Mount Crichton

When I did the Queenstown walk I met a couple from London. I was on my way down and they were on their way up. We must have chatted for 20 minutes. At the end we had exchanged phone numbers, found each other on Facebook, and made a temporary plan to organize a couple other walks in the next week or two before they moved onto their next destination in New Zealand.

Later the next day we started to plan out some walks. The couple had also met a local lady who said she would take them on a few hikes if they wanted so they had taken her up on it. At 11am she and her friend came and picked us up in her car to take us 15 minutes out of town to a walk called Mount Crichton Loop Trail.

It was amazing. These two ladies, that somewhat frequently would remind us that they were old enough to be our grandmas, were awesome. The whole way up the mountain they talked with us about what our plans were and gave us a few pointers on where to find things, where to go, and what to do there. They also left us in the dust a few times. Clearly these ladies had done some hiking and clearly the three of us had not done much of any hiking.

The hike itself was beautiful. It went up along the side of a creek to a place where miners had once worked and one fellow had actually built himself a bit of a hut. At one point we went through what looked like a crack in the world from an earthquake that opened up into an amazing view. Once through the lady informed us it was a path dug out by the miners during the gold rush days. After that it was up to the main lookout point for the hike.

At the top we stopped for some pictures and to enjoy and soak in the view.

The way down was a different path and went much quicker than the way up. At one point the local lady’s friend had spied some apple trees so we stopped and she picked us some apples. They looked a little rough around the edges but actually tasted really quite good. One of the trees she found was down along the creek and she was smacking the tree with a stick to knock some apples off onto the ground. Then as she went to retrieve them the local lady tossed an apple down at her friend picking the apples from the ground and it cracked her right on top of the head! It was not at all her intention but it was bloody hilarious! The two of them then went on at each other for a while.

“You could have blackened my eye with that!”

“You could have knocked me out back into the creek and I woulda drown!”

“Oh, relax, one of these folks would have jumped in and saved you!”

After that it was a short walk back to the car and a quick drive back into town. When she dropped us off she said she would take us on other hikes if we wanted to do any other ones. When we asked her to do Ben Lomond with us the next day they both replied very quickly with “NO.” This should have told us something but id didn’t, and now you have that post to look forward to.

Oh and there was a waterfall at one point also 🙂

Queenstown Hill Walk

The whole trip took me about 3 hours. The actual hill itself probably took about 2 hours. It had some amazing views.

In honour of reaching 1000 views on the Travel With Justin blog site I decided to try something a little different. I did a kind of vlog or video blog, whatever you want to call it. Let me know what you think. Cool. Nice change. Shut up and let me read stuff. Get your face off the screen. Whatever it may be. I’m honestly not super fond of talking to my phone in public but it’s not the worst. It is a little bit fun in a way.Here it is:

 

Bye-Bye Bali

 As I pulled up to the airport in the taxi the driver says to me, “This airport easy. One terminal”.

Awesome. Should be fast and straightforward. Boy was I wrong. He was right, there was only one terminal initially though.

The first thing you did to get inside was go through a baggage scanner. This was before I had even got a ticket or anything. It was odd. Once I got through the scanner I then had to figure out which line to get in to get my ticket. After walking around like a lost boy, dragging my 3 bags along, for about 15 minutes I just picked one that I heard other people talk about the same place I had to fly to. In the end it was the right line, thank God. In the line I met this guy who was loosing his mind over the length of the line. “I have never seen a line like this. This airport is so unorganized. This is crazy. They must have only one check lady.” As we got closer he loosens up a bit. We got joking about a huge sign that informed us that fireworks are not allowed on the plane. Good thing they told us or we would have brought ours. Then I stopped and thought for a second, if there is a sign that big there must have been a large number of people who thought fireworks were okay to bring on the plane. That got us both laughing.

Before we got to the ticket booth there was a guy with some weird looking handheld machine with a point on it that he is pointing a everyone’s check bags. He would go to each bag, place the machine by the zipper and stand there. Then after a few seconds he would look at a reading and wave you ahead. I had never seen this before so once he was done with my bags I asked what he was doing. Turns out he was looking for bombs! No idea how that works but I found it odd that out of all the airports I have been through, Bali airport was the first time I had seen this machine. Eventually we got through the ticket line and moved onto the regular customs scanner stuff. Empty your pockets, laptops and electronics out, etc.

After that the airport was set up so I had to zig zag/snake my way through the stores and duty free. It literally had everyone go in a full on S shape and I don’t think you could cut from one end to the other through stores or anything. It was odd.

Then it’s a 12 minute walk to my gate so I grabbed a sandwich and drink on the way. Need to stay fuelled up.

3 more minutes the sign tells me. It also tells me to go downstairs.

Odd again. I went down the stairs and then to the right to my gate. I look out the windows and glass doors and….. we are on the ground? How does the plane get down here or how do we get up to the plane or? A bus just went by….do we get bussed to the plane now?

 At this point I just want to get on the plane and sleep! Before we can do that we all have to go back out to the entrance of our gate area and have our bags “searched” where everyone gets a friendly pat-down too. The bag search was basically open the bag, don’t move anything, look inside and done. The pat-down was just as thorough. The guy got to my pockets which had my phone, passport, flight tickets, and wallet in them and grabs them. Lets go. “Go ahead.” He didn’t even ask what it was.

