more photos

Had to build a new album...

Sydney

After being out in the wilderness, for all intents and purposes, for the week prior, landing in Sydney was a culture shock for sure. It's a very big and busy city and I wasn't so sure on the first day how I was going to feel about it since my senses were a bit overwhelmed. I was pleasantly surprised tho, that Sydney is a really great city!! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I arrived late in the evening and my friend, Narelle, whom I'd met on the south island in NZ picked me up at the airport - she lives in Sydney. She drove me around a bit and gave me a quick orientation of the city and then I stayed over at her flat that night and she cooked a nice Aussie BBQ for me. It was really great to sleep in a warm flat on a comfy bed after a week on the cold ground! Although, I have to say, I'm now keen to camp when I travel - just need a little bit more equipment and a warmer sleeping bag! It's such a cheap and easy way to travel!!

The next morning in Sydney Narelle and I drove out to famous Bondi Beach and had brunch on a cafe patio. It was a grey, rainy day, but it was still warmer than NZ!! This is a big surf beach which is apparently always very crowded with lots of chic looking, buff people - it was quite empty when we were there. I did see a lot of surfers tho. In the afternoon Narelle dropped me downtown at the backpackers I was staying at for the remainder of my trip and I got myself organized and settled. The next day the weather improved significantly and I spent the entire day walking the city - down to Circular Quay and The Rocks, around the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the Botanic Gardens, and back into the city again. I was fairly tired when I got back to the backpackers around 5 PM, but after eating something I ventured out again to Darling Harbour where I visited the aquarium. I really enjoyed that - I got to see all kinds of sharks and crocodiles and their newest addition - a sea mammal called a dugong.

The following day I set off on the ferry from Circular Quay to a suburb called Manly, situated across the bay in north Sydney. I met up with my friends, Elly and Ness, and we spent the day at the surf beach. It was the hottest day I've experience since last summer in Canada - 27 degrees!! And the first time, other than to enjoy the hot pools in NZ, that I've actually gotten into my togs (bathing suit). Later that afternoon I returned to Sydney to meet up with Narelle and set off for dinner and a concert at the Hordern Pavillion. It was really cool to go to a show in a foreign country and the venue was awesome - not to mention the show itself!

My final day in Sydney I went back to Manly to visit with Elly and Ness again and hang out at the beach one more time before heading back to chilly NZ. Brrrrr. I really liked Manly - if I were to live in Sydney that's where I'd like to be. It was a quaint little place with a laid back beach culture. I flew back to Welly that evening and now I'm making preparations to pack up all of my things and leave here for good in a few short days. I can't believe it's winding down to my last weeks now. Whoa!! And I'm not so sure I'm really ready to come back to reality...

Here are some photos from the trip.


Koala at Cape Otway

Sunset on Johanna Beach

The Grampians National Park
Sydney Opera House from the ferry

Crossing a Mountain

I'm not sure if I've adequately explained that NZ is one of THE places in the world to do hikes. Here they call them 'tramps' and trails are called 'tracks'. There are several 'Great Walks' of the world here and one that makes the top 10 list of must do walks is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, residing in the heart of the Tongariro National Park. You basically take the whole day (average is anywhere between 6 to 8 hours), crossing over Mt Tongariro - an active volcano with many cones, the most famous of which is called Mt Ngauruhoe. This cone can be climbed as a side trip (adding about 2 hrs to the crossing - so if doing it you must hustle it on the rest of the tramp in order to make the last bus pick up on the other side at 4:30 PM), and is famously (or perhaps infamously) known at Mount Doom (see Lord of the Rings or read the books if you aren't aware of this). I had a hard time finding an accurate reference to the exact total ascent, but it looks like it's somewhere between 1000 and 1100 m, and the total distance covered is 19.4 km according to the DOC website. So, now that I've given you the background on the tramp, I'll take you through my experience of actually doing it. And I should also point out that I am not a seasoned tramper to say the least, and in actual fact doing a lot of walking can be quite painful for me as I have a really bad knee and I find my legs often really stiff from all the cycling. Let's just say I only did this tramp because it's so famous and supposed to be amazing from a scenery standpoint.

We arrived in Turangi, a town not far from the National Park and stayed overnight Friday at a nice backpackers there. The weather forecast for Saturday was looking so-so, but the worst of it they said would be showers that would be easing up and we figured we'd take a chance since often they are wrong about the weather here and even so - the worst would be some light showers right? Might as well. Saturday worked out better for us time-wise anyway - who wants to do a 6-8 hour tramp and then drive 3.5 hrs back home afterward? So we booked a shuttle for 7:30 AM the next morning to take us to the start of the track (and would pick us up on the other side in the afternoon, with two times to choose from: 3 PM or 4:30 PM). The next morning the weather seemed ok. As we got nearer the mountain though, the rain was kicking in. We all had reasonably good clothing on to do a tramp in showers - mostly layers of quick dry clothes (thank you Icebreaker!), tuques, gloves, proper tramping shoes or boots, etc.

