we've found them

hi everybody

we are very very happy to say we've found two very very nice Israelis who didn''t have a "track competition" with us (which we always loose at...) and gave us the feeling that we are doing the right thing by not going with a "track list" and a "kotzim batachat" as it seems that all the others do...
we know we promised to start tracking but the weather here thought exactly the apposite and it was to dangerous to go to the mountains now so we've found ourselves in a beautiful town call oamaru. it used to be a gold mining town but when they didn't have any gold to fined they just left and everything is now as it used to be than. the buildings here are amazing, like Europe in the other end of the world. it's defiantly the perfect place to stay at when the rain just doesn't stop...
so we're in a great backpacker* which is in an old hotel and it is very worm and cosy and the Internet is free so what do we need more? yesterday we had a "yom shishi dinner" with the two nice Israelis (we think the lonely planet should write about them so other people can see them too) and one of them was (a very big surprise) udi, the one who travelled with davar in ozi. we met him when we went to see penguins last evening. well... we saw 3, one from really close, but we found one udi so it was worth it, and immediately we took him with us to dinner (did you know that from rice, eggplant, wine and meet you can make the best meal?).
so from here we're going south do Dunedin (all the Israelis here call it - dani din... i thought i started with that but then everybody say that, it's just the way the map says...) and hoping to see more sea animals because there are a lot of them in the otago peninsula (google that...) and when the rain will stop we can compit the other crazy Israelis.
shabat shalom lekulam. we're going to eat a shabat breakfast in an old bakery we've found yesterday (near the whiski and the wool factory...).
oh, and we were in the most beautiful botanic gardens, promise the pictures soon!
yalla by!
davar and gozal and the rain...

just keeping you informed, you polish mothers!!!

The following information is relevant only for our parents, and for those how like details, so if you aren't in one of these categories - you can skip this...

since we arrive NZ we have been staying at Suky's place in the Banks Peninsula, at Robinson Bay, Tizzard rd, and spent a lot of time in the nearest beautiful town Akaroa. you are more than welcome to 'google' these places.

Right now, we are in the big city - Christchurch, and hopefully, gonna leave on Friday to MT Cook, for our first self-trek, unless the weather will think different.

Today, in our first day in the city, and without suky's help, we managed to buy a station-wagon, and the needed gear for our trip!

So, after a long sub-way and a big Starbucks coffee, we found ourselves in a big library, trying to plan our trip here and shachaf's studding in Tlv...

in the mean, we are trying to avoid the huge amont of israelies that insist to tell us how great thier trip is, and how many treks they've already done. and believe us, this is not a very simple mision, when most of the car cellers called oded, netanel, eran and so on... and moreove, the car market is located in Asaf St!!!

so, form the farest israeli settlement, we wish you all the rain that gonna fall here on our new rain-pants!

saionara

davar aher ve uf gozal

As time goes by in the Kiwi* land

hi everybody,
i really like that thing that you all answer us the moment you got the mail. such good friends, really, this great love off yours gives us the energy to write more and especially reminds us what great friends waiting for us at home. and please - don't give us these bullshit about "we're busy and not all the world is around you guys and when we we're there you didn't write so now you know how it feels" because when you where here (or there...) we read everything so... let's not go under for the little ones, sababa? sababa!
any way - we know the Autumn is one month from us now (here, not there...) and that we suppose to be really nervous and start our big trip before we'll froze in the south, but we're having so much fun in Suky's* home that we just don't really care about the near future. this house is like a new-Zealand tzimmer, but a really good one, and we also get guiding about the native plants, history and Kiwi's* slang which are all in the same priority... we even understand now almost everything they say...
so yesterday we walked around the property and marked the territory with the dog (you know, a small little 100 acres...) and today we had a Little trip to a sleeping volcano right up the house and had an amazing look of the pacific ocean ('till now we saw only the Tasman sea which is in the other side of the island). now we're looking for a car that will make our life much easier but in the mean while we don't care to spend more time in our tzimer... pancakes in the morning and burgers at night and trips around the farm to the bay nearby.
we have nothing else to say, and we are pretty tired, so goodnight.
PS who is our prime minister...?
chao
shoosh and muki*

