The End of the Line.

I currently sit at Domestic Ticketing & Check-in lounge at the Vancouver International Airport. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I have been gone for just over seven months. The last seven months have been an amazing experience.

Boarding the boat to leave Beach Comber Island and watching the island get smaller and smaller was absolutely heart breaking. It was that moment that really signaled the finality of my adventure. It marked the very beginning of the voyage back to Victoria.

In the last seven months I have changed drastically. I now have a much different outlook on the world as a whole even though I only visited two countries on my trip. Constantly being surrounded by people of all different backgrounds allows you to gain a unique perspective of how diverse the world really is yet at the same time how many similarities we all share. The social aspect of traveling has been the greatest facet of the trip for me. I have met an amazing collection of people on this trip from all over the world. Some people I spoke to for hours and never even exchanged names. Others I talk to every few days on Facebook and I will likely go visit in the future. Initially meeting all these awesome people took it's toll on me. The constant cycle of becoming really good friends with people and then having to say good-bye knowing there was a very high chance I would never see them again was very difficult to adjust to. However it eventually became just a necessary evil. You never really fully overcome it but you learn to accept it. I will definitely miss being surrounded by people from all over the world everyday of the week.

Looking back on the last seven months it all seems so surreal. I did so many things I could not even have imagined doing just a year or two ago. I have really broken out of my shell and become a more confident person as a result of my experiences on this trip. I did a lot of things I had wanted to do in Victoria for the longest time but kept making excuses not to do. Sky diving, Bungy Jumping and SCUBA Diving are prime examples of this.

As a result of this trip I am definitely recommending anyone who is even remotely interested in traveling after high school do so. You learn skills and concepts traveling that you will never find in a book or in a classroom. You will meet the most interesting people in the world. You will also likely form some of the best memories of your life.

As I sit here writing this I am already plotting out when and where my next trip will be. I understand now how important seeing other parts of the world are. I also understand the importance or languages. My goal when I am back is to start working on languages with the hope of going to Europe in the next year or two and working on building confidence in other languages. I am now of the belief that multilingualism is one of the most important skills one can attain.

I look forward to taking the next week or so to reflect on my trip and pick out some highlights to compile into a "Trip Highlights" post so be sure to stay tuned for that.

Last night out in Paihia

Yesterday I made a handful of new friends. I met two Americans and a Norwegian and an Irish girl. We hung around the hostel and played drinking games and then went out on the town and had a grand old time (and an expensive one =( ). I also ran into my good friend Josh whom I met in Wellington when he was too drunk to differentiate between the sink and the urinal. Good times. It was a good way to spend my last night in Paihia.

Thirsty Thursday

Tonight was $4 drink night at the base bar in Paihia. Before I went out tonight I had a few beers and then a few shots of rum with some Koreans that I met. They were fun. Unfortunately we went to the bar together and one of them bought the first round of drinks and then when I bought the second they all buggered off. So I had to drink all the drinks myself.

I ran into my Albertan friend Jody again that I met eons ago when I was up here the first time. She is up here working at Dive HQ. I also ran into a Belgian girl who I bet would forget my name. She forgot my name but I remembered hers. It was Kim. I am pretty toasted now though so I am going to bed. Goodnight!

Angry Fruit

Today I was at the supermarket and saw an odd looking orange fruit covered in spikes. Naturally I wanted to try it so I bought one. On the way back I managed to cut myself with the fruit. It was in the bag and it scrapped on my leg and actually drew blood. I have never injured myself with a fruit up until today. Not sure how I feel about it.

Bryan's Birthday BBQ Extravaganza

Last night was pretty awesome. It was my dutch friend Bryan's Birthday and we wanted to have a good time. We started the day off renting a boat and heading out into the islands. We had a tube as well and I managed to hang on for a heart pounding ten minutes before Bryan put me in the drink. Following this Ilana gave it a shot. She went for about five minutes before throwing in the towel. Bryan went last and Ilana killed him right of the bat. He was not facing the boat when she got going and when the rope went taught he just got chucked out so he gave it another go.



