Pete Stuffs

Switzerland - July

2008-07-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Walking into ZermattWe arrived in Zermatt 2 hours after leaving Chamonix, we checked into our hostel and had dinner. After dinner we went for a walk around town before retreating to the pub as rain developed. The showers hung around the next day but we were still keen to get out and walk so we chose a low altitude loop of the valley. It was a good combination of forest, grassland and mountain chalets so we were never far from a hot cup of coffee.

Monta Rosa Peak and the Gornergletscher

The next day we went off on our most ambitious walk from the gornergrat railway station across the Gornergletscher to the Monta Rosa hut and back down to Zermatt village. The bad weather cleared early in the morning and we had awesome clear skies.

Crossing the Gornergletscher

We dropped steadily down to the glacier and began to cross it. It was fascinating with crevasses, deep blue pools and massive rocks, after an hour on the ice we clambered up the valley side to the Monta Rosa hut. At the hut we sat back in the sunshine enjoying a cold beer, lunch and the spectacular glacial scenery all around.

Lunch at the Monta Rosa Hut

The old man springing over the crevasses
Views of the Matterhorn heading back down to Zermatt

After lunch we headed back the way we came as far as the train station, after that we continued on down to the Zermatt Village enjoying great views of the Matterhorn. We got back into town at 7pm, 10hrs after we started walking. After dinner we went back into town for a couple of beers to celebrate our last night in Zermatt.

The next day we packed up, got back into the car and headed over to Milan. It was a good drive as we went up over the Simplon pass and then down past lake Maggiore in Italy where we stopped for lunch and a swim. We then drove on to Milan to return the rental car and have our final night. On Sunday dad took the train down to Florence for the first of his conferences. It was a great trip, we saw lots of cool stuff and got some awesome hiking in.

France - July

2008-07-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

Glacier des BossonsAfter our short but action packed weekend in Denmark we headed down to the alps for the main part of our holiday. We flew into Milan, picked up our rental car and drove to Chamonix. We checked into our hostel and went for a quick walk up to Glacier des Bossons.

Mt Blanc across the valley from Brévent The next day we set out on our first major walk, we started at the top of the Flegere and headed off towards the Brévent enjoying the great views across to Mt Blanc. We stopped at the top and were dissapointed to find the restaurant closed so we continued down along the ridge and were stoked to another small chalet perched on the mountain side which served cold beer and hot meals. After a great meal we headed back down the steep mountain to the valley 1500m below and back to the Hostel.

One of the many mountain side chalets
Fondau in Chamonix
That evening we went for a fondau in Chamonix, a good local dish. We sat under cover due to the thunder storms coming in and out of the valley.

Lac Blu with Aiguille de Midi in the back ground

The next day we took the Legendary Aiguille de Midi cable car up to the spectacular height of 3800m, 2800m above the valley floor. We then took the next cable car across the Vallee Blanche to Italy with amazing glacial views all around. We then headed back down to Lac Blue for lunch and a swim before jumping in the car and driving to Zermatt in Switzerland.

Denmark - June

2008-07-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

Dinner in Copenhagen Dad arrived in the Copenhagen the weekend after the Scotland trip, I picked him up and we went back to Ella's apartment where we stayed. That evening Dad, Ella and I went out for dinner with Niels, Linda, Bror and Bjork at a Italian restaurant in town.

My birthday presents from Bror and Bjork

Linda and Bjork enjoying the meal

I was given my birthday presents a few days earlier by Bjork and Bror =) Dad had not seen Niels and Linda for 7 years so there was a lot of catching up to do. The next day I took dad for a quick tour of Copenhagen before heading over to Odense for the weekend. We were treated to even more good festivities at both Bjarne and Lene's and Mormor's.

Scotland - June 08

2008-07-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Picking up Stig from Sarah and Shays houseAfter 7 years down under it was Dads turn to visit Europe again. Ella and I flew in to Manchester friday morning and met Dad and Linda to the Airport where we picked up the rental car and headed to Sarah and Shays. We had a cup of tea and a good but brief catch up them before heading up to Arrachor in Scotland for the weekend where we were to attend the Burden family re union.

The Arrachor Hotel from the Cobler

We drove for 5 hours up to Arrachor on the west coast 1 hour north of Glasgow. We had no problems except bad coffee at the motorway service stations and the rush hour traffic in Glasgow. We got up early the next morning, ate our bacon and eggs breakfast before Stig, Ella and I headed up the Cobler to check out the famous peak.

Grandad's bridge - still looking good

The rocky peak of the Cobler

The eye of the Needle
Looking back down to Arrachor

It was a good 5 hour return walk allowing for an hour at the top to climb the three summits, there was a lot of rock scrambling involved so was pretty cool. We ate lunch and then headed back down in time to catch the reunion party at one of the local cafes.

Uncle John and Dad
The reunion was great, we were around 80 people, very different people of all ages and from all over the world. It was funny to talk to the people and think that we all came from my grandparents.

Some of the rellies back at the Arrachor hotel
Arrachor in the morning sun

On the Sunday we drove over to Loch Fyne for a fine lunch at the famous sea food restaurant. We then went to the Glengoyne distillery for a Scotch tour before taking Stig to Glasgow airport to catch his plane back to the US. Linda, Dad, Ella and I stayed another night in Arrachor before heading back down to Manchester. It was a great trip and fun to meet up with Linda, Dad and Stig on the other side of the world.

Paris - Oct 07

2007-11-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Moulin Rouge at PigalleMy treat for October was a long weekend in Paris with my brother Stig and good friend Juline. I left work early on Friday afternoon and flew down to Paris arriving 7:30pm. Took the train into our hotel in Montmartre, just 200m from Pigalle and Moulin Rouge. Stig came in on a train from Nantes that evening and we met in the hotel before heading out for dinner. After dinner we walked around the neighbourhood and it did not take long for us to realize we were in the heart of Paris's red light district. We found a bar and had a few drinks before heading back to the hotel in the small hours.

Street band playing on IIe St LouisWe got up early Sat morning, got our running shoes on and headed out the door. We ran a pretty cool route which included Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, the river Seine, the Louvre and back through Marais to Montmartre. We had a quick breakfast and headed in to see Notre Dame and Chapelle before taking the boat down the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

A long way down We took the stairs up the first third of the tower which was a good challenge, from there you can only take the elevator.. bummer! The view from the top was awesome, even on the hazy day we were up there.

As an engineer it was cool to see it from our angle, it is a very light and intricate structure. Very impressive to think it was calculated with the primitive techniques available in the 1800's.

A flash chocolate shop on Champs Elysees

After the Eiffel tower we went to check out some wine shops at Madeleine, got a few bottles and some glasses. We then went back to the Eiffel tower to check out the lights at night, was cool. We then walked to Champs Ellysees to visit Juline who was working in that evening at 'The drugstore' selling expensive wine and cigars. We then headed back to a restaurant over near Chateau d'Eau for dinner at a brilliant seafood restaurant.

The River Seine The next day we went to check out Hotel des Invalides which is the french war museum. We are both war geeks so it was pretty cool, we also checked out Napoleons Tomb. We then headed back to the hotel to meet Juline before heading out to dinner.

The corner shop from the famous film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain We met up with Juline and then headed up to the Sacré Coeur to check out the great views over the lights of Paris by night. There was lots of people up there and some pretty good live music. On the way back down Juline took us past the the corner shop from the famous film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain before finding a restaurant.

Dinner with Juline and Stig

We found a nice little restaurant and enjoyed the food and wine. Stig had a great time grilling Juline about being french but she took it very well (I had given her plenty of warning)! After dinner I drove back to stay with Juline in Saint Leu la Forêt whilst Stig flew back to the states Monday morning.

Juline's house in Saint Leu la ForêtSaint Leu la Forêt is a cute little town 40min from Paris. Unfortunately the weather on Monday did not come to the party, we had planned on going to Chateau Versailles but it rained the whole day. So we compensated by enjoying a good three course lunch at one of the cafes in town.

The first course of three The back of Juline's classic french house Dinner with the lovely JulineJuline had a evening class at Uni so she dropped me in at the Arc de Triomphe where I bummed around for a couple of hours until she was finished. We walked down to Place de la Concorde and took a ride on the large Ferris wheel before heading in to the Latin Quarter for dinner. We walked around and found another cosy little restaurant where we got another primo dinner.

I flew back to Copenhagen Tuesday morning and was sad to leave after an awesome long weekend with great company. Paris is a vibrant and interesting town with lots of life, I will certainly be back!

Lillegrund Transformer Platform May 07

2007-09-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

Lillegrund Transformer platformThe first transformer platform I worked on as an engineer in denmark was finished in June 07 and sailed out to its place in the Lillegrund Offshore Windmill Park off the sea between Denmark and Sweeden.

Lillegrund in Aalborg harbour on the floating craneLillgrund is a windmill park consisting of 48 large 2,3MW turbines with a rotor diameter of 92.4m. The park which lies just 7km off the Swedish coast has a total output of 100MW. The water depth is pretty shallow at 9m and the foundations for windmills and the transformer platform are a concrete mass type.

Being lowered onto its preinstalled foundation pedestal
Our job was to design a platform for the park to house the large 200 ton, 138 kV/33 kV transformer and all the other control equiptment for the park. All the electic cables from different windmills are collected at the platform and the voltage increased before the power is sent into the national grid via under sea cables. The platform is approx 18m in diameter and 30m high so it is not small but it looks it next to that massive crane. By the time I joined ISC in January 07 the majority of the design had been done, but since then we have designed 2 other platforms.

USA - California, Apr 07

2007-04-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

Cruising Long Beach

My Easter treat was a trip to Long Beach to visit Kat my lovely girlfriend who I met in Venice in August 06. I took a few days off work and headed over to California for 12 action packed days. Kats apartment is just a short distance from the beach and downtown so on the first day we jumped on the bikes and headed out on a mission.

