Adventures of the Black girls

Boxing, Beaches, and Boats.

theblackgirls — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:16:00 GMT

Well, we apologize for not writing sooner, but if you saw the beaches here you'd understand. We arrived in Phuket, ready for 3 weeks of Muay Thai Boxing camp. After finding out the boxing camp was smack in the middle of nowhere, and it cost about $15 anytime you wanted to leave to the beach or town, we decided to just stay 1 week. Over the weekend, the camp shut down for the Songkran Festival which is the Thai New Years, or one hell of a waterfight!! We left and spent 3 days in Patong Beach, staying in a fairly nice hotel with a rooftop pool. We were thoroughly drenched everytime we took a few steps outside of our hotel lobby. We finally gave up and bought our own watergun to spray back! We also had our first McDonalds in what felt like ages. We spent the 3 days relaxing on the beach, seeing a few flicks, and hanging around our pool. We headed back to the camp for the last few days.

We took the ferry to Ko Phi Phi after a week in Phuket. We'd planned on spending about 3 nights on Phi Phi, which quickly turned into 7! We LOVED it there. The beach was beautiful, the beach parties never let us down, and the highlight of our week was a sunset tour to Maya Bay. We did some snorkelling which was incredible, we both said we felt like we were on the discovery channel... we'd never seen so many vibrant fish before! Maya Bay was a place we never wanted to leave... and we think it may just be the most beautiful place on earth.

We were sad to leave Phi Phi, but new we had to carry on. We took the ferry to Railay... although there was some confusion as to where to get the boat to drop us off. We eventually made it to Railay West, and found a place to stay on the East beach that were incredible bungalows nestled in the huge cliffs. Our friend from Holland came and met us on Railay, and with her we joined another sunset snorkel tour with hopes it would be similar to the one we did on Phi Phi. We were a bit let down by the snorkelling, but the sunset on Poda Island made up for it. Our guide cooked us a seafood sea-gypsy meal right on the beach, and once it was dark we loaded up the boat to head out to sea to swim in phosphorus-lit waters (just like on the movie "the beach". It felt like you were swimming with thousands of glowing fireflies.

We then took a boat to Ao Nang, another beach in the Krabi area. We spent a lot of time on the beach, and checking out the shops. We also got a great deal on a massage package one day while sitting on the beach. For $10 we all got an hour back/neck/shoulder massage, a pedicure, a foot scrub, and a small foot massage. Plus lots of free pineapple!

Tonight we fly into Bangkok to pick up Tamsen from the airport. We plan on spending a few days in Bangkok, and maybe checking out a few of the national parks in the area. But you know us... plans tend to change in a matter of moments! We'll try and keep you updated with where we're going! Missing everyone and see you soon, as the countdown's now on for us coming home.

Love,

Kristin and Tanis :)

Our last few days in Vietnam

theblackgirls — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Our last week in Vietnam went by SO fast! We spent our last day in Mui Ne going on a tour with some friends from the UK that included sand dunes and sand dune boarding and hiking through some Fairy Stream. The tour was lots of fun... but we didn't realize that we were signing up for a sand-dune facial and full body exfoliation. After going back to our hotel for a nap, we went to an all-you-can-east BBQ on the beach at a bar called POGO with everyone. We spent the night drinking under the stars and discussing how hard it'll be to go back to real life after this!

The next day we caught the bus to Ho Chi Minh City and met up with our friends to find some accomodation and pizza. The next day, we caught a local bus to try and go to this waterpark we'd heard so many good things about. We ended up being told the wrong place, and ended up at a Vietnamese theme park...but still had an awesome time playing in the kid's pool and going down the 2 waterslides. That night we ate at the local market and learnt how to play a new drinking game, "21". We were all having an awesome time until our friend left to pick us up some more rum, and on her way had her bag stolen with all her money, camera, and her Gnome. We tried to cheer her up with a bottle of cheap whiskey and HBO.

The next day we had planned to do the tunnels... but ended up sleeping in until noon and missing the tour. We ran errands all day instead. That night we went to an all-you-can-eat Pizza and pasta buffet. We couldn't find the karaokee bars, so we ended up buying $1 bottles of rum and going back to our hotel to play some games. Before we new it it was 5am, and we'd gone through 3 bottles of rum and 10 beer. So we decided it was time for bed.

The next day we said bye to two of the boys, and had our last Vietnamese meal at the market. Today, we got up and caught our flights from Saigon into Phuket, and signed ourselves up for our 3-week Muay Thai camp. We'll keep you posted on how it goes! Hopefully we'll be Thai boxing masters in no time!!

Love,

Kristin and Tanis.

Beach-Time in Vietnam.

theblackgirls — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 21:52:00 GMT

We were kept busy in Hoi An, jumping from place to place that we were having clothes made at. It was tough to stop getting clothes made, and we ended up shipping a big box home full of shirts, dresses, sandals, etc... We had a fun night out at the "Happy King Kong Bar" for Kristin's birthday.

