K i w i n a d i a n

10 day tour of the South Island and more

2009-04-14T19:54:00.048+12:00

Hey again everyone!! I just finished a 10 day whirlwind tour of the south island here in NZ. In case you didn't know my Mom and Sis came to this side of the world for 10 days (with a quick 4 day stop in Hawaii first). I had about a month's notice to plan what to do for their time here and I think we did a pretty good job filling as much into that time as possible.

Day Zero.
Mom and Whit arrived here in Auckland at 6:30am on April 3rd from Hawaii. I had to work that day, so I didn't get to meet up with them until about 5pm that evening. We all stayed at the Skycity Hotel that night because we had to catch a flight to Christchurch at 650am the next day. That was about all mom and whit knew about the trip. I asked them a dozen times what kinds of things they wanted to do, and all I got back was "Oh, whatever you like, you know the place best". They may be regretting that now haha. Me and Terra went through what we had planned for them. I think they were really excited and very nervous for the week ahead.

Day One.
Everyone was a bit groggy, but we made it to the airport on time. While we were waiting to board we hear an announcement saying that Christchurch airport is closed due to fog. awesome. They took off anyway and were able to land just fine. no worries! Once we were on the ground we picked up our sweet rental car, it was an old Toyota station wagon; we loaded up on snacks and candy then headed south to Lake Tekapo. After a few hours of driving we came over a hill and saw the brightest blue lake any of us have ever seen! We took a bit of a stroll along the shore then continued on to Mt Cook, which is the highest point in New Zealand. We passed a few more of these blue lakes as we went further into the mountains (we have lots of lake pictures by now). There was hardly a cloud in the sky in any direction except for one fat one sitting on the peak of Mt Cook, so we couldn't get a good view of it. We checked out the visitors center which was really beautiful and had heaps of information and history about the area. Once we found a trail map we took a short walk to a swing bridge crossing a roaring stream, the wind was really picking up in the valley and quite cool coming off the mountains, so we continued on to Queenstown. The roads started to get narrow and windy the further we got into the mountains and the sun was going down fast. Mom and Whit were still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and I'm pretty sure they were holding on for dear life. Finally around 8pm we make it to Queenstown and checked in to the Rydges lakeside resort (Terra got us a sweet deal through her work!) We ate supper in the hotel bar and watched some convention with people in their 70's dressed up like it was Halloween and party/dance/drink the night away. We were all shattered and in bed by 10pm haha. It was a long day.

Day Two
Next morning we woke up and looked out over the lake and Queenstown to a cloudy drizzly view. By the time we drove to town and had breakfast the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining! We split up to go explore the town and do some shopping for a couple of hours. After everyone (as in me) had enough shopping we headed to the gondola that took us to the top of a mountain on the edge of town where we had spectacular views!! There were a few other things at the top of this mountain other than the view. You can go bungy jumping, rope swing, luging and see a Maori Haka show. We chose the last two. Luging was first on the list - its basically riding down concrete paths on little plastic carts... at the top of a mountain. We had a blast zipping down the hill and by the end mom was even keeping up with us haha.

After a half dozen times down the hill we took a break at the mountain top cafe before the Haka show. The views were great looking over the valley as we sipped our mocha's. A few mins later the Haka show was about to start and they needed a volunteer to be "the Chief" to greet the 'Maori tribe'. No one stepped up, so the lady picked me! I had to stand up in front of everyone while the leader of the Maori tribe swung his Taiaha (a spear) in threatening ways in my direction. I was told not to laugh (or even move) and always look him in the eyes. After his war dance he placed a fern on the ground and I was to walk up and pick it up showing that I was a friend of the tribe or not. I picked it up right away... mostly cause I forgot my spear at home that day, otherwise we would have had a major duel!

After this the show went on with singing and explaining of the Maori culture. Then there was a part where they needed people from the audience. Terra and Whit were pulled up on stage and shown a few moves using the 'Poi' where they performed for us. It was a great show, and good to learn about the culture. Before we went back down the gondola we watched the sun go down over the valley, another great sight. That night we had a wood fired pizza for supper at an Italian restaurant and then retreated to the resort and bed... it was another exhausting day.

Day Three

The next morning we were up early again because we had a 4 hour drive to Milford Sound. It had just finished raining and looked like it was clearing up to be another beautiful day. On our way to the car we saw the brightest rainbow any of us have ever seen! It looked like a painting that ended in the lake right by our hotel, we thought it was a good omen. Unfortunately the sun didn't follow us from Queenstown. A few hours down the road we came to the town of Te Anau where we booked a cruise around the sound and had a bite to eat. It was two hours drive though winding roads in the mountains and the rain was getting thicker. It was the most rain that they have had at one time in a year! We couldn't get a good view of the mountain tops because of all the rain and clouds, but this created thousands of temporary waterfalls which was really impressive. Eventually we came to a mountain face with a tiny passage called 'Homers Pass' that cut a tunnel through the mountain. The tunnel was 1200 meters long, took them 20 years to finish and felt like it was nearly straight down though the mountain! We came out the other side to find even more waterfalls before reaching the harbor. After a short wait we were on the ship heading out into the sound. I'm not sure if it was still raining or if the water was just spray coming off all the water falls, but after a few mins we were all soaking wet and gave up trying to stay dry. At a few points you could just barely make out the peaks of the mountains through the clouds and it looked very ominous. The captain of the ship got really close to one of the larger waterfalls and warned everyone who didn't want to get (more) wet to go inside. Me, Whit, and Terra were the only ones brave/dumb/crazy enough to stay out and see what the water fall was made of. It only lasted 30 seconds, but it felt like we had just stepped into a hurricane! We could barely keep an eye open for a second and anything that may have been only slightly wet was now fully drenched. After nearly 2 hours of touring around the sound we were back on dry land. Everyone else had the bright idea of bringing a change of clothes... I didn't have this thought and the only dry piece of clothing I had to wear was a hoodie for the 4 hour drive home. nice. We got home late that evening to some warm showers and dry clothes, then went out to an awesome Thai place for supper before heading home to bed.

Day Four

We were up early again because we had another full day ahead of us. Terra and I had booked in some jumps at the Queenstown Canyon Swing that morning, which is kind of like bungy, only twisted. Instead of swan diving off a ledge and falling for 30 - 40 meters then bouncing back up with bungy; the swing is a platform 109 meters up the side of a gorge where you free fall 60 meters, then swing out 200 meters into the canyon at 150km/hr, and you can jump off the ledge lots of different ways. Sounds like a good time! So first thing that morning the four of us were taken up to the gorge and we watched a family jump before us. Terra went first and chose the forward jump. You can see the video of it here. The guys running the place get off on messing with everyones head. They asked Terra why she had two clips on her harness while she was coming out to the ledge and mentioned one looked cracked just before she jumped! She let out some odd type of scream/yell as she fell, they said it sounded like a demented bird hahaha. I was pretty impressed that she didn't chicken out or have to be thrown off the ledge, but I was up next. I chose the chair option - video here. They strapped me to a lawn chair and set me up facing backwards to the ledge then toyed with me tilting me over the ledge a few times before finally letting me fall doing backflips in this chair all the way down. It seemed like I was falling for about a minute as I heard the wind rush by and saw a blur of jagged rocks and bushes fly past as I tumbled down into the gorge and tried to catch my breath for a man scream. As I swung out over the river below I couldn't stop laughing... I had to go again! 10 mins later I was back on the platform and this time turned up the "crap your pants" factor a little more. I did the "Gimp boy goes to Hollywood" jump, I don't know where they got the name for it... For this one they attached a teddy bear wearing red latex to me then hung me out over the ledge. I smiled for the camera then put my feet up on the line with my head and arms pointing down to the river below. They started a count down for me, 5... 4... 3... then pulled the pin... i was thinking you fuuuukkkkrrrrrss as I did a superman dive headfirst into the gorge. I wanted to keep going again and again, but we had other plans after this, plus I'm not sure what else would have topped that!
They took us back to Queenstown just in time for us to grab some lunch and get on another bus that took us Whitewater rafting. Now when Me and Terra were planning this trip we asked about a dozen times what kind of things they wanted to do... they said that they trusted us to plan it. I am pretty sure Mom and Whit were regretting this now. We were taken to the end of the river where we were kitted up with full wetsuits, jackets and booties because the water was freezing!! Once we geared up they took all of us in two buses on this crazy narrow home made looking road through the mountains. Luckily I was on a different bus than Mom, cause she would have killed me (I forgot to mention the road of death, and basically described the whole thing as a nice cruise down a river...hehe). We all made it safe and sound to our entry point, Mom looked like she wanted to wring my neck, but there were too many ppl around. So you may remember me mentioning all that rain we saw in Milford Sound, well funny thing is, all that water goes to rivers... for example, the one we were about to go down on a rubber dingy. High water = fast water. We had a quick safety lesson on what to do if you get thrown out and if the raft flips over. For some reason the girls didn't seem to be as excited as I was for this, haha, it was more of a 'beat Nathan with these nice wooden paddles they are handing out' type of feeling. We were grouped up with a guide and sent afloat on the river. He showed us how to paddle and hold on, get down and basically survive the trip. Our first set of rapids were coming up and I looked back and saw Whit and Terra with blank faces and white knuckles. I couldn't see moms face, but I'm guessing it was similar. We took a few sets of rapids, managed to stay in the boat and their faces even had a smile on it. The further we got down the river the bigger the rapids seemed to get, we took a couple of huge waves over the front of the raft, but fared pretty well. Eventually we got to the last set of rapids. These were the biggest of the day, and all the guides were set up along the edge to catch anyone who fell out. Three boats went first, and two flipped right over. We could all see this from our anchor point, everyones faces were the blank 'Holy S**T' variety. We were still confident we could make it through, even Mom was ready to take these rapids on. About 30mins later some of the guides came back to us and said that no one else would be taking the rapids because it is too dangerous. I guess someone broke their leg and another kissed a rock with their face. Everyone was a bit dissapointed about not having a go at the last monster, even after hearing about the carnage happening down stream. It was still a great time, and I think the girls forgave me for making them do this haha. When we were back on dry land and out of the wet suits we had a steamy sauna waiting for us, and it felt so great you have no idea.
Once we were dropped off back in Queenstown we were walking down the street when we ran into Javier; a buddy of mine from Spain that I did the 3 day mountain trek with in northern Thailand!!! I didn't even know he was in NZ! I couldn't believe the chances of that happening. When we got home to the warm showers and beds there was no way any of us were leaving to go out. So I'll have to catch up with him when he gets to Auckland. It was another really long day.
Day Five
The next morning we had to check out of the resort and do some last minute shopping (me this time!) in Queenstown before heading off to our next stop - the West Coast. We stopped and had lunch in a small town called Wanaka. We were only there a few hours, but all of us fell in love with it. It was similar to Queenstown set in the mountains at the side of a lake, only with out so much in your face tourism. It was a really laid back place.
Strange thing happened while we were waiting for lunch too... me and mom grabbed a picnic table in a sunny spot while I talked to my Dad on my cell and waited for Terra and Whit to bring the food. We were sitting there for a few minutes when two people from this family of 7 sat down at our table. Then a few more came, and then another and they all started eating lunch and talking all the spots... like WTF?? I had to say to them "Um, Hi guys, we kind of need these seats and we were here first..." They looked up as if they just noticed we were sitting there and then all pissed off like slammed their food down and moved to one of the other 8 open tables right beside us... who does that?? This still blows my mind to this day and I had to share it with someone.
After we did a bit of exploring the town we were back on the road. Which turned out to be the wrong road, and also the first time we got lost. We even said to each other, huh, there aren't many cars on this road, but were enjoying the scenery too much to bother checking a map. Pretty soon the road we were on turned into a dirt road which led us into a cow pasture. Once we could reach out of the car and touch cows was around the time we assumed it was the wrong way and turned back.
We found our way pretty quickly, and made it to the first stop at Fox Glacier just before sunset. When we got there I was determined to sprint the 30minute walk to the face of the glacier before we lost the light. We passed a lady on the trail who said that there was a rock fall and you can't get to the face. I thought, well you walk over the rocks then lady... wimp! I soon realized it wasn't that easy. The rock slide was more of an entire side of the mountain collapsing over the trail and half of the river. We were only able to get to the view point a few kms away from the face, which was still some pretty nice views. We still had another 20kms to Franz Joseph glacier where we would be spending the night. Turns out that 20kms takes a while in the mountains. The road between the glaciers was some of the twistiest we had come across yet. With all this driving in the mountains, I couldnt help but wishing I was on my motorcycle touring around. My Dad would love this! Next trip I guess. It was a silent white knuckle ride in the back seat, but we made it safe and sound to our Backpackers hostel in Franz. A quick meal and a few beers later and we were off to bed early again... it was a long day.

