Just booked my last flight!

YYZ-YVR
YVR-AKL-PER
PER-ASP
CNS-BNE-SYD
SYD-AKL
DUD-WLG
AKL-LAX-YYZ

That's where I went, and where I'll be going, just in airport codes. There have been many more stops in between!

November Day.

This morning I left Bondi Junction bright and early at 6:30 am. I caught my train to the International Airport. Sydney has fantastic public transport. It only took me about half an hour ot travel all the way from the eastern suburbs on the coast to the airport in the west. Plenty of time to go through customs, immigration, biosecurity, regular security (where I had nothing confiscated, for once), duty free, a million miles of airport, and spend my last ten Aussie dollars on tea and a muffin at Gloria Jeans (Australia's equivalent to Second Cup, I'd say. I used to always think there were just a lot of women's clothing stores around when people would mention it, but I've got it all figured out now, just in time to leave). Once I got through all of that, I boarded my Air NZ flight and headed across the ditch to New Zealand!

On the plane I watched 500 days of Summer. It was okay, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Maybe if you have a long flight and nothing better to do, try it out, but I ended up reading my travel guide for most of the flight (which was only three hours long, anyway). To eat, I was served a mini shepherd's pie with tomato sauce (pseudo-ketchup), a little salad of sweet potato, feta, sundried tomato, and orzo. That was nice. There was also a really tasty apricot cake for dessert. I wanted that lemon pop that they have everywhere (it's called Lift, but I couldn't remember the name) so I requested pop and the stewardess asked me what that was. The landing in Auckland was the worst flying experience I have had so far. It seemed to take so long for them to descend. And it was windy and rough. I distracted myself by looking out the window. As you land, you can see both coasts of NZ because it's so narrow at this part of the country. I thought that was really cool. I also felt so excited to be here because dry, red Australia was sort of making me miss Canada a bit and NZ looks so much like home.

At the Auckland airport I had to go through immigration, duty-free twice (I hate that because they just constantly squirt perfumes and it's so hard to breathe), customs, security, baggage claim, biohazard control (my boots needed to be cleaned properly and I saw a little sniffer beagle carrying a bag of brussel sprouts back to his security officer. That was so cute.), baggage x-ray, and finally out into the airport where my cousin, Jonathan, had been waiting for an hour. He said he'd never seen Auckland International so busy. It was absolutely packed for some reason.

We drove back to his townhouse and I met Liz and Oliver. Oliver is the cutest little thing. He has a sore tummy right now because he has reflux (his was born on September 14, so he can't really deal with these things). But, I rocked him for about an hour and he was so smiley and happy. Such a sweet little guy.

Once he was all ready to go and we had chatted for awhile, we all went out to a nearby village and had thai food. It was great. I was stuffed because Liz and Jonathan had also bought a bunch of Halloween treats, but nobody had come to their door. Trick or Treating isn't really a tradition over here, but it's starting to become more popular so they were hoping to get at least a few kids.

Tomorrow I'm going to hang out with Liz and Oliver and plan the rest of my trip. I'm not tired tonight because of the time difference, so I'm sure I'll sleep in a bit tomorrow. I'll let you know what I've planned once I figure it all out!

The Prince's Rainforest Project.

The boys are throwing some big money at rainforest conservation projects. I think this is a really interesting approach to public involvement. I've seen the commercials for this about 100 times. They play them constantly on Virgin Blue and I've taken two flights with them in the past week (the only reason Vigin Blue's food is better than NZ Air's is because they don't bother to serve any).

You can sign up to support their cause here (Daniel Craig likes them too):

This is very interesting to me after actually spending some time in these areas. I think they're doing a really good thing and I'm definitely going to be keeping my eye on this website.