Things just keep getting more and more normal at this airport. We get a bus to take us to our plane!? Yup! It drops us off IN FRONT of the plane and then we casually walk AROUND the wing and ENGINE to the rear of the plane to get in the BACK of the plane.

 Just my weirdest airport experience ever.

Day to Day in LA, Day 3: Somewhat Normal LA Day

  
I am sorry to report that today was a pretty smooth sailing day. The most excitement thing was either when I did a little workout at lunch or when my phone started flipping out about some flash flood warning thing. The alarm scared me more because I was not expecting it but the workout had me sweating A LOT! Aside from that though things went pretty well.

This morning all started with a shower, meal prep for the day, breakfast, and a nice walk in the warm LA morning. Again I managed to make it to the gym without getting rained on, which I guess usually isn’t much of a problem. This weekend, however, it has decided to rain for the majority time I have been here so far. So I was pretty happy with making it to the gym without getting soaked. Looking at the weather report for tomorrow I don’t think I will be so lucky. It is just water so I’m not too worried about it. I will probably just put my sweater on so that just the hood is on my head and the rest of it covers over my backpack. Or just wrap my hoodie around my backpack to kind of cover it. It will look weird but I think it will do the trick since I didn’t think to bring my rain jacket. It’s LA, it is supposed to be sunny and ridiculously hot, not raining with flash flood warnings.

Inside the OPEX Program Design class, knowledge bombs are going off left, right, and centre! I am learning a lot about how to put a program together for someone. There are a lot of grey areas just because of all the variables that each individual brings to the gym, but there are a ton of guidelines and principles that help shape the program. Come lunch time I hit some back squats and played around with some handstands just to get moving basically as I have not done any training for about 5 days because I was not feeling well. It was good to get moving again but man is it hot. All I did was 5 sets of 5 back squat and I was soaked. Clearly I am built to deal with cooler temperatures and not hot temperatures, but I made it though it alive and think I’m going to try something a little more intense tomorrow.

Upon the end of class today James asked if I wanted a ride, which I turned down and would later regret that decision. He had said something about rain but I kind of missed most of it and I didn’t think it was raining at the moment. As soon as I walked up to the door I figured out what James was talking about. It was raining, quite a bit. I started to walk down the road when one of the other participants pulled up in a car and asked if I wanted a ride. I took him up on it so I managed to not get wet again.

Once I got back to the hotel I just relaxed for the evening. Until my phone started going off for no reason. Or so I originally thought. When I looked it had a weather alert on the screen. It was a flash flood warning. Not what I thought I was going to have to deal with in LA. I tried to figure out where the warning was for but it was a bunch of names of areas in and around LA that I could not figure out where they were talking about. So I turned the TV on and watched a few news channels to try to figure out where this warning was for. I didn’t really figure out exactly where the warning was for but they didn’t say any areas of LA near me specifically so I figured I didn’t have to worry about it. Plus I periodically kept looking out the window in my hotel room and there were no rivers forming in the streets so I should be safe.

Tomorrow is going to probably have an interesting start of walking in the rain but it will be a good warmup for my morning workout. I might even count it towards my morning workout actually. Then some more learning and some heavier training at lunch with another batch of knowledge bombs after probably. I am really looking forward to it actually. Learn some more in the class but also try out a few of the new methods I have learned about on myself and get some learning that way too. Should be good, depending on how wet I get on my morning walk and how well I can program for myself.

Day to Day in LA, Day 2: The Roller Coaster That is Me in LA

  
Waking up and having breakfast I was feeling pretty good about my adventure today. I had picked a hotel that had a decent free breakfast. I had managed to get to the hotel, maybe not how I planned it but I got there. The seminar was within walking distance, and I knew how to get there. I knew where to get groceries and go out for meals if need be. I also managed to get to the gym before the rain started!

Then the seminar started. It was really cool to sit down and talk with James Fitzgerald as he introduced himself to us all individually. Because he is a Canadian boy like me but has been in the States for many years now we had lots to talk about. Then as we all introduced ourselves to the rest of the participants, the guy sitting in front of me says he works for Barbell Shrugged! It’s Mike McGoldrick! I knew I recognized him from somewhere! I watch their podcasts all the time! So introductions out of the way and into the plan for the next tw…….three days. Wait, what?! I must have mis-heard him, its only tw……three days. CRAP!

Side note: This is where my day gets very interesting very fast and turns yesterday into a minor speed bump. I had mixed up the length of the seminar with that of the other two seminars that I am going to in August. They are two days each and this one is three days, which was news to me. First things first…..telling my boss I can’t read numbers and will be coming home a day later. Thank God (or whoever or whatever you believe in) she is awesome and understanding. The texts back and forth went fairly well and I made sure to point out that I would be filling in for as much as I can in August when the other trainers are on holidays.

The rest of the morning and afternoon went by without a hitch. I learned a ton about programming and managed to walk to get lunch without getting rained on. It rained almost all day otherwise but it was a really good day. At the end of the seminar it was still raining so I asked if anyone was heading west on Huntington or that direction that I could get a ride from. James pipes up and asks “how far is it?” To which I replied “I walked it in half an hour so probably like a ten minute drive tops.” “Oh yeah I can do that.” Sweet! I am getting a ride with the brain behind all this information! I didn’t even know where to begin talking with him so I was glad he started the conversation. On the ride to my hotel we just had a casual chat about my sports background and what I wanted to do in the future with training. I told him about my idea to travel around the world and learn different training techniques and he offered that if I wanted to learn strength and conditioning techniques that he could put me in contact with some people in lots of different places! I almost didn’t know what to say, I was so excited and amazed that he would offer that to me after only one day of me listening to him talk basically. It was pretty cool.

