The Last Chapter

This is my travel route from start to finish. Lots of criscossing is seems.
Being in Hawaii for three hours counts, right?

A blowup of Australia and New Zealand. Pretty good, eh?

For an interactive version see http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=map&go=s_gutkin I don't have all the place I visited on that site though, just the ones that look good on the map.

Since Vancouver I took the train to Edmonton through the rockies. It was a nice train, with a games and movies car along with a sky roof made of glass allowing for good views of the mountains. Along with a stop in Jasper it was the nicest and most luxurious travel I've ever done, despite the fact that it was coach-class and 23 hours long. Ariving in Edmonton gave me my first experience of winter this year. My family there claimed it wasn't cold when I arived but I begged to differ. I guess I'm just not climatized. Despite the cold I had a good time in Edmonton and saw a lot of family who took good care of me. By that I mean they fed me lots.

After four days in Edmonton I took the bus to Winnipeg, which took about 19 hours (the shortest bus yet!). I've never been to Saskatchewan, and although I know there is nothing there with endless miles of flat land, I was still surprised to just that. For six hours of the bus I was the only one on it. So I moved seats to one directly behind a movie screen, reclined my seat, and watched three movies that the driver played for me, all the while eating the massive amount of food that my aunt packed for me. All in all not a bad trip. Winnipeg itself was also nice. I stayed with my grandparents for five days who were very happy I was there. Again, I saw lots of family, and ate lots of food. It was perfect.

For the final leg of my journey I just couldn't bring myself to get on another bus, so I flew home to Toronto, four and a half months since I left. I have to say it's nice to be here. My own room, my own bed, my own dog, my own parents. Although I like being here, if I had more money I would pick up and fly out again. Southeast Asia is next on my list. Or maybe Europe. I think I caught the travel bug. I'm here in Toronto for a few months until I move to Maine again for the summer, teaching canoe and kayak to kids.

And that's it. There's no more to say. It's done. I can't believe four and half months went by, it seems like yesterday when I arived in Lima and drank my first pisco sour, swung in a hammock in the depths of the Amazon jungle, walked on floating islands in Lake Titicaca, roamed the salt flats of Bolivia, went skydiving in Australia and hiked glaciers in New Zealand. Looking back I realiaze that this was an incredible trip and a wonderful experience. The things I've learned and seen will stay with me for the rest of my life.

And finally a few last words about this blog. People have been telling me they've enjoyed reading it while folowing my travels. When I created it, that's what I had in mind. I wanted people to read it, post comments, and get jealous. But as I wrote it took on a different purpose. I began writing it for me. It became a personal journal of my journy. I wrote things that I wanted myself to remember, told jokes that I would laugh at myself, and wrote like no one was reading it. Every week or so I found an internet cafe or computer at a hostel and sat down for an hour and just wrote. I quickly wrote whatever came to my mind, not worrying about perfect grammer or spelling, as you can probably tell. I wrote as much as I could in the expensive time that I allotted myself. It is something that I can always look back on to remember and smile as the memories come back to life.

Now it's over, this will be my last posting. As my trip is over, so is this journal. If I kept up the blog, what will I write on now? How I watched TV for six hours straight? I don't think so. To those who read it, even for just a posting or two, thank you. I enjoyed writing it.

I will leave you with photos from the end part of my trip.

The Blue Mountains of Australia: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143945&l=1bb7c&id=58000349

San Francisco and Santa Cruz: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143952&l=79865&id=58000349

Crossing Canada: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143961&l=7d04e&id=58000349

And finally, the long awaited Milford Track: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143969&l=4a1f2&id=58000349

And Milford Sound of New Zealand, the most spectacular place on earth: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143973&l=b1cf6&id=58000349

Just a few more: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143978&l=1691d&id=58000349

The Land "Up Over"

Wow, the last time I posted was February 21. I've been a lot of places since then. Let me tell you all about it. By the way, there are updated pictures of Canberra and Sydney in my last post.

I left off last in Sydney. I was there for a week and I had enough of the city. So I took the train to the Blue Mountains, which is a national park only two hours out of Sydney. I stayed in a hostel in the town of Katoomba that's been converted from an old Art Deco mansion. It was big and luxurious, but at the same time people kind of kept to themselves in that environment. I had two full days there, and I didn't really meet anyone. Otherwise I did what I came there to do, which was hike through the mountain trails. On my first day I hiked for five hours, and on the second day I hiked for six. I loved it. It was beautiful scenery. Cliff-peaked mountains with rainforest valleys. It was spectacular. I saw the famous Three Sisters, decended the Giant Staircase, and got lost on top of a recent mud/land slide along the way. I flew back to North America the next day on a fifteen hour flight, plesently exhausted from the days before.

I said goodbye to the Australian continent and arived in San Francisco last week. While I was there I stayed for four days to see the city. It is a great place to see. I met a guy from Sydney at the hostel (of all places) and walked around with him for 2 days. My highlights were seeing the sea lions who took up residence at Peer 39, eating fresh clam chouder from a seafood vendor, climbing the street hills (including Lombard Street, San Francisco's crookedest street) and going to Alcatraz. On my last day it was Chinese New Years, where I attended the festival in North America's biggest chinatown, and got caught in the parade where it took me 2 hours to walk around to get home.

