As the crow flies

Hot Springs

2007-11-18T11:29:00.000-08:00

With nothing to do on a Friday night, Mike, Jon and I decided to go and try to find the natural hotsprings which were located near the northern end of Harrison Lake. I had done some preliminary research on the BC 4x4 forums and hotsprings websites and figured it would probably take 3 hours to get there. We threw some gear in my 4runner and left Coquitlam at 9pm.

It took a little longer to get to the 21 Mile Bay campground than I anticipated, probably due to my headlights being inadequate and the fact that every little bump or pothole is magnified at night. We ended up at the 21 Mile Bay (I camped here in the summer) turn off somewhere around 11:30, but decided to push on and try to make it to the hotsprings. I really need to get some off road driving lights, or at least focus the headlights so that they show more than 50 meters in front of me.

We got to the 4x4 part of the road which reduced the speed of our progress a lot as there were a few creeks to drive through and the road required low 4 to get through much of it. That part eventually ended and we soon came across what appeared to be the turn off for the hotsprings. The road started going up and then 100m in there was a large freshly dug cross ditch. After getting out and looking it over, it was no problem to drive through. Then 100m later, there was another cross ditch, this one worse than the first, yet still no problem to go through. Around a bend and continually climbing we encountered another cross ditch, this one worse than the last, and with a stream flowing through it. Still no problem to go through. My confidence in the 4runner is increasing with each ditch, yet my confidence in us on the right road is decreasing. The road starts to narrow and there begins to be bushes growing in the center. Guys this can't be the right road. We look at the map, and everything looks as it should be where we turn off. But the road is too rough - there is supposed to be a forestry campground at the end, and I think it should be more accessible than this. So we decide to turn around and drive to what will be an obvious point on the map (an intersection of logging roads) to determine if we are where we think we are. Turning around proves interesting, as on one side of the road the mountain goes up, and on the other side, the mountain goes down - and quite steeply at that. But no worries, with Mike and Jon outside I made a 25 or so point turn and turned around.

Back on the main road we figure the intersection should be about 10 minutes away. 45 minutes later we're still driving, contemplating on just setting up the tent somewhere on the side of the road. As we're discussing this, the road widens and we drive through a logging camp at 2:30am. Now we know where we are. We turned off way too soon. Shortly after the logging camp the road widens into a virtual highway and we're travelling at 60km/h. We make it to the intersection, realize we passed the turn off, but fortunately saw it on the way, turned around, drove back 5 minutes and then started up the road to the hotsprings. Set up camp at 3am and went for a short soak before going to sleep.

The next morning after breakfast we soaked for a few hours. Surrounded by a rocky fern covered cliff on one side, a rushing river on the other, in the middle of nowhere soaking in a hot pool of probably 35°C in the middle of rainy November, what could be more relaxing? We had the pools to ourselves, as there were only two other vehicles at the campground.

Around noon we figured we should be going so that we could make it back by 5 to Coquitlam. We decided to drive north through Pemberton and Whistler and take the Sea-to-Sky highway since the road was supposed to be better (= less concentration required which is good after a short not so great sleep) although take a half hour longer. The road was a highway compared to what we drove in on. We stopped for a short look at Skookumchuck hotsprings (St. Agnes Well), decided that where we had soaked was much better and continued on. Coming into Whistler around 4 it started to snow and we were hungry since we had no lunch so we stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory for lupper. The snow was covering the road by this time and it was dark and my headlights are horrible, so it made for slow progress out of Whistler. Eventually the snow stopped and the road was clear so we made it back to Coquitlam by 7pm. Overall an excellent trip.

Surfing in Oregon

2007-05-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

After a two year hiatus and a trip to the middle of nowhere, I went back to Oregon for the May long weekend for another surfing extravaganza. This year's trip was going to be a record breaking 7 people, but they soon dropped like flies for reasons such as opportunities to surf in Hawai'i or being too sick to keep food down. So it ended up being just four of us.

No problems and a minimal wait at the border looked like a good start as we started the sunny drive down. We left early to get to Oregon to get a campsite since they were first come first serve. I figured it should be okay since it was Friday, and it wasn't the American long weekend. A brief stop at McD's for breakfast and some frisbee in the parking lot and we continued on. Things were not looking good at Oswald West State Park as all the campsites were full already at 1:30pm. Fortunately I noticed my friend Luke who I hadn't seen in a couple years, and they had a few campsites, one of which they graciously offered us to share with two of his friends who were coming later.

Setting up camp was a little bit of a challenge as the tent we had rivalved the Unitent in size and there was not a flat spot large enough to set it up. So we eventually managed to fit the sextagonal tent on a small square tent pad. As the tent was not pulled taut on all sides, its water repellentness left something to be desired. With camp set up by 3:30, although it felt like 6 or 7, we headed into Cannon Beach and Seaside for a late lunch and to pick up groceries. Forgetting that in the states you have to specify how well you want your burger, Jordan and I enjoyed our medium cooked burgers when the ground beef is a little pink inside still - e.coli anyone?

It absolutely poured rain during the night and the sky looked like more was coming, which was disappointing, but we went out surfing anyways. The forecast said 8 foot swells increasing to 11 feet the next day, so we were pretty stoked about that - until we got to the beach. So they were storm swells. Messy, irregular, coming in from all directions, closing out - I think the only thing we were missing was onshore gusts. Not the greatest day for Steph to learn to surf, but this didn't faze her. She was out there trying to catch waves more hardcore than the rest of us. The three of us on long boards all had some good rides on the white water, despite the conditions - it is totally what you make of it, and we had fun.

After a few hours we decided to go warm up back at camp. Its interesting how its warmer without clothes on than in a wetsuit when you're out of the water. Jordan and Brett worked at getting a fire going in the rain and with wet materials, while I made grilled cheese for lunch. Brett decided to literally grill his second sandwich on the BBQ which provided some entertainment for Jordan and I, especially when the butter flared up and he had a fire grilled sandwich. The rain let up so we took a few walks on the beach - it was good times.

Evening consisted of playing games, sitting around the campfire and listening to Brett announce when he felt a couple of raindrops ("It's raining.") and make ridiculous statements. If only I could remember the top three - the best was made after several trip to the washroom, "My bladder is the size of this bottle...or my arm."

The rain came down even harder and longer the second night, which really showed that we needed another tarp over Brett's side of the tent. Morning found him with the BBQ on drying his jeans - he got a few odd looks from other campers as they walked by our site. The surf today looked the same as yesterday, and the weather even worse, so after some deliberation we decided to pack it up and head home a day early.

Photos to follow at a later date.

All For You

2007-04-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

His time with them had stopped,
It's time for Him to carry out His father's will,
Is that He drink this cup
He's told them all along that He would go,
They could not follow Him
But He'll be back for them my friend

And now He sweats these drops of blood
And He prays take this cup from me
But He knows there's no other way
His father's will is that He take your sin, your shame,
Your place upon that cross of pain and die for you

There's no way to repay
All the pain He went through for you
His reason: simply His love
It's time to see the truth
And understand there's nothing you can do
His reason was simply you

It was all for, it was all for you
He bled and He died for you

We live by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ
Who died to set us free
From chains our flesh can give
You know that even if you were the only one He died for
That means only your sins drove the nails

No time to hesitate my friend
No time to second guess His love
There's nothing else that you can do
He already gave it all for you
All for you, all for you, all for you
Simply you

All For You - Jonah33

Too many places to go

2007-03-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure out where and when to take my vacation(s) this year. The problem is that there are so many places that I want to go, yet I only get two weeks off work. Which when I think about it, really frustrates me. I value my time off so much that I always try to make the most of it, when sometimes what I really need is to just do nothing and take it easy. Not going away this Easter (first time in 5 years) is looking like a good idea and might force me to just relax. That was a tangent, now back to the original intent of this post - where should I go? Right now I'm trying to decide to take a week and go surf in Costa Rica next month, or wait until July and take a week off to drive down to California. Then there's the other option of just postponing the vacation until after August when I'll have another week to take off and combine them into two weeks, thereby allowing me to travel more, yet spend less time on the plane. To complicate matters, or maybe perhaps simplify things, I just found out I'm going to Oslo for a week in June for work. That will be kind of a vacation, getting out of the office and living in another country for a week. We'll see what I decide...

A new way to fly

2007-02-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

With flying on commercial airliners becoming somewhat mundane, I was excited to learn that there was the possibility of me flying over to Victoria on one of the Harbour Air seaplanes. The opportunity was looking kind of uncertain due to the fog each morning which was delaying and cancelling flights. On Thursday afternoon I talked with my boss, and he said to check the flights for first thing Friday and let him know if Harbour Air was likely to fly in the morning. I called Harbour Air, and their flights were all booked until 2pm, and as a result I was forced to take the other option, Heli-Jet. Now this trip seemed even more exciting since I had never been on a helicopter before. The flight took off at 7:30pm Thursday night from downtown Vancouver. The take off was definitely the best part of the trip. The pilot started the engines and the rotor began spinning, the whine steadily increased, and then we slowly lifted up off the ground. We progressed vertically for a short while as I watched the water and landing pad grow smaller below. The helicopter banked forward and we were off across the harbour, past Stanley park, over the Lion's Gate Bridge, then took a turn towards the south as we followed the coast past UBC, Richmond and Tsawassen before heading across the Georgia Strait towards Victoria. It was neat flying at such a low altitude that you could see the cars below, the dark and bright patterns on the road due to the spacing of the street lights, and the gas stations were the most interesting structures because of the red or blue square with white light spilling out around the edges. Thirty-five (35) minutes later we arrived at Victoria harbour, and the landing was not nearly as cool as the take off since we took a more gradual descent.

