Happy Holidays!

Hey Folks,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to wish everyone a happy holidays. Hope that you all had a good Christmas. I had a fabulous one here in New Zealand. One of my friends Nina that I have been staying with invited me to her parents house for Christmas dinner which was cool. It turned out to be Nina, her sister Rosy, Garith, Jon, her folks, and myself. We had a big proper dinner, and they even had little gifts for us. I actually made some eggnog and brought it over to their place. Most people here have never even heard of it. The eggnog didn't really turn out that great, but everybody gave it a try.

New Zealand is kind of funny in that it doesn't really celebrate xmas as much as we do in Canada. I think that maybe because it is the begginning of their summer (summer break for all the schools just started a couple of weeks ago). You rarely see any Christmas lights here.

Anyway, hope that all is well. I will be getting back on the road shortly, and will hopefully be taking in some more NZ scenery. Talk to you all soon!

Ryan

PS - The Yahoo server has gone to shit, so I'm having trouble accepting/sending emails right now.

Milford Sound, NZ

Ah yes, the land where they have more sheep than people. Yes, its true. Everywhere you look on the countryside here is rammed with sheep. Unfortunately, pretty much all of them get exported, so I don't really have any grand stories of all you can eat lambchops for $4.99.

I have now been in NZ for a couple of weeks. Finally starting to adjust to the new price range. I have pretty much avoiding taking any pricey tours, and instead of taking buses, I've managed get rides with other travellers.

I started off in Auckland where I was hanging out with my German buddy Daniel, who I met on the plane coming over from Chile. We headed up to Bay of Islands to check out some scenery. Weather here is pretty nice during the day, and then pretty chilly at night. New Zealand consists of 2 seperate islands, just to the south east of Australia. Obviously, the northern part is warmer than the southern part.

Hostels are expensive at $20 to $25 NZ dollars per night (NZ$ is about 80 cents of our dollar). We had been living pretty cheap though (peanut butter and banana sandwiches) and so we decided to 'catch' dinner the first night. We took the 2 free fishing rods at the hostel and headed for the ocean. We got some local bouncers at a bar by the beach to fill us in on details so as where to buy bait, what 'bait' actually consisted of, and where we could catch fish. After 15 minutes of laughing and making fun of us, the locals hooked us up with some bait, fixed up our apparently shitty rods (mine was a half rod with only about 8 feet of line, for which I'm told isn't very much), and then sent us on our way. Within 20 minutes of hitting the dock, I was hauling out a 14 inch sea trout with my piece of shit half rod. Took a bit of struggling to get him in......well, not really, but I figured I had to say that. Anyway, we quickly realized that catching the fish was the easy part......killing the little bastard was the hard part (sorry to all you animal lovers out there). I guess that the two of us didn't have the heart to do it properly. Lets just say that it wasn't a quick and easy process. The dock somewhat resembled a crime scene by the end of it. I'm sure that the local onlooking fisherman got quick the kick out of us. Anyway, it turned out to be the only fish that we caught. We cooked it up on the BBQ and had quite the meal I must say so myself. Haven't fished since though.

Got back to Auckland after that, and stayed with my friends that I used to work with at TD, Linda and Matt. They also hooked me up with a proper guide book for NZ, so that I could actually find my way around here. After picking up some 2nd hand camping gear at a local shop, I grabbed a quick flight down to Christchurch, on the south island. Met a dude on the plane, who invited me over to his aunt and uncle's for a nice homecooked meal. After a few days, I caught a bus down through Wanaka and on to Queensland.

I eventually caught a ride to Milford Sound where all the giant mountains fall directly into the ocean. It is a pretty cool sight to see. It is a little rainy down in these parts, but it made for some spectacular water falls.

I have met tons of local New Zealanders which is nice.......I guess that it helps to be able to speak the local language. Most of them love Canada too, and have been there. The one thing that they all talk about that Canada has that New Zealand doesn't is Central Heating. Its pretty funny how often I hear about it.

Oh yeah, the show 'Trailer Park Boys" is real big over here. They all love it. They got quite the kick out of it when I told them that it is shot just outside of where I went to University. Pat, I told them about the guy you know who did the stunts for the movie. Ha.

Anyway, I'm currently staying at a student house in Dunedin, on the east coast of the south island. I met them through the dudes that I got a ride with to Milford Sound. They ended up leaving for Australia, but I ended up staying at the place. Feels kind of strange being in a student house again.........really reminds me of Halifax. I love that sticky noise my shoes makes when I cross the kitchen floor.

Anyway, here are the pics that I have of NZ so far. Hope that you all are having a fabulous Christmas holidays. Take it easy on those Rum and Eggnogs.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.89adtojx&x=1&y=uj5zxo

Bolivian Salt Flats and Lagunas

Did a 3 day tour into Bolivia that started off in the Salt Flats in Uyuni. These are supposed to be one of the wonders of the world. It is basically a sea of salt....12000 square kilometres, and up to 6 meters deep.

We took a 4 x 4 Toyota Land Cruiser in. I unfortunately got stuck with 5 German girls on some kind of school trip. I know, doesn't sound like the end of the world, except for the fact that they would rather talk to a wall then actually include me in a conversation. I've never seen 5 individuals so frightened of another human being.....and trust me, I have definitely frightened off a few females in my time.

The scenery was spectacular. The first day we spent in the famous Salt Flats. Stopped for lunch on the island, which is exactly that....an island in the middle of a sea of salt. Its pretty cool....check the pics. We camped in these little stone lodges that were along the way, in the middle of nowhere. On Day 2, we got to stop in at a couple of Lagunas, including Laguna Colorado (altitude of 4300m). There were tons of wild astriches, and the scenery was something that I have never seen down here in S. America.

