Australia wrap-up

The second part of my Outback tour was touted as being the most boring tour in all of Australia by our tour guide. He said this because there just isn't that much to see or do between Alice Springs and Darwin, just a whole lot of red sand, bushes and a few rocks. But luckily for us, he was a really good tour guide who made an effort to keep it interesting, even if there was a lot of driving involved.

The best stop of the tour was at Devil's Marbles, basically a bunch of huge rocks sitting in the Outback as if they had been placed there by some unknown giants. We scrambled around the rocks, taking amazing pictures at all the best photo ops. It's at one of these photo ops that I had my latest mishap that of course, I'd love to share with you.

Carl, our tour guide, proposed that we take a group photo on top of a big rock. He then looked at me and amended that, hum, maybe we'd be better off taking the photo in front of the rock, not on top of it. You see, the thing was that you actually had to leap onto the rock from a lower rock a few feet away. Imagine, to think he actually doubted my ability to get on the rock! The cheek of him! So of course, I say no, no, I can do it. Or at least try to do it. And of course, what was bound to happen happened. I didn't quite make it far enough, went "splat" onto the rock, lost my shoe somehow (???) and was flat on the rock desperately trying not to fall off like my shoe did. I basically had to scrape myself up onto my knee and then scramble safely onto the rock. I survived, but managed to scrape my knee pretty good. But someone was kind enough to retrieve my shoe from down between 2 rocks, so all was well. Hopefully the pictures will be worth it...

The third and final part of my tour was a 3-day sprint around Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, way up top near Darwin. I say near Darwin, but really, nothing in Australia is really near anything else, so again, there was a lot of driving involved. This is also where I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Here are some highlights:

• Dragged my ass on an what should have been an easy 3.5 km walk to get to a swimming hole, wearing my fly net the whole time and still getting freaked out by the amount of flies around my face.
• Cooled down in the swimming hole for a while, then dragged my a** back from the swimming hole, this time twisting my ankle, falling and scraping the other knee that had so far been intact.
• Went on a guided night walk through the forest on Xmas Eve, looking for snakes, spiders and crocodiles. Found 2 out of 3 (no snakes) but as an added bonus had my first experience with leeches!
• Had a huge traditional Xmas lunch on our tour, with ham, turkey, chicken, salads, ... all the while fighting off the biting ants and coping with heat.
• Went to another swimming hole after Xmas lunch to cool down again, only to be nibbled on 3 times by biting fish! On my disgusting wounded knee that still won't heal in all this heat and humidity! Arggg!
• Finished off Xmas day by going out to dinner in Darwin with the gang from our tour. Somehow, we didn't get the memo that most restaurants would be closed on Christmas Day. Who knew! ;-) Ended up having an excellent (not) Chinese/Italian take-away meal with the gang.

So, all in all I had a great time in the Australian Outback and a good Christmas as well. I have to admit that my comfort level was severely tested during these 2 weeks, and I'm surprised that I managed as well as I did. But now, I am honestly quite pooped. It was great, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I also find that 2 weeks is a long time to be on a tour. I've realised that tours are great for meeting people, but the downside is that I don't have as much independence as I'd like. You have to pace yourself with the group, which in my case is way faster than what I'm comfortable with. A bit tiring for me, but also worth it in the end.

So as I'm writing this, I have now made my way to my first stop in Asia: Singapore! Free Internet at the hostel (cool!) and still hot & humid weather (oh well).

I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2008 will bring you all the best!

An update from the middle of nowhere!

I had a great week on my tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs. This is exactly what I wanted to see of Australia, and I have not been disappointed. It's vast, empty, harsh, hot and so very different from anyplace I've ever seen. From the news I get from home about the snow piling up non-stop in Montreal, I really can't think of anyplace more different than where I am now! By the way, I hope you are all surviving winter so far. I feel for ya! :-)

The first part of my tour covered the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the aforementioned "middle of nowhere". For 6 days, we drove anywhere from 3 to 7 hours a day through the desert, stopping at interesting places along the way for walks or for taking pictures. The highlights for me were Uluru (amazing!) and Kata Tjuta (even prettier than Uluru).

It was also quite the experience for me, with firsts like camping under the stars and sharing duties with 24 strangers for 6 days straight. The group was actually really good, and I met some really nice people. The camping was OK, although I can't say that I'm a fan of feeling dirty all the time (red sand & dust from the desert that covers you from head to toe) nor of sleeping without a pillow. And the showers, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Let's just say I am becoming an expert at scanning for bugs like centipedes and cockroaches while rinsing the shampoo from my hair. And I now know to look under the bed for dead mice before going to sleep in an underground cave. Loads of fun! :-)

I promised my sister Julie that I wouldn't complain of the heat, since she is freezing her butt off in Quebec and is not loving the early start to winter you've been getting this year. So this is not a complaint, I swear, it is simply a statement of fact: The Outback is HOT! On the few days where the sun was shinning full blast, you felt like you were baking in the sun. To give you an idea of how hot and dry it gets, when I washed my hands at one of our rest stops, I left the toilet without drying my hands (no towels or dryer) and within 5-10 seconds, my hands were bone dry! I was so amazed, I wet them again just to count how long it took to dry them, and didn't make it to 10 seconds. A bit geeky of me, but I thought it was so cool! And we were quite lucky with the weather, since it wasn't that sunny all the time. We had a few days of clouds, and some rain, and without them, I don't know how I would have managed not to get heat or sunstroke. It's also why most days on the trip start out really early (like as early as 3:45 AM!), so that you can get activities done early in the day before it gets to hot. The hottest parts of the day were spent sitting on a very old, uncomfortable but luckily air-conditioned bus.

I am now in Alice Springs until tomorrow, when the 2nd part of my tour starts. I will probably not be in contact until the day after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy this time with your respective families, and stay safe!

As for me, I will probably be missing home a bit next week, but I still appreciate every minute of this trip I'm doing. No regrets or complaints from me!

Merry Christmas!!!

Road trip!

My last week started off on a bit of a low, having arrived in Melbourne to find that the hostel I managed to book myself into the day before was a bit scuzzy and sooo not my style. Added to that was me worrying about my plans (i.e. didn't have any yet) for the rest of my time in Australia. This planning as I go along will get some getting used to, but hopefully I'll be an expert at it by the time my trip ends.

