TravelStream™ news feed for member tsquared on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tsquared en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:05:59 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsquared/1/1237485600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsquared/1/1237485600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsquared/1/1237485600/tpod.html Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:05:59 -0400 Backpacking Down Under - My Australia Trip

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Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

so this is the end. its hard to believe that 3 and a half months has gone by already. it has been a life changing experience, to say the least. it would be hard for anyone to experience the things we've done, meet the people we have, and see the places we've seen and still return home the same person as when they left. i'd like to think that i'm a more understanding, less ignorant, and happier person overall. im very greatful for the time we spent with all of the people we met along they way, because after a long time travelling i've come to the conclusion: "it's not necessarily your surroundings that dictate your enjoyment of a place, but the quality of people you experience it with." in this regard i would consider myself extremely fortunate to have met so many awesome people along the way. especially sean, without you buddy i'd probably still be stuck in kroombit corraling goats for a rodeo and chewing tobacco and drinking jim bean. thanks man. "abazaba, you my only friend..."

there are definetely some mixed emotions about the end of our trip. on one hand im very sad that our trip is comming to an end, and we're not going to experience any new cultures or places or live a free life with little to no responsibilities. on the other hand, its going to be awesome to have stability in our lives again, make some sort of financial progress towards all the things we hope to aquire in life, and especially see friends and family again. the comfort of personal space isn't a luxury you have in a dorm room with 20 other people either. all in all i'm excited to go home and impliment all my life changes i've decided on during any of our countless hours of bus rides, flights, and ferry trips. one huge reason for my anxiety to return home is to spend time with Liam. i was suprised at how excited i was to see him in new zealand, as obvious as it may seem to someone else. can't wait to see you buddy, take care of alexa while im away.

so this is it, we fly home in a couple of hours. i have no regrets about our trip in the least. there are things we could have done to make life way easier or less expensive, but hindsight is always 20/20. people often ask my advice on places their going that i've already been. don't take offence if i'm somewhat hesitant to give it, it's just that half of the experience is doing things the hard way and having a laugh about it later. trips that are cut and dry with no setbacks don't have nearly the authenticity or individualism that travelling should have. blaze your own trail, make tons of mistakes, and you'll be all the better for it.

people have asked me how much my trip has cost, and to tell you the truth i have no idea. i dont really care either. traveling while you can is worth more than any amount of money to me. guess some people are just crazy like that. theres more to living than just having a brand new car and a kick ass house (although it is pretty sweet) but those things come with the price of your enjoyment of the time you have. live for no regrets and make everyday killer. get drunk, get into a bar fight, stay up all night, smoke cigarettes, get a tatoo, and trade t-shirts with a complete stranger just because it seems like a good idea while your hammered.

so home here we come. good bye to everyone that made our trip fucking amazing, i hope to remeber you all who i haven't already forgot. and liver, im sorry but it had to be done.
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Mamanuca Islands, Fiji

sorry about the novel of a last entry, i was really getting in the zone. anyways after we got back from the seaspray sailing trip we made it back just in time for our curry-fish buffet dinner at the resort. we had just enough time to sober up a bit in time for our first night dive. we aren't technically 'certified' for a night dive without our advanced ticket, but sean and i felt comfortable going because we know enough that we can take care of eachother in an emergency. it was well worth going without a doubt. its such a wierd feeling only being able to see a tiny beam of vision infront of you, and sometimes things would sneak up on you without warning. like a giant wall of coral, or a big jelly fish, or a reef shark. we also say an eel, a porqupine (puffer) fish, giant star fish, and tons of other stuff. the best part was when we stood on the bottom and turned off our torches and were in complete darkness. then, with a wave of your hand, millions of tiny phosperesence light up and move around. you could write your name or just wave your arms around like a lunatic and enjoy the light show. very, very cool. after that, believe it or not, sean and i went to bed at around 9:30pm. i felt so out of character, but we were sooo beat and needed to recover for the next days dive.