Day Six
Up early again (you may notice a trend by now). This morning we were going to climb Franz Joseph glacier. We went to the glacier guides shop and got kitted up with thick wooly socks, heavy hiking boots, crampons (boot spikes) and a rain jacket. The sun was shining and it was going to be a beautiful day. Before long we were all packed into a bus and off to the terminal face of the glacier - no road of death cliff drives this time. We got to the river bed a few km's away from the face and had to walk the rest of the way, which looked like a 10min walk. The trail took us through loose river rocks and steep and narrow trials through the rainforest that crossed streams and sharp drop offs. Finally after about 45mins of walking in these heavy boots we reached the terminal face where we had to strap on the crampons and started up into the ice. We spent nearly two hours climbing up the ice passing melt streams and small caves before we started to loop back down. The trail we took back was amazing and by far the best part! There were towering and narrow crevases to slip though, walls of blue ice, and tiny waterfalls where me and Whit filled up our water bottles - it was the purest water I've ever tasted, and tasted much better than the water that was already in the bottles. We reached the bottom and hiked back to the bus that took us back to town. The whole excursion took us just over 6 hours to get our gear, get to the glacier, climb a quarter of the way up and then get back to town. Everyone was completly exhausted and in need of some TLC (booze), so we went to some hot pools down the road from our hostel. It was a beautiful place set out doors in the rainforest with naturally heated pools. It was exactly what everyone needed. We finished the night off with a few cold beers and a tastey meal. Bunk beds never felt so good.

Day Seven

Today we were completing the loop and heading back to Christchurch. We stopped in Hokitika, a town along the west coast for lunch, and a quick hike to a gorge just in the hills. The gorge is known for its milky blue water, so we thought it was a good way to break up the drive. After taking all these side roads in what seemed like the middle of no where we finally got to the gorge. The swing bridge that crossed the gorge said "max persons 1" but terra didnt notice the sign and came running and skipping onto the bridge with me haha. She doesnt weigh much anyway, so we lived. It was a pretty cool place and really lush. After 30mins of exploring the area we headed back to town for lunch before continuing on to Arthurs Pass. The road through the mountains was pretty steep, we took a break half way up and noticed the car had a funny burning smell, but it made it through in the end, no problems.

As we were coming out of the mountains we were entering "Lord of the Rings" country. The views were beautiful and we stopped at a place called Cave Stream that looked like it was right from LOTR. Me and Terra had a quick battle to help Mom and Whit remember the scene... didn't really work though.

After that it was a straight shot to Christchurch. The family that I lived with in Sydney were now living in Christchurch and had offered their entire house for us to stay!! It was really generous, and nice to see them again - Jonni beagle too this time! We all went out for supper that night to a little italian spot down the road and had some great food, cold beers and good wine.

The next morning Toni and Steve took us to a local market near the city center. After the market we checked out a bit more of the city center on our own before we hopped in the car to see how lost we could get. We came across a huge mall that was busier than any mall I've seen even at christmas. It took me nearly 2 hours to get all 3 girls rounded up and out of there! We went to Hagley park afterwards to check out the botanical gardens and lay in the sun on a nice patch of grass we found and snuck in a quick nap. Once the sunny bits of grass were all gone we decided to check out a movie, Mom was really pumped for it once she found out that you can order wine and beer in the theater!

After the movie we managed to get un-lost and ended up back home. We dropped mom and Whit off at the house and met up with Toni and Steve at Dux de Lux bar in the city. Their butcher invited them to his gig that night. I guess he is something like an Elvis impersonator, only different. Same Same, but different, as they say in Thailand. He walked out on stage wearing a white diamond covered blouse and black flared spandex pants, with a wicked handle bar moustache. His own interpretaion of what elvis would be like today i guess... The guitar was excellent, and the lyrics hillarious, but he never broke a smile and was totally into it. Eventually the shirt came off revealing an open back, V cut spandex body suit. I thought it was funny stuff, and really entertaining. I think Terra was mostly scared from it all. It was a fun night, and good to have a couple more beers with Toni and Steve before we left in the morning.

Day Eight

The next morning we packed up the car and were just about to pull away when Whit noticed Charlie (their 6 year old girl) standing on the sidewalk waving bye. Steve and Charlie woke up early and walked over to see us off. So after we said our goodbyes and many thanks we had to take back our trusty ride. We had driven 2200 Km's in eight days, and it was sad to know that a big chunk of our trip was now over.

We got to the airport an hour and a half early and went to check in. The lady said that the flight was already closed, but was able to squeeze us in, only if we ran quickly to the international terminal. We were all a bit panicked/confused by this and rushed over and got through security, then ran to the gate only to find no one there... We still had an hour to wait before we could even board the plane, plus the flight was delayed! Thanks for the heart attack lady!

That afternoon we arrived in Auckland and picked up our second rental car. It was a little Mitsubishi Lancer that had a bit more kick than our wagon! Mom and Whit checked into the hotel and we went home and gave our bed a big hug.

Later that afternoon we met up again and decided to go up the SkyTower for a view of the city from 220 meters high! The elevator ride up was actually pretty scary, it had a glass floor and doors so you could see the ground below as we ascended. We pointed out where our house and work was, and could even see a cruise ship just leaving the harbor. After we messed around up top, we came down and had dinner at the Italian restaurant we had our first meal at and went over all the crazy things we had done in the past week. Little did Mom and Whit know I wasn't finished with them yet.

Day Nine

This was our last full day all together, so I wanted to make it count. We drove 2 hours south of Auckland to Waitomo where we would be doing Blackwater rafting. This is kindof like white water rafting, only you sit on an inner tube and float down a stream through a cave. Sounds simple enough, and thats pretty much all the details I gave them haha. Turns out there is a bit more too it than that. The caves there are famous for its glow worms that line the ceiling, and most people come to see them by walking through the entrance and standing on a platform a few meters off the ground. What fun is that? Again we were kitted out with full wet suits, booties and an inner tube that was sized just right to fit our bums though. We were dropped of at the mouth of the cave where they explained exactly what we would be facing. They said we would have to jump off a few water falls.... backwards, landing in our inner tubes. She said we would all have to do a practice jump as she was standing on the edge of a platform 10 feet off the ground beside the river that was only 3 feet deep. She warned us to make sure we jumped out far enough to avoid hitting the sharp rocks, and not to jump too high so that we didn't hit our heads on the cave ceiling. We all had looks of shock on our faces, how big were these damn waterfalls lady?!!?!? Then she pointed us to the smaller platform only a few feet off the ground that we would be practice jumping off of.... PHEW! That was until we hit the water! Everyone let off a stream of curse words as they landed, man was it cold!!!

After our practice jumps we were off to the mouth of the cave. It was a narrow bit that you had to squeeze through and climb down into. I'm sure mom was looking for a large rock to bash me with, it wasnt exactly the nice easy cruise down a stream with pretty lights on the ceiling that I had painted... haha. We navigated our way though the cave following the stream and came to a part so narrow that you had to lay flat across the tube and tilt your head so that it would fit between the cave and the water. I was going through this part right when one of the guides slammed his tube down making a huge booming thunder noise through the cave. I thought the place was coming down and nearly crapped my wetsuit... everyone else saw him do this but me... bastard.

