She's off!

OK - so it always takes me a bit to get out of the city.

Not much to report yet - spent a lovely two days with the family at Bowen Island, and forgot my Camera in the car in Vancouver, so no pictures - but got to drive the boat over to Bowen. This is not only a huge treat, it is a spectacular boat ride, from Granville Island, to right past Light House Park, Howe Sound, and on to Bowen. Bloody fantastic - we live in very, very beautiful place. The West Van Hills are all green and snow capped - it's hard to belive....

So after a whole bunch of carb catching and eating (so spoilt with fresh crab, we now just peal out the last of the meal to save for crab cakes. Can you image getting so used to fresh crab you don't pig out anymore? well, it happens!) It was back to Vancouver to head up Province. Sundsay night, drove up to Kamloops (listened to a lot of Country and Canadian artists in deference to Canada Day - happy happy Canada Day!) Looks like something is eating a lot of the forest up here - I don't know the extent of the Mountain Pine Beetle, but there are a whole lot of really unhealthy red pine trees covering the slopes up there.

Today, it was right out of the cheap motel in Kamloops, and heading out the #5 yellowhead highway to Jasper - hallelujah mountains! Check it out: This is the view from the driver's seat of my car. not bad, eh? :-) Got a chance to see an elk by the side of the highway...


And other than mosquitos and crows, it's the only wildlife I have seen (aside from the wierdos at the hostel. Ah, Hostels.) Tomorrow? I think I am going to do the ice fields parkway, but we'll just have to see!

She's baaaaack!

Hello Tara fans!

OK - that's not only immodest, but exaggerating your feelings for me as well.. but Tara's Road Trippin' again! So, for the next two weeks, I'll post my PG-13 adventures through BC and Alberta for my "Kissing the Rockies" Road Trip for your reading and general enjoyment.

The Itinerary:
- Speed boat to Bowen Island (throw weekend bag, beer & self in sand on arrival at Bowen Cabin for "vacation feel" of grit in every available nook and cranny)
**weekend with the family** **make fun of sisters**

- Drive up through the Cariboo (the looong way) through Lone Butte, Cleawater & Valemount to Jasper (Kiss the Rockies) See photo below of my July, 2003 trip to the Kootenays. yes - JULY)

- Pick up Chelsea in Edmonton. Visit Edmonton (that will be a very exciting post)

- Pick up Nora at Calgary Stampede!! (no photography permitted)

- Drumheller, AB (my inner 9 year old wants to see dinosaurs)

- Banff... on our way to.. the Kootenays! (Kiss the Rockies)

- Revelstoke, hot springs, beers at Nelson Brewery

Back to Vancouver *end*

Tara's travel photos

Tara's Travel Photos!
OK - so it's not absolutely everything - but I got some of the pics organized and I am sure it's all you would put up with anyway! :-)

Come see my photos here: http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com

I've broken them into (I hope) manageable chunks so you can see what you like and skip the rest. Direct links are below:
- Hong Kong & Vietnam http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3Pg
- Cambodia http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3WA
- New Zealand http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3HA
- Cook Islands http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3aw
- Australia (Sydney) http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3SQ
- Australia http://tarastravelphotos.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8Act2rZy1bN3Lw

If you are in Vancouver - see you in the Lounge in Relish (888 Nelson) this Wednesday (the 13th... we'll be tying one one starting at 6pm!)

Visit my old blog if you want the stories behind the photos: www.taraknight.blogspot.com

Ah, Back to Reality...

Back in Vancouver, and all of the sudden - all the posts dried up! Life happened and all my funny stories are no more.

Well, at least fewer and far between. Since I can't afford to scratch my tourism bug by doing any more big, big trips, I'll just use this blog for some of the little adventures that I end up getting up to, and if anyone's still reading this - woo-hoo!

Coming up in November: the Road Trip to Beer. Yes, a hard-driving weekend out to spectacular Nelson, BC just to suck Faceplant Ale out of the taps of the Nelson Brewery. Stay tuned!

Wish I had heaps of funny bone tickling stories to tell - but haven't really had any even midly interesting events happen to me lately... maybe I am losing my touch?

