G'day mates!  Here's a summary of my LA / Fiji / Australia / NZ trip '02-'03! (sorry, only pics for the first section of my trip so far... I'll hopefully put others up at some point...) June 30 I'm home!! Woo hoo!! A little behind schedule but not too bad. My flight was rescheduled to land in Toronto this morning at 6am rather than last night at 11pm. But I had a nice 7 hour stopover in LA, which I spent mostly in Santa Monica! hehehe. I was able to go snowboarding one last time before leaving Christchurch. Went to Mount Hutt. Only one major run open, but good conditions and enough to get my fix. :) Had a good flight to Auckland and went to Papa Jack's Voodoo Lounge again for my last night. Had a blast!! Out till 6:30am. hehehe. Then took off from Auckland at 8 last night (international date line made me live yesterday twice! hehehe). And now I'm home! Ta-da! Awesome trip. Can't wait till I travel again. June 24 Well, the snow finally came a little... And Coronet opened last Thursday so I went on opening day! But due to high winds, none of the lifts were operational... so I had to walk up the hill and board down... Good workout at least... 100k/h winds at top. Spent a couple of days at Mount Cook this past weekend and was one of the fortunate ones to see Mt Cook unabstructed by clouds! BEAUTIFUL! Am now in Christchurch for the final days of my trip. Not much to see here, but it'll be nice to chill out before heading home. Went for a nice walk with great views in Christchurch's southern hills today. I fly to Auckland on Saturday then homeward on Sunday! Woo hoo! June 13 Queenstown is beautiful!! Loving it here. Mountains all around, nice lake, cool atmosphere. No snow yet though... dammit... so no snowboarding yet... Rented a car a couple of days ago though and drove to many of the Lord Of The Rings sites and got some good views of the Southern Alps (Misty Mountains). And went bungy jumping yesterday!! 3 jumps! One off the original bungy bridge and dipped in the river at 43m, the highest one at 134m (CRAZY!!), and one overlooking Queenstown at 47m. Pretty cool! Really gets the adrenaline pumping. :) Now I'm just relaxing for a few days... trying not to spend money... waiting for the snow to come... likely starting to head towards Christchurch midweek. June 8 Met a whole new set of people on the bus and now have some new friends. The west coast of the South Island has been beautiful! Mostly limestone, so lots of cool islands and cliffs of the coast. Reminded me a little of the Great Ocean Road in Aus, except there were more mountains here. :) Spent yesterday on the Franz Josef Glacier!! SO much fun! Took a day trek up with ice pick in hand and talons on my boots! Squeezing through deep crevaces and checking out some ice caves. VERY cool. Well worth the $95 price tag. Now I'm in Wanaka for the night and celebrating Sarah's bday so I'm sure it'll be a big piss-up. Then on to Queenstown finally tomorrow! Yay! June 4 Well, I saw the location of Helm's Deep and it wasn't fabulous... but cool enough. The ferry across to the South Island was nice! Got cloudy as we went over but was beautiful coming into Picton. Mountainous already! :) Then got back on the Kiwi Experience and went to Nelson. Stayed there a couple of days and then got a bus up to Takaka and was there for a day. Nothing too eventful but it was nice. Then from Takaka, I was shuttled to the Heaphy Track on June 1. It's one of the 10 Great Walks of NZ. A great four day hike! Started off with some views of the mountains and finished off with a day along the Heaphy Beach. Start to finish was 82km! And stayed in huts along the way which were heated by wood stoves and had gas cookers for meals. Pretty sweet! Met some cool people in the huts too with whome I hiked with. Now I'm in Westport and back on the Kiwi Experience tomorrow. May 26 In Wellington for a few days now. Pretty nice city! Hasn't rained yet. Hopefully will be going to see Helm's Deep from the last Lord Of The Rings movie. :) I cross over by ferry to the south island on the 28th. Then it's on to glaciers and mountains! Woo hoo!! May 23 Arrived in Taupo! Have had rain since leaving Auckland on the Kiwi Experience. Started off with a cool cove that looked like the Great Ocean Road in Australia. Then down to the stinky city of Rotorua where they have a lot of thermal activity (and smells of sulfer...) Then over to Waitomo to go in some