I took a cab from the landing pad to the Victoria inner harbour where I met my boss on the boat. After a relaxing meeting, I barbecued a couple steaks for us for second dinner before heading to my cabin to sleep. The morning brought a nice sunrise over the harbour as we ate a filling breakfast of eggs, english bangers and toast my boss had prepared. I did some pre-trip checks, namely checking the oil and coolant levels of the two diesel engines, and calculating whether we had enough fuel to make it back to Vancouver. We didn't have enough fuel so we stopped on the way out of the harbour to fill up. The cost of filling up two 1500L tanks is a large deterrent of me ever owning a yacht. The drive back to Coal harbour was uneventful as we did some tests of our camera navigation system and took some video footage through Active Pass. The entire trip, including fueling up before and after the voyage, and a reduction in speed to enjoy some lobster bisque for lunch, took approximately 5.5 hours.

The Big Island

2007-01-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

The Big Island was quite unlike anywhere that I have ever been. You could go from a barren wasteland to tropical rainforest in only a few minutes of driving. Here's a few of the many different landscapes we saw.

Contrasts of water, black lava, green grass and white palm trees.

Resting Turtles.

Cactus in the North Kohala.

An extinct cone near Waimea.

The lush Pololu Valley.

Cliffs and a black sand beach.

The Pu'u O'o lava flow as it enters the ocean.

The Pu'u O'o lava flow from 2003 where it crossed the Chain of Craters Road.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, near the Kilauea Iki Crater.

Akaka Falls.

Sunset from Kona.

The Amazing Race

2007-01-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

Dec. 23, 2006
Thanks to Air Canada changing our flight to 1h45m later, we only had 1hr to make our connecting flight in Honolulu. The fact that we left the gate late, then had to taxi to the furthest runway from the terminal, and then took off towards the east didn't help either. Add the strong turbulence that prevented the stewards from serving beverages for at least the first hour of the flight and we had a situation that was doubtful if we would make our connecting flight to Kona. Six hours and 45 minutes later we arrived at the gate in Honolulu - with under 30 minutes until our next flight departed. As soon as the plane stopped moving, Kevin and I grabbed our carryon bags and rushed as far forward in the plane as we could. We had to wait a few minutes before they opened the door and the business/first class had exited before we could exit and begin the dash to the other terminal. We had to find the way to the other terminal 1km away and were running in hiking boots, long pants and coats in the 28°C Hawai'i evening. We made it to the check in with just under 10 minutes to spare. We checked in and then had to go through security. Fortunately this terminal was small and the security line up was short. Kevin passed his bags and shoes through the X-Ray machine and walked through the metal detector. The security guy checked his boarding pass, then radioed someone stating something about a "secondary male." Kevin was then directed to go back to the other side of the metal detector and sit in the chair. I walked through for my turn and then same thing happened. We had to wait a minute or two which seemed a lot longer before Kevin was allowed through, he picked up his bags and went to the boarding gate as they were paging us for a last boarding call on the plane. Meanwhile, I was waved through the metal detector, but then had to wait while another security person swabbed my shoes and bag. Finally we were out on the tarmac running towards our plane. They had just started to put the stairs away from the plane, but they saw us coming so they put it back and we made it on the plane. We were all sweaty, but we made it. We arrived in Kona on the Big Island a half hour later at 10:15pm where our parents picked us up and took us to the condo.

Ditch work, lets ski

2006-12-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

I was watching a video on Jack Johnson the other day, and he was talking about how he was working on his latest album and his brother called him to tell him that the surf was great and that he needed to get out in the lineup. I was wishing that we had a surf beach here that I could just head to whenever the surf was good. We do have mountains to ski though... Tuesday my brother emailed me while I was at work telling me that skiing was free at Grouse on Wednesday, and if I wanted to go. So I got to work early on Wednesday and told me supervisor I was leaving at 2pm to go skiing. I realized that this was probably as close as I will get to truly ditching work to do something I much rather be doing. 2pm arrived and we were on our way to Grouse. The conditions were not the greatest as it was +5 on the mountain, but they weren't that bad either. It was a perfect day to ski grouse since the visibility was unlimited and we could see all the way to the island and up the valley. Surprisingly there were not that many people out on the mountain. The longest we had to wait in line for the lift was probably 10 minutes, and that was at the beginner chair. The other lift we only had to wait about 1 minute each time.

What a great way to start off the ski season.

Athens

2006-10-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

My ferry from Naxos to Athens was supposed to leave at 13:15, but as I got to the port, I found out it was cancelled. So I exchanged my ticket for the ferry leaving at 18:15, but this ferry left an hour late. So with a 5 hour ferry ride, plus an hour ride on the transit system to my hostel, I was looking to arrive around 1am. Unfortunately, the ferry took a little longer at one of the ports, so I ended up arriving on the Greek Mainland around 1am. By this time the metro had shut down so I had to take a taxi to the hostel. I told the taxi driver that I wanted to go to Athen's Backpackers, which was by the metro station at the foot of the Acropolis. So after picking up another passenger and dropping her off somewhere, I arrived at the metro station with the Acropolis and Parthenon nicely lit up. I paid the taxi driver and started to look for the hostel which was supposed to be within 50m from the metro. I wandered around a bit, sweating in the humid night air, while thinking that this area was pretty dodgy and it wasn't a good idea to be walking alone here with my bags. I tried asking a few people but they had no idea where Athen's Backpackers was. I called the hostel to find out where it should be, and he said that it should be right by the metro in an alley. I couldn't find it so I went back to where the taxi had dropped me off and heard some American people my age outside a cafe, so I figured that I'd ask them where the backpackers was. It turned out that it was on the other side of the Acropolis, near the "Acropolis" metro station. They said I could walk around the Acropolis and get there. So I started off and walked for about 10 minutes, and realized that it was going to take a long time to walk around the Acropolis and I really had no idea where I was going. So I walked down an alley trying to find a main road and a taxi. I found a taxi and told him the address of the backpackers (I don't know why I didn't think of this obvious solution in the first place) and I checked in shortly after 3am. Then they didn't have another key for my room, so I was told to go up and knock on the door to have someone let me in. Fortunately, some of the other people had just got in from out at the bar so I didn't have to wake anyone up.

After sleeping for 5 hours I got up and went to explore the Acropolis. It was quite impressive to see the ruins, and imagine what it must have been like thousands years ago. I spent the whole day exploring the different sites and taking photos.

Hellas

2006-10-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

Since this trip to Greece was kind of last minute, my travel plans didn't exactly work out as smoothly as I desired, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. My flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt was first thing in the morning, but from Frankfurt to Athens was at 7:50pm, so I had a day in Frankfurt to waste. Once in Athens I slept in the airport before catching the 7:15am ferry to Santorini.

Arriving in Santorini was quite interesting because the port is in the center of the caldera of a volcano which erupted in 1630BC and was one of the most violent eruptions ever recorded. The cliffs were red with a brilliant blue sea and blindingly white buildings perched on the cliff edge.

The place I stayed was a 10 minute walk from the beach, but more importantly, only a 5 minute walk from the bakery. Every morning I walked to the bakery to get some freshly baked bread to enjoy with my nutella for breakfast, and some spanakopita or other Greek pastries for lunch. Eating was definitely one of the highlights for me in Greece. I enjoyed trying many different greek foods, some of my favourites being stuffed calamari, moussaka, greek salad and ouzo. Besides eating, I rented an ATV to explore the island with two Danish guys I met, climbed to the highest point on the island, and went swimming in the Aegean Sea.

After Santorini I headed to the nearby island of Naxos, where I spent one day relaxing at the beach, before taking another long ferry ride back to Athens.

Ich bin in Hamburg

2006-10-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

I had good intentions of writing this in Hamburg, but there were some problems back at the office that I had to deal with, plus I had to go out and enjoy the German food, so instead it gets written now.

I quite enjoyed my week in Hamburg. It was nice to have a change and be out of the office and live in a different city for a week. Standing around all day at the tradeshow talking to people about our products was kind of fun. Here's a photo of the booth.

The tradeshow was one of the largest in the world for shipbuilding and the marine industry. I think there were around 1500 exhibitors and an estimated 40,000 visitors. I took an hour to do a quick walk around the various halls and look at some of the booths. Most of the stuff I didn't really know anything about, but I took photos of pistons the size of my car engine and horns that were as big as a dining room table.

The evenings after the show I usually had free time, so I explored the city - Hamburg was nice with its canals, cafes and cobblestones. I noticed that there were very few people I would consider overweight here - a lot different than in Canada. I got used to eating dinner at 8pm, and enjoyed schnitzels, bratwursts, beer, some pheasant and of course desserts. Someone once told me that Germany is the land of desserts, and each one that I had certainly was good.

That's it from Hamburg. My next post should be from Greece.

2 years since last departure

2006-09-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

It will be 1 year and eleven months - almost to the day - that I left for a trip to the South Pacific. In under a week I will be travelling to Hamburg for a week and then to Greece for a week. I'm going to Hamburg for a tradeshow with work, and then I am taking advantage of already being overseas and taking a week of holidays in Greece. I'm finally getting excited about my holiday, which I think is because I sort of have an idea of what I'm going to be doing. No solid plans yet, but I know for sure I will be going to the Greek Islands, specifically Santorini, and maybe another one.

The Second September Surfing Safari - September 2 to 4

2006-09-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Another Unitent Adventure

Prologue:
After the incredible success of last year's September Surfing Safari, plans for this year's trip commenced a whole week ahead of the departure date. Only two of the original members returned for this version, but were joined by a crew of 5 others.

Chapter 1: Borders and Berries
We reached the border lineup around 9am, only to discover that the predicted report of 30-45minutes was completely incorrect. The wait ended up lasting over two hours, but we managed to pass the time. Some of us gorged on blackberries, while the other more considerate participants picked black berries and offered them to the general public waiting in line to enter the United States of America. We amused ourselves by pushing the cars instead of driving, since the intervals between line movement were at least 15 minutes. Alberto had his last Bovine Growth Hormone Free dairy product before crossing the border too.