When two become one

Hi everybody, it's ofer...
now i know how it works - you pack your bag, you give a lot of thought to what you're going to take, how many pants and t-shirts, "should i take another one from this? and what if I'll get cold? isn't it summer there? i think i need to by more like this... but i don't have enough place for everything! fuck! and it's too heavy! fuck fuck fuck!". and then you come to hong kong and they solve it all by throwing half of you're stuff away. such good people in hong kong, you should go there too, send them my love... and if you see some hand lotion, tooth paste and a sunscreen - please bring them to me! they're mine! not the hong kong goverment's property, even if they tell you so!!! antishemim kulam ani omeret lachem, ma yesh? az yarinu al kama aravim, big dil (i know its 'deal'...) im hayu yorim til ehad al hong kong hem kvar hayu lokhim lekol haolam et hakrem yadaim , zonot! veod shel dr fisher leor ragish!
lucky me, i had a "havaya metakenet" with the new zealands which decided to go further, and open my big bag just to see i didn't bring any bacterias with me...
you can tell in Israel that the Hezbollah did his revenge - he sent the costume workers around the world against us!
but now I'm here, in this amazing 'hand-made' house, which every view from the window here is like a picture. so i don't have Dr fisher, but i have my Davar and that's what counts.
In the meantime, shachaf, so called davar, or shakof, had spent his last day in Aussie by himself in the big city. He found himself sitting in the Texas Hold'Em Poker's table in the Brisbane casino. and in two hours, while he was showing these amateurs some trick's from the EGPCA, his 100$ turned into 300$! Lucky Shachaf is back in business! tired and happy, he went home, for his bed, and in few hours, he was on the way to the airport, for the big event. and the rest has been said...
So now, we are in our relative's beatiful place, some of us is trying to plan the trip, and the others are trying to fix their jetleg..

hope to update you with some good news and amazing photos ASAP.
until then
may the shwartz be with you
goz&dav

!Always was, always will be - Aboriginal lands!

Hi there!
first some new photos, which i think you should look at after you read, or while.., on the following link, enjoy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shachafby/AustraliaEastCoast3?feat=directlink

since the last time i wrote, a lot had happened.. well, ya... as time is passing by, that what usually happens...
Brisbane, the big city, third after Sydney and Melbourne, which i had to figure what am i gonna do form Jan 18Th, the day we arrived there, till Feb13Th, my flight to NZ - about three weeks.
the first few days we, me, matan and udi, spent together, relaxing in the hostel, drinking beers in the brewery, saying goodbye to our van and exploring the city.
Then i moved t Juliana's place, which she is Eli's friend. she treated me excellent, while joining her lifestyle, an activist, organic, environmental - was very special for me. that included: organic food, few chocks on the garden, documentary film about the west bank + discussion, with humus at her friends. protesting with the Aborigines during Australia day, bicycle as the mine transportation device, and so on...
after joining the wwoof organization, i started looking for a farm for the next wo weeks. after two days I've found myself in a cattle farm, just me and Ian, his dog and a hundred cows herd. we had really good time together, gardening, axing, slashing grass and blackberries with the John Deer tractor that i missed so much from the ostrich farm in ein-gev. having mutual meals with some beer and wine.
on the weekend the family had joined us, and spent together the time ping0pong, horses riding, composting and relaxing.
after one week there, i had to move on, so i went to Ian's friends farm, for the rest of my time. an American/Australian couple with a Swedish guy, that used to sail together for may years, that decided to build up a farm. so that what we are doing! it is very interesting to be in a farm while its been built up, with no farmers. and more over when they don't really know how it is gonna look like. so me and three other Swedish wwoofers helping them. the place works only on solar energy, rain water and human effort!
after making them some eggplant with tehini (=thina)and making good coffee with their espresso machine, i got my spot here, and I'm having good time, thou, we are working pretty hard, but getting some benefits...

so here i am, until Thursday, enjoying my coffee...
can't wait to see Ofer and NZ..
miss you all.
really,
only here i can actually understand how lucky i am.
hope to hear from you soon

next mail will be from the southern island of NZ, so hold on!
shachaf (or shakof, or jakof, or jakob - the way my name been pronounce here..)