I was happy to leave San Francisco because of one thing. No more hostels! I've been staying in dorm rooms for months with mostly strangers. But now I'll be staying with family from here on in! About a month ago I decided to extend my trip by about three weeks to a month. Instead of flying from from San Francisco, I would take the bus and train home and see friends and family along the way. It's cheaper, and I don't have any reason not to.

I took a quick bus to Santa Cruz and met my Mom's cusin Wendy and Robert, and stayed with them for a night. They were so nice, and showed me around their pretty town. It reminded me of some of the cities along the East coast of Australia, like Coffs Harbour or Byron Bay. One of the best things was my own room. I haven't stayed in my own room for four months, except for a day in Lima, Peru. The whole day was great.

I left Santa Cruz, and departed on a 31-hour bus to Vancouver. Wow it was long. But it was so nice to step into Canada again after being gone since early November. My passport has filled out nicely. Vancouver is nice, its cold, and raining, but it's Canada, and it's worth it. I'm staying with my Dad's cousin Ron and Patti. They're taking me in for three days. Once again I find myself being spoiled with food, free internet and my own room. They're so nice and excited to have me here.

I stay here for one more day and then take the train to Edmonton to stay with the Muscats, aunt, uncle and cousins. I'm very excited to see them all again. I'm also looking forward to the train through the Rockies although it's a 23-hour ride. If I can do a 31-hour bus, a 23-hour train should be easy.

All my pictures should be updated in my next post, so hang tight. And it wont be another two weeks until I post again, I promise.

Australia South

G'day
Once again I'm in Australia. I know my trip is starting to wind down when I start backtracking to my original destination. I started in Melbourne. I've already seen the city but I met some people there, so we walked around for a long time. I saw some things that I didn't see the first time, like the Royal Botanic Gardens, so it was well worth it to see see the city again. When I was done with Melbourne I had to eventually get to Sydney where my flight departs from. However, Canberra was on the way so I made a stopover. I wanted to see Canberra since I first arived in Australia, so I took my chance when I got it. Canberra is an interesting City. It was founded by an act of parliament to make it Australia's perminant capital. It's also its own territory, making it independant of the state of New South Whales. It is actually a city-state, one of only a small handfull in the world. I even studied it in my Geography World Cities class in university. The whole thing was designed by an American. All the streets, parks, government buildings, and even the lake is all new. The city began in the mid-1900s.

I took a 10 hour night bus and arived bright and early in the morning. I was surprised by what I saw. The road system has a circular design. And the different circles in the different parts of the city are connected by a main street. Its very confusing becasue most roads travel in every possible direction, so if you are walking on a street you can be walking north, east, southeast, northwest, and so on. Its quite confusing to get around.

But despite this I did eventually make it to the parliament building after hours of getting lost. I guess I could have took a bus, but, oh well. I loved this building. It was just built and finished only a few years ago, and the final cost was a whopping ONE BILLION dollars. Wow. The first thing I noticed is that it is built into the Capital Hill. I literally walked on top of it covered in grass. The explanation for this is that parliament shouln't be above the people. The people should be abover their elected servants, so the building is actually underground. However there are massive polls above the building waiving an enormous Australian flag that can be seen from the entire city. I went inside for a tour. The building is huge and awesome. Marble floors and pillers in the reception hall, big open spaces for the upper and lower houses, great natural lighting (for being underground), statues of the Queen, a large cafe, a Great Hall, everything you could want. It looks like it cost a billion dollars. Outside the building was another of those main connecting streets. You can see a perfect line connecting the parliament, down a large feild with flags, joining the old parliament building, across the lake, continuing on the other side with a large street leading to the massive War Memorial building/museum (which I also went to). This row goes all the way accross the city, yet from both ends you can see the perfect line connecting the buildings.

All in all, my impression of Canberra is that it looks fake. Not becasue everything is the National this or the Royal that, but the city as a whole just looks fake. Becasue it's designed and everything is new, even the lake it's built around. But don't get me wrong, fake is not a bad thing. It's a very interesting thing. I've never seen a city quite like it.

Later that night I heard music. I followed it and found myself at a Latin festival. There was music, and international food and drink, and it was great. I met this girl who was wearing the exact same Joyride Bolivia tshirt that I was wearing, so Ihung out with her and her friends, who had connections with some of the bands. So I wnt into one of the pubs and starting drinking with the bands. It was great fun. I had a long discussion with this one musician about some of the differences between Canadian and Australian politics. Afterwards around 1 am the band left, so I went outside and there was some amazing regge music going on (yes I know, at a Latin festival haha). So I stayed there for another cupple hours, by myself but in a croud. It was so good. I was told that Canberra was usually a very dull city, and I picked the only day of the year when it came alive.

So now I'm in Sydney. I witnessed yet another event here that was just lucky. Just yesterday, I heard on the news that the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 were going to meet in Sydney Harbour, meeting in the same city for the first time since 1939 when they delivered troups for WWII. The Queen Mary 2 is the largest cruise ship in the world and the Elizibeth 2 is her sister ship. So this is Royal history here. I wandered on down to the Opera House at the harbour and found a good spot among the estimated tens of thousands of people. The Mary 2 was so big it couldn't fit under the Harbour Bridge. I saw the Elizibeth 2 cruise in and give three loud honks to Mary 2. There were cheers, and then there were fireworks marking the occasion. People were crazy about it, the Sydneysiders were so excited that this was happening in their city. I was just there for some free entertainment.

