if this were ever made into a reality tv show, i would win.

i'm currently in fethiye, turkey, battling once again with the turkish keyboard and so far enjoying the eggplant on offer. the sun is shining and the shops are closed - this is a tourist hotspot after all and it is definitely the off-season!

the schoolboys who dipped into the internet cafe to play some very violent games during their lunch hour have returned to school so it's quiet in here again. they even turned off the music - i think it was a turkish musical with a nasty sounding death scene, very scary indeed. now there are men in suits having coffee, smoking cigarettes and watching the news.

if i could only stop thinking of the state of my hotel's shower and the potential for taking some foot fungus back to canada with me... well then it's not so bad really.

i'll be 'home' in 16 days. yikes. and yipppeeeee!!

in the mean time, back to the blog we shall go.

i made my way from auckland to singapore after bidding a fond adieu to my folks. singapore, at a distance of approximately 2mm from the equator, was hawwwwwwt. like 35 degrees hawwwwt. and humid. neither of which is good news for my already ratty hair-do. (am i really trying to blame it on the weather? yes, i am.)

it's definitely a sterile city in many ways - no garbage, no loudness, no spitting, no gum chewing - but also a kind of neato place to wander about. the transit system is extraordinarily efficient and there are some lovely places to see. if i hadn't been drowning in a pool of my own sweat (better, i suppose, than drowning in a pool of someone else's) it could've been downright enjoyable. instead i spent a lot of time walking through air conditioned malls - never my favourite place to be.

but in one of those malls i found a can of ROOT BEER!! chilled, fizzy, sugary, beautiful root beer. it was AWESOME.

i also found a juice box that i just couldn't resist - blackcurrant, raspberry and aloe vera pulps. apparently the pulps are quite common in singaporean beverages, so i had to try it. and there are now many of said pulps resting in various garbage cans across the city. i tried, i really did, but they made me gag! i mean really, can you think about drinking CHUNKS of ALOE VERA without gagging? me neither. and i didn't have a sunburn to rub them on, so what's the point?

i spent some time wandering through various neighbourhoods admiring the colourful buildings...

chinatown



and clark quay



and doing my very best to avoid what many many singaporeans enjoy (even more than the aloe vera pulps!): shopping. ughhhhh.



i saw the obligatory but surprisingly unimpressive 'merlion' statue/spitting fountain



but hands-down the most incredible place was the botanic gardens - the humidity is definitely good for something!

there were pretty fleurs all around



but the highlight was the national orchid garden - host to 1000 species of orchid. i've always thought orchids were cool but these were incredible! the colours! the shapes! the patterns! the general weirdness! check it out for yourself. (if you don't like flowers, scroll wayyyyyy down... i got a little obsessive with the photo-taking.)





































yep. that's singapore.

i asked my parents if they would like to blog about our time together in new zealand aotearoa. indeed they did!

Michael's Blog

Friendly People, Beautiful Places, Good Eats - an apt description of our month in New Zealand. It is our final afternoon in Auckland before we fly off and there are several impressions to write about briefly. First off, a special "shout out" to Avi, our trip planner and companion. It was great sharing this adventure with our daughter.

Friendly people was a definite impression of New Zealand. Everyone we met was interested in helping and was quick to engage in a conversation. We went to Russell as our first place outside of Auckland and our accommodation was up a very steep hill (with a beautiful view of one of the harbours). The owner picked us up and drove us to our "house". We went down the hill, toured a bit of the town, and picked up some groceries. Then it was the slog back up the hill. My first friendly shout out was for the driver who reponded to my "thumb' and gave me a ride to the top of the hill. Dianne and Avi decided to walk the rest of the way. My first of many encounters with the friendly folks in New Zealand.

While I cannot mention everyone, there are some particular people of note - many connected to fishing. First there is "Bushman Pete" our guide/driver to Cape Reinga on the northern tip of New Zealand. The extra special part was surf casting from the rocks at a cove below the Cape. Pete is one "excited" fisher and we were soon into some fish. While I lost mine, Pete landed a Kawahai (a salmon-like fish) that he then fried up for us as a treat. Our 3.5 hour trip lasted over 5 hours. Thanks Pete for the chance to learn about New Zealand surf casting.