Also, today security at Virgin Blue took away my Canadian camping fork. Not only did she take it away, she laughed at me when I said I thought I was allowed to take it on the plane. And it wasn't a nice laugh at all. Aussies are very good at doing not-so-nice laughing. I wouldn't really mind, except the only reason I had the fork with me is because the previous Virgin Blue security person had laughed at me because I thought I wasn't allowed to take the fork on the plane. So, now I only have a spoon to eat with (well, until I hit the cheap markets tomorrow and find a replacement) and my fork is in the mail on the way to Warsaw in an unmarked envelope. Mom, when you pick up my fork from the post office, this is why I sent it. When security takes things away they ask you what you want them to do with it. So far two pairs of my sewing scissors have gone in the garbage (it's easy to forget them in the bottom of my carry on pack because I usually carry my knitting in there). This particular security guard, after laughing at me, wouldn't let me throw my fork in the garbage because it was so nice and insisted that I mail it home. I had some stamps to use up and I had an envelope, so away it went.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney!

I'm in Sydney! I only have five days to explore this great big huge wonderful city! This is my last Australian destination, so I'm going to make the most of it. I'm now 15 hours ahead of home, so it makes it harder to call, but I'll try to give you a shout tomorrow.

I landed here at 5:45 this afternoon, took the train into town, found my hostel. It's the nicest big city hostel I've been in so far. I went to the pub for dinner and played trivia with my roommate. We didn't win anything. I couldn't really understand the host's accent or answer any of the pop culture/political/local news questions. They asked if an ant is intoxicated which side does it always fall to, left or right? I have no idea, but I wish I did. I think about ants enough, I"ll have to google the answer later.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut, shopping at the huge, cheap Paddy markets, then going to the musical! I'll probably stroll over to see Darling Harbour too.

I've had a really great time the past few days with Pat in Brisbane. I got to see the city, ate wonderful food, watched a huge lightening storm from the highrise, and somehow came out of the casino with $47. I'll try to get some of my pictures up soon.

Night! Cass

Brizzy.

This afternoon I flew into Brisbane. It's nice here. A bit cooler, a big bright city. Hopefully I will meet up with some family friends this Saturday. They have been in Sydney the past few days and are just recovering from all of their traveling too. I also hope to meet up with a local knitting group. I found them on Ravelry and asked if I could come to join their weekly meet up at a pub here. Unfortunately, they usually meet on Tuesday nights and I will fly out on Tuesday afternoon. They said they'd like to have a meet up this weekend too so I can come!

I have so much to write about and so many pictures to add! The internet here is free, but I can't figure out how to access the USB ports. That's okay, it's bedtime for me and I have a lot of time to figure it out tomorrow. I'm sharing a room tonight with three girls from Brantford. They came here to play soccer in Sydney and now they are traveling up the coast. My flight attendant today saw my Canadian patch and asked where I was from. He's an Aussie, but he's been to Peterborough about ten years ago! Such a small world.

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about my last few days at the research station, my stay in Cairns at Holloway Beach and my trip to Kurunda!

O, and this time in Cairns I ended up staying with a friend at his house on the beach. It was SO much like being home with Andrew in Guelph. I miss Emslie St. a lot. I'll always miss that house. I'm not homesick, but after thinking about all that I was starting to miss some things about Ontario. Then Jayme sent me a really long e-mail and a whole bunch of great pictures. I miss these guys too! Brian is teaching Stogie to be a good dog and sit at the dinner table while they eat. He doesn't even try to eat off their plates....aw, good Stogie, one of the family.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking in Cape Trib.

Here at the station, I've been cooking a lot. Pretty much every evening since I arrived for myself and 3 or 4 other people. It's been really great to cook in a big, well-supplied kitchen. I can request any groceries I want and there's all sorts of interesting foods growing around here to find.

Tonight I made gazpacho for the very first time. I don't think I've ever even seen gazpacho before, but Helena spends a lot of time in Spain and requested that we try to make it the other day. The groceries came in with a ton of tomatos, so tonight was the night. It turned out so well. I will definitely be making it again in the future. I also made a banana bread cake with butter icing for dessert. The bananas came from a tree down the lane and the coconut came from the beach. It was so good. The director said it was the best banana cake he has ever had. The other day Helena injured her hand very badly while digging a ditch for the new water system. She split her ring finger from the tip to the base of her second knuckle and lost her finger nail. She has been in a lot of pain and after dinner she told me, in her sweet broken English, that thanks to me (and my banana cake) she could forget the pain for a few minutes. I think that's one of the best compliments I have ever received.