So that's it, now you're up to speed. I'm in Sydney for a few more days and then a detour to the Blue Mountains. See ya there.

P.S. I can't seem to upload pictures from the Milford Sound, but I know what the problem is, so I'll post them when I get to a home computer and I have some time. Here's some late pictures of the south of New Zealand and Christchuch.

http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125020&l=ec431&id=58000349
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125021&l=a6847&id=58000349

UPDATE! Canberra and Sydney links are uploaded:
Canberra: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125251&l=03841&id=58000349
Sydney: http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126134&l=d18a4&id=58000349

Final Thoughts on New Zealand

Kia Ora
My trip in New Zealand has ended and now I'm back in Australia, this time going from Melbourne to Sydney with a stop in the capital, Canberra. I want to take this opertunity to reflect a little on my time in New Zealand, what I liked the most and what I found interesting.

Firstly I want to start off with Kiwi history. To begin with, there are no indigenous mammals in New Zealand. None at all. Well, almost none. There are indigenous bats and whales, but no land mammals. Not even people. This makes for very beautiful and unspoiled scenery. I've noticed that the birds come right up to people with no fear. I suspect they are missing the evelutionary instinct that people are bad. Having no people there makes for a very short history. The Mauri People first came to New Zealand from some pacific islands 1000 years ago. The British came about 300 years ago, and there was no anaihalation or assimilation attempts of the native people, as there has been in Canada, the USA and Australia. I found this very interesting. The main fighting was between Mauri tribes. So as the history goes, the Mauri officially handed over governence over to the British, peacefully. Who owns the land however, is debatable. I rahter like how the Mauri and European Kiwis live together, peacefully, with equal rights all around. You can't say that for Canada or Australia.

Another thing I like is that in New Zealand, there are two species of possum: round and flat. The possum was an Australian import and has grown in population somewhere in the high 100,000s. They are destroying the native forests at a rapid pace. It is not only acceptible to kill them or run them over on sight, but it is expected that you do. The roads are littered with the flat possum type. There is a dead possum culture here. Stores sell the furs, people sell the meat. And animal rights groups have no objections. The possums were never supposed to be here in the first place. I did my part in solving the possum problem, I ate one! I ate a possum pie, also known as headlight delight. It was good, it tasted like dark meat of chicken.

Talking about culture, I want to say something about the cafe culture. This is something totally foreign to us Canadians with our Starbucks and Second Cup domination of the market. In New Zealand, and Australia too to a lesser extent, there is a wonderful cafe scene in all the cities. The cafes all independantly owned too. They are plentiful and fill the streets. The service is friendly and the servers take pride in their coffee. You can sit there all day, and you will never be asked to leave. One thing I like are the coffee types. They have all these original types, such as flat white and long black. I had to learn what they all were. And most importantly, the coffee is amazing. They have good food too, but I can't say enough about the coffee. Each cup is individually ground when ordered. That makes it so fresh. They wouldn't dream of using a percolator and letting coffee sit until ordered. Starbucks just doesn't do it like that. Even McDonalds has dove into the market. Every McDonalds has a McCafe attached. They have all the coffees, and tasty treats to go with them. Even their coffee is very good too. I would sooner go to a McCafe than to Starbucks.

Lastly, I want to say a little about the city of Christchurch. It was originally colonized to defend against non-existant french colonization rumours. But England didn't want juat another colony. They wanted a London of the south. Instead of bars and pubs there are churches and cathedrals. All streets have English names and all buildings have English architecture. It has a very upper class feel to it. And it is also very beautiful. It really does feel like London although I've never been there. I enjoyed my time there although it wasn't very long.

So those are my final thoughts on that wonderful country. It's beauty stunned me and the people were so nice. There's nothing I can say thats bad about it. Everything I've done was well worth it and the magnificent scenes and landscapes are in my memory forever.

I will write next from one of the only city-states in the world, the capital of Australia, Canberra. I'm looking forward to it becasue it was just built in the 1900's with the purpose of being the capital. I'll tell you more about it when I get there.

Kia ora (Mauri for hello, goodbye, good health and safe travels. A very cool word)

(Pictures to come soon...)

The South

It's been a while since I've posted last and I've seen a lot. I've seen magnificent structures and geological phenomenons. I'll start where I left off, ariving into Queenstown. This is a city set in the mountains with a view over the lake. Historically it's called Queenstown because it has views fit for the Queen. It is known as New Zealand's tourism capital, but I didn't do anything it offered, such as bungy jump, skydive, paraglide, parasail, luge down a mountain or anything else death defying like that. Instead we went to the town of Te Aneu and stayed there for a few nights becasue it is close to the world famous (or at least New Zealand famous) Milford Sound. The first day there we did a day walk on the Milford Track. People come from all over the world to do this four-day hike. I desperatly wanted to do it too, so way back in October I tried booking it. Little did I know that this is the most highly regulated hike in the world, and it was booked through March '07. So needless to say I did not walk the whole thing, just about 10 kilometres of it plus a stray off the beaten track. It was good, but not all that great. I've done better things in New Zealand. The forest though did look like it came out of the Lord of the Rings. It probably did. It looked like some of those trees could just get up and walk away.