Here we are at the Mangatepopo carpark at the start of the track (well 4 of the 6 of us):


The first part of the tramp from the carpark to Soda Springs is fairly flat, a little bit of climbing up and down lava rocks and stuff, but not too bad. It was misty but not too cold or windy and not raining too hard. This took about an hour I guess.

Here is a photo of Mangatepopo stream on the way to Soda Springs:


After Soda Springs you walk a bit further on til you get to a climb called the devils staircase - climbing about 200 m in an hour's time. It was fairly hard and here I got stuck behind a slower group of people (I should mention that there were HEAPS of people on the track, even though the weather was crap - I can't imagine how busy it would be on a really nice day). I decided not to try to pass and just go at the slower pace as it worked better for me anyway but as a result I got separated from my group and they ended up waiting at the top for me for at least 20 mins, maybe half an hour and at the top it was brutal weather-wise. As I climbed these steps carved into the volcanic rock the rain got worse and worse and the wind was picking up. When I met up with my group at the top I was soaked through. My quick drying pants, which had been drying and re-wetting off and on earlier were now sticking to my legs and I'd stopped part-way up the devil's staircase to put on my 'emergency poncho' which I was so glad to have brought since, even though I was wet all the way through, that thing stopped the wind from chilling me and I was still warm inside! Climbing up the side of a mountain doesn't hurt to keep you warm either. At the top of the climb there is a junction at the south crater - although with all the cloud and rain I wouldn't have known it but for the signpost. Here you can choose (on a nice day when it's worth it) to climb Mt Ngauruhoe. Apparently from the top there you can see out the valley and to all the mountains in that range. Would have been nice. But it wasn't meant to be for us that day. So we trudged on.

After leaving the junction we walked on the flat for a little bit - maybe 20 mins at the most in my mind - until we reached the hardest climb (at least I thought it was) to the red crater. This climb was on loose rock and sheer rock face on a ridge and it was steep. There were points where I had to grab onto the rock or others around me for support so I wouldn't fall off the side of the cliff and the wind was pelting me with rain from the side like mad. I was soaking wet. I couldn't get more wet than that. I turned to one of my friends, Bernie, and announced to him that I thought that "This Sucks!!". Indeed. It did. We took a chance and unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. So, after climbing this relatively precarious ascent we had to descend a very steep section of what is called scoria. It's like scree - very, very loose. So you have to just let yourself slide down taking care with your footing as there are larger rocks in there as well and you don't want to topple down the side, or else you'd end up landing in one of the Emerald Lakes. It smells very strongly of sulphur here and we did get to see a small semblance of a view. The rain started to ease up a tiny bit on us and it was far less windy on this side of the mountain (we are about to start descending now, having been up as high as the track goes on the main crossing). Here I am at Blue Lake (I think this is Blue Lake) looking happier than I actually am, primarily because Bernie and Simon were telling fart jokes and were kind enough to fix my hair for the photo op. (BTW, I have fewer photos than usual of this trek because of the bad weather - bummer) And yes, I am aware of how dumb I look, but hey - I was warm. Not dry, but warm.
The descent continues from Blue Lake to the Ketetahi Hut. People can book to stay in the hut I think, if they choose to do tramping around the area (??). At any rate, there are some toilet/outhouse type things to take a pit stop. Our arrival at the hut marked my the first break from walking - about 3.5 hours in. I'm not joking - I did not stop walking except to let Bernie help put his waterproof pants on me at the top of the devil's staircase. Here we stopped for maybe 15-20 mins and ate. I'd been eating off and on, little bits of PB&J sammies while I walked. Here I dug into my trail mix with Mini Eggs added in for good measure (and extra sugar!).

Here is a view of the valley below and Lake Taupo in the background, on our way to the Ketetahi Hut.

After the hut is a 2 hour descent. I didn't relish descending red crater to the Emerald Lakes in the very steep and loose scoria, but I wished that I had two hours of descending that once I started this one. This descent hurt my knee a lot. However, the weather was continually improving, the rain had ceased and the sun was slowly starting to make an appearance. I was starting to dry out and I was able to stop every so often and stretch my leg to give my knee a break. This helped a lot. We crossed a few more warm sulphur springs and during the last 45 mins to an hour we descended through native forest, which was very beautiful. We arrived at the carpark on the other side of the mountain in record time - just under 5.75 hours. As I mentioned before, the crossing generally takes 6-8 hours, depending on fitness and how many breaks you take to take in the scenery (and whether or not you take the 2 hour side trip to climb and descent Ngauruhoe). We basically crossed a mountain, covering a half marathon distance, in extremely inclement weather in under 6 hours. Wow! Needless to say I was and still am quite sore. My poor muscles are so cycling specific.