I ended up spending my time in Melbourne going to the movies twice ("Death at a funeral" - very funny English movie, "Into the Wild" - liked it a lot) and spending hours on the Internet getting some stuff settled. So don't ask me what I thought of Melbourne, I can't really form an opinion based on what I did or saw... Just don't stay at the Nomads Industry hostel if you come here, although to be fair I've heard that most hostels in Melbourne are of the same quality.

So, once I made some plans, I was ready to move on. I spent a couple of days in Phillip Island, south of Melbourne. This is where the world-famous (at least now it is!) Penguin Parade happens every night. Those of you who've read my previous post about penguins realise that this would be a draw to me, having the chance to some again. This time, the "penguin parade" was a very touristy attraction, with hundreds of people paying good money to sit in a stand on the beach waiting for the penguins to return from the sea at nightfall. It looked more like a "tourist parade" at one point... But when the sun sets, hundreds upon hundreds of penguins make there way from the sea to their little nests on the beach. It really was an amazing site, these cute little 30-cm penguins waddling up from the ocean!

Phillip Island is also where I was introduced to the joys of summer in Australia. No, I'm not talking about the beautiful beaches, although there were plenty, nor the hot weather or blue ocean. No, I'm talking about the bloody Australian flies. You see, there is this well kept secret about Australia that I learned only once I got here. I was warned about the snakes, spiders, killer jellyfish, crocodiles, ... before my arrival, but no one ever mentioned anything about the flies. What's so bad about flies, you ask? Let me tell you, these are not your typical Quebec black flies that buzz in your ear once in a while and move on. These are disgusting, sticky little black flies that Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone. They fly around your face, trying to get into any orifice they can. These charming flies particularly enjoy the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, and nothing will deter them in their quest to drive you absolutely crazy. The only thing that keeps them somewhat away from your face is doing the Aussie wave, also known as the Aussie salute. A constant "whoosh-whooshing" movement in front of your face.

So there I was on Phillip Island, ready for a nice day at the beach. I had packed myself a little picnic lunch, a good book and had big plans for snoozing the afternoon away. I got to the beach, sat down and lasted 30 minutes before I realised I couldn't take it anymore. My hands were cramping up from waving all the time, I couldn't get a bite of my lunch without having 10 flies hovering around my mouth and when I tried to lay down and ignore them, they just had a field day trying to get to my brain through my ears (or so it felt like to me). I gave up and headed to the shops were at least the number of flies would be a bit more manageable, but not before I managed to make a complete fool of myself by having a meltdown right on the main street. As I was waving my hand frantically in front of my face, one fly got to my eye, even behind my sunglasses. I freaked and threw off the sunglasses, which also sent my hat and hairband flying. I was not a happy camper. Then I noticed I had attracted a bit of an audience, so I started laughing. Better that than going absolutely nuts, which is what I felt like doing. The flies have not gotten any better since then, but I think I've adapted now. The Aussie wave is now an automatic thing when I'm outside, so much so I think I may be waving in my sleep...

Next up after Phillip Island was a 3-day road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. I was very excited to drive in Australia, to see if driving on the left-hand side would come back to me quickly (I'd done it before when I worked in the UK for 6 months). It did, and it sure felt good to be behind the wheel of a car, that much I can say! Driving on the left didn't prove to be to much of a challenge, and shifting gears with my left hand is actually more natural to me than the right. What did prove to be a challenge was using the "flicker" to signal a turn instead of using the windshield wipers all the time (the windshield wipers are on the left of the steering wheel, where my "flicker" would be at home). I think I started getting the hang of it on my 3rd day. The drive on the Great Ocean Road is absolutely beautiful. I took so many pictures, it'll take me hours to upload them. Very much worth the while!

I had to upgrade my living arrangements for those few days on the road, since I was travelling during "schoolies" week. "Schoolies" is the Australian version of Spring break for the recent high school graduates. They head "en masse" to the beach, taking up every budget accommodation possible. So I had to upgrade to motels, or else sleep in the car. Not a difficult decision to make! Especially since next up for me is a 2-week tour of the Outback, including 6 nights of camping under the stars!

I hope all of you are enjoying Xmas time at home. I have to admit it is just not the same being so far away and being in a warm climate for Christmastime. Hearing "Jingle Bells" on the radio whilst sweating in 30C weather is just too bizarre for me...

In the land Down Under

So I've been getting some subtle and not so subtle hints to update my blog more often. Sorry about that, but I do my best...

I've been in Australia for the past week, enjoying the sights and melting in the humidity. I am shocked to see how unfortunately and digustingly sweaty I get in this weather, and it's only been in the low to mid 20's since I've arrived. I simply cannot (I repeat, I cannot) fathom what 39C with 100% humidity feels like! I'm not sure I want to know, but I suspect I'll find out in the next few weeks when travelling up north into the tropical Top End of Australia. But enough about the weather for now.

I arrived in Sydney last Friday, and have been living the high life since then. I've been staying at my cousin Doug's & his wife Beth's place in Sydney, located right in the middle of things in Darling Harbour. Doug & Beth have been very welcoming, and I've been treated like a royal visitor. A personal tour guide, amazing home cooked meals, a room to myself, a nice reprieve from my current backpacking lifestyle!

My days in Sydney have been somewhat lazy, since I have been mostly enjoying the above. I did get the chance to visit the central business district, see the Opera House and walk for what seems like miles around various Sydney neighborhoods. The highlight of my sightseeing in Sydney was the BridgeClimb, where, as the name suggest, you climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge up to the very top (see picture below). It wasn't too difficult, even for little old me. The worse bit may have been my half-jog to get to the BridgeClimb in time for my 1:15PM climb, having misjudged the time it would take me to walk there and having lazed around all morning doing my laundry and talking on Skype. I was red-faced and sweaty even before starting the climb. Charming. :-)

I left Tuesday morning for a 2-day getaway to the Blue Mountains, where I had my first chance to partake in the very typical Australian pastime of bushwalking. Now for those of you who aren't very up on their Aussie lingo, the "bush" is a very general term used for what we Canucks would call "woods" or "forest". I didn't know this before getting here by the way, I thought the bush referred to the Outback. But no, those are 2 different and separate things...

