Robin and Wendy in the South Pacific

Last Stop: Vomo Island, Fiji

2007-01-13T01:52:00.000-05:00

Talk about 'island time'...Vomo is an island off and an island and it seems the pace of life slows exponentially according to how many times removed you are from the mainland. And that was just the perfect way to unwind after a very busy month of travelling for the final 3 days of our honeymoon. At Vomo Island they say 'welcome home' when you get there, and to be honest, Accor (the management company that owns all the hotels we stayed at throughout our vacation) was really starting to feel like home.

We took a helicopter from Nadi to get to the island, which was in itself an exciting experience!! We landed, were greeted by one of the island staff (there's nothing else on the island besides the resort and staff quarters) and were immediately leied. The flowers in the lei are called frangipani and thankfully they smell wonderful because the island is absolutely covered in them. From the 'Vomo Island Airport' (which is really a helipad in the middle of the forest) we took a shuttle to the resort, our driver pointing out all the ammenities as we went along.

We were welcomed at the resort by a group of the staff singing a welcome song and were then led to villa 16 - our home for the next 2 days. It was so beautiful and most importantly it was air conditioned because it's HOT here. We enjoyed our own private beach access, more food than we could hope to eat and wonderful, friendly staff. As there are only about 25 guests on the island at any time, the ratio of staff to guests is remarkably high. We were lucky enough to arrive on Fiji Night, which happens every Thursday, and before dinner wee enjoyed 'mangement cocktails' followed by traditional Fijean entertainment and Kava ceremony and were treated to dinner cooked the traditional way in the ground where all the guests and staff ate together at a communal table. It was an unforgettable experience and we were really lucky to be there to take part.

The rest of our stay consisted of eating huge meals, lying in the sun, and swimming in the pool. No stress, no fuss, just a lot of heat. It was a great way to end a fantastic vacation. We are now at the airport in Fiji awaitinng our flights home - an over 24 hour odyssey which will see the clock move forward only 8 hours (we land in LA 10 hours before we leave!)

See you all soon.
-Robin and Wendy

Filling in a few gaps...

2007-01-10T02:07:00.000-05:00

Hello to all: I haven't posted in a bit, so I will add in a few details missed in previous posts and talk you through the rest of today.

I can't believe we missed writing about our visit to the Fox Glacier. We visited on our way from Te Anua to Hanmer Springs, in the middle of two very long days of driving. The Fox Glacier, along with the Franz Josef Glacier, are the two most famous of New Zealand's Glaciers which can be easily seen as they are falling out of the mountains very close to the main drag on the west coast. We stopped only at the Fox Glacier, but it was quite an experience. For those of you who have seen the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" you will (I believe) have seen this glacier on film. It was quite incredible seeing a giant wall of ice running down the mountain-side. Equal impressive was the documented reduction of the glacier. It is featured in "An Inconvenient Truth" as it is receding impressively back up the mountain. The glacier is moving back what looks like a few feet a day - which is quite something. The movie is a little misleading though, in that it has been receding up the mountain since 1750 (likely before Global Warming was an issue !). An awesome sight.

Wendy left out my favourite part of our Rotorua stop as well - we stopped at the "Agrodome Adventure Park" so I could take a "Zorb" ride. For those unfamiliar with Zorbing, it is a New Zealand made activity (as is bungy-jumping apparanetly). In short you jump into a giant inflated rubber ball and get rolled down a large hill. The ball is actually two balls - one inside the other - and a little bit of water is added to make the ride a little more comfortable. There is also an option to be strapped onto the inside of the ball so the water is not required (an option that is apparently unavailable in the summer). There were two "courses" available for Zorbing, one that went straight down the hill and the other that zig-zagged. I took the zig-zag option as the turns added some extra excitement (at the expense of the speed). Anyway - an pretty cool experience, you couldn't see much outside the ball, but the twists and turns were fun.

That leaves me at today. My morning activity was a visit to one of the locations used to film "The Lord of the Rings". Those of you who know me well will know I am a big fan of the films. As such I was originally hoping to visit a few spots where filming took place. I have found that most of the outdoor locations used in the filming are quite inaccessible though. The Hobbitton set (where the first 30 minutes of the first movie and last 20 minutes of the last movie take place) is easy to get to and had a conveninet tour running out of the town of Matamata, on our way to Auckland (the set is located on a local farm). The tour was interesting and I learned a few things about the films I didn't know before. It was definetly neat to see and get photos of some familiar sights, and kind of funny to see it now. The set was made on part of a large sheep farm, and the sheep are now back in charge, roaming what used to be gardens and hobbit-holes. I was happy to have only done one of these tours though - really all I wanted was 5 or 10 minutes at the spot to look around, but since it is on private land (as are most of the other locations) - you have to pay an exorbanent price for an overly long tour of the spot.