Once I walked into my hotel then the realization kicked in though. I had to now hopefully extend my stay at the hotel and move my flight from Monday to Tuesday. Extending my stay was pretty easy actually. Ric was back at the desk and he was a huge help. I explained what was going on and that I had to add another day. I knew that Monday was more expensive than the weekend days so I figured Tuesday would be too. Ric pulled out a big stop for me though. He made the extension for me at the regular price, which was the same price as the Monday. Then he said he would talk with the manager or assistant manager and see if he could get the price for all my days there bumped down to the lower cost! Just the CHANCE of that happening made my day.

Then it was upstairs to call the airline and sort out moving my flight to Tuesday. Surprisingly it was pretty seamless, especially when you cover the possible seams with about $200. Turns out moving the flight was easy and so was reading them my credit card info. So 200 odd dollars later I had my flight changed. The next thing I needed to do was go get groceries. It had finally stopped raining so off I went. It took me about 45 minutes to walk to the grocery store, do the shopping and walk back to the hotel with my $40 worth of food that would hopefully get me 4 meals. Upon entering the hotel Ric flagged me down. We chatted about the grocery store and that he does all his shopping there and that he figured I would like it. He also snuck in that he had changed my rate for all the days for my room to the same low price and that If I talked with the manager I might be able to get even more of a deal. I am not sure how I lucked out and got such an amazing hotel staff member helping me out but I can honestly say I have never had hotel service like this anywhere before.

Now having sorted out my work schedule, hotel room, and return flight I think I can go to bed and continue on focusing on the seminar for the next two days. I am still not happy with myself for making that STUPID mistake but you live and learn. I’ll be better for it in the end, it’s just really inconvenient at the moment. Honestly though, today could have been a lot worse. I could have got rained on three different times. I could have had to spend a lot more on food had I not found the grocery store I did. I could have got stuck with the higher rate on my room. I could have not been able to get an extra day at all. I could have had to buy a whole new plane ticket and bit the bullet on the Monday ticket. There are lots of things that could have gone a lot worse but that worked out in the end.

So looking on the bright side I now close my eyes and dream about a great day that will be tomorrow.

Day to Day in LA, Day 1: How Not to Get to Your Hotel in LA

  

  
Having been in the wonderful LAX of Los Angeles before with my travels to and from Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji I knew that when I got there things would get interesting. Fast. But before we get to the LAX shenanigans there was a stop in Calgary’s YYC.

Flying in to Calgary from Regina was a really good flight until we went to land in Calgary. It was raining and windy in Calgary as we went to land. It felt like I was sitting in the back of a school bus that was driving too fast down a gravel road as it slide side to side and dipped and jumped over the uneven road. It wasn’t the worst turbulence ever but it was probably the longest sustained turbulence I have experienced. Despite this turbulence we did land safely in Calgary and I managed to find my way to the baggage claim and through international customs.

Once I got to my gate I had just under two hours until I boarded my flight. That gave me time to eat and do some people watching. It is amazing how complicated people can make the simple act of ordering food. I found it quite entertaining, possibly due to the fact that I was no longer in the line-up. None the less I enjoyed watching people go about their tasks. The other thing I like to do is listen to people. No I don’t mean I eaves drop on conversations. I enjoy just listening for different accents and languages. Now, I can’t tell you what languages I heard but I can tell you that not everyone in the airport on this day were speaking english. There is a bit more about this and a few other things I enjoy about airports on my other blog in a post called Enjoy the Little Things: Airport Edition .

Leaving from Calgary was much smoother and the flight went by really fast. I managed to have a bit of a nap and read about 3 chapters in my book. Once inside LAX gathering my bag was easy. Little did I know things were going to get complicated and expensive in a hurry.

Walking around outside the airport for about 10 minutes got old pretty fast so I figured I would give inside a shot. I then walked around inside for about 5 minutes and found my way to the help desk! Score! They will be able to help me….if there was someone at the desk. After standing there for 10-15 minutes I gave up waiting and went back outside to talk to….. well anyone who wasn’t another plane passenger. I ended up talking with some taxi drivers about how I could get to my hotel using buses and trains. The verdict was that it would probably cost me about $30 but it would take me anywhere from 2-3 hours, and I would have to walk a bunch. OR I could hop in the taxi, get drove straight to my hotel, and it would cost at least $100. It’s official. I hate LA’s airport, it is terrible! So because I already wasted close to 45 minutes walking around and talking with these taxi drivers I bit the bullet and got a taxi.

On the plus side I got to learn a lot about LA and my taxi driver Rachel. Rachel is from Mexico and came over here to help her sister. She planned to stay for one year but ended up staying for 30! Haha! Just a slight difference. I also found out that Friday at this particular time that I am trying to get across the city is the worst time in the whole week to try to get out of the city. If we were going into the city it would be way faster. Just my luck, going the wrong way. Damn it! An hour and fifteenish minutes and $110 later I finally made it to my hotel. Rachel let me sit in the front, talked with me almost the whole way, and was such a wonderful lady I made sure to give her a good tip and thanked her repeatedly. Had it not been for her I would still be standing at the airport.

