[internal] downdownunder in suspend mode

filed under organising by Florian

guess what…
as you may have recognized nothing has happened here during the last months – just due to the fact that both of us, jochen and me, are back to the upper side of earth.

the domain, the gallery and of course this blog will remain, and maybe you’ll be witness of its ressurrection one day. with a new design, a new idea and new content.

stay tuned!

cheers, flo & jochen

[internal] author changes

filed under germany organising by Florian

Due to the fact that my “mission tasmania” is definitely over with the end of february you probably won’t find any postings from me at this place any more. As I found a company for my diploma thesis at Bremen/Germany I’ll spend the next six months in the very north of Germany. Probably I will keep you up to date on my personal website or I will set up another blog or whatever – we’ll see.

Of course Jochen will continue posting ‘cause he finally made it to some more months downdownunder – lucky guy! ;-)

I've seen paradise...!

filed under tasmania trips by Jochen

Last weekend we did bushwalk #9. This time the road has led us to South East Cape where we did the eastern part of the South CoastTrack. The western part was closed because of bushfire :)

Man, if you think you have allread seen paradise… forget it! This is it! The walk itself wasn’t that hard, ok for me and Florian it was pure fun to climb the rocks on the coastline, although it was not that easy as it sounds cause sometimes your big backpack is a heavy duty for your balance. For Judit it was even harder and so Florian and I sometimes carried her backpack.
But after this rough track we reached “paradise” and we stayed there for one night! It was awesome, lying in the white sand on the beach under the starry sky and just listening to the sound of the waves clashing on the nearby cliff.

On the next day we went back, but not along the coastline. This time we took the track though the bush and above the steep coast, which offered us many other awesome lookouts. But before we hit the road we enjoyed the cool water and the waves of Surprise Beach where we stayed.

Finally there’s only one thing to say: “We have seen paradise!”

snowy weeks in Bremerhaven

filed under germany living by Florian

The winter has Germany unter control – a friend just told me he had to spend the night in his car due to lots of trucks that were blocking the frosted highway…

And yes, even in Bremerhaven we have some white powder. Not enough for a snowman but enough to feel like in winter. Greetz to Tassy by the way – I heard you enjoy the summer with temperatures around 30 degrees? ;-)

bushwalks #8 to Mt. Wellington - Silver Falls

filed under tasmania trips by Jochen

Originally we wanted to go to the Wellington Falls, but somehow (again: no map!) we picked up the wrong track and reached finally not the Wellington Falls, but the Silver Falls. They are not that big as the Wellington Falls, I guess, but it was a relaxed walk on this bloody hot day, and an awesome place to play a little bit with my camera ;)

bushwalks #7 to Mt. Wellington

filed under tasmania trips by Jochen

So, it’s time for a short update of you guys out there!

It was very quiet around here in Tasmania, so we all could get many of our work done. Flux worked on his thesis and I started to work on my German Carnival website faschingsfreunde.com what I should done a long time ago. But after 2 and a half weeks of doing “nothing” it was time to find new challenging adventures.

The first trip was up to the summit of Mt. Wellington, the mountain next to Hobart. Sounds like ordinary hiking, but it was hiking with a special twist, couse we started with a compas but no map. Ok, we had a map, but it was an overview of Hobart, with a little dot in the lower left that pointed the summit of Mt. Wellington. Not really helpful!

What I did was taking photographs of the maps on bigger junktions or resting areas. It was really funny, standing in the middle of nowhere and use the compas to make your camera point north ;)

We only got lost one time, which costs us 20 minutes walk back. Not very much if you consider that the whole tripe took 10 hour.

We saw many strange and weird things, like a tree that looks like it was bleeding, an ant that was 5cm long and of course the bushfirefields! (@Tanja: Told you so! ;))

After all it was a hard an awesome day….. more to come!

Hello World from Bremerhaven!

filed under germany living by Florian

The last three weeks flew by – now I’m sitting at my desk at the AWI in Bremerhaven with a high speed internet connection and enjoy the Tassy pics from the last 4 months (of course only after work *gg).

What a great time! These four months were the best I’ve ever had – a compact adventure of incredible nature, great hospitality and just nice people.