We came to our first waterfall and all lined up to jump off it ass first. We all did pretty good and the cold water wasn't so bad anymore... mostly because we were numb. From here we could see the first glow worms and got a nice close up view. It looked like stars in the sky, but we were warned to watch out for 'falling stars', because the glowing bit is actually their poop. This was the cruising bit and we floated down the stream looking at the glowing worms above. Before long we came to another waterfall... same drill as before. After a while we came near the end where the guides wanted to play a little game called find your own way out, the only rule was you can't turn your light on or you lose and had to walk back to the shop. Nice guys haha. While we were finding our way out I was hit in the face with a falling star, awesome lol. Eventually we found our way out and into the daylight. This is when Terra and Whit noticed that the falling star was still stuck on my face... Whit dry heaved while Terra helped me get it off my face haha.

We had nice hot showers, tomato soup and a toasted bagel waiting for us when we got back. It was an awesome experience and I think everyone was pretty satisfied with what they just put themselves through.

We drove home that night and had a relaxing dinner at our place as we went through some of the pictures and video from the trip over a few glasses of wine.

Day Ten - Homeward Bound

Today was our last day together in New Zealand. The girls went and did some last minute shopping at the Victoria park markets and hit up a few shops on Queen street. The sun was out, and it turned out to be a nice day so we headed for Piha Beach just outside of the city. One last winding road through the mountains for fun. We chilled out on the beach for a few hours before heading back to the city for supper. It all went by pretty quick and before long we had to drop Mom and Whit off at the airport for their 22 hour journey home. It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to them, usually I am the one doing the leaving! It was an awesome trip, full of adventures, and beautiful scenery, one that none of us will ever forget.

So.

Who's coming next then??

Nate.

Setting up shop in Auckland

2009-02-24T22:21:00.001+13:00

Holy cow its been a long time since I’ve updated this! Sorry, but the past month and a half have been incredibly busy, and each time I sit down to write up a post I don’t know where to begin, there is so much to cover. I have added a few goodies though. On the right there is a "Where am I now" link with a google map of where I've been so far on this trip, and a close up of where we are living and working at the moment.

Alright, so lets pick up after new years then. On Jan 3rd me and Terra walked over to the Auckland Zoo which was just a few kms away from our place in Morningside. One thing we forgot to check before we left was the weather… it started pouring rain right when we got there. It actually ended up making the zoo experience that much better. Most people left so we pretty much had the whole place to goof around. We happened to get there right as they were showing one of their Kiwi birds. The zoo only had 3 kiwi’s which I thought was strange, since we’re in kiwi land…

After the kiwi we saw the zoo regulars; seals, monkeys, giraffes, big cats and birds. The Giraffe enclosure was really cool, there was a walkway all the way around it about 20 feet off the ground, so you were face to face with a giraffe if he came close enough. It also seemed to be feeding time for most of the animals too. We saw a lion munching on a huge slab of meat only a few feet from the glass which was pretty cool. One of our favorites was the Meer cats. There are tunnels running under the display and you could pop your head up in different spots and get a closer look. I’m pretty sure the tunnels were meant for kids to crawl though, cause they were frickin tiny. Terra is about the size of a small kid anyway and I wasn’t going to miss out haha. So we crawled around these tunnels with all the other kids (there werent any adults in there for some reason).

After getting our fill of animals we made our way home through Western Springs park, which was really beautiful and full of all kinds of birds! Terra chased a couple of strange birds that were making a racket into this bush and as soon as she turned around (laughing at the scared birds) two of these birds shot out of the bush and chased her away, and I got it all on video! Haha hilarious. I got those birds back though...We came to an open spot where hundreds of birds were chillin out. I couldnt resist it, I charged into the crowd of birds screaming and flapping my arms so that they all took off in all directions, well the small ones did anyway. The big swans held their ground, so I kept my distance from them haha.

The next day our flat mate Jason offered us his car for the day as long as we picked up Aaron (other flat mate) from the airport that evening. It was the first time we had wheels in NZ so we took off to Piha beach. Its a black volcanic sand beach about 40mins west of Auckland. On the ride out there I was just a little nervous... the road was pretty fast and narrow with lots of turns through the hills on the wrong side of the road in my roomies nice car. Once we finally made it to the other side of the hill we suddenly came upon the coast and could look down on the beach. It was such an amazing view! Once we got to the beach the waves were huge and crashing hard. This is one of the most dangerous beaches in NZ, they even film a show called Piha Rescue and could see the camera guys running around with the life guards pulling people out who got too close to the rocks. We chilled out on the beach working on our tans and then running into the waves to cool off for a few hours. It was a beautiful day, and it was really nice to get out of the city and see a bit more of the country.

A few days after the beach trip I finally heard back from a recruitment agency and had an interview set up with them. I went in and was grilled for about 30mins. I think it went pretty well, by the end of it we were showing each other pictures of our dogs haha. The next day I heard back and they had set up an interview for a tech support position at Hewlett Packard! That interview went pretty good too (no dog pictures though). I nailed all the technical questions they threw at me and a few days later I was offered a 1 year contract with them starting Jan 27th! The office is right in the harbor and when I look out the window I can see the water and massive yachts parked in the docks. I was also pretty excited to finally get a paycheck again, watching my bank account shrink for 3 months was getting a bit depressing lol.

So now that I had a job lined up Terra decided to start applying for jobs too (with a little persuasion). She dropped about 4 resume’s at some pubs that afternoon in the harbor, and heard back from one about 30mins later. They wanted an interview that day! It went pretty well for her too, because she got the job! We both ended up getting jobs on the very same day haha. She is working at a pub called ‘Degree‘. It's a few blocks away from my office and right in the harbor. Not too bad eh! One day and we both have jobs!

Next thing to sort out was a place to live. The place we were staying at in Morningside was just temporary over Xmas. Plus it was a little ways out of the city, and we were getting really sick of always having to catch a bus or train any time we wanted to go into the city, then worry about getting home after a night out with friends. We checked out about 5 different places and most were the size of a shoe box with a tiny bed inside and a tad on the scummy side. For over a week this is all we could find that was in our budget… Then the same night Terra started her first day at work I came across a place online that was close to both our jobs in Freemans bay and in our budget. Finally something promising! We walked over after Terra finished up work and we were blown away! The place was huge compared to everything else we had come across. We were given a quick tour and then told we had to wait 4 days to find out if we could get the place or not. We didn’t want to get our hopes up too much, but those were the longest 4 days ever. Finally Thursday rolled around and we heard from the guy that we could move in on Tuesday Jan 20th!! I was jumping up and down and running around like a little kid who just found out he was going to Disneyland. Finally we had a permanent place to live and it wasn’t a shoe box!

Now that all the important bits were sorted it was time to party! On Jan 16th we went to a concert called the Big Day Out. Its a yearly gig held at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. It’s a huge showground that had 8 different stages scattered all around the grounds and about 30 bands playing throughout the day. Each stage had different kinds of music playing from hip hop, rock, jazz, and dance. We got there around 2pm and its was nuts, there were about 30,000 people there who came from all over NZ. Some of the bigger names playing were Neil Diamond, The Prodigy, sneaky sound system and Serj Tankian. There were a few others that put on an awesome show, including some local NZ bands. The craziest thing that happened though was running into Steve and Toni! They were the kiwi family that I lived with in Sydney in 2007! They live in Christchurch now (on the south island in NZ) and I had no idea that they were going to be there. They happened to be sitting in a row of seats right behind us at one of the 8 stages there. Completely random! We talked for a few minutes and arranged to meet up for coffee the next day. We ended up getting out of there around midnight and unfortunately the only busses running from there were going into the city. We had to take a cab home and it cost us about $40. One last waste of money before we moved into the city.

The next day we met up with Steve, Toni, and their 5 year old daughter Charlie, who was a little shy with me at first, but after 10mins she was back to her rambunctious self again. It was awesome to be able to catch up with them again and talked about meeting up again when we get to the south Island. By the end of our visit Charlie was wearing my flip flops, so I put hers on(she's 5..) then she wanted to racie each other up and down the side walk. It was a really good laugh, but after a few races it was time to go. Hopefully we can catch up with them again soon.

On Tuesday we packed up all our stuff at the place in Morningside, and took a quick video tour of the place so we could remember it. We found this huge black spider just before we started the video and thought it was dead. During our little video shoot we showed it on camera only to have it start moving! Scrared the crap out of both of us, and its all on video too... haha. Later that morning I had to go into the city to sign the contract with HP, and while I was there they wanted to know if I could start at 8am the next day! It was a week earlier than I had planned, and only had one good shirt and one pair of pants that I could wear to work. Tuesday was a bit of a mad rush. I had to find some work clothes, move out of the old place and into the new place, buy sheets for the new bed, and also get my phone fixed (the screen quit working) and only a few hours to do it. Way more stress than I wanted the day before starting a new job. We managed to get everything done, and even got my cell fixed and back in my hands the same day for cheap cheap.

The first 3 days of work were pretty laid back just learning the ropes, and a good way to ease back into working life again. On Friday a buddy of mine from work in Saskatoon - Jeff and his wife Annalyn, had just finished touring NZ for the past 3 weeks arrived in Auckland. We were hoping to meet up with them on their trip and travel with them, but we both ended up getting jobs a bit sooner than planned. We showed them the harbor, where we worked and a tour of our new place, then went out for dinner in Ponsonby just down the street from our place. It was good to catch up and hear stories about their trip.

To help the ease back into work I was in need of a getaway haha. On Saturday (Jan 24th) we went to Piha Beach again with two of our new roommates – Cornelius (german) and Jeremy (kiwi). We checked out a few different spots this time. The waves again were huge and we had a blast swimming and getting thrown around in the waves. Just as we were coming out of the water we noticed the lifeguards in a panic and pulling a young guy out of the water. His body was completely limp and they started doing CPR on him right on the beach. I’ve never seen someone get their chest pumped in real life before, and they were working on him for a good 20mins before the ambulance showed up. I think the guy was ok, we saw him moving his arms as they drove away… for a few meters anyway… but ambulance got stuck in the sand and had to get pushed out… nice. After seeing this go down, we were done with the swimming for the day. So Cornelius took us off the main beach and showed us a few trails he found in the hills along the coast. It was a bit of a hike but the views of the coast were breathtaking! To finish off the day we got home had a big bbq with our new flat mates.