The classic RMS Queen Mary docked at Long Beach

We stopped in Kats favorite coffee shop for breakfast before heading on to the Aquarium. We got great views of the RMS Queen Mary a large ocean liner built by the White Star Line in the 30's. They were the same company who built the Titanic and you can see the similarities. The boat is a bit of a legend because it served as an allied troop carrier during WW2 and ferried thousands of troops from Australia/New Zealand and US/Canada to Europe. It was hunted my many Nazi U Boats but proved too fast for them. We finished our bike tour at a great little Mexican resturant which had awesome Tacos. It was happy hour and the Tacos were only 1 dollar each.. Yep we ate a few!

Kats treat, a Gondola tour of the Long Beach canals

I was totally suprised when we got back to the apartment and found out that Kat was going to take me out on an authentic Venetian gondola complete with an opera singing gondolier. As we met in Venice but never got round to doing it there it was the perfect idea. We sat eating bread cheese and drinking wine. Every time we passed under a bridge the gondolier stopped and burst into song, was great. He sang in Italian, German and English!

Brunch Party, my nephew Nicholas making sure Angus was not missing out

The first weekend was very festive, Kat had planned parties both sat night and sunday brunch. I met a good number of Kats friends and family, they were very freindly and welcoming. My brother Stig, sister in law, Joko and two nephews Nicholas and Criffer (Christopher) who also live in LA made it to both parties so that was great. Kats rabbit Angus was pretty tired after the parties as he was busy entertaining kids most of the time.. well he surely did not go hungry!

Huntington Beach

The brunch finished late in the afternoon and we felt like some fresh air and relaxation so we headed down to Huntington Beach in Orange county to catch the sunset.

We were not the only ones with that idea

It got pretty chilly as the sun lost its strength but definately worth hanging out for. After the sunset we headed into a Mexican resturant for dinner, it was a majic evening.. The next day we went for a walk, or prehaps I should say a hike.. It was great, I got nice and sunburned and we saw a 1.5m snake crossing the track too which made it exciting. The day after Kat had to work, I spent the morning surfing with one of Kats mates Qzar and the afternoon interviewing with an engineering company.

At the Angels Baseball Game We had a cool day at the baseball with Kats mum and aunt who are both big Angels fans. I did not have much of a clue about baseball so it was a learning experience. Luckily we were sat in the shade as it could have been pretty tough in the sun. After the game we went out for dinner at another mexican resturant.... yes there is a bit of a theme developing. Some of the best mexican in the world is found in California so it has to be done! We went home and packed our bags for our next adventure, a ski trip to mammoth.

The crew, Stig, Joko, Kat and I on the chair lift

Kat and I left early the next morning as Mammoth is a 600km drive north east of LA. Unfortunately it also mean travelling through LA during rush hour so we decided to leave at 6am to beat the traffic and avoid any delays. We got to mammoth around lunchtime and went for a nice walk around Lake Convict. We also stopped at some natural hot pools but unfortuately they were small and full of naked blokes so we thought better of it. Stig, Joko and the boys arrived that night and we got ready for an early start up the mountain.

Criffer learning the snow plough

It was Nic and Criffers first proper ski trip so they spent the first day in Ski school on the learner slopes. This was good as it gave the grown ups (and semi grown ups) the day to ski together, and ski we did.. We skiied most parts on the mountain which is pretty massive and even got a couple of runs in the half pipe.

The boys picked it up really quickly and by the end of the second day they were skiing the blue, intermediate runs.

Coronas for Lunch - Nice!
Feeling the effects of a big day followed by a couple of Beers
Everyone was pretty tired after a couple of big days and it showed. Our condo was great and it had a good sized spa which we used every day.

Snow balls fights on the way up to Panarama Dome Get him! You suck stig!!
On the last day at mammoth we went for a walk up Panorama Dome which would be pretty gentle apart from the fact that every few steps we sunk a meter into the snow. We had some awesome snowball fights on the way.. No one was spared!!

We were taken back by both the views and gusty winds at the top

After the walk we jumped back in the cars and headed home to LA only stopping only for lunch and a milkshake along the way. It was a great holiday and it was very sad to fly back home again the next day.

Joshua trees on the way back to LA

Denmark-Copenhagen, Autumn 06

2007-04-28T04:02:00.002-07:00

Poul and Christinas wedding in HolstebroAfter my Eurail adventures I was broke so needed to put my head down and work. As part of my "Gap year" I was keen to live for the remanding six months in Denmark. The aim of this was to spend a decent amount of time with my danish family which is actually bigger than my NZ including my brother neils who I had only seen a couple of times the ten years we lived in NZ. I was also keen to try learn Danish and experience the unique Scandinavian culture. Almost as soon as I came to Denmark in August I went to my mate Poals stag party in Holstebro and a couple of weeks later he and Christinas wedding.

The lovely Christina looking stunningThe Autumn Colours on DamhussøenAs soon as I got to Denmark I wrote off to a bunch of Engineering companies in the hope that they would have use for an english speaking structural engineer. This was not actually too unlikely as Danish engineers are well regarded worldwide and Danish firms undertake a lot of large international projects in which the working language is usually english.. Soon after I got replies back from the companies saying thanks for the application, we will review our situation and get back to you in 6 weeks. I could not have afforded to sit idle even if wanted to so I got myself a job soon after with Jacob Neilsen and his gardening firm Sønderskov in Vanløse. I worked there from September until January when I was offered a good engineering job. During these four months we did range of work including, tree pruning, laying paving stones, chopping trees down and stump removal. We also did a lot of driving around Copenhagen cutting grass which was a good way to figure out the local geography.

My brother Neils, Bror 5, Bjork 2 and his wife Linda

The family gathering in OdenseMy other brother Stig from LA travels a lot with work so he pops into Denmark often when he is working in Europe. On one occasion we all met up in Odense at mormors house and had a big family gathering. As always with mormor the food was excellent! It was good times, everyone got into the wine and we carried on into the small hours.

Poul and Christina at the Nyhavn MarketsI got a visit from Poul and Christina in late november, we cruised around town making the most of the christmas markets that were in full swing. Of course no chistmas market is complete without a cup Gløgg (danish mulled wine)

The lights of Tivoli Gardens
Drinks at Jespers apartment After a quick trip to Tivoli we headed around to Jespers apartment for a few drinks. We got into the beers and fishermans friend which is a mean brew of vodka and fishermans friend cough sweets. Things got a bit messy later on that night but not before some scratching on Jespers record player and dancing on the couch.

The night starting to warm up

The Ice rink at Kongens NytorvThe weekend after I had a visit from Hillary and Marissa which was always going to be a good laugh. I picked them up from the airport on friday night and after we headed straight into town for a late pizza. On the Saturday we got up around 9ish which is probably the earliest I have ever seen hillary up. We then headed over to Christiania to start our tour before returning to Nyhavn. After that we took a tour through the Royal Palace, Amalienborg and cracked up big time at some of the photos of the royal family (great facials). By the time we returned to Kongens Nytorv the Christmas lights were blazing and the ice rink looking really inviting. We had a lot of fun cruising around and trying to workout how to use our skates much to the amusement of the spectators. We finished the night off with beers at the Dubliner pub, after a brief snooze on the pub bench Marissa woke up and started chatting up the locals.

Sunday in Tivoli

Hillary and her mate from FinlandOn the sunday we were not so quick to get up after the late night and the girls had a early evening flight so we had only time from a trip to Tivoli that day. We all bought the unlimited ride pass and so we tried as many rides as we could, the non existent queues meant this was quite a lot. Marissa and I were particularly keen on the golden tower which is probably the best ride in the park, its a ride which takes you up to 80m and then fires you down faster than gravity. Was great, while we were up there Hillary befriended a charming Finnish man. After Tivoli I took the girls back to the airport, it was an awesome weekend and had a lot of good laughs.

Italy - Capri and Positano, Aug 06

2007-04-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

A boat trip around CapriOur next adventure was a day trip out to the Island of Capri, a popular scenic spot since the Roman times. We had a short half hour ferry trip from Sorrento out to Capri. The best way to check out Capri is by water as it has some amazing features along its spectacular rugged coastline, hard if not unaccesible by land.

Faraglioni the symbolic stacks of CapriThere was only a little shade on the boat and as we were the last on board we were out in the sun, it was hot!

The entrance to the Blue Grotto - yep hard to seeThe climax of all Capri's wonders is the Grotto Azzura or Blue Grotto and it certainly drew the crowds while we were there. To get in you must pass through a tiny opening in the cliff and once inside a massive cavern 40m in diameter opens out in front of you. Unfortunately when we arrived there was a one hour wait to get in. A row developed on our boat as half of the people wanted to wait, while the other half wanted to head back to the town. Mutiny was narrowly avoided and we headed back to the town.

The town of Capri We got back to Capri and the headed down to the local beach for a swim. After the swim we read Kat's travel book and discovered an interesting fact. The boat tours into the Blue grotto stop at 5pm and after then you can catch a bus to the road end, clamber down the cliffs and swim in. It was the best discovery we could have made and turned out to be one of the highlights of my entire travels.

The Blue Grotto - the forbidden cave We jumped off the bus, changed into our togs and dived in. We swam through the tiny entrance hole and found ourselves inside a truly amazing cavern. Inside the grotto the sea is lit from underwater, it is a magnificent fluorescent blue colour and hence its name. This is due to another opening to the grotto, completely submerged, and the limestone bottom. It allows the sunlight to enter and light the water from below. The water in the grotto is pretty deep, up to 30m. There is only one small ledge you could stand on and that is located at the far end of the cavern so you need to be a pretty confident swimmer. We were enchanted by the place and floated around in the fluorescent blue water for an hour. There were other groups of locals who swam in but they stayed only about 20 mins. I can recommend it to anyone who is on Capri and keen for a little adventure, it is free, no tourists and truly amazing.

