One Day in Taipei

On our flight from Brisbane to Vienna we get an 18-hour stop-over in Taiwan. Back in 2009 I lived and worked in Taipei for a couple of months and so I seize this opportunity to reconnect up with old friends after 14 years!  Tobi is a fantastic travel companion as it turns out and Taiwan…

🚂Steam Fair in Old Petrie Town🚂

It is an unusually grey weekend in Brisbane so let‘s go somewhere bright and colourful! We travel back in time to the days long before the digital revolution and even before the electronic age, back to when the world relied on steam engines to power travel, machinery and economic progress… what a fun day out!…

Town of 1770 and Agnes Water

The colder weather makes us seek warmer climates and so one Friday evening we head north 500km past Bundaberg (where Australia’s famous ginger beer comes from) through sugarcane fields, peanut plantations and cotton farms.  Town of 1770 got its name from Captain James Cook’s arrival that year, his first stop in Queensland allegedly. We are…

Scenic Rim Mountains Galore

We are heading south again into the Scenic Rim region. This time hiking Mt French, Mt May and the Lower Portals of Mt Barney. We are staying at Lake Maroon in a secluded “secret spot” as the caretaker of the campground is eager to point out. Surrounded by bush and with gorgeous views down to…

Farewell and see you again soon🙋

Time has flown by and it’s the end of an action-packed month. A month full of fun highlights and special moments with our special guest Uwe! From kangaroo goulash and Easter fireworks to the Sydney Opera House and baby swim classes, (U)we had it all;) During the last week, Uwe cooks delicious ribs for dinner…

Mt Tibrogargan⛰️

It‘s Uwe‘s penultimate day and we decide to go climb a mountain … now, there are not really any mountains in Queensland and so we opt for a hike up Mt Tibrogargan in the nearby Glass House Mountains. „This unusual hill was created by cooled magma that was forced up into the vents of a…

Scenic Rim Camping Roadtrip

Let’s make the most of our 4-day weekend and let’s go somewhere different, we think, browsing through eye-catching brochures from the Queensland Tourist Office. This is how we come up with our latest destination: the Scenic Rim is located just south-west of Brisbane, with an exciting mix of farms and rainforest, country pubs and historic…

Easter on Straddie

Just a couple of months ago, we have visited North Stradbroke Island for the first time and fell in love with it. Paradise on Brisbane’s doorstep🏝️ Hence, it is a no-brainer to come back here for Easter with our visitor Uwe. Watch koalas and kangaroos in the wild, swim in the crystal clear waters at Cylinder…

Mount Coot-Tha and Botanic Gardens

This weekend we take a tour around popular Mount Coot-Tha west of Brisbane. The extensive Botanic Gardens here are gorgeous and we even get to sample some kumquat fresh from the orchard🍊 Another highlight is of course the Japanese Garden and also making tambourine music in the forest 🎶 There are lotsa walks and hikes…

Visitor from Austria

Yippie – my cousin Uwe is visiting us in Australia for the first time and we are excited for a month of reunion, exploration and adventure! We kick it all off with a beautiful boardwalk through the mangroves and then go on property hunt the very next day. Third day is a visit to the…

Osprey House🦅Environment Centre

This half-day trip leads us to the shores of the nearby Pine River. We enjoy the boardwalks through the mangrove forest, bird hides and a viewing platform where we observe a enthralling catch of a fish by a resident osprey, diving right into the water after careful study of its surroundings … in front of…

Visiting a Taoist Temple🏯

When a big thunderstorm surprises us during an outing and we get on our way home sooner than expected, we decide to take a little detour to pay a visit to Ching Chung Taoist Temple, also known as the Evergreen Taoist Church of Australia, the largest Taoist place of worship in the Southern Hemisphere. It…

🏖️We found Paradise…

…and the very few photos don’t do it justice but I’ll try my best to describe our magnificent experience on this island 😉 Imagine perfect weather, perfect equipment, perfect company and time on your side – we don’t know it yet but we are on our way to paradise! A 45mins ferry ride from the…

Tweed Heads🧜‍♀️Summer Fun

Another long weekend, another adventure! This time, we are going south to the Gold Coast, visiting the twin cities of Coolangatta in QLD and Tweed Heads in NSW. Fun Fact: The border of the two states is also the timezone divide between AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) and AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) for half…

D’Aguilar National Park

D’Aguilar NP provides a serene getaway right on Brisbane’s doorstep. About 45mins drive from our home north of the city, we enter lush green forest and encounter exotic fauna. We’re staying in the park’s southern section for some walking, waterfalls and vistas, enjoy a BBQ and sleep in our rooftop tent for a couple of…

Boondall🦀Wetlands

It’s the summer holidays here in Australia and many businesses shut down for a bit so people get to enjoy life to the fullest, spend time with their loved ones, go out on adventures and simply relax. Having just come back from a year of parental leave and 4+ months travelling, we are not taking…

