Destination: New Zealand

I know I've mentioned our week-long trip to New Zealand in a previous post, so I won't re-hash it again. However, I will add some extra pictures of things that I found interesting:






The girls water-side in Rotorua














Zorbing















Dad & Kay on the Agrojet

Volcanic Mud

Mom & Dad also found a WIMPY but it was nothing like those back home.

Little Zac

On the 3rd of March 2005 something very interesting happened. My sister bought a puppy. Up to this point my parents had been adament that we would never have a dog in Melbourne and would never consider having "an inside dog." So imagine my surprise when I came home from work that day to find this little thing sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor next to my sister:

And so began the story of having a dog inside the house. He was too little to leave outside, and even once he was fully grown, he had grown on us so much that the thought of leaving him outside was just incomprehensible. By then Zac was used to sleeping on the beds or on the couch and having lots of human contact! Zac was born on the 26th December 2004 - the day the Asian Tsunami struck. This means that we have no trouble remembering Zac's birthday. Here's a picture of Zac now almost "all grown up."

He turns two this year...boy how time flies!

Christmas 2004

Christmas 2004 was a pretty full on Christmas for our family. We had my Uncle David and Aunt Claire out from South Africa and I had invited my Kenyan friend King'ori to spend Christmas with us as his parents and brother were not in Australia for Christmas. I met King'ori on my first day of orientation for the international students at Monash University. I remember walking up the stairs towards the lecture halls, seeing a black person and immediately gravitating towards him...the odds were pretty high that he was from Africa, just like me. Anyway, I digress.

So yes, Christmas 2004 was a full one (and I don't just mean a full house) and Christmas morning there were heaps of presents under the tree. Present opening (with the ensuing wrapping tsunami) was to be followed by a big Christmas lunch later on in the afternoon, also at our house.

My other aunt and uncle along with my cousins were joining us for lunch which would normally lead to an afternoon of catching up and talking, or watching a movie. I think we did both on this occasion.

As is usually the case, Christmas Day was really hot. We still can't figure out why we 'must' make a hot Christmas lunch when it's 37 degrees outside and climbing. Thank goodness for air-conditioning though :)


My aunt Claire's 28th birthday followed on the 8th of January 2005. It was nice to be able to share it with her and I believe my sister made her a cake and we bought special candles to help her celebrate her big day.

Destination Fiji: More Photos

I thought I would also include some photos of our stay that didn't make it into the previous post.






The Restaurant at the resort













The "Dining Hall" & Bar on Mala Mala Island














Taking in the sunset from the restaurant

View from outside our apartment

Some of the local flora

Destination: Fiji

In December of 2004 our family had the opportunity to use some of our global timeshare points. It was decided that we should holiday for a week in Fiji. The dates were set and on the 5th December we headed off from Melbourne to Brisbane and then caught a flight from Brisbane to Nadi in Fiji. The flight from Brisbane to Fiji took 3 hours and thanks to the time zones we ended up in Fiji around 8pm. Being in the Fiji airport was terrible. It felt like we were back in Africa and we had all sorts of weirdos watching us. It was seriously unnerving. We eventually ended up getting a taxi with a "crazy" indian taxi driver to our hotel. On our drive to the hotel we had to cross train tracks. There was no level crossing and no boom gates and said "loco" driver kept driving for the tracks even though there was a train coming straight for us. He didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with crossing the tracks relatively slowing with a train barreling down on us. If we had been 2 seconds slower we all would have been toast. We all let the taxi driver have it and told him he was crazy for doing what he did. It was all wasted on him though. Suffice to say, we were happy to get out of the car and as far away from him as possible.

We spent the first night at a "4-star" hotel in Nadi which was really more like a 2 star but unfortunately there aren't many fancy hotels in Nadi itself. My sister and I shared a room and my parents shared a room away from us. My Dad wasn't happy about not having all 4 of us in the same room, but it all turned out okay.