Sunset dinner on cliffs above the Grotto After the Grotto we celebrated the end of a great day in style with a meal at one of the cliff side restaurants close by. That night Kat treated me to a night in flash hotel, our room had air conditioning and was luxury compared to the stuffy hostels we had been staying in previously.

Sunset over the bay of Naples
Capri and the Faraglioni from the Monte SolaroThe next day we headed up to the highest peak on the island, Monte Solaro. Its a long way up but the ascent was made a little easier by the chair lift that took us to the top. The chairlift ride was pretty awesome as we cruised up only meters above the canopy of terraced gardens and citrus orchards. Kat had a great time waving to the stream of friendly Japanese tourists who were coming down and shared her enthusiasm for greeting. Unfortunately there was a cap of cloud hugging the top of the peak which killed the views when we got there, so we sat down had a coffee and wrote postcards hoping it would clear soon. Well actually Kat wrote post cards, I have a reputation for being notoriously bad at writing which I was keen to uphold so I simply observed.. 5 postcards later our hopes came reality and amazing views opened up all around us. We could see all around the Island and across the bay of Naples to the Sorrento Peninsula and Mount Vesuvius.

Finding our way back down
We were keen for a bit of exercise so we headed off across country to find a trail down the peak. We headed over to a small cluster of houses as that seemed like a good place to pick up a trail. Amongst the houses we found a cute little church perched on top of a very large cliff, the views were stunning. I think the idea of placing a church up there is you are higher and therefore closer to the mighty one. It certainly was an amazing spot and I have a lot of respect for the people who go up there on a regular basis. Anyway, we picked up a trail and one hour later we were back at the base of the chair lift after stopping for another top picnic.

The crazy roads of Capri a tough place to be a bus driver

We returned back to the mainland that evening on a very crowded boat, the ride was fantastic though. When wondering around Sorrento after getting off the boat we bumped into our friend Mat, the crazy Aussie guy we met in Venice. We had no idea he was planning on coming to Sorrento so it was a total surprise. We grabbed dinner, drank some beer and then hit the pubs, it was another great night.

The town of Positano from the roof of our HostelOur next port of call was the little cliff hugging town of Positano on the spectacular Amafi coast. The average gradient of the town was about 45 degrees which ensured great views from every house but also made you think twice about nipping down to the shop.

Hanging out on the main beach Our hostel was located about 200m above the beach so it was a great workout to get home again. We spent most of the days on the beach with a good mixture of reading, drinking and swimming.

The town of Amalfi
Our last night together Kat and I had our last night together in Positano, it was a sad, but very good night too. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant on the beach and after that went out for a night swim. It was still and calm where we were but we watched an awesome lightning storm out to sea, the reflections off the water were amazing.. After the swim we went back up to the hostel where we sat on the roof looking over the lights of the town and drinking wine late into the night. The next day I headed back up toward Denmark as my 2 month rail pass was about to run out. After Positano Kat had a couple of days in Rome before heading back to LA. It was a very sad night but also a celebration of the amazing adventures we had together.

Italy - Sorrento

2007-03-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Pompeii in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius

We had a great but long train ride from Venice to Sorrento. It was a cool route as we passed through the heart of Tuscany and down the west coast south of Rome to Sorrento. Towards the end of journey we passed through a cool lightning storm, unfortunately when we reached our stop in Sorrento 9hrs after leaving Venice the storm was still raging. We had a 15min walk in the torrential rain up to our hostel, however we thought better of that and managed to con the guy at the hostel into picking us up.. So we sat in a cafe drinking until he arrived in his little bambino type car.

Ancient Roman wall paintings We slept very well that night still recovering from our late nights in Venice but managed to get up early and headed out on our first mission to Pompeii, the day started out cool and fresh after the storm. Pompeii was an prosporous agricultural town thriving on the fertile volcanic soils. The town was destroyed following the dumping of 3m of ash on the town during the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The town has now been mostly excavated from the ash revealing a snap shot of roman life in the first centry AD. Lost for 1600 years before its redescovery in 1748 the town is now reborn as a tourist trap with lots to offer including in the way of petrified bodies, amphitheates, mansions, brothels and bakeries.

A few of the 1100 plaster casts of petrified Pompeiieans When in the early stage of excavations they found voids in the ash containing human remains.. They soon figured out that these voids were the left as a result of the decomposing bodies... nice. So they now whenever they come across these voids they fill them full of plaster and the resulting form is some times shockingly graphic. We enjoyed Pompeii and had good day there.

Home made picnic on the flanks of Mount Vesuvius Being both keen hikers we decided to hike the 1300m summit of Mount Vesuvius.. This was made slightly easier as we caught a bus up to within 200m of the top. Mount Vesuvius is known as one of the worlds most dangerous volcanoes due to its tendancy for explosive eruptions and the 3 million people living on its flanks in the bay of Naples, including the large city of Naples.

The summit of Mount Vesuvius... a big hole

After the short walk to the top we walked down a bit and then did a side trip around the mountain. Again the heat intense and we used our water up quick, we headed back up the road end where there was a cafe and I dont think i have enjoyed a coke that much in my life. We headed back to Sorrento and hit the beach.

Sunset on the Sorrento Coastline

Classey hotels on the cliffs about the port The swim was awesome after a stinking day hiking on the hot and dusty peak. We swam for a good half an hour before heading back into town to pick up some supplies for dinner. We stayed up late that night drinking wine and Limoncello (a traditional lemon liqueur of south Italy) with the other people in the hostel.

Refreshed after a primo swim

Italy - Venice

2007-02-24T05:22:00.000-08:00

The Grand Canal from Accademia Bridge

As soon as you step out of the main station you are blown away by the uniqueness of this floating city.. They sure made life difficult for themselves by building the city here, but what a creation!! Even in the stifling heat of summer, while the rest of Italy sweltered in over 40 degrees Venice stayed a mild 30 degrees thanks to the sea breeze.

Good nights on cheap wine

I checked into one of the best hostels of my trip called Foresteria Valdese, a brilliant 800 year old mansion run by nuns in the centre of Venice. The hostel was full of cool and crazy people, the first night I went out for dinner with Kat an American from Long Beach, Bec an Aussie from the Northern Territories and Nathan also from LA. We had a great meal sitting outside at a restaurant until it was cut short by a thunderstorm.

Nathan at the restaurant
At the bar after dinner Keen for a bit of night life we headed to the nearest pub. We had a few drinks there and cracked up at these crazy Italian guys singing to us through the window.

The crazy singing Italians
Piazza San Marco by night, our favorite hangout After the bar we grabbed our wine and went on a midnight mission through Venice headed for Piazza San Marco (St Marks Square), one of the biggest draw cards to Venice. It is a stunning square host to thousands of tourists and pigeons by day. By night it is a great place to hang out with fewer people and live classical music. We sat there drinking for a few hours soaking up the culture until everyone had gone to bed except Kat and I, we hung out until sunrise..

The leaning tower of Venice You do not need to go to Pisa to see leaning towers, Venice is full of them!

Colourful houses on the Island of Murano
The Aussies Bec and Mat

On the second night we went out to a restaurant again, it was Kat and I, Bec and Mat. We had another good night and once again ended up in Piazza San Marco.

The view from our hostel window

I have never been anywhere like Venice, it is so different. There are no cars on the island and the only way of getting around is by water or foot. The maze of alleys and squares means you can have a great time getting seriously lost. Venice was my favorite of all the cities I visited on my travels and I will definitely be going back.

The Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge

The start of a Romance

After a couple of days it was time to go, Bec was heading off to Croatia, Mat off to Rome and Kat to Sorrento. My original plan was to head to Salzberg in Austria after Venice, however lets just say I got a better offer and joined Kat on a train to Sorrento which was the beginning of an amazing and unexpected adventure. I guess it is true what they say about Venice being the romantic city =)

Italy - The Bridge Drop

2007-02-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Good spot for a drop

Just 5 minutes walk down the Cinque Terra from Monterosso al Mare I met some American guys hanging out by a bridge discussing whether it could be jumped. They had met some travellers a week before who had shown video footage of them jumping it. It was a pretty big drop and there was no way I was going to attempt it without checking out the landing first. So we climbed down the cliff and dived at the landing spot, it was about 4m deep so good enough for a flat footed jump.

Bombs Away The American guys were keen to jump first which was fine by me.. I stood by the landing and shot footage as they jumped. Then it was my turn, it was pretty freaky standing on the top rail of the bridge even after seeing the other two go first.

Walking on water, my jesus photo
Its hard to see on here but if you zoom in you can see this was a perfectly timed photo. You can see a tiny start of the splash just as my sandals touched the water. I decided to wear sandals as I wanted land with flat feet instead of pointed so I did not go too deep. The bad side of that is it would be a hell of a slapping to the feet without the sandals.

Heavy Impact The impact was heavy but the sandals worked well. I can't remember much from here other than it took a while to get back up to the surface. One of the American guys dived at the time of impact next to the landing site to see how deep we went, he said about 3m so we still had a meter to go..

What a ride!

It was a good adrenaline rush and it had to be done again.. and again.. By counting the frames in the camera I calculated the drop height at around 11m.

Italy - Cinque Terra

2007-02-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Riomaggiore in the morning sun

I took the train from Rome up to Genoa, it was a nice trip up the west coast. I went through Pisa and caught a glimpse of the leaning tower from the train. I stayed a couple of days in Genoa and used it as a base to explore the Cinque Terra which was the main reason for my visit. The Cinque Terra "The Five Villages" is an awesome 11km walk which links five of Italy's finest coastal villages.

The start of the trail from Riomaggiore
I caught a early train from Genoa to Riomaggiore where I started the walk. As soon as I saw the awesome rocky shoreline I knew it was going to be a great day and I went a bought some goggles as it looked like a top place for diving.