Upon getting to the hotel the staff was super nice! Ric helped me map my way out to the place where the seminar is being held this weekend and gave me tons of options of great places to eat too. The best part is they have complimentary breakfast in the morning, coffee and tea all day, fruit basket at the front desk, AND complimentary COOKIES at 3pm! Incase you were wondering, the cookies were very good. The room was almost as good too. So once I had taken my 30 minute walk to find the gym where the seminar was being held and then walk back, I went and had supper at one of the restaurants Ric had suggested. I spoiled myself a little and got a Root Beer float with my meal. It’s been so long since i had a float I just had to have one.  That was pretty much the end of day one for me, and in comparison to tomorrow had in store for me it was a pretty good start actually.

Land of Oz Round 2: Karaoke, Sailing, and Diving the Reef

Once we got to the farm we had quite a bit of time before any of the activities started, but they did have a shelf full of sports equipment. Before long everything was out, cricket bats, tennis balls, volleyballs (again used as soccer more often than not), a rugby ball, a frisbee, and a nerf football. All flying around at once between all the guys and a few of the girls. Most of the others went and relaxed by the little creek that ran through the middle of the farm. Eventually we got tired of playing sports and thought it would be a good idea to go for a run, up a hill of all places. So we all changed into some running clothes, grabbed water, and went for a run up this hill in what had to be 40 degree heat. Not as good of an idea as we thought it was. It definitely was not the furthest, or most uphill I have ran but we were sucking wind and sweating profusely by the time we reached the top. To be fair it was a good view of the farm and we did get to see some wild kangaroos. But we were not done there. We decided to run down the hill back to the rooms and proceed to do push-ups, pull-ups, and a few other things because we just weren’t tired enough yet. After we finished torturing ourselves the farmers pulled out a helicopter and took our tour manager and bus driver for a fly around the ranch. This place was so huge that they had a plane and helicopter. Every year they hold an air show on their property and thousands of people come to watch and the amount of land and number of cattle they had was out of control. I can’t remember the numbers because when they said them I kind of blacked out for a bit because they were so high.

Eventually the farmer came back from the helicopter flight and hopped into the tractor and took us around the farm on a hay wagon. After that was supper and the whip cracking lessons! Now if you are like me your thinking “I’ve whipped people with towels and things before, how hard can it be to whip a whip”. Well it’s harder than you think. After multiple tries at cracking the whip with the overhand movement they taught us (and only making a crack noise a few times) I decided to change it up a bit. The towel whip. So I stood sideways and whipped it like a towel, worked every time. So I did learn something useful from all those years in hockey and football locker rooms. A few of the other guys tried it my way and eventually got the hang of it. Once everyone was done whipping, themselves mainly and the ground some, it was time for drinks and karaoke. And we danced all night to the best songs ever, most of which were momentarily ruined for everyone involved but it was a jolly good time.

The next morning we packed up again and were off to Arlie Beach. Half the group would be going to Daydream Island for two days while the other half was going sailing the Whitsundays. I was one of the 25 that were going sailing. The 25 of us got split into two proper sail boats that were a good size but had no extra room. The walkways under the deck were a tiny bit wider than the people walking through them and the beds were crammed in the sides of the boat. When it was time to sail we had to help the crew to put up the sails as there was only three of them and they needed at least nine people to get the sails up and in position. When we were actually sailing you had to sit on the high side of the boat because the other side was often pretty much in the water, as the boat was on a 45 degree angle most of the time.

The first night we stopped in a little cove and partied on the boat and most of us slept on the deck, under the stars. The next morning we sailed to Whitehaven Beach that has the finest sand on earth and is 98% pure silicon. You are not allowed to take any of the sand off the island. The only sand that has been taken was to make the lens for the Hubble Space Telescope. After relaxing on Whitehaven we made our way back to the boat and had lunch. You would not believe the meals these guys cooked up in that tiny kitchen, it was big enough to hold two people and that was it. A tiny kitchen on a boat but some of the best meals I had on the trip. Eventually we sailed to another area and did some snorkelling. It was kind of crappy because there had been a few cyclones that went through before we got there. After snorkelling we sailed back closer to Arlie Beach so we didn’t have to wake up too early to get back the next morning. Outside the bay at Arlie we ate, partied, and got soaked. It had rained a bit here and there throughout the two days but it was almost welcomed because otherwise it was really hot. But this night, it took no prisoners, or maybe it did take us prisoner as we really had nowhere to go except under the little tarps that covered the middle of the boat. Soaked and running low on alcohol we partied on anyways. A few of us even slept through the rain on the deck under the somewhat cover of the tarps. In the morning it was a perfect day again and we cruised our way into the harbour.