We are now in Auckland enjoying our last night in NZ, staying in a hostel in town. We did some last minute shopping this afternoon and enjoyed a little support just a few minutes ago. We depart early tomorrow afternoon for two care-free days at Vomo Island resort in Fiji. It should be quite a great experience. The resort is a private island which we will fly to by Helicopter when we arrive. It will be an experience normally out of our price range, but given that the resort is "Managed by Sofitel" - our personal tour-planner (thanks again Jeffrey) was able to arrange a price that we could manage.

Cheers to all - we are anxious to see and talk to you all when we get back in just a few more days.

-Robin

Volcanos, Gloworms and Geothermal Mud Baths, Oh My!

2007-01-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Let's see....where did we leave off? Ah yes, the wine. We left Marlborough and headed to the ferry in Picton that took us to Wellington. While in Wellington we visited the Te Papa Museum which was actually pretty spectacular and done really well; I was sorry we didn't have more time to spend there. We stayed at a backpackers that offered free BBQ in the evening, so we fought the crowds for our scraps of meat and salad and then went to take a ride on the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. There was a jazz artist playing in the valley below the gardens, so we really enjoyed sitting on a bench soaking up the beautiful surroundings and the music.

We left Wellington on Monday morning for Tongariro National Park where we enjoyed a walk on the lower slopes of one of the 3 active volcanos in the area. I was particularly amused by the frequently posted signs notifying visitors of the procedure to follow in case one of the volcanos were to erupt. One suggestion actually included climbing onto the ski lift cables. The volcano we tramped on represented Mordor in the Lord of the Rings; this fact particularly appealed to Robin.

On Tuesday we headed to the Waitomo Caves en route to Rotorura. We did a short tour of one of the caves to see the gloworms. I have to say, it was very cool! These little worms live inside a cocoon for 9 months just glowing away trying to attract their food into getting stuck in the sticky feeding lines that hang below the cocoon. Clever little creatures! We moved on from there to Rotorura where we stayed for the night. It has been raining quite badly for the past 2 days or so and we elected to trade in our campervan for indoor accomodations in an effort to dry out. While we didn't dry out any, I suspect we got much less wet than we would have sleeping outside in the car. It wasn't the Hilton or anything, just a cabin with 2 beds at the same campground we would have been staying at anyway.

Last night I treated myself to a geothermal mud bath and sulphur spa soak while Robin explored the thermal pools in the park behind the spa. It was very luxurious and much more natural than the thermal springs we went to at Hanmer Springs (which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment). After my spa treatment Robin walked around the park with me again, reading all the information about each of the thermal pools and other features of the park from the booklet. Although it was pouring rain and we got quite soaked, it was definitely a worthwhile experience; not something you see every day anyway.

I've left out a few of the details (either because I forget the names of things or Robin will enjoy explaining it more than I would) so I'm sure Robin will fill in the pieces I've missed as soon as he returns from his tour of Hobbiton...a place where some of the Lord of the Rings was filmed.

Ciao for now!
Wendy

Under the Marlborough Sun

2007-01-05T23:32:00.000-05:00

We are staying at a lovely backpacker hostel, Watson's Way, here in Renwick, the center of the Marlborough wine region in NZ. We lucked out because although they had no vacancy in the hostel, they do have 2 campervan sites out back, one of which we are presently occupying. The people here are really nice and we even ran into a few of them while cycling around the wineries today.

We headed out on our hired bikes (NZ$10 each vs. ~NZ$75 each to do a tour!) this morning around 10am. Yay, it was wine instead of coffee this morning! And I can't claim that it was after lunch because admittedly, my first glass was around 10:15am when I would really have normally been having coffee :) Don't worry Dad, we ate some toast and homemade jam before we left the hostel so that the wine wasn't technically breakfast, per se.

We made it to 8 wineries throughout the day, tasting lots of Sauvingnon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir - the 3 main varietals the region is known for. We stopped for lunch at one of the wineries (thanks Marilyn & Bruce!!) which was very nice and a much needed break from all the wine sampling. We picked up as many bottles of wine (and olive oil) that our bike's saddle bag could handle and that we thought would fit in our luggage!