Spent a few good days at Magnetic Island out of Townsville, just doing great walks around the Island and trying to find some sunshine. My next stop was Airlie beach - backpacker party paradise and gateway to sailing the Whitsunday islands in the Great Barrier Reef.

The locals reckon the weather is the worst in 30 years... it's about the same as a Vancouver summer - sun, then overcast, sun again and wind. It's still pretty warm up here - hard to believe they are "toughing it out" in a winter with plus 20 degree days and cloud cover.

I did manage to get on one of the racing maxi sail boats for a few days sail through the islands. Boy can they go! Heaps of fun to watch us land lubbers attempt to move on the boat with a 40 degree angle and the wind in our sails. The snorkeling is good - there is noticeable coral damage from both the climate and people, which is a real shame. One of the groups on board was a band traveling through Australia, so we got a free concert the first night - and the second everyone was so gooned, they couldn't play at all - so we all made do with the sailing crew's drinking games (a looong night).

I am off on an overnight bus to the Town of 1770 (guess when it was founded?) which I have been hearing about - hopefully some e-mail worthy escapades are in the offing...

Hello Tropics!

After the dive trip, I wandered back up to Cairns to meet up with people in Cairns - my buddy Jon, who's been motoring around the world on a disgustingly expensive yacht for the last year, and in Cairns for 'shore leave' and Krystle, a girl from N.Vancouver I met over the internet who supposed to be traveling the East Coast at the same time I am.

Jon and I had shared a one too many beers bar-touring Cairns before the dive trip- Cairns is like backpacker Vegas. I have no pictures... for good reason. It's dangerous to go bar hopping in this town with photographic evidence. Krystle, another travel mate and I are doing the same rounds... I have got to get my butt out of this town!

When I met up with Krystle, I promptly re-arranged her travel itinerary so she could get around to Uluru when the heat was still bareable - which meant I also talked myself out of a traveling partner for the East Coast. *sigh* Instead, we headed up on a trip up to the far North of Queensland to check out the rainforest at Cape Tribulation.

After cold nights and starry skies in the Outback, in Northern Queensland its been warm, but rainy, windy and overcast, and right now I look like I have chicken pox, I have so many bites from some kind of evil Rainfoest no-see-um. The rainforest here is very primitive - apparently it's the oldest rainforest in the world. There are enormous palms, giants strangler vines, mangroves, melaleuca, and just green, green and more green - it's such a startling contrast from the rest of the country. I had forgotten how nice it is to have water in the air - moisture on my skin. After the aridness of the desert - this is heaven for my webbed feet :-)

Australia spends so much money on tourism advertising, it's no wonder they neglect to mention how many things in this country can kill you. 6 of the world's 10 most venemous snakes, nasty spiders, scorpion fish, stone fish, sharks, crocodiles and yes - a tree. No! you cry - yes I say - and it's not just to scare tourists. Up here they have some god-awful tree called a stinger tree that, when touched, injects silica-like hairs onto your skin, which react with water - and leads to an agnonizing death. I could have lived without this knowledge.

Off to Mission Beach now for a little R&R and liver recovery - whew!

Outback shots

A little taste of the outback for you - the Dog proof fence in the Northern Territory, and the most famous rock in Oz... Uluru. (It really is that colour)

Holy mother - that's a big fish!

So, the last time we heard from our intrepid traveller, she was standing in
the flat forever-land in the centre of the Australian outback....

...and hadn't gotten enough of it yet. I think I found the only coach that
does a three-day dirt-road trip between Alice Springs (in the Centre) and
Cairns, at the top of the East Coast instead of flying. It was fantastic! If
I thought I had seen the outback already - I was mistaken. We didn't see a
sealed road until the afteroon of the last day. We would drive for over
250km without seeing a single homestead. Our toilets were bushes (Ladies
right and gents left - if we found a place that had enough bush to actually
hide behind). If I thought Coober Pedy was barren, we stopped at one section
just past the Queensland border where it was just dirt and dust for as far
as the eye can see - it's truly spectacular.

The first night, we stayed at a cattle station (read: Ranch for us
N.American types) which - no funning - was roughly the size of Belgium.
Dinner was stew cooked in a massive cast-iron pot over the fire, with two
pet (rescued) kangaroos hanging out near the flames for heat, an entire
litter of puppies, and some ducks. Nothing like watching a woman trying to
bottle feet a 3 foot red kangaroo... it's hilarious.