caves to see Glow Worms that were really cool. And finally now down to Taupo yesterday. Weather is a little better here but can't hike at Mount Doom due to really bad weather there. But I went skydiving today!! It was SO much fun! Loved it! Definitely the first of many (once I can afford it). And hiked up Mt Tauhara to get a good view of Lake Taupo as well. Pretty cool. I carry on south tomorrow. May 14 I'm now in New Zealand!! Spent a couple of days in the Blue Mountains for some hiking and camping before leaving Sydney. Torential downpour all day yesterday... Happy to get out of the rain. Had a good (but delayed) flight into Auckland today. Seems like a nice city! I'm staying at the Auckland Central Backpackers hostel for the several days that I'm here. I head out on the Kiwi Experience bus on the 19th. First thing that I did when I got here was getting my Matrix: Reloaded movie ticket for 12:01am on the 16th. :) Can't wait! May 9 I'm now back in Sydney and staying at Peta's till I fly to New Zealand. Had a fun final week on the Oz Experience bus. Stopped in Noosa, Mooloolaba, Nimbin, Byron Bay, Bellingen, and Nundle. All of my beach locations were rained out... bah. But I still went surfing one last time in the pouring rain at Byron Bay and saw dolphins while I was at it! :) Pretty cool. Now to pull an all-nighter for my last Club Blink night here in Sydney! Woo! Apr 29 Spent the past 3 days driving a 4x4 with 8 other people on Fraser Island! LOTS of fun. Weather was decent enough, slept under the stars one night, saw dingoes, swam in pure water lakes, drank and sang by the campfire, etc. Had a blast. Fun driving on sandy inland tracks through practically rainforest. Quite cool. Apr 22 Spent the past 3 days on a big sail boat!! Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, out from Airlie Beach. Other than it raining for the first two days... it was beautiful! Stopped at Whitehaven Beach which had incredible white sand! Very cool. And did about 2 hours of snorkelling (not quite as nice as my reef diving trip though). Met more cool people of course, and now partying with them in Airlie Beach for a couple of days. :) Apr 14 Mostly having fun with friends from the bus while in Cairns. Did a scuba diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef a few days ago which was VERY fun. Loved it!! Lots of coloured fish and coral and stuff. Clear water, beautiful sand. SO cool. Then spent the past couple of days at Cape Tribulation which is a beautiful beach/rainforest area. Probably the most secluded and beautiful place I've been in Australia. Very enjoyable. Now I relax a few days in Cairns before heading south down the coast again. (need a break from the travelling...) Only a month till I head to NZ! Yikes! Apr 10 Made it to Cairns okay across the hot desert (with zillions of flies). Remarkably greener than I'd imagined. The whole outback isn't as barren as it used to be. Shrubs all over the place... A lot of driving to get across on dirt tracks. Stayed in small towns and made stops at relatively unimpressive places... Winton was cool 'cause that's where QANTAS (Queensland And Northern Territory Airline Service) started. Pretty cool. The last part of the drive through the Atherton Tablelands was quite beautiful though as we decended into Cairns. Apr 7 Arrived in Alice Springs tonight. What a great trip! 18 of us in a bus over 6 days. We all got to know each other really well. Lots of fun. Started off heading into the Flinders Ranges and we hiked up Mount Olyssen to see into the Wapena Pound. A LONG drive up to Cooper Pedy to stay in an underground hostel and learn about Opal Mining. Then on to Ayer's Rock... WOW!! SO cool. Climbed up the very challenging slope and along the ridges at the top. Great view! Walking around the base of it was fantastic too. Quite a unique rock. :) Got pictures of it at sunrise, then a hike around the Olgas, learned about much of the aboriginal culture, then up to King's Canyon! VERY impressive. Probably my favourite part of the trip so far. Fun cliffs to climb EVERYWHERE to get spectacular views. I was hopping all over the place. :) And the canyon itself was quite impressive. Had a waterhole to swim in too with the canyon around us. Just fantastic!! Bus broke down on the way to Alice today, so we arrived 4 hours late... More goodbyes and up early to carry on to Cairns tomorrow. Apr 1 Not much to do in