Downtown Riomaggiore

The towns hummed with all the tourists and locals. All the cafe's and ice cream shops were doing a good trade.

The second town, Manarola

The day started out hot and sunny and with the sea looking so inviting I could not walk for longer than 20 mins without climbing down to water and jumping in.

The diving was good with clear, warm water and plenty of fish

The first hill climb up to the village of Corniglia

The track was not a flat stroll, it did have some climbs in it. Normally they would not be too bad but in the heat they were a challange. The trail traversed cliffs for a while as well as cutting through vineyards and olive groves.

The forth town of Vernazza
The clouds came in after lunch and we had a period of heavy rain, which was refreshing after the sunny morning. The walk to the last town was the most challenging of the lot, the views were good though. Just before I reached the last town of Monterosso al Mare I came across a primo bridge to jump (see previous entry) which was a great way to finish the walk. It was an awesome day and I would definitely recommend it, bringing the goggles was really good and I spent hours during the day using them. If I was to do it again I would try and find accommodation in one of the middle towns like Vernazza as it would be great to spend a night and split the walk in two. It was still good to do it in a day but I could have definitely spent more time there.

Italy - Rome

2007-02-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

First stop in Rome, Vatican City

I had a hell of a night train from Verona to Rome. The train was packed with people and the air conditioning had broken down, so it was hot, cramped and noisy. Needless to say my sleep was light and broken so I needed plenty of coffee to keep me going the first day in Rome. I arrived early in the morning and went straight to my campsite about 20 mins from town. After dropping off my stuff I headed back into town and made the Vatican my first stop. I had just finished reading Angels and Demons, the Dan Brown novel based in Rome and in particular, the Vatican. It was pretty funny to go around and try to find all the places mentioned in the book.

All style, the Swiss gaurd at the Vatican

The Vatican was pretty interesting but for me the highlight was the Swiss Guard.. Their uniforms designed hundreds of years ago by Raphael reminded me of a big pajama party.

The Pantheon was one of my favorite buildings in Rome

After the Vatican I jumped on one of those open bus tours which turned out to be a bad idea. It was really hot, up in the late 30's and sitting up top in the sun my water ran out quickly. It was close to wheather I would survive the tour without getting heat stroke. I was keen to check out the Pantheon for its engineering significance as one of the first ever dome structures. I was not dissapointed, it was impressive and in great condition considering it being over 2000 years old.

The Roman Forum

You can spend days in Rome looking at ruins and in particular the Roman forum and Colosseum. It was interesting to see the size of the Roman Forum which was the centre of ancient Rome but it had been reduced to ruins by centries of plundering. It was also interesting to discover that most of the original marble was taken to build the present icons of Rome including the Vatican.

The Colosseum by night
Rome was interesting but I would not recommend July as the time to visit. It was hot and busy with tourists and after two days there I was ready to head for the beach. I jumped on a train and headed back up north to the Cinque Terre.

Italy - Verona

2007-01-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

The town of Romeo and Juliet
I jumped on a bus from Riva del Garda to Verona, it was a brilliant 11/2 hour trip along the side of lake Garda. Unfortunately the luxury of the air conditioning on the bus was too much and I fell asleep for most of it. I arrived in Verona, the town of Romeo and Juliet in the afternoon and had until midnight to explore (when my train for Rome left).

They fight, Tybalt falls..
Walking around the town there are many tributes to the play including the above, the site of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. There is also Juliets tomb and the house of Capulet with a statue of Juliet on the balcony.

Good views of the town from Castel San Pietro

High above Verona was Castel San Pietro, a top spot for a view over the town. If you go up make sure you take some beers as it is a great spot to sit and enjoy.

Castel San Pietro from across the Adige River
Verona was a really nice town, if I had more time it would have been fun to go and check out plays at the ancient Arena dating from the 1st century and still in use today.. Also perhaps check the local phone book for Montague and Capulet, most probably ex directory. I then jumped on the night train to Rome which turned out to be the worst train ride of my whole trip.

Italy - Lake Garda

2006-12-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Early morning at Riva del Garda

I jumped off the night train from France at Verona, the large town south of Lake Garda. I then took another train and a bus to get to Riva Del Garda at 8am, Riva is a small town at the head of Lake Garda and it is surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. I checked into a great Hostel right in the centre of town, I then headed straight for the lake as even at 9am the temperature was over 30 degrees. I spent the morning at the beach swimming in the lake and then in the afternoon I met up with my Uncle and Aunt from Denmark, Bjarne and Lene who were spending a week in town nearby.

The town of Ville del Monte

Riva is known as the mountain biking mecca for northern Italy, and it is easy to see why. As a bit of mountain biker I could not resist hiring a bike and taking in a ride. I opted of an easier ride up to Lake Tenno, which was only about 10km away and a 400m climb from Riva. Lake Tenno was highly rated as a brilliant spot and the idea of being able to go for a swim was very attractive especially given the temperatures were up around 40 degrees. The route I took passed through some classic villages, luckily many of them had water fountains around every corner.

Lago di Tenno

This was a great sight to behold, I dumped the bike and went straight in for a swim. The water was fantastic, it was about 20 degrees and I could not get enough of it. I decided to go for a mission and swam right across it to some cool looking cliffs on the other side, the swim took about 15 mins.

The cliffs on the other side of the lake were good for a bit of fun

Learning to fly...

I was joined by some German guys and we spent a couple of hours doing all sorts of wacky jumps and dives into the lake, we all got pretty wasted when some jumps went wrong.

Another cool town called Calvola

I ended up staying at Lake Tenno for 5 hours and I would have stayed more but I had to get the rental bike back before the shop closed. I jumped on the saddle again and head back towards Riva on a cool little country road which wove through classic towns and vineyards.

Vineyards along the trail

I had two and a half days at Riva and that was definitely not enough. I could easily have stayed another 4 days as there were many more mountain bike trails and hikes to do. It was great to have the lake so close to the hostel as you could just shoot out for a refreshing dip many times a day. Riva is a top spot and certainly one I will return to.

France - Biarritz

2006-12-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Biarritz, the perfect day to arrive

The night train pulled into Biarritz about 7am so nice and early. I jumped on the bus from the station and headed towards Anglet, the beach town north of Biarritz where I was booked in at the campsite. As the bus wound around the town high on the cliffs above the beach we got some wicked views of the Atlantic coast. The wind was a light offshore easterly and the waves were a nice 4 foot, in other words perfect and I could not wait to get off the bus and head straight for the beach.

Great waves on the beach out from my campsite

After checking in at the campsite I went straight for the beach, stopping only for a breakfast of 4 croissants at the bakery (cos there is nothing worse than hunger out in the surf). I rented a board on the beach for €20 for 4 hours and hit it. The water was a warm 21 degrees so you could have got away without a wetsuit, I got a spring suit with my board though. I could tell I was out of practice and after a couple of hours I had to crash out on the beach for a break, especially duck diving of the powerful 4 foot waves became a bit of a struggle in the end. The waves were hard and fast, they broke pretty well but as the tide dropped the bigger waves started to closeout. I had some awesome rides at the beginning but towards the end fatigue caught up with me and I had a few good wipeouts. It was so great to get into the water and very refreshing after the unrelenting heat of Barcelona and Madrid.

Biarritz town
I surfed the first two days but on the third day the winds turned to the west and the waves got pretty ugly. After the full on two days of surfing I was happy to stay on land so I went for a walk into Biarritz to check out the town.

Ben and Anthony

The Anglet campsite was a great place, it was packed with young people and there was lots of fun to be had day and night. Staying in the tent next to me was Ben and Antony a couple for frenchies from Quiberon in Brittany, they were a both body boarders and a top pair of blokes. In the tent across from us were a nice couple of french girls called Mélanie and Dominique both nurses from Toulouse. We had a couple of good nights drinking at the campsite and ended up at the local bar both nights. We all hung out on the beach, the girls sun bathing and the boys in the waves.

Mélanie and Dominique

I was hoping to stay longer at Biarritz but the surf died away by the third day and the conditions looked poor for the next 4 days so on the end of the third day I jumped on another night train and headed towards my next destination, Lake Garda Italy. The train left at about 4pm and headed east along the line of the Prynees through the famous religous town of Lourdes, the scenery was spectacular until it got dark.

Spain - Madrid

2006-11-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

Puerta del Sol, where all Spanish roads lead too

I had not planned to go to Madrid, it was an unforeseen detour. I had hoped to take the train direct from Barcelona to San Sebastian on the west coast via Pamplona, the town famous for the legendary running of the bulls festival. It just so happened that the running of the bulls was on at this time so all trains headed that way were booked up for days.. I did not realize this until I got to the station at Barcelona hoping to get on a train. When I was told I would not be able to get on any trains that day I was stuck as I did not have any accommodation in Barcelona that night and did not want to sleep in the station.. So I decided to jump on a night train to Madrid which would at least give me a bed for the night. So the next day I woke up in Madrid, I did not know what to see but it was another day in the high 30's so the Prado Museum with air conditioning seemed like a good option.

The Picasso exhibition at the Museo del Prado

Downtown Madrid was nice but nothing special, it did not compare to the character of Barcelona. The Museo del Prado is known for having one of the worlds most elite art collections (not that I am much of a Guru) but the promise of air conditioning definitely raised my interest.

Museo del Prado

I actually enjoyed most of the art, some of it was pretty gruesome though showing people getting mutilated or maulled by dogs. I was lucky as there happened to be a Picasso exhibition which I check out too.

Parque del Retiro

After the museum I walked around the Parque del Retiro and drunk some cold beer at one of the cafes. I then strolled around the town for another few hours before catching another night train back up to Biarritz in France where I was hanging out for some surfing.