But the next day was the best day. We went to Milford Sound. Most people go on a large cruise ship through the sound that holds 200 people. But I didn't. I did things right. I found this little diving company that takes divers and non-divers into the sound on a very small, eight person boat. It was personable, friendly, there were two guides on board, and the little boat could go where the big ships couldn't. It was spectacular. As of right now I'm even debating with myself if I should even write about it becasue I wouldn't know where to start. But the photo thingy doesn't seem to be working right now so I'll try: There is finger of the ocean called Milford Sound, and on either side of the narrow sound are enormous cliffs with snow glacier-topped mountains. Some of the cliffs are bare but some of them have outward growth, making it seem like a verticval forest when looking straight up. There are also waterfalls coming down the cliffs from hundreds of metres high, dwarfing Niagra Falls in size. It was a perfectly sunny day, allowing us to see the tops of the cliffs. However on the down side, there was no rain to fuel the waterfalls. I'm told that sometimes the entire cliffs from end to end are flowing with water making for a magnificent sight. I saw the second-largest waterfall in the world, or it would be, if it was continuous. But I did see the largest rock cliff in the world that comes from the sea. It was almost 1800 metres high if memory serves. Generally the whole thing was out of this world.

And because I went on a diving boat, I got to go snorkeling! I was the only snorkeler in the whole sound that day. It was pretty good too. The interesting thing about it is that the top layer of the water is fresh due to the waterfalls. About a metre deep it turns into saltwater. Inbetween there is a layer of alge making vision blurry. So to see anything I had to dive down through to the saltwater. It was fun. And cold. The water was 14 degrees celcius, so I was dressed in a full body wetsuit. And since the suit floats, diving weights were straped to me to enable me to dive. The whole thing was a fun experience. I saw loads of fish and coral, and I even saw rare black coral. Usually black coral lives 100 metres deep in the ocean, but at Milford it lives at about 30. But there was one spot where it was six metres down, and it was there that I dove to see it. I was the only person in the world that day who saw black coral while snorkeling.

After we were done with Queenstown Stephanie left for Rotorua becasue she'll be going to school here on exchange. I went in my own direction to Dunedin. Dunedin is a fairly large city, setteled by Scotish. I enjoyed my time there, although it wasnt all that special. Mostly I met some good people and went out at night for drinks. I also went to a very large and free museum. It was very good, but it seemed like I was the only one there. I went to the "Animal Attic" display, and I found there thousands of species of stuffed animals. And they were all real. Many types of insects, fish, reptiles, birds, and mamals, inluding kangaroos, wolves, bears, monkeys, and tigers. And it was so erie becasue I was the only living thing there from the time I arived to the time I left, about 30 minutes later. Thousands of species, and just me to look at them. It was such a weird feeling that I don't wand to experience again.

After Dunedin I went to Lake Tekapo where I stopped on the way to run up the steepest street in the world, as listed by the Guiness Book of World Records. It was pouring rain and I had to take my shoes off or I would slip down the street. It was all good fun. We later stopped again to view boulders. They were apperently some sort of geological phenomenon becasue they were only boulders in the world to be perfectly spherical. It was kinda neat seeing them on the beach. Ariving in Tekapo, I was only planning on staying one night but it was so beautiful in that town of 300 people. It was on a glacier-filled lake and emmited a bright blue colour. I wanted to do some hikes so I booked myself there for another night at this amazing lodge I was staying at. So the next morning I did a great 3-hour hike up Mt. John with good views of the lake, the town, and other mountains.

On my way back I almost made it to my lodge and just then the one of the weirdest things in my life happened. By pure coincidence and luck, I saw two people walking up to me whom I traveled with in Peru. It was Tim and Suzie, and they were just as shocked to see me. I think the first thing I said to them was 'Am I dreaming?' They were just about to walk up the mountain too. It was so strange seeing them there. I didn't even know that they were in New Zealand let alone in a town of 300 people. So I let them do thier hike up the mountain and when they got back down we spent the day together catching up. It was really cool. It's nice to see people when you thought you may never even see them again.

So thats about it up to now. I'm In Christchurch for another two days and then I fly back to Australia for two weeks. I'll write again from Melbourne where hopefully I can post the photos of Milford Sound. Till then...

Middle Earth

Middle Earth - Or could it be a whole different world all together? I've seen things that could make me believe it. Starting from the ferry that took me to the south island, everthing has been out of this world. From high mountains to low plains, pristine lakes to crashing ocean waves, to rainforest and glacier together. I've been from national park to national park. I think the entirety of New Zealand is just one big national park. I've seen it all, and still I will see more in the coming days.

Stephanie and I started west from Picton in the north, and then down south from there. Right away we did a day cruise and a six hour walk in the Able Tasman National Park. This was beauty at its best. It was an easy walk that took us along the coast, but accross the coast were spectacular views of mountains, and valleys. Also it was low tide when we walked, so we took shortcuts along the ocean floor, and sometimes waddling through waist-deep water reserves left over from the high tide. The beaches are famous for thie gold colour. I wish I could take some of the sand home. It was a great little walk.

Later we went onto Greymouth, a tiny little town on the coast. There we went to the Monteiths brewery where we had a tour, sampled their beer, poured our own and drank as much as we could in 20 minutes. Then we went to a bar for all you can eat bbq and a pint. This whole deal was $20. That was Greymouth.