Here we are in the carpark waiting for our shuttle to take our stinky butts back to the backpackers for much deserved hot showers:



And Sunday, when we drove back to Welly we stopped to take this photo of the park and the terrain we'd covered the day before. Mt Ngauruhoe is the crater you can see there on the left (aka Mt Doom). So we crossed from the other side of that, up the right hand side of Ngauruhoe as you see it there and then across and down heading through the range you can see on the right. I hope I'm explaining that accurately enough that you can imagine it. Needless to say, Sunday would have been the better day to cross. I can only say of the experience that I'm disappointed to not have seen the views that make it worth all the effort; the crossing is very difficult and people do not take into consideration how difficult it is and are often not prepared (one girl we heard of who was wearing jeans - such a no-no - got hypothermia that day, and another gentleman fell and hurt himself and we saw him being helped by others, covered in one of those silver emergency blankets); and finally I'm glad to have had the experience. I didn't know I could do that. Admittedly I didn't do it without a couple of complaints on that ridge to red crater. Maybe if I do come back to NZ one day, and my knee is up for it, I might try this one again in fine weather and enjoy those views.

The Ups and Downs of Travel

Through experience comes wisdom – or something like that. I realize that so far, bus tours are just not for me. I’m also not a backpacker. I’ve never really been in love with the backpacking lifestyle, however, it is really the only really affordable way to go about seeing places for extended periods of time. Not to mention filling in time with memorable experiences and saving money to do things that are really worthwhile – like helicopter rides up in mountains with glaciers.

I haven’t been overly enthused about the coach that I decided to try out this time around. I’ve done the full-on solo trips, both by the national bus line and rental car. I’ve toured around with a friend from home with a rental car as well. This time I decided to try one of these hop on hop off things that a few friends whom I’ve met here have done. They both had positive experiences. So is it me, or perhaps the driver of the first couple of legs of this trip that are making me feel less than satisfied so far? Could be a little of both, to be honest. I think I function better on my own. While I don’t want to fly solo all the time, I quite enjoy doing m own thing. I also think that needn’t pay for a coach with a driver who is never on time, quite disorganized, and rarely helpful. I don’t function well with hour-long delays. It has definitely been testing my patience. I’m also not impressed with having to stop at crap-holes in really remote places because it’s a ‘mandatory overnight stop’, only an hour’s drive away from the next town where there is better accommodation – this is just a ploy to keep crappier establishments in business. I was not happy with where I found myself obliged to stay last night – particularly when I found a bed bug on the sheet of the bed I was about to set my stuff down on. I moved rooms, but was quite anxious about the whole thing.

I usually maintain posts on the fun, happy, positive aspects of my journeys, but the reality is that travel, while highly rewarding and usually a lot of fun, also has its moments. It can get stressful and it can test you. But as with all things in life, there is a yin and a yang, and without the bad we cannot fully appreciate the good – and we learn from both.Yesterday I arrived in Wanaka, and as a result of stopping here got off the schedule of that bus and will be picked up by the next one – hoping that things will be better tomorrow with a different driver. I've really enjoyed Wanaka. It is a very, very small place but full of charm. It sits on a really, really big eponymous lake. The backpackers where I chose to stay is really nice and has a beautiful view of the lake. I hired a mtb and rode around the lake and practiced my bunny hops and got my groceries and stuff yesterday. It was a nice afternoon of down time for me. I really enjoyed it. I wish I had one more day here, but I’m off to explore more interesting things over the next few days. As a result of my experience the past four days I’ve decided to alter my trip plans a little so as to accommodate some detours from the coach route. Stay tuned for more as I make my way around the south.

More on the south island and Noel down under

Kia ora and merry Christmas from NZ!! Today is Christmas Eve down under and we have rain. Just arrived back from the south island adventures yesterday (really it was 1 AM when we arrived so we had the whole day here). The weather was fantastic the last two days of our trip, but we had some really crazy weather on the west coast.