That same weekend happened to be a long weekend, so we went to another beach on Monday called Bethells beach. It’s on the west coast like Piha, only a bit further north. Again the scenery here was amazing. the beach was huge, and the black sand seemed to go on for ages. We found a good spot on the north end and tossed around the football for a bit before we went swimming. The waves were massive again and we spent quite a bit of time getting tossed around in them. After we had enough of the beach we did a little bit of exploring again. A local we ran into told us about a lake up this stream that was running into the ocean. We followed the stream to these huge sand dunes, the first edge of the dune was about 25 meters high and it ran for about a kilometer to this lake. Me and Jeremy tried to do some sand boarding on some cardboard that we found, but it didn't work so well. After we trekked along the hot sand for 30mins we reached the lake and did some cannon balls to cool off. It was actually really warm! about 25 degrees or so. We chilled out there until the sun started to hide behind the hills and the sand finally cooled off a bit.

So that was life in January. It was a pretty hectic month and it was awesome how many things fell into place perfectly so quickly. I’m going to end it here and get this posted because there is way too much to cover for two months, and its taken me a week to find time just to update this! But don’t worry, I’ll get Feb up asap!

Bye for now!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Years from NZ

2009-01-02T22:15:00.010+13:00

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a good xmas and new years with the family and friends. I have heard some sad news from back home that my aunt&uncle/cousins on the Peardon side lost two grandparents over xmas and new years. I'm really sorry to hear that, and hope you guys are doing ok.

Since the last post I've been trying to keep myself busy doing things like checking out all the parks in the city. This time of year everyone books about two weeks off for summer/xmas holidays and it seems like the whole city has nearly shut down. It has been pretty hot a few days and we managed to get down to the beach, but the water was freezing! So I only stuck a foot in, which was enough to cool me right down. I miss the 29degree waters of Thailand. We saw a clip on the news that they had to evacuate one of the beaches for a few hours because there was a shark hunting in waist deep water.

One adventure I had a few weeks ago started when I hopped in with Aaron and his kids for a run to the shops for some last minute xmas shopping. As soon as we got out of the driveway we saw this SUV that was driving all over the road. At first we weren't sure if he was just being a jack ass, or if he was drunk. So we followed him around and after he nearly ran over a guy on a bike we called the police and followed him until the cops caught up with him. After they pulled him over they asked us to give the officer a statement about what we witnessed. Well they happened to be filming "Highway Patrol" in that car, which is the NZ version of "Cops"!! So I'm pretty much famous now, as soon as that episode airs... haha. Anyway, the cop said that the driver was extremely intoxicated, so it was a good thing we came across him before he hurt anyone and ruined someones xmas.

Another day me and Terra decided to walk a few blocks over to Mt Eden which is an extinct volcano and also the highest natural point in Auckland. On the map it didn't look too far, and it was hot out so I just wore my flip flops... not thinking that I would have to climb up the volcano once we got there. It took us over an hour to walk there and make it to the top, but it was well worth it. The view was amazing! We had a clear 360 of the entire city and could see from one coast to the other. The way down was a little bit harder than going up. I was following Terra down one path and she was going slow and moved over to the grassy part for more grip, so I decided to zip past on the path. A second later I was on my back sliding down the red dirt path haha. My shorts, shirt and camera was covered in red dust and my arm was a bit chewed up from the sharp volcanic rocks haha. I guess I should have worn shoes.

The other thing we have been doing is checking out some of the parks around the city. One day after we got our bank accounts set up and tax number applications sent away we grabbed a large pizza and coke from domino's and pigged out in Albert park on a nice sunny day. It was so great, you have no idea. I could hardly move after, so we just laid in the grass and listened to music for about an hour while it all digested. Another huge park we came across is called the 'Auckland Domain' it took us a few hours to explore it and we still missed this huge museum in it. We'll have to go back and find it one of these days.

We were having some trouble getting into the Xmas spirit with out having any snow, or family or Christmas food around. So we found a dollar store and bought some light up Santa hats and xmas poppers. We were still missing something though, so xmas eve Terra, Jason and I decided to set up the Christmas tree... on xmas eve haha. We had a pretty good time, and I think it helped quite a bit. How many times do you get two dozen beer for xmas from Santa!!!

Christmas day we headed over to Patricks place to have a big Xmas BBQ out on the deck. Mike and his friend Marie (who just flew in from Spain) also came over to join in. It was a beautiful hot day and we sat outside sipping our cold beers tending to the massive feast we had cooking on the barbie. It wasn't quite gramma's cooking back home, but it was a sufficient replacement. We ended up walking home that night and stumbled across this street where every house had a huge light display. There were thousands of people driving and walking down the street to check out everyones display. I guess it is a pretty big deal!

On Dec 30th our room mate Jason took us out to Rotorua, which is a mini adventure town where you can do all sorts of crazy activities. Its about 3 hours drive from Auckland, so we left at the crack of dawn so we could have a full day there. We decided to do some luging first, so we had to catch a gondola up the mountain. There are 3 different tracks to do, each a different level of speed and difficulty. Going down the hill in this little cart was a blast! We were cruising down the hill, taking some wicked S curves and there was even a spot where you catch some air! The corner right after the jump I was always taking a bit fast(cause I wanted to get as much air as possible haha) and I ended up flying into this sand bank, when I went in all I saw was sand flying up all over me. It was there to stop you from going over the ledge, and I guess I got a bit close haha. The next run down I took it a little slower on that corner. On the way back up we were stuck on the lift just as it started to pour. It rained from the moment we got on the lift and stopped as soon as we got to the top. We were completely drenched, and there wasn't anything we could do about it being stuck in a chair in the open. It didn't matter much cause we got back in line and ripped down the hill again!

After spending a few hours luging up and down the mountain we went over to 'Hells Gate' thermal pools. It was a hike in the bush around boiling mud pools, steaming lakes and even a hot waterfall. It reeked like sulfur, but was really cool wandering through the area. I guess it was a very sacred spot for the Maori because of the waters healing properties. From here we went down the road to the Polynesian Spa to soak in some hot spring pools beside the lake. The pools had a great view over the lake and different temperatures of pools to choose from. It was a relaxing end to a fun day. This little excursion was the first time that we had gotten out of the city since we have been here. We were getting a bit stir crazy being stuck in the city all the time, so it was just what we needed.

For new years we met up with Mike and Marie down in the Viaduct Harbour where we could have some good views of the Skytower and a big selection of bars to choose from. We started off at an Irish pub called O'Haggins that had a live band playing. Just before midnight we took a walk out along the harbour and went into a club called 'Waterfront' for a few quick shots before the count down. We managed to get outside and make our way through the people and scored a sweet spot to view the fireworks show just a few minutes before the countdown. It was a pretty impressive fireworks show, but not quite to the scale of the Sydney new years eve fireworks. It was still nice to be able to stand outside and see a good show without freezing my butt off! We had a great time ringing in the new year with new friends in a new city on the other side of the world. I couldn't help but think of friends and family in the year just past and all the amazing things that are to come in 2009.

Yesterday we just chilled out at home and tried to get rid of the hangover from new years. It was so hot and sunny out and a perfect beach day, but we couldn't find the energy to take the bus all the way down to the beach so we just sun tanned on the deck at home. I was sitting in one of the chairs on the deck for a while and came in to grab a drink just as Terra was coming outside. The next thing I hear is a huge crash and Terra moaning! I ran outside to find her laying under the chair. It looked like the chair had exploded! There were pieces of wood everywhere! I couldn't help but laugh my butt off haha. I don't know how she managed to do that, cause last time I checked she weighed less than me and the chair worked just fine when I was using it. No more big macs for Terra I guess. hahaha. This morning she woke up with a nice purple bruise across her thigh. I still break out laughing each time I see it...

Well I hope everyone had a good holiday season! Thanks for the Xmas emails, and talk to everyone again soon!

Nate.

First week in New Zealand

2008-12-15T21:33:00.007+13:00

Well I've already been here in NZ for a week now, and time has been flying by! It's been a pretty busy week. My first day in Auckland I met up with my buddy Patrick who I worked with when I was in Australia back in March '07. He's been here in Auckland pretty much since then and it was nice to go to a new city and know someone who lives here. He picked me up from downtown about an hour after I checked into my hostel and grabbed a few beers then went back to his place. From there the night got a bit out of hand... What was supposed to be a few catch up beers on a Monday night turned into drinking games doing shots of whiskey with his roommates haha. Patrick made an effort to go to work the next morning, but ended up coming right back home... and promptly made the rest of us do another shot of whiskey. I feel sick thinking about that.

The next day I didn't (read: couldn't) do too much of anything. Partly because it was raining and I had no idea where I was in the city. Eventually I found a map and walked back downtown to the hostel and did a little bit of exploring. That's pretty much all I did for the next few days, got my cell working, then just explored the city and checked out the hundreds of activities you can do all over NZ.

On Friday at 6 in the morning Terra flew into Auckland from Canada! She was planning on coming to NZ a few months down the road, but I guess somehow she knew that it was going to get insanely cold in Sask and came a bit earlier (-40 in Dec?? are you kidding me!). She thought the weather was great at +22 and cloudy. I am still getting used to it... I came from +35 and humid everyday in Thailand and it still feels cool to me. Terra's flight took 16hours from Vancouver and obviously a bit tiring, but she couldn't check into the hostel until 1pm. We ended up wandering around the harbour for a few hours snapping a bunch of pictures. We even came across Patrick's work and met up with him on one of his coffee breaks. After that Terra was able to check in and took a 4hour nap. The rest of the night we took it easy and just caught a movie at the Imax down the road.

Saturday afternoon we met up with Patrick and a few of his friends - Mike from South Africa, and Aaron (aka Moose) from NZ at a pool hall. After playing pool for a bit we headed off to Cornwall Park for a BBQ. It was a few of their Brazilian friends birthday party and they were throwing a huge bbq in this beautiful park. Now this was how you barbeque! We got there just after 2pm and they didn't stop cooking meat until 8pm when the sun went down! There was good music, dancing and some really nice people. There were a few guys manning the grill, and when a steak or sausage was done they tossed it up on the cutting board, chopped it all up and everyone would help themselves to the meat. It was great! They had all the meats of the rainbow, lamb, steak, pork, and I even ate a chicken heart! Try it once, but I wouldn't make it a weekly dish.