Chapter 2: The Uneventful Drive
Mt. Vernon was the lunch spot, but there was lack of lunch options. Next stop REI in Seattle which proved to be a valuable stop since Jon picked up some roof racks on sale. Without them it would be an interesting situation transporting surfboards to the beach. We stopped in Aberdeen to shop for groceries, which included purchasing 14 Tillamook yogurts with such delicious flavours as Mountain Huckleberry, Marionberry, and Key Lime.

Chapter 3: Accomodation
Alberto had booked us a campsite at the American Sunset RV Resort for the low price of $38 for two nights. Upon arrival the manager informed us that the site would only hold 2 people and the price per person would be just under $10 a night, contrary to what the BCAA campbook said. Everywhere else in Westport was full so the manager put us on half of a group site which actually turned out to be decent. Much better than camping on an RV site. The Unitent was re-erected in the headlights of the car, along with its smaller sibling.

Chapter 4: Where's the Waves?
The next morning brought a heavy fog and moisture laden air, with no trace of the hot sun we had yesterday. Nevertheless, we packed up the surfboards and hit the beach. From the dunes, the swell was not visible due to the fog. This could prove interesting to surf in... Once we got out into the water and could actually see the waves, we found that they were breaking quite nicely and we all got some good rides in. There was a slight hint that the fog might burn off and reveal a perfectly sunny day, but, alas it did not. We were also intrigued by this large group of people with shovels that were creating these giant piles of dirt with driftwood in them.

Chapter 5: 100+ Things to do in Westport
After a full day of surfing we made a huge dinner which we cooked in the fire. The after dinner entertainment consisted of reading the "100+ Things You Can Do Right Now in Westport" supplied in the brochure from the Resort. Some of the tasks we completed:
#1) Go to the Visitors' Information Center (it was closed)
#8) Squish Sand Between Your Toes (it sort of happens when you walk in the sand)
#18) Get a Sun Tan (even when its so foggy you can barely see the beach from the surf, you can still get burned)
#46) Stop for Lunch Anywhere (how about on the beach?)
#83) Breathe the Clean Pacific Aire in Deeeeply

Some of our favourites which we didn't manage to complete:
#24) Feed a Seagull or Crow anywhere
#41) Buy Some Bait
#60) Wave "Hi!" to Our Friendly Police Persons
#70) Bicycle Everywhere!
#87) Rent a movie
#98) Be Brunswicked...Go Bowling
#99) Sit on a Great Lawn at the High School

Chapter 6: Bob the Surfer Dude
We checked out the surf on the second morning - the fog was gone but it was overcast - and the surf wasn't great. So instead we had Jon drive his car up the dunes and took pictures of it. Then we headed to the surf shops to check out their boards. We entered "The Surf Shop" and Bob was there, who Jon described as looking like a furniture salesman and nothing like your typical surfer, but when he talked, he took the surfer stereotype to the extreme. He didn't have any boards in either the size or price range we were looking for, but did provide us some entertainment. Alberto had a banana peel that he wanted to throw out and Bob replied with a monologue something like this "Hey man, I usually don't take garbage, dude I only have so much space. There's garbage cans all over the place...they have them in the park...they're at the gas station, man they're everywhere." He then took Alberto's bananapeel anyways, and as we were leaving said, "Hey Bananaman, be careful who you hang out with." Good times, I think we'll have to stop in to talk to Bob every visit to Westport.

Chapter 7: Nothing too Interesting
Driving back to Canada wasn't too eventful. After leaving Westport we stopped briefly in Seattle, ingested 120g of sugar each in the form of a fizzy drink and chocolate bar, and checked out the outlet mall in Tulalip. We got an excellent deal at the quiksilver outlet before finishing the drive home.

Long Weekends

2006-07-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

Don't leave watermelon in the fridge at work in a tupperware over the long weekend. And don't try to eat it on Tuesday...it smells quite bad, and it does not taste good either.

I started this post over a month ago so I figured its about time I finished it. I think I might have been going to write about long weekends, since they are so much more significant now that I am working full time. From July to January there is a long weekend every month. This past August long weekend I took full advantage of it and left work on Friday at noon to head up to Wells Gray Park with my Dad and brother for a weekend of canoeing. We had a great time, and camped at the best campsite I have ever camped at. We had to canoe 20km up the lake to get to it, so there was no one else around, there was a sandy beach, great view of the mountains, and even our own personal toilet as an added bonus. The weekend was filled with experiences - realizing how much a head wind will slow down your canoeing rate, canoeing up a river, trying to not have the canoe tip as inconsiderate boaters roar by smiling and waving as their wake attempts to swamp the canoe, madly paddling in a zig zag formation at the end of the lake to avoid having the 8in wind waves swamp the canoe with no shores suitable for beaching and waiting out the wind, then suffering from dehydration or heat exhaustion, swimming in the cool, clear waters of Clearwater Lake, eating food that would normally taste quite poor, but was delicious due to our expended energy and hunger, all three of us being awoken in the middle of the night by an owl hooting loudly right above the tent, watching a herd of baby loons diving and swimming in the lake, hearing squirrels jump onto the tent, then slide down off of it, seeing some brown furry thing swimming across a creek, then realizing that it was a squirrel, and overall just spending some good time with my dad and brother.

There were these butterflies all over the place and would land on us and just sit there.

Looking through the campground to the east beach, the north beach is to the left of the photo.

The beach by our campsite.

Canyon Camping - May 20 to 21

2006-05-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Another Unitent Adventure

Chapter 1: Decisions
The May long weekend loomed eerily close and we still had no definite plans. Alberto and I were going to revisit Westport* but the surf forecast was dismal with onshore winds, rain and 0.8m waves. The decision was made to drive 100km northwest of Squamish to the Elaho Canyon, what awaited us there we did not know.

*see Sunday, September 11, 2005 blog - "September Surfing Safari – September 3 to 5"

Chapter 2: A Bumpy Start
We pulled out of Subway in Squamish only to hear a huge bang and the vehicle jerk forward. "What was that?" "That guy just ran into you!" We pulled over and inspected the vehicles, but fortunately a Plymouth Voyager doesn't do any damage when it hits you at about 5km/h. After 70km of logging roads we arrived at the trailhead/campground without any further incidents - except the concern that we wouldn't be able to get back to Squamish if the river level rose.

Chapter 3: Get Lost
The trailhead was on the edge of a clearcut which was kind of an average situation since a clearcut doesn't make the most picturesque surroundings for camping. Nevertheless we erected the unitent and set off to explore the "Douglas Fir Loop." Fortunately the logging company hasn't decided to log this area yet as we still got to view some impressive sized trees. Unfortunately, due to reasons I suspect can be attributed to logging, the trail no longer resembled the map we had looked at, and we ended up somewhere other than planned. Fortunately, the GPS was somewhat helpful for finding our way back without having to backtrack the entire way.

Chapter 4: Into the Fire
For dinner Alberto and Luke prepared a delicious meal of sausage, vegetables and potatoes all cooked in the fire. Before we had left home, Kevin's and my neighbour had seen me loading scrap two-by-fours to burn in the fire, and offered us some real firewood. We thanked him and loaded up a couple bundles. We didn't notice until dinner time that the firewood was called "Stuart's Romantic Wood" - exactly what we need with four guys camping out in the middle of nowhere. I'm blaming this on a poor Chinese translation.

Chapter 5: Bacon and Mini Spatulas
Breakfast the next morning consisted of a few pounds of bacon, toast and scrambled eggs. Luke constructed this toaster out of sticks, and Alberto tried to cook the bacon using his mini spatula that he brought.

Chapter 6: Up and Down
After breakfast we took down camp before embarking on the hike to Blueberry Falls. Now the hiking book claimed that there was 90m elevation gain for this hike. That is close to the elevation difference from the trailhead to the falls viewpoint, but inbetween the trail went up and down quite a few gullys and canyons, making the cumulative elevation gain close to 850m. The bad part was that the hike wasn't even all that interesting - the best part we did the day before. The book did describe a "splendid bridge" that we would cross. By "splendid" I assume he meant "better than a log across the river."

Chapter 7: MREs
The highlight of the hike was probably eating lunch (with a waterfall roaring in the background). Luke had procured some US Military Field Rations for us which were quite entertaining - it was like Christmas when we opened our packages. Everyone had something different ranging from Thai Chicken with Yellow and Wild Rice Pilaf to Beef Stew, and besides the entree there were things like crackers and peanut butter or M&Ms, french vanilla cappucinos, chocolate shakes and elvish whey bread. Warming up the entrees was interesting as you add a tiny bit of water to the ration heater and within a minute the heater is extremely hot - just put your entree against the heater and let it sit for 15minutes. The taste of the food was actually quite good.

Chapter 8: The Cedar Woman
On the way back to camp, somehow we took a wrong turn (apparently there are forks on this trail that we did not see on the way out) and ended up on top of some bluffs where a cedar woman carving had been erected. This was clearly not right, but at least we had a good view, and it ended up being a short cut back to camp.

Chapter 9: Chillin' at Burger King
After completing the hike we started the drive back home and stopped into Squamish for dinner. Burger King was the popular choice until we went in and realized how cold it was with the AC on in there. Comments such as "I've been camping all weekend and this is the coldest I've been," and the instant classic by Alberto, "This burger would taste much better if I had my pants on."

Chapter 10: In the End
Arrived Safe.

New meaning to the term "Public Toilet"

2006-05-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Justin and I went camping this past weekend up to Manning Park. We went at the same time last year and had a great time, especially since at this time of year Manning is absolutely devoid of people (other than the park rangers/operators). This year was a little different since where we camped last year was under a couple feet of snow and the area was "closed" due to logging. So we tried somewhere else, at a little lower elevation - Mule Deer Campground - which happened to be closed as well, but we walked in anyways and set up camp. Since it was closed there all the toilets were boarded up, except one...

This raven quite enjoyed the waxy wrapper of our fatty 440 calorie muffins:

Trying out my new camera on a creek on the way home:

Choice places to Eat

2006-04-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I discovered a new place to eat the other day so I thought I'd write down a list of my favourite spots to eat in Vancouver. Here are my top five, starting with the most recently discovered:

Slim'z - in Kits on West Broadway, I'm not sure the exact address - I've only been here once and I would like to go again. The pulled pork sandwich was great, so were the fries and the coleslaw. I want to go back and tried the smoked beef brisket.