the next day we did another dive that was abit above our certification but well within our skill level. we had to choose between a WWII bomber that crashed between a couple of islands, but decided on a sunken passenger ferry. it was pretty deep, 26 meters, so our surface air consumption was throught the roof. we got to swim through all the rooms, the wheel house, and even the storage compartments in the very bottom. it was amazing, but the best part by far was seeing two lion fish on the top deck hunting some lunch. they are so attractive and intimidating at the same time, and are one of the most deadly fish in the ocean. pretty cool close up. one of the swedish guys cut his hand on some rusty metal, and being so deep below the surface it came out looking green because the light spectrum is so distorted at that depth. that was really cool, but we were suprisingly too tired to see the bomber too. it takes quite a toll on your body going alittle deeper. after that, it was just killing time until our trip back to the mainland.
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Mamanuca Islands, Fiji

things were still looking pretty grim when we headed out on our short voyage to bounty island, with the unrelenting rain putting a serious damper on our carefree good times. when we got there things didnt improve for the first little while, we got the bure (house) at the very far side of the resort, which sucked walking to in the pitch-black pouring rain as i hobbled with my cut up feet. the room had a nice queen bed and a shitty little kids style bunk bed, and i got shafted with the bunk bed while sean snored like a badly tuned outboard motor all night. but, when we went back for dinner we met some cool english girls and played card games until our other friends showed up and we all hung out together. we moved to the other bar/games room and played pool and ping-pong and i gave my best at the d.j table for a couple hours. the bar shut early, being the day of rest, so things never really got too out of control. there was defienetly the potential for a full on night, it just wasnt meant to be that night.

the next day was the heavist rain ive experience in my life, which is saying something comming for temperate vancouver canada. so we werent to optomistic to jump on our sailing trip in 5 meter swells and terrential downpour. it came down to the final few minuites before boarding, when we were considering just saying fuck it and going back to the main island. but in the end our frugalness kicked in (we already paid for it) and the free beer/wine won us over and we jumped on. best decision of the trip. we jumped onto the sketchy passenger boat-big ferry-then sailboat and headed off into the eye of the storm. everyone huddled in the middle, soaking wet, freezing, and feeling slightly nacious when the captain made the rounds with some champange. although it was only 10am, we gladly accpeted. sean just took a whole bottle to himself, which the crew though was worth a laugh. then you know what, things really picked up after that. everyone started to laugh at the abserdity of the situation and began to have a really good time. a bunch more passengers came over to hang out with us, and we all proceeded to get high-school drunk (or was it just me and sean? i cant remember now...)

then an amazing thing happened. after nearly 4 days of constant rain and wind and bad moods, the rain just...stopped. it was awesome. we all cheered and got pretty drunk and next thing we knew, we were getting off at a remote fijian village to have kava with their local cheifs and cruise their local markets half in the bag. it was alot of fun, and time raced by until it was time to board the sea-spray again and make way to "cast-away island" (which was renamed for tourists after tom hanks filmed the movie cast away) it was beautiful. absolutly amazing. i totally recognized a bunch of scenes from the movie and it was even nicer in person. sean ran off right away chasing a few of the wild goats with small rocks and cocounuts, and left me hobbling behind with an american girl. i got excited when we finally got close to one and scared it away by accident, haha sorry guys. then a canadian guy from t.o busted out some bob marley and we made friends the canuck way. that really set things off for me, and we spent the next while knocking cocounuts of out trees with a giant piece of bamboo and smashing them open with rocks just like tom hanks. it was so much fun. after i was full of cocounut milk, and went snorkeling and checked out all the flouescent fish until it was time to head back.

we re-boarded to a truly kick ass lunch, with a serious case of the munchies, and mowed down and drank beer and were merry. nice chilled out cruise home while we pounded as much free beer as possible to get our moneys worth (plus a few for the road) and headed back home. awesome decision to go, otherwise sean and i would probably be bitter and grumpy about our trip like the old dudes sitting on the balcony being negative in the muppets. you know what im talking about
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Yasawa Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji

Waya Leilei was nice when we first arrived; weather was alright, sean and my private room was pretty sweet, puppies were playing on the grass field, there was a beach volleyball net and hammocks everywhere like they were going out of style. addmitedly the first night was pretty fun too, although sean was starting to get annoyed by the immaturity of the group of girls we were travelling with (which always struck me as odd, considering he put up with me for the last couple of years.) there was a really cool fire dance preformed by the locals that night, and they sent a runner into the village to by sean and i enough kava to kill an adult fijian wild goat.

Kava: is an ancient crop of the western Pacific. Kava is a tranquilizer primarily consumed to relax without disrupting mental clarity. In some parts of the Western World, kava extract is marketed as herbal medicine against stress, insomnia, and anxiety. A Cochrane Collaboration systematic review of its evidence concluded that it was likely to be more effective than placebo at treating short-term social anxiety.[1] Safety concerns have been raised over liver toxicity, although research indicates that this may be largely due to the use of stems and leaves in supplements, which were not used indigenously (gets you messed up!!! and makes your tounge feel weird...)

that night it started to rain. then it started to pour. then it was raining cats and dogs all night, and all the next day, and all the day after that. apperently its the raininy season in fiji, unknown to sean and i when we booked. the next day consisted of reading in our room (which reeked of alcohol, wet feet, and kava by this point), playing cards and sleeping. needless to say, moods got pretty sombor and everyone was starting to get on everyone elses nerves in such a confined space. we felt kindof trapped, and opted out of our summit hike and guided kayak tour around the island due to the weather. this part of the trip im going to choose to repress in my memory in years to come.

it wasnt all bad though. one definate highlight was an invitation by a staff member, named Salaman, to come into the village and have a traditional kava ceremony in his home with his family. this was a great and genuine experience that id like to think not many tourists get to have. he picked up sean and i after dinner and we walked with him and his little girls along the muddy path into the tiny village of shacks, built of corragate and sheet metal and concrete, past their church into their house. it was tiny and poorly furnished, it really made me appreciate our standard of living back home, but they seemed happy enough. his daughter returned from boarding school on a different island for their day of rest (sunday) and their walls were covered in hand written verses of the bible in fijian. we sat on his concrete floor and drank kava in a traditional manner, clapping and saying "bula" before downing each bowl. we watched australian super 14's rugby on a scratchy old tube t.v with terrible reception and enjoyed kava until 10 o'clock, where by tradition we couldnt have anymore kava/alcohol/cigarettes until the conclusion of their church attendance the following night. it was definetely an experience i was happy to have had. and thanks for comming sean and leaving behind all the girls playing drinking games, i always feel alot safer with some backup incase things get sticky.
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Yasawa Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji

It was sad to say goodbye to coral view after just two short days, but it was time to move on. the staff sang good bye songs in fijian with guitars and ukalalaies (however you spell that) and sent us off in our tiny passenger boat after walking through knee high waves. funny to see the people wearing shoes and pants get soaked, obviously not on fiji time yet.

next stop was manta ray island and, despite it not being manta ray season, it was a really good time. sean and i took kayaks out to the next island and played baseball with a big stick and rotten cocounuts that washed up on shore. it was alot of fun until we had a near death experience and had to call it quits, for our better judgement and wellbeing. then we kayaked into the deep water and had kayak wars with eachother, unsbeknowing that we were entertaining the entire population onshore. we went back completely exhausted and drank margaritas and sex-on-the-beaches until dinner, which was again really good (3 course meal with dessert and everything.) the staff organized drinking games until ten o'clock, then we walked down to the beach with a a 26er of whiskey and some towels and drank by a bonfire and listened to acoustic guitars until pretty late. that was the epitamy of what a vacation should be. little did we know that was the beginning of the end of our beautiful fijian weather...
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Yasawa Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji

We were glad to make like trees and get the hell outta nadi a.s.a.p, so we were early to pack up our stuff and mouw down a quick breakfast before jumping on a bus to denaru port leaving for the yasawa islands. the bus did a major unnessacary detour and made us late for the sailing, so we were in a mad rush to check in a run down the dock with all our bags in a mad dash to jump on the boat just as it was pulling away. tensions were high and stress was definetly a factor when i told one of the staff to go fuck himself when he was yelling at me, and i was borderline going to throw him into the water. im sure that would have gone over well...

despite the mass confusion and bumping into each other like blind penguins on a hockey rink, we made the boat and our bags were intail. the couple hour cruise was beautiful, the most picturesque tiny islands surrounded by amazingly beaufitiful water with clear blue skys. aaahhhh, it was so relaxing. we played uno on the top deck for most of the trip with a bunch of english girls, then i fell asleep in the sun and got a wicked sunburn on my stomach. it turned into a wicked nice tan for awhile.

when we got to coral view, we made the dodgy transfer from the larger catamaran ferry to a tiny passenger boat that was probably 70 years old with a 20hp outboard on the back with about 15-20 other passengers and our bags. it was really experience how it was kindof 3rd world, and had an air of danger to it. we rode fifteen minuites throught the most amazing islands and warm clear water until we beached the boat onto the white sand and the staff lugged our packs 4 at a time the long walk to the common area. each and every staff made a line to shake our hands and welcome us to their home, it was sincerely inviting and we felt so happy to be there. everyone was so nice, and the resort was void of many common ammenities for western countries, but a truly beautiful place. the food was also really good, and the coral was just a few steps off the beach (which made skinny dipping pretty tough, ouch) night life was really quiet. but to tell you the truth, thats probably what sean and i needed

the next day sean and i went on a shark feeding dive, which was awesome. we say a tons of fish, quite a few black/white tipped reef sharks, a 1.5meter morray eel, and about a 4meter lemon shark that took the entire bait in one bite! really good stuff. when we came back i played rugby with the local fijians, man those black dudes can run! they made me look foolish at times, but i still pulled a try outof my ass and made a few decent runs. i would have played alot more, but i wasnt wearing shoes and cut the bottom of my feet pretty bad. after we hiked up to the top of the island with a bunch of people to watch the sunset over the ocean, amazing. walking down in the dark was hilarious, and sean cut his shins up hiding in the bushes and scaring the girls. several times. haha. played ring of fire (kings cup in canada) all night and got pretty wasted until the early morning. woke up covered in sand. again.
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Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

Aaaahhh....Fiji.

Fiji is definetely a unique and beautiful place, a huge change of pace from the fast paced party lifestyles in australia and new zealand. its more a place to keep your wits about you as a forgeiner, as sean and i sometimes found out the hard way. being here in the rainy season, at times, but a damper on our tropical paradise. however it is unarguably one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen, in a clear blue water white sandy beach kindof way.

Nadi isn't a place you want to spend any period of time, if it can be helped. its a dirty, crime ridden city full of hustlers and overbearing cab drivers/drug runners looking to take advantage of rich caucasian tourists. our time here has been somewhat of a clock watching experience. dont get the wrong idea about fiji as a whole from this place, fijian people are definetely some of the most friendly and welcoming people ive ever met. they are very very chilled out, and are always on "fiji time", which is a very lax schedule of "the boat will be here sometime in the afternoon, probably"

the nadi bay hotel resort was somewhat dissapointing our first night here, especially after comming from a place as amazing as new zealand. the night life was non-existant, but we did manage to hook up with some brits and a friend from the oz experience bus that stayed with us almost our whole trip. we hit the hay early that night, despite my best efforts to corral up a good time with a couple jugs of beer and some card games. plus the hotel staff majorly messed up our tour reservations and werent helpful, or friendly, at all.