My first bushwalk started on a cloudy afternoon, in walking distance from the hostel I was staying at in Katoomba (cool name, isn't it?). The scenery is gorgeous, and I was really enjoying myself, walking on a trail high on the cliff surrounding the most amazingly green canyon far below. I was quite thrilled that there I was, "bushwalking" in Australia, all the way across the world from my home. I enjoyed myself for a full 10 minutes, until it hit me. There I was, in the bush in Australia, land of the killer snakes and spiders. The country that has the most ways you can die an ugly death at the hands of reptiles and arachnids. I kind of froze for a minute there as I remembered this, but started moving again, slowly and with a little less enjoyment than I was having a few minutes before. I also remembered what Beth told me, that even though you hear all these scary things about Australia, you probably won't ever see any of the things that can kill you. But still, "probably" isn't all that reassuring when you're on your own in the bush.

I did manage to enjoy the rest of my walk, but I can't say that I saw much of the scenery as I was walking. I was too busy looking out for snakes and spiders. And I did see quite a few spiders, but they were smallish and I'm pretty sure they weren't of the killer variety. I didn't see snakes but I did see a small iguana/lizard/some kind of reptile.

The next day I had more bushwalking planned. There is this one walk that involves the "Giant Stairway", with 800 or so steps leading into the bottom of the canyon from high on the cliff above. This is where a few years ago Doug & Beth saw a girl puking near the top of the steps, after her climb up. Puking not being high on my list of things to do while in Australia, I decided to go down the steps and back up further along the trail in a 10$ gondola ride. Call me lazy if you want, but it was still quite the workout just going down the bloody steps. My legs certainly feel it today as a result of my walk yesterday.

I'm heading off to Melbourne this Sunday. I am doing it the "flashpacker" way, i.e. I am going to Melbourne on a 2-hour flight instead of taking the 12-hour overnight bus. For an extra 30$ AUD, I got myself a cheap flight and I am very happy about it. For those following on Google Earth, the rest of my time in Australia should be spent visiting Melbourne, going from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road, from Adelaide to Alice Springs via Coober Peddy, then an organized tour of Outback highlights (Uluru, Kings Canyon, the Olgas) from Alice Springs to Darwin, which should be my final destination in Australia. There are so many places to see and the country is so big that you really can't do it all in 5-6 weeks. You have to make choices, and those are mine, even if they involve some of the hottest places on earth at this time of the year. Anyone want to join me? :-)

My last week in New Zealand

OK, so I don't want to rub it in, really I don't. I know that it snowed this week in Montreal, and more snow is expected in the forecast, but the weather here in New Zealand has been seriously great these past few days! I've just spent the better part of today working on my farmer's tan and maybe a little bit of sunburn as well. It was 28C and not a white cloud to be seen. Pretty good for the end of November, hey?

I've continued to enjoy my time in New Zealand since the last post. I'd say the pace has definitely slowed down a lot from the first weeks of the Magic trip, when I was on the move to a new destination almost every day. I've had the chance to relax a bit more in a few places, and it's been great.

For those non-adventure lovers out there (there are bound to be a few!) , I did 2 excursions you might be interested in if you ever make your way to New Zealand. The first started from Dunedin, NZ's very-own Scottish town. The weather was not the best when I was there, and I had my coldest days since being in NZ (min 1C, max 8C. Brrrr!), which is saying a lot. I decided to do an "Animal safari", since it sounded good and was a nice way to spend my day in Dunedin instead of doing nothing but avoid the cold and wet weather. First off on the Animal safari was a stop to see some Royal Albatross, the largest sea birds around. Now if you're anything like me, you're thinking at this point: ooh, big deal, birds... I'm not into birds too much, so even if I did see a Royal Albatross, I could barely tell the difference between this and a normal "mouette", at least not from afar. But our guides were really excited that we got to see one, so I guess that means I'm lucky, right? Next up the guides brought us to a farm by the sea where we got to watch my new favorite animal (or bird?): the penguin. We walked through farmland to the beach to see the tiny little penguins return from a hard day at sea. Some of the older penguins are used to seeing humans, so they don't mind you so much, but the younger ones are a bit nervous. They would swim out of the sea, start waddling up the beach, then stop dead in their tracks. They'd look up at us to where we were standing still more than a 100 meters away and do a u-turn and head right back to the sea. Or stand very still and pretend to be invisible. Too cute! We were also brought to a shelter on a hill by the beach, where we could watch the penguins moving around without them seeing us. We saw some newly hatched penguins being protected by their parent, and other eggs just starting to hatch. Very cool!

The other non-adventurous activity I did took place in Lake Tekapo, this very small village that has a summer camp/cottage feel to it. Reminded me of the Laurentians. Anyway, the weather was so nice and a great change from the cold and wet weather of Dunedin, that I decided to stay 2 nights instead of just one. On my first night there, I did a star-gazing tour. Since I never get to see the stars even at home, being so close to all those lights emanating from Montreal, star-gazing is something I really wanted to do while in NZ. I was lucky enough to arrive in Lake Tekapo to great weather and cloudless skies. There is also an observatory up on a hill close by, so now was my chance to see the Southern sky at its best, plus get close-ups of the Moon and constellations via a huge telescope. The "tour" began at 11:30PM and lasted until close to 2AM. I got to see literally thousands of stars in a sky so bright and lit up that it looked fake. Brilliant!

Aside from that, I enjoyed spending a relaxing day sitting on the beach by Lake Tekapo, with nothing more pressing on my agenda then doing my washing and calling home. Since then, I have moved on to Christchurch, my last destination in New Zealand. I've spent a couple of days walking around and visiting, as well as thinking about my next destination: Australia. Even if I've enjoyed New Zealand tremendously and I think it was the best place to start my trip, I'm looking forward to moving on to a new country now. It's kind of like starting over on a new trip, but with a bit more "backpacking" experience under my belt. Not much, since NZ was so easy, but I don't have the same worries I did when I started my trip in October. I now know I can do this, and enjoy every challenge along the way. It has now been more than a month since I've stopped work, and I must say I am in no rush to get back. I have plenty of other things to do, places to see, people to meet, new "favorites" to discover...