Last night we had sushi. It was very delicious. I've had a lot of practice though, thanks to Nat and all our Guelph sushi events. I even made the thin fried egg filling and it turned out perfectly. We ate sushi for dinner and again for lunch today.

The girls are requesting that I write down all of my recipes for them, but that's really hard to do. A lot of the things I've been making are just things I know how to do. The director told me he'd have to take away my passport so that I can't leave. I've already decided to stay one extra night and they're happy because that means one extra dinner. They are planning the things we need to eat for the next few meals that are left and have decided that we need to start cooking lunch as well.

I've had such a great time here and I'm so glad I decided to come live in the rainforest for a couple of weeks. Courtney, the new volunteer, will be in Auckland at the same time as me, so we'll hopefully be able to meet up again. I also have open invites to visit Paris and Normandy and another stop to make during my tour of the UK. I don't know how I'm going to fit this all in.

This weekend will be a really great one too. Tomorrow will be my last day at the Bat House. Sunday Courtney and I are going to climb Mount Sorrow. It takes 7 hours return, but the view of Cape Trib and the ocean will be worth it. We're going to leave in the morning and take a picnic. On Monday we're going on the boat to the Great Barrier Reef. Tuesday, I'll catch the bus into Cairns and stop at the crocodile sanctuary and the organic biodynamic hippie-dippy ice cream shop on the way back south.

See you at Christmas time!

This morning I left Warsaw with Mom and Dad at 7:00 am. John had just gotten home and so we said good-bye and he stayed with the pups. They were up and ready to play, so I said bye to them too.

We made it to Pearson in no time. I said bye to Mom and Dad at the entrance of the airport. It was a bit teary. I hadn't really thought about what leaving by myself would feel like. I choked back tears through most of the check-in process. There were so many people around and everything was really overwhelming. I felt much better by the time I got to my gate and sat beside a napping cowboy for a few minutes before boarding the plane. Watching the pilot and flight attendants prepare for the trip was also really reassuring. I wished I had a cell phone so I could call Nat or Em and talk to them about leaving for long trips.

I felt a bit nervous during take-off at 11:00 am. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away? Flying just seems so unnatural. On the plane I sat over the wing and looked over the clouds for most of the trip. I had to choose between Star Trek (which I haven't seen), 17 Again, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I have seen). I decided to go with x-Men because I wanted to see Gambit, who is played by Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights. I've been watching that a lot lately and didn't remember him in the movie. I ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of parts. Then I went with the Canadian short films. Some sort of interesting. Some not so great. The movies got me through the 5 hour flight and we actually arrived about 25 minutes early.

When we came in to Vancouver we flew over the Rockies. I could see the peak of Mt. Baker in Washington over the clouds. The lakes in the mountains are very cool to see. Once I landed I collected my gear and met Crystal and Geoff. It was so good to see both of them! It's been awhile and it was really nice to catch up.

We drove to their apartment past the Canadaline which is the new rail system between the airport and the downtown, built for the Olympics. A lot of places around these parts are getting fixed up for the big events this February. We had lunch at their place, which felt like dinner because my body is three hours ahead of things around here, then went for a walk down to Kits pool and beach. The pool is massive: 127 m long and salt water. It's built right into the side of the harbour. There were tons of people swimming. We drove around and saw Crystal's gym. David Suzuki also works out there and so does Zac Efron. Yep. Crystal was on the stationary bike right behind Zac Efron the other day.

A screenshot of Kits pool on the shoreline. It's the light blue spot. As you can see, it's pretty much the length of a city block.

View Larger Map

After our walk Crystal and Geoff took me to Lynn Canyon Park. It's in North Van and is owned by the district.

We hiked over a suspension bridge! Luckily I've outgrown some of my childhood fear of bridges. They are everywhere in this city. Driving bridges, walking bridges, stories about bridge history.






And saw a fantastic waterfall. It was very beautiful.



Then we came to this cobbleboulder beach. The water was chilly, but manageable. I dipped my toes in. A lot of people were swimming.



There were all sorts of trees covered with all sorts of mosses. This is one particularly mossy example.










Okay, so we're about to have second dinner, so I have to get to it. I'll add more soon!

Love, Cass