Jameson's - Newport Village, Port Moody

The Stone Grill - Under the Granville Street bridge, Vancouver - You get to cook all your food on this blazing hot stone in front of you.

Sophie's Cosmic Cafe - West 4th, Kitsilano - the best burgers I've ever had in a restaurant.

Hazelmere Country Club - Hazelmere Golf Course, Surrey

Some out of town favourites:
Johnny Rocket's - Seattle, Washington - good burgers, almost as good as Sophie's.
Norma's - Seaside, Oregon - excellent clam chowder, and the breaded (or battered) halibut is great.

If only they fit

2006-04-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

I am always so disappointed when I find a pair of shoes I like and they don't fit right, thus preventing me from buying and wearing them. The latest instance was with the shoes below. They are quite unique so of course I wanted them, and they were the right price. But the arch was misplaced and hit me right infront of the heel instead of where they were supposed in the arch of my foot.

I expressed my disappointment to the sales guy, and he told me how "sick" the shoes were and how all the sales people in the store got a pair as soon as they came in. I guess I'll just have to keep looking.

The Backwoods Revisited

2006-04-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Four days after Chris and I went up to Stave Lake in his Escort, he went out and bought a 1990 Pathgrinder. So after a quick stop in Abbotsford this past weekend, we went back out to Stave to try them out. Stave looked a little different this time, more like a flat with a bunch of tree stumps.

We drove around a bit and then decided to head back home when we encountered a little bit of mud...

Despite our best efforts of trying to bounce the vehicle out of the hole, we were stuck. We wandered over to where a couple other trucks were, and found a Bronco mired up to its exhaust in a giant mud puddle. We were hoping that after he was pulled out, the guy who pulled him out could pull us out. But that Bronco was stuck and wouldn't come out. The guy trying to pull him out didn't really want to come pull us out since his clutch was smoking a bit, so we thought we'd go find some one else. As we were walking back, the guy changed his mind and came to help, the guy in the Bronco came too - without his truck. Fortunately Chris had brought a chain, so they hooked that up while I was taking photos, but the ground was too muddy and the pulling truck just spun its wheels and the pathfinder didn't budge.

The guy in the truck decided that there was no way he could pull out Chris' truck so he went to drive away - with a lot of difficulty. He walked back to help and we came up with a plan to put a log under the front tire and then three of us lift up the front of Chris' truck and push it backwards while Chris tried backing up. After a little bit we could feel the truck start to move very slightly so we lifted and pushed harder and Chris was free. Then he just gunned it to get back to solid ground. Unfortunately you can't photograph things and move a truck at the same time because I would love to have some pictures of us moving the truck out of the mud.

After that little incident with the mud, Chris has decided to stick with trail driving and leave the mud flats to the big boys.

Into the Backwoods

2006-02-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday my friend Chris and I decided to head out to Stave Lake and do some exploring. I had heard things about Stave Lake but had never really been out in the area to see for myself. We started off on a nice hike with a few waterfalls.

As we progressed further along Stave Lake road we came across a few burned out vehicles. Some were obviously set on fire and then pushed over a cliff.

Next came the mud flats which was the destination of all the dirt bikes and ATVs we had heard while hiking.

We decided to take the Escort out onto a spit for fun, but decided against testing out the Escort's mud bogging ability.

A few kms past the mud flats we discovered where someone or someones were enjoying themselves shooting off a shotgun. The ground was littered with hundreds of empty shotgun cartridges.

We finally reached the limit of the Escort's abilities when the road got too steep and had too many large rocks. It took a couple runs to get up this hill.

The West side of Stave Lake is definitely an interesting area, I'm not sure I'll be heading back there anytime soon, unless I have a firearm to discharge or a car to burn. But it was a fun time, and there was a good view of Mt. Robie Reid.

Another Skiing Story

2006-01-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

It seems that whenever I go skiing someone has a story to tell about me. This one dates back two weeks ago in Whistler.

Usually when you get on the chairlift you hold both ski poles in one hand on one side of you. But for some reason this time I had them pointed out in front of me. As we sat down on the chair one pole stuck into the snow and as we moved forward the other end started pushing into my chest. This was not a good situation, but fortunately we were still going slow. By this time the pole was starting to flex and somehow I managed to get the snow end unstuck - which then flew up and smacked against the metal panel roof of the chairlift station. There was a large noise which I found out later quite disturbed the woman on the far side of the quad chair. My brother told me that when the end of my pole hit the roof, the woman was startled and was looking around saying, "What was that? What was that?"

Warren Miller

2005-12-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

I was always amazed at how many flips and rolls a skier would do when they bailed down a slope in the Warren Miller videos. It just seemed like they would keep going and never stop. I now understand how exactly it all works from personal experience. My hill wasn't close to as steep as the ones they ski on TV, but I still had a couple good rolls or cartwheels and some clapping and cheering when I was done. All it takes is some speed and a mistake and you can flip down the hill as well. My brother said it was a very impressive bail.

Welding and Duct Tape

2005-09-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

My supervisor at work has a welder so I asked if I could borrow it since I needed some welding done on my Beetle. The biggest problem was that I have never welded before - well my Grandpa helped me weld when I was 12, but all I remember is not being able to see anything through the mask. Fortunately my supervisor's welder was a MIG welder which is apparently the easiest type of welding to do. I practiced welding washers onto one of my old fenders until I could consistently get them to stick. Then came the welding of the fender nuts to the beetle body. First I had to figure out how to get them to stick in place while I welded them on. You can't easily hold them there while you weld, so I thought, hey duct tape is sticky, let's try if that works. And it did, it melted a little, but that's no big deal. So I got all the nuts welded on, but the welds don't look very nice at all - its a good thing that when I put the fenders back on you can't see the welds.

September Surfing Safari – September 3 to 5

2005-09-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

A tale of two skinny white guys, a homeless Colombian dude, and Mr. “The water’s not cold I’ll wear my shorty.”

Chapter 1: Decisions
There were a few decisions that needed to be made this morning, some more critical than others. Take for instance the question “Where are we going?” compared with “The Unitent or not the Unitent?” At first some seemed skeptical of the Unitent, or perhaps it was because they were just not too enthused with the name. In the end, after some brief deliberation, the answers to the questions resolved themselves as “Westport” and “The Unitent.”

Chapter 2: Free Milk
Arriving in Aberdeen we stopped to buy some vegetables and fruit to supplement our meals for the weekend. As tempting as it was to buy 5 gallons of milk and get one free gallon, we decided against it.

Chapter 3: Lost wallets, lost Frisbees
The first thing to do in Westport was to check out the surf at Westhaven State Park. We were all quite impressed with it, as it was much better than we expected. The waves came in along the jetty in nice sets and broke fairly consistently. The Colombian dude tried to wrangle a deal at the surf shop for a board and wetsuit rental, but with no luck. Camp was established at Kila Hana after an escapade with a lost wallet and a lost Frisbee. Both the Frisbee and the wallet were difficult to get back as the swamp grass devoured the Frisbee, and the guy who found the wallet didn’t want to give it back, until the Park Rangers told him he didn’t have a choice.

Chapter 4: What time is it?
The Unitent was even bigger than I imagined – we could have comfortably moved the picnic table inside of it. After dinner we hit the town of Westport, only to discover we had missed the seafood festival. To think we could have been enjoying fresh seafood instead of our posh sidekicks. The aroma of fresh waffle cones wafted amongst the smell of fish, finally leading us to an ice cream shop, which by the time we arrived we no longer felt like ice cream. Returning to Kila Hana and the Unitent we played scum while eating cookies in the candlelight as the minutes crawled by. Sleep finally was allowed shortly after 10.

Chapter 5: The South Jetty
Morning brought a brief downpour, and patches of blue sky promised sunny weather to come. The surf was just as good as when we scouted it yesterday so we all got in some good rides. A downfall of being skinny white guys was rediscovered while sitting on the beach shivering despite the sun.

Chapter 6: Grilled Bananas
The next destination was Ocean Shores on the other side of the bay, a couple kms across the water, but about 70km by car. We set up camp, ate dinner, took it easy and had some hot showers. The Quinalt Casino promised surf, sand and slots, but we were more concerned with finding cheap food at 10pm. Instead we ended up grilling bananas, bagels and cheese smokies on the grill over the fire.

Chapter 7: The North Jetty
Morning #2 brought the discovery of the lack of breakfast food, so we drove into Ocean Shores to attempt to find breakfast at a diner or something. Again no luck with the food, so we picked up some oatmeal and went to check the surf. Why is everyone going so slow on this road? Skinny white guy #1 “I’m going 15mph over the 35mph speed limit.”
The surf report: perfect off shore wind, the waves break a little close to shore, and there’s a walrus sized dead seal on the beach (later determined to be a sea lion).

Chapter 8: Seals
By the time we had cleaned camp and got back to the North Jetty, the wind was in the process of changing from off-shore to on-shore. The waves were definitely not worth comparing to the South Jetty, but with the pummeling and trying to surf the shore break, it was a great time. There was even a seal or two in the water investigating us – the only ones surfing.

Chapter 9: Free Showers and Not Free Air
After surfing we enjoyed some free showers, compliments of the campers across from us who had left us 18 shower tokens. Unfortunately air was more expensive than showers everywhere in Aberdeen, so we drove until Seattle where we found some air that was free with fuel purchase.

Chapter 10: In the End
Arrived safe.

ClubTread

2005-07-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

I joined a hiking club here in SouthWest BC, and now there should be no shortage of people to go hiking with. I've gone on two hikes with people from there so far. The first time it was rainy and cloudy and there were 13 of us. Unfortunately we were socked in by the clouds so we decided against going to the summit, and since the trail was overgrown. The second hike there were only four of us, which is a better number, and we hiked up Mt. Rexford in Chilliwack. The weather was ok, but it would have been nice to have clear weather to see the views. We were teased all day by the clouds moving in and out, and we never did see the summit of Mt. Slesse across the valley.