Cruising in the southland...

I had already decided earlier on during my trip that I would treat myself to an overnight trip to either Milford or Doubtful Sound when I was in the South Island. A day-trip to Milford Sound, part of NZ's famous "fiordland", is almost mandatory for any visitor to New Zealand, but I had met a few people who had mentioned that the day trips are really long days and there is a lot of sitting on a bus involved. If you can afford an extra 100$ or so, you can do an overnight cruise and that breaks up the long bus ride and gives you an extra special place to sleep that night! Since I'm not spending thousands on bungies and etc..., I decided to go for it. I also had to choose between Milford & Doubtful Sounds, both beautiful fiords but each with their own "cachet". I chose the lesser travelled Doubtful Sound, simply because it is usually more expensive than Milford Sound but was on special the day I booked it. By a "poule de luxe" standard, if it was more expensive, it had to be better, right? Sorry, I'm not really that shallow. It's really the cute guy at the hostel reception desk that convinced me to go the Doubtful instead of Milford ;-)

So bright and early Monday morning I was off to catch a coach (bus, for us Canadians) for the first part of my journey to Doubtful Sound. The bus brings you as far as it can, then you hop on a boat to cross a lake (Lake Manganui) and take another bus that finally brings you to your final destination, a 70-passenger boat waiting for you on Doubtful Sound.

I had heard somewhere that "fiordland" is the wettest place in NZ, and thought that it rained there something like 350 days out of every 365. It turns out I was misinformed, it only rains about 200 days a year, but it does get the most rainfall in all of NZ. Everywhere else measures rainfall in millimeters, but there they measure it in meters. Seriously. Some parts get more than 6 meters of rain a year! All this to say that I was really expecting it to be rainy, and I was not disappointed. The ship's crew make a really big effort to make sure the passengers don't let the weather influence their experience. The fact that is was raining hard is actually a bonus, as you get to see dozens of "temporary" waterfalls falling from the cliffs. One of these waterfalls is actually higher than Victoria Falls in Africa, but it doesn't "count" as it is temporary. Meaning when the rain stops, so does the waterfall... Actually, I'll have to look that up. The guides on coaches and boats can basically tell you anything and you'll believe it. I must learn a bit more skepticism. (side note: my first "Magic" coach driver told us to look out the window at the new breed of animal they are raising in NZ. A sort of sheep, but with a long neck like a giraffe. it's called the "shiraffe". I actually believed it for maybe 10 seconds until I saw some lamas grazing in a field. I called the bus driver on it later that night in the bar, and he just laughed and told me they make up stuff all the time...)

Back to the cruise: It was a beautiful trip, in an almost mystical looking place. Because it is so remote and in a protected 3million square km park, you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and are the only people there. With all the mist and rain and waterfalls, there is an eerie mystical feeling to the place. It's not to be missed if you ever decide to visit NZ!

The ship was nice, my shared cabin the smallest room I have ever slept in. It's no bigger than a train sleeping car, with 4 bunk beds. I met 2 Scottish girls and 2 Kiwi guys and spent most of my time with them. On the trip back to Queenstown, the sun poked out of the clouds, but not for long. It has been raining off and on since then, so I've attended to the mundane tasks of laundry, shopping and Blog instead of freezing my butt outside in cold wet weather! (another side note: really, if you ever decide to come to NZ, make sure you pack a jacket or fleece or something more than a cotton hoodie!)

And one last thing, thanks to my sister Johanne for reminding me to update my profile with my new age. That was really nice of you ;-)

Birthday blast-off!

First of all, thanks to all of you for your birthday wishes, emails and videos. It was good to feel so close to all of you on what could have been a tough day far from home... Thanks again!

My "New Zealand" birthday started off bright and early to the sounds of helicopters buzzing in the sky. A good sign for my own helicopter trip planned for 10AM! But then a glance out the window got me worried, as it was very cloudy and visibility seemed low. And even if some companies take their helicopters out for tours and heli-hikes, it didn't necessarily mean that my company would...

I left for the helicopter place at 9:30, just to be sure I wouldn't be late. The village is so small, it literally takes 5 minutes to get from one end to the other. So I left my hostel at 9:30 and was at the helicopter place at 9:32, only to be told that all flights were cancelled for this morning and I was rescheduled for 2 PM. I wasn't exactly pleased about this, even though only fickle Mother Nature was to blame. This meant I had to be back at the helicopter place at 1:30PM, which also meant I didn't have much time for walking around the glacier as I had planned. The next bus available for the actual glacier area was in 1 hour, and I would only have 2 hours there before I had to get back on the next bus. Oh well. What can you do.

So after killing 1 hour waiting for the bus and honestly feeling a bit sorry for myself, (yeah, poor little me, I know) off I went to the glacier. It was really something special to see and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the rain forest to get to the glacier itself. Kind of weird thinking of glaciers and rain forests in the same context, but there you go, that's NZ for you. The glacier itself is impressive, with spots of blue ice visible even from the ground. And for once I wasn't the slowest walker on the planet, as I made it to the glacier and back in plenty of time to do another walk, that brought you to a lake with a reflection of the glacier in the water. Spectacular, but you'll have to take my word for it, since I only had a disposable camera with me. Forget trying to buy a digital camera in Franz Josef, they only sell disposable cameras at the gas station and one tourist shop. Still, the view of the lake and the glacier was excellent.