As Robin's bike tilted right (from the weight of the wine) and I tilted whichever way the wind pushed me (also from the weight of the wine :P ) we hiccuped and giggled our way out of the driveway of our last stop at Cloud's Bay Winery and headed back to our hostel for a quiet evening of another 'home-cooked' meal, some reading and relaxing. It really has been a most notably enjoyable day.

Aieeee!

2007-01-03T04:24:00.000-05:00

In New Zealand, I am a very conservative driver by all standards that I can see. People here disregard the 'give way' signs and barge right over the one lane bridges, roundabouts and highway merges with reckless abandon...fastest car wins. I am constantly being passed by people doing 110, 120, 130 km/h on these crazy, winding, narrow mountain roads (the limit is 100km/h where we Canadians would stick to a modest, and safe 80 km/h). Who needs bungy jumping when you can get behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle hurling down the mountain at speeds that make your stomach turn?

Well, I did! The main purpose of our brief stop in Queenstown (because we agree that neither of us would want to go there for any other apparent reason) was so that I could bungy jump. It was a very cool experience. I did the 47m Ledge Jump, which is off the side of a mountain. As I fell through the air headfirst toward the side of the mountain I was grateful that I had not chosen a greater height for my first bungy experience. Just as I thought my stomach couldn't leap any higher into my throat the slack in the cord tightened and I flipped over to a rightside-up position, left to bounce up and down looking down over Queenstown. Robin got a great photo of it (so good that I declined the mediocre pics they had taken) but I can't post it because alas, facilities do not allow.

Last night after returning from our unforgetable trip to Milford Sound, we enjoyed a lovely steak dinner with roasted veggies and New Zealand sweet potato - that I cooked for Robin! We shared a bottle of wine and later relaxed with a plate of cheese, strawberries and crackers...not exactly roughing it. It was a really nice evening and we had some time to relax, play cards, read and most importantly - sleep! I was glad for the low-key break and the park that we stayed at was quite nice with very acceptable facilities. I can't speak so highly of tonight's....but you can't win 'em all.

The adventure continues....

--Wendy

New Zealand Views...

2007-01-03T03:36:00.000-05:00

Before we left for this trip - just about everyone I know who has visited (or lived) in NZ went on at some length about the natural beauty of this country. Driving down the east coast of the country, pelted by rain and wind in the middle of the summer, I must admit I started to doubt.

3 days later I can say without reservation that anything I have been told in the past has been a severe understatement. New Zealand is a GORGEOUS country. Much of it we have seen through car windows.. but even that is awesome in the true sense of the word.

After leaving Dunedin and a fun-filled New Year's Eve (men out there - if anyone tries to convince you to go see "The Holiday" with them - run the other way) we made our way across the southern bit of the South Island to Te Anua. The drive through that part of the south consisted largely of more rolling country-side a-la the UK or east coast of Canada - and lots and lots of sheep, but I was un-prepared for the wonders that the West Coast would bring. Rainforest, Mountain, beautiful Ocean Views - you name it, NZ seems to have it all.

The highlight of the trip so far for me was the next day that we spent in Milford Sound (what exactly is a Sound anyway --- Andre?). Milford Sound is nestled in the middle of Fjordland - a region in the southwest part of the South Island. It was a 2.5 hour drive from Te Anua to the Sound, fantastic all the way. We drove past mountains and through rainforest. We took a couple of short walks through rainforest and field, overlooked fields of flowers and bright blue glacial rivers, and drove through a 2km tunnel blasted right through of the mountains to get to the sound.

We took a two-hour boat cruise once we arrived at Milford itself which was very beautiful as well, the sky was clear and sunny and the views of the surrounding mountains, waterfalls etc.. were stunning. Seals and dolphins were on display.

After our cruise we had to turn around and repeat the drive back to Te Anua (no complaints here) where we stayed a second night. We woke up today with a lot of driving to do, but a few activities planned. We visited Queensland, a resort town nestled in the mountains that reminded us a little of Whistler. After a drive over a mountain which was very interesting, we arrived in Wanaka (which reminded us a little of Wasaga Beach) to do some geeking out at an attraction called "Puzzling World" which featured a 1.5km maze, illusion rooms, and various other geeky delights. The day ended with another gorgeous drive through the mountains to stop at a little hole-in-the-wall town called Haast. Tomorrow - the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers and Hanmer Springs. I'll leave Wendy to describe our activities in Queenstown.