After a overnight in Cairns, I scooted down the coast to Townsville to join
a friend from work, and a pack of his buddies for a 3-day live-aboard dive
trip of the Great Barrier Reef. My work mate is a PADI dive instructor, so
for my last month in Sydney, we were diving every weekend in Sydney Haqrbour
to get me qualified for this trip. Boy am I glad I did!

The trip's highlight was a 30m dive on the final day down to the wreck of
the Yongala, considered the best dive in Australia and one of the best in
the world. (oh, and we dove the Barrier reef too...). The weather was
kicking it up something mighty - we steamed all night out to the reef. Being
such an exposed site, the Yongala wreck cannot be accessed in bad weather,
and the forecast wasn't getting any better. So, our captain moved up the
Yongala dive to the first dive we did (which is a good thing too - the dive
after of us was canceled for bad weather). AHHH! The fifth and sixth dive of
my entire life is getting into the water in 3m swell, with 1/2 the crew and
90% of the divers getting seasick over the side, and a wreck dive - and I
haven't been below 8m.

Thank heavens once we got under the waves - it was calm, no current at all -
and beautiful. It was almost a shame to dive the Yongala first, because even
the Great Barrier paled in comparison. We saw giant rays, Queensland
groupers about the size and girth of your average hockey bag, white-tip
sharks, heaps of fish and spectacular corals. Huge cod, sea snakes... I
mean everything on this dive was like regular marine life on steriods. It's
hard to believe how massive and abundant the fish were.

Once we got over the seas sickness, we dived a few of the other fantastic
reefs in the Great Barrier, including an unintention drift dive (uh...
current? there isn't supposed to be a current here..) and an eerie and
wonderful night dive. It's a whole different world down there when the
lights go out, and you can see the glow sticks and flashing beams of the
other divers in the water, the phosphoresence as you swim, and the moonlight
reflecting under the water. Talk about a highlight!

Bloody hell - I think I have discovered a new and expensive sport to fall in
love with :-)

Arrived in the Outback... and it's a long way out here!

Just 5 days in the outback so far, and you can often feel like you are on
the edge of the earth.

Coming North from Adelaide (not much to tell - it's a 'pretty' city, and
that's about it!) we wound our way through the Barossa and the Clare Valleys
(few little tastings - beautiful!) and on to the Flinders Ranges. Once you
pass those, it pretty much goes to scrub, spinifex (tussock grass) and
ghostly, spindly trees with dusty green leaves.

The Outback is flat, flat - oh wait - a rock! and then more flat. The rocks
look like they have been burnt by the sun, and even as we slide into winter,
you can get an idea of just how baking the sun is. Nothing describes it
better than the extra-terrestrial landscape of the opal mines in the town of
Coober Pedy. Early miners burrowed their houses right into the rocks and
hills of terrain that must have been the inspiration for Luke Skywalker's
home on Tatooine in Star Wars. Coober Pedy is a erie town - a place where
outlaws go to hide, an almost total cash economy. It's very spooky, and
there is barely even scrub brush to cover the rocky, sandy desert. It's hard
to believe anything can survive out there. We stayed in an underground
backpackers, which was quite a treat - the underground houses never get
hotter that 23 or so degrees, unlike the plus-40 temperatures top side.

We spent the next 3 days in Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and
Kings Canyon - sleeping out by the fire in our swags and sleeping bags... up
before dawn to catch every sunrise. The stars are incredible out here - no
light polution at all. You can see the different bands of the milky way and
even the pock-marked face of the moon. It isn't that warm up here right now,
and temperatures at night are close to 4 or 5 degrees.

Uluru is as majestic as you've heard, and this massive rock rising out of
the flat, backed earth all around it is truely awe-inspiring. Kata Tjuta
('Many Heads' - 36 rock heads in all) were both formed by the same
geological processes. We caught a couple of incredible sun rises and sunsets
on Uluru - you can actually see the rock change colours even from one minute
to the next, like God painting and then changing his mind about the tints.