our return stay was a different story altogether. when we got back sean and i made the treck down the road, hostily waving away the unrelenting cabbies with shaking fists and profinities, to the thai/indian restuarant. our waiter sat us by the railing with a guy from alberta, and after seating us immediatly offered to sell us marijuana and take us out to some water falls the next day. kinda wierd to say the least, but a really friendly and hilarious big fijian dude. when we got back we met some swedish girls we met on coral view island, and before sean knew what was going on we had half the bar at our table playing drinking games and getting smashed. we snuck away with our drinks to blaze on the roof above the games room and watched the lightning storm across the water light up the sky, while planes took off ridiculously close above us, shaking the windows and glasses. pretty cool to say the least. after the bar shut, i drank with the girls running the bar and restuarant, and they warned us NOT to go into the town at night, especially with mostly girls. they called us a cab and we got a 4x4 ride to an illegal after-hours liquor market/pot shot/whatever else and bought a couple cases of beer and a few packs of smokes and drank in the courtyard out back of the hotel. the staff were awesome, and the security guard willie chilled with us for a bit. definetely a good nite, but not the best next morning. especially in the 35 degree heat + humidity...
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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

the rest of our time in queenstown was just as awesome as the beginning, despite feeling burntout from so much action in such a short period of time. our first day with cogan, tex and anita was pretty awesome. we went white water surfing; with wetsuits, flippers, bodyboards and helmets we swam through rapids and tried to get onto the continual waves made by the currents. pretty awesome stuff, but we were completely exhausted and dehydrated from the night before and ended up with bad leg cramps from time to time. my little baby calves werent built from powerswimming, and none of us looked like allstars when the 12year old girl caught the biggest wave and we struggled to hit the small ones. i can still bet her at an arm wrestle though. im pretty sure. that night was 2 for 1 jagerbombs, which was bad news for tyler. i think i ended up having close to 16 that night and couldn't get to sleep until 6:30am, but definetely having a really good night saying goodbye to some good friends.

jet boating was an extreme adrenaline rush, and although it was quite a bit of money for such a short activity, i would highly recommend it to everyone. the captains are amazing driver and you you within inches of rock walls at full speed, pull 360 degree turns on a dime, and drive up rivers so shallow a coy fish wouldn't even dare. not the best idea when you were as hungover as we were, due to an unexpected run in with our mates from home, but i was smiling from ear to ear the entire time.

the other guys went on to do their respective bungy jumps, white water kayaking, and frisbee golf, while sean and i had a quick (4.5 hour) power nap to recouperate before our night ahead. after a fergburger (undoubtedly the best burgers on the planet, even after 2 a day for our entire time in q-town) we headed up to 'the ledge' for an amazing view of the city/lake/mountains during sunset. the gondala down went right past a packed restuarant, so obvously nick and i gave the patrons a full moon out our window on the way back. a quick game of pool turned into a few games of pool with the boys at a local pub, then into crown royal and pistacio fight in cogan and texs' room, and into a full-blown highschool-drinking style party at altitude bar. and bufflo bar. and world bar. needless to say that catching the 7am bus to christchurch the next morning was not the highlight of our trip. plus the added drama of the some social situations and relationships on our bus made it akward for some people. i just slept like a baby most of the way.

last night was the first easy night we've had since i think perth in australia, atleast a month ago. it was kinda a nice change to not get hammered and get a good nights sleep, but at the same time alittle dissapointing. i felt somewhat unaccomplished going to bed with my teeth brushed, clothes folded, alarm set, bag packed and showered. is this the definition of an alcoholic? only a few short nights until we head of to fiji, we should be thankful for all the rest we can get!
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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