Adelaide... Saw the Adelaide Crows home opener of Aussie Rules Football which was pretty cool! And a great time with friends in the evenings. I leave them all behind and head to the centre of Australia tomorrow. :( Mar 29 Got to Adelaide today. Met a really good group of people on the bus since Torquay. Starting along the Great Ocean Road (12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, etc) which was quite cool. Stayed at Warnambool and saw Little Penquins! Then on to the Grampians National Park to see McKenzie Falls and the Balconies. Pretty cool. Then stopped for a couple of days in Natimuk to go rock climbing at Mount Arapiles with a couple of friends I made on the bus. VERY cool! 5 hours of climbing with a guide. Loved it! Adelaide seems a little boring but I'll be having fun with my new friends from the bus. :) Mar 24 Well, I've said my goodbyes to friends in Melbourne and started my Oz Experience bus trip yesterday. I stopped at Torquay and did a surf lesson yesterday which was fun. Rented a board today but the conditions were quite bad so I didn't do nearly as well... :( Mar 19 Drove back to Hobart yesterday with a stop in Mount Fields National Park to see Russell Falls. Dropped off the car then did a little walking tour of Hobart. Stayed one last night at the Pickled Frog and then up at 4:30 this morning to catch the bus to the airport for my 6:35 flight back to Melbourne. What a great trip! Can't wait to go back. :) Am now staying with the Thompsons again till I leave Melbourne on Sunday. Mar 17 Drove from Launceston to Cradle Mountain with a stop at Devil's Gullet yesterday, camped last night, and hiked all day today. Very foggy today but cleared up by mid afternoon... BEAUTIFUL area. I really want to come back so that I can do the Overland Trail which starts here. Drove to Strahan on the west coast for the night. They had a really fun St. Patrick's Day party in their only pub. hehehe. Met a Dutch couple who I talked with all night and they won the grand prize draw which included a lot of free beer, Midori, a backpack cooler, etc. And so they gave me 12 of the cans of VB (beer) for my trip. :) Lots of fun. One of my more memorable St. Patrick's Days. :) Really wish that I had brought a camera to the pub... bah. Mar 15 | pics Up early today to hiking up Mt Amos (middle peak of the Hazards) in Freycinet NP. Very challenging but a quick climb. Back down and hiked on to Wineglass Bay which had a beautiful beach where I stayed for lunch and sun. Then back around to car and drove up the east coast to St. Helens and inland to the St. Columba Falls (highest in Tas - 90m) and onward to my destination of Launceston (second-largest 'city' in Tas) for the night. Mar 14 | pics Drove to Richmond to see the most photographed convict-built bridge. Then to Eaglehawk Neck to see some cool natural coast formations on my way to Port Arthur. Took a picture and carried on back up the coast to Coles Bay just outside of Freycinet National Park to stay at the hostel there.. Mar 13 | pics Flew into Hobart, Tasmania last night on Virgin Blue. Stayed at the Pickled Frog hostel last night and tonight and rented a wreck to tour with for the week. Spent today southwest of Hobart. Hiked to the peak of Hartz Mountain, drove all the way down to the most southern town in all of Australia called Cockle Creek, and back up the scenic route to Hobart. Mar 9 | pics It's a holiday Monday tomorrow (Labour Day), so there was a special Goo night at the Metro Nightclub tonight (where I always go on Thursdays). Fun day and night. And pics this time!! Also, had my last week of work this week. Regisistered Challenger in Victoria to help it to sell, and it worked! I sold it on Friday!! For $3250... not great, but better than nothing... Have to get it roadworthy too which is going to be about $800 worth of repairs... Bah. It was Grand Prix weekend here in Melbourne too. I could hear the cars zipping around from where I was in the city today. It's also the Moomba Festival weekend which involved many events, including water skiing on the Yarra River downtown. Pretty cool. Feb 23 | pics Happy Birthday to me! :) Had a fun weekend with Matt and Cait. Went to the Great Britain Hotel last night where we had pints of "Piss" and talked with some strangers in the basement of the place (which looked remarkably like the basement of a UofT frat house... hehehe). But a good time for