Most of you have already received this email but here it is for the rest of you. :) My grand adventure has started :) I made it safe and sound to New Zealand. It’s an amazing country and I can’t wait to see more of it :).
I left Timmins Saturday morning for Montreal where I spent a couple of days with a friend of mine, Remi. It was nice to catch up before I left overseas. Monday I took the train to Ottawa to visit family stayed with aunt Lorraine for a few days. I left Ottawa Thursday for Vancouver where I stayed with my friend Mel for the weekend. We had a great time. Vancouver is very beautiful. Maybe my next trip will be to travel Canada coast to coast! I shouldn’t get ahead of myself, let’s concentrated on this trip first. I left Monday at 2:30pm from Vancouver it was a 3 hour flight to LA. I had a 4 hour wait at the airport and then came the long flight. 12 hours from LA to Auckland. The first 6 hours were terrible but it got better after that. Let me tell you though 12 hours in a plane is SO long. But worth every minute ;) I had a 2 hour wait in Auckland and then an hour flight to Wellington (the capital of NZ). With the time change (18 hours difference with Ontario) it meant that I skipped a day. I left on Monday and arrived in Wellington NZ time Wednesday morning.
Julie (Friend of the family) was at the airport to pick me up. The challenge when I got here was to stay awake. The only way to fight jet lag is to go to bed when everyone else does. Let me tell you it’s not as easy as it sounds. But Julie was right it worked. The only side effect from the jet lag I got was dizziness besides that I was sleeping like a baby at night. :) The first few days were spent getting organized here. Bank account, Tax number, Cell phone, etc. (All the fun stuff hehe)
Saturday I went to Te Papa (The New Zealand Museum). It was very interesting and a great way to start my trip because it talked about the history and culture of New Zealand. Sunday Julie brought me up to Mount Bruce which is a Wildlife Center. After the wild life center we went Wine tasting and went to this small fisherman village to see wild seals. All and all a great day :). Tuesday I went walking in the botanical gardens (very pretty) and walked along the waterfront. The town light up a tree of lights by the waterfront and had all sorts of Christmas activities for the kids. It was very nice to see but did make me miss home. :( Today (Wednesday the 2nd) I went to this art exhibition by a Japanese artist, It was awesome. Very different and colourful. The building that held the art exhibition was decorated in coloured pocka dots, just to give you an idea of her work.
Tomorrow I’m heading out on a Kiwi Experience tour. It’s a bus system geared for travellers like me who want to meet people and see the country. I’m pretty excited about it, should be fun! Well that’s it for now. Hope everything is good back home...Take care!