Last I posted, I was in Nelson enjoying some sunshine and riding the bike. The following morning we packed up and headed out on a very long drive down on the west coast to glacier country. We traveled through some interesting and cute towns, full of gold mining history (many of them are only a whisper of the towns they once were back in the gold mining hay-days) and on to Okarito, where we had rented a bach (what we would call a cottage in Canada) on the beach. This was a really nice reprieve from backpacking life and a good chance for free washing machine facilities to launder our clothes. haha! But seriously, the bach was really amazing. I have lots of photos of it. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, but lucky us - we experienced a typical west coast rain system. Fantastic. The glaciers are a 20 minute drive from Okarito, and the following morning we got up early and set out, hoping that maybe the rain would ease up and we'd have a decent day for glacier hiking. Not. We arrived 45 mins later in Fox Glacier and proceeded on to Lake Matheson where we did a quick trek along a walking track around the lake. Unfortunately due to the inordinate amount of rain and mist and fog we weren't able to get the really great views of the mountain and glaciers that you would normally see at the lake. However, we made due. There is one thing you really cannot control in life: that's the weather. Not sufficiently soaked, we decided to do another 30 min trek on hiking trails around the Fox glacier to get views of it. The Fox glacier is the largest of the sixty some odd glaciers in the area. They descend into rainforest and right down to sea level at the west coast. It's truly a sight. We hiked through rainforest to get views of the glacier. Apparently on really rainy days you can still hike on the glacier itself but it's not so fun so we opted instead to head back up to Franz Josef (which we'd driven through to get to Fox) and went for a massage and a hot tub at their new spa pools in the town. Sweet as! Our massage therapist was a Canadian lady who'd been living in glacier country for a few years now and got there by doing cycling tours. Did we ever have a lot to talk about!!

The next day we left Okarito, unfortunately unable to do the famous kayaking in the Okarito Lagoon - home of the white heron. We had hoped the rain would ease up, but instead it got heavier. Our drive north and then east was precarious at best. There was flooding along many roads (luckily this is commonplace enough that they have road signs to warn you so you know to expect to slow down and drive through the flooding in a safe manner). When we got to the highway that leads to Arthurs Pass (the famous pass we wished to cross over to Christchurch - and which Andrew had planned to ride on his bike, weather permitting of course), there was a road closure and the nice kiwi gentleman manning the closure informed us that there was a "slip" (i.e. a landslide) and a bridge was washed out. We had to do a detour. Luckily it was before the one place that the detour rejoined the pass and we didn't have to abort our plan. If it had been further up, a detour would have meant taking Lewis Pass (consult your map of NZ) further north and frankly, would have changed our plans altogether - cancelling a visit to Christchurch. At any rate, this did not happen and we simply added an hour to our drive and got to Arthurs Pass. It was a cool thing to see, but the views were not as dramatic as they would have been given a clear day. There was a lot of fog and mist and the rain was still coming down hard. Andrew, quite obviously, did not ride as it would have been quite dangerous. There were a few things which I cannot describe clearly enough, that divert the water from such rainfalls from the road on the pass. Here is a photo to more clearly explain:We arrived in Christchurch pretty tired from the trip and it was raining there too. It was quite chilly and I'd wished I brought some gloves to be honest. We had some nice Thai food though and relaxed in our little backpackers hoping for a change in the weather (which NZ is famous for - ever changing weather). The following morning we woke to the weather on the verge of clearing so we headed to a little town on the Banks Peninsula called Akaroa. This is a primarily French settlement, which is kind of neat for NZ. As the day went on the weather continued to improve, so much so that we decided that since we were taking the late ferry the following day we'd have enough time for a bike ride in the morning. And that's just what we did. The following morning we got up early, packed up, and headed out for a ride up Dyers Pass in Christchurch - quite the climb. Here is one photo of the view of the city from 2/3 of the way up (if you look closely you can see the mountains in the back):
We then went back to the backpackers and showered, changed, and headed off on our drive back up to Picton for our late-night ferry ride back to Wello. On the way we stopped in a really cute little town, famous for its whale-watching tours, Kaikoura. The drive was fantastic and the views out of this world. We drove up through the foothills and into the wine country of Marlborough. We had a really nice dinner in Blenheim, after touring its vineyards and quirky little spots. And then as night-time set in we got on the ferry, loaded onto the train deck (yep, where they would put the train cars if there were a train on board) and headed back to Wellington. Here is a nice shot of the city as we came into the harbour:
I feel like I'm leaving out so much. It's hard to post so long after doing many of the things on the trip. I hope to be more on top of the blogging on future trips so I can give more detail on each place. When we got back here yesterday the weather, as I mentioned, remained gorgeous so we headed out for a nice ride and then to a proper Kiwi BBQ at Lauren's house. It was fab!! Today we explored Te Papa since it was raining, as well as getting up to date on things we'd missed while traveling (like email etc). I have uploaded the first installment of photos from the south island trip. Will update you as more become available (if I don't run out of space on my web album!!!).

Well, I wish you all a very merry Christmas! It will certainly be a different one for me (it's not feeling much like Christmas right now). I will post more on what it's like to be here for the holiday season over the next couple of days. Until then - stay warm, and drink a rum and eggnog for me!

Turangi and beyond...