The next day, we caught our next overnight bus to Nha Trang. The beach in Nha Trang is incredible... and it was the first beach day we'd been at in what seemed like months! We spent our first day lounging on the beach, working on gaining back our tans. We also had lunch at the Sailing Club, and celebrated one of our friend's birthdays having Mexican, then heading to the Why Not? bar for a few buckets. After, we went to the sailing club for a little bit of dancing, and a few more "buckets," which are really Jam Jars. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel in Nha Trang that had the comfiest beds and pillows, not to mention the greatest AC. Oh, and arooftop pool that overlooked the ocean.

The next day, we were excited for that evening's huge beach-party at the Sailing Club. During the day, we all got new haircuts (which were much needed!) We went for supper and made it to Crazy Kim's just in time for 2 for 1 margaritas! We then ventured over to the Red Apple, which is the backpacker's bar for some more cheap drinks. We ended up befriending the owner of the club, who invited us to accompany him to the beach party in his jeep. We got into the party for free (It would have cost us about $7 each otherwise), and were greeted by the owner of the sailing club. We felt like VIP! We spent the rest of the night dancing on the sand. When the becah party shut down, we tried to move to another bar but they turned us away so we partied on the roof-top of our new friend's hotel, and saw the sunrise on the beach.

The next day we were all a bit slow-moving. Kristin sat by the pool all afternoon, while Tanis enjoyed the beds and AC until 4 pm. The night was chill... we went back to the Red Apple for a few drinks to say bye to some of the friends that were moving on.

The next day, Tanis and the girls went on a day boat trip to 4 of the nearby islands (Kristin was sick all day :( BOO!) We got to go snorkelling, sing karaokee on the boat, and enjoy happy hour at the floating bar while in tubes.

Our last day in Nha Trang, we started off with lunch at the Sailing Club... we loved their wraps! Then we had massages on the beach, and enjoyed the sun. For supper, we went to our favorite place for Spring Rolls... it turned out quite bizarre as the waiter seemed quite interested in the one male at our table, and kept commenting on his clothing, and touching his "strong muscles" and asking him if he was married. The rest of us were quite amused. We basically ran out of there... We went to the A-Mart, which is the first place we've found wtih Salt & Vinegar chips. Yum! That night, Tanis and Jifka went out for one last night in Nha Trang at the Why Not bar.

The next day we took the bus to Mui Ne, and were disappointed that the Kitesurfing lessons are WAY out of our budget. We're trying to decide where to go next... whether we spend the next month in the Philippines, or head to Thailand for an extra month. We'll keep you posted!

Love,

Kristin and Tanis.

Halong Bay, Hue, and Hoi An

theblackgirls — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:20:00 GMT

What a busy first week it's been in Vietnam! Our Halong Bay trip was so much fun!! The first day started off with a 3 hour bus ride to the bay from Hanoi. Once we arrived, we hopped onto a junk boat with the rest of our group (about 25 people) and had lunch while boating through the bay. After lunch, we went for a kayak to a few of the bay's lagoons and walked through a few caves. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous! After, we kayaked back to our boat for a swim and to jump off the top deck a few times! We had dinner on the boat, and afterwards sat around the top deck with our group to play a few drinking games, listen to some music and try out Vietmanese Arm Wrestling.

The next morning, the boat dropped us off at Cat Ba Island, where we went for a hike up to one of the mountain peaks. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and it was a very challenging hike after the beverages from the night before!! After our hike, we went and checked into our hotel on Cat Ba Island, and enjoyed lunch on the top floor balcony overlooking the harbour. We spent the afternoon napping and enjoying our Air Conditioning and HBO. For supper, we ate at the Bamboo Cafe, then went out to a local bar for the night.

Our last day, we woke up early to get back onto a boat to head back to the Harbour. We spent most of the afternoon on the bus back to Hanoi. We were only in Hanoi for about 3 hours before we had to catch our sleeper bus to Hue. The bus was 3 rows of beds down the bus, with a 2 levels of beds. There was also blankets, pillows, and a tv (which only played music videos in Vietmanese.) We all had a surprisingly OK sleep on the bus, before getting to Hue in the morning and finding a place to stay.

We had a busy day in Hue! We started off by hiring 3 guys on motorbikes to drive us around and show us the local sights. We saw a few local Pagodas, a Royal Tomb, Bunker Hill overlooking the area, and the Citadel. After supper with friends from our Halong Bay trip, we went for a walk down by the Perfume River. We ended up being convinced by one of the local boat owners to take a Dragon Boat tour of the city for an hour. It was an interesting way to see the city all light up at night!

Today, we had to wake up early to catch our next bus to Hoi An. We arrived here at about 1 and ended up just staying at the hotel the bus dropped us off at, with a few friends. We spent the day checking out some of the local tailor shops (there are probably over a hundred of these local shops, that will make anything you want custom fit for you for cheap!!) We've spent the rest of the day deciding just how much stuff we REALLY need, so that we're prepared to go tomorrow and order our clothes. We'll stay in Hoi An for about 3 nights before we continue to head south.