We brought to cases of Corona out with us but unfortunately we neglected to bring a bottle opener with us. We tried using various implements available to no avail. I finally had the clever idea to pull up alongside a sailboat and ask if we could borrow a bottle opener. The first boat we came across had a friendly older Kiwi couple on it and they ended up giving us a bottle opener. I swam over to their boat to get it.



Once we got the opener we started enjoying our Corona's and taking turns driving the boat around the islands. Good times were had.



As our trip wound down we made a pit stop at the Black Rocks and I picked some mussels to have as a snack when we got back. I managed to grab a solid two dozen mussels in less than 5 minutes. That was without a mask or snorkel. I cant imagine the damage I could have done in five minutes with a mask. After my mussel picking expedition we headed back to land and settled our debt.



We went back to the hostel and I steamed the mussels and we consumed them in short order. Bryan has the pictures of this event and hopefully I can add them in here when he puts them on Facebook. After Mussels Ilana had to head back to Auckland so we said farewell and then Bryan and I hung out in the hot tub for awhile were we met an American girl from Texas. We had decided on doing a BBQ for dinner and invited her to join us. We packed the hot tub in and cleaned up and then the three of us headed to Woolworths to get venison sausages, burgers and of course some more Corona because it was quite cheap $26.99NZD ($18.60CAD) for a case of 12.



I was appointed Lord of the Grill and commenced the cooking upon our return to the hostel. I think I did a fine job of cooking everything to perfection. Our meal was delicious as was the Corona. After dinner and our beers were wrapped up we broke into the Mount Gay Eclipse and had some very stiff Rum & Cokes and chatted with a Northern Englishman (a rarity - most folk are southern) before heading to the Base Bar for some more Rum & Coke. Jessica packed it in around mid night and Bryan and I decided to head into town with two random Kiwi blokes we met. Unfortunately Bonfire was closed so at that point it was pretty much just head to bed. All in all yesterday was a fun day. Not feeling super hot today but often that is the cost of a starting to drink at lunch time and stopping at around 1AM the next morning.



I have no idea but I seem to take one of these pictures every single night. I am pretty sure I took this one while I was at the urinal as well.

Beer Pancakes

Tonight I decided to make beer pancakes using Steinlager in the place of milk in a standard pancake recipe. It turned out quite well. It was pancakes with a hint of Steinlager taste. I quite enjoyed them and garnered a lot of looks whilst I was making them.

For anyone that wants to know the recipe was...

1 cup self rising flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (beaten)
2 tbsp butter... Unroll Parchment
1 cup beer

If you want them fluffier add some baking powder. I am taking it easy tonight in preparation for Bryan's Birthday tomorrow.

Easter Sunday = Kill Joy

Easter Sunday prooved to be another kill joy ending all the festivities at midnight once more. I made friends with a whole bunch of new people regardless and we had lots of fun doing random stuff until midnight. I also met up with one of my Israeli friends from Taupo.







Around midnight when things were shutting down a Belgian girl in our group had the brilliant idea to go swimming in the ocean. Past history has shown Ryan has ZERO problem swimming in the ocean in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately when we got to the water everyone wimped out and I ended up swimming in the water - naked. All the while I was heckling the lame folk on the shore. After about half an hour I decided I'd had enough punishment and got out.



One English guy from Leeds was bold enough to join me for awhile and we took a team photo after. After my swim I went over to the bonfire that had since been erected and worked on warming up while chatting with old friends and meeting new ones. Being Easter Weekend a lot of Kiwis were out and about which put an interesting spin on the night. I hung around until the police shut the fire down and then lay in the wet grass for awhile watching the full moon.



Around 2:30 I packed it in and made my way back to bed. I woke up this morning in a bed full of sand.