Spain - Barcelona

2006-11-21T14:57:00.000-08:00

Las Ramblas, the main tourist drag in town

I traveled directly from Chamonix, France down to Barcelona, Spain. It was a 18 hour journey but was broken into two four hour legs and an 8hr night train. Enroute I had stops for a few hours in Lyon and Marseille so I was able to stretch my legs and check out the centers of those cities. I was in Marseille when France knocked Brazil out of the World Cup, a result no one expected... So yeah as you can imagine the Frenchies were out to celebrate in style, awesome! I decided to visit Barcelona after it came so highly rated from other travelers I spoke too. I stayed at a campsite about half an hours bus ride south of Barcelona, it was a bit far out but it had a primo beach only 100m away to make up for it. I was pretty tired the first day I arrived after all the traveling, so I spent the rest of the day bumming round on the beach which was exactly what I needed.

Mercat de la Boqueria a awesome fresh food market packed with delights
The next day I took the bus into town and headed straight for Las Ramblas, the main tourist drag in town. About half way down there was this awesome fresh food market where you could get everything from chocolate to pigs ears and whole skinned rabbits..

Ummm Hungry???
I had just eaten breakfast so I declined, but they had some good cheap watermelons which were very appealing in the 35 degree heat. After the Market I walked around the maze like streets of the Barri Gotic, where it was very easy to get lost (and I did).

Arc de Triomf

I popped out of the maze of streets near the Arc de Triomf, It seems that every good city needs an Arc de Triomf... Not in the same league as the one in Paris but not a bad effort.

There were some pretty flash boats moored in the marina, despite my best efforts I was not invited on board any.

The weird and wonderful Sagrada Familia
The most bizarre church I have any seen, this end was pretty good but the other resembled something from Ghostbusters 2. Like it or hate it, it is a fascinating piece of work and definitely worth a visit. Known as the masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi construction began in 1882 and to date it is only half finished, hence the cranes.. Funding for the project is entirely from donations, so the more money they get the more they build.. Who knows when it will be finished, 2082??

Port Olympic Beach, a popular spot

After hours of walking around in the heat the beach was a pretty good option, it was packed so obviously other people had the same idea.. Barcelona was a cool city, although it was a bit of a shame I could not stay in a central hostel.. The campsite I stayed at (Castelldefels) was not so great, the beach near by was its only asset. Other than that it was packed, dirty and my campsite was right next to the garbage dump. I guess the garbage removal guys were on holiday because when the wind blew the wrong way it was shocking. There were some good people at the campsite though, I had a fun night drinking lots of cheap Spanish wine with 4 frenchies who were hitchhiking on a minimum budget around Spain.

France - Chamonix

2006-08-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Chamonix Town at the foot of Mt Blanc 4807m

The train from Geneve to Chamonix was awesome. It started by following Lake Geneve around to Martigny, we then changed to a slow hill climber train with a cog driving mechanism used to take the train up the steep incline. We climbed up over a high pass before dropping down to the Chamonix Valley.

Mt Blanc from the Brevent Walking Track

Chamonix is a base for many awesome hikes, the first one I did was up to Brevent, a 2500m high peak directly across the valley from Mt Blanc. It was a steep 1500m climb but the views were fantastic.

A small lake near the top of Brevent

After reaching the top I strolled down to a small lake half an hour below the summit. It was a scorching day so I jumped in and went for a swim. There is a cable car that runs from Chamonix up to the Brevent, I succumed to temptation and caught it back down to the village.

Downtown Chamonix

Top spot for a picnic

Next day I walked up to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) with Emily (Em), a french student from London who was working at the youth hostel during the university holidays. We climbed up and got some great views down on the second largest glacier in Europe. On the way back to Chamonix we got caught in some late afternoon thunder showers, and had to find shelter under trees / rocks from the heavy showers.

Bastille Day fireworks
Bastille Day is France's national day and everyone comes out to party! The night started with a few drinks at the hostel then Bittina, Em, Emma and I hit the town. There were tents and stages set up around town with different bands / DJ's doing their thing. It was a fun night and if you are lucky enough to be in France on the 14th of July you're in for a treat.

A band cranking out the french sound

Bíttina and I having a go

Emma loving the Euro Pop
Most of the music was good but some of it was pretty shocking. There was one DJ who was cranking out the worst Euro Pop ever made.

Lac Blanc living up to its name

Em and I went for another good walk. We caught the cable car up to La Flegere and hiked up to Lac Blanc. It was a nice lake but a bit chilly for a swim so we moved on..

Nice spot for a dip
We found a nice little lake for a very welcome swim. It was a majic spot and the views were primo.

Sunshine at the top of the Aiguille de Midi

Emma, Em and I headed up the most famous cable car in the Valley. The Aiguille du Midi takes you up to a elevation of 3842m, higher than Mt Cook in NZ. It is expensive but the views from the top are fantastic, be careful if you go because the temp can be 30 degrees in the village but drop only 5 degrees (and often a lot less) at the top.

Stopping for a snowball fight on the way to Lac Blue

On the way back down we stopped for a side trip to Lac Blue, we found a patch of snow and had a snowball fight.

Another wicked spot for a swim

As my mission was to swim in every lake in the Valley I could not resist Lac Blue. It was deep and the coldest so far, I only lasted about 10 mins but it had a cool rock in the middle I swam out to and climbed up. Emma was pretty brave and she jumped in too far a few refreshing minutes. Em decided she would rather stay on shore and play photographer.

Emma and Em at Lac Blue

The girls soaking up the sun after the cold dip. While we were there we could hear small rockfalls from the peaks near by. They were small but really loud and all you could see was the dust in the distance.

Les Bussons Glacier
Only a 40 min walk from the hostel was Les Bussons Glacier. It was riddled with crevasses and so very impressive to look at. It was a steep glacier so it travelled twice as fast as Mer de Glace, 2cm per hour.

Karin from Sweeden, Emma and I at the Luge

On my last day in Chamonix a goup from the Hostel went out to the luge. You get a chairlift up from the centre of town and then race back down the 600m track. It was the longest luge I had been on but it was only single file on the track so you could not overtake.

Taking the chairlift up to the top of the Luge

I had a great time in Chamonix, originally I was only planning to spend 2 days there but ended up staying 8. There was still plenty of good things to do when I left so it is one place I will be sure to return. There are lots of fully serviced lodges high up in the mountains in great postions (like lac Blanc) where you get all your meals and accomodation for as little as €40, so that would be a goer.

Switzerland - Geneve, July 06

2006-08-22T02:40:00.000-07:00

TGV's stacked up at Gare de Lyon

After Paris I decided to check out the Swiss town of Geneve, famous for being the European headquarters of the United Nations and also the Red Cross. I jumped on a TGV, the legendary high speed French trains. These things are awesome, they wind up to over 300 km/h, so sit back and watch the country side flash past the window! You really know how fast you are going when the tracks run parallel to a motorway and you leave the cars for dust.

My Lakeside camp site at Geneve

Hostels in Geneve were really expensive but luckily there is a great lakeside campsite only 15mins by bus from town. The first day I arrived at the campsite I just lounged round in the sun and swim in the lake. Nice.

The United Nations Headquarters

Geneve has great deal where you can use bikes for free.. All you need is a passport and a 50 franc deposit, and you get the use of a good bike for the day. It was an incentive from the city to encourage the good health and exercise among residents and tourists. I got a bike and cruised out to the UN headquarters a 20 min ride out along the lake. You need to remember to bring you passport because security is tight, but once inside you get a great tour of the complex.

Geneve Waterfront

Lake Geneve and one grunty fountain

Geneve is a nice town on the shores of Lake Geneve (Western Europe's largest lake). It also has one hell of a fountain, Jet d'Eau fires a plume of water up 140m high in the air. Geneve is expensive though so don't stay to long if you are short of funds.

France - Paris

2006-08-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

Bones and more bones in the Catacombes

Of all the sights in Paris, my favorite was the Catacombes. If you are scared of ghosts don't go here. What do you do when the graveyards in your city fill up and there is nowhere to bury people?? You exhume the old bones and stack them in disused mine tunnels under Paris, and charge tourists good money to visit them. This is the fate of millions of Parisians and you can walk for half an hour seeing nothing but bones stacked to the ceiling. Also being cool and damp down there it was a great releif from the 30 degree heat up on the street.

Gargoyles at Notre Dame

After the Catacombes I walked down to Notre Dame Cathedral, I climbed up the bell tower to check out the hunch back but he was not home... Guess he got sick of all the tourists. There were plenty of Gargoyles around though and they had a great view over Paris.

The icon of Paris at night

The time to see the Eiffel tower is at night, during the day it looks drab but at night it looks awesome. I watched the France vs Spain game at a bar nearby which France won 3-1, a result no one expected. Paris went into party mode!

Mont Martre, the home of the artists

I stayed in a hostel in Mont Martre which is famous for being the red light and artistic area of Paris, it is the home of Moulin Rouge. It was a good place to be and really cranked at night.

Sacre Coeur, the place we hangout at night

It was only a 15min walk up to the Sacre Coeur which was on the top of Mont Martre hill. It was a great place at night as it had brilliant views over the lights of Paris. It drew a lot of people and had a real party atmosphere with buskers cranking out the songs. Every night we went up there from the hostel and had a few beers.

The Seine with the Louvre on the left bank

I had a good couple of days in Paris but I was also glad to move on. Paris is a great city but it was choked with traffic and tourist congestion. I saw the craziest driving of my life in Paris and whilst I was at the Arc de Triomphe (20min) I saw 3 separate car crashes. I guess its not really suprising when you have a roundabout with 8 lanes and no lane markings! It is officially the worlds largest roundabout.. Looking around there were not many cars in Paris unscratched.

France - Brittany

2006-08-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Nantes Music festival

After Le Mans I had a week with Stig who was working in Nantes for a couple of weeks. We ate at a lot of nice restaurants and spent almost every night watching World Cup soccer matches in the pub. Our favorite match was England vs Sweeden as we were in an Irish pub which was half full of English people supporting their team the rest was French people supporting Sweden. Funny. One night we went to the Nantes Music festival which was awesome. The inner city was packed with bands playing all sorts of music from Country to Jazz and Heavy Metal to Brazilian Drums. We walked around into the small hours checking out all the different acts..