To get to a lot of these hikes out in Chilliwack you need a vehicle with a fair amount of clearance and also 4WD. It makes me want to get a Landcruiser or Land Rover even more.

Science

2005-07-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

"When we see a new phenomenon we try to fit it into the framework we already have...It's not because Nature is really similar; it's because the physicists have only been able to think of the same damn thing over and over again." - Richard Feynman (For those of you who don't know, Richard Feynman was one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century).

I really like this quote because it puts into perspective how dull we are compared to God. Some of the most brilliant minds have and are theorizing, trying to classify and understand this incredibly complex universe that has been created. One of the best examples is the human body itself. I was talking to my friend Dave who is going to med school, and as he learns more about how the body functions it continues to amaze him more. Something that sticks out to me is the complexity of the earth itself. The interdependencies of different things, and the balance that exists is one example. Also the fact that God knows what is happening to that tiny flower that was crushed under that rock that just rolled off the cliff in the forest. And if he knows that, he knows every detail, much more than knows - cares about, of our lives. Since he created this complex universe, as well as us complex beings in it, think of what he can do in your life.

It seems that during my time in university I developed a cynical attitude towards scientific study. I developed the view that I don't think science ever really proves anything, the results are just theories of how things work. Just because we understand something to work the way it does, doesn't mean that's really what is occuring. We are attempting to explain something in words and symbols that we can understand. In all reality, the way it works could be concept that is entirely impossible for us to understand. I think it would be really interesting if a new phenomenon was discovered that completely shot to pieces the fundamental principles of physics (or one of the other major fields of scientific study - I chose physics since I have studied it the most).

Don't get me wrong, I don't think research and trying to understand the world around us is useless. I'm just stating that all the theories and understanding could be completely wrong. That doesn't make the study of science itself wrong. Our desire to explain how things work has led to many beneficial results, some of those being vaccines, cures for diseases, medical treatment, and overyday things we take for granted.

Bumper Cars

2005-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

My brother's car stopped working last night and he was talking about pushing it home from where it stopped. It reminded me of when I used to have a car, and one situation in particular.

I was driving home with Jon from SFU on one hot, sunny afternoon. My car's fuel pump had been making loud buzzing noises, so I knew that something was wrong, but I hadn't got around to fixing it yet. So we were driving along 96th ave and the engine dies as if it ran out of gas. So we coast along for a few seconds, and I start the car up again. We drive for a little further, and the same thing happens. I repeat this a few times wondering how long it will last, and thinking how bad this is for the starter. Then (if I remember correctly) it wouldn't start anymore. I know a downhill section is coming up so hopefully we can coast to there. We do and end up going for quite a ways after the hill. Since the car isn't working and we're only a 5 min drive from home I turn off so we can push it home on the side roads. So Jon and I are pushing and this pickup pulls up beside us and asks where we're going and offers to push the car in his truck. So I figure why not? Fortunately his bumper was just about at the same level as mine so it worked out decently. It's an interesting feeling when you're sitting in a car and a truck bumps into from behind and starts pushing. It was only rough getting started, once we were moving it was quite smooth. We had to go through stop lights and turn a few corners as well, but the the guy in the truck was pretty good at just nudging my car along. We got to my street where I told the guy in the truck we could just push it the rest of the way and thanked him for his help.

Cars are a source of adventure, but it usually comes at the cost of a lot of time trying to fix it yourself, or a lot of money to have someone else fix it.

Adventures with Asphalt

2005-05-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Jon had a day off in the middle of the week and I was unemployed so we took advantage of the situation and headed east to hike Vedder Mountain. The weather was cloudy with sunny periods, yet all the peaks on either side of the Fraser Valley were masked in clouds. That made it a perfect day to do a lesser mountain such as Vedder. We followed the directions in the guidebook, and everything was going smoothly until we arrived at approximately where the trailhead sign and parking pull out should be. Instead we came across an asphalt processing plant. This clearly wasn’t right, and for something this big the book should mention it in the directions. So we went back down the road a bit to a fork. This side of the fork was definitely not for cars, even with Jon’s GTi’s “4x4” suspension. But we tried it out anyways, but after a few hundred meters and having a fender flare come unattached, we decided against proceeding any further. We headed back up to the asphalt plant to see if we missed anything. There did seem to be a small road leading away into the bush, but it was on the wrong side of the road to be the trail and we didn’t feel like wandering around somewhere we didn’t know where were going when there was heavy machinery operating. So we headed back down to Cultus Lake Rd, and discovered the Park Office. We found out that the trailhead is somewhere up where we were looking, but they weren’t sure exactly where. We also found out that the asphalt plant was only a year old, thus it wasn’t included in my book. With this new information and armed with a useless Chilliwack Forest District Map (useless for navigation due to lack of labels and missing roads), we decided on a new destination – Sumas Mountain. The only problem was that we had no idea how to get there. I had a general idea of where it was, which proved right, but then came the problem of finding where on the mountain the trailhead started. We stumbled upon Sumas Mountain Regional Park and parked at the very large yellow gate. At this point we just wanted to get out and hike so we started up the logging road on the other side of the gate hoping it would lead us to a trail. Well, it did, after 2 hours. The trail was 1.5km long and led to a decent view looking east over the Fraser Valley. With a decent view and some rocks in the sun, we ate lunch before descending back to the yellow gate. We figure that based on our hiking speed on that 1.5km of trail (17min), and the time it took to hike up the hiking distance should be somewhere between 20 and 24km. Despite a boring logging road, we still had a good day with some nice exercise.

When I got home I searched the internet for a Sumas Mountain Trail. I found a nice description of it, which makes me wish we would have actually found it, but nowhere could I find any info on where the trail actually starts.

Beats a poke in the eye

2005-04-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

What's new? Let's see. I was playing basketball like usual on Thursday night when as I was driving into the key some guy jabbed his finger into my eye. That did not feel good. The only way I can explain how it felt was - it felt like I got poked in the eye. Fortunately the finger only hit the sclera, not the iris or the cornea, but it still didn't feel good. That night I had a big pink spot on my eye and then when I got up the next day it was bright red, looking kind of like a flame coming from my eye. I might put some pictures up later. Anyways the doctor said it was fine and that it would take two weeks to get back to normal, and the red would slowly go away and it would turn yellow than brown. Did you know that in the U.S. basketball players sustain the most eye injuries in sports?

What else is new? I went camping to Manning park this week which was great. The weather was perfectly sunny - although a little cold in the evenings and mornings, this would be expected since there was still snow on the ground in some places. The best part was that the park was virtually empty the entire time we were there. There were only two other people camping and they were far enough away we couldn't hear or see them. It was so quite at times you could hear the snow melting.

The Beach

2005-03-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

There's just something about being at the beach that I enjoy so much. I've thought about what it is, but I just can't define or describe it. Even when its rainy and windy, its still the beach. But it has to be an ocean beach, on the open ocean - Vancouver beaches are decent, but they don't have the constant dull roar of the changing, crashing surf.

The cottage we stayed at this weekend on the Oregon Coast was great - huge windows looking out at the beach, a minute walk down to the water, and a nice wood paneled interior. It was so nice to just sit and look out the window at the ocean, the wind blowing the dune grass. But we didn't spend all the time indoors looking at the ocean. I went on a hike out to Cape Falcon in the pouring rain and whipping wind. Most of the hike was in the forest so we were somewhat sheltered from the rain and wind, but out at the viewpoints on the cape the rain hurt as it hit you in the face as it was blown sideways by the wind. Back down at the beach the sand was being whisked north by the wind and you could lean into it and have some of your weight supported by the force of the wind. The next day was not windy but had showers in the morning and early afternoon. I built a castle in the sand with my dad and brother, only to have the preliminary construction washed over by a rogue wave. But we started over again and eventually finished in time to be able to watch the tide come and wash it away. Something I had never seen at the beach before was all this foam getting washed onto shore and getting stuck on our castle. It was quite intriguing to look down the beach and see all these fluffy cream coloured foam piles sitting in a haphazard arrangement.

I think I have decided that the Oregon coast is one of my favourite places to be. You have the ocean, long perfectly sandy beaches, steep cliffs and rock formations in the water, surf beaches, hiking trails in the lush forest with gigantic trees, and small hills to walk up.

Here's some pictures of Oregon.

This picture I took last year when I was there in April. If you know where to look you can see the cottage we stayed in.

The view from our deck - the first day we were there when it wasn't raining.

Some of the dune grass.

Here's that foam I was talking about.

Ecola State Park - you can see Cannon Beach's famous Haystack Rock in the background.

Police Chases

2005-03-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

I was coming home from Langley city yesterday along Glover Rd between Fraser Hwy and the Bypass and I see some police lights in the distance coming towards me. As we got closer I could see there were two police cars driving slowly blocking the two lanes of oncoming traffic. Then I saw the reason, there was a cow running down the road into the city. If only I had my camera that would have been a great picture - I thought it was hilarious. Hopefully the chase ended safely with no one being hurt. I should find out in the next issue of the local paper, it will probably make the front page.

Chinchillas and Balustrades

2005-03-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Just in case you didn't know, smoking is perilous to your health. In my brother's opinion, that is the main point of the movie Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves and that actress from the Mummy. The film had good potential in terms of plot, but just failed to deliver at the conclusion. To briefly describe the premise I would say - Keanu is an exorcist sort of guy who deals with demons on earth. So you see a portrayal of demons and the conflaguration of hell, but of course there were some theological issues. Overall it was interesting but I wouldn't recommend it. The main thing that I got out of it (indirectly) was how much more powerful God is than any demon or Satan himself. Amen to that.