I then rushed back to the village and kept my fingers crossed that my scenic flight would happen. The day was clearing up, but not that fast and there were still lots of clouds around. I was at the office at 1PM and was told that no flights had left yet, but to come back in 30 minutes. At this point, I'm already resigned to the fact that I won't be going but that at least I got to see the glacier up close and I enjoyed it. So, back to the office at 1:30 after a 30-minute, 90 cent call home, only to be told to wait again. 1:35, 1:40, 1:45, ... and finally, at 2 PM I was told it was a go! Woo hoo! Off I went accompanied by 3 Americans (1 older couple and 1 guy my age) across the street to the helipad. We were briefed on what to do and not do around the helicopter (i.e. don't raise your arms around the back of the helicopter like that Dr. did on ER) and settled into the helicopter. I was sitting up front, right next to the gorgeous helicopter pilot (something about pilots and firemen. It must be in their job descriptions...) and off we went!!! It was amazing, not scary at all. It just kind of floats up, up and away! The clouds were still heavy around the base of the glacier, but we quickly got above them and saw the glacier up close. You could see the crevasses and blue ice really well. The helicopter flew around both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, as then brought us close to Mt Cook, NZ highest mountain. The scenery was unbelievable and the 40-minute helicopter ride worth every penny! We even got to land on one of the glaciers and kick around in the snow. I have to admit the snow part was not too impressive coming from a Quebecois who dislikes winter, but the landing on a glacier part was worth it! I took 20 or so pictures with my disposable camera. I have no clue how they'll come out, but I'll sure remember my *gasp* 37th birthday for a long while!

My birthday then got even better since I spoke to all my sisters at once after my flight. I think I was still giddy from the experience, so I doubt I was really coherent... I was told to make sure I checked my email today, so off I went to the Internet cafe, funnily enough located inside an old red bus. My family had had a dinner party the previous weekend since my parents are off to Florida for the winter, and they had all taped little messages for me and posted them on YouTube. They even sang me Happy birthday and had a birthday cake for me as well! It was great, and I didn't shed more than 2 tears, so that was good to.

That's it for today! I am now in Queenstown, a.k.a. Adventure capital of the world. It's a beautiful place, but I was kind of at a loss today as to what to do when you're not into bungy, white-water rafting, sky-diving, jet boating, ... I ended up going shopping in a local shopping area to get myself a better deal on a digital camera than in all the tourist shops in Queenstown. I think I got an excellent deal for NZ. The camera I bought here is exactly the same price as I found on FutureShop, and a girl I met in my hostel dorm has the same one and paid more than 100$ extra in Australia for hers. So not bad.

For those following me on Google Earth, I'm off tomorrow on an overnight cruise to Doubtful Sound. Hasta luego!

A rainy day update

So, I've only been gone 3 weeks and already I'm slacking off in the blog department. Sorry about that... My days are usually pretty filled and although I do have time to check my emails, I haven't really had that much time to update the blog. But it's poring rain right now in Franz Josef and I've just bought a 2-hour Internet card, so here I go!

The past week has continued to be very busy and beautiful. I really have been lucky in the weather department, with little rain and when it has, it didn't really matter. I've also continued to be a wuss, spending a couple of hours last Friday watching people do bungy. In this case, I actually take back the wuss thing and just say that I've been really smart. Throwing yourself off a bridge with a rubber band tied around your ankle just seems silly to me :-) But watching other people do it sure is entertaining!

After Taupo, a nice little village somewhere in the middle of the North Island, the bus headed for Wellington. It was a long day's drive with lots of stops here and there. One stop will be interesting to Lord of the Ring fans: the drive goes through a desert road where you get this amazing view of 3 mountains, one of which being Mt. Doom in the Lord of The Rings movies. It was really cool, even though I have to admit to not being a real fan of the movies (blasphemy here in NZ). I hope to post a few nice pictures of it soon.

Speaking of The Lord of the Rings, guess what movie is played in almost every single hostel TV room here in NZ? You guessed it, LOTR. I guess people like to watch it again after seeing the locations "in real life".

A had a short stay in Wellington, only 2 nights - 1 day, as I was in a rush to get to the South Island. Wellington was OK, basically another big city but with a nice seaside location. In really lives up to its nickname of "Windy Wellington", or at least it did for the time I was there. Visited another museum (probably my last in NZ, since they are not my favorite places), walked around the city, took the Cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked back to the city center. I also caved in and went to my first movie of my trip. It had been at least 3 weeks after all since I'd been to the movies! I saw "Atonement", a British movie that may have played at home a few months back, but I'm not sure. All the other movies playing were at least 2-3 months behind what we get at home, so I'm assuming this was the same. It was a good movie, or at least a good way to spend 2 hours out of the wind and resting my feet!

I was up and early on Monday to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island. The ferry was huge, has a movie theater among other things to keep people quiet during the 2.5 hour journey. I was really surprised that the crossing is actually from west to east and not north to south as you would assume. It seems that Wellington on the North Island is actually lower south than Picton, the ferry terminal on the South Island. Who knew!

Next stop was Nelson, another very quaint village. I checked out the town for a couple of hours and got ready for the next day's "Seal safari". Nelson is close to Abel Tasman national park, an amazing area with lots of secluded bays, beaches and a really famous tramping (i.e. walking) path. I'd booked myself a "Seal safari", which was basically a combination of bus to get you to Abel Tasman, a boat to cruise along a few bays and visit the seal colony and a 1.5 hour walk back to a bay to finally be picked up by a water taxi to do the trip in reverse. It was a gorgeous day, with a beautiful blue sky, but still pretty damn cold. I had 4 layers up top and spent most of the day with all of them on. The only time I took my hoodie off was after huffing and puffing my way uphill for a while. But the kicker was the visit to the seal "colony". The boat stops for 5 minutes across from an island where I counted 5 seals. Supposedly they are all off somewhere busy mating or something. I saw another 3 more swimming in the sea, so grand total for the "Seal Safari" was 8! Still, I had a really good time. I walked back with 2 other girls, and even though I huffed and puffed uphill, it was a relatively easy walk. At the very end of the trail, we had to choose between the low tide trail and the high tide trail. When in doubt, you would think that we'd have chosen the high tide trail, but no, we went with the other obvious choice of following the group ahead of you and assuming they know what they are doing. Just as obviously, they didn't. We ended up having to roll up our pants, take our shoes and socks off to wade across a little stream or pond to get to the beach. Cold, but it was pretty funny, especially watching other more complainy type of people get all worried about getting their feet wet... Funnier still were the stories one of the girls shared with us about her time spent in Australia. Can't really repeat them here though ;-)

Next up was another looooong bus day to get from Nelson to Greymouth. The only claim to fame of Greymouth, besides being a mandatory overnight stop on the Magic bus, is the Monteiths brewery tour. For 25 NZD you get a tour of the brewery, a taste test of all 7 of their brews as well as an all-you-can-eat sausage diner with a free pint of your favorite brew. It's a good opportunity to meet more people (as if you don't meet enough already every day on the bus and sleeping in dorms all the time!). I spent awhile talking to a couple of American girls who had just come from India, Thailand and Australia. I left with a couple of notes on what to do and where to go, and I am already looking forward to the next destinations!