Well, not quite. Near Greymouth we went to this park with pancake rocks and blow holes. It's a remarkable rock formation in the ocean where the rocks look like a stack of pancakes. And there are large holes in some of them, so when the tide is high, the ocean waves go under the rocks and through the holes, sending the water high into the air. The tide was a little low when I was there, but I still cought some good spurts.

And now, my favourite part of New Zealand thus far: The Franz Joseph Glacier. This was amazing. We hiked up this huge block of ice with an experienced guide. Most of the patch was carved out into make-shift stairs, so it wasen't all that hard. The ice was incredible. A rich blue colour. Also, the glacier actually cuts through the rainforest so it offered remarkable views of forest and waterfalls from the top. Our guide decided our group was a little more experienced and adventurous than the rest so he took us on his own path. He took us up and down and all around. The best part was through this very thin crevice that I could barely fit through. I couldn't even put one fut infront of the other so I shuffeled along the whole way. And it looked pretty dangerous too, with one wrong slip on the ice and you can fall 20 feet. All in all it was amazing and an incredible experience.

The only bad part of all this spectacular adventures is when we do stop the bus for lookouts and great views, they only seem adequate when compared to what I've seen. They just do do much for me anymore. I've been desencitized to beauty.

I want to say something about the roads here. I understand that its the mountains and there's lots of lakes and rivers, but these roads are dangerous! In all of rural New Zealand (about 95% of it) there are no two-lane bridges. It's all narrow one lanes, going in both directions. Usually this doesnt pose any problems, ans there are signs giving one direction the right of way. But other times, well, here's some examples. This one is called the can opener. Ie, the bridge is the opener, and the bus is the can. On either side of the bridge is rock cliff, and there are high steel beams outlining the dimensions of the bridge. So the driver needed the passengers' help in directing the bus into an extremely narrow opening and exit. Another is the longest one-lane bridge in the southern hemispheare. On most days, however, it's too foggy to see the other side, so drivers don't know if anyone else is coming. Good thing there's a small sholder half way along the bridge to pull over. Another one-lane bridge goes around a bend, so once again, you can't see the other side. So there's a mirror placed on the rail that is used to see oncoming traffic. I guess it works, I haven't heard of any accidents yet. Now listen to this one: This one-lane two-way bridge shares it's space with the rail tracks. We arived and a train was actually going accross it. W waited for it to pass, and then went onto it ourselves, driving along the tracks behind the train. I never thought I would ever see that one. And finally, my favourite is not even a bridge at all, but it is still one-lane. It's on a cliff, but dug into the side of the cliff, like a half-tunnel. It's great becasue it's so narrow that it can barelly fit even one vehicle. And it floods every so often becasue it wasn't built high enough above the river it drives directly overtop. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed traveling on them.

Here's the photos: Just copy and paste.

http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116908&l=00f08&id=58000349

http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116910&l=f8ef5&id=58000349

On to Wellington

I write to you as I am about to leave the North Island. I've had a wonderful time here. Amazing sights, some good weather and some bad, and even a few disappointments.

I'll start when Stephanie and I left Rotorua. On our way out we stopped at Wai O Tapu, a geothermal reserve. We saw some boiling mud back in the city but here there was more. A lot more. We walked along a path through the park for two hours and saw water of every colour, blue, green, red, yellow, and of all temperatures, sometimes even boiling. And of course there were small mud volcanos spewing more mud metres into the air. Sometimes the steam was so thick I couldn't even see. Other times I the caverns and caves were so deem I couldnt even see the mud at the bottom. I could only hear it boil. It was a great walk. The only bad thing about it was the smell of sulfer. It was strong beyond belief. I smelt like sulfur for days. All my clothes have a stench. I even washed everything and I can still smell it. Yum.

Like I mentioned before I've had a major disappointment. We stayed in Taupo for a few days so we could walk the famous Tongariro Cossing, the self proclaimed "New Zealand's greatest one day hike," which really says a lot. That morning we woke up at 5 am to catch the shuttle bus at 6. We were on our way and about 30 minutes later the driver gets a call saying that the road ahead was closed due to a major accident. And that was the only road out there, so the bus turned aound and went home. So Stephanie and I decided to extend our stay and try again tomorrow. However the shuttle busses wouldnt drive due to bad weather, making it not safe to walk the crossing. And the forcast predicted rain all week. So instead of waiting around doing nothing we left for Wellington. We are (especially me) truely disappointed. Oh well, there will be other magnificent hikes to do.

On a lighter note, we arived in Wellington three days ago. As it turns out, my friend's Carly's parents are here for the summer (your winter). I haven't seen them in years but nontheless they were more than happy to spend the day with us an show us around the city. Rick and Julie took us all around. We walked up a bunch of stairs, took in great views of Wellington, walked back down through the botanical gardens, toured the city centre, and saw the government buildings and parliament. Rick actually works in the old government building built in the 1800's, so we had special access to it when it was closed. It was a very cool building in that it is completely built of wood, although I could have sworn the outside was limestone. Later that day the even took us for dinner at the Green Parrot, an institution here in Wellington. That filled my steak needs nicely.

