And so the vengeful God of the mountains has smote his anger upon me. I regret to report that at the end of my first day snowboarding, I took quite a spectacular tumble.
I have broken the fifth Metatarsel of my left foot. I've been to the hospital, and they've put me in an air-cast foam walker (a sort of take-off-able velcro cast). bummer.
Wednesday 23rd April 2003, both write:
Well, we're on our last day here in Vancouver. Tomorrow morning we leave for the mountains. Whistler and Blackcombe: the twin freaks. We've booked a two day beginners snowboard course, and we're really excited.
Vancouver has been a nice place to stay. We've explored the city, been shopping in Granville Island market,and just generally hung out.
Today was a real rainy day, so our plans to picnic in the park were scuppered. Instead we went to the cinema, and then were accidentally invited to the MTV studio to join the audience. It was funny - but don't bother trying to tune in: it was live, and only broadcast in Canada. We got some pictures to prove we were there. And we have 2.5 million canadian adolescents as witnesses.
Yesterday was a big game for the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. We went to the pub to watch it - and it's a great sport: really fast and really, really violent. We won (yay!) so the whole city errupted. It was an amazing
atmosphere.
We've just posted some more photos from the digital camera. Enjoy!
Sunday 20th April 2003, Donna writes:
Having left the comfortable bossom of the gorgeous Dan and Jules we stole into the night (early morning) and left for the airport. Prior to leaving I managed to speak to my Dad, the conversation was upbeat and I was relieved to speak to him - he sounds great. The upshot is that he needs to get some strength back and return for a specialist appointment in 3 weeks. This probably means that we have longer before we have to come home.
We arrived safely in Vancouver and decided to hit the town. We've perfected the knack of heading straight to the sleaziest part of town without even trying. Having said that we stumbled upon a great live music scene and 'rocked out' to a guy called Todd Kearns. He was cool and inspired Christian to purchase a backpacker guitar this morning.
We had an email from Aaron with the exciting news that Des (of the famous Chester College Freaks) is also going to Panama to meet up with us. Result! We're really looking forward to it.
Friday 18th April 2003, both write:
We know it's only been three weeks, but we've done so much, and so much has happened. This is going to be quite an epic entry. Rather than a blog update, consider this the letter we never wrote, and should have. Perhaps this will ease our consciences, and bring us closer.
Dear you,
Many thanks for your kind wishes. We miss you and are glad to hear that you are keeping well.
We arrived in LA late at night on the 31st March, and grabbed a shuttle to Jules and Dan's appartment. Nothing prepares you for the scale of LA. It took us 2 hours to cross the city (though this situation was exasperated by the driver's inability to read a map). We apologetically arrived in Tustin to an already dormant household - we would see our hosts properly tomorrow.
The next day we mostly slept. When we did see Jules and Dan, it was a great. In fact, our whole stay with them was a real tonic. Jules was looking beautiful and ripe to pop at any time. Dan was a really kind host, and so sweet with Jules - they are an inspiration as a couple.
And what did we see? Well, one day we did a minibus tour of LA, which was a good way to go, as the city is so huge. We saw downtown LA, Hollywood (which was pleasantly tacky and soiled), Beverly Hills (more attitude than Paris), Sunset strip, Venice beach (bohemian and very windy, we retired for a drink in what we realised only later was a British theme pub. Alan Titchmarsh on the TV should have given it away).
Another day we travelled down to San Diego and crossed the border into Mexico. The train journey down there was stunning coastal scenery, and it was here that we really realised the beauty of California. We didn't really give San Diego a chance, being as we were too eager to cross the border. SD seemed a nice city, and we like the gas lamp district, I remember. Crossing into Mexico is a real experience. As soon as you step over the line, you can feel (and smell) the difference. We know that Tijuana is not really representative of Mexico, but the place did feel very Third World. And we loved it. Weird, but we felt more comfortable here (and made more friends of strangers) than in affluent Southern California. We got a taco, and some Marghueritas, and just strolled the streets, enjoying banter with the locals (who all thought we were Australian).
On our last day with J & D was a Saturday, so we hit the beaches, which were really beautiful. This is the thing with Southern California - the scenery is spectacular. It is also enormous, incredibly wealthy, and the weather is perfect. But our lasting impression of LA will be the impossibly sublime highways. 7 lanes wide in either direction, and winding over and under another four separate highways, each stretching thousands of miles. Was it Douglas Coupland that said the archeologists of the future will think of the highways as modern man's crowning achievement? He was surely thinking of LA.