Hopefully we'll have exciting updates and photos of our new clothes for you soon!!

Love,

Kristin and Tanis.

Gallery: Asia

theblackgirls — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:38:00 GMT

Vooming into Vietnam!

theblackgirls — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:17:00 GMT

Well, we've made it to Vietnam safe and sound, after the 45 minute flight to Hanoi. We were going to take the 29-hour bus ride from Vientiane, but after hearing many people's horror stories, we opted to spend the extra coin to get here over a day faster. After getting off our flight, and grabbing our luggage, we made it past the harassing taxi drivers and decided to take the $2 bus into the city center, which ended up being longer than our flight from Laos. The bus dropped us off a ways away from the hotel we were hoping to stay at, but it was a nice night for a long walk with our bags. We didn't realize that we would be harassed the entire way there by taxi drivers, guys on motorbikes following us, and tuk tuk drivers trying to give us rides. We finally made it and found a place to stay (we splurged and found a place with AC AND a tv!!) We spent the evening in our room, enjoying both of those!

Today, we had free breakfast in our hotel, and booked our Halong Bay trip for tomorrow, and our busses for the rest of Vietnam. We grabbed some lunch at a busy local restaurant, where we realized that there is no "Jasmine Special Combo" in Vietnam, and the food here isn't exactly Canadian Vietnamese food!! Kristin spent the afternoon visiting a few of Hanoi's local temples, and the site of Vietnam's first University, the Temple of Literature.

This evening, we went to a movie in the Vietnamese Cinema (which luckily was in English, just with Vietnamese subtitles). We faced death in the eye by hopping on the backs of Scooters as a way of getting back to our Hotel... and the drivers here are crazy! The soundtrack of Hanoi would be constant car and motorbike horns. We're definitely ready to get out of here, and escape what's probably the busiest and craziest city we've been in so far! Hopefully, there will be peace and quiet waiting for us in Halong Bay and CatBa Island.

Bye for now,

Kristin and Tanis.

Tubing in Vang Vieng

theblackgirls — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:18:00 GMT

We absolutely loved our time in Vang Vieng. Besides Byron Bay in Australia, it's the longest place we've stayed so far. We're not sure if it's the Friends bars, the Big Beer Laos, or the tubing that keeps people there so long! But it's definitely been one of our favorite places so far.

Our first day in Vang Vieng we hopped on a tuk tuk to check out the Tham Jang cave. It was a bit of a hike up to the entrance of the cave, and we spent awhile walking around inside. Luckily, we made a friend who let us share his flashlight, as our group only had one that burnt out within minutes. After leaving the cave, we were all hot and wanted to go for a swim, so our tuk tuk driver dropped us off at the end of the tubing. We ended up walking to one of the bars along the tubing route, which had a huge waterslide and one of many rope swings into the river. Now, these aren't ordinary rope swings; at the highest point we estimate you're about 10m above the water, and when you finally let go it's about a 5m drop into the river!!! We hung out at the bar for a couple of buckets and few Beer Lao, and hung out with the tubbers from that day. We were able to get pictures of the tubing, as we weren't planning on bringing our cameras.

The next day, we went tubing. How to describe tubing... You start off the day renting a giant black tube, and taking a tuk tuk about a 10 minute drive out of the city. The start of the tubing is the first of many bars on stilts above the water, packed with people, buckets, rope swings, and blasting music. We spent time at the first bar enjoying a few drinks and the guys were brave enough to go off the first rope swing of the day. After awhile at the first bar, you hop on your tubes and float about 2 minutes downstream to the next bar. The whole tubing area is only about 200m in total, filled with all kinds of bars. There was one bar that had a giant tug-o-war over a mud pit, one with a big cliff jump into the water, and many with these crazy rope swings. When we finally made it to the last bar, it was suddenly pitch black and definitely time to head back to town. We were probably the only 2 people whose tubes actually made it back to the tube rental shop to get our deposit back. The idea of it might not sound so logical... but like I said, it's hard to put into words how crazy and fun the experience was!!

The day after tubing, we didn't accomplish much besides sitting and watching Friends, and walking around town. The day after that, we took a tuk tuk out to this "Blue Lagoon" we kept hearing so much about, for an afternoon of swimming. We're not sure what we were expecting but it was a blue... lagoon. We spent a bit of time there before heading back into town. That night, we had a movie and supper and had a last Beer Lao with the boys before leaving Laos. Today, we woke up and caught our bus to the capitol city Vientiane. We said bye to the boys, who are heading back to Canada soon, and wandered around for what seemed like forever before finding a Guesthouse with availability. We've spent the rest of today making plans on how we're getting to Vietnam. Hopefully, we'll have updates on that very soon!!