That day we had our other really long drive as we met back up with the other half of our group, and made our way to Cairns. Tonight in Cairns we didn’t do too much. Supper was included in the trip and most of us got kangaroo steak which was really good. After supper we checked out the night market which took like half an hour as it wasn’t very good. The next day we were back on a boat and going out to the Great Barrier Reef for the day! On the reef we stopped at two different spots, both of which you could do a dive and/or snorkel if you wanted. Despite knowing my ears would hurt (I can’t pop them very easily) I decided to do a dive at the first spot. Once you get used to the breathing, snorkelling is very peaceful and the reef was amazing! Saw tons of cool stuff including massive clams, a little stingray, and some little Nemos. We swam around for probably 20 or 25 minutes, it was awesome. I also went snorkelling at both spots. The first time I went snorkelling was before my dive and I was not as comfortable with it so I didn’t stay in long or see that much. When I went the second time I was much more comfortable, I think the diving gave me some confidence about it all. This time I saw tons of cool stuff. Saw a reef shark and tried to follow it a bit but he was too fast. Also saw a huge turtle and a massive barracuda, which were both kind of the pets of the boat. Pretty much every time they come to this spot the turtle and barracuda come find the back of the boat and hang out. We were snorkelling for what seemed like hours, diving down to swim beside fish, trying to take selfies with the turtle, and making sure you knew where the creepy barracuda was. It was an amazing day with again some pretty good food for being on a boat.

Tonight we all went on a pub crawl in Cairns that took us to 4 different bars, had games organized, and some cheap drinks. It was a lot of fun and a lot of sweating as well. Cairns is really really humid and quite hot, especially when you cram a bunch of dancing people into a little bar. You are always damp here. It’s either raining or it’s so hot and humid that you sweat but it doesn’t evaporate and just makes you sweaty and sticky all the time. The next day, and the last day for many of us, was a day that you could pick from a number of activities. I decided to go ATVing on a nearby farm for the morning. The first part we just drove around a track they had made which was actually pretty fun. They let you go as fast as you wanted and there were puddles all over the track so we got absolutely soaked, plus it was raining. Then we took a break for about 20 minutes before we hoped back on out ATVs and took a tour around the farm. This is when things got really fun and messy as these trails were more mud than water. Some of us got stuck a few times and all of us got covered from head to toe in mud. It’s a good thing we were all friends by this point or we would have all been enemies after this. I’m not certain about everyone else but I would always look for a good and slick muddy spot and go slow into it and then pin it once my tires were in the mud, sending out a nice shower of mud onto the poor bugger behind me. Whatever I flung out was flung back at some point through so I figured it was fair. Once the tour was done we all hosed ourselves off and had some sausages. After we finished devouring the sausages we went back to the hotel where I changed into clean clothes and I grabbed my onesie.

This afternoon I was doing a bungy and a minjin swing, while wearing my Cookie Monster onesie I bought in Sydney before the tour started. I did the minjin swing first. For this you get strapped in so that you can lay down on your belly. They give you a helmet (although if something happened that wouldn’t do anything for you) and then they crank you up backwards. Once at the top you have to pull the cord to let yourself go and down you swing back towards the platform in a nice swing like arch. They take some pictures and you swing back and forth about ten or so times before he stops you and unstraps you. Next it was off to the bungy jump. This one you had to walk up the steps all the way to the top of the platform to do your jump, which makes the height of the jump a little more real.

There were a few people that went before me so I had lots of time to think about and look at how far down it was. When it was my turn the guy asked me if I wanted to dunk in the water. I figured I might as well and he asked how much I wanted to dunk. I didn’t really care so I told him it doesn’t have to be much, whatever. So I got to the ledge, jumped, screamed, and hit the water. Expecting to go up to my armpits or so (to me that is a little dunk) I was quite surprised when I went in to my waist almost! After everyone had jumped one of the guys that watched me jump from the top said when I hit the water the worker went “oops”. Not exactly what you want to hear when your doing a bungy.

That night I had to move to a hostel as I didn’t have a room at the hotel anymore. The hostel I moved into was called Gilligan’s and it was amazing. Each floor had their own kitchen, it was the cleanest hostel I have been in, and it had a pool and a club connected to the hostel. It reminded me more of a Mexican resort than a hostel. Over the next few days some of us stayed in Cairns and met up for drinks each night, each night being someone’s last night. After about five days in Cairns I got a flight to Melbourne which is where I stayed for two weeks before coming back home.

And that lads and lassies is two weeks of my life (and many other new friends of mine) in Australia. Sorry it was so long but we really did pack a lot of amazing stuff into two weeks that I wanted you all to hear about.

Land of Oz Round 2: Kangaroos, Koalas, Dracula’s, and 4×4 a Sand Island

After our night of hotel room games it was back on the bus again the next morning. This time we were off to a surf lesson! The whole lesson was probably around two hours but we were only in the water for about one of those. Although it was a short time in the water I think everyone managed to do a bit of something that looked like surfing, however brief it was. I got back in the grove fairly quick and eventually managed to be able to turn both ways almost every time I wanted to. Once we had looked at all our pictures and dried off we made our way on to Byron Bay. At Byron Bay we visited the most easterly point of Australia, spent some time at the beach, and went to a bar called Cheeky Monkeys. Cheeky Monkeys was the highlight of Byron Bay I would say, and one of the best bars we went to on the trip. It was a crazy good time. Loads of money was spent, things got lost (most importantly two Roughriders hats), we danced on tables, and people were asked to leave before the night was out (for various reasons).

After relaxing on the beach and some of us going for a swim (and me and a fellow Saskatchewanian buying new hats) we were back on the bus again. We were on our way to Surfers Paradise, but first we stopped off at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. They had koalas you could get your picture with, and kangaroos you could pet and lay beside. Or in one of our tour members case you could get attacked by a little roo. The best part is that he got it on video, priceless! Luckily it was a little roo so it didn’t hurt the guy too bad, just kicked him a few times, bit him a little, and chased him after. All the while the guy and everyone watching was laughing, which I think fuelled the fire in the little roo. I didn’t get my picture with a koala but I did hang out with the kangaroos for a while getting lots of pictures as we dressed up one sleeping kangaroo with hat and sunglasses.