the 134 meter nevis bungy jump was probably mentally the hardest thing ive ever done. everyone was really excited/nervous/scared out of their minds when the bus picked us up, and didn't get a chance to recover during the 30 min drive up a goat path they called a road along side of a massive cliff. one at the top of a literal mountain, we got a glimpse of the enourmous canyon between two peaks that the bungy building was suspended between with a series of steel cables. wicked impressive, and fairly intimidating. it was a crazy mixture of emotions with the wind roaring around us and the cold air biting at your face as a tiny car rockets across on a cable to pick up the first few. being in the "heavy" group, our boys got to go first (thanks sean, i told you all those beers would pay off one day) looking down the river at the bottom looked a million miles down, where trees looked like toothpicks. the floor of the building was glass, so your constantly reminded how high you are as the wind pushes the structure in a constant sway. mad props to sean for going first out of our group, especially after watching Ida chicken out right before. his jump was awesome, he pulled the no arm-newfie dive to set the bar pretty high for the rest of us. by the time it came to get my feet tied, i was soo fired up i was bouncing around the walls. they played amazing pump up music (metallica, slipknot, nirvana, and system of a down when i jumped. B.Y.O.B) and by the time i was up, i was ready to go. you cant really hesitate or contemplate the situation by that point, so i just went for it. 8.5 seconds of free fall was the most amazing (well, one of them) feelings i've ever felt. you have to catch your breath a couple of times to yell again, which i was definatley doing. after the second bounce, you had to pull a red cord really hard to release your harness and flip around into the sitting position while they pull you up. this, combined with a slight "click" and a couple cm drop, was pretty nerve racking a few hundred feet in the air. my fingers and toes were tingling with adrenaline when i got back up, and after a series of high-fives and yelling it was all over but the bragging. i would highly recommend this to anybody, its definetley you against yourself up there. really lets you know what your made of. oh yeah, and props to Sabrina for going twice and Russ for going nakes. batman used to be my personal hero, by know i think its you guys.

gotta run up to get cogan, tex, sean and anita for our white water surfing trip in 10 min. that should get rid of my 4 day hang over, its so hard not to party like its your birthday everyday in Queenstown. everyone is going to think im so tanned when i get home, but its just my skin turning orange from my liver shutting down. tonite were going to bungy off "the ledge" looking over queenstown. you can do flips and stuff there and you have to run and jump off. tomorrow were jet boating, and maybe river rafting in the afternoon. see how time goes. tonite is going to be pretty off the hook too, with the english girls leaving tomorrow and the swedish getting back from milford sound. oh yeah! and milford sound: the most beautiful place in the world. mountains straight into ocean with water falls everywhere like their going out of style. sound like b.c? this is one place i could definetley live.

on a side note, our group won the kareokee competition last night in adrenaline bar. a personal first for me. wonderwall by oasis, definetely a good choice. have fun sky-diving with the winnings nick. and alan, i miss you already man. you were the best roomate ever, thanks for sleeping in the bathroom. see you in van for the olympics. later!
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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

Queenstown is such a sick place, probably the next best candidate to Vancouver for permanent living. it has a real smaller ski-town kinda feel to it, and being packed with young, rowdy, good looking, fun loving back packers definatley helps. there are tons of awesome places to eat for cheap and lots of wicked places to shop, plus the bar scene is off the hook! last night was pretty epic, we missed out on white water sledging this morning at 7:45 am which kinda blows. there are an unbelievable amount of awesome adrenaline pumping activities to do here. bungy jumping, skydiving, paragliding, rafting and luging to name a few.

this morning was a bit of a daze for everybody, but well worth the pain for the fun we had yesterday. it was like everyone from our whole trip that got split up made it for one last party. our drivers did an awesome job at getting everyone fired up, getting the ball rolling with some drinking games and prizes. i won a free dvd+pictures for my bungy jump today and a play doctor kit(dont ask), which needless to say is pretty awesome.

i gotta run now and see if i can find my flipflops i lost last night, plus everyone is started to get pumped up for our 134meter bungy (thats 442 feet and 8.5 seconds of free fall) we're doing in a few hours. wwwwhhhhhhhoooooowwwwww!!!!!!! should be okay. and just in case, it was nice knowing you all (just kidding mom, it'll be fine...)
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