Elao 2011

   Perth is the capital city of Western Australia, with a population of almost 2 million people, and is famous for being the most isolated city in the world, completely surrounded by Australian nature: the Indian Ocean on one side and the Australian

  Straight up the coast today for the boys with nice little towns in-between and not much to report other than Andre’s internet connection came to an end and had to be renewed at Telstra and that the boys decided

  Team Lipstick is now in its final week of exploring Australia and the area south of Perth is ideal for winding down and driving short distances only along the beautiful southern coastline of Western Australia. Today the boys decided

   Team Lipstick decided to drive along the coastal route via Denmark and visit the giant Tingle trees along the way.     Denmark is a coastal town located on Wilson Inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia,

  Still feeling the effects of the Springboks winning the world cup rugby the boys decided to go south again to explore the coastline south of Perth – especially the wine area around Albany.   Before even reaching the wine

  One of the many Landmarks around this area in Western Australia are the ‘Wave Rocks” in Hyden. And the boys proceeded to drive through some 350km of wheat farms to the left and right of the roads and often

 The normal route from Cocklebiddy to Esperance would have been via Norseman but the boys decided to rather do a bid of a shortcut by going through some 4×4 territory…     The normal route    and the “short cut route

  Today the boys would drive through the well-known NullabarPlains.   The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is

A shorter drive today for the boys but before they headed along the coast line in a westerly direction they went to a tyre shop to have the rear wheels balanced .   The workshops in Birdsville and Marree of

Today the boys would actually cross their path coming down from Darwin by driving through Port Augusta again on the way to Port Lincoln.     Driving around the Spencer Gulf of Port Augusta today ……….     Another nice

  What better contrast to the sandy lands of the outbacks then going to the lush green areas of one of Australia’s biggest wine growing area – The Barossa Valley   But before taking off they had to visit the

The Birdsville Track is a notable outback road in Australia. The 517 kilometres  track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzelecki Desert, Sturt Stony Desert and Tirari Desert. Originally the track was of poor quality

  The boys were going to hit the real Australian outback today by driving south towards Birdsville but before doing so they had to find a place to repair Lipstick’s windscreen which was hit by a stone from one of

  Karumba is in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, 71 kilometres by road from Normanton Karumba is within the Shire of Carpentaria, the administrative headquarters of which is in Normanton. The town is sited at the mouth of the Norman River, and enjoys the distinction

  Having explored the beautiful coastal area from Adelaide right up to Cairns the boys decided to go back to the outbacks and cross over in a westerly direction from Cairns to Normanton.   Having discovered a small hole in

The boys booked out of the motel and headed further up north to Port Douglas.   On the way up they stopped at a Hartley’s   Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures is one of the longest continually operating tourist attractions in Australia.

  Another longer drive today for the boys along the coast of the Great barrier Reef towards the northern city of Cairns via Townsville.   Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. Townsville is Australia’s largest urban centre

  Today Team Lipstick pushed again for some more mileage along Australia’s sunshine coast with a lunchtime stop at Airlie Beach.   Airlie Beach, just north of Mackay and south of Townsville, is a coastal town of palm-fringed beaches, waterfront parks

Team Lipstick got some good advice from Andre’s cousin so today they headed off with a first stop at Noosa.   Noosa is an Australian resort area on southern Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Known for its heavy surf, Sunshine Beach is

Before heading on to Brisbane the boys decided to visit another highlight in Gold Coast   Q1 is a 322.5-metre (skyscraper in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. The residential tower on the Gold Coast lost its title as the world’s tallest residential building to the 337-metre The Marina Torch in Dubai on

  After a first stop at Yamba Beach the tour continued with the next stop planned for Byron Bay.     Byron Bay is a coastal town in the south-eastern Australian state of New South Wales. It’s a popular holiday

  Today the boys were facing a pleasant trip along the “Gold Coast” with its many beach towns and they planned to stay over at Coffs Harbour only to find out that there is absolutely no accommodation available due to