Once at Surfers Paradise everyone got settled into their rooms and started to get ready to go to Dracula’s. Before we had got off the bus our tour manager had told us to dress to impress but be ready to be treated really badly. Dracula’s was quite a unique place. It was a lot of fun, but really weird. First you got squished into a little room with coffins on the walls and a creepy butler told you about the rules of the place. Then you walked through one of the coffins and entered into a souvenir shop which had a bar up the stairs as well. Then when you were ready they put you into a haunted roller coaster ride which was short but pretty good. At the end of the ride you walked out into theatre/dinning room. All the people that worked at this place were dressed up as vampires including the waiters and waitresses and they all treated you like crap. They brought your food on time and were good that way but the yelled at you and made fun of people, and really said whatever they wanted. There was a band that played for the first part, then you got your food, and after a while the main show started. It was like a rock concert mixed with a comedy act mixed with erotic dancing. Like I said it was weird but quite entertaining, they were really funny. Once the show was done we went out to Club Liv which was another one of the better bars we went to on the tour. It was a nicer establishment with cool lighting and good, upbeat music.

The next day was a sort of free day where you could go to Australia Zoo, do a skydive, go sea kayaking, or just relax. I chose to do the sea kayak day trip which was quite fun. We kayaked about 7km all together, did some snorkeling, had a simple but good lunch of baked goods and fruit, and had a nice walk around a nearby island. After the kayak trip and all the other activities were done we all got dressed back up and went down to one of the guys’ room and partied till the hotel staff told us we were too loud and needed to leave. So we all went out to Club Liv once again.

When we woke the next morning we had get on the bus and drive, first to Brisbane. We were there for only three hours and most of us just chilled out in some of the botanic gardens for most of the time. Once the three hours was up we made our way to Noosa. In Noosa we went to the beach and got hammered by the waves and the currents, probably the most punishing waters I have ever experienced. After getting beat up by the waves for a few hours it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for supper back by the beach. After our group supper some of us got ice cream and then went back to the hotel, for probably the longest sleep most of us got all trip.

Once again morning came, and once again we had to change locations. Only this time we were getting onto jacked up 4WD mini busses and going for a bumpy ride around Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. We also got to drive on Australia’s only sand highway. Most of us took it to just be a beach but it was also the highway on Fraser Island. On the island we got to see sand, rainforest, forest, a wild dingo, sand, a river of tea, a huge fresh water lake, oh and more sand. On the island some of the trees had tea leaves so when the water ran through the leaves it took some of the tea with it. No one tried it but it was brown and kind of tea looking so we took their word for it. After stoping and doing a little nature walk through the rainforest we drove to a fresh water lake in the middle of the island, Lake Mckenzie. It was the most amazing lake I have ever seen. The sand was super nice and the water was just the right temperature and fairly clear. We spent quite a long time in the lake playing Marko Polo, taking pictures, throwing people into the air, and generally just swimming around. Eventually it came time for lunch and then time to go to our lodge on the island for the night where we would watch the sun set and have a toga party. Another toga party and another group of people calling me Jesus. Some of us, including myself, wore our togas down to watch the sunset so we had some fun taking pictures. After the sunset some people went and had supper while others went back to one of the lodges and drank before we went down to the Dingo Bar.

The next morning it was packing up again, having some breakfast, and then catching the ferry back to the mainland and our original coach. From here we were heading west, away from the sea to a place that was……well more western.

Land of Oz Round 2: National Day, Rugby Players, and Hotel Room Sports

Before the tour started I stayed in Kings Cross for a week because that is where the tour started from. It is an interesting area of the city, that is for sure. During the day it’s alright, not much to do but a nice enough area. Night is a different story though. After about 9 I just didn’t go outside unless I had to or was with a group. Not that it was dangerous, there was just a lot of….. different people out and about. But I guess that’s normal for a “red light district”, as Kings Cross was. So needless to say I was happy when the tour got started.

The tour I did was called Beaches and Reefs and took 14 days where we went from Sydney all the way up to Cairns. I lucked out and picked probably one of the best days to start the tour, Australia Day. Australia Day is the equivalent of Canada Day back home. This is the night that I decided to do 3 tequila shots for my neknomination (or whatever it’s called) that some of you may have seen on Facebook. That night kind of set the pace for the rest of the nights on the trip. As for the days, well that’s the real reason I am writing this.

Before my tequila shots that night we went on a trip out to the Blue Mountains. It was pretty foggy so you couldn’t see down into the valley very far but the walk through the mountains was still quite amazing. We got to see a cool waterfall where we took our first group photo (first of many throughout the trip). We also got out of the city for a bit which was sweet by me, I’m not built for big cities and crowds of people. So tonight would be an interesting night, although I didn’t know it at the time but found out very soon when we went to watch the fireworks. Before the fireworks we went out to eat at a restaurant in Darling Harbour. After the meal we went out to the edge of the harbour, into a massive crowd of people, to watch the Australia Day fireworks display. The fireworks went for quite a while and were really cool but I don’t even know how to explain the amount of people that were there. Trying to make our way back out of the crowd had to take at least 45 minutes where walking on a normal day it would have taken like 10 maybe. By the time we got out I was about ready to explode. I either needed to go to the gym and throw around some weight or go for drinks. And well, it was late and no gyms were open, plus I’m on vacation, so I think we all know what happened.