So it's still going really well, if a little rushed sometimes. I'm looking forward to sleeping somewhere more than 2 nights in a row. Like I said, I've been meeting a lot of people, mostly from the hostels and the bus. Have I mentioned though that it seems that mostly girls/women travel to NZ on their own? There have to be guys/men somewhere, but they certainly aren't on the Magic bus or in the hostels I've stayed in. On most days, our bus is filled with lets say 20 girls and 1 guy travelling with his girlfriend. And most of those 20 girls are English or Irish. Bizarre...

Off to do some camera shopping as mine bit the dust a couple of days ago. I hope to find one today since tomorrow is (hopefully) my helicopter tour of NZ's 2 glaciers and highest mountain! It's my birthday gift to myself! I say hopefully, because it is weather dependant. So please send good weather vibes down to NZ for me tomorrow!

A wuss in the Adventure capital of the world

It's been a busy couple of days since my last post. I've been on the go since Monday morning, slowly but surely travelling down to the south. Monday morning started off bright and early to take the bus from Auckland to Whitianga to view the Coromandel peninsula. I started off slightly sad to be saying goodbye to Claire, the new friend I had met in my early days in Auckland and had met up with again in the Bay of Islands. It's all part of the travelling business, but it's bizarre how quickly friendships can be made and lost...

The Coromandel peninsula is a gorgeous place to visit. The highlight of the day is supposed to be Cathedral Cove, a beautifully shaped cove by the east coast of the North Island. The Magic bus brings us to a car park (parking lot for us Canadians) and we are to walk down to the cove. The bus driver let us know that is quite a good walk back (meaning uphill, yet again) and that we have 1 hour and a half before we leave. Clueless little old me spends like 15 minutes up top taking pictures, going to the bathroom, slowly getting started down the slope when I first notice the sign saying that the walk to the Cove is 45 minutes. As I'm quickly going downhill, my math skills kick-in and I figure if it's 45 minutes one-way, it's at least 1 hour and a half return trip (duh). And since it's all downhill to get there, I imagine it will take me even longer to get back. And even better yet, since I am the slowest walker I've ever met, I figure if it's 45 minutes for most people, it'll probably be even longer for me... So I start to panic and decide to forgo Cathedral Cove and go to the 2 different bays that are on the way day (Gemstone Bay and another whose name I forgot). They were quite beautiful, but still, I was disappointed I wimped out of seeing the main event...

We also stopped in at Hot Water Beach on our way to Whitianga. This is where you take a shovel with you a dig yourself a hole that fills with steaming hot water being heated by the geothermic activity right below. The smaller the whole, the hotter the water. Just dipping your toe in one of these holes can scald you in 2 seconds flat. Pretty cool, yet somehow scary as well. I figure if water is that hot just on the surface, we can't be too far from an explosion or something. Seriously, New Zealand is a beautiful country, but I wouldn't want to live here. It's made up almost entirely of volcanoes that are destined to erupt. It's not a question of if, but when. I'd rather not be here when it happens :-)

The next day was spent travelling from Whitianga (nice sleepy beach town) to Rotorua, by way of the Waitomo. For those of you who've seen the Planet Earth DVDs, Waitomo is where they have the glowworm caves. I was looking forward to this place even before I got to NZ and was not disappointed. You can visit the caves in a few different ways, either by abseiling down into them, blackwater rafting (rafting in the darkness of the caves), tubing down the river or by simply walking in and taking a boat to see the glowworms. Guess which one I chose? Obviously by the title of my post, I chose the easiest way and walked into them and then took a boat. It was amazing. You're in the pitch black cave and can't see 1 foot in front of you, but if you look up, you can see thousands and thousands of blue dots lighting up the cave's ceiling! Who would of thought that I could get excited over a bunch of worms!

The final destination for that day was Rotorua, the stinkiest place in all of NZ. And I mean that literally. Rotorua is the hub of geothermic activity in NZ, and the whole place smells of sulfur. The smell is worse some days than others, and it seems we were lucky to be there on a good day. If that was I good day, I wouldn't want to be there on a bad day. Piew! It's really cool though to be walking around town and see steam come up from cracks in rocks or from ponds of water. That and boiling mud! Rotorua is also THE place to do a Maori traditional evening. They bring you in a bus to a traditional Maori village and they put on a show for you. You finish off the evening with a hangi, a Maori meal cooked up under the earth. Kind of like their own version of a mechoui... This is what I did for Halloween. And since quite a few of you have asked me, I can now confirm to you that Halloween is basically non existent here in NZ. I heard of one bar that had a Halloween night, but that's in. No candy, no masks, no decoration, nothing.

It's been an excellent couple of days. The weather has been good to me up until now (it's currently raining, that's why I'm on the Internet) and I'm slowly getting a farmer's tan (face and arms only). And every time I get on the Magic bus, I see familiar faces from previous buses as well as meet new people. The most interesting conversation I've had lately is with a Japanese girl who is in NZ for 2 weeks. She tries really hard, but doesn't speak English very well. At one point, there I was in the middle of a typical conversation (how long are you here for, where are you going next, which has been your favorite spot so far, ...) with a girl her and another girl from Taiwan. Neither of them speaking much English and all of us using sign language to understand each other. Hilarious!

Hope you all enjoyed Halloween. I'm in Taupo now until Saturday and off to Wellington next. Not sure how long I'll stay, since I only have 3 weeks left in NZ and the South island is supposed to be even better than the North...

My new definition of a work day

Today is a "work" day for me, and as you will see, it's quite a different work day than most of you have (lucky me). I'm in Auckland City and I'm doing some chores before starting off on my next Magic bus trip tomorrow morning. I went to pick-up a Magic Bus handbook to help me figure out the rest of my time in NZ and found a cheap Internet cafe where I made my first Skype call for free. Seriously, what did people ever do before the Internet?