I know I have gone on and one here - but the views are absolutely incredible - promise to get some pictures up as soon as we can.

Cheers from the Road,
-Robin

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T04:25:00.000-05:00

Well we greeted 2007 about 18 hours ahead of when we normally would by seeing The Holiday (okay, I dragged Robin to see it) and then celebrating in the centre of Dunedin where they had a fun cover band and lots of fireworks. It was a fun for the whole family kind of event and we really enjoyed it.

This morning we kicked off the day my kind of way with a tour of Speight's Brewery in Dunedin. It was awesome; I had beer in place of my normal morning coffee! If only every day could start out so perfectly :P Then we settled into the car for a long day of driving, making our way along the scenic route along the sea towards Invercargill and eventually Te Anua, where we are camping tonight. We had trouble finding a park with vacancy when we got here and after a few unsuccessful attempts, have ended up in what is probably the nicest of all the parks we tried! The weather warmed up a little today (although I still stayed bundled in my new coat) and the forecast is for increasing temperatures and more sunshine over the next week or so. Phew!

Since we've been eating out so much for the past couple weeks, we celebrated Robin's birthday the opposite of what we'd normally do (me taking him out for dinner) and he made one of our favourite meals from home - stroganoff. I was walking through the parking lot towards the kitchen at our park and as I approached I could smell something really yummy and thought 'oh, they must serve food here too...too bad we're not eating whatever that is' then realized quickly that I was indeed about to be doing just that!! It was my dinner smelling so good (and for all of you who are scolding me for letting Robin cook his own birthday dinner....you have to forgive me - he does - I just can't make the stroganoff the same way he does!).

So after enjoying our 'home' cooked meal we're just relaxing, internetting, doing laundry and hopefully some tea drinking and reading soon. There's been no recent opportunity to upload more pictures but hopefully we'll find a place in town tomorrow or something that has that capability.

So Happy New Year everyone!!!

The Kiwi Adventure Begins

2006-12-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

We have arrived in New Zealand! We landed in Christchurch just after midnight on Dec 30. After a lot of worrying (mostly on my part) about whether we would actually have a place to stay or not (I'd been trying for a few days, with little success, to find accommodations in Christchurch) it turns out that one of the places I'd emailed - LivingSpace - was holding a studio for us and just didn't have my correct email address to get back to me. The place was actually quite nice, somewhere between a hostel and an apartment. When we got up in the morning it was raining and miserable so we decided not to stay too long as most of the things to see in Christchurch seemed to require just walking around and seeing....not so good on a cold, rainy day. We picked up the micro campervan we've 'hired' (such a crazy concept...you can also 'hire' linen, videos, cooking supplies, etc., anything we would 'rent') for our time in New Zealand and off we went to....the mall. Yep, it's cold and raining and well, a lot like home here and neither of us brought warm enough clothing. Robin picked up a jacket at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, but I was going to try and tough it out with my trusty, well-worn U of T sweatshirt. It became clear when we arrived here that it just wasn't going to cut it. So off we went in search of a jacket that would keep me warm, and even more optimistically, that I might wear again. Luckily I finally found one at a Columbia outlet on our way out of Christchurch and I can't tell you how happy I am that I did!!! Visiting the yellow-eyed penguins at Bushey Beach in Oamaru last night, I thought the wind was going to catch in my hood and lift me right off the ground! There was one very unsensible girl wearing just a sweater and let me tell you, she did NOT look happy. I really haven't taken it off since I paid for it.

We stopped to sleep last night in what was once New Zealand's third largest town; the tour guide didn't know it's current status. We stayed at a Top 10 Holiday Park...which was, well a little chilly to be honest in our little campervan (aka stationwagon with backseats folded down) and spent the evening on the Penguin Express. We first saw the yellow-eyed penguins, as mentioned, then had a little tour of the very charming town and finished off the 3+ hour tour watching the Little Blue Penguins (that's what they're 'officially' called) climbing in from sea just after dusk. This time we got to see quite a few...someone said they counted about 50.

Today we're in Dunedin, within hours of ringing in the new year. We will do so 18 hours ahead of everyone at home and are planning to hang around the middle of town, which is referred to as the Octagon, where there will be festivities much like what goes on at Nathan Phillips Square back home. We may also take in a movie, an activity that we both find very relaxing.