The music industry heard my buddy Jack Johnson release his third album, "In Between Dreams." This album is a lot more mellower than previous Jack albums, but is good nonetheless. If you are new to Jack, I would recommend either "On and On" or "Brushfire Fairytales" before buying "In Between Dreams." Just listening to Jack Johnson makes me feel cool. If you're not into that mellow, surf music, try listening to The Killers. I just can't get enough of that song "Mr. Brightside." I don't know what it is, but I like it. I can't say I always liked it since the first few times I heard it I thought the music was too foggy. The rest of the album "Hot Fuss" is pretty decent as well.

In other news, Audi recently released their new version of my favourite car, the RS4 (for a shorter article see here). At first glance I'm not sure I like the exterior styling of it. I think its that big shield grill that Audi is trying to make their symbol on their new cars. At the moment I prefer the previous RS4 produced only in 1999, of which only about 6000 were made. But the new one stays true to the Audi RS line tradition, with a V8 producing 420 hp with a 100km/h acceleration time of 4.8s. And this is a family sedan/wagon.

Onaar.com

2005-02-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

I figure its time to update this bad boy again, even though I don't have anything profound, humourous or interesting to say, nonetheless I am writing. This past week has been quite difficult to look for jobs. I have a couple contacts that could possibly get me work quickly. But the problem is I don't want to get a job quickly in case I can get a job with Stryker. See, the interview last week I think went really well, although it was short, but I think that I made a good impression. Now right now Stryker is a place I would like to work, so I don't want to use my contacts here in BC and possibly get a job when there is still the chance that I could work for Stryker. So that leaves me with feeling like I should be looking for work, yet not wanting to incase Stryker is interested. Because of that it is difficult to look for jobs, but I am beginning to realize that I don't have to always be looking for jobs, I can enjoy my time off, especially since it is sunny. Does that communicate what I was thinking? I think so.

Since I didn't feel like looking for a job sometime earlier this week I decided it might finally be time to get my website up. So I did. If you feel like it you can view it at onaar.com. The purpose of my website? To provide a place to put my resume and show some of my past work, even if it is not related to engineering.

I think we're being followed...

2005-02-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

With the lack of snow on the North Shore Mountains I decided to take advantage of it and go for a hike this weekend. It turned out to be an amazing day with the sun shining and fresh snow on the mountains above an elevation of about 900m. My friend Kristin joined me and we went up Lynn Peak. It was a good hike for the beginning of the year, 700m elevation gain in 3.5 km, a nice confirmation that I am still in decent shape. The hike itself is rather unimpressive, but the 2-3cm of fresh snow near the top made it nice. An amusing part of the hike was the group of 40 or so Korean hikers at the top. After Kristin and I checked out the view we decided to go find somewhere less busy for lunch, but as we left the whole group of Koreans started following us. I noticed that we were going on a different path than the one that we came up and that the Koreans were following us so we went off the trail into this little clearing area to let the Koreans go by us, but they followed us off the trail too. Kristin was wondering if all of them were going to come of the trail into the same place we were. But, once we stopped, I think they realized that we weren't going down the mountain and stopped following us. So we ate lunch while the 40 tried to find the correct path down the hill. I was quite impressed with them, they had walkie talkies to keep track of everyone, and they all had good equipment. Anyways they found the way down the mountain after about ten minutes. So now that I wrote that it doesn't actually seem as funny as it was at the time.

The Job Search

2005-02-02T13:39:00.001-08:00

I decided that I might as well continue to post things up here, although they may not be that interesting. It could be fun to look back on what I was thinking at the time. So here I go.

The Job Search

Yes, the job search, a project that I've been working on for the past month. Somedays it is going pretty well, and other days I feel like quitting. But what would I quit from? I don't have a job. So I keep looking. Today I am having a decent day of job searching as I found two jobs online that I am going to apply for. One is down in Oakland for some mysterious company. I hate those personnel agencies that post job openings for companies. They don't post any information about the company, just the job description. Sometimes it is so vague - "Electrical Engineer: perform majority of electrical design duties, create technical documentation, lead meetings and report to Lead Project Engineer, must have 5+ years experience in design." Do I actually want that job? What does the company do? What sort of company is it? I'm not just looking for a job, I'm looking for a company to work for. Today's mysterious company job sounds like the skills I have, and it relates to medical devices which is one of the things I want to do. The other job I found today is at a place called Westport Innovations in Vancouver. They work with diesel engines and fuel injectors, converting them to natural gas and possibly hydrogen. It sounds pretty cutting edge which is what I want.

I went down to Seattle a couple of weeks ago to the University of Washington Career Fair. Lockheed Martin invited me. Well not personally, but on their website they said "We want to meet you!" in their recent graduate section, and said to come to the closest career fair. So I did, and found out that I can't work for them anyway because I'm not a US citizen. You have to be a US citizen to work for any of those companies that have contracts with the US Department of Defense. The good thing about that is that I no longer have to decide if I want to work for a company that makes missiles and other sorts of things that blow people up. I couldn't decide how I felt about that, but the decision was made for me.

There were some other companies down there that interested me like Kenworth, Fluke and some biomedical companies. I found out yesterday that I have an interview with one of the biomed companies, Stryker, who is in San Jose, but the interview is in Seattle. So next week I've got to go back down to Seattle. That's good news, although there are 35 other people being interviewed on the same day. So that trip down to Seattle produced some results.

Other than job searching I don't find myself really doing that much. This last weekend I went away to my friend Nick's cabin with some other guys for a manly getaway. We ate lots and lots of meat, did some walking in the woods, some caber tossing, among other manly feats. We also did some discussion on King David. I stole some pictures (Ben if you mind let me know) of Nick tossing a caber so here it is... (For those of you who don't know, a caber is a large log)

Epilogue

2004-12-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well two months have come and gone and I am back from the South Pacific. It was a good trip and I would go back if I had the chance. Fiji was my favourite place that I visited - the tropical island setting, the laid back, relaxed lifestyle, and the people. It makes me want to visit other islands in that area. New Zealand was interesting - jammed full of activities like caving, skydiving, luging, hiking. The blackwater rafting was a favourite of mine, as well as the hike through Tongariro National Park. If I had more time I would have loved to go to the South Island, because the pictures my brother took while being down there made it look amazing. Australia was fun although the scenery got kind of monotonous after a while, but the warm water for swimming and surfing made up for it. Plus scuba diving, hiking with lots of waterfalls, seeing and touching wild australian animals and driving a landcruiser were some of my favourite activities there.

Its good to be back home for Christmas, although now that Christmas is over, I should probably start looking for a job.

*Unfortunately I just figured out that the settings on this blog were set so that only members could comment, but now I set it so anyone can comment.

Oz Pictures

2004-12-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my favourite pictures from Australia.

These two are from the Great Ocean Road at a place called the Twelve Apostles.

If you're in Australia you have to see kangaroos.

There are birds like this all over the place in Queensland. Some of them are quite annonying at night if there are large multitudes of them in the palm trees while you are trying to sleep in a playground outside since there was nowhere else in the town to sleep.

Let me tell you about pelicans. They are a lot bigger than I imagined, so I wanted a picture of how big this one was so I went and squatted down beside it so Kevin could take a picture. But this pelican was hungry or annoyed or something and while I was looking at the camera the pelican decided to take a bite of my arm. It was quite a surprise and fortunately my brother caught it on film. I think this is probably one of my favourite pictures of my trip.

On a small place called Magnetic Island, we hired some scooters and explored the island.

This is one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. The sand is almost pure white and super fine, with crystal clear water. The only negative is that we couldn't swim due to warnings and fear about dying from a jellyfish sting.

This is a non agressive nurse shark. If this is what the non agressive sharks look like I never want to see a tiger or great white shark.

When we were hiking in this national park, these fat lizards about 1 foot long were rustling in the dry leaves all the time, making us think they were snakes.

This is Purling Brook Falls, about a 109meter drop or so. I would say that this is one of my favourite waterfalls due to the size of it, the rainforest setting and the fact that you can walk over the top of it before it drops and you can walk behind it at the bottom. You can see how big it is by looking at the white spot beside it which is my brother.

A place by Byron Bay, the beach was only 2 min walk from where we were staying. The surf was good for a day.

Wild cockatoos in Sydney.

The Sydney Opera House.

Sydney

2004-12-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well I'm leaving Australia tomorrow to fly home on a 13.5hour flight - ugh. I just had a 13hr bus ride to Sydney a couple of days ago which actually didn't seem that long, perhaps because we stopped twice for 30 minutes and I slept for 6 hours.

Sydney kind of reminds me of Vancouver, maybe a combination of Vancouver and Toronto. Its a nice city, good to walk around in and explore. There is this $10 CD store where all the CDs are $10, so I bought the latest Dave Matthews CD.

We spent a few days in a place called Byron Bay. We basically just relaxed at the beach. Finally there was some good surf so of course I went. The board that I hired was probably the nicest I have ever ridden. It was an Australian made 7'6". I went out in the morning since the swell is best then. I had this one ride which was just awesome. It is rides like that why I love surfing. You see this wave coming and you paddle and you're on the top of it looking down the wave face and then you stand up and then drop down the face of the wave and then beside you is this wall of green water and its like 5 ft tall and you're just riding along.

...and then something happens, like the wave breaks and dumps on you and you're engulfed in white water and your board hits your elbow and your arm goes numb and when you get in to shore your tricep is bleeding because the fin of your board cut it, but you just had an awesome ride so you want to go out again. That's what I love about surfing so much. When the water is warm enough so you don't need a wetsuit that is great too, but the benefit of the wetsuit is you don't need to sunscreen yourself so often. That's one thing I'm not going to miss - sunscreening myself everyday. Without sunscreen you burn in 30 minutes. You can feel your skin burning without sunscreen.

The weather in Byron was kind of interesting as it would be so hot during the day and then around 4 or 5 the dark clouds would roll in and there would be a thunderstorm with raining pouring down (like it does in November in Vancouver) for a half hour or hour, and then it will be sunny with a perfectly blue sky. We got caught in one of these as we were riding bikes out to the most easterly point in mainland Australia. We got soaked, but it was nice to cool off from the heat.

