Andrew & Sarah » Travel

Home Time

Andrew — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:25:28 +0000

Well im writing this as im sitting in Vancouver airport waiting to board my flight home at 8pm 12th. Im flying home with Air New Zealand, on their new direct flight to Auckland, its a 14.5hr flight but hopefully i will be comfortable.I finally arrive in Auckland at 6am on the 14th (Hmmm somehow a day does missing).

I have really enjoyed my time away but looking forward to getting home and seeing Sarah and catching up with friends and Family. Not so much looking forward to going back to work however, but guess i have to pay for my next trip somehow!

Highlights of my trip:

Catching up with Matt and Kat in Dublin
Road Tripping around Ireland
Catching up with Chris in Whistler
Snowboarding and Snowmobiling in Whistler!

Snowmobiling!

Andrew — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:26:07 +0000

Well today Chris, Janelle (One of Chris’s Friends) and myself went snowmobiling for 3 hours. This was the first time snowmobiling for each of us. But as we felt like a bit of excitement we choose to do the “Extreme Powderhound” tour. The snowmobiles we got given were the top of the line models complete with hand warmers built into the handle bars worth approx $20,000 each.

Our tour started off fairly leisurely taking some fairly ordinary tracks up into the hills. This gave us an opportunity to get used to our new toys. We arrived in a large bowl at which time our guide told us to let lose and have a bit of a play around. We did this for a while just mucking around going up banks, plowing through powder drifts etc… During this time Chris managed to roll his snowmobile while trying to turn on a hill, fortunately he didn’t hurt him self.

We then continued on into the steeper terrain and deeper powder. At one point i got my snowmobile stuck in deep powder, so deep when I stepped off I sunk in up to my waist!

The rest of the trip included steep banks (near vertical), more powder, runs through trees and a lot of fun! Included in our package was a BBQ lunch however we decided that we would rather spend more time snowmobiling than having a BBQ as we can do that any old time. We did however stop for a quick bite to eat and a drink. Then proceeded to play on a frozen lake where i managed to get up to 85MPH (137KM/hr) however could have gone faster if they weren’t limited to 85MPH. Upon leaving the lake area we each went over a jump and each got a bit of air under our sleds.

Overall it was an awesome experience which I would recommend to anyone! I will put some photos up in my gallery as soon as i get time.

Well i have one more day here in Whistler before heading to Vancouver for a few days then back home to NZ.

More Whistler

Andrew — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:53:46 +0000

Well the last few days have pretty similar. Have been snowboarding most days with some pretty awesome powder the last few days. Been to a few snowboard events. The Showcase showdown on Saturday night, this was slopestyle event which saw snowboarders competing for $50,000 in cash and prizes. On Sunday night we went to the Fire and Ice show which is a weekly show put on by WhistlerBlackcomb. This show is basically a display of skiiers and snowboarders jumping through a ring of fire. Then finishes off with fireworks.

Other than snowboarding I have just been hanging round whistler. Been out for dinner a few times.

New photos in gallery

Whistler

Andrew — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:54:14 +0000

Well as you probably know i arrived in Whistler, BC, Canada on the 26th. Chris picked me up from the bus stop where my bus from Vancouver airport dropped me off. I made my self at home in his humble abode, met some of his friends and caught up with the ones i meet where I was here last year.

Wednesday I had a fairly quite day, I just sat round most of the morning. Then in the afternoon went down into the village to do a spot of shopping. As i had not brought my snowboard over to Canada due to the weight restrictions on baggage through the UK, purchasing a snowboard was my main priority.

So now I have an awesome new board it is a 2008 Burton Custom with Burton Cartel bindings. I’m pretty happy with it. After dinner I went to the Coca Cola Tube Park with a few of Chris’s friends (Chris was working) which is just a short walk from Staff housing where Chris lives. Basically the tube park is a steep hill of snow which has channeled lanes which you slide down in a round tube. Going down it last night I got clocked traveling at 59km/hr!

Today I took my new board out for a spin, and am happy to say it lives up to my expectations! In fact it is better than I thought it would be. Will probably head up the mountain with Chris tomorrow as he is not working which is good as he will be able to share some of the locals secret spots!

Few more photos in the gallery…

Next leg of the journey

Andrew — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:50:54 +0000

So the next leg i head off from Ireland to Canada. Unfortunately this involved getting up at 3am to catch my flight from Dublin to London. From London i have a 12hr flight to Vancouver.

When i reach Vancouver I am catching a bus up to Whistler to stay with Chris for a few weeks. While there i hope to get in a spot of snowboarding maybe some snowmobiling and what ever else takes my fancy.

Ireland Day 6

Andrew — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:00:42 +0000

The final day of our road trip we head left Portrush and head south along the East coast. The weather today was slightly better than previous days, we even got glimpses of blue sky at times. However there was still a freezing wind all day.