We had food and a few beers until just after 5pm. Me and Terra had lined up a few flats to go check out so we didn't have to stay in a hostel over xmas and new years. Aaron (Moose that is) offered to drive us back to the city and find these places. He was from Auckland and had a GPS system that took us right to these places in no time... also because he drives like a race car driver haha. These places we looked at were fairly sketchy, more than we had anticipated. The first one had basically a mattress on the floor and smelled a bit off. The second one was worse, the toilet was so tiny I'm not sure how you would shut the door if a person was in there! Plus to get to the shower you had to go out to the backyard then go under the house to this room with a tree in it... um ya. So as we were looking at these places Aaron was with us and was just as disgusted as us. He said that he had a spare bed at his place and we were welcome to stay there if we wanted. So he took us by his place to show us. I was in heaven, he has my dream pad haha! Its a really nice place with all the toys a geek like me dreams of. Big plasma TV, a huge surround sound system, dvd, playstation 3, a media center PC and some big comfy chairs and couches. All the goodies you could ever want. So it was either Aaron's pad, or the dungeon shower to choose from. hmmmmmm. Aaron just had to clear it with his room mate Jason before we could get the OK for everything.

After the flat decision was sorted out Aaron gave us a quick tour of the area and a few other places around Auckland. He was really helpful and had tons of great info for things to see and do all over NZ. We really lucked out meeting him! We went back to the BBQ in the park and had some more food and drinks for a few more hours.

Later that night Patrick, Mike, Aaron, Terra and me went down for drinks at a few pubs in Viaduct Harbour - basically downtown Auckland. It was so different at night, and very pretty and lively! We went to an Irish pub that had a live band playing all the classics. It was a good night, and as usual got a bit out of hand again. Patrick jumped in this circle of girls dressed up for an 80's party popped his collar and busted a few moves. It was another great night out, and a good welcome for Terra I think.

Sunday afternoon me and Terra met up with Aaron again so we could meet his roommate Jason. They took us down along the water front to a cool coffee shop in Mission Bay. We all got along great! Jason is a snowboarder too, so we chatted about that for a while and might even head for the slopes one of these weekends! Monday morning we checked out of the hostel and grabbed the train to our new pad at Aaron and Jason's! The next thing on the agenda is going to be getting the CV (resume) out there and find a job!

I'll let you know how that goes on the next update! I just added a bunch of pics of new zealand to the photo album too, if anyone wants to see more. I'll try and add some video's soon too!

I hope everyone back home is having a good Xmas season, I am a bit jealous of the snow I admit. It doesn't feel quite like Christmas without the white stuff around. Plus I really wanted to go to the Shaw staff xmas party, they never disappoint. So someone let me know how that goes! Oh and I am accepting any Christmas baking anyone wants to send this way! please?!?! ; )

Bye bye for now!

Nate.

Australia II

2008-12-08T21:41:00.000+13:00

Hello again! I finally made it out of South East Asia and into an English speaking land again. I was really looking forward to having some of my favorite foods, using regular toilets, and getting some surfing and beach time in during my short time back in OZ. Because of the airport closure and being about 1200km away from an airport that could get me out of there, my time in Oz was cut down to only 4 days. I was going to have to get a lot done in a short time. My greeting back to Oz was a little harsh, and just short of a strip search. Karma would pay me back quickly for that, literally! After getting through customs I had to wait about 2 hours in Darwin for my connecting flight to Melbourne. I happened to be sitting at a table just across from an ATM. I noticed that there was a $50 dollar bill sitting in the tray! I started looking for the last people who had just taken money out when another person walked up and withdrew some money as well… they did their thing and took the money, but the $50 was still there! I thought maybe it was just a sticker or something… so I went and withdrew some money and reached up in the tray and pulled out a crisp $50 just for me!!

Friday morning (Dec 5th) I arrived in Melbourne and hopped on a shuttle to my hostel in St. Kilda, but as I was checking in I found out that it was completely booked up and could only have me for 1 night! I needed to find somewhere to stay the next two nights asap. I walked around to other hostels nearby, but they were all booked up too! Finally a few hours later I found one that had a bed for me for the next two nights. Problem solved. That night I went out with Wes, a guy from California I met in my hostel, to a pub called “The Espy”. It used to be a hotel on the beachfront and was converted into a pub. It had about 5 different rooms each with a different atmosphere and a live band or DJ. This place was packed and had some good band playing. I was mostly happy to try some of my favorite Aussie beers again haha.

The next morning I was up early to check out of my hostel and move to my new hostel down the road called the “Oslo”. As I was checking out I was told that there was a bed available for me that night if I wanted to stay. I had already booked the other place and felt bad if I had bailed on the new place, so I did the right thing and kept my booking at the Oslo and made the hike up the road. I checked into the new place and went to my room, hoping to get a bit more sleep in. I opened the door and was hit with a strong smell of sweaty dudes and stale beer, nice. The room was a horrible mess and I couldn’t even find a clearing to put my bag down. I said hi to everyone and just dropped my gear in the corner and went down the hall to take my morning pee. As I was coming back there was a girl walking down the hall and as she passed my room she made this horrible face like she was about to vomit. I figured it was the smell that caused this. As I turned the corner to go into my room the door was wide open and there was a dude lying naked in his bed… um “itching” himself. I thought maybe the door had come open just as the guy was changing or something and he happened to be itchy… maybe. I went into my bag to get a change of clothes, but the dude kept um, “itching” his man bits and was giggling away as his buddy watched. What the F did I just step into here? There was no way I was gonna sleep in the same room with these animals for the next two nights. I left my bags and raced back to my old hostel to see if I could get that room back! Too late, it was already gone; Fantastic. I checked a few other hostels close by and luckily I was able to get a room for the night. I went back to the Oslo grabbed my gear and checked out without saying anything to my new roomies. Luckily I got all my money back. The new hostel I found was great! Clean beds, huge kitchen and nice people. The next day I was lined up to go back to my original hostel which was great, cause I had already made some good friends there the day before.

The second day in Oz I went down to the beach and explored St Kilda a bit more and sampled some of my favorite aussie foods. I had a Mrs Mac’s meat pie for brekky, a huge burger right off the bbq with all the fixings, beat root, pineapple and lots of tomato sause. Delish. Later that evening me and Wes went into the city. He was there almost a week and didn’t even make it down town yet. I still remembered how to get around from the first time I was there so I showed him around a bit. We walked around for a few hours and ended up chilling out at Crown Casino and had a few beers. Wes is from Santa Cruz, California and had come to Oz to go surfing and skating up the east coast for about 5 months, but about 3 weeks before he was to leave he had a bad wipe out at the skate park and tore some ligaments in his knee. He could barely walk on it! So his great surf/skate trip in Oz was going to be sightseeing only… I was telling him and showing pictures about my Thailand trip and now he is thinking about going there for a month or two and chill out on the islands haha.

My last day in Oz I went to the beach with Eddie, Joanna, Rachael and Wes for a few hours. The sun was warm, but the wind was chilly, so the beach time was kept to a minimum. We went back to the hostel and had a huge bbq with all the perks - Burgers, sausages, hash browns, bacon, and eggs. While we were cooking this massive BBQ the bacon went missing! How do you misplace a full pack of bacon? Some sneaky bugger nicked our bacon! Rachael was devastated haha, she really wanted some bacon… she was really quiet the rest of the day, only bringing up the bacon when she spoke haha. We figured it was some sneaky frenchies who took it. We had a good laugh and it was a nice ending to my short trip in Oz, chilling out by the BBQ sipping some beers with some new friends.

The next morning I was up at 5am to catch my flight to New Zealand!
Stay tuned for some NZ stories coming shortly!

Bye bye for now!
Nate.

Escape from Thailand

2008-12-06T15:18:00.011+13:00

Hello again everyone! Sorry, its been a while since I've been able to post anything... I've been on the road quite a bit, and my laptop isn't working at the moment. I still managed to upload some new pics though!

I'm not sure if everyone noticed, but the Airport in Thailand was closed for about a week by protesters. The day before I was supposed to leave it so happens... I'll fill you in on what I've been up to since the last post.

My last day in Chiang Mai (Nov 25th) I rented a motorcycle and ripped around town and explored the area for most of the afternoon. This city has about 200 temples in it and is smaller than Saskatoon. Every corner had some Temple, Pagoda, or Buddhist monument of some sort. There is also a moat that goes around the 'old city', and used to have a wall, but only a few parts of this wall are remaining. That night I had a big Thai meal (thinking it was the last) and even when for an hour long Thai massage to finish off the night.

It wasn't the happy ending I was looking for though. The next morning when I woke up I turned on the news and saw that 18,000 protesters had taken over Bangkok airport. No flights were coming in or going out. I was supposed to fly to Bangkok that morning and connect to Singapore. That wasn't going to happen it seemed, so I went online and moved my flight from Singapore to Australia back 4 days. That would cut my time in Oz down to only 6 days, which I was fine with, I've already been there before. I'm sure this whole airport thing will be over in the next day or two... thats what the news was saying too anyway. Bangkok airport is a huge, important airport not just for Thailand, its a major hub for south east asia. It cant be closed for long! (thats what I thought anyway).

So after 3 days of waiting for someone to take back control of the airport it looked like my only option was to get out by land. I happened to be in the far north of Thailand, the closest international airports were in Laos or Burma. There were no roads into Laos and took about 3 days to get there by boat. And the political situation in Burma was far worse than in Thailand, so there wasn't much point going there either. All the other airports to the south were booked solid until Dec 7th - a week of waiting!! no thanks. When I was walking around town I started to notice full military buse rushing by quite often. Because the PM couldn't land in Bangkok, they flew him here to Chiang Mai. My only option looked like busing out. On Nov 29th I hoped on a 9hr overnight bus to Bangkok.

I should have come to Bangkok sooner! Because there were about 60,000 stranded tourists standing around, the Thai govt were putting people up in hotels around the city for free! I was put in the Prince Palace Hotel (the name says it all, or look it up) and given a room bigger than most peoples apartments! All my meals were provided by the hotel too! It was nice to relax by the pool and be pampered a little, because the next evening I was on a bus to Singapore. I left Monday evening and would arrive in Singapore Wednesday evening, 36hrs later.