sure. Matt cooked breakfast at 4am when we got home which was fantastic! And I had fajitas for dinner at TGI Fridays tonight with them. Not as good as the Lone Star Cafe but it'll have to do. Only two more weeks of work in Melbourne to go! :) Feb 9 | pics Peta is in town until Wednesday. We went to the St. Kilda Festival today. TONS of people! Supposedly close 200,000 people! One of the bigger festivals in the southern hemisphere. AND, I moved into my new place a couple of days ago!! A 2 bedroom apt with a New Zealander. Decent place in Moonee Ponds (15 mins train to downtown Melbourne). Everything that I need. And only $390/mth. Sweet. Also, been working 10-5 all week last week, still doing MS Access stuff for IEP. Hopefully some web stuff coming up this week. Feb 1 | pics Went down to Torquay for the day today with Caitlin and Mathew. Pretty fun! Saw Bell's Beach (where Point Break was filmed -- great surfing). Nice beaches (but not as nice as Jervis Bay...). Jan 27 | pics Big Day Out was today! Wow! Great music festival! Just non-stop bands that were good. Pacifier, Millencolin, Deftones, The Vines, Machine Gun Fellatio, Jimmy Eat World, The Living End, Queens of the Stoneage, Jane's Addiction, Underworld, and Foo Fighters!! Totally kicked ass. Got some good pics too. :) Also spent yesterday with Caitlin and friends of hers for the Triple J Hotest 100 countdown on the radio. Queens of the Stoneage got number 1 with No One Knows! Good stuff. It was also Australia Day. Had a good time with them celebrating. :) Jan 23 | pics Well, I started work today! I'm doing some casual IT stuff for IEP (Australia's version of SWAP). Just MS Access database stuff for now and probably 20hrs/week but will hopefully end up being a full time web development project. Fingers crossed. :) Plus some pics of Kirsty's house and family. Jan 19 | pics Toured Melbourne today so a bunch of pics from Melbourne are here. Jan 16 | pics I'm FINALLY in Melbourne... Staying with Kirsty's family (a girl that I met when I was in Europe). But I've been in Orbost this whole time... The coil didn't come till Tuesday and it was the wrong size... So it didn't come again until last night and they finally fixed it this morning. Bah! Orbost was the most boring town EVER. Nothing to do but sit in my car... But the drive through Lakes Entrance and the 90 Mile Beach was nice and have made it to Melbourne now. Hooray! Jan 10 | pics Beautiful drive south through the mountains yesterday. Mostly a bumpy windy road... Got to within 50km of Buchan in the foothills again and my car stopped... the gas just wouldn't go... after hitching to Buchan, a mechanic going out to look at it, then being towed to Orbost today, it would appear that it's the coil for the distributor... And they can't get the part till Monday so I'll be staying at the local campsite till then... Bah! My night in Buchan last night was a lot of fun though. Met a cool guy from Melbourne and played guitar with him and others. Fun night. Up till 3am with them. :) Jan 8 | pics Drove to Charlotte's Pass and did the 22km hike loop up the top of Mt Kosciuszko! Beautiful panoramic look of the mountains at the top. Beautiful! Walked right through a thunder storm too... The sun came out again but the lightning started a few bush fires around the area... Drove to the Beehi campsite further into the mountains. Fires just past there but was still able to camp there because of the wind direction. Great campsite with kangaroos and mountain view. Could see one of the smaller fires too. Jan 7 | pics Went to the Australian War Memorial (large place with exhibits for WW1, WW2, etc) and the National Museum of Australia (a modern look at the history and lifestyle of Australia) in Canberra. And drove to Jindabyne in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. Nice town on an artificial lake. Jan 6 | pics My drive to Melbourne commenced today! Went down the coast south of Sydney as far as Bateman's Bay then up to Canberra. Cool "Blow Hole" at Kiama, Jervis Bay had great white sand beaches and cool cliffs, and saw my first kangaroos at Murramarang NP! A great day. Jan 4 | pics Went to Old Syndey Town today with Theresa's whole family. Prety nice. Great representation of what Sydney was like in 1807 and fun actors getting the crowd involved. Jan 3 | pics Did a bit of touring to all the places that I hadn't been to see in Sydney. Up the Sydney Tower, Harour cruise, and the Olympics Site. Lots of pics. Jan 1, 2003 | pics Happy New Year!! Wow, the fireworks over Sydney Harbour were spectacular!! Very cool. And we had a great view of the special effects on the Harbour Bridge too. Totally kicked ass. Dec 30 | pics Went to Bathurst (3 hours west) for the weekend to visit a couple of girls that I met at Club Blink a couple of weeks back. Fun and relaxing time. Reminded me a little of Uxbridge. But slightly bigger. VERY cool racetrack. Went to the Blue Mountains on my way back today. Beautiful!! Got a freakin speeding ticket though when I was not paying attention, looking for the tourist office... 