This will be my last post on travels for a little while, as I am now in the midst of setting up some semblance of a routine, living and working in NZ, instead of being a constant tourist. Can you believe it’s been 3 weeks since I left for the other side of the world? Time really does fly and I’m sure I will be home sooner than I’d almost like, but I will make the best of my time here. In the next few posts I’ll try to gather some of my thoughts for you on life here: from driving on the left side of the road, to un-insulated houses. I’ll give you a taste of the kiwi way of life and how it’s different from home.

Since I left Wellington and headed back to Auckland, I have been making my way back down to the south end of the north island. I stayed in Auckland for one night and then picked up a car (as they say here: I ‘hired’ a car) and finally picked up my bike which was being stored for me. It’s been so long since I’ve been riding! I think I might forget how!! I got a cute little rental and stuffed it full with my backpack, bike in box, and my suitcase (which had also been stored – it has mostly bike stuff in it along with a small sampling of work clothes). I hit the road. I almost went back to Raglan for a couple of days, as people I’d met there were still there hangin’ out and I liked the place so much, but I also wanted to see a bit more of the country so in the end I decided not to. For now I’ve skipped the tourist trap that is Rotorua. I think I will go see it at some point, as the acidic pools of water there are supposed to be quite the sight, but this time around I decided to take it easy. I made my way down to Turangi, at the bottom of Lake Taupo.

A side note on Taupo: I never thought to check it out as a potential place to live, even though they have a major cycling event there every November. It’s a road race around the lake: 160 km. Needless to say, when I went through the town I saw quite a few cyclists. I doubt, however, that Taupo would be the best choice of place to live, as I think I would run out of cycling routes and it’s not the best jumping off spot for more touring around NZ or abroad.

Turangi, at the bottom of Lake Taupo, is the place to stay when embarking on the Tongariro Crossing. This is a famous hike across the volcano in the national park of the same name. There are three peaks in the park: Tongariro, Ruapehu, and Ngauruhoe. The latter being the most conical, hence used as Mount Doom in the famous LOTR movies. I stayed at a great backpackers and just chilled out – in fact, I was offered a two-week job there running the place while the owner goes on vacation. I was tempted, but at the same time without a vehicle it would be quite isolating and I really wanted to get back to Wellington and get settled and on to the main purpose of my OE. I didn’t do the crossing this time, but I intend to go back to do it as it’s supposed to be really great! One afternoon I took in the geothermal pools in Turangi - very nice and super affordable ($8)! I drove out of the park on Saturday and made my way down to Plimmerton – a little town about 25 km outside of Wellington.

Saturday we ended up having a major storm system come through a good part of the north island. The crossing was inaccessible that day, as it was snowing in the mountains, and as I drove into the Rangipo Desert I listened to the radio warnings regarding driving on the highway that day, as there was a strong windstorm. I’ve never driven in a windstorm through a desert before – sand everywhere! As I continued down toward the western coast it got greyer and colder. I was wearing Capri pants when I left (even though it probably wasn’t really warm enough for it) and caved in and changed into my jeans in the car at a vegetable stand on the side of the highway. J I bought some veggies too! As the highway straddled the coast, I could see the waves crashing like mad into the shoreline. I was almost in the greater Wellington area when I found a radio station that was reporting gale-force winds and gusts of up to 140 kph. I held tightly onto the car door when I opened it upon my arrival at the backpackers in Plimmerton – didn’t want to lose the door to the wind!

The place I’ve been staying at here is beautiful! It faces a road that skirts the bay. On Sunday morning I sat in the lounge (that’s what they call the living room here) and watched the weekly sailboat race as I answered emails from some of you. Oh yes, and as the weather had changed from gale-force winds and rain to warm and sunny, I enviously watched the cyclists ride down the road and back out to Wellington, thinking that I will do that soon too. I spent some time looking at a few more flats Sunday afternoon and dropped my bike off at Lauren’s for safekeeping until I can move into my own flat. The two flats we saw weren’t right for me, both for different reasons. I thought I’d be staying at the YHA and continuing my search for the remainder of the week when I received a text from the people whose flat I visited last week with the good news that I could rent the room there if I’d like! This flat is in a great location and with two young professionals around my age. I’m stoked! I should be moving in there this week… will keep you posted on the move and, like I said, life in NZ.