The bus ride wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was pretty much like being on a plane. A stewardess came by with water, snacks and blankets for everyone and the seats reclined. The only bad part was the organization of it all, which it typical of Thailand haha. The bus route from Bangkok to Singaproe is just something that was put together. Most sane people fly this route. We were told to be at the bus station at 6pm sharp, after 2 hours of standing around we finally got on the bus at 8pm and were heading out of the city. From bangkok we drove 12 hours to a city called Surat Thani and made a bus change, then 8 hours to Hat Yai where I hopped on a 2hr minibus to the border where we had to go through customs/immigration to exit Thailand and then through it all again to enter Malaysia. Then crammed 11 people +luggage in another minibus that barely seats 10. The ride was only 2 hours long to a city in Malaysia called Butterworth. We had to wait there for a few hours to catch the 10 hour bus ride to Singapore. The ride through malaysia to singapore was ok, but I couldnt see the Petronas Towers when I went through Kuala Lumur... I asked the bus driver if we could go by them, but he didnt speak english...

Once we got to the Singapore/Malaysia border it was the same process. Check out of Malaysia and then into Singapore. There was a group of 12 of us that had been travelling together for most of the trip and we had all became friends and kindof looked out for each other and made sure that we were all on the bus before the driver took off. This was working well until Singapore. I was one of the last ones to get through the customs area and when I went down to get back on the bus it was gone! Luckily I found 5 others that had been left behind too, only they were all going to the airport. I hoped in a taxi with them to the airport and then caught a train to the city center - only cost me $1.50! So it all worked out well in the end.

I had to wonder around town for about an hour because all the hostels were full. Finally I found one just as it started to pour outside. As soon as I shut the door I hit the bed and slept for about 5 hours. Sleeping on busses suck, and the bed was exactly what I needed.

Feeling refeshed after having a shower and a nap I went and wandered around town and explored as much as I could. The first thing I noticed was that its Christmas! In Thailand about 90% of the population is Buddhist and dont celebrate Xmas. I had nearly forgotten that it was coming so soon! Singapore is known for its shopping, and they were playing the Xmas card to the max. In Thailand you can buy t-shirts for about $3, they are nice and good quality, its just everyone has the same 12 t-shirts for sale. In Singapore its all about fashon. I was in a few shops and the t-shirts were going for $70 each! Luckily I had stocked up on t-shirts in thailand.

The next day (Thurs Dec 4th) I didnt fly out until 10pm, so I had the whole day to explore a bit more. The city is really pretty, but it started to rain in the evening, so I just went and caught a movie. I was really excited about travelling in a plane again and getting to Australia finally.

From Singapore I flew to Darwin - a city on the northern tip of Australia and had to go through customs there. They actually pulled me aside and grilled me about my travels; why I was in Cambodia for 3 days, Malaysia for 2 days, Singapore for 2 days, and then only 4 days in Australia... So they went through my entire backpack, X-rayed it a few times, swabbed some of my things for drugs and grilled me for about 15 mins. Welcome back to Australia. Fortunately I didn't have my daily serving of drugs and needles with me, so they let me go, but not without a stern warning for bringing in Claratin (allergy medicine) they said it can be considered illicid drugs... haha. I guess they had to come up with something for all their troubles. It was nice to be in a place where everyone spoke english again and eat some familliar foods again.

I'll tell you more about Australia on the next post. This one is getting novel sized...

Well, thats all for now!
Come back soon for more!

Nate.

Trekking in Northern Thailand

2008-11-25T15:13:00.010+13:00

I made it out of the jungle alive and well! I have never sweat so much in my life! It was insane! I took some cool photo's if you wanna check them out... you know the drill.

When I arrived in Bangkok from Cambodia I explored the city a bit and found the most amazing mall ever. ever. First thing I found was a food court, not just any food court, this one was different. You walked into an area and are presented with a card. Then there are about a dozen stalls with different kinds of food, Japanese, italian, thai, etc. You pick out what you want to eat and they just swipe your card then when you leave you just pay for everything you had. It was great!

Then I walked around the corner and found a geeks heaven. This mall has 7 floors, each floor is the size of a walmart and dedicated to one type of product. The first floor I found was the electronics floor. There were hundreds of stalls selling every kind of cell phone, video game, ipod, and burnt movie imaginable. And all for incredibly cheap. I wandered around drooling for a few hours and ended up buying a sweet as cell phone for cheap cheap. I was tempted to pick up an iPhone, but I already have an iTouch and would be a tad over the top in geekness if I was carrying both around haha. There were other floors that had only clothing (i bought a pair of deisel jeans for $15!!) The top floor had a sweet movie theater with couches, lazy boy chiars and you could order food and beer/wine! I didnt have enough time to watch a movie... so I'll have to do that next time.

I took an overnight train from Bangkok north to a city called Chiang Mai. It was a 14hr trip, and I slept like a baby! I met 3 Thai ladies that were teaching me some more thai words to help pass the time. They thought I was crazy travelling alone so far from home haha. I finally arrived around noon and made it to my guesthouse. They filled me in on what I needed to bring for the trek and spent most of the day exploring and getting ready to take off. I'll tell you more about this city later...

The next morning the tour group picked me up and we headed north for about an hour to our first top at the Elephant camp. There were 2 adults three teens and two baby elephants. You really feel weak and small standing next to them. We had a ride for about an hour and took them down to the river for a drink; the smallest ones went for a swim. It was hilarious, they were just like kids playing in the mud.

After the elephant ride we started our trek up the mountain. By this time it was just past noon and the hottest part of the day. An excellent time to start hiking haha. There were 12 of us going up the mountain, and one Australian couple - Kristian and Celia just arrived in chiang mai and didnt have time to pack a seperate bag for the trek. So Kristian had to carry this 40lb pack all the way up the mountain! I have no idea how it managed not to die on the way up, because I have never sweat so much in my life! I drank 3 litres of water and didnt have to pee once! My shirt was completely soaked and water was dripping off my face. Two times during the climb we came across elephants! I'm not sure if they were wild, but there were no people anywhere nearby. It was really impressive to suddenly come across this huge animal, completely oblivious to us. We walked for about 3 hours and climbed 1400 meters before reaching the villiage at the top of the mountain. We arrived just in time for sunset, and the hard work was worth it to see that view. I couldnt take the grin off my face! It was so rewarding seeing that view and knowing what we had just accomplished. What made it even better was a nice cold beer.

After the sun went down we had supper by candle light since there is no electricity there. After that our guide Bond (as in James Bond) and his buddy Jack (Sparrow) played the guitar and sang some songs. Everyone chilled out on the balcony watching the stars and Jack had some mind games with sticks. OH My Buddha! and Sorry No! were his favorite sayings and soon became ours for the rest of the trip. It felt like it was around midnight when everyone went to bed, but everyone was fast asleep just after 9pm. It was a long day...

The next morning we were awakened by a Rooster sounding off at about 5am. Again the view from our hut was beautiful! The morning mist was pouring over the mountains and flowing through the valley. We had breakfast on the balcony and watched the view for a few hours before our group was split up. Some people were only doing a two day trek and had to head back down. There were only 5 of us that continued on... We had a one hour hike to our next stop at a huge waterfall where we could cool off and go swimming.

Going down the mountain was even harder with tired legs but again we were rewarded with this huge waterfall. We stayed there for about 2 hours to play and eat. The water crashing down from this waterfall was so powerful! When we went under we had to cover your head and hope you still had clothes on when you came out the other side! If you look close at this picture here you can hardly see me under the fall!

After resting here we headed further down the mountian criss crossing the stream sometimes by balancing across a log or jumping from stone to stone. We came across another waterfall that was crashing down a solid rock face wall. It would have been perfect to do some absailing down! Next time I bring a rope. Another hour of trekking and we reached our second camp along the stream. Our guide took me, Kristian and Celia upstream a little to do some fishing. We didnt catch any fish, and the only bites we had were from minows the size of your finger. Luckily we had some cold beers along, so all was not lost. After supper the remaining 5 of our group - Kristian, Celia, Anne (from London) and Javier (Spain) and I sat around the fire drinking beers* and Bond played us some music with only 4 strings on his guitar. I slept great again that night, and this time no roosters to wake us up!

The last day of our trip started with more hiking... It was another hour down the mountain when we reached the white water rafting stop. Before long we were on the water and hit our first set of rapids, then waited for the rest of the rafts to get on the water. The next raft ended up getting stuck on a rock for about 10 mins, then a few seconds after they get free they hit some rapids and completely flip over! First rapids and there is already a rescue trying to collect everyone floating down the river. They didnt have a great start. We hit a few more sets of rapids and got a few waves in the face. It was a good rush hitting these rapids for about an hour. After the rapids were finished we traded our rubber raft for a traditional bamboo raft and floated down the river for another 30mins. The thing with these bamboo rafts is that with the amount of people we had on it the raft was about 4 inches underwater! It was a lot of fun and was the end of our journey. We came to the last stop where they fed us some delishous pad thai for lunch before they took everyone back to our hostels and where our group all headed our seperate ways....

Today I am going to see if I can rent a motorcycle again and check out the city a bit before I leave. Tomorrow is my last day in Thailand... I fly to Singapore tomorrow and have a few days there before I go to Australia! I have 10 days that I'm going to spend around Melbourne before I fly to Auckland Dec 6th,

I'll talk to you all again soon!

Nate.

Cambodia

2008-11-20T17:39:00.009+13:00

Hey Hey! I’m back from Cambodia safe and sound! Since most people didn’t even know that I was in Cambodia, I’ll get you up to speed. My last day in Khao Lak was spent chilling by the pool with the Wicked DMT’s. Chilling by the pool turned into a pool party as the sun went down, more beers were cracked, and more friends joined in! It was a blast, and the guys had me convinced that I should miss my flight to Bangkok and just stay in Khao Lak for the rest of my trip. I was seriously considering it, especially the next morning; I did not feel like waking up and going to the air port at all. I decided it wouldn’t be travelling if I didn’t see more of Thailand and Cambodia… At the moment I’m wishing I had stayed in Khao Lak. It’s only been a few days and I miss the ocean and the familiar faces. Now I’m sitting in a cramped room and don’t know a soul. Hopefully that will change soon.