Reflection in between the years😇

It has become a habit to take note of what we’re grateful for every week during the year. We write it down on different coloured post-it notes as we progress through the year. These notes are collected in a jar and at the turn of the year we sit together, enjoying to take turns opening…

💫It’s beginning to look a lot like …

…tis the season but we are yet another year Down Under at Christmas and getting hot in the Sunshine State🌞 We’ve joined the Austrian Community for their monthly Stammtisch get together, made new friends and ate delicious Austrian specialities with the added bonus of authentic Christmas cookies – just like the real stuff back home…

🎅Austrian Nikolauskränzchen in Roma Street Park

In the spirit of Advent this Christmas season we are excited to join the Austrian community for a very special event – Nikolauskraenzchen. In Austria, we celebrate 👹Krampus and 🎅Nikolaus on 5th and 6th of December respectively. While Krampus is quite a scary creature that punishes naughty kids (and adults) with a chain or cane…

🌈Rainbow Beach🌈

And we are off – our first 3-day adventure weekend with our new rooftop tent – whoop whoop! We are going 2.5 hours north to Rainbow Beach and the Great Sandy National Park. What I find most exciting is that we get opportunities to swim not only in the salty waters of the Pacific Ocean…

Glass House Mountains

We can see the craggy peaks of the Glass House Mountains from Deception Bay where we live and so, one sunny morning we drive the 30mins up the road to get to these cluster of 13 hills. They are remnants of volcanic activity that occurred approximately 25–27 million years ago. Interesting vertical columns that formed…

Settling in Queensland

What do we have in common with the Bee Gees? They have grown up in Deception Bay, just where we live now … and Sir Barry Gibb, the oldest of the brothers, is apparently an avid fisherman just like Daniel 😉 Wow time flies – and it’s been one month already that we have moved…

We are back in Down Under…

…and on an adventure of a lifetime – throwing all our belongings into a campervan and going on a one-way roadtrip from Sydney to Brisbane.  An unforgettable 2 weeks of bush and beach, rain and shine, action and relax. Starting in Sydney, we drive up the Pacific Highway and then make a west-wards turn to…

WorldWideWanderlust Calling

I haven’t published any new posts here in a while and so I thought it’s time to type up a few lines.  Lots has been happening and our highlight was certainly the birth of our baby boy Tobias on 1st of October 2021!  It’s been a rollercoaster of a year to say the least, not…

Daintree🦋Rainforest

What an adventure – as we cross the Daintree River on the cable ferry, a light drizzle of rain starts accompanying us, the air is different – more moist somehow, the only sealed road which leads up to Cape Tribulation got a lot narrower and we certainly see less cars this side of the river….

Tropical North Queensland🐊

It’s the end of the rainy season in the north of Australia and so we’re curious to explore this tropical part of the country – where the rainforest meets the reef! We take an early morning flight from Sydney up to Cairns and rent a Jucy Crib Campervan to cruise around. We spend the first…

Hinterland New South Wales

This long Easter Weekend we go on a trip inland to explore roads less travelled🤠 We leave Sydney on the eve of Maundy Thursday, through the Blue Mountains and all the way to Lake Windamere where we camp for the night and fish for breakfast (to no avail)🤷‍♀️ After a pit stop in Mudgee (famous…

Australia’s Magnificent South West

Western Australia (WA) is huge, so huge in fact that, if it was a separate country, it would apparently be the world’s 10th-largest. Compared to Sydney’s busy vibe, very few people are around and we thoroughly enjoy the vast, pristine nature surrounding us. It’s the Indian Ocean on this side of Australia and no matter…

Adventures in Perth and Rottnest Island

Interstate borders are finally open again (for the time being anyways) and we need to make use of the flight vouchers we still got from the year before so we’re keen to go west this time, flying into beautifully sunny Perth! People are extremely welcoming and everyone we come across seems to be up for…

2020🍀Counting our Blessings

It is our second December in Australia, it is summer and it is the turn of the year. It’s a very special atmosphere Down Under when the kids have their long six-weeks holidays and many offices shut down for a few weeks during the so-called silly season. Excitement all around, relaxedness and the sense of…

Sydney Newtown

This weekend we explore a neighbourhood we haven‘t been to before: Newtown with its reputation for being the heart of Sydney’s alternative scene, neighbouring Enmore and St Peters plus Sydney Park Wetlands. We’re taking a bus from the centre and 25mins later we get off on King Street, the pulsating main street of the quarter….