Happy New Year everyone!! Thanks for all your comments so far; keep 'em coming :)

Catching Up

2006-12-28T20:28:00.000-05:00

I've been finding it quite difficult to find time to compose my own posts for the blog; every time I get on the internet I've been spending my time either uploading pictures or researching our travel arrangements for New Zealand. Gah!

I'll try to cover a few of the hightlights that I've missed over the past week or so.....

Sydney - what could be more satisfying and enjoyable the POP as you crack open the complementary bottle of champagne the hotel staff has left for you along with a box of truffles? For me, it was hearing the POP of the cork exploding out of the bottle, bouncing of the ceiling and cracking Robin squarely in the middle of his forehead. It sounds mean, but he wasn't hurt and the fluke was just too funny. Our time in Sydney was great, the hotel was of course very nice with a beautiful view of Darling Harbour.

Adelaide - well, if I thought that Sydney was a bit of a whirlwind tour it was because I had no idea what our hosts Lyn and Neil Stagg had in store for us in Adelaide! It was a great day, chock full of Adelaidean historical tidbits provided by Lyn and Neil along the way. I think my favourite part was the wildlife park where we got to pet Molly the koala and feed the kangaroos. I couldn't believe how tame and friendly they were! It was great. As the day wore into the evening, Lyn and Neil passed us off to their son Jason and his girlfriend Robyn, who took us to a nice seafood restaurant in Victor Harbour and then across to a little island where we had a penguin tour. We didn't get any pictures on account of it being so dark and our guide leaving much to be desired in her control of the flashlight. It was really cool to watch the adult penguins climbing up the rocks to bring the food they'd fished for all day back to their burrows to feed the baby penguins. Our hosts were wonderful and I'm pretty sure we got as much as anyone possibly can out of only 2 days!

Melbourne - the best part: we were upgrade to the The Grand Melbourne's 'John Batman' suite which is absolutely enormous! The room and hotel are very beautiful and everyone was really helpful. We enjoyed another bottle of complementart champagne with strwaberries but alas, desipite my best efforts I was unable to knock the cork off Robin's forehead a second time. Yesterday we visited St. Kilda in the morning which is a little place a little bit like if Yorkville had a beach. Or maybe it's just like the Beach in Toronto.....we made the very windy and cool walk out to the end of the pier to see if we could spot any more penguins. Then we walked along the beach and over to Luna park which is a small amusement park, complete with roller coasters. Then we made our way up Acland Street for some window shopping and a stop for lunch at a cafe. After that we decided to split up and I enjoyed an afternoon of shopping on Bridge Street. We met back up again at the hotel later on so that we could head down to the Docklands and New Quay for dinner at Victoria Harbour Kitchen and Bar. Robin finally got to eat his kangaroo which he seemed only somewhat impressed with. Perhaps we will have to visit the site recommended by the chef who commented on our last post for some more Australian cuisine ideas. The evening was very chilly and I was wishing that I had more of my Canadian winter clothing rather than all the summer gear I've brought with me!! Now we're headed out to visting the Victoria Market before leaving to catch our flight to Sydney then Christchurch later this afternoon.

Pictures for this post are going to have to wait until next time unfortunately.....

Cheers,
-- Wendy

Picture It!

2006-12-28T03:08:00.000-05:00

I don't have time for a full post at the moment...my time is about to expire and I'm already 10 minutes late for meeting Robin. But check back to a few of the older posts, I've managed to add some photos. If you hover over each photo with your mouse you'll see a description of each picture (I was too lazy to edit the text to describe them). Enjoy and hopefully I'll get a chance to post some of the details of our time in Melbourne soon!!

Cheers!
--Wendy

Adelightful..

2006-12-27T02:13:00.000-05:00

Hello to all..

We are currently in Melbourne and it is Dec. 27th. Wendy last posted from Sydney and I will try to provide an overview from there.

The weather has been cool here for the last few days so we haven't quite had the "Christmas on the Beach" we imagined, but a wonderful time anyway. A traditional Sydney-sider Christmas apparently involves a trip to Bondi beach and a barbeque lunch. We had hoped to do this, but the weather was pretty grey for the morning and early afternoon on Christmas day and we flew out to Adelaide that evening so we didn't have a chance. When the weather turned nice later in the day, however, the local news told us 10,000 peope turned up at the beach.