Cheers,

Kristin and Tanis

dead dogs, speed boats, hot buses, bowling and friends..

theblackgirls — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Well we made it to Laos.. it was crazy adventure!! After leaving Chiang Mai we took a 5 hour mini bus to the thailand/laos boarder. The next morning we were scheduled to take the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang, however after a few too many beverages the night before we paid the extra fee to take the 6 hour speed boat. How to describe the speed boat??? It's a long tail boat that barely fits six people let alone their luggage. Your feet are crammed into a time space where you can't move and you are offered to wear a safety helmet that looks like it might actually have been used once or twice!! So for the next 6 hours we boated down the Mekong River and it wasn't out of the ordinary to see dead dogs, pigs, and garbage floating everywhere! The scenery surrounding was nice however. We stopped about half way down the river for lunch and a toilet break. THe toilets were basically a hole in the ground that anything going through the hole went right into the river. We were surprised to see many of the local people people washing their hair just 20 feet away!!!

We arrived at Luang Prabang at about supper time and found a place to stay and grabbed some food at Martin's Pub which turned out to be our restarant of choice for those two days we were there. THe next day we had a good sleep in and went for a long run in the heat! We had breakfast over the river and we discovered a new fruit that we can't find the name for as well as some banana pancakes! We tried renting motorbikes or pedal bikes to head out to this waterfall but they were too expensive so we took a tuk tuk out to see the falls. Had we known before had how beautiful it was going to be there, we would've spent the entire day. We arrived just one hour before the gates to the waterfall closed so our time was limited!! Just before taking our tuk tuk back to the city, our driver invited us over to a table with local laos people where we got to have a few beers and talk to the family who ran a restarant by the falls. The guy taught us how to say "Cheers" and "Bottoms Up" which are the only other laos words we know other than "Hello" "Goodbye" and "thanks you". Luang Prabang is known for it's after hours bowling as the entire city shuts down at midnight and the only place left open for tourists is the alley. We thought we'd just go for a game or two and ended up spending our entire evening taking shots of local "true manhood" whiskey and tequilla.. let's just say it was a long bus ride to VangVieng the next morning!!!

So now we're in Vang Vieng. WE found a gem of a place to stay as it's a newer guesthouse with toilets and a comfy bed.. all for $5 each a night!!!! We went out for our first meal here to find out that all the rumours were true.. they do play the tv series of FRIENDS at every restaurant and bar in town!!

We plan on staying in Vang Vieng for the next 5 or so days until the boys have to head back to bangkok to fly home to saskatoon. We're hoping to do the tubing down the river tomorrow if we're all feeling up to it!!! It's what Vang Vieng is famous for in the tourist world so we're stoked to try it!!

Until next time,

"SABIDEE" (goodbye)
Tanis & Kristin

OH my Buddha!

theblackgirls — Sun, 8 Mar 2009 03:02:00 GMT

Never Try Never Know! We're back in Chiang Mai after our Hill Tribe Trek, which turned out to be a blast. Our trip started out early yesterday morning with a trip to the local market to get the groceries for the next few days. Then we drove to an elephant camp, where we got to ride the elephants. We thought the elephant ride would be lots of fun, but by the end we were ready to leave as we felt guilty using the elephants for our pleasure when they're chained up and mistreated for tourist enjoyment.

Our group then left and headed out on a 2 hour trek through the jungle, where we stopped and had a swim at the waterfall where there was refreshing beer for sale! After our swim we continued on the trek to the Karen village, where we stayed with a local family. Once we got there and put our stuff away, we were invited to a local marriage ceremony between two people from different tribes. This was the second day of their 3-day marriage ceremony. The groom greeted us with several rounds of their local Whiskey, and we jammed out with bongos and cymbals and a gong. The groom also explained the marriage process and a little bit about their tribe. We also got to see the food preparations, and meet many of the local children. The night was spent having beers and figuring out mind puzzles that our guides tried to trick us with!

The next day the family had breakfast ready for us when we woke up so that we were energized for the long trek ahead. We hiked for about 2 hours before stopping to cool off in a river, then continued to the start of our Bamboo rafting. It was a great experience and something we'll never forget!!

Heading to Laos tomorrow on the slow boat which entails 3 days: a 6 hour bus ride and 2 days on a boat. It should be an adventure getting there!!

Stay tuned,

Kristin and Tanis

Finally in Asia!!!

theblackgirls — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 00:44:00 GMT

We would just like to inform everyone that we have safely made it to Thailand!!! Our flight was short considering we slept through most of it, and landed in Bangkok at 10:00am! We were lucky that we had a friend who was also flying in from taiwan at the same time who knew where he was going so we met up with him and took a cab to Khao San Road, where all the backpackers stay. It was alot easier communicating and getting around than we had anticipated and pretty much most people are fluent in english. We found a cozy place to stay for 430 baht which works out to be about $14 split 3 ways!!! The first thing we did after checking into our guest house was grabbing some cold beer from a near by 7-11 (a beer was 26 baht which is less than $1) and walked the streets checking out the market. We were soon interupted by one of the millions of Tuk Tuk drivers offering to show us the sights. We paid the driver 15 bacht to drive us around for one hour (less than .50c!!) We ended the day with a traditional thai meal and our very first Thai massage (which costs about $7 for an hour).

