Well for those of you who I haven't contacted yet, which would be pretty much everyone except Mum and Dad, I have safely arrived in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea.
I think I have now traveled in the smallest plane I will ever travel in, a Cessna 206, maximum capacity 5 passengers. I was in the co-pilot seat so had a wonderful view of the clouds and occasional river and rolling hills that make up the PNG eastern highlands. I had to be careful not to stretch my legs too straight as there were some foot pedals down there and I didn't really want to send the plane in an uncontrollable spin or anything. The flight was around 1 3/4 hours and the plane actually felt reasonably safe, it didn't bounce around too much.
On arriving in Ukarumpa I was met at the airstrip by my department bosses and Tony and Martha Hinton, the fellowship family that was assigned to show me around. Tony is a fellow kiwi although he has spent about 10 years in the UK and another 10 years in the US so his accent is a little confused at times.
There is a sign up sheet in the post office here with all the new people on it, where people sign up to have the newbies over for dinner or lunch. So far I have been out for dinner 3 times and lunch 4 times, so I am getting to know people pretty quickly. There are a bunch of young people here and the ones I have met so far have been great fun to be around and very welcoming.
On Saturday night there was a contemporary worship time with a really good worship band playing a good mix of songs. I would have to say it was one of the best worship bands I have seen. The music on Sunday morning was a little less to my liking, although they say if you don't like the style of service here, come back next week because it will be totally different, so I will have to see what it is like next week. I had a chat with one of the worship leaders and he sounded keen to get me involved in his team. There are so many good musicians over here, I guess I won't be playing quite as often as I was in Vancouver.
I haven't gone for a walk with my camera yet so don't have many photos yet, and the ones I do have are still on my camera so they will have to wait for the next posting. I was a little concerned for a while that I wouldn't be able to post pictures on my blog as I have to pay 30 cents per Mb for web usage. Fortunately that charge is only for incoming traffic, so I can post pictures for free! I will have to limit my web browsing though so probably won't be playing any of Dan's I hate Monday games for a while.
And that's all I have to say today. Check back in a few days and I may have more to say.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Final post from NZ
Well my month home in Auckland has just flown by and it is now only 12 1/2 hours until I depart to on my next great adventure.
In my time back home I have once again come to realise how good my espresso machine is. I had actually gotten used to not having fantastic coffee at home while living in Vancouver and had forgotten how good it was to wake up and be able to start the day off with a perfect latte or espresso. It will be missed over the next 5 months for sure.
It has also been nice being able to play a few rounds of golf over the last month, even if I got absolutely drenched in the process. I was certainly a bit rusty after not playing since October but in the last game I was starting to be a bit happier with the way I was hitting the ball, despite the somewhat unimpressive scorecard. It has been great being able to finally use my 'new' driver on a course at last, surprisingly it didn't totally fix my slice, so perhaps there is a flaw in my swing.
In my time back home I have once again come to realise how good my espresso machine is. I had actually gotten used to not having fantastic coffee at home while living in Vancouver and had forgotten how good it was to wake up and be able to start the day off with a perfect latte or espresso. It will be missed over the next 5 months for sure.
It has also been nice being able to play a few rounds of golf over the last month, even if I got absolutely drenched in the process. I was certainly a bit rusty after not playing since October but in the last game I was starting to be a bit happier with the way I was hitting the ball, despite the somewhat unimpressive scorecard. It has been great being able to finally use my 'new' driver on a course at last, surprisingly it didn't totally fix my slice, so perhaps there is a flaw in my swing.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Vacation montage
Well I have been very slack writing about my vacation and quite frankly am lacking the inspiration right now to write a detailed commentary on all I did and saw, so instead I will put together a bit of a photo montage of the last month or so.
Whistler
It was kind of cloudy up the mountains so we just hired some bikes to ride around the valley. There are some really nice lakes that are pretty close to the village. Didn't get a chance to do any downhill riding, Mum and Dad didn't seem to keen.
Victoria
Apparently we were really lucky to see so many orcas resting. And as you can tell we got really close to the whales to. Splendid.
The deer in somebodies garden was pretty cool.
Salt Spring Island
Beautiful place, we stayed in a really nice little log cabin beside a lake. Highlight of Salt Spring Island was visiting the cheese shop, very yummy goats cheeses. The bread shop had some really nice bread too.
Las Vegas
We arrived kind of late at night so all the rooms that we had booked were taken, so we got an upgrade to a suite, a 2 level room complete with a sauna shower and jacuzzi. Unfortunately it also only came with 1 bed so I had to sleep on a roll-away. Didn't really do much in Vegas other than sleep and eat.
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Well known for it's hoodoos, indeed they were the best hoodoos I have ever seen.
