet.
* A postcard event is when you are standing in front of a really enormous and beautiful thing or place and not believing your eyes. It's as if you stood and looked at a postcard.

Rafting 5+ on Kaituna river
March 29 About seven o'clock Simon and I checked out of the Kiwi Hilton hostel in Aukland New Zealand. Making sure to write down some phone numbers to hostels in Los Angeles. On the way down to the railway station we picked up some breakfast, sandwiches and Coke. The bus to Rotorua departed at 8:15, leaving just enough time to consume our hardy breakfast and listen to a couple who forgot there luggage at the airport, suckers. Three and a half hours later the bus arrived in Rotorua. There the rafting-company where supposed to pick us up, and so they eventually did. We threw our back-packs in their van and of we went to do some major white-water rafting on Kaituna river (rated 5+ out of 6, where the latter is life threatening). On the way out of Rotorua there was a pungent smell. I couldn't decide if it was the van that carried the foul smell or if it came from the outside. Later I discovered that Rotorua has an odor of sulfur due to geological activity. At Kaituna river Simon and I stripped down and slipped in to neoprene rubber. After a short training session on land we carried the vessel down to the raging ;-) water. The river winded along quite calmly at the beginning, but after a bend, with a smelly cheep carcass on the shore, the water changed color from dark brownish to boiling white. We had a couple of minor waterfalls, about two meters, to start with. The kind that makes your guides yell only "hold on". Time flew as we where having the time of our lives, and before we knew it time had come for the big ripper.	It was a five meter high waterfall, the highest one that was rafted commercially in the entire world. A couple of meters in front of the raft the water just disappears and beond that the tumbling watermasses kicked up a thin mist. Forward hard - the guides yelled over the roaring waterfall. A couple of seconds later they cried out "hold on get down". I felt my stomach race towards my head and I loved it. The raft folded as we hit the boiling surface and filled to the rim with water. I couldn't tell up from down and was completely surrounded with boiling water. Eventually we came out of the waterfall and found ourselves beneath a wall of roaring water and in a pool with a snowy-white surface. When I stood up in the raft the water came up to my knees. After a short wave to the photographer we where of down the river happy as ever. The guides tried to flip the raft over at a smaller waterfall but failed, bummer. It was all over in less than fifty minutes. But it was all worth the money we paid, and that price included a night at a camping near by. They dropped us of at the camping and due to a school class on holiday they only had the luxury cabin available, that was OK with us. After a warm shower we headed out to get some grub. The lady in the reception gave us directions to a gas station near by. There wasn't much of choice at the gas station but they had frozen pizza and ice cream. Back at the camping we had a meal that could make anyone green of envy, Pizza and two liter's of ice cream all washed down with Coca-Cola. Later at night I was awaken by a storm that nearly flipped the cabin on it's side. Besides that I slept like a baby.