The journey to Las Vegas was just what we'd imagined; vast desert, expanses of open hostile ground beset on both sides of the fast moving highway.
The juxtaposition between the nothingness of the landscape and the everythingness of Vegas is startling and a liitle unexpected.
Vegas is at best a showy, larger-than-life city and at worst sleazy and garish. As you know we embrace both of these with gusto. As it was Christian's birthday (thank you very much for the good wishes) the budget was cast aside. Our setting was the lavish MGM Grand Hotel. Thirteen floors above the casino and we could still smell the money. We played the 5 cent slots and awaited the tidal wave of bonus money and free alcohol. Result! on day two we left drunk and $80 up!
As the buget was not adhered to, we spent Christian's birthday drinking champagne and watching Jackie Mason (the jewish comedian). Our experience was futher enhanced by a chance meeting at the casino bar where we discussed his material with him over cocktails. Only in Vegas!
Hung over and blurry eyed we left the bright lights behind us for the more subdued setting of the Grand Canyon, en route taking in the Hoover Dam.
Arriving late we set up and found our borrowed blow-up bed somewhat lacking (a crucial rubber bung nowhere to be found) so $30 and a new bed and we could retire for the night. Camping at the Canyon was an incredible. For us it was the quintessential camping experience: tranquility and a fire pit to the background noise of the cayotes howling. This was wild.
The Grand Canyon itself is truly mesmorising - the majesty and sheer size and scale is incomparable to anything we've seen so far. We hiked down into the Canyon and with each step the vista kept improving. We took in a rim walk and watched as the light played with the colours and contours. Awesome!
We needed to splot our journey to Yosemite, and Vegas was the only obvious choice. For $49 a night (our cheapest so far) we swapped the blow-up bed for a king in Circus Circus. This was located at what we termed the Blackpool end of the strip. It gave us another perspective of Vegas and allowed us to imbibe 99c marghueritas until our taste buds died.
On the road again, bound for Yosemite. This country seems one endless sprawling highway after another. Yosemite was a mammoth 8hr drive, but when you turn out of the tunnel for your first view of the valley, we can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is, and how glad we were to be there. The scenery easily rivals that of New Zealand. We pitched our tent and walked down to mirror lake for a good view of the Half Dome. We snapped some snaps, then headed back to camp to get drunk. A kindly guy helped us light a fire, even giving us some of his wood. That's the thing with Californians - they're either really nice, or really arrogant.
The next day started brightly. We couldn't get up to Glacier Point as there was still snow at hgh altiitude. Instead we walked to Vernal Falls - which were, again, breathtaking. And then the weather turned. The rain poured, so we didn't light a campfire, we just went to bed hoping it would clear up. It poured down all night. We woke up with an inch of water inside our crappy $40 tent (which we packed away in the rain). We then found out that highway 41 was blocked by a landslide and the only other 2 roads out of the park were at high altitude, so only snow tyres were permitted. After a brief panic we had to buy snow chains, and hit the powder. As it turned out, it was really more slushy than snowy, so we could have made it without. Oh well - $56 down and 4 hours later than expected, we made it to San Francisco.
We love The City. It's the most European of American cities, and very Leftie, very cultural. While here, we took a cruise of the bay, visited the museums, and of course, hung out in North Beach on the trail of the Beat Generation. Christian was thrilled with City Lights, and we both really liked Vesuvio (the old Beat bar).
So now we're here in Santa Barbara, en route back to LA, where we will fly on to Canada tomorrow. We hate to end on a bummer, but we got some bad news a couple of nights ago. Donna's dad, Keith, is pretty ill, and we're both worried about him. It's rubbish being so far away at times like this. At the moment there's nothing we can do, but we feel that we may need to truncate the trip - you may be seeing us sooner that you think. We'll just have to see how he goes (get well soon Keith).
We miss you. Take care, and keep us informed of the gossip back home. We love you, and will see you back in Blighty for a pint soon.
Forever yours,
Christian and Donna
xxx
Tuesday 15th April 2003, Christian writes:
I'm sorry we've been a little lacksidaisical in updating the blog. I'm afraid that internet cafes are scarce here, and we've been so busy. So now I've found this cafe, I will update you all as soon as possible - there's a lot to tell.