Pete also mentiond that Sabastian was staying at the hostel at Henderson Bay and the next morning I went with Sabastian down the cliffs for some surf casting at Henderson Bay. Sabastian is an avid fisher and we had lots of stories to share. I hope Sabastian has caught the King Fish he was searching for.

We then worked our way to Raglan, a surfing town on the west coast of New Zealand. We had some bus trouble but the owners Rose and Geoff, drove the 35 minutes from Raglan to Hamilton to pick us up. They even drove past their place on the way back to a cove where we could watch the remnants of the sun setting on the Pacific. Geoff even woke up early one morning to take me to Manu and Whale Bay to see the surfers. I also met Ginger in Raglan. Ginger was fishing off one of the wharfs and I asked if there was a place that I could rent a spinning rod. Ginger was very difficult to understand but eventually he sent me to Jacks. Unfortunately, they didn't rent gear. I ran into Ginger while taking a walk with Dianne and Avi and he asked if I was able to get some gear. He said he would leave his rod and tackle box for me at Jacks and I should pick it up after our walk to do some fishing. Imagine loaning a complete stranger with no fixed address your rod and tackle box (several hundred dollars worth of equipment) so he could go fishing. The coupe de gras was stopping off at Jacks prior to leaving Raglan to see if Ginger had picked up his rod and box and that all was OK. Jack came running after me to see if I wanted to borrow one of the store's rods for the morning. Unfortunately, we had to catch a bus. Thanks Ginger. I hope you caught some fish the next day.

There is great trout fishing at Lake Taupo and along the Tongariro river system. Thanks Doug for agreeing to partner me in sharing the costs for a day out on Laurie's charter boat. And thanks Laurie, it was fun catching fish with an avowed "leftie".

But the fishing highlight was going fly fishing with Ken on a tributary to the Tongariro river. We caught 5 trout that morning, all at least 2 pounds, and I finally understood the joys of fly fishing. Now it is practice, practice, and more practice. I would love to go fishng on another day with Ken.

New Zealand wasn't all fishing. We also spent time in some wonderful museumes, especially Te Papa in Wellington. We saw some amazing country, the rock formations at Hahei and at Cathedral Cove, a 70 minuite walk each way from Hahei, were marvels of nature.

And then there was the good eates. We had fabulous meals at many different restaurants. The all day breakfasts are large and filling, and the "stacks" are just that -- your meal in a large stack. The steak at Hahei was a stack of a fillet, potato patty, a giant portobello mushroom, and several sauteed vegies stacked on top of each other. The steak was so tender I was able to cut it with the butter knife. Unbelievable. No wonder I have gained weight, even with all the walking we did this past month.

New Zealand is definitely worth another trip, both to do some more fishing on the Tongariro river and also to see the south island. A great holiday.

-----

Dianne's blog or maybe it is Di's blooog as innovative spelling is my specialty!

Every breathe we take...every move we make.... Now I know for sure we have heard more George Michael than ever before, more Brooke Fraser than I ever imagined and throw in some Rod Stewart and "P. Hill Collins" and you get the gist. Avi can imitate everyone with all the right words and sing along with Coromandel FM and other KIWI stations with all the right tunes/melodies. What a tour guide and planner she is - the very best! Thanks to Avi's reminders of where we are, where we were headed - and of course where we had been .. Turangi/Touranga and several daily corrections I almost knew where we were at least 50% of the time!

"Yieeeees" we agree, NZ is a great place to vist - the scenery and the people were amazing! Sadly though I learned from the Public Health Assn Director in his national child's day op ed "nice enough country to visit, but no place to raise children". He was referring to the measure of how a nation takes care of, attends to and nurtures and supports young people and their families. Sadly NZ is failing miserably in comparison to other so called developed countries.