So, instead of heading to the beach we had a relaxing morning, called our families to wish them a merry christmas (early Christmas afternoon for us, late Christmas eve for them) and paid a visit to the Sydney Aquarium. The aquarium was an awesome experience - we saw Crocs and Sharks, Stingrays and Jellyfish, Seals and Platypi (sp?), as well as many of the inhabitants of the Great Barrier Reef we had seen through Snorkel/Diving masks a few days earlier. The highlight of the aquarium was a serious of tunnels underneath huge water tanks containing fish, sharks stingrays, etc... The sharks were vicious looking customers, but there was a definete beauty to to whole scene as they swam aroud over top of us.

After the aquarium we packed up and headed for the airport to make our way to Adelaide where we were staying some old friends of my parents, Neil and Lyn Stagg. My father had worked at the University of Adelaide on sabbatical in the early seventies and Neil and Lyn were my parents nextdoor neighbors there.

Neil and Lyn had planned a whirlwind of activities for us. We toured the city of Adelaide and beautful surrounding hills; we visited a wildlife park where we petted Koalas, fed kangaroos, and watched the Wallabees; we sampled wine in the McLaren Vale (a local wine region much like Niagra) and visited the Fairy Penguins at Granite Island, not far from Victor Harbor, to the South of Adelaide, with their son Jason and his girlfriend Robyn. It was nice to be surrounded by friends for a couple of days, it helped us feel better about being away from our families on Christmas day.

We have just arrived in Melbourne this afternoon. We are staying at the beautiful Grand Hotel in Melbourne and are staying in absolutely stunning Suite there (thanks Jeffrey, Mom and Riley!). The suite has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two LCD televisions and a kitchen and absolutely stunning view of the city from its large balcony - a real treat and we really feel like we are on our honeymoon now!

We are on our way now to dinner at a local restaurant which advertises as "Australian Cuisine" I hope to eat some kangaroo there, amongst other things. Wendy is trying to upload some more pictures to the blog as I type - bear with us it turns out to be quite tricky to get this working at most internet spots.

So long for now - we'll post again soon and Wendy will fill in any gaps I have missed. I know she really loved the penguins so perhaps she will have more to say there.

-Robin

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T20:17:00.000-05:00

Or Happy Christmas as they say here in Australia I guess. This is day 2 in Sydney and all of you who might have been feeling envious of our sunny Christmas will be pleased to hear that the weather for the past 2 days has been complete crap. It rained all day yesterday, forcing us to get creative and use a variety of methods of transportation (none taxis!) to get around and stay mostly dry. We started out the day with breakfast from the food court in the Harbourside building across from our hotel and then made our way to the visitors' centre, where a very helpful kiwi suggested that while in New Zealand we take advantage of the recent legalization of 'herbal pills' but advised us to stay away from 'ice' and 'p' (if anyone knows what 'p' might be, I'd be curious to find out). Anyway, they were very helpful in terms of some suggestions for how our short time in Sydney could be best spent.

We headed out first to Chinatown where we search among the many jewelry shops for my Christmas present - white gold hoop earrings with channel set diamonds. Next we headed out on a walking tour of the area they refer to as 'CBD' before stopping for lunch at a little Spanish restaurant where we shared some tapas.

After lunch we headed up to the Sydney Opera House for a guided tour. The tour was well worthwhile and we both really enjoyed it. By then it was getting rather late in the day so we completed the walking tour we had started earlier (from finish to start of course!), visiting the Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park and wandering along Market Street through one of the main shopping areas. None of the stores were open by this time of course, but still lots of people milling around.

We got back to our hotel just as my feet began to feel as if wild dogs had been chewing on them all day for a little rest. We shared a bottled of wine and a cheese plate, thanks to my mom, Ian, Lori, Tina, Christina and Two Socks (their puppy - although apparently none of their other 4 pets wanted in on the gift!) and then headed to a nearby Indian restaurant called Zaffran for dinner. After dinner we went to St. Andrew's Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in Australia, for a midnight Christmas Eve service. The service was lovley and it was a really memorable experience, although Robin was particularly distressed about the use of powerpoint on a large overhead screen to display the words to the carols. He complained endlessly - about the powerpoint, the guitars, the way they changed the words to the songs - but really it's just fodder for the stories he will revel in sharing with flare later to get a laugh out of sympathetic friends and family over what an appallingly contemporary Anglican service it was.