But the main jist of it is: we love it over here, and have been in LA, then to Vegas, Grand Canyon, Vegas (again), Yosemite (there's a tale) and finally here, in San Francisco.
I promise I'll fill you in with the details ASAP.
Sunday 30th March 2003, both write:
As we prepare to leave Hawaii for the mainland we're leaving with a slightly different perspective than our inital expectations. What we expected to be a tropical paradise, didn't match up to other places we'd seen. Don't get us wrong - naturally, Hawaii is very beautiful, but its just so... just so... American (not in itself a bad thing, I know). Donna thinks that, as we notch up the places we've visited, it's getting harder to impress us (sorry, does that sound pretentious?)
But the things we've seen here! We trekked across fresh black lava at Mauna Loa Volcano, to see the orange streams run down the mountain into the sea. All this as the sun set, and in the dark, the volcano looks amazing - we both felt very humbled in the presence of such a giant. We also trekked across the crater at Kilauea.
We then moved along the coast to Punalu'u to sleep at the black sand beach. Here we snorkelled with the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles. They were huge! And not shy at all.
We made our way up the Kona coast, taking in Hookena beach, Captain Cook (the town, not the historical figure), Kailua, and some boogieboarding in Hapuna.
Then finally, we explored the famous valleys of North Kohala, before making our way down the scenic Hamakua coast, and back to Hilo (the town we fly out of tomorrow).
So, you see, we have had a lot of fun, but money has been real tight here. As the hostels here cost around $60, we decided our only alternative was to camp. We bought the cheapest tent we could find, and a couple of foam mats. We'd read that the campsites here were beautiful, and largely right on the beach, so we figured we'd enjoy it. And we kind of did; but it wasn't the relaxing GetAwayFromItAll that we expected. The campsites are beautifully located, but they are also the place for local teenagers to hang out and get stoned. So each nights sleep has been punctuated with wheelspins, and loud bursts of Hip Hop.
So tonight, we're glad of a bed.
Tomorrow we fly to LA to descend upon Jules and Dan. We're really looking forward to it.
Saturday 22nd March 2003, both write:
We arrived in Honolulu airport (certainly the most poorly resourced airport we've yet encountered) in the early hours of the morning, and having queued for 2
hours in immigration, we were finally recognised as being no terrorist
threat, and so were let in. We got a cab to our hostel (which was really,
cockroach-style bad) and slept. In the morning we made our way to another
hostel in Waikiki, and quite despite ourselves, started to really enjoy it.
So, after a bad start, Waikiki is every bit as tacky-glamourous as you'd
imagine. We saw a hula parade, and an Elvis impersonator (who personally
thanked Donna and me for our support of the US in this troubled time -
gulp!) and generally partied. But because of our initial stress on this
island (Oahu) we thought it best to move on to another, less developed
island.
So here we are now on Kauai. The place is beautiful, but way too expensive.
Having dipped our toes in another youth hostel here, we decided we could
bear the grot no longer, and quickly retreated. So now we're way over
budget, in a nice resort, with a hire car, living off bread and cheese (the
food here is truly terrible - is this all of the US or just Hawaii?) and
having a ball.
Yesterday we explored the amazing Waimea canyon, and the day before we
kayaked up the Wailua river.
Naturally, we've been glued to CNN along with everybody else. The view from
inside America? Well the media is actually doing a pretty good job, and
seems not to be half as biased as in the UK (which we didn't expect) - we've
even seen TV debates about the virtue (or lack thereof) of Bush. We've kinda
avoided conversation with the locals about the war - it's such a sensitive
subject. But it is definately true to say that most are in support of the
war, feeling that it is a retalliation for 9/11 ?!! Donna's feeling a bit
nervous about our flight to LA, but I'm sure we'll be cool.
Saturday 15th March 2003, both write:
This is the thing. Neither of us function too well with lack of sleep. And sleep deprivation is a necessary evil in the travel experience. So here you find us: 10:13 at night, pissed, with no bed, as our flight leaves at 5:35am (and to add insult to injury, NZ summer time ends tonight, so we have an extra hour to kill). Don't get us wrong - we are not moaning - we're off to Hawaii ferchristsakes - it's just that our writing may not be altogether coherent.