More Photos

More photos are up - Raglan & Wellington. I should be adding to the Wellington photos as we go though. So check them out using the link on the right under the travel section. :)

Raglan - surfers' (and non-surfers) paradise

Raglan is a small town on the west coast of the north island, about 40 km west of Hamilton (which is about a two hour drive southwest of Auckland). This place has become more and more popular over the years as it’s one of the best surfing destinations in the country. No, I don’t surf and have no intentions on trying (not a water person), but I had heard that it was a really nice place to visit and the backpackers place I stayed at had great reviews, so off I went. Raglan did not disappoint. It is beautiful – on the coast with little beaches and a small main street with a bunch of little cafes and other little conveniences. So far it has been my favourite stop. The backpackers lived up to its reputation: small, super-friendly, quiet – but not lacking in activity – clean, comfortable, and fun! The crowd was a bit more mature than the usual hostel crowd (which generally tends to be predominantly 18-23 year olds). This was nice for me, as I’m not always the oldest person at these places, but I am usually one of few and while I get along fine with everyone, when you are at a vastly different point in your life you don’t have much to relate to. So I made some new friends: One Canuck, a Brit, a German, and two French guys. Everyone was so nice and fun and easy to get along with. For the first time in a couple of weeks I really got to hang out with people instead of just touring around and then making small talk about travels over a brief dinner in the hostel kitchen each night. Jenn, Elly, and I headed out one day to Bridal Veil Falls just down the road from town. It’s a short hike down to the falls and it’s beautiful! The rest of the time we just hung out, the guys went surfing every day and each night we ended up playing Uno (someone found the deck of cards in the lounge). One night we went out to the local pub for live music by a local band. It was such fun! So that’s my Raglan story. Now I’ll fill you in on getting there…

Being slightly remote, Raglan doesn’t have bus service from the InterCity Bus line. You have to take the bus to Hamilton, and then a shuttle runs to Raglan from there about 4 times per day. I had to get back to Auckland on Saturday to catch my flight to Wellington late in the day. The day I left for the coast I found out that the shuttle ran on a limited schedule between Raglan and Hamilton on the weekend and there would be no way I’d make my bus – and consequently my flight on Saturday. I took the bus down to Hamilton anyway, not wanting to just pass time in Auckland until Saturday, and during the ride it dawned on me that I should have rented a car! I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. So when I arrived in Hamilton I asked the lady at the i-Site (the Kiwi info centre) if it would be possible to rent a car in Raglan. She said no. So I asked where I could rent one there in Hamilton – well there was a place right beside the bus station. Off I went to Raglan in my little Mazda Familia (the same at the Protégé at home, just a different name) – driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. This is my first time attempting left-hand-side-of-the-road driving and it was an experience, I have to say. My first left-hand turn after leaving the rental place I almost overshot the turn, heading for the oncoming lanes instead. Luckily I realized all those cars were in ‘my lane’ and made the turn before I passed the correct lanes to turn into. That was my closest call. The other funny thing is that the windshield (or windscreen as they call it here) wiper control arm and the turn signal arm are on opposite sides of the steering column, so each time I went to signal I turned the wipers on! DOH! So I got to spend more time in Raglan as a result of renting and car, saved some of my bus points for another trip, and drove straight back to the airport which was much better than my original plan anyway. Things work out well if you are flexible and don’t force it. That’s been my experience in recent years, and in this case it was reinforced. So I had a great visit in Raglan. Now I’m in Wellington. I’ll write about that next post.

A few SF Photos

Happy to be home... thought I'd share some snaps that I liked from my trip. I also got into this Buddhabar music on the flight home - man, those new entertainment systems that they've installed on the airplanes now are so cool!!!

Sniffle, Cough, Achoo!

I'm sick. While it was fun (and much appreciated) to stay with my friends and their kids, I generally avoid small humans for just this reason. I go in and out of hospitals and doctors' offices every day and rarely do I get sick. Put me in close proximity to people under the age of 10 and WHAM! Becks has a head cold. Bummer. One minor consolation: I don't think my buddies will be riding on Saturday (calling for lots of rain). Maybe I'll be well enough by Sunday, and if the weather forecast is correct, it should be a reasonably good day for cycling.

Last week was a great week of vacation and travel. I closed out with Thanksgiving weekend in NB with a lot of family and new friends celebrating my sister's wedding. She and her now hubby had a blast and so did the rest of us. It was a very informal wedding which made the atmosphere relaxed and fun. The weather couldn't have been better - Friday was so warm I felt too hot in my jeans. We had a 'bon fire' that night (there was a fire ban so the actual fire didn't exist) and while I got to bed at 1 AM, the vast majority of those out that night stayed up til somewhere in the vicinity of 6 AM. We (the bridal party) on the other hand, had lots of important things to do the next morning and 1 AM was plenty late. A 7:30 AM wake-up to head downtown for hair and make-up was a little unsettling, but damn did we look good! ;) The wedding went off without a hitch and again, the majority of the guests stayed up into the wee hours of the morning. I woke up the next day with my illness in full force - I had felt it coming since I had left the Island. And I was supposed to drive only as far as MTL on Sunday to visit with a close friend, but wound up driving straight home that day so I could get to my own bed and some R&R. Funny, the 10.5 hours of driving doesn't seem as long when your head is all a mush with a cold. Monday I stayed in all day, not even getting out of my PJs.