The next day was a pretty relaxing day, which most of us needed it to be (second day and we already needed a relaxing day, we are in some kind of trouble). We took a drive around Sydney city centre for an hour or so to check out things like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. After that we made our way to Manly where most of us spent all day laying on the beach. A few of us decided to go on a brewery tour of 4 Pines Brewery at about noon and then go back to the beach and relax. The brewery tour was interesting but the best part was getting to try five of their beers. The first three were good but the last two were not as good. They tasted a bit like coffee to me and I’m not a fan of coffee, but if you were I think you would have liked them some. Some of the group also went and walked up on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I took the option on that. After jumping off a bridge, just walking on it didn’t seem all that exciting to me.

The next morning it was onto the bus for our first travel day, also known as nap time for myself and many others as I think I averaged 4 hours of sleep every night. This drive took us first to Port Macquarie where we stopped for lunch and ate by the water. While we were there we managed to see a few dolphins swimming in the bay. We also saw this posy of seagulls that just sat in the grass and begged for food. It all seemed normal until you realized that there was a huge pelican with them, an odd group leader but a group leader none the less I guess. After being harassed a bit by the pelican and his posy while we all ate lunch (some people are terrified of birds, imagine that) it was off to Coffs Harbour.

In Coffs Harbour we stayed at quite a nice, but extremely confusing hotel. It took many of us over half an hour to find our rooms. The room I was in was pretty small but it had everything the other two guys and I needed. Just as we start to unpack we heard a big commotion outside so we went out onto the balcony to check it out. Turns out two of the rooms had a spider in them. One was dead and one was alive but both were in girl’s rooms so it was a pretty big deal. It was determined that they were huntsman spiders, which I don’t think are all that dangerous but are pretty big, about the size of you palm. Eventually some hotel staff came and got rid of the spiders. After the spiders were gone two of the girls offered to trade us rooms because they didn’t want to sleep in theirs in case there were still spiders hiding somewhere. We went and checked out their room and it was massive. It had a little kitchen, jet tub, two bedrooms, a washer and dryer, and two TVs. It definitely took us way longer to switch our bags around than it did for us to agree to switch rooms. After we got moved into our room we went to the pool for bit before getting changed and going for supper (or dinner depending on where your from). After dinner we all went over to the bar in the hotel and had some drinks. Now when we first got to the hotel all the ladies on the bus (there were mostly ladies on the bus) noticed that there were quite a few big muscular dudes wandering around the hotel. We later found out that they were two rugby teams, the Rosters and the Swans I believe. Apparently they stayed there quite often when they were in town. They must have had a match coming up because the few of them that were at the bar were not drinking. The cool part was that one of the guys that was out was Sonny Bill Williams, a very famous rugby player from New Zealand that used to play for the All Blacks! After most of the girls got their pictures taken with the lads we got the whole group over and took some group photos with them. Eventually the rugby players left and some of us went down to the beach for some drinks, a swim, and a sit by a fire another group had made. After the fire, things got out of hand a bit but extremely funny.

Three of the guys and I went back to my room, originally to do laundry, but then we found a volleyball. Our room was really two rooms put together, but the wall between the two had a large open area so you could see through to the other room. Kind of like a big serving window. We soon found out that it was perfect for jumping through from one room to the other and landing on the bed. It also served as the divider for a quick volleyball game. The best purpose it served was when we started to play soccer. One person would stand on the bed in one room and the other would stand on the floor in the other room. The person on the bed would then kick the ball through the opening and the person in the other room would try to stop the ball. The favourite type of kick was the bicycle kick, and the favourite place for the ball to hit was the wall behind the “goalie”. Our neighbours hated us for the next two hours, (thankfully they were also on the trip with us so they weren’t too mad) but we were laughing the entire time. And those of you worrying about our laundry, it did get done eventually.

Leone’s Fiji Files: Ancestral Giants

This is the second of the three stories that Leone had told me about the surrounding islands. This story is about the island that I went cave diving at the one day. I believe the island is called Sawa – I – Lau. When I went cave diving I only entered into one of the many caves that are hidden under the island. There is said to be a room so dark that you cannot see the end of your nose. This same cave is said to be covered in sponge and is named “The Love Cave”. Leone told me that many couples would swim into this cave, at the same time as this room was large enough to comfortably fit multiple couples. Once in the cave the couples would lay together on the sponge covered rocks. But that is not the main story for this post….

Before I get to the story I need to say one more thing, I need to explain the fishing tactics of Fiji. Fishing in Fiji at the time of this story was done a bit different than it is today. They would collect a bunch of palm leaves and weave them all together in a long fence-like structure, with no gaps. They would get a bunch of people together and walk out into the shallows with this fence or net and make a circle capturing fish, turtles, and other sea creatures inside. They would then make the circle smaller by overlapping it on itself. Smaller and smaller the circle would go until all the animals were so concentrated in the circle that the villagers could pluck them out with ease.

Now for the story!