72 in a 50 zone on a downhill... bastard cops here... relentless... Dec 25 | pics Merry Christmas! I spent today with Peta's family! Had lunch with her mom's side of the family and then dinner with her dad's side of the family. Really nice. Pretty similar traditions to home. Except it's summer and they have cold turkey and half rather than hot. And we listened to the Beach Boys while opening presents. hehehe. Quite fun. Another Scottish friend of mine, Angela, who I knew at Travel CUTS stopped by yesterday, on her way up to Brisbane. She's living in Melbourne so I'll see more of her once I'm there. Dec 23 | pics I went surfing today!! It was so much fun! Overcast and a little cool all day, but still had a good time. I was the first one standing! VERY tiring trying to walkout into the whitewash. Only tried a couple of real waves and nosedived... need more practice for that... need to stand up faster... We'll see if I can try it again sometime soon... Dec 22 Fun night last night. It was Emma's (Peta's sister) birthday and so had a big dinner with her friends and went out to Retro downtown. (a retro club). Lots of fun, drank too much. Peta and I were sick this morning... ugh... Friday was my last day at work so now I have a few weeks off before heading down to Melbourne and getting a new job there. Dec 18 Mike (GRSP) from Scotland and his girlfriend came through Sydney so they stayed with me for the past couple of days. Played some pool and had fun at Scruffy Murphy's last night (a fun pub with mostly travellers in it). They continued on to Brisbane today. Dec 12 Daniel left for New Zealand today. He'll be on his way home next week. We named the kitten Terra. Because she's a little terror! Excessively friendly and playful. :) Dec 8 | pics Went for a really nice rollerblade today at Manly Beach. Nice promenade to rollerblade along. (It's really hard to find a flatness in Sydney... really hilly...) Bought myself an acoustic guitar and case yesterday for my Day of Infamy present. And Ashton cutaway with a pickup! And a heavy duty case for about $400. Not too bad. Coloured my hair red too. 20 day dye. hehehe. Daniel bought Peta a kitten for xmas too so we have a new flatmate. :) Dec 5 BAD bush fires in southern Sydney... The trains were down most of the day yesterday. Didn't quite get as far over as Peta's parents. Came right up close to Theresa's but not quite. Scary... So in case you've seen the news, don't worry, I'm okay. :) Dec 1 | pics Helped Daniel and Peta move into her new place and I have decided to use her spare room. It's a really nice apartment in Gymea (40 mins train south of downtown). Means a longer trip to work but should be okay. Will be paying less than I was paying Jo to live with her. And it's 2 mins from the train station. Good stuff. Nov 28 Moved out of Jo's today. It's over. Not pretty... I'll be staying in a hostel for a couple of nights and maybe move into Peta's new place (she moves in this weekend). Have decided that I'll sell the car too since it's obviously cursed... I think I'll do the Oz Experience bus thingy. I get to hop on and hop where I please on the route that I want to take, and I'll meet more travellers. We'll see. Nov 24 | pic Went to Coogie Beach and had a visit at the Palace. Cool place beside the beach for a few drinks. But Jo and I aren't on the best of terms any more... Differences in what we want out of the relationship I think. Doubt it it'll last much longer. Nov 23 Found another modern rock club called Club Blink in Kings Cross. Much more like the Phoenix at home. Lots of fun. Loved it. But woke up today to a call from Daniel saying that the car was broken again! Luckily they heard hissing before driving the car or it would have blown the head gasket again... Another