The little fishing Village of Auray

When Stig knocked off work on Friday afternoon we jumped in the car and hit the road. We headed for Brittany and stopped for a beer in the little fishing village of Auray. We then carried on to Quiberon where we stayed for the next two nights. There was a great little pub across the square from the hotel where we watched more World Cup action, including a French game which brought all the locals out in force.

Cote Sauvage, The Savage Coast not looking too savage

Stig could not get enough of the topless mermaid statue

Surfin Brittany

We were in luck, we had small clean waves and offshore winds. We scored a couple of surf boards (Malibu's) and hit it, we had a couple of great hours until the winds swung onshore and chopped the waves up.

Ohhh great sea food!!

After Quiberon we checked out Mont St Michel which was really awesome but full of tourists. We had some great food on the trip but we noticed one thing about eating in Brittany, if you don't like crepes you are in trouble. After driving around and seeing nothing but Creperies we were inspired to start the "Crepe's are Crap" campagn.

France - Le Mans

2006-06-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

The Grandstand

I met up in with my bro Stig, Bjarne, Keld, Anders and Sorgen (my Danish uncles and cousins) in Le Mans for a boys weekend at the legendary 24hr race. The race favorite was a Dane Tom Kristensen in Team Audi. 40 000 patriotic danes made the pilgrimage down for the race. There were 500 000 spectators and it was good to hear all the different nationalities cheering on their teams.

Anders and the crew on the bank

The race started at 5pm Saturday and ran through the night untill 5pm Sunday. The weather was over 30 degrees it was HOT, midday seisters were a nessecity. We stayed up and toured around the perimeter of the 13km course until 4am Sunday morning.

The Dunlop Bridge

Unfortunately Tom Kristensen had trouble with his gear box and did not manage his 7th Le Mans victory. It was good news for Audi though as their other car managed to win and become the first deisel powered car to do so.

Lunch in the shade

It was a great weekend at the race and if I go again the following items are a nessesity: Ear plugs, camping chair, chillibin (fully loaded) and sun umbrella.

Denmark - Copenhagen

2006-06-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Nyhavn: Copenhagens Cafe and bar mecca

Copenhagen was my final destination in Denmark before heading down to France for Le Mans. I had a few days with my brother and his family. I had not spent much time with them since we moved to New Zealand (not suprisingly) so it was great to hang out. Bror is a real football fanatic so every evening we were out in the garden kicking the ball around. Bjork (3) speaks about as much Danish as me so we had some great chats.

In the sun: Linda, Bjork, Neils and Bror

Neils and Linda took the day off work and we went for a walk around downtown Copenhagen. After two weeks of scorching weather it seemed it was not going to end, this day was no exception.

The swan family

Copenhagen was heaving with people... and swans.

One of Copenhagens many canals

The Hans Christian Andersen parade at Tivoli

I met up with Anne and Helene for dinner at Tivoli. Tivoli is a fantasy/ theme park right in the centre of Copenhagen. Hans Christian Anderson is the famous Danish auther of many classic fairy tales such as The ugly ducking and The emperors new cloths. At Tivoli they have many tributes to his work such as this parade where a host of his characters marched around and entertained the crowd. After the parade we drank coffee until we got booted out at midnight. Tivoli is a great place and I look forward to going back there to check out some of the many summer concerts and roller coasters.

All lit up at Tivoli

The next day I caught the train down to Le Mans in France via Hamburg in Germany. It was an 16hr trip which included a ferry ride from Denmark to Germany and a night train from Hamburg to Paris. The night train was cool as you slept in a cabin with 6 bunks, it was sort of like a hostel on wheels. You went to sleep at Hamburg and woke up near Paris 9hrs later. Also on the night train were the supporters from the world cup game between Ecuador and Costa Rica who had played in Hamburg that day, so it was party atmosphere on the platform.

Denmark - Odense

2006-06-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

One of many old thatched roofed cottages

On the way to Copenhagen I had a few days in Odense where I have a lot of family. The weather was primo and we went for some great drives around the countryside and I even managed a swim in Store Belt near Nyborg.

Fields of Lavender near Nyborg

Denmark - Holstebro, June 06

2006-06-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

A Danish flag on a jetty near Nyborg

I threw this photo in here because it is a good opener. The Danes are great people and very patriotic, one thing a visitor notices very quickly is the number of flags around the place. They are literally attached to everything, in fact if you stood still too long you may well find one attached to your head. Flags must out number the Danish population 60 to 1, a bit like sheep in New Zealand I guess..

Dinner with Mormor and Niels
I got one of those great cheap flights that Europe is famous for from Manchester to Copenhagen. On route to Holstebro I had a night in Odense with Mormor and Niels (my gran and brother), we had a great meal and then watched the world cup warm up game between France and Denmark. The score 2-0 so a good effort from the Danes. The next day I headed up to Holstebro to visit some good mates of mine Poul and Christina.

The main stage at the Skive Beach Party
Summer is the season for music festivals in Denmark and if you search the web you will see that there are festivals every weekend through the summer months. The most famous being Roskilde. These festivals are known for good times so when Poul and Christina suggested we go to the Beach Party at Skive I jumped at the chance. PS these photos are taken from the Beach Party website so I take no credit.

They started playing at lunch time..

The beach party was 4 days long, it started Thursday and finished Sunday. We camped in a paddock next to the venue which had been converted into a makeshift campground complete with a large marquee that served up breakfast in the morning and a disco at night. We camped with a couple of Poul and Christina's mates but met up with plenty of their other mates at the venue so it was all good fun.

..and played into the wee hours of the morning
My knowledge of Danish rock bands is pretty sketchy so most of the music was new to me, it sounded good though and the atmosphere primo! The weather was average the fist couple of days but awesome the last two and we all got nice and sunburned. I thought the week I had in Hawaii would have prepared me for it but I guess when the sun sets a 10:30pm you have a very long exposure.

Danish wind mills near Hassing
Flags and festivals are not the only thing the Danes do well, they are also passionate about their windmills. Its not often you can rotate 360 degrees and not see a windmill, they are everywhere. After the music festival we went for a champion meal at Poul's parents pig farm near Hassing. No suprises when we were served up all you can eat pork. Awesome!

Sunset on Denmark's wild west coast with Poul and Christina

After dinner we went out for an ice cream on the west coast near the farm. It was a magic spot and a great place to make the most of the long Danish twilights.

Gitte on the west coast near Ringkøbing

After my week in Holstebro I had a day in Ringkøbing with another mate Gitte.
Ringkøbing is a nice quiet Danish town, a great place to chill out after the beach party.

England - Manchester

2006-06-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Forebouys Newsagent where I was a paperboy

I had 10 days in Sale, the town in Manchester where I lived for 10 years before moving to New Zealand. It was great to see all the good things had not changed since we left for Nz 10 years ago.

Longboats on the canal into Manchester headed towards Sale

One of Manchester's greatest assets is the network of Canals which run into the centre of the city from the surrounding countryside. They were built during the industrial revolution to transport goods to and from Manchester's many Textile Mills. Nowadays you can rent a longboat or grab your bike and travel around the country on the network, or simply grab your fishing rod and watch the world go by...

Our old house at 92 Brooklands Rd

It was good to see our old house again and also the huge trees in the garden where I built countless tree houses. I visited our old neighbor's the Bleakleys and had a good beer and chat.

Shay's seat, a great spot even on a rainy day!

I went for a walk with Sarah and Shay, the family friends I was staying with. We went for a walk to check out Shay's seat, a seat gifted to shay by his whanau. Half way along the walk it started to pour down and we got nice and wet.

Old and new. The old canals in Manchester with the new Beetham Tower behind
I spent a few days walking round the centre of Manchester which has seen a real revival since it was devastated by an IRA bomb in 1996. A lot of the old disused textile mills have been converted into apartments. They are also building a lot of new buildings like the Beetham Tower, at almost 50 stories and 200m high it is the tallest residential building in Europe. It is very close to the set of Coronation Street so you may well see it on the TV soon.

Steph, My sister Katrina's best mate from sale

I met up for coffee with Stef, my sisters best mate from Sale.

The Kings Ransom pub in sale, where I spent a few nights hanging out with my old school mates

The old school mates at the pub, Ibby and Gaz

It was great to catch up with old school mates. We went to the pub a few nights and watched the England warm up match for the soccer world cup against Hungary. It was fun to see English soccer hype in top gear, most pubs were covered in England flags and every second car had a flag attached to the ariel. England won the game 3-1 so it was a good start.

The classic British Countryside

A Sunday walk in the Goyte Valley

Picnic in the Goyte Valley with Sarah and Shay

I went for another walk with Sarah and Shay, this time to the Goyte Valley. Shay did not have a bench there but with the fantastic scenery it would be a great place for one. We found a nice spot for a picnic.

Mrs Banta the Lollipop Lady who helped us across Brooklands Rd when I was at school

When walking along Brooklands Road I had a real surprise when I bumped into Mrs Banta, the Lollipop lady who used to help us cross the road to school as kids. She has been doing the job for close to 16 years now and still going strong. Good effort.

Walking along the canal in sale, a great trip

The weather was mixed, we had both heavy rain and brilliant sunshine. I had a primo time in Manchester and it was great to see that a lot of the bad things had improved whilst the good things had stayed the same.

Wales - Cardiff

2006-06-09T01:57:00.000-07:00

Millenium Stadium

After Chepstow I had a couple of days in Cardiff staying with Erica and James. Cardiff is a major rugby town and home of the famous Millenium Stadium. On the sataday night the Millenium Stadium was to play host to the Heineken Cup Final between Munster(Ireland)and Biarritz(France), it was great to soak up all the atmosphere and see the crowds of people walking around in their rugby shirts. It rained most of the time I was in Cardiff so it would have nice muddy game. I had a good night on the town with James, Erica and their mates, we had a few drinks at a flat and then hit the clubs.