So, here are some select photos of my week... Enjoy!

(if you look closely you'll see that I never did make any effort to get rid of my cycling tan lines)

Extra Looooong Weekend #2 Report

OK. I've spent waaaay too much time on the computer this morning. And here I'm spending a little more. Ah well. I will ride this afternoon instead. Today marks the last day of my 5-day weekend. So nice. I woke up almost considering that I should take the rest of the week off, but then I need to save some days. I think. I have work to do. Yes. I do.

This past weekend I spent participating in the most challenging cycling tour I've done thus far. Vermont. The hills there make Gatineau Park look wimpy. And I did 100 km of them on the first day. My legs were pretty tired on the second day, so I'm glad we did a different route with a little less km's. Here's how it went...

Friday a few of us left together in convoy. Either by a stroke of good luck, or bad luck - we're not totally sure (I'm thinking it was good luck), B & M's car broke down in D's driveway before we left. In the end it worked out probably for the best: we piled all of their stuff in D's minivan (she was originally going to drive with me), then squeezed G's stuff into both my car and the minivan and headed out in only 2 cars. Arriving later than expected, no cycling was done on Friday. But we got settled into our rooms at the University of Vermont in Burlington and prepared for a weekend of climbing. My room was occupied by someone else when I got up to it. We made lots of jokes about the mix up over the weekend, as it was a guy and when I went there his stuff was all spread out around the room but he wasn't there. I went back later, after putting my stuff in one of my friends' rooms for the time being, and luckily I knocked because he wasn't decent (and I had the key). He had taken the wrong room, so I switched keys with him and took his.

Saturday we did a 'short' route... ended up being 100K for the group I rode with since we took a wrong turn and added 10K. The detour was quite lovely and I was happy to say I did 100K of hills. Some of the other routes were 120-150 km and included such routes as the Appalachian Gap and Smugglers Notch. I'm not at that level - yet. Give me a few more years and I'll try them on for size.

Sunday a group of about 12 of us decided to do a route recommended by a local who is friends with someone in our riding group. By chance one of the members of our group had bought a guide book of cycling routes in the area and it included this route so we had our map & directions and we were off. We crossed the ferry from Burlington to Port Kent and the cycled down to Essex on the NY side. It was hard having not warmed up and the minute we disembarked from the ferry it was hill after hill. Ouch. Once warmed up though, it was spectacular. The roads were great and the motorists are so courteous (in both states). What a departure from riding here at times. We then boarded a smaller ferry in Essex and road back up to Burlington - more hills.

The hills there were very steep and would come up on you all of a sudden. You'd see it and think: "OMG! I have to get into the small ring FAST!!!!". And they weren't short hills either. And sometimes I'd think I could climb something in the middle ring and I'd get halfway up and realize I'd misjudged and struggle to get the chain up into a position to move to the small ring without it falling off. That's a little stressful because you realize you have one of three options: you're in the smallest ring on the cog and the middle chain ring and you need to get to the small ring... 1) gear down the small ring and not only be in too easy a gear, but 95% chance the chain falls off (that's my experience with my bike anyway) - fall off the bike; 2) gear up 1-2 rings in the cog and then move into the small ring - smooth sailing, or fall off the bike because the lactic acid in your quads is killing you; 3) unclip and walk. Luckily I managed and my chain never fell off and even though I had to put it into a harder gear before moving to an easier one I didn't die of lactic acid pain overload. On the last couple of long climbs that ended steeply on the second day, when my legs were so tired and we had recovered too long on the ferry on the way back and my lunch was still in my stomach and the heat was up to 35 degrees Celsius I felt I was going to puke. Two thoughts went through my head: if I throw up now will I feel better or worse... i.e. will I be able to bike the last 10K back? I figured I'd feel better, but I didn't puke anyway. I managed the last of the hills and felt great. I know it sounds a little insane to put yourself through that, but believe me, it's fun. Not always at the very moment, but definitely at the end.

Monday it rained so hard you would not believe. Two groups of us would have done rides (different ones, mind you) had it not been raining cats and dogs... but it was time to go home. Got home, washed and lubricated my bike, did my laundry (smelly cycling clothes - ick!) and stretched and stretched and stretched. Today - recovery ride (once I get my face away from the computer!). Ahhh. The extra loooooong weekend doesn't disappoint.

PS... all of my photos have been moved to Flikr now and you can still access them from the two links at the side... Photos of Becks' Adventures and Cycling Photos

Random Photos #2

Coming home from a long day on the job. Portobelo.

I love this photo.