The next day we woke up and went to the Te Papa museum, New Zealand's national museum. It was a hands on type of place, much like the Ontario Science Centre. There was a bungy jump simulator (which I didn't do) and an earthquake simulator (which I did do), and other electronic games and technology that expressed New Zealand's history, culture, and unique animal life.

For dinner I called Rick and Julie and they invited us out for dinner again. They're such nice people! This time we had some delicious authentic Indian. Delicious. It was nice to finally to see people I know. Maybe it even makes me a little homesick. Oh well, March isn't that far away.

See the pictures of Wai O Tapu and Wellington at
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113834&l=9ce55&id=58000349
and
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113840&l=c607e&id=58000349

Tomorrow we take a three hour ferry to the south island. The next day we go to Abel Tasman National Park for a cruise and a day hike. We are very excited becasue we have heard such great things. I'll tell you all about it in my next post. Thats it for now, see ya in the south.

Auckland to Rotorua Part Two

Last I left off was at the hot water beach in Whitianga. I'll continue my last posting from there. Near the beach was Cathedral Cove. We walked along a trail for 45 minutes to get there, and on that trail we could see way out into the ocean looking at magnificent lava-formed islands and cliffs. The beach at the end of the trail was very similar. Cliffs, archways, caves, and islands all formed by lava and lava flows. The water was nice if not a little cold, but there was one island that we could jump from at about 3 metres high. That whole day we spent there was loads of fun.

After Whitianga we spent a day on the Magic bus that took us around the central north island and we got see all sorts of trees and hills and sheep. They say that the sheep outnumber the people here 30-1. The highlight of that day was our stop in Waitomo where there is a vast network of caves. We went "black water rafting." Basically all that is is floating down the caves in inner tubes in pure darkness or with our headlams on. The caves were magnificent but I was a little disapointed that there werent any rapids like I was led to believe. There was a small drop however and a 20 foot steep water slide. The best part of the caves were the glow worms. There were billions of glowworms that lined the ceilings of the caves. As we floated down a river 60 metres below the earth's surface in pitch darkness we were in awe looking at the strong blue/green light illuminating from glow worm shit. It looked like a sky full of stars.

Now we are Rotorua, one of the tourism capitals of New Zealand. That is becasue of the geothermal activity of the city. And of course the whole city stinks. Sulfur. Yum. Yesterday was my birthday. Going out with those friends I mentioned in my last posting is what I consider my true celebration. On my actual birthday we took it easy, walked around the city and had a few drinks at night. However I was born on the 22nd, New Zealand's 22nd is not the day that I was born. At the time I was born in Canada, it's actually the 23rd here. So I have to celebrate both days just to be safe. So, today we went to Hell's Gate spas. They have crazy geothermal activity there, with loads of natural boiling water, mud, and sulfuric acid that will burn your skin right off. There was even a 10 foot mud volcano that was spewing lava. We were lucky to see that. The highlight of course was our hot mud bath, the first time I have ever had one. Then we went into the geothermal pool at about 41 degrees celcius. After my cold shower I had the smoothest skin in the world.

See all these pictures at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111565&l=b6431&id=58000349
and
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111585&l=28801&id=58000349

Tomorrow it's back on the magic bus and off to Taupo where we do the Tongariro Crossing, an awesome eight hour hike. I'll let you know all about it in a few days.
Thats all for now, till next time.

Auckland to Rotorua

So much has happened since I last wrote. Where do I begin? Ah yes, I'll start with the Bay of Islands. We departed Auckland for the north and stayed in Paihia for two nights. It is a nice little town with magnificent views over the ocean. But the best part was out day trip up to the northernmost point in New Zealand, Cape Reinga. You can even see a picture of me being the northernmost person in the country. At the very peak is the lighthouse which is just about as far north as you can go. The views from the top of the hill are spectacular. You can see both coasts of NZ, with great rock formations on either side. A nice long beach on the west is also nice to look at. The greatest part was that we could actually see the line where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The Tasman is green and the Pacific is blue in colour. Looking north from the cape the deviding line is visible. Its a great sight. On our way back to Paihia our bus took us to some sand dunes to go sandboarding. I was so excited because I also went sandboarding in Peru and that was a blast. The bus took us through the bottom of the dunes literally through a small river. We stayed there a good hour climbing and sliding down the dunes at top speed. Great fun. As we left the dunes we drove down the famous 90 mile beach (which is actually only 64 miles, but 64 mile beach just doesnt sound as cool). We stopped for about 30 minutes over the hour that we drove on it. It's a magnificent beach that seems to have no end. There were also thousands of clams that were washing up on shore. And some people were eating them. This English guy who was devouring them told me that you can eat anything raw from an unpolluted sea. So I ate some. I smashed them together to open them and poped them in my mouth. They were ok. Kinda salty. So that was the Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands.