After all that it was close to 1:00am before we were finally back at our hotel and ready for bed so needless to say, we slept in a little this morning. I think if you check back to some of the previous post, there might now be some pictures that depict a few of the more notable events which Robin is adding just now beside me.

Merry Christmas everyone! We miss you all and it's not the same as if we were celebrating Christmas at home, but we're looking forward that much more when we get the chance to once we're home!

-- Wendy

The Flaming Polynesians

2006-12-23T19:55:00.000-05:00

I guess I should add my two cents about the sailing trip, so a couple of thoughts:

24 hours later we are both still walking a little funny expecting the street to swing side to side, but neither of us had much trouble while we were on the boat. I found the salt water a little irritating after a while (we snorkeled and swam many times) - but it was not too bad.

For me the best elements of the trip were:

a) the peace and tranquility of being out on the water every day and night - the were only 16 passengers on the boat, so there was a fair bit of space to stretch out and enjoy your own space, especially in the mornings when we were usually the first people up.

b) the food - it really was very good - and there was a lot of it.

c) one of the real highlights of the trip was a trip off the boat on our last night to a local island resort. We were treated to an evening performance of "The Flaming Polynesians" who were quite an experience. When we arrived a band of three older white guys in hawaiian shirts was playing cover tunes. At 9:00, they were joined by four dancers and started to do polynesian dance numbers. The result was quite ridiculous - I am not sure any of the dancers (and certainly none of the band) were actual polynesians - The Flaming Polynesians was written in glowing irridescent letters on the back wall (every now and again the would drop to black light so we could enjoy this) - the show was halted a couple of times so members of the audience (yuppie families and asian tourists) could come up on stage to participate in a few numbers (the best volunteer won a bottle of cheap champagne) - and the wackiest part of all was one of the female dancers would occasionally throw in an odd screaming sound that sound like a dying cat. Pure Kitch and I loved it.

Anyway - Sydney is truly awesome so far - the next couple of days should be fantastic.

Will write more soon,
-Robin

Sailing the Whitsundays

2006-12-23T19:31:00.000-05:00

We're back! That 3 or 4 day hiatus was because we've been sailing the Whitsunday Islands since last Wednesday, obviously with no access to email. I was surprised to find that people were able to use their cell phones on the boat though, so perhaps one day they'll have internet access :) We're now in Sydney with lots of opportunity to catch up on email and blogging now though....

What can I say? The sailing trip was wonderful! It will be hard to do it justice in words, and would be much better expressed through the hundred or so photos that we took. Hopefully when Robin comes back with the camera we can see about downloading a few of them....

In a nutshell: we spent most of the past 3 days lounging on a 130 ft yacht called 'Pacific Sunrise', eating, drinking, snorkelling and relaxing. We shared the boat with 14 other guests - all couples - and 4 crew members. The crew was phenomenal and made the trip really worthwhile. Mick, the skipper, ate dinner with us every night, sharing anecdotes about his experience sailing the Whitsundays and travelling through Australia. Leon prepared 3 amazing meals and endless snacks for us everyday and Ben (whose 18th birthday we celebrated on Friday) and Sam looked after anything and everything else we might have want or needed. We had plenty of opportunities to snorkel in the many bays and beaches boasted by the Whitsunday Islands and I even got my chance to dive. The dive instructor, Jeremy, asked if I was with my husband and did I want an Aussie boy-toy. I laughed and, when I told him it probably wasn't a good idea since we were on our honeymoon, he started acting the part of the scuba instructor from 'Along Came Polly'....very amusing. (For those who haven't seen the movie, the newlywed wife runs off on the first day of the couple's honeymoon with the scuba instuctor).

My one and only complaint is with this Aussie sun......its total disregard for my spf 45, waterproof, sweatproof, broad spectrum sunscreen has left me with a painful sunburn that is only now starting to ease and heal. It wasn't even this bad in Thailand!!!

I'm sure Robin has a few comments to add on the subject of our sailing adventure and he's back now, so I'll let him go to it.

-- Wendy

All Flied Out...

2006-12-19T02:14:00.000-05:00

Hello from Airlie Beach..

Wendy and I arrived in sunny Airlie beach about 2 hours ago. Since our last dispatch we left Fiji for Brisbane on Monday night and then flew from Brisbane to Proserpine on Tuesday.