The view from our cabin at the B&B near Isla Grande.

I was literally standing on our porch when I took this.

The largest size of ship allowed through the canal. At the Gatun Locks. This is the one that paid $195K to cross the canal. I guess it's cheaper than going around a whole continent.

The market in El Valle d'Anton.

El Valle d'Anton

Random Photos

Panama City skyline from Casco Viejo (from the Presidential Palace, in fact - the guards let us wander around on the grounds). The water there is toxic because they dump all of the sewage into the ocean. That's the Pacific Ocean there, btw.

In Casco Viejo: one of those building with all of the guts torn out like I told you about in an earlier post.

These are the ruins of the Spanish fortification on the Caribbean Sea, San Lorenzo (near Portobelo). Pretty nice eh? They built them to defend against the pirates.

Examples of the typical public buses that transport you everywhere. They were old school buses brought in from the US. Each bus driver commissions a 'bus artist' to paint their bus with symbols, pictures, quotes, sayings, etc (quite a lot of it religious), so they are each very unique. In the city, most of the buses blare loud music. I had the privilege of riding on one in Panama City. It costs 25 cents.

I'll post more pictures on the weekend. Between this and crackbook I'm spending way too much time on this computer. I've got to go to bed.

San Blas

8 AM flight meant waking up at 5:30 AM... most mornings during this past trip were quite early, in fact. We had a bit of a problem at the airport: the woman at the desk didn't want to serve us because we are white. So, after she told us that the flight had already left (6:45 AM, and as I said, it was an 8 AM flight, plus she hadn't even asked which of the 4 flights we were intending on taking), and Lisa yelled at her for a bit in Spanish, we finally got checked in.

We flew there on Aeroperlas (you have the choice of Aeroperlas or Air Panama - AP was sold out) on a small , 15-seater prop. I was scared sh#$less on the way there, since we decided to sit at the back, beside the doors - where I could actually see through the holes, and feel the air from outside through the less-than-well-maintained seals. And I've flown on "Scareskin" (Bearskin, for those who aren't so acquainted) on a much smaller plane before, so that says something. This is what was going through my head:

Is this plane pressurized?
Oh, no, I guess we don't fly high enough for that.
S#*t, am I going to get sucked out of the door?
I'm not ready to die.
Ok, I'm not going to die. Have faith. The pilot is good. He's good. Nothing's going to happen.
Is this plane pressurized? No. I think I've already established that, considering the fact that I can feel the air coming in that we're not. It's ok.
People skydive out of planes and the door is open then. Yes, that means that we do not need to be pressurized. Yes, that's the kind of height we're at. Yes, I can see skydiving at this altitude. Ok. We're good. We're not going to die.
OMG! The lady beside us is sleeping away through all of the crazy dips and huge bumps we're taking. She seems to be used to this. Ok. that means this is normal and all is well in the world.
If I die, I hope it's quick.

We had some bumpy weather, so the back was not the ideal spot. Found out later, from Marilyne's bf (who works for Costa airlines) that Aeroperlas has the worst rep for crashes - nice. Glad we made it in one piece. Here is our plane:



If you look through the windshield, you'll see the airstrip upon which we landed:
And here is the 'airport'- an airstrip on the edge of the mainland and a dock for the very small boats that the Kuna use to ferry travelers and goods:

But when we arrived, the bumpy plane ride, followed by the moderately bumpy boat ride in questionable boats was all worth it:

I've uploaded all of my trip photos - you can also use the link on the right as usual (Photos). I may post some of my faves here and explain some l8tr...

I had a really, really wonderful time. I had to sleep a lot the past few days to recover though, and I'm super glad, as usual, to be home. :)

Teaser

I'd been laying in the sand on our little island in San Blas, letting the waves wash over me again and again, cooling me off, watching this scene, and I started thinking: "I've got to capture that, if there is any possible way to." So I got up, went to our little grass house and fished out my camera, laid back down in the sand, careful not to let the water get my camera wet, and snapped this picture. Returned my camera back to our lodgings, and went back to my position of relaxation and serenity in the water and sand...

Select Pics...

I've uploaded a few to tide you over until I get them all named and figure out where half of them were taken. Funny how that works - I was just uploading them tonight and part of the time thinking - where the hell was this? Ha, ha! Anyway, these are some of my faves.

Here I am at Oppidum d'Enserune (that's Tricia in the back)...

This is Cannes. Like I said - there was quite a bit of rain during my trip. Still pretty though, eh?

One third of me in Monaco (trying to take one of myself) - I kept it for the humour factor.

This is in front of someone's house and the little bike is actually a plant holder...

One of my favourite photos. I took this while riding behind them.

Joe, Reg & Tricia along side the Canal du Midi...Menton...