The next day we did some shopping at the big Siam Discovery Center and MBK then decided to buy a bus pass and head to Chiang Mai (a city in northern Thailand). We took the overnight bus and arrived in the city at 6:00am, checked in and slept till noon!!! Later that day we met up with more friends from Saskatoon and started the endless stream of thai beers!! We even had our first Thai bucket!!!

The next day we spent shopping, getting our nails done, going for another massage and checking out the night bazaar, a gigantic night market!

TOmorrow we're heading out on a 2 day hill tribe trek that includes elephant rides, banboo rafting, and a night sleeping in the jungle next to a waterfall!!

Signing off from thailand,

Tanis & Kristin

New Zealand in a Nut Shell

theblackgirls — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:38:00 GMT

Well our New Zealand adventure has come to an end, as we're sitting in the Auckland airport waiting for our flight to Thailand. We've slacked on the journal updates, which we apologize for, but it's hard to get frequent computer time when you're living in a campervan! To sum up New Zealand, here is the following...

After Queenstown, we drove to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier where we went skydiving! We jumped out of our plane from 12 000 feet, and had views of the Tasman Sea, the rainforest, the mountains, and the Glaciers. It was amazing!

Next was Abel Tasman National Park where we went Sea Kayaking and hiking. From there we went to Nelson, to meet up with distant relatives, before catching the ferry to Wellington (which is on the North Island).

Once on the North Island, we went to Tongariro National Park where we did the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The crossing was a 19.4 km, 6 and a half hour hike through volcanoes and craters, and with stunning views of Emerald Lakes and scenes from Lord of the Rings. (One of the volcanoes we walked on was "Mt. Doom"!)

From Turangi we drove to the Waitomo caves, where we did a Blackwater Rafting tour. This involved crawling through pitch black caves. At some points we were up to 300 feet below the ground, and we got to see the famous Glow Worms.

Rotorua was next on the agenda, where we spent Tanis' birthday in the mud. We started the day by going Mud Quadding, and then to the famous Hells Gate mud spa. Complete with a night out on the town, and maybe one too many birthday shooters.

After taking the advice of our shuttle driver, we drove to Mt. Manganui the next day and hung out on the beach and in the cute ocean side town. We also hiked up Mt Manganui to see spectacular views.

From there we drove to Paihia which is in the Bay of Islands. In Paihia we did a Dolphin tour, but were dissappointed that we weren't able to actually swim with the dolphins because there were too many babies in the pods. It was still an awesome tour as we saw lots of dolphins and gorgeous islands. The next day we took a tour to Cape Reinga, the farthest northern point of New Zealand, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. We didn't realize when we booked the tour that the average person on the bus was well over 60, and we felt a little bit out of place. However, we were impressed by the elders as they took part in the Sand Dune boarding which meant a long hike up falling sand to the top of the dune where you get on a boogey board and speed down the sand.

After Paihia we went to the Woodhill Forest where we did a Tree obstacle course. The course had 8 sections and took over 2 1/2 hours to complete. At some points in the course, we were 10m high in the trees, walking over tightropes and ziplinning from tree to tree. Thank god for our safety harnesses!!

Last stop in New Zealand was Auckland, where we stocked up on supplies for Asia and spent some time chilling in the city. We were sad to see Rooby, our campervan go... but we're super excited for the adventures that await us in Thailand. Hopefully we'll have updates from Bangkok soon.

Missing you all and wish us Good Luck at our first big culture shock on our trip. At this point we don't even know how to say "Hello" in Thai, so we need all the luck we can get!

Love,

Kristin and Tanis :)

Our Queenstown Adventures!

theblackgirls — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:41:00 GMT

We had a blast in Queenstown and there were so many fun and adventerous things to do in the city!! Our first day in Queenstown, we woke up bright and early to go whitewater rafting. After a crazy 30 minute bus ride along the side of a cliff, we were dropped off at the start of our raft ride through Shotover Canyon. The raft was about 2 hours long, and had some exciting rapids... We had some crazy tour guides that threw a few guys from one of the other rafts into ours for a quick "Speed Dating" experience! The raft was super chilly, and it was nice to be able to jump into a warm sauna once it was done!

We spent most of that afternoon shopping and exploring Queenstown, until 5pm when we went to our Canyon Swing! The swing was CRAZY! It's 109m high over the canyon, and has a 60m freefall. The scarriest part was trying to jump off- they say if it's your first time you need to jump off all by yourself! It was a complete rush, and we all ended up buying the videos afterwards because they're hilarious! We'll try and post them sometime soon so everyone else can laugh at us too!!