I am then going to buy laundry detergent and do some well needed laundry. I am overdue and have started using the sniff test to figure out what to wear in the morning. Sorry if this grosses anyone out, but at least I still shower every day! (some people don't you know...)

Anyway, I thought I'd take this cheap Internet opportunity to give you some impressions about my time in NZ so far, as well as living the life of a backpacker.

• Kiwis (New Zealanders) are really very friendly. I haven't met a single rude person as of yet. As an example, I was heading up a hill to a great viewpoint when visiting the town of Russell on Friday, and this nice lady stopped her car and offered me a lift. She says she always picks up people at that spot, cause she sees so many people turn around when they are only halfway up the hill. It would have taken me the better part of an hour to get up there (because of my superior athleticism and great walking speed ;-) ) and instead, she dropped me off 3 minutes later.
• I don't know what I really was expecting weather-wise, but it's colder and wetter than I thought it would be. I'm not bothered by it, but if I had known I maybe would have brought something warmer than a hoodie with me :-)
• I also wasn't expecting it to look tropical in places. The far North for example, could easily pass for the Carribean (maybe if it were a bit warmer).
• Even though I am supposedly perfectly bilingual, I still have to ask everyone to repeat everything they say at least twice. My brain is slowly starting to adapt to all these different accents, but it is taking time.
• It seems to me that most travellers I have meet are either from the UK or from Germany. There are some other nationalities as well of course, but not in so many numbers as those two.
• It really is a very small world. I've met people in Paihia earlier this week and then passed by them on Queen Street (i.e. the Main) in Auckland. It seems like there are more backpackers in the country than there are residents.

As for life on the road, here are my impressions:

• La "poule de luxe" is truly dead and buried for now. No more 5-star hotels for me.
• Sharing rooms with 4 or 5 other strangers is not as hard as I thought it would be. It was awkward the first day, and even weirder the first time I shared a room with 3 guys and no other girl, but you get over it real quick.
• I try to spend as little time possible in the actual hostel rooms. They are so tiny, you can't even sit up straight when sitting on a bed. I only go there to sleep.
• Even though I'm on my own, I am almost never alone. There are always other people around, no matter where you are. Privacy is a thing of the past...
• I already have a love/hate relationship going on with my backpack. It's getting better organized every day, but I never seem to find what I'm looking for right away. And although carrying it is OK for short distances, putting it on is not easy.
• Most people I've met at hostels are in their twenties, though some are older. Lots of young couples and people travelling on their own.
• Some travellers look like they could whip-up a 5-course gourmet meal from crumbs they find in hostel kitchens, but I am certainly not one of them. I don't cook much at home, so do you think cooking in a hostel is going to be any better? And how exactly do they carry all that food around with them when going from one place to another? I actually had cereal AND 2 glasses of milk for breakfast on Friday, only because I didn't want to waste the little pint of milk I had bought earlier. And the small block of cheese I had bought the day before and put in the mini fridge in my room suddenly had 2 sets of teeth marks in it the next day. They weren't mine, since I am civilised and used a knife when I had some.

That's it for now. I have been on the Internet for 3 hours already, and only managed to upload 50 pictures. They are in flickr now if you want to see them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtwjanie/sets/72157602749647327/

The beautiful Northland!

Time sure flies when your having fun!

I left Auckland Wednesday morning to start my first Magic bus trip to the Northland. It's been amazing so far. Not that many people on the bus, maybe 15-20, as we aren't in the high tourist season yet. It's great for us travellers, as you get all the space you need, no line-ups and no problems reserving stuff as you go. It started off well, with a good crowd, if a bit shy and quiet. The main stop of this trip is to the town of Paihia, the "main" town in the Bay of Islands. This place is breathtakingly beautiful, and I mean that quite literally. It's all hills around here, so walking around does take your breath away, at least mine ;-) But seriously, it is simply gorgeous. If this is any indication of the rest of the country, I'm in for a great time.

I've done a cruise of the Bay of Islands, saw some dolphins and the most amazing untouched beaches and islands. I've also had a day trip up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost spot in NZ. The views are spectacular, you see where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The day trip also takes you to giant sanddunes, where the more adventurous can try sandboarding. Needless to say I was the official picture taker for our crowd. I had 5 different cameras and had to try and remember which went with which person. That was adventure enough for me!
Another cool part to the day is the ride back. A stretch of 90 km of beach, called 90-mile beach (go figure!) is actually considered a highway! Max speed 100 km an hour, you ride on the beach, over sand and little streams of water, as if you were speeding down the 10 in direction of Sherbrooke!

It's hard to convey how beautiful this place is, but I'll try an upload some pictures when I manage to get a decent Internet connection. I'd really love to update the blog more often, but hey! I've been busy for one and Internet is really expensive for another... So I do my best.

Next leg of the journey starts (hopefully) on Sunday with a trip to the lower part of the North Island. More on that later.

Getting into the groove

I can't believe I've only been in Auckland for 4 days so far! It feels like I've been gone at least a week, if not more.

It has been great so far, with really busy days. I've been mostly visiting Auckland city and it's surroundings, as well as trying to get the rest of my time in New Zealand organized. After a couple of days of being here and still not having a clue as to what my itinerary was going to be, I was starting to get edgy. Part of my day yesterday and today was spent figuring that out. Since Auckland is either the starting or ending point for most trips, I've met quite a few people in the same boat as I. Some come here for 6 months to a year, others for a month of so. And most do their planning once they get here, so that reassured me.

I finally decided to do a "Magic Bus" trip. This is a type of hop-on hop-off backpacker bus that follows a specific itinerary, but you stop for how ever long you want at every stop. You can stay a day, a week, a month, whatever. I wasn't initially interested in this, it seemed a bit to "packaged" to my taste, but then I got some more information on it and it seems ideal for me. I now have 4 1/2 weeks left in New Zealand, so I got to get a move on... I've chosen to do the "New Zealand Encounter" (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=94) that covers both North and South Islands, but first with a side trip to the very tip of the North Island (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=74).

The first leg of my trip starts on Wednesday, so I still have a day left in Auckland. It's a beautiful place, with lots of little harbour islands to explore, so an extra day is fine. So far, I've seen: "Downtown" Auckland (what they call the CBD: Central Business District), the neighborhoods of Parnell and Ponsonby, the Auckland Museum, the Sky Tower (highest standing tower in the Southern hemisphere) & Devenport Island. Not bad for my first 4 days!

