Our New Home

After a week in Auckland as a tourist, we were ready to leave after tracking down the perfect campervan to spend the next year in. She's a yet-unnamed 1985 Toyota Hiace campervan. Here she is in all her glory:

She has all the luxuries of home, including: a stove, microwave, toaster oven, sink, running water, fridge, freezer, space heater, a "living room" that converts into a queen-sized bed, and plenty of storage. Uncle Steve, we've even upgraded from boxed wine (aka "goon", 5L for $10) to drinking real bottled wine.

After leaving Auckland we headed to Whangerei (not pronounced WANG-eri, much to Craig's dismay, but more like WHEN-gary) to get organized. We spent three days there getting the van stocked up, doing a few good hikes (Andrea has the blisters to prove it), and getting back into the camping mindframe.

Currently we are in Paihia, where we camped last night about five feet from a beach, with the Haruru Falls a few hundred metres away, with the falls providing a soothing background noise as we slept. Right now we are parked at another beach across from a luxury apartment building, where someone was generous enough to leave their wireless internet connection on "default" setting so we can share in their wireless fun.

We haven't been able to upload pictures recently, as we've been away from the 'net for awhile. Here's a map that shows where we've driven so far (we've been heading north):

The roads here are wind-y and hill-y, the scenery is green and sheep-y and cow-y.

We miss everyone, don't forget to leave us comments so we know how you're doing.

P.S. Craig says he can smell Dave Lee all the way from here.

Okay, Now It's Cold!

We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, safe and sound on Sunday evening. We were whining about it being cool and rainy in Sydney, but now it's more like winter. It was about 13 degrees during the day today, but going to a low of 4 tonight. Considering the Kiwis don't seem to know about central heating, this means we will be cuddling hard tonight to stay warm!

Today we walked all around the city, seeing the sights, and picked up some hard-core hiking boots to help us tramp through this beautiful country. We've also begun looking at campervans. There are a ton of vans for sale, but the pickings are a bit slim for our high standards (having a 3-way fridge and either a high-top or a pop-top, something we can stand in). We've sent out a bunch of emails and are hoping to find something this week. Auckland is nice, but we're not really big-city people, and can't wait to explore a bit more off the beaten track.

Keep in touch and think of us all cold in the winter here while most of you enjoy a warm Canadian spring :)

It's a Tough Life

Our past two weeks have been chock-a-block full of visiting old friends, meeting new ones, and exploring the many beaches around Sydney. North of Sydney is a string of beach suburbs called the Northern Beaches, and we are staying in one of the more southern ones, Dee Why, which is just north of Manly Beach (but much nicer). Each suburb has its own grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, and often bars or pubs. Todd and Vicky took us on a driving tour through all of them, stoppping frequently to walk on the beach and sunbathe. On the tour we got to see some VERY luxourious houses (including Mel Gibson's, allegedly).

We drove to Bondi Beach a few days ago to do a coastal walk. Bondi is where we stayed at the end of our trip last time. On the walk we saw some beach volleyball, a seaside swimming competition (another Thing You'd Never See in Canada), and amazing views. It's a bit too cool to swim at the moment, but it was still very busy.



In between relaxing on the beach, we've been attending cocktail parties, shopping, walking everywhere, and exploring the city. Yesterday we took the ferry from Manly Beach into downtown Sydney, where we wandered around the botanical gardens, the domain, the Sydney Opera House, and Hyde Park. It was a beautiful day - we couldn't have timed it any better, since it was one of the only sunny days in the last week. It's been about 20 degrees each day, going down to about 15 at night, and we are slowly being brainwashed that this is "cold". Auckland will be even cooler when we arrive on Sunday.


A view of the Sydney Opera House, harbour, and one of the many sidewalk cafes.


Hyde Park


The botanical gardens were full of bats, called Flying Foxes. Eww!

Even though we spent a year in Australia in 2005, it is always amusing to note the differences between Canadian and Australian culture. Here are a few of our favourites:

* There are no pennies here - everything is rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents. It's nice not to have a pocketfull of pennies! (In New Zealand, they do not have pennies or nickels.)

* Drinking alcohol in most public places is legal here - which makes it nice to have a bottle of wine on the beach!

* Walking anywhere without shoes is normal for some people, even in downtown or at the mall. So, seeing someone walking down the road, shoeless and drinking a beer, does not necessarily mean they are homeless!

* Since cars drive on the left side of the road here, you have to mentally retrain yourself to look RIGHT before you step off a curb, not left. Luckily at most intersections a sign that says "LOOK" and an arrow pointing right, to help unsuspecting tourists survive walking on Sydney streets. It is especially important to watch out, since pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here, unless you are at a specially marked pedestrain crossing or crosswalk.

* All prices include tax, and there is no tipping here. This means that when you go to a restaurant and order a meal for $20, that is ALL you have to pay, a single $20 bill. It's refreshing not to have to do lots of mental calculations to figure out what a meal will cost at the end.

Todd and Vicky will be driving us to the airport on Sunday to begin the next leg of our trip. The four-hour flight to Auckland will seem like a piece of cake after our last flight! We've pretty much decided we will look into buying a campervan right away, and are excited to begin the search as soon as we arrive.

More pictures are up at http://community.webshots.com/user/craigswinson

Back in the Land of Oz

Yesterday morning we finally arrived in Sydney, Australia. Considering the length of the flight, 3 hours to San Fransisco and 15 hours to Sydney, we felt great getting off the plane. Lucky for us the plane was not full and we had 4 seats in a row to spread out on and catch some sleep.

After not seeing each other for over 3 years we were reunited with Todd and Vicky when they picked us up at the airport and drove us back to their house in Dee Why where we will be staying.

We spent the day lounging on the beach, and even though it is coming into winter here the weather is great, around 20 - 25 degrees. Todd and Vicky live about a 2 minute walk to the beautiful beach which is lined with numerous small bars and restaurants.

Our first night was spent drinking wine and reminiscing about old times, as well as catching up on the past few years. It feels like we never left.

After a good night sleep last night we are over the jetlag and ready to get back into full on tourist mode and get out and see the city.

Yamnuska Summit

Yesterday we climbed the Yamnuska with Brad and Chad. It took us about 5 hours for the entire hike.

The mountain is the result of a thrust from the Mcconnell Fault and resulted in there being 80 million year old rock in the face of its cliff and 8 million year old rock at the scree slopes near its base. The route we took up the limestone mountain to the 2240 m summit was very challenging, as we did a 900 m elevation change in about 5 km.

At one point you have to scale across the sheer rock edge with the help of a cable.

To get down the front of the cliff face you run down the loose scree. It's so loose and steep that running is your only choice. We took video of each of us running it, and only Chad managed to fall.

The view looking down the scree.

The scenery the entire way up was amazing, with lots of snow and a sunny sky for the most part. Check out the pictures by clicking on the slideshow at the top left, more at http://community.webshots.com/user/craigswinson.

This was definitely a good hike to get us in better shape for the greatly anticipated mountains of New Zealand.

Calgary Fun

We left Ontario on Thursday afternoon to head to Calgary. For people who didn't believe that it is possible to travel light, even for a year, here is us with all our luggage at the airport:







As you can see, there isn't a suitcase in sight!

Once in Calgary, we got reunited with lots of friends. We already did a hike at Barrier Lake, and hope to head out tomorrow for another one. Other than that, we've been keeping busy catching up with friends and seeing the sights in Calgary and beyond.













We are here until Tuesday, when we have an evening flight to San Fransico and then on to Sydney, for the next leg of our trip. Todd and Vicky, get prepared!