Two days later after a short stop in Auckland we arived in Whitianga. Stephanie and I liked this place a lot. Our hostel was a converted old folks home and still had that atmospheare to it, like 60's decorations and probably the first colour TV ever made. We met some cool people there and were reunited with another girl from our free day tour in Auckland. It was great since they also had a car. The best part of this area was the Hot Water Beach. This was incredible. It's a nice beach with hot springs that run under it. So in low tide, you can dig a ditch in the sand that will fill up with water at 65 degrees celcius. Our own private hot tubs! So there are two low tides a day, and on that particular day the low tide was at 3 am. So the five of us decided to hire some spaids and drive out there to do some midnight bathing. We got there at about 1 am. We dug a very nice pool but the water that came through really was over 60 degrees and was imposible to go into. It was literally burning. Scolding. So we abondoned that pool an kept digging looking for cool water. We found some, but that water was too cold. So we kept diggin out and joined some scolding hot water with some cold water and tried to mix it together. But that was futile, it wouldn't mix except for a thin line where the hot met the cold. So we all jammed together our hot and cold pool at about 2:30 am. Despite the manual labour involved it was a lot of fun and the stars were so good it looked like you could reach out and touch them.

So it seems that I'm being kicked off the computer. And I still have so much more to say! I'll probably get back on tomorrow to write some more, so talk to you then...

Auckland

Hello again from Auckland, the City of Sails. Tonight is our last night here and Stephanie and I have had a good time. It is a very nice city. Everything here is extreme. The buildings, the sailing, the jumping, the rides, everywhere you go there is something extreme to do. On an average corner downtown there's some sort of ride that will send you 100 metres in the air. Auckland is home to the Skytower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and you can go basejumping off of the observation deck (attached to a harness of course). They love their sailing here along with their rugby. It's a really fun city.

Our second day we went to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. This is a really cool aquarium. They had a whole penguin habitat filled with king penguins and another kind that I don't remember right now. They even had a safari vehicle that went through the sub-zero habitat for an up close and personal look at the birds. Very cool. Even cooler than that, half the building is an aquarium with filled with huge sharks, stingrays, fish, and other New Zealand species. The best part about it is the glass viewing tube that takes onlookers through the massive tank. So there's 180 degrees of viewing pleasure. And there is even a conveyer belt to take you through the whole thing. We are glad we went there.

Today we went on a free tour of Auckland. Yup, a free tour. It was great. They took us to the harbour brige and allowed us to walk accross it, which usually costs about $25 and is not open to the public. They put a harness on us so we would'nt fall off too. The views of the city from here were spectacular. The photos we took are nice. And of course, becasue this is such an extreme city, there was bungy jumping from the middle of the bridge. I didn't do it, but I watched others from our group take the plunge. After the brige we ate lunch at a park on the beach, and then after that we went for a beautiful walk on a dormant volcano with great views of the forests, other volcanos, and the city. (There are three dormant volcanos within Auckland city alone. There are about 15 just around it!) The whole mountain was fortified in the early 1900s becasue there was a rumor that the Russians were planning an attack. Needless to say the Russians never did come here, but the forts are pretty cool. I went swimming at the bottom of the volcano where it met the beach. The water was so nice and calm.

Photos of all of this can be seen at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2107096&l=3555f&id=58000349

So thats it for Auckland. Stephanie and I booked ourselves on Magic tours, which is a a travel plan designed for backpackers. It takes us all over the place on coaches, with experienced tour guides as drivers. It is a hop-on hop-off sort of thing, so inbetween traveling we can stay as long as we want. It's a neat system and we will hopefully meet lots of travellers on the way. Tomorrow we go north to the Bay of Islands which should be beautiful. I'll let you know all about it when I get there.

Cheers

Gotta love overnight traveling

For pictures that go with my last blog, please see Melbourne's photoes at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104020&l=18947&id=58000349 and St. Kilda at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104030&l=a79fa&id=58000349. On our last day in Melbourne I wanted to go to the Victorian Parliament building (also the old Australian Parliament) for a free tour. So I dragged Stephanie along and I had fun, becasue, well, I like that stuff. There's a good picture of me yelling from the speaker's chair, but for some reason they didn't let me sit in the Queen's throne. Something about respect, I don't know.

Yesterday night we flew to New Zealand. It was an overnight flight and it arived in Hamilon (which is about 150 km south of Auckland) at 2:00 am. We ate an incredibly juicy burger at an all night burger joint and then took a coach up to Auckland at 5:00 am. We eventually got in to our hostel at 7, but check-in wasn't untill 10, so we slept on the sofas in the cafe for 3 hours. Needless to say I'm quite tired now, which is partly why I'm on the computer now instead of exploring the city more. Anyway that's just a small update. Soon I will be exploring the world's playground - aka New Zealand.

Melbs

So here I am in Melbourne, soaking up the sun and putting aloe vera on my burnt face. It is so hot here. I've been here for a week and today is the first day under 30 degrees. It's a high of 29.

Other than the heat and burns Melbourne has been good to Stephanie and I. The city is beautiful and there are art sculptures everywhere, it's like the city is one big museum. The city centre is huge and there are loads of people. Huge skyscrapers, museums, and many many little hidden alleyways which are the gems of the city with nice cafes, resturaunts, bars and clubs that line the alleys. The coffee here is amazing. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but I can't get enough of it here. Every time we walk by a little cafe I have to stop for one. I can't say enough about it. Starbucks doesn't quite make it like that. Superb coffee.

We stayed in Melbourne city centre for three nights and then we were told by random passers by that the city was good, but the suburb of St. Kilda is where all the fun is at. So we packed up our stuff and took the streetcar (tram) down to the southern end of the city where the beach is at. It is beautiful here. We are in a very nice and friendly hostel, and the scenery is spectacular on the beach (although the water is cold here). The peer is one of the highlights, where we got a great view of the city and a cool breeze over the ocean (not to mention coffee!). There is also good nightlife. Yesterday night we went to a good bar with great live music. It really rocks here.