Another tidbit amidst the beauty and wonderful conversations we had is that only 1% of early childhood teachers in NZ are male - guess why... "their occupation does not offer wealth, power and fame". Thanks to the education ministry for that tidbit!

So many highlights - but for me a Special shout out to Charlotte for some good six year old kinds of jokes in the restaurant [and shout out to her parents for an incredible meal]. What a character and amazing little girl. Next time I see her I will have to try to muster up some way better jokes.

My sincerest and humble but rather awkward apologies to the receptionist/greeter at Wellington's Comtemporary art gallery - I am truly sorry I walked in and boldly and obnoxiously said "where's the gift shop?" without first enjoying the displays....bad and tacky on my part! But ya know....

Shout out to Ma Nature - the Tasman Sea is the best!

4 Weeks went by so fast!

-----

Avi's blog

ahhhhhhahahahaha. see above. here are the photos, and a few things the folks missed out.

my best memories of auckland - well, first it was meeting my parents at the airport, which was rad, and made me cry. my mom's recollection of that day: 'i saw you, and i felt tired'. thanks mom.

the other one was in the auckland museum, when i had to poo. the bathroom was so quiet and there was a girl who went in just ahead of me, and as many of you know i have bathroom stage fright. so my mom, being the lovely lady that she is, started humming so it wouldn't be so quiet. then she decided to turn on the hand dryer, until her hands started to burn. all through this i was laughing so hard that i couldn't poop. ahhhh the memories!

we spent one afternoon in devonport, just a wee ferry ride from auckland. we climbed a big hill and took a picture when we were all sweaty. you can see where i get my excellent hair from!



a few days later we headed north to Russell, in the bay of islands. this is the view from our hostel - where my dad hitch-hiked one block up the hill. ONE BLOCK.





the next day we actually walked up a hill. imagine that! there was a pretty nice view from the top, aside from the screeching cicadas - the soundtrack to the trip (imagine george michael in the background with the screeching cicadas on top - nice eh?)





there was a big tree in Russell. we took a picture of it.



and some purrrty bouganvillas too. note that i cropped off our double chins.



after Russell, we headed further north, to the 90 mile beach area. there was a snapper derby going on that weekend, so guess who went to check out the scene. it was pretty crazy - fisherpeople in the water up to their armpits, cars driving up and down the beach... when we walked past one dude he was swearing at his buddy, and when he saw my white-haired mom he apologized. to my MOM! the woman who taught me to swear! at that point we didn't know she had just won the award for 'most swearing at a meeting'... she probably could've taught him a few new words.

this is my dad walking the beach:



and him checking out the rods



a few minutes later a wave came in and his sneakers got completely soaked. as amanda says, that's what you get for looking at another man's rod!

i've never seen anything like this scene - the ice cream truck pulled up on the beach, and as soon as they heard the plinky plong tunes coming from the vehicle, a dozen fisherpeople abandoned their rods on the sand and ran for the irresistable iiiiiice creeeeeeam.



climbing the massive sand dunes at the top of 90 mile beach - one step forward and 3 slides back. somehow bushman pete, our guide, managed to float up the dunes ahead of us. i think he's a little bit magic.



we then headed to the tippy top of the north island - Cape Reinga. it was one of the things that i missed out on my first time in nz, and wanted to be sure i saw it this time... and it didn't disappoint. there's something really freakin cool about walking to the end of an island and looking out where 2 big seas meet. even if the day is calm and there aren't any waves... it was still a cool feeling. and it was beauuuuuutiful!



the tasman side



the pacific side



to get home, just go north a few thousand miles, then take a right.



dad and pete's fishing adventure... can we go home now?



we spent a night in Pukenui, where they were growing giant pineapples. they tasted a little stringy.



from there we headed to Rawene, which was unremarkable, except for the tasty treats at the Boatshed cafe - yummmy! - and the lovely fellow who ran the fruit store. we walked through the mangroves, the water was brown and sludgy, but i took a photo anyway.