Learning Dinghy🪢Sailing

This weekend we are extremely excited to join a sailing course! After a brief hello with our instructor and 4 peers, each of us sits in a boat the size of a nutshell (or so;) to leave the marina and then we learn a bit about the theory, feel the direction of the wind and…

Outback🦎Roadtrip

We’re heading north from the Flinders Ranges, the landscape getting rougher, harsher and the quietness is almost deafening, yet there is something in the serenity of this place. Unbelievable to think some of these settlements have once been lively cities with the Old Ghan Heritage Railway going right through places like Lyndhurst and Marree. This…

Flinders Ranges

Our first time into the outback – what a thrilling adventure – soaring heat making our heads spin, salt pans enlivening our imagination, flat tyre … well, careful what you wish for😅 We exit the highway about 200km north of Adelaide, leaving the coast behind and the landscape looks drier by the kilometre, the hot…

Adelaide and Around

We are keen to finally start using our flight vouchers (leftovers from cancelled trips back in April) as the first state opens its borders to Sydneysiders and decide to go on holidays – the first holiday flights since our trip to NZ in January. I almost need to convince Dan to book Adelaide, South Australia…

Mountain Biking🚴‍♀️Manly Dam

I’ve just bought a new second-hand bike on an online market place and as we’re headed into a sporty weekend with a 5-day gym&pool pass I remember the mountainbike trail up at Manly Dam 15mins pedalling away from our place – have always wanted to try it out but had not had the right bike…

Seal🏝Rocks

It is Labour Day in New South Wales this week so we seize the opportunity of the long weekend to go north and visit beautiful Seal Rocks for the first time. With amazing weather, we do lots of hikes in the area through pockets of littoral rainforest and especially the numerous boulder- and rock-scrambling passages…

Spring has sprung in Kangaroo Valley🌷

This weekend we finally make it to the place with the sounding name: Kangaroo Valley 🙂 Getting a free rental car upgrade made our day and on the Hume Highway we head south. Half way between Sydney and Canberra we leave the motorway and find ourselves in the middle of a green landscape with rolling…

Taronga Zoo Walks🐾

It’s a beautifully warm Sunday morning, apparently Father’s Day in Australia (upside down here?), and we’re on our way to the zoo, juhuu! About 10 months have passed since we were here and in the meantime the new “African Savannah” has opened and welcomes Lions, Zebras, Giraffes and others we didn’t get to see last…

Weekend away in Jervis Bay

After a couple of rainy long weekends we finally get some sunshine on our days off and can’t wait to get on a roadtrip again 😎 Being based at my kitchen table every day all day is starting to take its toll on me and cabin fever is kicking in a bit. A change of…

Embrace the Day!

I recently found below when looking for something encouraging to send a friend struggling to make sense of these unprecedented times we find ourselves in. It really resonates with me and thought I’d share here. 

Visiting the iconic Luna Park🎠

Luna Park is reopening its gates this weekend and offering all-inclusive tickets for an afternoon of fun 🙂  Great timing, we’re all in and start the day with a ferry ride from Manly to Circular Quay, walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with sweeping views and explore Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden before entering the iconic…

Afternoon Stroll at Berrys Bay

Every Sunday, we take advantage of the special fare, unlimited public transport ticket to explore Sydney and our surroundings 🙂 This time, after gifting ourselves with some trendy new sunglasses, we set out to Berrys Bay at Waverton in Northern Sydney.  An old Coal Loader has been revamped into a learning hub for sustainable living,…

Birthday Weekend🐨Port Stephens

Not only was it my birthday last Sunday, New South Wales also observes the Queen’s Birthday on the second Monday of June and so we enjoyed a long weekend off, drove to Port Stephens ~2hours north of Sydney for an adventurous getaway! Let me give you a picture tour of our tour 🙂  The weather…

Walking Maroubra to Botany Bay🐳

We’ve walked down from Bondi Beach to Maroubra before but never made it further than that so we decide it is perfect timing to explore more of that part of the coast in South Sydney and the Malabar Headlands National Park all the way to La Perouse at Botany Bay. On 29 April 1770, Botany…

Kuringai Chase Nationalpark

Kuringai Chase Nationalpark is at our doorstep at the top end of the Northern Beaches and so we take the opportunity to catch the ferry over from Palm Beach to Mackerel Beach from where we start our gorgeous 15km loop hike! Passing West Head Lookout we picnic at Flint&Steel Beach by the Hawkesbury River and…

Hiking the Northern Beaches Coastline🐬

Another marvellous weekend and we walk out the door with a backpack and big smile to discover more of the gorgeous coastline we inhabit. Colourful lorikeet accompany us along the cliff hike and we even observe a few dolphins swimming playfully in the bluer than blue waters below us. Thank you for the gifts to…

Get Outside and Connect with Nature this Earth Month💚

Today is Earth Day: https://www.earthday.org These unprecedented times of large-scale lockdown and quarantine around the globe have had an impact on my day-to-day and I’m hearing from friends that they feel the same way, too. If we are not careful and mindful, this situation can take its toll on our physical and mental health. Hence,…

Long Easter Weekend🐰💐🐣

“When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around.” … written by Sting and first released by The Police on their 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta. According to this motto, we are spending our Easter Weekend exploring the beautiful nature surrounding us where we live at Sydney’s Northern Beaches. What an adventure to discover hidden…

No more flights but lotsa walks☀️

The world has seemingly turned upside down since the WHO declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a pandemic on 12th of March 2020. Much about this novel virus is still unknown and it is an emotional, controversial topic to say the least. We are grateful for the work of essential workers and everyone else all over…