Two fellow travellers told us the following sentence about swimming in downunder: 'Always go with other people - the chance of a shark is catching you is reduced.' With those words in mind we start our first bathe in the waters of the Tasman Sea... Yes, we are still in Melbourne. The best is, that we're still staying with the same family.Christmas has been cold for australian conditions with 25 degrees. Colourful lights, waving santas and  rendeer in front of several houses attracting lots of people. Altough Chrismas Eve is 10 hrs earlier than usal we have a wonderful dinner: turkey with roast potatoes and pumpkin, asparagus... Different but delicious, too.On Christams Day we are invited for lunch and dinner to the family of our hosts. The warm temperatures make Chrismas totaly different from what we are used from home: people having BBQ, icecream and an very easygoing evening. No dresscodes. But the 'gift battle' is the same...

Days are going fast. We enjoy this time very much and spot our first typical australian animals: an Echidna and a tigersnake. We go swimming and canoeing along the Yarra River. Derek, Helen and their kids are really incredible: they help us wherever they can. Fixing diners, taking us to try out some golf and cricket, drive a long way to a nudist beach on the Mornington Peninsula and make us feel like home and very welcome. We have to say a big THANKS FOR ALL to our 'second family'!We spend the next days waiting: On the 28th we get informaion that the quarantine has another holiday and we have to wait for the bikes until the end of the year. We don't have much patience left. All in all we spend 15 days in Melbourne as we receive a call that our bikes should be pass through quaranine inspection on the 31st. What we need is good luck because the inspections are very strict, which means no dirt, no dust and no spiders on the bikes. Anything's possible after 37 days on the ship.The next morning we arrive 9a.m. At Schenker Australias warehouse. Here the inspection takes place. The customes clearance was already before Christmas. So the quarantine inspection's all that is left to get the bikes. With shaking knees we're standing in front of the reception desk.

The first contacts with Schenker Australia has been useless they are more friendly more now. Than the moment arrives: we see our bikes again! They are in very good condion but we can see DIRT. After half an hour the quarantine man arrives, has a look at our bikes and says 'all right mate'. Wow -this was easy! One hour later we start to fix our bikes in 35 degree heat in the companies carpark... All our Christmasas came at once.Later we hear that the quarantine inspector was a friend of somebody from Schenker. Thats why we passed through the inspection so easily. Otherwise we would have had to wait anoher week! Schenker also offers us free storage of our iron box frames for the next shipping to New Zealand. This opportunity saves us a lot of time and organisation. We are incredibly lucky as we climb on our motorbikes 3hrs later...With a broad smile on our faces we start our first leftside traffic experince over the 40 degrees hot highways of Melbourne in the direction of Eltham. The last night with our hosts is also the last of the year 2009. Because a thunderstorm is sweeping over Melbourne we're remaining at home and haveing a very calm start in the most exciding year ever...On January 1 2010 our 'real journey' starts . We are heading north-east: via Marysville, Lake Eildon and the Alpine NP before we want to reach Canberra and Sydney mid or late January.

 WAITING IS OVER! We’re on the road again!

Monique

We are sitting on this journey the fourth time in the airplane. We are looking back with a laughing and a crying eye. We will miss this friendly people and the beatiful landscape. But we are lucky that this caotic part is over.When we are back in Kuala Lumpur we have only one day for sightseeing. Around the KL tower is an old jungle located. We make just a short walk because there are lots of mosquitos. 

At the evening we receive very good news: we have a couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.org) for our first night in Melbourne. This is something special because we are arriving at midnight and our host has to wait long.We are very excited on the next day (15.12.2009) because we flying to Australia. 'Are the motorbikes ok? Does it work with our overnight stay?'  

We are doing the paperwork on the airport and it is the same like everything in Australia: easy. After that  we take a taxi to Paul, our host. He is around 50 and very friendly. He lives alone in a huge apartment and we can use his visitors bed. On the next day we remark the big eukalyptus trees at first. They are as common as the maple trees in Germany.  There are also a lot of other things which let us know that we are in 'downunder': the locks must be turned in the other direction, the sun goes over the north.

On the 17th Dec 2009 we call Schenker Melbourne at first. The communication on the telephone is hard but we understand that the bikes arrive tomorow. We are very happy but nobody can tell us when we can pick them up.We buy a mobilephone card in the city and go to the road traffic office. We are there 3 times and have to go for an translation of an german document. After that we get the permit for driving but the paper is very expensive for us. 

We have our second couchsurfing in Melbourne. We are staying here with Derek and his family and doing together a lot of things. We are very happy that we can celebrate Christmas with their families. They live in Etham, a suburb of Melbourne. Not far away from here were the big bushfires last February. In this fire around 200 people died .