The next day, Friday the 13th, we started off our day with a bit of a jolt when a bus was turning a corner and hit the back end of our campervan! We had to spend the rest of our morning tracking down the bus company, and sorting everything out and making sure we didn't have to pay the damages on the back of our van!!

In the afternoon, we went on our canyoning adventure! It was exciting, and included zip lines and abseiling, cliff jumping, natural water slides, climbing, swimming and hiking! It was about 2 hours moving through a canyon, and we all even jumped off an 8m cliff into a very small pool filled with rocks. That night, we went out for a few drinks in Queenstown, including the World Bar for tea pots, and Winnies. We all said that we loved Queenstown and wish we could stay longer!!

We'll try and write again soon to fill you in on more of our New Zealand adventures!!

Love,

Kristin and Tanis

Christchurch to Mt. Cook

theblackgirls — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:35:00 GMT

After our weekend in Hamner Springs, we met Melissa at the airport on Monday. We went out for a few drinks that night in Christchurch with some of our new friends from Hamner Springs.

Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early to check our of our hostel and pick up our Campervan! Once we had our van (whose name is Rooby), we drove to the Antarctic Center... where we paid far too much money to stand on snow... touch snow... look at pictures of snow... (not like we couldn't do that at home for free!). We did get to see live penguins and learn a few cool facts about Antarctica. We spent the rest of the day driving to Mt Cook.

We spent the next day in Mt. Cook doing a big 4-hr hike through the Hooker Valley. The hike had a few swing bridges, and ended at Hooker Lake where there were floating ice bergs!! After our hike, we packed up our van and continued driving down to Queenstown.

Our Spa weekend in Hamner Springs

theblackgirls — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:25:00 GMT

Sorry for the long delay in writing.. We've been SO busy enjoying New Zealand!! We left off saying we were headed our of the city for a luxurious spa weekend. We drove out to Hamner Springs on Friday the 6th, and checked into our hotel, the gorgeous Heritage Hotel. We spent most of the day sitting around our pool and watching movies on tv in the air conditioning!!

On Saturday, we woke up early and tried to go for a hike. There was a fire ban on for most of the area around Hamner Springs that restricted their hikes, but we were told that if you drove about 30 minutes out of the town there were open walks. We misunderstood the map, and ended up spending an hour driving around roads that were only meant for a 4 x 4 vehicle... not our little purple Betty!! We finally gave up, and went and spent the day by the thermal pools instead! There were about 12 different pools in the area, each was a different temperature and had different minerals in the water. We hung out there until about supper time. After supper, we decided that we shouldn't be lame and have another tv night, so we decided to go out for A drink in Hamner Springs... We ended up at the Alpine Bar, and we met some guy who insisted that we try this shooter he discovered in Canada. Our one drink turned into several drinks... and we ended up having a good night out in Hamner Springs!

The next day, we had to wake up far too early to check out of our hotel and head to the spa for our spa day! We started off in the steam room, followed by a relaxing massage and facial. Then back to relaxing in the thermal pools! We said goodbye to Hamner Springs and drove back to Christchurch.

Gallery: New Zealand

theblackgirls — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:21:00 GMT

Northern Australian Cyclone Changes Our Plans....

theblackgirls — Thu, 5 Feb 2009 18:23:00 GMT

Hi everyone! We left off in Airlie Beach, reporting that our Whitsunday sailing trip had been cancelled. We spent the night in Airlie beach, hoping conditions would improve... but ended up heading north to Townsville the next morning. Our bus stopped overnight in Townsville, so we spent the day shopping, going to movies, and avoiding the rain.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch our bus to Cairns, only to find out that no busses were running between Townsville and Cairns for at least a couple days!! The paper reported that this is the worst flooding Northern Australia has seen in 30 years... some people woke up to over 2 meters of rain in their houses!!! It didn't look like we were going to be able to bus to Cairns anytime soon, so we followed some other travellers to the local airport, to see what our options were for the next week to avoid the storm. We tossed around some ideas of flying to Fiji, or Perth, or... anywhere but there! Our airline said that, due to the weather, they would bump up our flight a week early and fly us to New Zealand within the next couple hours for no extra cost, so that's exactly what we did.

We flew from Townsville to Sydney and had a 3 hour layover in Sydney. What we didn't realize, is that our plane had landed in the domestic terminal, and we needed to be in the international terminal, which is a bus ride away! Let's just say we made it with about 30 seconds to spare before our plane took off. Yikes!! We landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, at about 1 in the morning and checked into the airport hotel for a nice hot shower and a good night's sleep.

Wednesday morning, we had breakfast (more like lunch, by the time we got up...) and rented ourselves a sweet ride for the week. Ride meaning, a small purple bubble car... it's pretty awesome. We checked ourselves into the Casino Court motel, and spent the rest of the day running errands and watching tv, for the first time in awhile!