At night time, it got damn cold (minus -5), and the beds were real uncomfortable at our camp. When our guide came in to wake us up at 4:00am, its safe to say that I wasn't going on much sleep. Day 3 was actually the best though. We got to see all the steam holes from the undergroud lava, then we got to see Laguana Verde, which was my favorite one. It was amazing how tranquil it was in there. The lagoon was a bright green, and since it is poisonous, there were no wildlife around. Just silent air, with a giant red mountain in the background. We capped the morning off by hitting the natural hotsprings and then having breakfast. The tour ended up in Chile, in a little town called San Pedro de Atacama.

I bought myself a Manu Chao cassette, so that we wouldn't have to listen to that horid Bolivian music the whole time. The chicas did eventually end up speaking to me also...."Can you take a picture of us", "Can you open this for me", "Do you have batteries". Some exciting individuals they were.

Bolivia had some amazing scenery, and it is also one of the cheapest countries in S. America. Wish that I could have spent more time there. Did I mention how much I miss Central and South America already????? Time for a new adventure I guess. It is going to have to be quite the adjustment to get used to being back in the first world. The ridiculous hostel rules accompanied by ridiculous price tags! Ha. I just went out and bought myself some 2nd hand camping gear though, so should be heading for the hills soon. Heard its cold up there!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.9sb5gmut&x=1&y=6lbw7h

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.bpbj60ad&x=1&y=-obck9o

New Zealand Baby!

That's right. I have made it to the new frontier. A 13 hour flight back across the Pacific, and I am now 17 or 18 hours in the future. Its not as bright as my high school guidance councillor had promised, but I like the beaches.

Really going to miss Latin America.......especially the prices. Has been quite the adjustment so far. When we were told the cab ride into town from the airport was 60 bucks, we all nearly shit. It is actually quite eerie how much NZ looks like Canada to tell you the truth. Landing here in Auckland has actually made me a little homesick. I have to say that the cleanliness and conviences feel pretty nice. The fresh-out-of-high-school travellers and the hostels with all the ridiculous rules are getting on my nerves already though.....I feel like I'm on a school trip. I guess that I have to adjust back to western world living. Feels nice to be speaking English again. The whole other side of the road driving though makes for some sketchy road crosses.

Anyway, I'll try to finish off the rest of the Bolivia pics soon.....they are some of my favorite. Hope that you are all enjoying Christmas shopping season.

Talk to you soon.

Rumble in the Jungle

Hey all.

Little late in getting things uploaded. Have been out of civilization for the past little while. I did indeed head into the jungle in Bolivia last week though. Did a 3 day tour in the Pampas, starting off in Rurenabaque, just north of La Paz. Our boat consisted of myself, Abi, Tahnee, Bonnie, Cor and Petra, and then a German couple.

Was everything that I was hoping for. At first, I was kind of thinking that it would be a bit like Survivor. You know how they show all the people setting up camp, and then to make it look dangerous they quickly insert an image of an alligator, even though the alligator is actually on the other side of the island....3000kms away. That is what I was expecting.

That was proven wrong quite quickly. There actually was a gator that had to move out of the way when we were pulling into one of the camps. It was hilarious. There were tons of them. We also had a big group of crazy little monkeys jump onto our boat and try to steal all of our bananas (yes, they did indeed kind of look like Ross' monkey from Friends). The amount of wildlife that we got to see was awesome. On the way in, we had a big group of pink dolphins come and hang out by the boat for a while (they are actually grey, with a little tinge of pink). We spent a couple of trips playing with the dolphins. We also got to see an animal that looked like a giant Guinea pig. Tons of huge birds....lots of wild Turkeys, some crazy astrich looking things, and some other huge ass white ones. We did tons of gator hunting boat rides, including one in the evening. At night, the way we could find them was by shining our lights into the swampy part, and then you could see these sets of red eyes glowing. It was kind of creepy. Not to worry though, as it was perfectly safe. The gators are actually scared shitless of us. As soon as they realize that they have been spotted, they usually try to take off. Most of them were pretty small (maybe 5 to 6 feet), but of few of them were real big bastards. One of them we pulled into the brush with our boat, and he was literally 5 feet in front of us. Wasn't the most comfortable feeling.

On day two, we did a 4 hour walking tour into the swamps to look for anacondas and cobras. Yeah, it didn't seem to make much sense to us either when he told us. The swamps kind of stink. I would say that they smell like shit, but it would actually be more like shit in a frying pan with some olive oil. That was what the general consensus was in our boat anyway. During the tour, the water was generally just under waist high, but there were times when it was up to my armpits (and therefore over the heads of some of our female participants). We did end up finding a couple anacondas, but they were only small (maybe 2 feet). Apparently another boat had found a couple of real big ones.

The camps that we stayed in were really nice. The food was really great once we got in there, but our first meal on the way in was a little disgusting. We found some little wormy maggot looking things in our soup, etc. And yes, I was so hungry that I did indeed eat around them. The biggest issue was the bugs......there were tons of mosquitoes the whole time. Some of the girls got bitten pretty badly.

Anyway, twas a pretty unique experience. Maybe one of those first AND last experience thingys. I've attached the jungle pics below, although I'm not sure if it is officially considered the jungle. I've also attached a few other pics from Chile and Bolivia that I wanted to get uploaded.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.bkubvywl&x=1&y=203aga

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.3n0k6zlh&x=1&y=9ni8xz