Grand Canyon
The grand canyon is huge, I had no idea it was that big. It is pretty hard to capture the scale of it in a photograph, I kind of failed in that regard but I got a photo of a bee and a squirrel!
Yosemite National Park
My favourite of all the places we visited. I would love to go back there in winter time, maybe next year.
San Francisco
Didn't really get any photos worth posting here. We went on a tour to the golden gate bridge but it didn't stop on the side of the bridge I wanted a photo from, a little disappointing.
Whistler
It was kind of cloudy up the mountains so we just hired some bikes to ride around the valley. There are some really nice lakes that are pretty close to the village. Didn't get a chance to do any downhill riding, Mum and Dad didn't seem to keen.
Victoria
Apparently we were really lucky to see so many orcas resting. And as you can tell we got really close to the whales to. Splendid.
The deer in somebodies garden was pretty cool.
Salt Spring Island
Beautiful place, we stayed in a really nice little log cabin beside a lake. Highlight of Salt Spring Island was visiting the cheese shop, very yummy goats cheeses. The bread shop had some really nice bread too.
Las Vegas
We arrived kind of late at night so all the rooms that we had booked were taken, so we got an upgrade to a suite, a 2 level room complete with a sauna shower and jacuzzi. Unfortunately it also only came with 1 bed so I had to sleep on a roll-away. Didn't really do much in Vegas other than sleep and eat.
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Well known for it's hoodoos, indeed they were the best hoodoos I have ever seen.
Grand Canyon
The grand canyon is huge, I had no idea it was that big. It is pretty hard to capture the scale of it in a photograph, I kind of failed in that regard but I got a photo of a bee and a squirrel!
Yosemite National Park
My favourite of all the places we visited. I would love to go back there in winter time, maybe next year.
San Francisco
Didn't really get any photos worth posting here. We went on a tour to the golden gate bridge but it didn't stop on the side of the bridge I wanted a photo from, a little disappointing.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Black Sheep - the movie
Well I have so many things I could post on now with all the travelling that I have done lately. But I thought the first thing I would comment on should be one of the great pieces of New Zealand film making I saw on the plane on the way home.
Black sheep is a piece of class work. It is all about some genetically modified sheep that go around eating people. A truly inspired idea for a movie. For those of my readers who are in Vancouver, I believe it is going to be released over there too so you will be able to witness first hand this marvel of cinematography. It is movies like this that really make me proud to be a New Zealander.
Black sheep is a piece of class work. It is all about some genetically modified sheep that go around eating people. A truly inspired idea for a movie. For those of my readers who are in Vancouver, I believe it is going to be released over there too so you will be able to witness first hand this marvel of cinematography. It is movies like this that really make me proud to be a New Zealander.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Update from the road
I know most of you have probably been pretty concerned for my safety as I travel around the US on the wrong side of the road, so I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know that we have arrived in San Francisco without incident. Our journey has taken us from Las Vegas to Zion National park, then on to Bryce Canyon where we stayed at Ruby's Inn. Very nice place, but the food was not great. From there we moved on to Grand Canyon where once again the food was pretty bad. Then it was back to Vegas where a buffet awaited us. The king crab legs were particularly good. Next it was off to Yosemite, with some more decidedly average food. Then finally we travelled to San Francisco. So far the food here has been OK.
I found the driving to be just fine, however I had to do more of it than I thought I would as Dad kind of freaked out a bit. I have to admit it was pretty scary when Dad was driving so I understand why he was freaked.
Anyway we only have .9 miles to go to drop the rental car off.
I found the driving to be just fine, however I had to do more of it than I thought I would as Dad kind of freaked out a bit. I have to admit it was pretty scary when Dad was driving so I understand why he was freaked.
Anyway we only have .9 miles to go to drop the rental car off.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Whistler, Victoria, Salt Spring Island
Well I have now officially left Canada. I am sitting in the departure lounge on the US side of immigration, waiting for another 2 hours for my flight to San Francisco. As there is not much else to do, I Figured this would be a good opportunity to update everyone on the last week.
On Sunday night Dad and Mum arrived after spending a week or so in Toronto where Zach (my nephew) was having surgery. On Monday we drove up to Whistler where we stayed at the Delta hotel. The weather on Monday was not great so we didn't really do much other than have lunch, walk around the village a bit and have dinner. Tuesday however was much nicer, so we hired some bikes and rode around the valley for a few hours, looking at a couple of lakes and various other spots where views of the mountains could be found.