One day the locals from the village were out fishing in the shallows of the ocean near their village. They were just about to start catching the fish when they noticed an eagle soaring above them. They had seen this eagle many times before while fishing and every so often it would swoop down and steal away a turtle or a shark or a large fish. On this day the eagle had a larger appetite though as it decided to take one of the women that was helping capture the fish. Up, up, and away they went. Now as luck would have it the woman that the eagle decided to take was the chief’s daughter (just some advice, if you ever get the chance to be a chief’s daughter, don’t, apparently they get taken away quite regularly). Immediately the chief offered up a reward for anyone who could find his daughter and kill the eagle. The reward, you guessed it, the daughter (being given away rather than taken, not sure if that’s any better) along with a local island. Many individuals set out looking for the chief’s daughter but all came back with nothing. Eventually two brothers decided to go out and find her. They spent weeks sailing from island to island looking for the eagle’s lair, only catching glimpses of the eagle every once in a while but never having the speed to follow it.

Just as they were about to give up the younger brother remembered seeing a smaller island that had a huge mountain on it. One side was a straight cliff face and the other had a massive crack down it where wind tunnelled through and blew with a force unmatched my any other wind. The first time the brothers had seen it they thought the island too small for the eagle as well as too difficult to climb to the top to check it. But after searching for so long and having no luck the brothers knew they had to check this island.

Before they went up the mountain the younger brother grabbed a huge sea urchin with 25 very large spikes on it that he planned to stab the eagle with. The brothers waited in a cove where the eagle would not see them, and waited for him to fly away. Late that evening the eagle flew away, not knowing that the two brothers lay in wait for him to return. Once the eagle was out of sight the brothers began the climb up the side of the mountain with the massive crack. The climb up the first half of the mountain was fairly easy until they came to a point where they had to jump across the massive crack so they could ascend the rest of the mountain.

The older of the two brothers went first. He took a few steps to get his momentum going and jumped. Above the massive crack the wind was blowing strong as ever, spinning the older brother around and around. Luckily though the wind did not blow him off course and he landed hard on his back, safely on the other side. Now it was the younger brothers turn. He too took a few steps to get his momentum going and jumped. Being slightly smaller and lighter than his older brother, the younger brother got tossed around a bit more and was pushed off course some by the wind. In his panic he dropped the sea urchin that he was carrying. Down the crack it fell, bouncing off the sides, breaking off all it’s spikes. Each spike hit the water below and sunk into the sand, point up resting at the bottom of the river, where they still rest to this day. The younger brother would have had the same fate as the sea urchin if he didn’t get so lucky as to smack into the side of the massive crack and happen to grab hold of a solid ledge. He pulled himself up to safety on the other side just a few steps down the mountain from his brother.

Eventually the two brothers made it to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain the brothers found one single tree, a few very large rocks, the lair of the eagle, and the chief’s daughter. So they had the chief’s daughter, now they needed to kill the eagle. This would be much more difficult now that the younger brother had dropped their weapon as he jumped across the massive crack in the mountain. That is when the older brother noticed the rocks and hatched a plan. His plan was for his younger brother to take three rocks up into the tree and wait for the eagle to come. Meanwhile he would sit and draw the attention of the eagle to his lair. When the eagle was about to land the younger brother would smash the eagle in the head with the rocks and kill the eagle.

Up until this point I can imagine you were quite confused about the title of this post but here I clear that up for you. These “rocks” would be boulders to you and I as they were the size of a kitchen table that would comfortably sit six individuals. If the “rocks” were that large you can imagine how upscaled everything else must be. How massive Leone’s ancestors must have been to carry three rocks up into a tree. How large the tree must have been to support all the weight. Also how massive this eagle must have been to be able to grab one of these people and carry them away. Now that you are amazed by the size of everything or maybe shaking your head at the exaggeration I continue the story.

So with the older brother waiting in the lair and the younger brother in the tree ready to ambush the eagle, they waited. Eventually the eagle did return, and when he did he was none too pleased to see the extra human in his lair. As he was swooping in for the attack the younger brother spotted him and instead of readying to smash the bird, he wet himself. The size and ferocity of the bird froze him where he stood, his own bodily fluids running down his leg. Meanwhile the eagle had landed and was set upon attacking the older brother. The older brother, noticing his brother had not held up his end, quickly grabbed a stick (which would be more like a tree to us) and did his best to fend off the bird. After the dance went on for a few minutes the younger brother finally snapped out of his frozen state, soiled, embarrassed, and worried for his brothers life. He managed to collect himself and aim a rock perfectly at the eagles head. CRACK! The rock bounced off the eagles head. As he stumbled, CRACK! Another one bounced off his head. With the bird still stumbling around, the younger brother knew he needed more force to kill the eagle. He picked up the rock, lifted it over his head and instead of throwing it he jumped from the tree. Heading strait at the face of the eagle. Just before he ran into the eagle he brought the third rock down onto the top of the eagle’s head with all his might. The younger brother and the eagle both fell to the floor. The eagle, dead. The younger brother, still soiled and embarrassed but now in place of what was fear was triumph.

Upon their return they presented the daughter to the chief and told him of how they killed the eagle. There was a huge celebration held to honour the brothers and celebrate the return of the chief’s daughter. The older brother was then given the chief’s daughter and the younger brother was given the island.

So that is that. A bit far fetched I would say but probably one of the cooler stories I heard while travelling. It reminded me a lot of stories I heard in New Zealand about the Màuri. Giant individuals pulling up islands from the ocean floor, men dying and leaving impressions in the ground that today are lakes, men dying and also becoming the mountains or islands. It is very cool how almost every island, lake, and mountain have a story of how it came to be and things that happened there.