I guess thats all I have to say about Melbourne. We had a long time here and it's been fun. Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand and we are really excited about going. The scenery there is supposed to be out of this world. Talk to you from Auckland!

Good start to the new year

I write to you from Melbourne, Australia where it's currently 35 degrees and I feel like I'm melting. I haven't seen much here yet but what I have seen is truely beautiful. We flew in from Cairns yesterday, which was hot and wet. Here it's hot and dry. Big difference, but I'm dying to escape the heat and dreaming of diving naked into snow. Anyway I'll tell you all about my exciting 4 days in Cairns, where I spent new years. That night was fun. They had a very nice fireworks display on a barge from the pacific ocean. My next three days were full of excitment:

January 1st: Cape Tribulation rainforest. We booked ourselves on an eco-tour of the Australian rainforest at Cape Tribulation and Daintree. The area is a World Herritage sight, it's 135 million years old (oldest in the world) and is special becasue it's one of the only places in the world where the rainforest meets the ocean. It's incredible seeing the thick trees and bushes go all the way to the beach and in some places even the water. We had a great tour guide, saw some rare wildlife, swam in an incredibly fresh water creek, and walked along the massive boardwalk through the rainforest. It actually looked a lot like the Amazon in Peru. We also went on a cruise of the Daintree river on a nice small boat, crocadile hunting. Unfortunatly due to the high tide we couldn't find any. Oh well, it would have been nice to catch a croc, but at least we caught an aligator in the Amazon about a month ago. We fed kangaroos there to. This was a truely beautiful place. Photos at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096805&l=24596&id=58000349

January 2nd: Skydiving. Thats right, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. We just signed up and went. I jumped tandem, with an experienced guide who jumpes seven times a day. Five of us tourists boarded the incredibly small plane that took off right away. There was no turning back now. It's funny how I didn't even think that much of it until the place took off and I was sitting there attached to a man with a parachute. That's when it hit me that I was really going to jump out of that thing 12,000 feet high (I swear it's a lot higher when you're up there, we were way obove the clouds! I wasn't that nervous either until the door of the plane opened and I stuck my feet out siting over the edge. That was the scarriest part. The guide said to me are you ready? There were 3 people behind me and there was only one option at that point: out the plane. I wanted to answer do I have a choice but I said in a very squeeky voice, "Yeah!" So then we jumped which was so sureal but I remember it vividly. We went into a 30 second freefall that felt more like 30 minutes. It was hard to breath with all the wind but the rush was incredible. We were going about 120 miles per hour (with a tiny parachute deployed the whole time preventing us from falling at 180 mph). So we're falling and I can see the city of Cairns, the rainforest, and the reef out in the distance. It was such an awsome trip. And then came my happiest part of the fall, when the parachute deployed. Yay I'm going to live! From then it was just plain fun with no worries. I even got to controll the parachute for a while too. We landed smoothly on our feet, disconected, and I gave Stephanie a hug after one of the most extreme things I have ever done. But don't worry family, I've done it once and I don't have to do it again. I'll stick to whitewater kayaking for my thrills. There are some photos of Stephanie and I in out jump suits at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099939&l=a2ed9&id=58000349

January 3rd: Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. This is why I came here and it was worth it 200%. Before I even describe it I can safely say that this is the greatest thing that I have ever done. We took a cruise two hours out there and two hours back on a tall catamaran that was very nice just by itself. But I just couldnt wait to get in the water. When we finally got off the tranfer boat onto this little sand island on a small glass-bottom transfer boat, I put on my fins and jumped in the water. I couldnt believe what I saw! Crystal clear water and the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Billions of brightly coloured tropical fish and hundreds of species of coral. There were giant clams over a metre long. I even found Nemo. I never got tired and could have stayed there all day. But after 2 hours we got back on the boat, had a nice buffet lunch and went to another location that looked like it was in the middle of the ocean. It was called Paradice Reef, and it really does live up to its name. This place I thought was even better than the last. It was deeper so I could see more, and it allowed me room to dive down and chase some fish. There was one fish about 2 metres long and much much bigger than me that came right up to me! I was scared, I thought it was going to eat me. But it decided not to and it swam away. I could have stayed there and snorkeled all day, could never get tired of it. But unfortunatly the boat wanted to leave and it was a two hour ride to the shore. So I reluctantly said goodbye to the awsome reef and got back on the catamaran. Stephanie and I bought some underwater disposable cameras that we used, and you can see these pictures at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099941&l=e73f9&id=58000349
Unfortunatly underwater disposables are only so good. So when you look at the photos imagine an abundance of colours and massive coral and millions of fish that you can't quite make out. The pictures aren't so hot but the memories will last with me forever.

So in three days we experienced three very different things. Traveled in three of the four elements: Earth, wind, and water. Now I have to go find some fire to play with to make it complete. Talk to you soon.

Kayaking with dolphins and more pictures

Oh yeah, I also went ocean kayaking with dolphins in Byron Bay. Anyway here are some newly updated pictures:
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096801&l=b68b6&id=58000349
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096804&l=0a457&id=58000349
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096805&l=24596&id=58000349