Today, we slept in, went for a big run, and had a nice healthy breakfast... trying to get ourselves back on track since we fell off the healthy boat in Australia. The rest of the day was spent shopping, walking around Cathedral Square, and taking a 49-km scenic drive along the mountains and by the ocean. Some of the views were amazing. We even saw some wild sheep roaming on the mountains. Today, we also had to go and buy ourselves light jackets, as New Zealand is a lot more like Canada's weather, with cooler nights and less humid days.

Our plan for the next few days while we wait for Melissa to fly in on Monday, is to head up to Hamner Springs for a luxurious Girl's spa weekend. We figure we deserve it after all of our awesome tours were cancelled and we spent a week in the stupid rain. Hopefully we'll have an update soon! Just wanted to let everyone know where we're at, since we're in a completely different country than planned! We're already both completely in love with New Zealand, and have decided if we HAVE to fall in love and move anywhere, it'll be here!!!

Bye from New Zealand!!

- Kristin & Tanis!

Fraser Island Safari

theblackgirls — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 21:41:00 GMT

We had a blast on Fraser Island - not only did we have a great group of people, but the weather was in our favor and the Island was amazing. The first day, Thursday, we had an early start at 6:30 AM for our Fraser Island safety meeting and to meet our group. Together in our group, we came up with a grocery list and they sent us off shopping. They taught us how to properly cram 10 people and all of our camping supplies into one safari vehicle... which wasn't an easy task!! Once everyone and everything was packed, we went to the Hervey Bay ferry at 11:00 which dropped us off in King Fisher Bay on the Island. We filled up our large water jug, and started off on our Safari!

The first day on the island, we started off going to Central Station for a rain forest walk by a creek. We saw a couple of huge Iguanas on our walk! After the walk, we went to Lake Wabby, which is the deepest lake on Fraser Island, nestled into sand dunes. It was an amazing view, with sand like flour and bright green waters. After a refreshing swim, we went to Maheno beach to set up our camping site for the evening, right on the beach. We had to quickly set up camp, as it was pitch black by about 7:30. We tried to cook burgers in the dark, and had a few drinks with our group around a fake flashlight fire. We had a few dingos visit our camp that evening to try and steal some of our leftovers!

Woke up early the next morning and packed up our becah camp. We walked down to Eli Creek, because you can't drive on the beach during high tide. Once it was safe to leave, we drove up the coast to Indian Head, an amazing cliff lookout, where if you're lucky you can spot sharks and dolphins. All we spotted were boats. After Indian Head, we drove back down the beach, stopping at the Pinnacles and the Maheno Shipwreck. After cruising around all day we settled into our camp for the second night. After cooking pasta (again, in the dark), we spent the rest of the night around our propane stove as a substitute fire playing drinking games from around the world. We had a fun night with our group, over a few bags of goon. Once most of our group had passed out, a few of us girls walked over to party it up with the crazy Irish group. We sang some songs and downed a few beers, and decided to call it a night.

The last day on Fraser Island, we packed up our camp and spent the day swimming and tanning at Lake McKenzie. The swim was very refreshing, as everyone was coated in a thick layer of sand. Lake McKenzie had crystal clear waters and we think it was the best swimming lake that we've ever seen before. We caught the 4:00 ferry back to Hervey Bay and played some Uno on the top deck. We were so stoked to unpack our vehicle and have our first shower in 3 days! Once we were showered, we said goodbye to our group and hurried to catch our overnight bus to Airlie Beach.

We arrived in Airlie Beach this morning to discover that our Whitsunday Sailing trip has been canceled due to a Cyclone just off the northern coast. BOO!!!!!!!!!!! Our current plan is to take a bus up to Magnetic Island, although that we've heard that the ferries and roads may be closed. We'll keep everyone updated as to our plans, and we'll do our best to avoid the Cyclone... Keep your fingers crossed that we don't cross paths with the Cyclone!

Sending our love from OZ,

Kristin and Tanis. :)

P.S. If you're reading our blog we'd love to hear from you! Please make lots of comments!!!

Gallery: Fraser Island

theblackgirls — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 21:25:00 GMT

3 day Safari on Fraser Island!

Bye Bye Brisbane

theblackgirls — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:20:00 GMT

We left off saying how we had plans to do absolutely nothing on Satuday and that's exactly what we did!! We cranked the AC and wrapped ourselves in cozy blankets and had naps on the couch all afternoon.. it was great!!!!

The next day, refreshed from our day of relaxation, we woke up early to get a good start on our beach day. Unfortunately it started to rain around noon so we made a few calls home and spent the afternoon shopping... our best purchase being our new authentic UGG boots.. that we of couse shipped home as they'd take up way too much room in our already full backpacks. After shopping we rushed home as we were late for cocktail hour with Lois. For supper we went to a seafood buffet, then met some friends at the Hard Rock cafe for some drinks that moved us around to a few clubs in town throughout the night. Ended off the night inviting some friends back to play some good canadian drinking games!!