the waipoua kauri forests on the drive south didn't fail to impress these BC tree-huggers



from there we headed to Raglan, which, as dad mentioned, is a surfer town. Jack Johnson and Ben Harper own houses there, and that's a pretty good indication of the sort of crowd that hangs out in town. we fit right in.

one of the nicest things for me about traveling with my folks is that we got to stay in lovely places where i didn't have to share the room with 7 dirty backpackers in banana hammocks. hooray!

our awesome cottage in Raglan - anyone have a spare $650,000? it's for sale. the view is stunning. as are the purple velvet pillows with sequins and rhinestones sewn around the edges, included in the sale price!





while dad was hanging out with Ginger and his rod in Raglan, he discovered this house, with really cool volcanic rock sculptures all down the front yard. crafty!



from Raglan we went to Taupo, where i made a very unfortunate dinner choice. *shudder*



and dad caught a fish that we made him give to the ladies next door. sorry dad. it freakin stank.



in turangi i rode a giant sea turtle



and then we went to wellington. the highlight for me was... surprise, surprise... eating! we went to a restaurant called Kai, which means 'food' in Maori. the food was absolutely fantastic, and as my mom mentioned, we were very entertained by the 6 year old Charlotte. she was cool!

i took a photo of our appetizer, which was awesome, and then i got so into the food that i forgot about the camera. but just imagine a massive platter of deeelicious veggies and fancy things and me stuffing my face but leaving room for sticky date and pear pudding with caramel sauce ohhhhmyyyygawwwwwwwd.



in wellington we took a cable car up a hill (all the eating was making climbing hills harder and harder)... how romantic. ewwwwwww.



and then it was on to napier, the art deco city. i didn't take any photos of the art deco buildings, sorry. but this was a funny sign inside the theatre, they were giving tours after the parade. hee hee. who knew the dead body closet was international!



the folks in a lovely garden with waterfalls



and from napier we headed back north to the always-stinky city of rotorua. not my favourite spot, that's for sure. you kinda have to see the bubbling mud pools and geysers while you're there. so we did. and then we left.



who farted?



greens



incredible carving work was being done to finish the new arts building at the site



our last stop before heading back to Auckland was Hahei, on the Coromandel peninsula. it was gorrrrgeous!

this is on the walk to Cathedral Cove - the beach was just down the road from our cottage.



and this is at Cathedral Cove



see those little dots at the bottom left, holding up the rock? those are the Goldbergs.









the garden outside our door was lovely



and my mom kept talking about the foghorn leghorn staghorn ferns growing out of the trees



dad burned through some sudoku



and i hung out with the resident dog, named shady, clearly a close relative of walter the farting dog



and that's that!

we truly enjoyed all the sights and sounds (not so much the smells) that the north island had for us, especially the george michael and lionel ritchie (mom i can't believe you forgot about dancin' on the ceiling!) and cicadas.



i would like to give a massive shout out to my lovely parental units, for hanging out with me for 4 whole weeks and treating me to some delicious food, lovely cottages and b&b's, and most of all, their company. thanks folks!!! i had an awesome time. i miss 'em already.

i forgot to mention in the marsupialicious blog post about australia the coolest thing - when wayne and terry were driving me back to the train station after my lovely stay in flinders, we had to stop on the road to let a KOALA cross. seriously! right there in the middle of the road, he was just loping across like that's NORMAL. neat eh??

anyway. after melbourne i headed back to the lovely south island of new zealand aotearoa and went straight to akaroa, on the banks peninsula, just east of christchurch. it's a gorgeous place, the little french-ish town is at the edge of a former volcano crater that became the harbour, with lovely green hills all around. there's something in the water (a mineral of some kind, i believe the bus driver told me) that makes it look so freakin turquoise it's unbelievable. really a truly beautiful place.

i was lucky enough to end up with a toilet swabbing gig at chez la mer, a fantastic hostel run by a hilarious ex-new york family. sarah, the boss woman, hires a ton of people to work there so she actually gets to have a life outside of the hostel (smart woman!). and her husband roy has a sailboat that he does harbour tours on. they really provide a great atmosphere for the people working there - lots of perks, lots of appreciation and a freakin crazy group of co-workers.