I've also met and talked to a bunch of people at the hostel. It's a really easy-going environment and everyone has been great so far. I actually went to the Museum with a girl in the same room as I, and tonight am going out to diner with a fellow Quebecois who just got in last night.

P.S Thanks to all who have posted comments on my blog. I'll keep trying to do my best and post regularly. Bye for now!

The neverending day

Day 1 of the Big Adventure was certainly a long one... 31 hours from YUL to AKL, or 34 hours if counting door-to-door from Brossard to Auckland. It went as well as could be expected with some highs and some lows along the way. The highs: A nice going-away lunch with Mom, Dad, Jackie & Johanne, managing not to completely fall apart when saying goodbye at the airport, managing to sleep at least 5-6 hours on all the flights combined, my backpack arriving at Auckland airport at the same time as I did, and lastly but not least, arriving safe and sound.
The lows: A few minor ones like uncomfortable seats (no shit, excuse my language), and the same movies being shown on all flights (saw the movie Gracie twice, even though I had never heard of it before, and The Rise of the Silver Surfer twice as well...) but the only major one worth mentioning is that I managed to catch a cold & started getting symptoms the day I left. After 5 hours of flying, I was completely congested and both my ears were blocked. As of the time I'm writing this more than 50 hours later, my left ear still feels like I have an ear plug stuck in it...
I had a few "freak out" moments as well. The first one involving my money belt, as I was leaving the plane on my 2nd flight of the trip. I could not find it anywhere and was convinced I had left it in a bathroom stall at LAX. The freak out lasted 5 minutes until I got off the plane and dumped out my carry-on and found the damn thing.

The 2nd freak out moment was after arriving at the hostel. I had managed to start the trip without actually putting on the backpack. It was trekked from the car to a cart to a plane to a cart ... without going on my back. Getting it there is no easy task, let me tell you. I can carry it OK, but picking it up and putting it on in a quick and timely fashion is beyond me. I hope I get better at it soon. Anyway, back to the freak out. The hostel office was not opened when I arrived and I had to wait 1 hour before being able to check in. At this point, I'm exhausted, sicker than ever and thinking what the hell am I doing here. And I'm going to do this for a whole year?

It got better when I finally checked-in, even though there was only 1 bed left in my 5-person share, and that was a top bunk with no ladder! I was glad there wasn't anyone in the room when I got there, as I could practice getting on and off the bed without an audience. Not a pretty sight :-)

I spent the rest of my very long first day getting settled in. I walked around the neighbourhood (think a less trendy version of Laurier in Outremont), bought a new cellphone, got myself some dinner and shopped for my breakfast for the next 2 days.

All in all, not a bad start!

In the last stretch...

Only one night left in my own bed before setting off for the grand adventure! It's hard to believe that 6 months have already passed since I made the decision to take a year off. It's been a busy 6 months and time has really flown by.

The past week has been quite something. Hard, as I imagined it would be. Saying goodbye, even if for only a year, to people I've worked with for a long time was not easy. I had a nice send off with the gang from work last Tuesday (merci Christian!), followed by a hectic couple of days trying to finish up my job. By Friday I was drained, but then started over Saturday with the even more difficult task of saying goodbye to my close friends and family. But then it has also been an amazingly heart warming week. It's not often you get an occasion to be celebrated like I was these past few days. My going away party was amazing for me. To see all the people I love and who love me one more time before my departure made me feel like the luckiest person in the world. I am very grateful to have all these people in my life and it's hard to leave them behind for now (pause now to wipe away tears). But enough sappiness for now, and onto the fun stuff!

As mentioned, my "Bon voyage" party was great. My sister Jackie made this spectacular cake representing a world map surrounded by the flags of every country in the world. By the time I get back, I expect she will be making cakes that rival any seen on the Food channel...

I also received an embarrassingly huge amount of going-away gifts. An equally huge thanks to everyone for these, and I promise they will be put to good use!




And for those who are curious, I finally packed my backpack today. Everything fit into the backpack on the first try, so that's good, but it weighed way over what I thought it would. 38 pounds of stuff is a lot and it's about 25% heavier than I expected. I've unpacked everything and am going to start over tomorrow, this time trying to remove the non essential extras. But seriously, I don't know how some people manage to pack everything in just a carry-on type bag. They must have 1 change of clothes and buy absolutely everything they need as they go along. But then, where do they put the stuff they buy?


Tomorrow is another big day. Final packing and heading out to the airport with Jackie, Johanne and Mom & Dad. I'll pack a few extra Kleenex for sure.

And by the way, thanks to all of you who have posted comments. It's great to get your feedback! That's it for now. Gotta go rest up and take advantage of my comfy bed one last time...

The blog! The blog!

I set up this blog so that my family and friends can follow me on my 1-year adventure around the world. Be forewarned: I'll update it as often as possible while I'm on my way but it might be less often than some would hope. I'll do my best.

Et pour mes amis francophones, j'ai choisi d'écrire le blog en anglais pour plusieurs raisons: 1) j'ai de la famille anglophone 2) c'est plus facile pour moi d'écrire en anglais et enfin 3) vous êtes tous capables de lire l'anglais. Si jamais vous voulez des éclaircissements, envoyez-moi un courriel et ça me fera un plaisir de vous traduire de quoi!

It's getting down to the wire now. Only *gulp* 11 more days before D-day. It's a weird feeling, not quite like anything I've felt before. I'm very nervous, exhilirated, excited, a litte bit scared, but most of all, really really happy.

I still have a few things to do before I leave, but it's been manageable so far. I'll probably start freaking out by this time next week, as my procastinating ways will catch up with me, but so far, so good.

Stay tuned for more updates. I hope you enjoy the blog. If there's anything you'd like me to add, let me know and I'll try to figure it out. Design wise, I suck, but I can always try!

Here I go!

So, here goes my first attempt at a travel blog for my upcoming trip. I have to admit, I am not thrilled at the prospect of attempting to make this blog look good. I've never had the patience to tweak visual stuff and honestly don't have the talent for it either. Oh well.