(2015/02/19-20) … leaving Christchurch, as the rain has started when i boarded the airplane gave me a smile, not to had the last night in a tent with rain. After a while i spotted in the window on the mountain tops snow. Tops? Mount Cook! Franz-Joseph-Glacier! Fox Glacier! Jackpot, i got my flight over the mountains for “free”. I was really happy now, not to had my heli-flight and to enjoy the view from the airplane. Just a view moments laters, i saw Gillespies Beach where i spend one night before heading to Fanz-Joseph-Glacier.
The fact that my plane had tailwind, resulted in a 30 minutes earlier landing in Melbourne. I was prepared for a detailed bio-hazard (fruits, bugs, hiking equipment) check, immigration procedure and border control like i was used to New Zealand and the United States, but i got really disappointed. This was the fastest time i ever had arriving in a new country. From leaving the plane till i entered the foyer of arrivals, it just took about 20 minutes. Gogo wrote on his last email (with he prepared tent, steaks and cold beer) that he will pickup me at 9:15pm, so i had 30 minutes left to get my local prepaid SIM and a first drink waiting for him. After the pickup and a short drive to Melton, i was really welcomed by cold Franziskaner Weißbier, delicious steaks and an already setup tent. Heaven! 🙂 1000 Thanks to Gogo! Frank, an other tour participant was also in his backyard because the campground was fully booked out. The other participants will arrive in the next days.
The new timezone with 2h difference was very easy adopted and i had a very good sleep till almost 10am. Gogo explained a lot to me about the Yamaha XT and what kind of maintenance has to be done before these bikes are used for our tour Melbourne-Darwin. As i could sleep the nights in a tent in his backyard, i tried to help where it was possible. Now i’m able to change the wheels, tubes and the rims, because i had to do this several times. Of course it takes a bit longer then Gogo, but i can do this now in an acceptable time. Together the remaining bikes where checked, got ready for the next day. The smell of fuel, grease, rubber and kerosine underlined this day perfectly. Between the maintenance of the bikes Gogo picked up the last missing participants from the airport, who camped about 20km away from Melton and we will met them on Sunday, the 22nd February, for the first short trip with the bikes to get used to them.
Later in the afternoon Frank and me drove with the train to Melbourne todo some sightseeing there, but on arrival it started raining. First a few drops, but then as we continued walking to the river, it started raining cats and dogs and we hopped on the 35 tram, the Circle Tram which drives around in the city and gives you a good option to get around, for free!. For Free? They have a Free Tram Zone in the centre of Melbourne, which would be like if every line in Munich would be free if they are within the Altstadt-Ring (road around the Munich Oldtown). I really liked that idea. At about 7pm the WhiteNight (Music, Art and Dance festival) started and we tried to get to some spots, but sadly we only could do a view, because we had to catch the last train to Melton at 11:45pm. Thanks to Gogo again, that he picked up us at the train station there. In the meantime, Tobi, our helper for doing the motorbike maintenance was also arrived now…