I think that's all there is to write.

Fraser Island

2004-12-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

This was a while ago now that we went to Fraser Island - the world's largest island made entirely of sand. It has vegetation on it, but underneath it is all sand. We did a self-drive 4x4 safari thing which means you are grouped together with 9 other people who signed up for the same thing and all fit into an old model, but new (1999) diesel Toyota Landcruiser. We went camping over there on the island so all our gear went up on the roof rack since inside was full of people. Our landcruiser was parti ularly full due to the copious amounts of alcohol these 5 scottish people brought. When I say copious I mean 120 cans of beer and 20 litres of wine for 2 and a half days. THey didn't end up drinking all of it, but they did drink most of it.

The island itself was interesting, the long expanse of beach (75 continuous miles) which you could not swim in the ocean due to a colony of tiger sharks, some fireweed which apparently gives you 3rd degree burns and hazardous currents. Some of the lakes on the island were crystal clear with pure white sand. It was quite a picturesque place.

But one of my favourite things had to be driving the right-hand drive landcruiser on the beach, through creeks, and up sandy hills. I've always wanted to drive a landcruiser off road and now I've done it.

Bloody Leeches

2004-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

If you know me, then you know how much I love hiking. Especially when there are waterfalls to view. Well Kevin and I hired a car (a small little Hyundai Getz) and drove from Surfers Paradise up to a place called Springbrook National Park. This park was the ultimate waterfall hiking place. The first hike we did took us to this 100m (~350ft) waterfall over a vertical cliff into this rainforest gorge. We got a good view from the top, but the best view was when we hiked down to the bottom and walked behind the waterfall. It was a nice way to cool down.

The second hike we did also involved waterfalls, quite a few, like maybe 5. None were as impressive as the first waterfall, but were intriguing nonetheless.

During the hike there were these large black, shiny, fat lizards that would slither slowly into the bush just as you would walk by. Fortunately for us they weren't snakes. After our second hike Kevin noticed that his leg was bleeding in a couple places and knew that it was leech bites since he was with someone who had encountered them before. Later on when we took off our boots, sock was all bloody and Kevin's was as well. Some how the leeches had got into our shoes and taken a bite. The leech wasn't there any more but due to their saliva the blood does not clot properly and bleeds for an annoyingly long time. You don't even notice when they bite you. We cleansed our wounds in the saltwater as we went surfing. Probably not the best idea when there are tiger sharks around...but I think they do have shark nets.

Gold Coast

2004-12-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

So it seems blogger has deleted all my but most recent posts. Crap. What can you do, but post new ones. We're here on the Gold Coast which has supposedly some of the best surf in Australia, but at this moment the conditions are poor and its pouring rain. We'll still probably go tomorrow though.

Some highlights of the past few weeks:
-kayaking up a river in Noosa
-driving a 4x4 Landcruiser on the beach and through the rainforest on the world's largest sand island
-cruising the Whitsunday Islands and relaxing on a pure white sand beach with crystal clear water
-diving on the great barrier reef.

Scuba Diving

2004-11-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

So I've been on the East Coast of Australia now for not quite a week, but we've done so much it seems so much longer than that.

Since we were in Cairns (when I say we, I refer to my brother, Kevin, and myself) we had to go out to the Great Barrier Reef. There are so many companies and boats that can take you out there it is important to do your research so you get the one that you want. We opted for paying a little more cash to get a smaller boat and go to the outer reef. The weather was poor, windy and rainy, which didn't really matter since we were under and on the water anyways. Diving was a neat experience, so much different than snorkeling since you are right there among the coral and fish, instead of looking down from above. There was this one fish that I can't remember what it was called, but it was about 5-6ft long and 3 ft high. It came up to some people, such as Kevin, and he petted it. The dive itself lasted for about 30 minutes and we went down 10 meters. I could see myself doing more scuba diving if I lived in a place where the water is warm and there's cool stuff to see in the water.

The boat ride back from the 2nd dive site (we dove at the first one and snorkeled at both dive sites) was interesting as it was quite choppy and windy, not good for one girl on the boat who was feeling ill, but entertaining for us who weren't.

Surfing Capital of Oz

2004-11-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of Bells Beach? The RipCurl Pro Classic that occurs over Easter each year? Bells Beach is in a place called Torquay, which is where we were for the past two days. Checking out the swell forecast, it seemed that it was to be 10ft. Now when measuring waves in Aussie terms you usually double it to what regular people say. So if you see the face of a wave and a 6 ft dude is riding it at the bottom and there's 4ft of wave above him, that you would think would be a 10ft wave. Actually that would be considered 5ft. Needless to say we didn't go to Bells, since it was a huge day. Instead we went to Torquay beach where it was 5ft. And I found out just how poor a surfer I really am. Surfing the mush in Oregon is nothing compared to here. The pure volume of water that comes at you when the wave breaks is incredible. I got pummelled a few times, did a sommersault under the water, yet still had a good time, having some decent rides.

New Zealand Pics

2004-11-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

Now I'm almost done here in kiwiland, its been fun, but I think its time to move on. I did so much in the first few days here, its hard to believe that I've been here over a week already. So since I have the time and the capabilities, why not post more pictures? Sweet-as. That's a New Zealand expression, and no its not sweet-ass, its different.

One of the first places we stopped, a place called cathedral cove. The limestone had some neat formations.

If there was something I noticed about New Zealand, it was the lack of flatness and abundance of rolling green hills with sheep or cows on them.

A furry bunny and me. This guy will get shaved in a couple of days and they use the fur to make wool and stuff. He sure was soft and fluffy.

Fireworks. Do you know who Guy Forkes (I don't know if I spelled that right or not) is? I didn't until November 5. Apparently way back when, as in 400 years ago, he tried to blow up the British parliament by placing a whole bunch of explosives in the catacombs beneath it. However he was caught before he could do it so they burned him at the stake. Now Britain and some of its colonies celebrate Guy Forkes Day by having a huge pyre (this one was started with a teepee of wood about 15 feet tall) and then throwing a dummy on it - supposed to be Guy Forkes. Then they have this big fireworks display which is supposed to represent the explosives that didn't go off under parliament. We were in a small town of Whitianga and they had this impressive for a small town fireworks display on the beach.

An example of thermal activity. Just some random spot in a park where hot steam was bubbling up through the mud. There were lots of these holes in the park, some with mud, some just empty except for steam, others filled with steaming water. It was quite intriguing.

Some Maori dancers giving us a concert.

Getting ready to go skydive, my do I look handsome!

Mt. Doom.

Being in a volcanic crater is very cool. Especially with the snow. Haha lame I know.

One of three emerald lakes on the Tongariro Crossing.

Well I think that's enough pictures for now. Maybe when I get some Australian ones I'll post those.

Memories of Fiji

2004-11-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks so I found a computer that allows me to edit my pictures so I can make them small enough to put up here on the internet for all to see and be envious of me at the beach. So lets start with Fiji.

This one is of the first place I stayed. That big rock in the background you have an awesome view of the surrounding area as you will see.

This is the neighbouring island, Kuata, as seen from the top of Wayalailai.

Looking down on the resort from the top. You can see the reef where I went snorkeling.

The sunset from the top of the rock, I think it was called vatuvula or something.

The view from my favourite hammock. I logged a lot of hours in that hammock.

The second evening I was drinking kava. Mmmm. The memories.

One of many waterfalls I checked out while hiking through Colo-i-suva Forest Park.

A friend I met at the Beachouse, Marc, as we were climbing up this waterfall.

A couple more beach shots for good measure.

I forgot how nice it was over there in Fiji. Now I'm looking forward even more to going to the beach in Australia.

Through Mordor

2004-11-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I trekked through the desolate wasteland of Mordor, beside the ominous Mt. Doom. We went on a hike called the Tongariro Crossing which passes through Tongariro National Park which is where parts of Mordor was filmed for LOTR.

It was an excellent hike and definitely worth getting up at 5:15 to do. The thing I first noticed was that there was no vegetation over a couple inches on the entire hike (except for the last little bit). We started off with an overcast sky, but the weather did improve on and off during the day. The clouds were constantly moving, revealing and hiding Mt. Doom and the other surrounding Mountains. I would call Mt.Doom by its real name if I could spell it - Ngogonthe or something. As it is spring over here, the mountains still had snow on them, in striped pattern which made it even more interesting. Its hard to explain the landscape and why this hike was so good, only through being there can you understand it.

At the summit of the hike, if you were cold you could sit on the ground which was heated by thermal activity. That was neat, in addition to the wavering steam rising from cracks in some of the craters. This hike is probably one of my favourite hikes.

Freefalling

2004-11-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've heard that a common dream that people have is that they are falling and falling, and then they wake up before they hit the ground. I've never had that dream.

But I have been falling and falling at over 180km/hr from a height of 12000ft though. Yes I went skydiving when I was in Taupo. It was an interesting experience and I'm glad that I did it. So here's how it went down.

There were about 20 or so of us from the Kiwi bus that were going skydiving which kind of sucked which meant that we had to wait a long time since only 6 could go up in the plane at a time, but it was also good since we all sort of knew eachother so we could talk about it and stuff.

So I was excited about this sky dive the whole day and was rather disappointed that the weather was kind of overcast when we arrived in Taupo. I was surprised at this, as I figured I would be nervous and wishing the weather to be poor so it would be cancelled. The fact is I didn't actually feel nervous until we were up at 12,000ft and the door opened. I don't understand how my body works and how it gets so worked up over some little things, yet the thought of jumping out of a plane doesn't faze it.

Anyways, when the door opened there wasn't really any time to think about it as the skydiver strapped to my back (actually it was probably more correct to say that I was strapped to his chest) was moving towards the door and jumped out and I didn't have to do anything. It is quite a feeling falling extremely fast for 45 seconds from 12000 to 5000ft. Especially when you fall into a cloud. That was unfortunate since I couldn't see the ground anymore, but it did feel unusual as the cloud was going up my nose. Just as I think I was getting use to falling, the parachute opened and we were slower. But we were in a cloud so it was hard to tell which direction was down. Eventually we came out of the cloud and had a great view of the lake and the surrounding farmland. The landing went very smoothly.