Monday morning we woke up, packed up, and drove back to Brisbane to meet up with Jeri. Lois took us down to Southbank for Australia Day celebrations and ended off the night watching some fireworks!

Tuesday was our errands day. We did laundy, shipped home our souvenirs, packed up our bags and did a bit of shopping. For supper we went to the Down Under Bar for a good $10 meal and a pint. After supper we said our final goodbyes to Jeri :( and went back to have a few night caps with Lois.

We were on the Oz Experience bus by 6:30 am this morning with stops in Noosa and Rainbow beach where we're currently at waiting for our next bus at 7:00. It's been a long day, but we're definatley excited about going to Fraser Island early tomorrow morning!!

Will send updates when we can, probably after the whitsundays and fraser island as we're taking an overnight bus inbetween the two tours.

CHEERS!

Tanis & Kristin

Soaring High in Surfers

theblackgirls — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:58:00 GMT

We apolgize for leaving you all in suspense for our next advenuture. Its been a busy week!

We left off last time as we were headed to the Lounge Cineams in Byron Bay. We did up going and we say the new James Bond movie. The rumours were true, the theatre was soo comfortable that both Tanis and Jeri fell asleep. Luckily Kristin stayed awake to fill us in on the ending.

Our last full day in Byron was spent bumming around at the beach. That night the Arts Factory put on a talent show featuring both local artists and those that were staying at the hostel. Our new friend Nu even performed by playing some unique instrument that we can't seem to recall the name of right now, but it was cool! After the talent show we were easily convinced to tag along to the Cheeky Monkey one last time! The night was lots of fun and we ended it off by having our first Meat Pie experience... mmmmm!!

The day we left Byron, Blaire and Nu showed us around. They took us up to the Cape Byron Litehouse, then took us over to a secluded tea tree lake, where it looks as if you're swimming in a pool of wine. The water is died red from fallen tea tree leaves and when you swim in it you can't even see your own body... creepy!! We got on the bus later that afternoon and headed in to Brisbane where Tanis' Aunt Lois picked us up from the bus stop. We went back to her place to settle in, she showed us around the town, and had a few drinks to cap off the evening.

The following day us girls tagged along with her on her work trip up the Gold Coast. We went to a town called Colandra to do some shopping, then off to Maroochydore and Mooloolaba to further our shopping and also chilled on their local beach. For supper, we headed back to Brisbane and she took us all out to the Wharf for some fresh and exquisite seafood. Kristin had her first fresh oyster experience and it was weird eating prawns that came out with their feet and eyes still attached.

The next day we said bye to Jeri as she was heading up north to do Fraser Island. We however, hoped on a train and headed out to the Australian Zoo where we got to finally see our first kangaroo! The zoo was really unique in that it was really interactive, many of the animals didn't even have cages so we were right up there petting and feeding the kangaroos, koalas, and even got to touch a baby aligator! One thing that was also cool was a live show put on by the Irwin family (Bindy, Robert, and Terri). That night for supper was an experience in itself. Lois took us out to her local pub for pre supper cocktails as she wanted us to meet all her local drinking buddies. We then dressed up and went out to one of Brisbane's finest restaruants called "Wilson's Boathouse" where she knew the owner, Arman. Arman treated us like royalty and made sure we didn't leave his restaurant sober! He even snuck in a bottle of white wine into each of our purses as a take home gift! The food was incredible and it was a fun time.

Friday morning we got up early and packed for our weekend holiday to Surfers Paradise. Lois dropped us off at Wet n Wild for a day of climbing stairs and sliding down terrifying waterslides. We packed it in at about 2pm and took the bus into Surfers to check in to our unit and OMG!!!!! Our Unit was located right on the beach on the 31st floor! We have views of the beach and ocean on all three sides of our unit! It's absolutely incredible!! We defiantely need to make sure we don't get too used to this exquiste lifestyle as before we know it we'll be back to hostel living and $1 loaves of bread with peanut butter and jelly. We got comfy in our unit by cranking the AC and wrapping ourselves up on the couch for an hour nap. We never knew how much we would appreciated air conditioning as this is the first time since we left canada that we've had it. 5:00pm is Aunt Lois' stict cocktail hour so we made sure we were ready to go by then. We had some champagne, wine, and a shot of or vodka as we headed out with her friend Kevin to a local Italian restaruant for supper. later that night we went out to a few surfers local pubs for some drinks and dancing. We capped off the night at a nightclub called Melba's and a drunken phone call to Jared and Kyla to wish them safe journies on their trip to Mexico.

Today we had bacon and eggs on our ocean front 31st floor balcony, and have plans to do nothing other than head to the pool and beach.

Missing you all! Loving the comments on our blog so keep them up. Oh and not sure if you noticed, but we did post some pictures in the photo section, however the computer posted them in a completely random order so they don't make much sense and we really have no intentions of fixing that. We do have some more on facebook if you care to look there.

Keeping our pinky finger extended at all times,

Tanis & Kristin