So I left Khao lak and headed to Bangkok as planned. Right away its apparent that things are much busier here. On my way from baggage claim to the bus stop I was bombarded with people asking if I wanted a taxi. First prices were 700Baht for a taxi, and as I got closer to the bus stop it was down to 400B. Then I started to hear from people saying that the bus was closed today… riiiiight. Finally I got to the bus stand and bought my ticket for 150b. The bus was pretty nice too! Leather reclining seats and AC, and it dropped me off right in front of my hostel!

I wandered around town a little and started going into travel shops to see what my options were for Cambodia and other things to do. I ended up booking a trip to Cambodia that left at 7am the next morning. So next morning I was packed up and on a bus to Cambodia! This is where things started to get a little sketchy. After 4 hours of driving we pull into a restaurant and suddenly have people there yelling at us to get out. I guess it was our stop. It didn’t seem very organized and they didn’t seem to have a good idea about who was going where or who had paid for the visa already The next thing I knew we were filling out Visa applications for Cambodia and handing our passports over to these people. They told us that the visas would be ready in 30mins once we walked to the border. Wait, walked? Yep. We had to walk about a half a Km with all our gear to the border check where we were handed our passports back. We went through the Thailand border, had to walk another half Km to the Cambodian border check, then another 500m to our ride. It was +30 outside and I had a 40lb pack on. I was a little warm.

I was buddied up with 3 young American guys and another driver who didn’t speak English. First stop was for gas. For some reason it took 3 of them to fill the tank which happened to be in the trunk with all our luggage… One of the American guys got out and kept an eye on them. Ahead of us was a 3 hour drive on one of the crappiest roads I have ever seen. It was like sask roads in spring only with more gravel and mud. I tried to sleep, but every few mins we hit a huge bump or have to swerve to dodge a cow/person/car/dog/giant hole and your head slams against the window. After 3 hours of this we finally reach the city Siem Reap.

Eventually we arrive at the hotel and I meet my guide Mr. Seyha who is going to be showing me around the next few days. The first thing he asks me is if I want to go out to a restaurant for supper or to his friend’s wedding reception instead! I couldn’t turn down the chance to go to a Cambodian wedding reception so I said ya! After a quick shower he picked me up and off we went to this wedding reception. There were about 500 people there and I was the only white dude so I stood out a little. I kept getting the look “who the F is that guy?” Now this wedding was very fancy, more than I had anticipated. I felt like a tit for wearing flip flops, but It was so hot out! I guess I was expecting something a little more 3rd world. I’m new to Cambodia, gimme a break. It wasn’t long before the beers were being cracked and everyone loosened up a bit. Cambodians love to do ‘cheers’, so every minute someone at the table would yell “cheers!” (in Camboian) and everyone at the table would have to take a big drink. Food was brought to the table on a large plate that everyone would take from…. Using chop sticks… awesome. I’d have to show off my chop stick skills too. I’m alright, but no master by any means. I managed ok, and everyone at the table watched me with a huge grin as I attempted to get the food from the center of the table to somewhere near my plate. I think they were pleased that I tried and did alright haha. Everyone started to loosen up and they would talk to Seyha to get him to translate to me. I found out later that it is very good luck to have a foreigner at your wedding. Just before we left the drunk people started coming out. There was live entertainment and one lady had gotten up on stage and was trying to steal the mic away so she could sing, another guy was out busting a move on the dance floor. One guy at our table was yelling at the waiters, I don’t speak Cambodian, but I could tell it was very slurred. It was hilarious to see that weddings weren’t that much different here than back home.

Day two started early and we were off to see the temples of Angkor. We stopped at about 10 different ruins and Seyha told me the history about each one, when they were built and by who, which religion, when they were found and even the country that was funding the restoration. He also talked about the war in Cambodia and how 3 million people were killed in 3+ years (1975-79) and how there are still 6 million land mines unaccounted for in the country. It was amazing how many details he knew. So many of the temples were really amazing with the detail they still had. Many were built in the 9th century and were being destroyed by huge trees that were left to grow for nearly 300 years. I watched one group doing restoration for about 10mins. It took four men using a wagon to move a single stone into place; I was imagining how much effort and manpower it would have taken to build just one of these temples. The trees looked like huge snake bodies curling around each building crushing them with their immense weight. Our last stop was Angkor Wat. This is the most famous of all the temples here and also the largest religious building in the world. To enter you cross a huge moat along a causeway that is 250 meters long and come to the “third gallery”. A building with 5 entrances one for the king, one for elephants, one for horses, one for generals, and one for common people. After this building was another causeway that was 350 meters long leading to the “second gallery”. This building had a wall about 100 meters long with thousands of detailed carvings about a story that progressed as you walked along the wall. It was really amazing. After this building you enter the main area where the 5 main towers are. It was very impressive, and a very tiring day.

One thing that I thought was annoying was all the children trying to sell you crap as you entered each of the sites. As soon as you get out of the car there are three of them selling you something. One had a book, one had postcards and another had bracelets. It was the same three things at each one and by the end I was getting really annoyed. One child followed me the entire way as I climbed up to the peak of one temple asking me to buy postcards. I was hoping to enjoy the scenery and the moment but it was hard with this kid asking me every 30 seconds to buy something. Eventually I agreed to buy her postcards if she would take a picture of me at the top… finally she left me alone and I could look around a little.

That night I wandered around Siem Reap and explored the city a little before I headed back to Bangkok in the morning. The way home was almost identical to the journey there. Confusion, long sweaty walks, and rough roads. We got stuck in traffic about two km from the border. It had rained the day before and turned the roads to mud. There were trucks stuck everywhere and people falling off their motorcycles into the mud. It was kind of funny watching everyone as we sat there for 30mins waiting for people to get sorted out.

Tonight I leave Bangkok on the overnight train and go north to Chaing Mai. This is mountain and jungle country. I’m going to be doing some trekking, rafting and elephant riding for the next 3 days. So stay tuned for more!
There are more pics in the photo album of many of the temples if you want to check them out…

Until next time!

Nate.

Finished Liveaboard #2

2008-11-15T21:01:00.005+13:00

Hello Again! I’m back from the second liveaboard trip, and again it was a blast! This one was a little different than the first. Of the 9 dives we did 6 were different than the first trip out, and since I was finished all my training I was able to see even more of the Similans. We did another night dive and it was even better than the first! We followed a huge octopus around that would change colors when it touched different rocks to camouflage itself, and saw a bright red coral crab hiding in the coral. While we were out on the trip there was a Thai celebration called Loy Krathong. They make a small raft made of flowers and burn incents that they push out to the sea to ask forgiveness for the water they have spilled and unintentional pollution of the sea. The crew had prepared a bunch of these rafts for us to push out so that we could take part in the celebration with them!

The last dive of the trip was a wreck dive called the Boonsung wreck. It was very different than all the other dives, the visibility was only about 10 meters and there were fish everywhere! I saw dozens of poisonous lionfish, giant pufferfish and a few honeycomb moray eels. It was really cool to navigate around the wreck making sure you didn’t get caught on anything or bump into one of the lionfish hovering around. It was a bit more challenging and exciting compared to doing a reef dive where you just relax and cruise along.

After seven days I already have 18 dives under my belt and an advanced open water cert! So now I can do wreck dives, night dives and deep dives. I can’t wait to get a chance to go diving in different parts of the world. I also got some great underwater pictures from the DMT’s on the first trip so you can see some of what we’ve been looking at down there. Just check the photo album…

Since I’ve been back on land I’ve been working out where to go next. There are still so many more things I’d like to see and do, but it’s hard to fit it all into two weeks. My plan has changed about 5 times in the past 16hrs, but I think I’ve got it worked out. I wanted to go south to Krabi and check out more islands, but that’s all I’ve really seen of Thailand so far… not that that’s a bad thing! But I’m fairly sure there is more to Thailand than jaw dropping beaches and islands. So instead I was going to go to the northern tip of Thailand and see the mountains, but this wouldn’t leave me much time to get to Cambodia. I’ve come to a compromise…go to the middle! I’m off to Bangkok since it’s near the gulf coast and a good base to do trips up north and east to Cambodia.

Here is a quick story for everyone – last night I was sitting in front of the wicked shop when this giant cicada bug started buzzing around and flew into the shop. No problem, 4 guys should be able to take this bird sized bug out. I admit I remained safely outside the shop (you know, to make sure no one else came in…) So Paul went to go whack it with a broom and this bug let out a scream you would only hear in horror movies!! After a few more swipes with the broom it started screeching and buzzing Paul’s head. That’s when everyone bailed out of the shop, this thing sounded pissed right off! We need a bigger broom… (Jaws… get it?) Eventually it flew out the back door and everyone was back to business. I managed to get enough courage to get close enough and take a picture of the bug, but if it had moved an inch I would have let out a man scream.

Until next time! Take care everyone,

Nate.

Oh, and just as a side note, its +32 today and I'm sitting by the pool with the DMT guys as I write this up... incase you were wondering... :)

I'm a certified Diver! - Similan Islands

2008-11-10T23:15:00.009+13:00

I'm back on dry land!! The first 3 day liveabord is finished up and I am now a certified diver!! I have to complete one more test on my next dive and I'll have my advanced open water certificate too. I have a few more pics uploaded to the photo album if you want to check out the what the islands look like.

I made the 3hr bus trip up from Karon beach in Phuket to Khao Lak and managed to find the dive shop. Its a little scary knowing when and where to get off the bus when no one speaks english, but I made out just fine. The guys here at Wicked Diving have been great. They hooked me up with an amazing place to stay when I got here and made sure I felt at home.

The next day I was up at the crack of dawn and down at the dive shop by 7:30am and we collected all our gear and headed to the boat. The Similan Islands are about 75kms away from mainland so it took us a little over 3 hours to get there. My dive instructor Filip went over some test questions and reading that I had done the night before, and made me watch some video's about safety and skills. Before I knew it we were at the islands and getting ready for the first dive!

I have to say the water was crystal clear and a beautiful green. Filip had me practice a few skills - how to recover my regulator (air supply) in case it comes out of my mouth, how to clear my mask, and swim without a mask, do an emergency ascent, and take my BCD off (inflatable jacket that makes me float). I got them all completed with no issues at all, and Filip was very impressed. After that we went down a little deeper and checked out the reef a bit. It was absolutely amazing! The water was so clear it seemed like I could see for miles. The visibility was about 25 meters (90 feet or so).