So I've gone skydiving. Thinking back it doesn't seem that exciting - perhaps because it was over so quickly. I much rather go tubing underground in a cave full of glowing maggots.

Blackwater Rafting

2004-11-10T17:07:00.000-08:00

My time in NZ is so much faster paced than in Fiji - I have done so much in the short time that I've been here.

In this little town of 100 people there are this vast network of underground limestone caves. Many of them have water flowing through them, so of course some people would want to go tubing through them. That is essentially what blackwater rafting is. You don a thick wetsuit, some lovely overshorts, white boots and a hard hat with a light on it. And of course an inner tube. Then you head into the caves.

I had so much fun at this place, it is definitely a highlight of my trip so far. One of the first things we had to do once in the cave was to pass through this low part. This required lying perfectly flat on your tube so you can fit through this section which had a 1 to 2 ft clearance from the top of the water. That was probably the most difficult part of the whole thing. The water that we floated down had a current but no rapids. Where the rapids were it was too shallow so we walked through them. We did have to jump backwards off two waterfalls though (1ft and 4ft drop).

The cave formations were not spectacular, but they were cool - I just think caves are cool anyways. But there were glowworms in these caves. So at one point we all turned off our lights as we were floating and the roof of the cave was lit up like the night sky out in the country, but with green stars instead of white. It was quite impressive. It was the maggot poo that was glowing. At one point there were no glowworms so we were just floating in complete blackness.

I recommend this activity for anyone who likes caves and likes water (even cold water). Primo.

Impressions of Fiji

2004-11-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Well I arrived in Auckland this morning. Wow, what a difference from Fiji. Auckland is just like North America, from the quality of the internet connection, to the buildings and people, the cars, and to the food. Fiji is so much poorer. The cars are older, the buildings all have corrugated steel roofs and many are cinder blocks. The lifestyle is a lot more laid back than here and at home. You often see people just sitting around, outside stores, etc. Everything runs on Fiji Time - that is, it happens when the person in charge is ready. It took a couple days to get to used to, but then its fine, its not like I had a pressing schedule while I was over there. I like Fiji - not to live there, but as a visiting place. I would definitely go back again for a holiday. Going back I would spend all my time in the islands, instead of the mainland. I don't regret going to the mainland, but once you've seen it, the islands are much better.

It's kind of nice being here in Auckland since it is a decent temperature. Last night in Nadi (Fiji) it was so hot, just sitting still it felt like I was sweating. But like everything else, you just accept it and don't let it bother you.

Meetin People

2004-11-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

So I just finished staying at the Beachouse, this backpacker resort place. The beach was second rate as I read, but it was still okay and they had a hammock between two palm trees.

The best part of the beachouse was the central area where everyone gathered and could just hang out and talk. There were a lot of English people and Canadians there. I quite enjoy meeting new people. I have to go catch the bus now.

Edit:
Now I'll finish this post now that I have more time. If you're travelling by yourself than hostelling is the way to go, otherwise you would get lonely not having people to talk to. Some hostels promote socializing (I was going to put socialism, but then decided that wasn't the right word) more than others, it mainly depends on their location and the quality of their communal area.

At the beachouse I met this bloke from Brisbane Australia on a hike, and after that we did a few things together. That was cool that I found someone who wanted to do the same things as I did. In the past I just did what I wanted, no matter if I was alone or not.

I'm going on the Kiwi Experience Bus in NZ, so we'll see how conducive that is to meeting people.

Cheers.

Hiking

2004-10-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

So the first time I hiked to the top of Wayalailai I went with some guys from the resort, and one guy thought he could make it up without a guide. We didn't want to pay $10pp for a guide. So we went up and made a wrong turn somewhere within 5 minutes of starting. The dog we took up wasn't much help as it wasn't leading us up, but instead chasing goats. Anyways we made it up fine, after scrmbling over some rocks and stuff we found the right path. And we made it up to watch the sunset. Coming back down we got lost again, but this time in the dark with bats flying high overhead. Fortunately I brought my headlamp. I wasn't too concerned about getting lost because we knew the way was down and once we made it to the beach we could just follow it to the resort. I was concerned about missing dinner. Well they saved dinner for us which was nice of them. They're pretty good about that at the resort.

A couple days ago I went hiking in the Koroyanitu National Heritage Park outside Lautoka, back on the mainland. I decided to do the 4hr hike since I had the time. I decided to get a guide, but all the regular guides were gone, so I got a discounted ($5 less) guide - a kid named Manga. Fortunately he knew where he was going, although I couldn't understand all that much of what he said. We reached the top (879m) elevation gain of 500m in 1.25hrs. It was quite difficult as it must of been 30degrees outside and probably 90-95% humidity. After the first half hour I had to rest almost every 10 minutes. The view from the top was brilliant.

Kava

2004-10-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you've heard of kava (or yaqona), but it is a root they grow here and bash up and then make this drink out of it in a big bowl that looks like a mud puddle. It apparently has narcotic properties and is good for helping you sleep. The Fijian men sit around at night drinking it and singing for hours. It is served in half a coconut shell, when you get it you clap your hands, say Bula!, drink it all down and clap your hands three times. I found that it doesn't taste as bad as people said. So we were sitting around with the Fijian guys at Wayalailai resort in the evening one day, playing games and listening to music and they had the kava out. So we were drinking it, and I had 6 bowls of it. I didn't feel any different. But later on I woke up in the middle of the night and my stomach wasn't too happy. Then in the morning my head felt heavy and foggy. The other guys that were drinking it didn't seem to have any problems though and they drank even more. So I decided to not drink kava again. Well until two nights later I wanted to hang out with the Fijian guys and some other guests and they were drinking kava again. I tried to say no, but it didn't work. I only drank 3 bowls before I excused myself and went to bed. My stomach still protested to it, but at least I was fine in the morning. So here's a precaution, don't drink the kava.

Bula!

2004-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Fiji and enjoying it quite a bit. Its quite relaxing and everything runs on Fiji Time - which means don't rush things, they'll happen when they happen.

The first five days were great just taking it easy on the beach, lying in a hammock between two palm trees as the crystal clear water lapped at the shore. The only bad thing was that it is a coral beach so you can't really walk in the water all that much unless you have Fijian feet. Those guys walk on everything, its quite amazing. I hiked across the island I was staying on and I took a guide and he was walking over rocks and old lava, roots, dirt, everything. Even going down hill - which was quite steep, he did fine. His feet were kind of deformed though.

I went snorkeling a few times and saw a huge variety of fish, plus the water is super clear so you can see at least 80ft I would say. The weather has been good on my time spent on Waya Sewa Island, the breeze was nice to keep it a decent temperature. I'm currently in Suva and it is more humid here and not much of a breeze. I'm going to put up a few posts in a row relating some stories.

Departure

2004-10-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight I leave. Departing Vancouver at 1900, change planes in LA, arrive Nadi, Fiji at 0510 local time on Saturday Oct 23. Hopefully I will be able to sleep on the plane, it is over night so I think I will be able to. When I get to Fiji I have to find my way to the wharf and find the right boat (hopefully they have room) by 0900 to take me to the small island where I'm staying for four nights. Check out www.bbr.ca/wayalailai to see the sweet accommodations I have. I emailed them to see if I could reserve a bed, and their reply was "dear Aaron, please do come over. You can get to the island by ...." I thought it was humorous. The forecast in Nadi for Saturday is cloudy with sunny breaks with a temperature of 30C.

Convocation

2004-10-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

I would like to update this thing everyweek, but nothing really has gone on that I would write about. Well I did convocate from SFU last Friday, which was exciting since now I'm officially an electronics engineer. Nothing out of the ordinary happened - unlike last fall. I was writing a midterm for Physics (on the 5th floor of the AQ right above the pond), I sat by the window so that when I got bored or tired I could look out the window and watch the clouds pass through the AQ. Well I'm writing away, I hear the bagpipes play which meant the procession of graduates was underway. Then a few minutes later I hear a "AHHHHHHHHH!" Since I'm writing a midterm I can't get out of my seat and see what happened. Later on I found out that a girl fell into the pond as the procession walked over the bridge. That sucked for her. We didn't get to walk over the bridge since it was raining. That was a disappointment since I wanted to walk through the AQ over the pond and then down the stairs in to the Convo Mall.

I leave in 5 days. I think I have everything taken care of - except my first night accommodation in Fiji which I am waiting for an email reply that hopefully says they booked the room for me.

Let's try this

2004-10-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

So I figure that I should explain what I'm doing in the South Pacific since some of you may not know what's going on. First I'll try to not to start all my posts with "So.." I find myself starting sentences that way too much. Anyways. I'm going to relax in the South Pacific after a long stint up at SFU. Well I guess it wasn't that long - only five years, but that is over a fifth of my life. So where are you goin in the South Pacific you might ask. Well let me tell you. I leave on Oct. 21 for Fiji, then head over to the North Island of New Zealand on Nov. 4, and then catch a plane to Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 15. I'll leave Sydney on Dec. 18 to be home in time for Christmas. I'm travelling by myself through Fiji and NZ, but meeting my brother in Australia, since he is over there studying and will just be finishing his semester exams when I get there.

Hmmm, here goes something

Look a picture, it worked. I went for a hike last Saturday up to Garibaldi Lake and I thought I would practice posting a picture in this blog so I would know how to do it when I'm away. It might make my postings more visually attractive.

So I got a blog.

2004-10-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

So I got a blog. I didn't even know what a blog was until recently. I still don't really know what it is or why it's called a blog, except that it's a handy place to publish stuff for other people to read. Well, I got a blog to post random (and not so random) things that happen on my trip to the South Pacific.

That's it for now.