Re: Tour around Kakadu & Litchfield
 

I knew you'd find yourself a jillaroo before too long!:salute:

WARNING! Jilaroos may distract you from your real quest of finding CMPs.;)

All those lovely young ladies, wonder if he can control himself.

Where is the red jacket

Regards

Col Tigwell

Red jacket
 

Maybe it was thrown off somewhere in haste. It's hot up there in more ways than one.

... during my visit in the Aviation Heritage Centre in Darwin I spotted a nicely restored Chev C60L

back of the Chev

Vehicle description

good time
 

Hi Chris

Good to hear you are still around and the crocodiles haven't eaten you yet. How are you going with the heat hear it's going to 36 in Darwin sometime soon.

Max

@Max

Good Day. Well, it's quite too hot here. Wearing all day my shorts and a t-shirt. Don't walk a lot around. We'll usually take the local bus. Otherwise we're wet all day.

Arrived on Mondy evening from my tour Darwin to Broome. Sleeping in a swag all night, only 1 shower on the 4th night, but we swam in waterholes. Met there a young cattle and sheep farmer from Geelong/Melbourne. We've been sharing a hotelroom in Broome. I mostly enjoyed the Kimberley and my flight in a small helicopter over the stunning Bungle Bungles.

I'll fly tonight to Perth. Wanted to do a tour down to there, but I would have to spent 4 nights in Coral Bay and Monkey Mia, which I would like to visit again, but not so long. The bustimetable isn't good. Visited the places from Perth to Broome already 3 years ago, so I'll take the plane. Will stay 3 nights in Perth, then take the plane back to Sydney, where I'll change my flight ticket to Auckland.

Will fly to NZ somewhere around next week. Kiwis, Chris is coming soon!!! :cheers:

Hi
 

Good her what you have been doing and seeing over there in the west, yeaterdays it was 20 Sunday it will be 11 and wet. Monday we start shearing again at the other farm. Have a great time in New Zealand and we look forward to seeing you again in a few months.

Max

Arrived in Sydney
 

Hello from Sydney

After a short flight from Perth (3,5 h) I finally arrived in Sydney. Haven't planned a lot yet. Will visit the blue mountains tomorrow by train and catch up with 2 professors from Sydney tonight. We will see an IMAX movie about Fighter Pilots in 3D.

It's quite a comfortly travel temperature here, not to warm and not too cold. But rain is expected on Friday.

I finally managed to change my flight ticket. I'll fly next Tuesday, Sept. 20, to Auckland. Hope to meet there some MLU members as well and see if they are as "crazy" as the Aussies too.

cu
Chris

Leaving the land of Oz
 

Bye mates

Well, the time has finally come and I'll leave Aussie tomorrow. Hope I woun't get a choppy flight, the weather hasn't been fine the last five days in Auckland.

I visited the 3 Sisters in the Blue Mountains. This was the best day during the whole week in terms of weather: warm & sunny. I was hiking 3 hours around the Blue Mountains in Katoomba. Although the sightseeing bustour was a rip off for 14 AUD.

I finally met Kevin and Austin again. They are 2 professors from the UTS in Sydney. We first met in Duxford in 2003, where I gave them a lift to the airfield.

Except of shopping and sightseeing around Sydney I haven't done a lot here. Time to move on...

But, no worries. I'll come back at the End of December to say goodbye and enjoy the Xmas Days with Max and his family!

Will write again from Auckland.

Cheers
Chris

Bay of Islands
 

Good Day from Auckland

Visited some days ago the Bay of Islands with about 144 stunning islands. Travelled the 90 Mile beach as well (actually it's only about 63 miles long) and went to the Lighthouse in Cape Reinga, nearly the far most Northern Point of NZ.

As a vehicle enthusiast I didn't miss the MOTAT in Auckland. Read my article here

So, will tomorrow further travel on to Thames and see the Coromandel area.

Greetings
Chris

... the Swiss are everywhere, even in Paihia (Bay of Islands)

chris downunder
 

Kia ora Chris, crikey youv'e been busy since you arrived here, enjoy the coromandel its a good area to look around, while your in this part of the country you want to hang around Tauranga as on the 29th of this month theres a Military Tattoo being held at the Tauranga Airport, details are sketchy at this time but there should be quite a turn out of MV's. anyway when your back in Auckland give us a yell and we'll catch up. cheers David....

skiing
 

Good Day

I'm back in Auckland for just today. I'll pick up a car so I'll be more independent in travelling.

Was skiing on Tuesday at Mt. Ruapehu. Unfortunately, I arrived a little bit late in the afternoon. So, the visibility was getting really bad. But it was fun skiing here in NZ. Although I have to say, a little bit easy tracks for a Swiss "battle-hardened" skiier ;-)

Will now drive down south. Hamilton, Matamata (visit the Lord of the Rings town called Hobbiton, Tauranga, Taupo etc.

cu
Chris

DUKW
 

Hi Guys

Just came back from a tour to the White Island. Awsome active ocean Volcano.

I've been enjoying my time here on the Northern Islands. Visited the caves in Waitamo, Hobbiton (Matamata), Tauranga, climbed Mount Marangui, stayed 4 nights in Rotorua (where I spotted this GMC DUKW, still commercially operating), and drove this morning to Whakatane.

cu
Chris

Wellington
 

Hi Mates

Well, today is my last day on the northern part of NZ. Will catch the ferry to Picton tomorrow. Have also to say goodbye to my white little Suzuki car, will get another one.