The rain finally let up on Monday enough for us to enjoy a few hours laying by the pool. Wendy slept, and I listened to a book on the iPod. We are slowly getting our sleep schedules harmonized. Wendy was not able to sleep on the plane from LA to Fiji and I was, so we are still a little bit out of synch but closing in on being in tune.

The flight to Brisbane was a bit of a challenge. We have now already taken 5 seperate flights on this trip and it has taken its toll. We are both a little sore and tired of sitting on a plane. Fortunately, we have a few days now before we have to get on a plane again. In total we will fly 14 times on this trip!

We stayed at the Novotel in Brisbane, and it was very nice. We arrived very late at night, so didn't do much other than pass out when we got there. We had a few hours in the morning before we had to leave for the airport, so we walked around downtown and had breakfast at a cafe. Brisbane looks like a wonderful spot, and we were both a little sorry we didn't have more time to spend there.

We flew to Proserpine in the afternoon and then took a short bus ride from there to Airlie Beach. We stay here for one night (hostel accomodation) and then are heading out for a 3 night sailing adventure on a tall ship through the Whitsunday Islands and around the lower Great Barrier Reef.

Looking forward to a few days of luxury on the boat - and we'll check in again after that.

-- Robin

Deja Vu

2006-12-17T18:46:00.000-05:00

So this post serves mostly as a check-in for our parents...who I'm sure will feel reassured to know that we've made it 95% of the way to Austalia and are, at the moment, resting comfortably at one of the many Accor properties Jeffrey has arranged for us to stay at throughout our vacation; this one is the lovely Mercure Hotel in Nadi, Fiji. Our stop here is a mere 17 hours and take from that the time spent standing in the immigration line at the airport and checking back in on our way back out to Brisbane and we've got a grand total of just under 12 hours to spend here, enjoying the hospitality, air conditioned room, pool, restaurant and light but warm drizzle of rain.

Our flights were relatively non-eventful, save for some pretty nasty turbulance on the way from LA to Fiji. We managed to sleep some, fitfully. Our bags made it safely with us, which was a great relief since the woman at the check-in counter for US Airways in Toronto seemed quite unsure of what would become of them.

I say 'deja vu' because if you were to read back to the very first post I made when we arrived in Thailand, the details might be slightly varied but once again I find myself alone in a hotel lobby, poking away on the internet in the middle of the afternoon while Robin sleeps up in our room. This time I am much less nervous being on my own and am quite content to entertain myself while he catches up on some sleep. Me thinks it would be in his best interest to wake up and join me soon though before I spend all our money sipping daquiris, munching on hotel restaurant fare, and surfing the net.

Oh - and a big thank you to Andre, who volunteered at the last minute to drive us to the airport (we were planning on TTCing it as usual) and who will also be picking us up when we arrive back in TO at 7:15am on a Sunday morning! Now that's true friendship :)

--Wendy

Flight Intinerary

2006-12-09T13:28:00.000-05:00

Dec 16, 2006
11:55A UTC-5 - Depart Pearson International Airport (YYZ) on US Airways Flight 4009 (1:28)
1:23P UTC-5 - Arrive at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), PA, USA
4:14P UTC-5 - Depart Philadelphia on US Airways Flight 1597 (5:42)
6:57P UTC-8 - Arrive at Los Angeles Airport (LAX), CA, USA
10:30P UTC-8 - Depart Los Angeles on Air Pacific Flight 811 (10:45)
Dec 18, 2006
5:15A UTC+12 - Arrive at Nadi International Airport (NAN), Fiji
8:40P UTC+12 - Depart Nadi, Fiji on Air Pacific Flight 921 (4:00)
10:40P UTC+10 - Arrive at Brisbane International Airport (BAC), Queensland, Australia

Jan 11, 2007
2:00P - UTC+12 - Depart Aukland, New Zealand on Air Pacific Flight 410 (3:05)
4:05P UTC+12 - Arrive at Nadi International Airport (NAN), Fiji
Jan 13, 2007
10:50P UTC+12 - Depart Nadi, Fiji on Air Pacific Flight 810 (10:15)
1:05P UTC-8 - Arrive at Los Angeles Airport (LAX), CA, USA
8:50P UTC-8 - Depart Los Angeles on US Airways Flight 8552 (1:03)
9:53P UTC-8 - Arrive Las Vegas McCarran Airport (LAS), NV, USA
11:55P UTC-8 - Depart Las Vegas on US Airways Flight 8483 (4:22)
Jan 14, 2007
7:17A UTC-5 - Arrive Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), HOME!