Wednesday started with a rather early morning. It was a bit of a shock for me having to be up and ready to go by 7:30. Uncle Ted and aunty Alison were picking us up so that we could catch the the 9 o'clock ferry to Victoria. The weather while on the ferry was a bit overcast so photos didn't really look all that great, so sorry you will have to take the trip yourself, or maybe do a search on the interweb, someone else is sure to have taken some photos at some stage. The main activity planned for the day was a trip to the world famous Buchard gardens. As far as gardens go they were pretty good, the best I have seen, and I have seen a few in my time. I well recall the seemingly endless days of being dragged through the Hamilton botanical gardens or the botanical gardens somewhere in South Auckland. Boy did those trips drag on. But what a difference having a camera can make. I was well entertained taking photos of the flowers and trying to get a good shot of a bee on a flower. There were plenty of bees around but they just wouldn't sit still. Very frustrating.
I had been given the heavy responsibility of organising the accommodation for our trip and had booked us in to a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights in Victoria. The house was very old, and had that awful old house smell about it, especially in the foyer. The bedrooms were decorated in true B&B style, with floral wallpaper and floral bedspreads and floral artwork. Not exactly my kind of decorating style. The breakfast they provided was not bad. The first day I had their health mix cereal, it definitely tasted healthy. This was followed by bacon and eggs and 3 small mushrooms. I happened to be sitting next to uncle Ted, who doesn't eat mushrooms so I scored an extra 3. The second day I switched the cereal for a bowl of fresh fruit, it too was healthy but tasted somewhat nicer.
Thursday was an action packed day, starting with a 3 1/2 hour whale watching trip on a very fast zodiac boat. We got up to speeds of 92 km, that feels very fast on a little open boat. Our guide assured us that we were very lucky to see so many whales, he said there were about 60. I would have felt a lot luckier if the whales were doing a little more. They were in resting mode, where they just bob up and down for hours. Due to the tight restrictions placed on the tour operators, we were not allowed to get too close to the whales, or to get in their path. As a result even with my telephoto lens I couldn't get a good close up of the whales. We did get reasonably close to the seals though so I got a few shots of them.
After whale watching and a spot of lunch, we went to the ZipLine tour place. This involved wearing a harness and getting clipped on to a wire high up in the trees and zooming from tree to tree. I was surprised to see that Mum actually participated and didn't even look too terrified doing it. The last 2 wires that we went down were a lot faster than the other ones, and when you curl yourself up in to a ball you can get quite a bit of speed up. The poor tour guide almost wore a hole in his glove when he stopped me at the end of the wire. I think he thought I was going to bowl him over. Great fun.
On Friday we had a coffee at Dolce Vita, not too bad but nothing to write home about. Then we drove to the ferry that took us to Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island is full of very arty people, or hippies as Dad and uncle Ted called them. There are about 30 studios dotted around the island that you can drive to and check out their work. We went to a cheese shop and a bread shop. I had been looking forward to visiting the cheese shop, as I have bought some of the cheese the shop sells at Granville Island market, and it is highly recommended by John Bishop from Bishop's restaurant. There were lots of goats cheeses and a variety of olives that we sampled before buying a few tasty goats cheeses to nibble on over the next few days.
The accommodation we stayed in on Salt Spring was a lovely log cabin by a lake. It was a really nice spot. There were kayaks and canoes that were free to use so we went for a big canoe ride to the other end of the lake. The weather was really nice with barely a cloud in the sky.
Oh how quickly the weather can change, by the next morning it was raining again. Each Saturday there is a public market where most of the studios on the island come to the town of Ganges and sell there wares. There was a lot of arty stuff there. I wasn't really in the market for fancy vases or jewelery though so didn't buy anything.
There was not much else to report about that trip so I will leave it there. My plane is about to start boarding I think so I had better start packing up my computer. I will try and find time to edit so photos and add them to this post later on. We have 7 hours in San Francisco, so hopefully they have wireless internet there too.
On Sunday night Dad and Mum arrived after spending a week or so in Toronto where Zach (my nephew) was having surgery. On Monday we drove up to Whistler where we stayed at the Delta hotel. The weather on Monday was not great so we didn't really do much other than have lunch, walk around the village a bit and have dinner. Tuesday however was much nicer, so we hired some bikes and rode around the valley for a few hours, looking at a couple of lakes and various other spots where views of the mountains could be found.
Wednesday started with a rather early morning. It was a bit of a shock for me having to be up and ready to go by 7:30. Uncle Ted and aunty Alison were picking us up so that we could catch the the 9 o'clock ferry to Victoria. The weather while on the ferry was a bit overcast so photos didn't really look all that great, so sorry you will have to take the trip yourself, or maybe do a search on the interweb, someone else is sure to have taken some photos at some stage. The main activity planned for the day was a trip to the world famous Buchard gardens. As far as gardens go they were pretty good, the best I have seen, and I have seen a few in my time. I well recall the seemingly endless days of being dragged through the Hamilton botanical gardens or the botanical gardens somewhere in South Auckland. Boy did those trips drag on. But what a difference having a camera can make. I was well entertained taking photos of the flowers and trying to get a good shot of a bee on a flower. There were plenty of bees around but they just wouldn't sit still. Very frustrating.