Early start for the boys today as they wanted to be in Sydney Centre before the other tourists would arrive.     Like with every other big City the drive into the city centre is always hectic and quiet nerve

Team Lipstick decided not to stay in Sydney but rather in one of the southern suburbs like Bankstown in order to avoid the heave traffic common with any big city as well as parking problems.   The boys decided to

First task of the day was to get to Northpoint Toyota in Northern Melbourne and on arrival they were greeted by Justin who works in the service department.   With a big smile he was waving the part which the

Out of Horsham soon driving through beautiful farmland before deciding to go more coastal and hitting the “Great Ocean Route”.   The road is considered a tourist attraction in the area,in which much of the road hugs coastline affectionately known

Out of Adelaide and climbing the mountains Lipstick was soon driving through beautiful farmland before deciding to go more coastal and hitting the “Great Ocean Route”.     After starting off in Adelaide to mountain range was soon reached and

First task of the day was to go to another Toyota garage in Adelaide in order to find out whether they could fix the leaking hose but again the boys were told that there is no spare hose available as

With a leaking compression pipe Lipstick now operates in “Limb mode meaning slow acceleration and top speeds not exceeding 120km/h….   Those symptoms will always manifest to some degree or another, but turbo control systems and computers can use any

   Uluru is one of Australia’s most recognisable natural landmarks. The  sandstone  formation stands 348 m high, rising 863 m above sea level with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 9.4 km Both Uluru and the nearby Tjuta

  As can be seen on the map above the distances in the Northern Territories are big between villages – but due to very good street condition and a manageable 130km/h max speed one can manage big distances in a

  Travellers in the Northern Territory of Australia will soon realise that there are huge distances between very few towns along “The Track”   Some places with names on the map are simple “Roadhouses “comprising of a supermarket, a petrol

The highlight of today’s trip was the crossing from the province of Western Australia into The “Northern Territory”   and this was not due to the time change  ( the boys had to move their watches 1.5 hours forward ) but

Today the boys tackled the famous Gibb River Road.    The road is a former cattle route that stretches in an east-west direction almost 660 kilometres  through the Kimberley between the towns of Derby and the Kununurra and Wyndham junction of the Great Northern Highway. It is

The road continued in its monotonous mode with flat bushy lands to the left and right and the temperatures rising to over 40 degrees C.     Of course, the boys made sure that Lipstick’s fuel tank is sufficiently full

A really early start today as the boys had a long stretch ahead of them so they were on the road from Billabong to Port Hedland by 6am and experienced sunrise over the horizon on the eastern side of the

First task of the Day was to get organised with Australian sim and data cards and the boys visited Telstra which was situated 2 blocks down from their hotel and opened up at 9am.   The procedure was fast and

Another road trip through farmlands and landscapes reminding the boys of the movie Lord of the rings and passing through another biggish city called Hamilton and from there it was only a short distance and `New Zealand’s capital Auckland was

With the great Springbok win still causing some disturbances in Team Lipstick’s heads they nevertheless hit the road towards Napier and Rotorua.     The first hour or 2 was spend driving north with the sea on the left and

Early start today again to be at the Ferry station by 8 am and the boys soon found themselves on this huge ferry carting cars, trucks and passengers from New Zealand’s South Island to the North Island with its 2nd

Team Lipstick hit the road in early morning still under wet and cold weather conditions  aiming to cross the South island towards the West Coast .   Despite the ridiculous speed limit of 100km/h the boys soon adjusted to the

Andre flew in yesterday from Dubai  ( 16h flight ) and booked himself in the airport hotel in Auckand  and Willy started in Zurich and flew via Singapore and Perth landing 5:30h this morning in Auckland.   It was freezing

Having driven through 5 of the bigger continents on earth it was just a matter of time for Team Lipstick to complete their world tour and explore the smallest of the 6 continents -AUSTRALIA.   The boys will start their