i bunked with doogie (no, that's not her real name), an 18 year old gal from canada/alaska/england/i don't even know where else, who had just come from teaching english in a refugee camp in western sahara.

on weekends we worked with the uber-surly kate, who funnily enough was working 3, count'em THREE service jobs. the girl should not be put in that position! she's fuckin hilarious but hooo man i've never met anyone quite as surly as her. people were scared of her. she called me grandma because i'm so old (she's all of 8 years younger than me). she made me listen to snow patrol over and over and over the day that we drove to christchurch and i kept turning the volume down.

gabby and dan were the nicest people i have ever met, they're from winnipeg/vancouver/gisborne and they were like a ray of sunshine in the mornings. gabby baked the most incredible scones and cinnamon buns. i loooooved her. it was a sad sad day when they left. they worked on the sailboat with roy, and were replaced by colonic tim, a new age dude who was from st. croix but had been traveling for quite a while. he actually had a pretty sharp sense of humour, the more time i spent with him the more i liked him (and the less i thought of his colonic cleansing remedies).

adam was from saskatchewan, he cracked me up. he's an economist who was working in a restaurant in akaroa, trying to develop his teamwork and social skills (did i mention he's an economist?). he told us one day about driving in saskatchewan, and how he'd go into the other lane to pass the car in front of him, and he'd set the cruise control to one km faster than the other car was going... just for fun.

there were others, but who needs 'em.

here are some classic quotes, all said in the 10 minutes before i left, while sitting in the computer room with tim and kate.

"i like that film twins. that was my favourite shwarzenegger movie."
- kate

"harry is not charles' kid. he's a minger."
- tim

"i started to get into the music scene in 1996/97, when i stopped listening to disney classics."
- kate

"i'd hate to be a supermodel. it must be so difficult to be that beautiful all the time."
- kate

"if only there were male supermodels, and i was about 10 inches taller and a lot better looking..."
- tim

it was a wild 10 minutes. these guys are priceless.

here are some lovely photos of akaroa...



i went on a hike once. once was enough. the hills are tall.



baaaaaaa. sheep just before dusk.



mist rolling over the land, and a few shots at sunset









going out on the sailboat with roy was a real treat, except for when i felt like vomiting in the south pacific. here's me BEFORE the vomiting!



and the dolphins who loooved hanging out near the boat





ahoy mateys! uber-skippers, gabby and dan



just a few more miles and we'd be in chile



captain surly



crepe day! steph (doogie) and gabby and dan, dancing while they served up the pancakes and crepes before they abandoned me...



mmmmm, that's crepey...



tim and adam like crepes too!



surly kate in the hammock, the best spot in the entire town



one day kate and i went to the giant's house, a very cool arty house and gardens, where everything is massive and mosaic...



kate hanging out with her new pals, bea and archie



me squeezing mosaic bums







mr. grandma... kate chose the mankiest looking seagull to be my boyfriend. thaaaanks.



now it wasn't all dophins and crepes at good ol' chezzers. the amount of curlies in the shower stalls was outrageous, some mornings it actually made me gag. the food selection at the one grocery store in town sucked big time - the only tofu they had was in the form of a sausage! and after a while we all went a little nutty.
'what day is it kate?'
'the 28th of hell'

some of the guests were... interesting. an american guy named andrew graced us with his presence for 6 whole days. he spent the first day making a massive mess in the kitchen cooking up some lamb thing. when i informed him that he should be sure to put a bag around his pot-o-slop with his name marked on it so we didn't accidentally throw it out, he told me that if i touched his food he would come into my room and stab me. didn't make me feel a whole lot better 2 days later when i walked into his room while he was sharpening a massive knife on the edge of his bed... gulllllp. serial killer? maybe not. possibly just a wannabe chef.