The red dust of the Centre gets bloody everywhere, you are pretty much
eating it. The dryness and the incredible colours of the sand and rocks are
exactly like you see in photographs, it's hard to believe. We aren't really
in the 'real' outback - still on sealed roads mostly, and there are still
service stations and rest stops every hundred or so kilometres. In a couple
days I will be hopping another bus from Alice Springs to Cairns: dirt roads,
baked bitumen and water that tastes like a children's swimming pool.... Hey!
Good stuff.

hope you are all well!
I'm not really updating the blog right now - it's hard to get internet
access for the next little bit, so expect a gushing e-mail fter my wreck
dive trip in the Barier Reef!

Tara

Tassie

I was really hoping for a great big week so I could come up with some really fanstastic stories for you - but Tassie was so bone-numbingly cold, no one could be asked to get up to trouble. It's officially winter down there - about 3 degrees overnight, up to 10 at noon, and NO HEAT in the hostel. So number one - there aren't that many travelers in Tassie at the moment, and two - the ones that are there, are in front of the TV with a beer and in their sleeping bags to keep warm.

Due to poor planning I flew in and out of Hobart - and without a car, I was left with precious little time to see the country, so I concentrated on the lower East Coast.

First up - the infamous Port Arthur penal colony. A really fascinating historical site (it happens to have actually been a tourist attraction longer than it was a jail... how about that?) The jail is set on a lovely pennisula, remote from the mainland. It was a tad disappointing to discover most of the inmates weren't blood thirsty murderers or savage brutes (wouldn't that have made a good ghost story!) most of the inamtes shipped there were just poor, petty criminals (handkercheif theives, sticky-fingered pick pockets and the like). For those of you with an interest in crimiology, it was interesting to hear that Port Arthur was the site of one of the first Juvenile jails, and it was based on the "modern" principles of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon (including the important reformatory grinders of 'honest' labour, 'moral' instruction, and the seperation of prisoners - legacies of which are all in our justice system to this day).

The next day, I managed to rescue a wayward German girl trying to climb Mt. Wellington, which overlooks Hobart, who was climbing without the benefit of a map. She was lucky I found her - another girl from the hostel did the same 3 hour climb, and found it took her 7 hours to manage to find her way down again. Tourists. Anyway - Mt. Wellington has a spectacular view of the Penninsula, Bruny Island, and next stop - Antartica! (It was a clear day, but I couldn't see it...)

I spent the next two days out of the road, checking out the Mt. Field World Heritage site (and spying my first Platypus - they are smaller than you think) and checking out the gorgeous Wineglass bay. Really - it was like New Zealand with less rain and the trees were smaller :-) I had a fine little nip of Tassie Scotch (it's making was banned for 100 years in the state by Parliamentary decree - the first newbie distillers had made a god-awful spirit!), and tasting a few good beers, and it is off to Adelaide for me! ... where I am going wine tasting.

Ahhh: the life in Sydney

Just when I think Sydney isn’t all that different from Vancouver (ok.. warmer and sunnier too…) I do something that shows me just how good life is here.

I have been running around the office getting ideas of where to go & what to do in Australia. One of the guys at the office tells me there is something I can’t miss – a dive of the Yongala wreck, out of Townsville on the east coast (near Cairns). Turns out he and a few buddies are going, right about when I will be at the top of Oz. Only problem is – I can’t dive – and haven’t learned because of a few family issues with diving (specifically a diving accident), but this guy happens to be a PADI dive instructor, so he’s offered to teach me the course, and certify me for my Advanced Open Water on the dive trip – who can turn that kind of offer down?

So he’s teaching me how to dive in the last couple weeks before I leave on my trip. I am studying at night, and on the weekends, and we are doing to pool work in some of the lovely seaside seawater polls, and diving in Sydney harbour. Other than a comical ability not to be able to clear my mask of water (I always tilt the wrong way – filling instead of draining it). I have to say – I think I should have taken this up earlier! It’s pretty cool to get out of the pool, walk around it to the rocks on the seaward side, put your fins back on and see heaps of coral, big blue gropers, fish like old wives, little nudibranchs etc. right in Sydney Harbour.

Yesterday, we did just a fantastic dive: the morning was cold, thick grey clouds all over the sky. After a bit of pool work – we broke for some much needed burgers and a warm up – and by the time we emerged from the burger shack in Manly – gorgeous sun!