way does it always rain on me...?

i don't want to sound like a little girl, or like a poor boy that consider everything going around him self (like i usually do...), but i feel like this storm is chasing us;
we had rain everywhere, including the sunshine coast...! and its summer now. (and i don't want to hear all these talking about tropical weather..monsoons... - summer need to be sunny and clear!).
so, what i had so far(probably not all and not in the right timeline): ...
after the sailing we went north to cairns. saw the Australia movie, dived two times in the great barrier reef. woke up in the flood to our knees, and wanted to go north, but we just couldn't, so we tried south, but it was flooded too. so, after another night in cairns, and another on the highway, we managed some how to escape out from the storm. or at least we thought that we did..
so many strange animals lives here, beside those that we all know, so i wouldn't tell here about each one.
so we continued our way to the big city Brisbane, stopping here and there.
about all the adventures that going on here i will tell later, when i will have more time and upload the relevant photos...
for now, you can see some here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shachafby/EastCoast2?feat=directlink

soon i will be volunteering in a farm that i need to find, for the next three weeks until my flight to NZ.

so keep on touch, because most of you aren't showing much action in this blog, and don't tell me its boring... - you can make it not!!!
new ideas will be happily accepted

that all for now
i wish i could give you some of the rain that falling here... that not fair...

no worries
shachaf

The left side is the right side, and the right side is the wrong side

hello my dear friends...
the title of this letter is my main thing here, while you are driving, and believe me, it isn't as simple as it seems...
I got this moto thanks to uncle Phill (just an Aussie old man that we met in one of the hostel)
a lot of beer was drank since the last time I wrote here, so I'll try to do my best.
we are now three Israelis on our wicked van, since we met Udi in the koala's hospital in 'Port sheker kolshehu', and he joined us for the rest of our trip in the van.
I'll try not to use names of places that would say nothing for you,that you'll wonder if I'm still in Australia(that usually happens with letters from hutzla'aretz)
we are just heading north, hitting the gas paddle, while stopping in the best points, for a day or two, or even just for a '4/5$ domino's large pizza'(which is about 13 shekels!!! it's hard not to..)
We had three days in Byron bay, which brings many tourist to its wonderful beaches (and we got a ticket for camping on the street..).
then we went to Nimbin which is a very small Hippies town, and there I realized that hippie means someone that smokes drugs all his life!..and not just a happy and peaceful person..oh, one the way there we had rain that wouldn't be smaller than the Mabul Noah had with the Teiva!
Tweed Heads is a nice city that divided between the two 'states' New South Wales and Queensland, and the important thing is that on is using summer-clock, and the other not, so there is one street with two times zones!!
another two days in Noosa, that we built up Hakot for ourselves, and were fishing us a great dinner.
Fraser island is the biggest sand island in the world.
only with 4X4. we went for three days with four south koreanim, one Irish couple and us - three Israelis. (and that for its self was interesting...) it was great adventure for its difficult driving paths, hot plain sand, 80km/h high-way on the beach sand(only when its low-tide(?)(=shefel), sharks, rays, turtles, dingos, freeze bee, 'burgers in the storm' dinner - big times!
on our way north, we stopped in a city that famous by its Rum distillery - a smell that I just can't forget (maybe only when I eat my Domino's...)
I'm writing to you from Airlie Beach, after two days of sailing in the Whitsundays Islands! group of 74 amazing islands, with white sand, nice corals and colorful fishes!just relaxing on the yacht catching some tan (or rain...) snorkeling and beering(=a new word that i just made up (i think) for drinking beer).

that pretty much all for now..
we are continuing heading north till Cairns and some more.
hope the monsoons wouldn't make too much troubles..

i stil didn't decided what to do with my hairy stuff around my hear, so if you got any opinion - tell me
-shave it all /
-let it grow /
-only beard /
-only hair /
-only safam /
-all of the above...

last album that I've put:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shachafby/EastCoast1?feat=directlink
I'll put some more soon(bli neder..)

sorry for not replying for most of you

love you all
cheers mates
no worries

sha