we always managed to stay entertained... usually at the expense of someone else. the best ever store about chezzers was on new year's kate met some a couple in the skeezy bar where she worked, ended up going back to their caravan and was then informed that they wanted to have a threesome. well, this didn't appeal to our sweet innocent kate, so she stole a bottle of their champagne and booted it outta there. the next day the girl came to the hostel looking for kate who had conveniently disappeared, and before she left wrote in the guest book (where everyone else comments on how lovely the hostel is, etc etc):
'some of the staff are sluts (Kate)'

yep, it was a nut farm. but i'll look back on it fondly, except for the part where someone climbed in my window and stole all my cash out of my wallet. you, whoever you are, SUCK. the rest of you - sarah and roy, kate, doogie, gabby and dan, tim, adam, and anyone else i forgot... thanks, you rock!

luv me

hey peeps,

i'm behind, but i'm working on it. and working on my behind. actually, my behind is the only thing that isn't growing bigger since my parents arrived and the feasting began. thanks dad for the flat-ass syndrome.

when i was younger and we went on a family vacation somewhere, one of my teachers suggested that as my assignment for missing school, i should keep a journal to hand in when i returned. so i did. and after we returned he sent a note back to my folks that said i did a good job but perhaps next time they could suggest that i write about something other than what i ate at every meal.

and the times, they aren't a-changin.

highlight of auckland: the chocolate store. the very same chocolate store that katie and i indulged in 4 years ago!

this is a photo of my lovely parents, just before all of our teeth fell out from eating too much of the sweet stuff.



highlight of russell (the bay of islands, north of auckland):
my mom's potato salad! wooooooot!!!



real stories to come... some day...

i think that word sums up my time in australia. back in january i took a wee jaunt over to melbourne for 2 weeks to hang out with some fine people, catch some sweet rays (you may recall i was previously freezing my ass if in the dunedin hail) and eat some damn good gelato. not that i had planned to spend 2 weeks eating gelato, but things have a way of working out like that.

i stayed at 'the nunnery' - a hostel that was formerly, well, you guessed it, a nunnery. it had the crappiest kitchen i have ever seen in a hostel so i was forced (against my will... sorta) to eat out just about every meal. it was tough. melbourne is a foodie city, and i had a lot of hard decisions to make. would i have gelato before or after lunch? yummy vegetarian restaurant or thai tastiness? oooooh yes it was a challenge. but i made it through! and lemme tell you - there is nothing quite as delicious as a scoop of lemon and a scoop of chocolate gelato. oh. ma. gawd. indeed. actually, the watermelon granita was pretty freakin fantastic too. why have i never heard of this crushed ice beverage before?? it is dreamy! i want more!

major shoutouts for my melbourne trip are in order:
first, to andria and terry, whose trip out that way inspired me to go too, who shared gelato with me (i may have forced it upon them), who brought me down to flinders to visit the lovely di and wayne (who also deserve a big ole shoutout for having some strange girl who loves food invade their peace and quiet for a day) and who enjoyed the view of this leathery fellow alongside me. tasty.







Andria and Terry with Di and Wayne in their fabulous backyard - beauty! Right near where a ginormous hairy spider fell to the patio floor from the rafters. eeeeeeeeee!!!!!



Di used to be a caterer. I LOVE HER.



andria and terry also took me out to dinner at this awesome thai restaurant, which was sooooo goooood that i had to go back a few days later and order the same thing again so i could take a picture. YUM.



shoutouts also go out big time to bridie who hung out with me throughout my time in melbourne, took me to many fantastic gelato places (gelato? gelati? anyone know the diff?), and introduced me to much aussie wildlife!

this is bridie and her cleavage.



emus, koalas, pelicans, hawks, and critters with pouches...











this is an echidna!



and wee blue penguins! i love penguins! lovelovelove.



more... wildlife





there were some stunning views along the way...





and some freakin cool trees in the melbourne botanical gardens









note the size of my wee shoe in front of the big tree trunk that looks like an elephant foot (neato!)



and of course some cool grafitti along the way



shoutouts also go to abby, marnye and erin (part of the india posse) who took me out for a lovely lunch in the hood.

thanks everyone! you all made melbourne (and surrounding area) ROCK!