I had been given the heavy responsibility of organising the accommodation for our trip and had booked us in to a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights in Victoria. The house was very old, and had that awful old house smell about it, especially in the foyer. The bedrooms were decorated in true B&B style, with floral wallpaper and floral bedspreads and floral artwork. Not exactly my kind of decorating style. The breakfast they provided was not bad. The first day I had their health mix cereal, it definitely tasted healthy. This was followed by bacon and eggs and 3 small mushrooms. I happened to be sitting next to uncle Ted, who doesn't eat mushrooms so I scored an extra 3. The second day I switched the cereal for a bowl of fresh fruit, it too was healthy but tasted somewhat nicer.
Thursday was an action packed day, starting with a 3 1/2 hour whale watching trip on a very fast zodiac boat. We got up to speeds of 92 km, that feels very fast on a little open boat. Our guide assured us that we were very lucky to see so many whales, he said there were about 60. I would have felt a lot luckier if the whales were doing a little more. They were in resting mode, where they just bob up and down for hours. Due to the tight restrictions placed on the tour operators, we were not allowed to get too close to the whales, or to get in their path. As a result even with my telephoto lens I couldn't get a good close up of the whales. We did get reasonably close to the seals though so I got a few shots of them.
After whale watching and a spot of lunch, we went to the ZipLine tour place. This involved wearing a harness and getting clipped on to a wire high up in the trees and zooming from tree to tree. I was surprised to see that Mum actually participated and didn't even look too terrified doing it. The last 2 wires that we went down were a lot faster than the other ones, and when you curl yourself up in to a ball you can get quite a bit of speed up. The poor tour guide almost wore a hole in his glove when he stopped me at the end of the wire. I think he thought I was going to bowl him over. Great fun.
On Friday we had a coffee at Dolce Vita, not too bad but nothing to write home about. Then we drove to the ferry that took us to Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island is full of very arty people, or hippies as Dad and uncle Ted called them. There are about 30 studios dotted around the island that you can drive to and check out their work. We went to a cheese shop and a bread shop. I had been looking forward to visiting the cheese shop, as I have bought some of the cheese the shop sells at Granville Island market, and it is highly recommended by John Bishop from Bishop's restaurant. There were lots of goats cheeses and a variety of olives that we sampled before buying a few tasty goats cheeses to nibble on over the next few days.
The accommodation we stayed in on Salt Spring was a lovely log cabin by a lake. It was a really nice spot. There were kayaks and canoes that were free to use so we went for a big canoe ride to the other end of the lake. The weather was really nice with barely a cloud in the sky.
Oh how quickly the weather can change, by the next morning it was raining again. Each Saturday there is a public market where most of the studios on the island come to the town of Ganges and sell there wares. There was a lot of arty stuff there. I wasn't really in the market for fancy vases or jewelery though so didn't buy anything.
There was not much else to report about that trip so I will leave it there. My plane is about to start boarding I think so I had better start packing up my computer. I will try and find time to edit so photos and add them to this post later on. We have 7 hours in San Francisco, so hopefully they have wireless internet there too.
Monday, June 18, 2007
As Promised...
Well I have been a little slack this week and am now way behind on my updates of my trip to Seattle, Whistler and Victoria. I kind of need to get a bit of sleep now before getting up insanely early tomorrow morning for my flight to San Francisco, so I will just post a few pictures of Seattle, and give a bit of an update on my last cafe.
Victrola cafe was very nice indeed. The location I visited was a pretty cool cafe, with great atmosphere. Very pleasant to sit in on a rainy Seattle morning. The latte was very tasty, although the milk texture was not quite as silky as the one at Vivace. The espresso was very nice though. I bought a coffee cup and saucer as a souvenir.
Here are a few quick photos I snapped during my visit. There are plenty more, but I need to spend a bit of time converting them to web friendly images, and given that I am already over a week behind that may not happen.
First up is Zoka, from across the street.
Next is Vivace, from inside.
And finally the big tower thing. Just to show that I did more in Seattle than jump from cafe to cafe.
Victrola cafe was very nice indeed. The location I visited was a pretty cool cafe, with great atmosphere. Very pleasant to sit in on a rainy Seattle morning. The latte was very tasty, although the milk texture was not quite as silky as the one at Vivace. The espresso was very nice though. I bought a coffee cup and saucer as a souvenir.
Here are a few quick photos I snapped during my visit. There are plenty more, but I need to spend a bit of time converting them to web friendly images, and given that I am already over a week behind that may not happen.
First up is Zoka, from across the street.
Next is Vivace, from inside.
And finally the big tower thing. Just to show that I did more in Seattle than jump from cafe to cafe.
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