We did another dive in the afternoon just after supper and again it was stunning. The cabins on the boat were super tiny! two beds and just enough room to stand or change haha. The crew on the boat was great. We had two dive engineers who filled all our bottles and helped us gear up and get in/out of the water. We also had two Thai cooks who kept us very well fed! They made some of the best meals I have had so far in Thailand.

Day two on the boat started with a dive at 7am! Again I had to learn and practice more skills before we went off and looked at the huge granite boulders. We did 4 dives that day, including one night dive. We stoped and explored a few beaches during breaks between dives, the views were amazing! I seem to be using this word a lot... The last dive of the day was one of my favorites. It was about 8pm and we went down to about 18meters and saw tons of lion fish, plus many other fish sleeping! I have never seen fish sleep before, but it was hilarious! some would wedge themselves in a hole or crack with just their tale sticking out. It was a totally different perspective from diving during the day. it was really great.

Day three had 3 dives in store for us. Again we were up a the crack of dawn and in the water. This first dive would be the start of my advanced course. We were doing the deep dive. I went down to 27 meters! (thats about 100 feet) There was a strong current at this site and was one of the hardest dives for the whole trip. We saw a leopord shark and a few sting rays on this one. The best thing about the morning dives was coming up to the surface and your first breath of fresh air is that of breakfast cooking. We did two more dives after this one and were much easier. We saw two more leopard sharks, a poisonous scorpion fish, a giant barracuda and a huge Napoleon Wrasse fish.

Once we got back to land most of us went out for supper at a local steak house. The steak there was one of the best I have ever eaten, and it was only $7. Man I love Thailand!

The three days on the boat seemed to fly by! I made some new friends and am going out again for another 3 days/9 dives tomorrow morning! I'm hooked!

So I'll talk to everyone again when I get back to land and even upload some more pictures from the underwater cameras.

Phi Phi Islands

2008-11-06T15:26:00.006+13:00

Hello again everyone! What a day yesterday! I went to Ko Phi Phi for some snorkelling and sight seeing early yesterday morning so I didn't get to watch the all the election coverage, although the only english news channel here is Fox News (cant stand them). Anyway way to go Obama!!

Back to Ko Phi Phi. These are the islands where they filmed much of the movie "The Beach". The views here was stunning! I was blown away again and agian. I uploaded a ton of pics of this place in the photo album too!! The tour I went on was great. I upgraded to the "deluxe" tour, which was smaller, on a speed boat (the islands are 40kms off the coast), it was all inclusive and they took us to some spots where no one else can go. All this for $100. Money well spent!

They picked me up from the hotel around 8am and took us off to the boat where we had some breakfast on the way to the first Island for some snorkelling. It had sheer walls all around that went straight into the ocean. I actually swam around the whole island in about 15mins.

Next we toured around a near by island before heading to their secret spot on another island for lunch on the beach. This spot was a sliver of an opening in the rock face walls that opened up to a little cove with soft icing sugar sand. We had the place all to our selves.

After lunch we went to another island for some snorkelling. This spot was great! There were so many soft corals and many fish. I even saw 3 black tip reef sharks!! It was amazing, they were only 10 meters away, but when I tried to get a closer look they went out to deeper water... I'm sure I'll see more when I go diving at the Similan Islands...

After the diving we headed back to Phuket and saw some jumping dolphins along the way. One cleared 8 feet out of the water! It was a nice ending to a great day.

Last night I went to my fav restaurant and said my goodbyes to the waitresses (they have been teaching me a little Thai - very nice people). Then on the way home I ran into my tuk tuk drivers Dim and Pop. They actually bought me a beer and we sat outside their little post and talked for about 2 hours!! I had to buy a round too... : ). We had to shut it down when Pops wife came to drag him home haha. Probably a good thing she did cause I woke up this morning with a pretty good headache.

This morning I'm checking out of the hotel and catching a bus up to Khao Lak to start my diver training. I'll be off on the boat for 3 days then back to land for one day, and then out again for another 3 days. So I'll update more then!

I hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you later!

Nate.

Still alive and well in Thailand

2008-11-03T14:10:00.009+13:00

Hello Everyone! I'm still alive here in Thailand! I uploaded some pics to the photo album if you want to check them out too!

I guess I should start at the beginning of this trip...

First off, 27 hours of traveling is just what i remembered. not so much fun. The Korean Air ladies saw it was my birthday and upgraded me to Business class! I got an OK seat and a little care package. It had socks, an eye over, and a single use toothbrush with toothpaste haha.

After 18,000 kms and 3 long plane rides I finally arrived in Phuket around midnight. Thankfully my backpack made it too! My hotel had arranged for a driver to pick me up and was supposed to be out front with my name on a sign.... but he was no where to be found. There was a thai local out front who helped me, he called the hotel and found out that they thought i was arriving the next day (I arrived at midnight) So he arranged for a taxi to take me to my hotel. It was only $15 for a 65km trip. not bad for a taxi.

My first day I decided to take a stroll along Patong beach. I forgot what it's like to be a tourist. Everyone is trying to get you to buy something. I couldn't walk 15 feet without someone asking if i wanted a beach chair, go jetski, wakeboard, or parasail. I doubled back and walked along the beach front and it was the same deal there. "You want massage? you want buy t-shirt? you want taxi? you want a nice suit? you want come eat?" repeat these questions every 50 feet. Just a tad annoying. The place reminds me of Waikiki beach if the carnival came to town. Every shop is trying to lure you in just like a carnie would. I did go in and buy a few t-shirts though. I bought 2 Diesel shirts and board shorts for $15! So, day 1 complete and still alive!

The second day I went for a swim on Karon beach - the beach close to my hotel, much different than Patong. Very laid back here, no one selling you things every 15 feet, and only a few dozen tourists around. Perfect. The water was crystal clear and 27 degrees. After my swim I took a tuk tuk (a taxi, only it looks like an adult hotwheels car) up to see the big budda on the hill. Its 45ft high and you can see it from all around the island. The tuk tuk driver (Dim) showed me where to go and pointed out all the beaches to me. Such an amazing view from there, the pics dont do it justice. After his little tour he gave me, I went out for supper and ended up eating with a couple from Australia. They were lots of fun, and it was nice not to eat alone haha. The food here is amazing! Its so tastey and cheap! I had prawns with curry and veggies, steamed rice, a beer, and a sunday for less than 180baht (about $5). On the way back to the hotel I came across a man walking a baby elephant down the sidewalk! You could feed him for 20baht (about 80 cents)

Day 3 - another hot day... I went for a swim at the beach again, and bought some new shorts on the way home ($6 for billabong cargo shorts - I needed something with zippers haha). Its so hot out that walking anywhere turns you into a sweaty mess. I had put on about 30kms wearing flip flops the past few days, now it was time to get mobile. I rented a motorcycle (more of a scooter really, but i didnt want to explain the difference to them...) and went exploring. I had a map with me, but most of the roads dont have signs or are in Thai, so its not going to be much help anyway. Phuket is an Island, so I figuired I couldnt get that lost, plus I could see my budda buddy from almost anywhere on the island. The thing about driving here is there arent really many "rules of the road"... the solid yellow line is mostly a suggestion, and most of the time people drive on the left. Red lights have a 5 second rule., just keep on going if it changed... And dont get run over. I ended up riding around for about 7 hours! I was zig zaging up and down roads all along the coast and saw some amazing views. I even ran into two Canadian guys (I spotted the one with a Molson shirt on) we ended up chatting for about 15mins about thailand and CFL football haha.

I found some really nice area's that were off the main tourist strip, which was a welcome change... a fish market, a free aquarium with a sea turtle hatchery, some kind of elephant shrine, and I saw 4 adult Elephants just off the road doing some kind of yard work haha. Seriously, one was clearing tree's in the front yard! It seemed like he was having a good time throwing things around. At the end of the day I found a reggae bar high up on the side of a hill. You could sit at the table with your feet dangling over the edge. So I had a beer and another tasty thai dinner and watched the sun set into the ocean. That was one of the best days I've had in my life.

Today I am burnt to a crisp. My nose are forearms are a bright red. I guess sunscreen doesnt last 7hours. I've got a few things to do today, not quite as adventurous as yesterday, just going to book a hostel in Phuket Town, take my laundry in for a wash, line up a snorkel trip to Ko Phi Phi (where they filmed "the beach") and get in touch with the company I'm doing the scuba cert course with.

There are so many more little details I wish I could add, but I dont want to ramble on, and some things are rated a little 18+.(ie many clubs with thai girly-boys dancing on the bar and the men watching with big grins on their faces) I'll have to tell you about those stories in person or make another blog for that sort of thing.

So long for now!
Nate.

First Post!

2008-10-19T12:43:00.001+13:00

Hey Hey Everyone!
I finally got around to creating another blog for my next trip! Everyone seemed to like the Australia one, so I'll do my best to keep people interested in this one too...

First off, I'll get everyone up to speed on my trip (plans have been changing a little - ie no more south america). I am going to Thailand for about a month then off to New Zealand to work for about 6 months to a year, hopefully I'll get a chance to stop in Australia again too!

I leave on Oct 29th (my B-day!) from Saskatoon on a quick 3hr flight to Vancouver, then an 11hr flight to Seoul, Korea, then a 6hr flight to Phuket, Thailand. That's said "Poo-ket", not "fu-ket" by the way. Thats 27hrs of traveling, and 20hrs sitting in a plane... by myself. Happy Birthday me! haha.

I'm planning on spending about a month in Thailand, and hopefully I'll get a chance to visit Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and maybe even the Philippines while I'm there. All that I really have planned in Thailand is getting my PADI scuba diving certs and hopefully going to the "full moon party". Other than that we'll see where I end up, but I'm guessing visiting many beaches, seeing some beautiful places and meeting other crazy travellers will be involved...

After Thailand I should be arriving in New Zealand the first week of December. Depending on how much money I end up spending in Thailand I may be finding a job right away, or doing some more touring around NZ. I should be able to find a nice balance of both I think.

Well that's it for now! Only 11 more days till I'm off, I'll try to update more later!