So we did the Routeburn track. It was breathtaking. Because we are hardcore trampers, we did the 37km (and 4000ft altitude) in 2 days instead of the recommended 3. Professional walkers (though our knees did ache, and Donna has blisters the size of dinner plates). From here we went on to Mt. Cook Village. We stayed here for 3 nights, though 2 would have been suffice. The village itself was tinywee. We kept ourselves entertained through more stunning mountain walks, and it was good just to chill out for a while in beautiful surrounds.
From Mt. Cook, we headed on to Kaikoura. Kaikoura was a small fishing and whaling community, but now brings in the tourists in droves, because a) the marine life here is unique, and b) it's a really beautiful wee town. Yesterday, we visited the local vinyard, and then headed out on a whale watching cruise. Christian thought he'd be given a harpoon to catch his tea - alas this was abolished in the early 80's, so he had to be content with shooting the sperm whales with his camera. We also saw a super-pod of dusky dolphins out there, which was awesome (We lament the fact that we have only recently become confident with the use of the word "awesome" as we are about to leave the continent - it is constantly used here, along with "primo"(meaning good)).
Today we were supposed to be swimming with seals, but a huge swell arrived ovenight, so the swim was cancelled. Boo! Donna bad-vibed it upon hearing that seals can be aggressive (and also that the waters are shark-infested). Maybe it's God's way.
Which brings us here. Back again in Christchurch, our bellies full of wine and Thai food (yum!) waiting for a plane which will not depart for another 8 hours. All this, and we are only just remembering the significance of the imminent war, likely to break as we set foot on American soil. I can't believe how isolated NZ has been in all of this. 2 weeks ago, the first 4 pages of the national newspaper were about some fucking boat race, while page 5 admits that America is already bombing key sites in Iraq. So I'm afraid that we're not up to speed with all this. But soon will be. Cover us, we're going in.
Wednesday 5th March 2003, Donna writes:
Firstly, may I fill in some of the 'blanks' from Christian's last entry. This can be attributed to the combined bungy jumps totaling a rush to the head for over 573m.
Nelson:
a lovely oldish (by NZ standards) town with a lovely church atop of a hefty set of steps. Here we enjoyed a bargin $12.95, 3-course meal at The Victorain Rose. R.Ste was able to replenish his dwindling collection of clothing and also purchase a lovely bag to house them all. This was indeed handy for us as we have just filled it up again with all our unwanted clothes and boots to be shipped back to Blighty. Cheers R. Ste.
My beloved (nice to look at - not much up stairs) also omitted to mention one of the highlights of our trip thus far. On our way through Franz Josef we decided to take in a helicopter trip to the surounding glaciers. The trip itself was amazing; we ascended the lush green mountains, these then changed into a dramatic snowy wonderland. We set down and had an opportunity to exlpore. The feeling was tremendous, calm, white and tranquil. It was an experience unlike any other - we were Sir Edmund Hillary (if only very briefly). This was exacebated for Christian who's currently reading Into Thin Air.
Now that I've covered my husbands ineptitude I will continue.
Te Anau was a little sleepy walkers' paradise. We were dismayed to learn that to walk The Milford Track as was our intention, we would have had to have booked it over 8 months ago. We were organised but not to that degree. So instead we had to settle on a wee section of the Keppler Track that took in Lake Manapuri and the Keppler Mountains. This was the first real tramp (as NZers call walking) that we've done here. It was great to get our walking boots back on and head off. We've been fortunate enough to book a three day tramp along the Routeburn Track commencing in two days and staying in huts along the way. We can't wait.
From Te Anau we had a day trip with the folks to Milford Sounds which was pretty impressive. We saw seals en route and got out to the Tasman Sea, though not far enough to see Australia.
Our next stop Dunedin where we thought we'd get an opportunity to show off our surfing techniques but sadly didn't get a chance. This brings us to out current city and the main one on the South Island; Christchurch.
It's here that we've waved my parents off to another continent. As I'd suspected I was really upset all over again. To cheer me up Christain took me for a haircut and had his dyed blond in a bid to become less hobbit-like. He's becoming frustrated when people tell him he looks like the cute, 3-foot tall, middle-earth dwelling people.
It's been great seeing Mum, Dad and R.Ste but I now know why people stop going on holiday with their parents at the age of 16. Having said that, we really appreciate them coming half way round the world to spend time with us. It was a bonding experience. Fingers crosssed that R.Ste is reunited with his luggage on the way back through LA.
Build your own Scalextrics - courtesy of the adorable JJ
But what about the rest? Are we to forget our own history? No, history will not repeat itself - thanks to the archive.