Greetings to the Jane gang, the AAD crew and – of course – Mondo’s Pizza (-> Roberto) ;-) I just heard from the news that the new airbus A-380 will be used first by Singapore airlines next year – a perfect opportunity to visit Tassy again!

Till then I wish all the best to all of you out there...

[the american gang] Shazza, Kristen, Allison, Chris ‘n Keith and of course Sara, James and Paul from the USS Polarstar
[the tassy crew] Bridget, Mondo’s, Chris Keen, Paul Turner, Kelly, Grace, Katherine
[the jane community] Danni, Food-the-Dude, Justin, Pagey, Stewy/Martin/Suzanne, Matthew, Paul, Linda, Rachael, Noddy, Ulli, Virginia ‘n Bruce, Sue, Libby, Mary, ...
[the austrian tiger] Stefan
[the aad team] Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave erm I mean Meredith, Bec, Ursula, Angela, Ben, Henk, Michael, Kim, Kate, Lee, the warehouse staff, the cafeteria staff

...and all that I forgot, sorry for that – Take care!

Now one of the first items on my todo list is to find a haircutter to fight with the result of 4 1/2 months of wild growing hair…
Next plans then are finishing my practical internship, finding a company for my diploma thesis and start looking for a job for September ‘05 – oh my god, my studies are almost over ;-)

Stay tuned & cu, Flo

Bushfires around Hobart

filed under tasmania events by Jochen

The fifth season in Tassy has begun, and I’m not talking about the Carneval Season like in Germany, although it’s very hot also.

The last few days we had very warm and windy weather here in Hobart, and the risk for bushfires jumped up from zero to 60% + . It was a little bit scary, when Dan came into my room and asked: “Hey, have you seen the bushfires?” and I sad “No, but I’m not in the mood to drive an hour to see one”. “No, just look out of your window!”
Well, in front of my window it a big tree, so it was hard to see anything. The only thing you could see was a small orange glowing between the leaves.
So we went up to the Horton-Media-Room, and from there you had free sight across the whole plain.
I took a few pictures. They are all at the same possition, but I played a little bit with the options of my camera. ;)

Here you can get more Information about the bushfire situation here in Tasmania.

New Years Eve - What a awesome night!

filed under party tasmania by Jochen

Florian and I had no clue what we were going to do on this years new years eve. Infact we knew a view options what we could do, but had no masterplan at all!
Fortunately a view days ago a group of 16 US girls arrived at Jane to spend there new years eve in Horbart (... and do some Studies ;)).
After the first view sentences it turned out, that they were as clueless as we were and so the girls asked us to join them and see what night brings.

We met at 9:30 PM and an awesome night began…

We went down to Salamanca Square straight into Knopwoods.
It was unbelievable! Rock ‘n roll all over salamaca and the harbour, even Davie Street was closed. I don’t know how many thousands of people where on the streets around the harbour in that night and it was absolutely impossible to cover these crowd on a picture.

After the first drinks the whole bunch headed for The Telegraph, which is from now on referd as the “Purple Bar”! We had a lot of fun in there, the drinks where cheap, and the music was really good.

But as allways the time was moving to fast and it was close to midnight when a guy, seemingly the son of the harbourmaster guided us to an awesome lookout where we all could enjoy the great fireworks of hobart-harbour.

After the awesome fireworks we went to the Isobar.
More Party, more dancing with live music, more…. more…. more…..
But inside the Isobar it was f****** hot and so a few of us decided to take a breathout outside, relax and enjoy the still warm temperatures. But the fun didn’t stop outside! There was a cool girl-fight, a pursuit with the police, sportive attractions, and partypeople as far as the eye can see!

.... as you can imagin, to many things have happended to write them all down.
Finally theres only one thing to say: “It was the most awesome new years eve I ever had in my life!”

pitstop Singapore airport

filed under organising trips by Florian

It’s hard but slowly I realize that Tassy is over now… The last four months have been one of the best I’ve ever had!
Now it’s time to prepare for the climate shock from currently 34 degrees (75% humidity) to 5 degrees in Frankfurt.

I’ll post again when I’m back home, now it’s time to enjoy Singapore airport for 9 hours.

Greetz to all, Flo ;-)

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