Walkies time with Erica, James and Osker

Wales - Chepstow

2006-05-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

A classic Chepstow Street

One the way to Cardiff from Bristol I had a day in Chepstow. I had heard that it was a classic welsh town, with its old castle and village it lived up to the hype.

The old Chepstow Castle

The part ruins of Chepstow Castle

I spent a few hours checking out the old Chepstow Castle which was built in 1067, nearly 1000 years ago... It was built by the Normans and has survived countless wars and sieges.

Chepstow town from the battlements of the Castle

It was sunny one minute and pouring down the next so I spent the day dodging showers. I went to an old pub and had a Jacket potato for lunch. Nice.

The muddy water of the lower Wye River

England - Bristol

2006-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Bristols Avon Gorge and Clifton Suspension Bridge

I jumped on the bus from London and headed to my town of birth, Bristol. I stayed with Sue and Ron who were friends from when we lived hear 20 years ago. It was great to catch up with them and enjoy the fine home cooked meals, good stuff ron. Sue used to look after me a lot when I was a kid and she had plenty of stories about how much of a horror I was then, good to see things don't change.

Family friends: Sue, Ron and Erica

The Clifton Suspension Bridge

Walking along the Downs, Hmmm nice trees

I went for a good walk around from the Bristol docks and up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This was the design of the famous and daring civil engineer Isembard Brunel, and I actually remember studying this guy at University. It is an awesome bridge and a real asset to bistol. I then walked along the Downs and back through the bustling town.

Bristol docks over the bow of the SS Great Britain

The propeller of SS Great Britain

I also checked out one of Brunels other creations, the SS Great Britain. It was revolutionary for its time as it was the worlds first iron hulled vessel and the first to have a propeller. It was also largest vessel in the world at its time of construction.

Pigeons enjoying the British summer

The brilliant weather I had in London was short lived. We had a few cold wet days which were great for giving me time to stay in and catch up on emails.

Dinner with Selby, Julie and Kerry

I went out for dinner with some family friends, Selby, Julie and Kerry. It was great to catch up and after dinner we went for a drive around Bristol. We checked out our old house on Harcourt Rd, it was fun to see the cabbage tree planted by dad 20+ years ago now a big tree..

England - London, May 06

2006-05-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Tulips in Russell Square GardenI had a great flight from LA to Heathrow. I sat next to a kiwi couple who were returning to London after a brief trip to NZ for a wedding. They gave me a run down of the do's and dont's of London. I checked into the largest hostel I have ever been too, The Generator had 800 beds! The British Museum was just round the corner so I made that my goal for the day. It was a massive museum and after an hour of reading, jet lag set in and I was in deep need of a caffeine shot. A double expresso hit the spot. The Egyptian mummies were cool. I walked back to the hostel via Russell Square garden which was packed with people enjoying the tulips and evening sunshine.

Central London from the top of St Pauls CathedralAfter a good night sleep and armed with my oyster card (tube and bus pass), I was ready to take on London. My fist destination was St Pauls Cathedral. I thought it would be a good place to start as you can climb to the top of the spire (150m) and get some great views of downtown London.

The millennium Bridge and St Pauls Cathedral in the distance
I walked from St Pauls down to the famous millennium Bridge. When it was first constructed it had a major problem of vibrating under foot traffic, making some people motion sick. After a bit of sweating from the designing engineers and the addition of some dampeners, I can confirm it was rock solid.

Tower Bridge

I walked down the Thames towards Tower Bridge. The early haze had burned off and it was a scorcher. Great Ice cream weather! When crossing tower bridge I was stoked when the deck was raised to let a tall ship pass through. The bridge also came complete with "dead mans hole" where they used to fish bodies out of the Thames. Its funny to think that the bodies would have drifted all the way through downtown London before reaching the Tower Bridge, Nice!

Tower of London

One of the residents of the Tower
The guys with the funny hats guarding the crown jewels

Next to Tower Bridge is the Tower of London which was the founding castle of London. It was the site of many high profile executions including Guy Forks and Anne Berlin. I also wandered if that was where Mel Gibson got hung, drawn and quartered in the movie brave heart?? I went on a free guided tour which was great as the guide was full of gruesome facts and stories. I also checked out the crown jewels, which would be good if gold and diamonds were your thing.

Big Ben and the Houses of parliamentI jumped on the Tube and headed over to Westminster to check out the houses of parliament. It was real busy there and hard to get a photo without all the other tourists in the way. I found a nice quiet park in the middle of busy roundabout to get this shot.

Cabinet Buildings and the London Eye from St James Park

The thing which really surprised me about London was the number of awesome parks. They are all over the place, well kept and popular. St James Park was a 2 minute walk from parliament and great place for a stroll.

Canary Wharf CBD and the Maritime Museum from Greenwich ObservatoryGreenwich was a cool place to spend a day. I started off with a walk through the old cobble streets and checked out the famous markets. After that I went to the maritime museum before heading up to "the centre of the earth". Greenwich Observatory is the prime meridian of the earth, 0 degrees longitude. There was another fantastic park here, I lounged around in the sun reading my book. Nice!

Andy, Nadia and I at the Pub in Covent GardenFriday was the big Kiwiana Night. I met up with Rob, Andy, Nadia, Barry and Shearer who were kiwi mates of mine currently working in London. We started the night at the Walkabout Bar in Temple, which had everything from Stienlager on tap to Super 14 Rugby on the big screen.. After that we headed off to Covent Garden and took in some more of the London pub scene and a few long island ice tea's. We left there around midnight and headed off on a mission to find one of Robs mates at another pub, unfortunately Robs navigation of the tube is not quite there yet and we ended up on the wrong bank of the Thames. We called it a night and jumped on a bus for home, unfortunately it was the wrong bus. We realized this was not the correct route and we jumped off the bus in a strange place. We walked back in the direction we thought was right and amazingly made it back home within an hour. Good times!

Rob and I on the bus to nowhereThe next day I went to the pub with Rob, Erin, Shearer and Barry to watch the cup final between Barcelona and Arsenal. The pub was packed and it was fun to soak up some of the famous british soccer atmosphere. I had a great few days in London and I was stoked with the hot sunny weather, it was expensive but worth it.

Hawaii

2006-05-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

Honokohau Beach

We left for Hawaii after a day back in LA from San Francisco. We went to the big island which is the more quiet of the Hawaiian islands. It is known for volcanic lava flows, black sand beaches and +4000m peaks (bigger than Mt Cook) which you can ski on in winter. The airport in Kona is awesome, it is just a collection of huts with thatched roofs. It could be straight off a Just Juice advert -Primo!!

Hawaiian Frangipanii

Sunset from the holiday house on the fist day (note the sunburn)

Black sand and a sea turtle on Punalu Beach

During the trip we checked out many different beaches, from white to black sand to rocky and everything in between. This was the best black sand beach we visited and it was a great place to see sun bathing turtles. It was also a good place to climb coconut trees...

Me climbing a Coconut Palm on Punalu Beach

Bet Keith Richards can't do this

Cruising around the island in our van

We hired a large 7 seater van and missioned around the island. The biggest trip we made was down to the Volcanoes National Park where we saw large creaters of active volcanoes and walked through lava tubes. We even saw red hot lava flows pouring in to the pacific ocean in a spectacular steamey finale.

Nicholas above a volcanic crater

Walking across a solidified lava lake

Sea kayaking to Kealakekua Bay

Our next adventure was to sea kayak across Kealakekua Bay to the isolated north shore where there is spectacular coral reef to snorkel and the Captain James Cook memorial to check out. The reef was awesome with the 20m visability and heaps of cool fish. There were also some deep rocky archways/tunnels to dive through and test our breath holding skills. We pulled our Kayaks up next to the spot where captain cook got speird by the native Hawaiians during a fight over a stolen row boat (see below)

The Captain Cook Memorial at Kealakekua Bay

Criffer in the lagoon at the Hilton

We had a good day at the Hilton where we met up with Gen (Joko's bro) and Wendy. We rode the water slides and bummed around at the lagoon where we could rent all manner of water craft. Paddling our kayak into the artificial waterfall and rolling it was a highlight.

Swimming with turtles at Mauna Kea Reef

Tropical Fish

The last day we had was at Mona Kea beach, supposedly the best beach on the island. It had nice white coral sand and snorkelling reef. Its reputation was just and it was a great way to finish the holiday.

Mauna Kia white sand beach

US - San Francisco

2006-05-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

Frisbee on Morro Breach

The week after my return to LA from Canada stig had to travel up to San Francisco for a week long meeting. It was also school break for Nicholas so we all seized the opportunity and came along for the ride. We drove up the coastal highway to our first desination, the town of Morro Bay. We spent a couple of hours running round on the beach and sand dunes.

Lunch at Lucia Point

The next day we carried on up the coast and stopped for lunch at Lucia Point for lunch.

The Whanau: Stig, Joko, Nicholas and Criffer at Lucia Point

China Town, San Francisco

Joko, me and the boys spent a couple of days touring in and around San Francisco. The weather was good half the time.

Alcatraz
I went out to Alcatraz the famous island prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It is one of the major sights to see in the town and consequently it was packed, even when I went which was off peak tourist season and a rainey gloomy day. The weather could have been better, but then what better way to see the classic icon of dispair.

Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County
Luckily the sun came out the next day when we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, it is a massive monument and great asset to the city. It was not far behind Alcatraz in the tourist popularity steaks and the footpath that ran across it was heaving. I am guessing it must be one of the busiest bridges in the world with both commuter and tourist traffic.

Nike Missle Site walk in LA

Back in LA we had an afternoon fee before we headed off on our next excursion, Hawaii. So we thought we would get some excercise and head up in the Santa Monica mountains to see the Nike Missle Site.