The following morning we took a taxi from Nadi to Denarau island...about a 20 minute drive from Nadi airport which is where we spent the rest of our stay. We stayed at the Trendwest Resort on Denarau Island...a short walk down the beach from the Sheraton Villas. Our resort had the biggest pool in the area, even had a swim-up bar which my sister used a couple of times for the sheer heck of it. Fiji was seriously hot and as a result we spent a lot of time in the water or in the apartment with the a/c on. We got to do a lot of relaxing and lazing around. When we weren't lazing around we were taking in some water sports, getting massages or going to Mala Mala island where we spent a day.

Every night at our resort they would have a torch lighting ceremony where resort staff members would involve the children staying at the resort to help them light the torches throughout the resort. One night we even got to watch National Secuity on a large screen out in the fresh air beside the pool...that was fun!

All in all our time in Fiji was fantastic. We got lots of sun and I relaxed completely for the first time in a long while. I got burnt early in our stay, but it turned a nice golden born by the time we left. We headed back to Melbourne on Sunday night and landed in Melbourne a little after 11pm. My uncle picked us up from the airport and we ended up getting home just after midnight. Unfortunately for me though, I had to be up 6 hours later to go to work on the Monday morning for work!

Stanley Park & Farewell

My stay in Vancouver went faster than I thought it would and before I knew it we were back in Vancouver with just a few days to go before I headed back to Melbourne. Those last few days were spent spending time with Jocelyn as time allowed and tying up some loose ends. One of those loose ends was going back to Stanley Park. I had been there 11 years prior and wanted to see it again before I left.

Some other "bits and pieces included going with Jocelyn to the UBC Campus for a ride around. Another was a trip back in to downtown Vancouver to pick up some last minute gifts for my family.

My second last night in Vancouver I took Jocelyn and her parents out for a thank you dinner at a place with Pizza in the name...I can't recall.

I headed back for home on the 30 July 2004 and was sad to say good-bye to Joss knowing it might be a while before I saw her again. I arrived back in Melbourne on 1 August 2004 and started the job hunt.

Headed for Osoyoos

So, like I said in the previous post, we only spent one day in Jasper. After a night around the firepit, we woke at 9am and broke camp and were ready to leave by 10am. Joss and I got pretty good at setting up and breaking up camp...pretty impressive considering that the first time we had to pitch the thing was in the dark back in Scotch Creek.

On our way out we got to see the cutest site...a black bear on the side of the road. We stopped to have a look, but didn't dare get out of the car. However, I still managed to get a pretty good shot of the bear:

We left Jasper and took Highway 16 and then Highway 5 to avoid having to go back down through the entire length of the park. It was WAY quicker. We were back over the B.C. line a little after and hour after leaving Jasper. To break up our drive we stopped at a rest stop and bought sausage rolls for lunch. We then headed towards Kelowna and arrived around 5:30pm. We went to the Orchard Park Mall where we walked around for a bit. Inevitably though we got hungry and so headed over to White Spot for dinner. While we were at White Spot Joss and I decided we would spend 2 days in Osoyoos instead of 1 before heading back to Vancouver. Before heading out though we stopped at a Christian Bookshop and I managed to indulge in some reading material for our 2 day "rest."

We got to Osoyoos around 9:30pm and ended up at campsite 204. However, our car was rather large, so we had to move one spot over to 203 to allow for easier parking. We set up camp and then went and showered. Speaking of showers though...ugh <shudder> the facilities were seriously limited. I ended up having a splash shower and didn't get to wash my face. With all those people and so few showers, you can just imagine how yucky it was. That first night was really hot - very different from our nights in the Rockies.

Woke up the following morning feeling like I'd been hit by a train...just too tired to move. I did manage to pull myself together and at 10am we headed into town to buy milk for breakfast the next morning. We then went back to camp and took our chairs, blanket, books and water and walked across the road to the "beach" on Lake Osoyoos. After a relaxing spell on the lake we had lunch at our site and then retreated to the shady area between the car and tent to get away from the sun.

Later we caved and jumped in the car and went for a drive around just to stay cool with the A/C. We also stopped at a cute little ice-cream shop where we took some time out to taste and enjoy a little cold dessert. We headed back for Vancouver the following morning at 9am.