Wellywood isn't so windy like I'd expected. Nice and very hilly town but hard to find a public car park. And they're expensive too (NZD 4 per hour, max. 2 hours).

On the way down from Taupo I visited shortly Napier with it's Art Deco buildings, Hastings, Palmerston North and then Wellington.

If you'd like to see more pics:
http://photos.yahoo.com/christoph_zimmerli

cu
Chris

Steam engines
 

... visited the Tokomaru Steam Engines Museum the other day. It's a private collection.

This one is one of the biggest steam engines ever imported to NZ.

Leyland
 

... spotted in this steam museum this Leyland as well. Think around the 1920's. Does Uncle Keefy, the sage, have more details about it?

Southward
 

... another car museum visited on the way down to Wellywood: Southward Car Museum

The had had 6 Military Vehicles:
Ford GPW, German Kuebelwagen and NSU Kettenrad, Japanese 3-wheeler, Indian sidecar and even a Swiss Army Bike (Condor A580 from the fifties)

Chris, good to see you enjoying yourself. Since you left Yass the grass has realy grown, the best spring for many years, no more hand feeding the sheep. Within a week we will start cutting hay, one job finishes and another starts. If you run out of things to do in NZ we could train you in the process of carting the hay in.
Max

@Max

Thanx for your offer. I've got already some haying skills. Used to help my grandfather on his scrapyard. But this was some 20 years ago or so.

Well, haven't been well the last couple of days. After Walking 50 km of the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough sounds, I ruined my knee (still hurts) and catched a cold (fever etc.). Was most of the time lying in the bed. Hope to recover soon.

Greetings from Nelson
Chris

Carting hay
 

Best thing about carting hay is you get to drive a Blitz semi-trailer, or at least you will if Max finds some new wheels and tyres!

Loading and stacking bales of hay will also sort out your knee.

K

Christchurch
 

Morning mates

A short up to date of my travelling over the last few days. After Nelson I drove up to the most Northern Point of the South Island, Cape Farewell, spotted some NZ Fur Seals, did a catamaran sailing trip in Abel Tasman NP (wow, with stunning beautiful weather), drove down to the West Coast through Buller Gorge, spotted there my first CMP here in the wild (an old rusty one), passed Arthurs Pass to Christchurch, visited Banks Peninsula and I'm now back in Christchurch.

Will drive today to Mt. Cook. I've been still a little bit handicaped with my knee. Hopefully it gets better soon. Would love to do some hiking here, with all the awsome mountains.

cu
Chris

CMP in the Wild
 

That's the CMP I spotted in the Buller Gorge (where NZ's longest Swingbridge is).

More pics available on request.

back view

... and here's my new photo page:

flickr

Good Day Mates

After spending some beautiful days in Lake Tekapo & Mt. Cook with awsome sunsets, I drove through the Otago Country down to Dunedin, where I'm stayint the moment.

Will drive tomorrow down South direction Invercargrill. That's the place where Burt Munro (The worlds fastest Indian) lived. Stunning movie with Anthony Hopkins.

By the way, that's the steepest road in the Southern Hemisphere!

cu
Chris

Swing bridge
 

Hi Chris,
Good to see you found the CMP across the swing bridge, I found the same CMP 11 year ago almost to the day while on our honey- moom. I must admit that the bonnet (hood) catches from that CMP followed me all the way back to Australia & are now resting on my C15a.
Still enjoy reading about your adventures.
Euan.

Doubtful Sound
 

@ Euan
Glad to see that the CMP is still there and you didn't take everything back home to Aussie ;-) Would have liked to take the Chev brand badge/tag.

I spend an awsome weekend in Doubtful Sound. By the way, some kids cut a tyre in Invercargill, so it was flat and I had to pay for it (60 bucks). At the house next door, they cut 3 tyres! Stupid kids.

Back to the Doubtful Sound. Did an overnight tour on a small boat with another 4 people (2 couples). Brilliant weather and we even saw 3 whales! A tail of a big sperm whale and 2 humpback whales, a mother and her carve. the carve was jumping out of the water for about 20 min. Unbelievable, haven't thought to see
that here. These things happen usually only on TV. Then on the next morning we passed about 30 - 40 penguins. They were swimming with our boat. Fantastic. Think that was the best weekend in NZ.

After that I drove to Milfourd Sound. But too touristy, nice weather too. But much more shorter than Milford, although higher "mountains".

On Tuesday I drove about 5 hours from Milford Sound to Queenstown, where I'm at the moment. Shit, very expensive and only tourists. Woun't do anything special here. Go tomorrow to Glenorchy.

Here's my pic from the little whale jumping

Greetings from Queenstown
Chris

fishing
 

... by the way, I did some fishing too. It was very easy in Doubtful Sound. Just leave your fishing line down to the ground (50 - 70 m), wait some minutes, get it back and there's a fish on it.

Here's my first one.

More pics on flickr

Fish
 

Hi Chris

Hope you took the following items:

Scaling knife

filleting knife

chopsticks

a nice plate

Soy sauce

Wasabe

Mmmmmmmm