We headed off to Shelley Beach - a gorgeous spot tucked around a little corner, overlooking part of Manly. We saddled ourselves up with gear, and trekked down the beach (much to the amusement of the people on the beach) and waded into the water. There isn’t much in the way of coral or super colourful fish, but lots of grey boulders strewn around. I saw my first shark – yippee! – about a 5ft. Wobbegong shark, hiding underneath the rocks. There were little sting rays, and poisonous rock fish. I was really chuffed to spot a huge Cuttlefish – it was longer than my arm – and not a minute later, spotting another one. Apparently, these two Cuttlefish were very large for their breed – we tried to get them to change colours, but it wasn’t meant to be. Of course, there were heaps of big blue gropers – like the family dogs of Sydney harbour. They swim right up to you, and nudge you looking for food, or a hand out of urchin. Woo-hoo! And after the dive, we walked right back onto the beach, just as the sun was setting behind us. Spectacular. So two more dives before I hit the road, and hopefully we’ll find the turtle that’s apparently lurking about. And my next stop: Tassie! (that’s Tasmania), I leave next Monday….

Us girls at the game!

Raeann, Almira and I at the Rugby League game

The difference of rugby, rugby and rugby.

There’s three kinds of Rugby in Australia – and for foreigners, especially Canadians – the only commonwealth nation to have really missed the ball - it gets a bit tricky to figure out what you should be watching: Aussie Rules, Rugby Union or Rugby League.

So my first boss here, from South Australia, was a pure Aussie Rules fan, so she took me out to my first Rugby game – the Sydney Swans (who names a football team after a Swan? no wonder it took them 70 years to win The Cup!) The players are taller, and leaner than the other two games. It’s very paced, a lot more running than tackling. Basic differences: you can actually pass forward (by punting it with your fist), goals are scored by a kick through the middle uprights (6 points) or through either side of the second uprights (1 point), and no real scrums, players do a basketball-style jump for the ball at the start, and you’re off from there. Played: basically everywhere in the Country *except* New South Wales (Sydney). And the winning team has their team song played (every team has a team song – one of the people next to me made me listen to the Swan’s song because it was her phone ring tone.)

(I’m a little partial to AFL - I joined an Aussie Rules Rec team (with flag belts – no tackles) for a few weeks, which was heaps of fun. Especially since the only two girls on the team were myself, and one of their girlfriends – a tiny Thai girl. They took pretty good care of us – especially since the rules gave guys 6 points for a kick through the uprights, but girls got 9. How’s that for a rule incentive to pass to the women?)

Game two:
Rugby Union. One of my buddies, Peter, scammed two corporate tickets from work for the Sydney Waratah’s – the Rugby Union team. Rugby Union is considered the Private school/privileged game, and it feels like going to see the Canucks – with $160 jerseys at the souvenir stand, and big corporate sponsorship. Aussie Stadium had 38,000 people watching the Waratah’s vs. the Canberra Brumbies (Brumby is a wild horse). Rugby Union is considered ‘real’ rugby – it’s international. Australia has 4 sides in the International league – the Super 14 (NZ has 6, South Africa, 4). There are very structured scrums, when you are tackled, you just release the ball and hope your team gets it – so it’s a fast game, big tackles, and it’s good fun to watch. Points are 6 for a try (try = touchdown), 2 on conversion.

And to finish up the triumvirate – we took our Canadian tourist Raeann out to a Rugby League game. Rugby League is the “public school version” of Rugby – the teams are neighbourhoods in the City, so people get pretty passionate about their favourites, because one of their buddies is probably playing. The crowd is definitely rowdier, there’s a lot more jeering – but the games are still big – 20,000 people at the Balmain Tigers vs. the Parramatta Eels – so it’s no small game. League has nastier tackles, its a little slower than union, no line-in’s (where they throw the ball from the sidelines, and the players jump up to catch). There are far fewer scrums, which are less organized to start with and they actually have 6 tackles (equiv. of a down) for a try (equiv. of a touchdown) before possession is given to the other team. It looks a lot more like Canadian or American Football (or Gridiron as they call it here). Scoring is 4 points for a try, and 2 on conversion. League is pretty much only popular in New South Wales (maybe extending up a bit to Queensland).