leaky hose! Getting it checked in Menai this time by a mechanic that Peta's dad trusts. Hopefully it'll be properly fixed this time... Nov 19 The car is finally fixed... A/C not working so will fix that tomorrow... Took a drive back out to Manly and North Head in celebration. :) Nov 17 | pics A little trip to the Sydney Aquarium! Pretty damn cool! Nov 7 | pics Finally got another job. More data entry. This time for the Nutrimetics head office (big worldwide costmetics company). I look after keying in all the fax orders that we get and keying whatever else needs to be keyed in... fun stuff... but I get to call women when they screw up their orders... Pretty funny actually. Will make me more confident on the phone I'd think. Also Daniel is coming back to Sydney and the car is being towed here to be fixed in Sydney. Looks like it'll be around $1550 to replace the engine with a reconditioned engine... Great... Nov 3 Another little trip to Canberra! Went for StoneFest '02. Live DJs on Friday night which was fun and then rock bands on Saturday. But our car broke down so I only ended up seeing the last few bands on Saturday. Aparently we blew the head gasket due to a leaky water hose... Bah! So Daniel stayed in Canberra to look after it... Peta, Jo, and I drove back with one of Peta's friends. Nov 1 | pics Finished working for the Australian Corporate Games. No other work yet. Fun Hallowe'en party at our place last night! We even went trick or treating around the building! Oct 28 Moved out of my place in Bondi and into a really nice apartment in Ultimo (closer to downtown) with a girl that I've been seeing for the past week. Yes, I'm moving in with someone that I've known a week... Freaky... only when travelling... :) Her name is Jo and she's from Colorado. Yes, an American. I don't know what I'm doing. ;-) Oct 27 Finally found a club with modern rock! Went to Club 77 last night. Opens at midnight, goes all night, and all hard stuff. Totally kicked ass! :) Oct 18 Started a new job today. Enterring data for the Australian Corporate Games. Just had to enter participants into the database from application forms. Boring... Oct 15 My first job! Working for Lawson Menzies Auctions. Just putting labels on wine bottles to number them for the auction. Worked with Ben Howard from England to get the numbers right. Oct 14 Moved into a new place close to Bondi Beach. Not nearly as nice, not accessible to the rest of the house, but at least it's a locked room on my own (so Daniel moved in with me too). Had dinner with Theresa and family (longtime friend of Dad's). Oct 13 | pics A weekend trip to Canberra with Daniel and Peta to visit some of Peta's friends, party, and see the sights. Very fun time! My might move in with Caitlin (the blond) when I head to Melbourne. Oct 10 Stuff went missing last night from our apartment including a couple of cameras, cd player, my two chargers (for mobile phone and CD player). Since I was the only one living there that the rest didn't know, they decided to kick me out just to be safe... Stupid... Stayed with Daniel in the meantime... Also had an interview with a temp agency called Adecco! Went really well! I'll be doing data entry jobs soon! (after a month of travelling, I'm pretty broke...) Oct 6 Fun weekend with Peta from IEP and other Bunac/SWAP participants. Cronulla Beach then a party at Peta's with mixed drinks, music, etc yesterday. Up much of the night. :) Oct 3 | pics Took the ferry over to Manly Beach and North Head (the entranceway to Sydney Harbour). Beautiful area! Picture from my place in Bondi too. Oct 2 Daniel and I bought our first car today! A '91 Holden Apollo Wagon (same as a Toyota Camry). We also agreed to move into an nice apartment near Bondi Beach with a few Americans. Sep 30 | pics My first week in Australia! Just some random shots in downtown Sydney and at my hostel. Looking for a place to live and looking for jobs... Sep 26 | pics Met up with Daniel before leaving LA and made another great stopover in Fiji. Five days was enough though. :) Landed in Sydney and got the train to our hostel. Hello Australia!! Sep 19 | pics Pictures of my nine days in Los Angeles. Beach, Hollywood, Universal Studios, etc. Sep 10, 2002 My trip has begun! Caught my flight out of Toronto and landed in Los Angeles with no problems. Caught the bus from the airport and found my way to Julie & David's in Hermosa Beach. Easy!