The drive down the east coast took us through many small villages and along the rocky coast line, through Belfast and back to Dublin. We arrived back to the rental car depot around 2:30pm then caught a bus back to Matt and Kats apartment.

From my observations from the road trip i have decided that Ireland is a much older country than NZ with a lot of history and character. There are various landscapes which resemble parts of the NZ countryside.

Ireland Day 5

Andrew — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:45:21 +0000

This morning we picked Kat up from the Belfast Railway station. Kat caught the train up from Dublin and is spending the weekend touring the northern part of Ireland with us. We took the M2 motorway out of Belfast and proceeded north until we reached the town of Ballymena.

We decided we would stop in Ballymena for a bite to eat and a coffee. However we we sadly disappointed at the lack of quality cafes. We settled on one which seemed to be the best there was however it was not that stunning. We wandered back through the town then continued driving north.

We reached the northern coast at a town called Ballycastle. From here we followed the coast line to the west. At Carrick-A-Rede there are some impressive cliffs and islands just off the coast. One of these cliffs is connected to the mainland by rope bridge. Unfortunately however they take the bridge down in the winter. We still got a good look at the islands, beach and cliffs. Despite the ‘Authentic Irish Weather’ as Kat put it.

From Carrick-A-Rede we continued along the coast a little bit further to the Gaints Causeway which is an area of about 40,000 interlocking Basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal.

We then decided to visit the Old Bushmills Distillery where they make Old Bushmills Whiskey. We had a late lunch here before starting a tour of the distillery. The tour its self was interesting as we got to see how them make the whiskey in a real working distillery.

From here we continued on to Portrush where we are staying for the night. We checked into the guest house where we are staying then went out to find somewhere for dinner. We picked a restaurant called Coast which served pizzas and pastas mainly. This restaurant got extremely busy while we were them with people coming in and being told there was over an hour wait for a table. The food wasn’t bad and was quite well priced so we couldn’t complain.

Ireland Day 4

Andrew — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:26:10 +0000

Today we left Sligo and headed north east toward Belfast. The weather was once again dull, very windy and rainy. After finding our way out of Sligo we stopped at Glencar Waterfall which is a nice little waterfall which feeds an equally nice lake.

After driving a bit longer it soon became clear we were coming into Northern Ireland, as all the road signs once again changed this time to British road signs. We passed through some very nice although small villages and stopped to take some photos of some old style church’s and castles.

We passed through Enniskillen, Omagh, Cookstown before coming to Ardboe, where we visited an old Abby and the Ardboe High Cross. From here we continued on to the M1 motorway which brought us into Belfast. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Belfast and viewing some of the murals painted on the walls here.

I’m currently writing this blog post while sitting in the restaurant where we had dinner borrowing someones free wifi. The restaurant is the Gourmet Burger Bank. The waiter here proudly told us that gourmet burgers originated in NZ!

Ireland Day 3

Andrew — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:41:08 +0000

Today we drove further to the northwest. We saw more of the Irish country side realised we were getting deeper into the Irish heartland when the road signs changed from English to Irish. This may have contributed to the small detour we took which saw us arrive in a tiny fishing village at the end of a peninsula.

We got back on the planned route and continued on to Clifton where we had lunch at Guys Pub. As the weather today was dull, windy and rainy (I’m told this is normal for Ireland) we continued driving and didn’t stop much. Preferring to view the country side from the warmth of the car.

We continued on through Westport and Castlebar until we reached Sligo which is where we are staying tonight. We had a walk around town which has I nice river running through it then went and found the B&B where we are staying tonight

Ireland Day 2

Andrew — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:34:10 +0000

Today started at 8am when Matt and I caught the bus out to the airport to pick up a rental car we are using to tour around Ireland.
Today we headed west toward the coast, heading for the Cliffs of Moher. We stopped for a bite of lunch along the way in the small village of Gort. After lunch I took over driving from Matt. The roads however slowly or not so slowly got narrower and winder than the motorways Matt had been driving on. This was made driving a little more interesting especially when meeting cars, trucks and buses coming the opposite direction. But with my skillful driving we made it to the Cliff of Moher.
The Cliffs are absolutely stunning; they are just huge sheer cliffs that rise up out of the ocean. You really do need to see them in real life to appreciate the sheer size and beauty of them.

After leaving the cliffs we drove up the coast through the Burren, which is basically a huge area just covered in rocks. It’s just amazing the size and volume of rocks in the area which just goes on for miles and miles.
We arrived in Galway and found the guesthouse where we were staying. After settling in we walked down into town to for a look around and to find somewhere for dinner. Galway is quite a nice mid sized Irish town with many narrow streets and old buildings which I’m beginning to realise is normal for towns in Ireland. We had dinner at a small pub, the meal was good and fairly well priced.