Canada - Kicking Horse and Banff, Apr 06

2006-05-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

Main Road, Cranbrook

We caught the Greyhound from Rossland to Golden, it was a long trip which started at 4am and did not arrive untill 9pm. Getting up was a real bugger but Kaylene showed her champion spirit and agreed to drive us to the bus depot. We had about 8hrs transit in an uninspiring town called Cranbrook. We passed the day by visiting the shopping mall and train museum.

Terminator Ridge, Kicking Horse

We decided to go to Kicking Horse alpine resort because it was rated as an up and coming Whistler. We also got a great deal where we payed $120 for 2 days skiing plus 2 nights accommodation (a normal day pass cost $60), so we basically got free hotel accomodation on the mountain.

Our hotel next to the gondola, Kicking Horse

Kicking Horse was a good resort, unfortunately the snow was quite variable with only a trace of new stuff while we were there. We did a lot of hiking up to the Terminator ridge as there were some cool shutes up there.

Avalanches into superbowl, Kicking Horse

Base Lodge, Lake Louise

After Kicking Horse we caught the greyhound to Banff, a nice little town in the middle of the spectacular rocky mountains. We stayed at the backpackers which was bursting at the seams. We did our last day of skiing at Lake Louise, one of the most famous resorts of the rockies.

Top of Mt Whitehorn, Lake Louise

Lake louise had some cool terrian and we were loving the treeless pistes after the masses of tree skiing in previous resorts. The snow was variable again but the clear blue sky and spectacular views made up for it.

Me finding some good powder, Lake Louise

Backbowl Bliss, Lake Louise

Andy could not get enough of the air, Lake Louise

We had one day in banff where we walked around and checked out the sights. We saw the Banff Springs Hotel which was an awesome Chateu style building. After that we caught the bus to Calgary, had dinner, and then I went on to the airport where I slept the night. I flew out to LA at 7am the next day. We had a great time in canada and got to see most of the resorts we had hoped to. The thought of getting back to the Los Angeles sunshine was very good though =)

Banff Springs Hotel

Canada - Red Resort

2006-05-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Our flat in Rossland

We had planned to spend a few weeks at Red Mountain as we had heard great things about it from mates who had been there in the past and also mates that were there at present. It was a challenging mountain “steep and cheap” as they say. We knew 6 mates who had bought seasons passes at Red and were renting a flat in Rossland, the town 5mins from Red. We were originally hoping to crash with them but when we realized they were only renting a small 3 bedroom place we could see some logistical nightmares. Luckily one of the guys knew of a lady who wanted a house to be “house sat” whilst her mate was away in Mexico on the beach for two months. The house was fully furnished, had a DVD, video, telephone, internet and most importantly a good central heating system. It also came complete with a cat called Twinkle who was “the most important thing in the world” according to the lady. Twinkle was a good cat apart from being most active at 5am (the rest of the day she’s asleep) and insisting on waking you up. We paid about $15 per night with included all expenses, so sweet deal! Rossland is an old gold mining town and has managed to keep a lot of its old charm. There is not too much to do in Rossland when you are not skiing so we found ourselves planning elaborate meals, reading, grocery shopping and shoveling snow off the path for fun

Building the igloo
What do you do when it’s a Tuesday, you are too sore to go skiing, it’s a nice day and there is 1.5m of snow in the back garden? Build an igloo. It’s the sort of thing I have always thought would be cool to do and it posed some interesting engineering challenges especially with our primitive tools and the dome roof. We had to shovels and a nicely shaped square bucket, construction took about 8 hours. The finished article was a bit over 3m in diameter and about 2m high at the apex, the doorway was 1.2m high which required a good stoop/ all fours to get through.

Getting to the tricky bit, Andy disappearing quickly We had planned to have an Igloo warming party on the Friday night which would have required it to stand for 3 days… It stood Wednesday ok, but Thursday was a bright sunny spring day, we were up skiing. It was hot and we knew this was going to test it. According to a witness, our mate Quag who was in our flat using the internet there was a mighty thud at 12:05pm and he looked outside: no igloo. Luckily twinkles the cat was not in there or else she would have been cryogenically frozen and slightly compressed. For the engineers out there, the factor of safety ranged from 5 at dawn to about 0.5 at midday on a sunny day. When we returned from skiing we conducted an investigation and determined the failure mechanism: The sun caused the southern wall to soften and kick out which in turn brought the roof down.

The finished article

Andy’s Rock drop at the open cast mine pits

My roof drop at the old mine buildings

Andy’s roof drop with a flat landing - ooooch
We had some good times in Rossland with our mates and got to know some of the locals that worked up the mountain. We went out to a few Parties / DJ gigs at the local pubs which were a good laugh

The Kiwi crew, Glen, Quag, Jim, Blackey, Kaylene and Andy

Red is a cool mountain and the more I skied there the more I liked it. It had some great double diamond tree runs which kept good snow when other parts of the mountain got crusty. It also had some cool open cast mine pits/ buildings which made for some nice terrain. We had the best day skiing of the whole trip so far at Red, we had 20cm of the lightest powder. Heaps of the locals were up that day too but because of the size of the mountain we were getting fresh tracks all day- Primo!

Canada - Apex and Fernie

2006-05-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Apex Village

After leaving Whistler we had a hell of a bus ride. We left Whistler at 9pm for Vancouver, we then had a 1.5hr wait at the Vancouver bus depot before our bus to Penticton departed at 12:30pm. We had another 6hrs on the bus and arrived in Penticton at 6:30am. Luckily the bus dropped us off outside a bagel / coffee diner type place. We sat in there for 2hs whilst we waited for the sun to come up, this gave us plenty of time to pig out on coffee and bagels. Once Penticton came to life we hitched a ride up to Apex Mountain Resort a good 30km away where we were planning to spend a few nights. It so happened that the first two nights also coincided with the annual ‘Keg Cup’. The Keg is a chain of restaurants throughout Canada and the upper US (a bit like Cob & Co in NZ) and every year they treat their staff to a three day party trip to Apex. There was about 400 youths and they totally over ran the small resort. We were staying in the hostel with another Kiwi guy Ant, the rest of the hostel was the Keg Cuppers. As you can imagine we had some great times with them at the pub and in the hostel common room but we got hacked off with them as they partied in the hostel until 6am and they did not stop till Andy got up and told then to shut up. I was well equipped I had invested in some ear plugs in Vancouver after sharing a dorm room with the “snorer from nam”, so I was wearing these. The upside of all the partying was that most of the keggers were asleep well into the arvo so the mountain was empty of skiers – Nice! Apex was a great mountain and with plenty of steep and forested terrain. We had three days there which was enough and it was time to move on.
Skiing the glades

Grand Forks

Fernie Ski Resort

Downtown Fernie

We jumped on the Greyhound Bus from Apex to Castlegar, then on to Rossland for a couple of days. We met up there with some old university mates from Christchurch. A couple of the guys had a rental car for a week and were keen to use it, so four of us jumped in a drove to Fernie Alpine Resort, about 4hrs east. We had a couple of great days skiing, the snow was hard off piste but the groomed runs were good. We had to check Fernie out as it is famous for 10m of snow annually and it would be primo on a powder day as it has heaps of good terrain. We stayed in the backpackers which was just round the corner from the pub, like whistler we made the most of a chicken wing special they had on Tuesdays. We also scored a spa in one of the local hotels which was the first one of our trip so far and real good… After Fernie we headed back west to Rossland where we would be based for a few weeks and skiing Red Mountain.
Grizz Peak

Canada - Whistler, Mar 06

2006-05-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Since my last diary email I left Victoria on Vancouver Island and headed back to the mainland. I met up with Andy in Vancouver and we had a few days to do the touristy things and suss out an itinerary for the trip, plus the logistics that go with it.

We were both keen to hit the resort of Whistler as we had heard great things about it from both people we knew and also reviews read. Whistler / Blackcomb mountains combined are the largest ski resort in America, its size rivaled only by the cost of accommodation.

We tried to book accommodation at the backpackers but we were blown away when they said it was going to cost $65 Canadian a night (we were paying $23 in Vancouver). Luckily for us a couple of mates, Kirsten and Tim who were working at Whistler for the season managed hook us up with their lounge floor to sleep on. It was raining and all together pretty miserable when we got off the greyhound from Vancouver, but we were stoked when the rain turned to snow that afternoon and it dumped down 10cm.

The next day dawned clear blue and we knew we were in for a good time. We were determined to be one of the first people up the mountain, unfortunately so were thousands of other people. We got fresh tracks down the main runs for the first hour or so, after that we had to go into the trees or hiking for it. The snow was the light dry powder we have been searching for and it was knee deep in places near the top of the mountain. We skied with Kirsten, Tim and their mate Mark for most of the day which was really good as they gave us the tiki tour and showed us all the best runs. They also knew where the best place was for the after ski beer, we went to a pub where they had a deal ‘Pound of wings and a pint’ for $5 – Awesome, we had to have a second helping.

We skied the second day at Blackcomb, which was the also good. The runs dropping down into the Blackcomb Glacier was particularly awesome, the only bugger was the long traverse out.

We had two awesome days at Whistler but our wallets were telling us it was time to go somewhere cheaper. We jumped back on the Greyhound bus and headed east to our next destination, Apex Mountain.

Canada - Vancouver to Victoria, Feb 06

2006-05-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sunset over Coal Harbour, Vancouver

This is the fist part of my travel journal. Flew into Vancouver and spent 3 days walking around and doing the touristy things. The Stanley Parks seawall was the highlight for me, a really nice water side promonade. After Vancouver I had a few days in Victoria on Vancouver Island. I stayed with some family friends over there and had a great time checking out the sights.

Sunset beach

Channel Islands on the way to Vancouver Island

Beers at Bad Johns with Amy and Sevvy

The Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria