New Zealand Trip, 30th April - 19th May 2010

After leaving Vancouver on 28th April and missing a day I arrived in New Zealand on the 30th April at 5.30am in the morning. I must admit a 14 hour straight flight is so much better than having to deal with connections through the States.

I had decided to stay in Auckland that night with Tobi and Mel, and go out for dinner with a few people. Now I have decided that even after such a long flight where you don't really sleep, sleeping during the day is not a good idea. While Tobi and Mel were at work I feel asleep on the couch and just could not wake up, after 3 hours of fighting to wake up I finally dragged myself of the couch to get ready for dinner. I had a well earned coffee to try and keep me awake. We headed down the road to a dodgy looking Chinese restaurant for dinner. It had been recommended to us and was extremely busy, generally a good sign. There was a slight mix up with the booking and they thought we were supposed to come last night, after a little shuffling around and waiting we were seated. Luckily we weren't disappointed, the meals were huge, hot and really nice. We stayed there for a few hours chatting the night away. Ah how I miss those kind of nights with friends. Great fun!! After dinner half of the people had to head off, so Tobi, Mel, Claire, Matt and I headed back to Tobi and Mel's for some drinks. Didn't take long for the alcohol to have a sleepy effect on me and I was fading fast. Claire and Matt headed off and we called it a night. This was the start of a great couple of weeks.

The next morning Tobi dropped me off at the bus for my $2 trip back to Tauranga. We did take the long way back taking about 4 hours, but it was nice to just sit back, relax and take in the scenery. I arrived in the afternoon to be greeted by Mum, Dad, Vanessa and to meet my niece Hannah for the first time. We all jumped in the car and headed home for a nice roast dinner, ah nothing beats home made roast dinners!! The next day was mostly a relaxing day to catch up on a bit of R & R. We once again had a roast for dinner that night as well, this time we were joined by Blair as well. I think I'm starting to get used to the roast dinners again already.

Monday 3rd of May I met up with Trina, Jamie and Alexis at McD's for a catch up and lunch. Brings back such memories going to that McD's (the one on 11th ave), it's great to keep kids occupied in the playground. It was a nice lunch and catch up, unfortunately for me they were all heading away to Christchurch for the week coming up. Until next time.

Tuesday I met up with Jo for a famous walk around the mount and lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't walk around the mount as it was closed for repairs, bummer. We decided to walk along the beach front towards the town, we headed through town and stopped for lunch at a nice cafe. After this we headed back along pilot bay to end up at Copenhagen cones. No trip home is complete without a Copenhagen cone, well a few other things as well, but who's counting? After this I headed around to Vanessa's to spend some time with her and Hannah.

The next two days we spend mostly at Vanessa's house or out and about with Vanessa and Hannah. So nice to be able to spend so much time with them. For the first time ever I was on holiday and kept myself busy but was actually allowed to relax for a change, I was starting to feel very refreshed.

On the 7th May Jacki and I headed over to Ohope for the night. I was starting to have withdrawals from going there. We headed over about lunch time, checked out some of the shops and got some dinner and goodies for the night. It was a very nice, relaxing evening. We hung out, ate dinner and played card/dice games all night, ah the good old times!! The next morning we slept in the headed out to the town again for some more shopping for engagement party decorations. The leisurely made our way home to Tauranga. That evening I talked with Cam for his birthday and we had another roast for dinner, this time it was lamb my favourite!!

The 9th was Mother's day and Jordan's Birthday party. We had a bit of a sleep in well I should rephrase and say I had a sleep in. When I got up mum was making some stuff for Jordan's birthday party. I gave her my mother's day gift then we sat down for a coffee. We headed around to Blair and Dee's house at about 1pm I believe. There were lots of kids there and adults of course. The best part was fairy bread, to tell you the truth though I can't for the life of me remember why I liked fairy bread, perhaps it was all the colours etc because really it doesn't taste that good. The rest of the stuff was pretty good though. Turns out the birthday boy was finishing off his nap so we hung around talking while waiting for him to wake up. We all had lunch and then it was time for the presents. Children are so cute, so theolder kids are handing the presents to Jordan and he is a bit shy so just looks at them. So the kids start opening the presents for him. The adults tell the kids the presents are for Jordan so they go and grab Jordan and put him in front of the presents then precede to continue opening them themselves, very cute. A very nice 1st birthday party.

After the party we headed home to have a nap before getting ready to head out for dinner. Man kids are so tiring :) We were going to meet Blair, Dee, Dee's parents and some others at the boat house for dinner. Such a nice place to go, cheap decent sized dinners and cheap drinks, what more could you wish for. It was a nice evening to end a great day. Happy Mother's Day mum!!

Tuesday Cam arrived from Auckland via Vancouver. The family were picking him up however I went to meet him as well. Unfortunately we were a bit late, Vanessa would blame the baby but I would blame Vanessa haha. Anyway we still got to say hello before Vanessa and I headed off to do some errands while Cam and the family went back to their house to catch up. I hung out with Vanessa and Hannah for the day and then meet up with Cam for a couple of hours before heading home.

Now no trip home is complete without a trip to the Hot Pools, this is a must. Cam picked me up from Mum and Dad's and we headed out for a swim, you never really appreciate somethings till you haven't had them in a while. What I'm trying to say is the swim was fantastic!! After the swim Cam dropped me back at home, I must say it felt like we were dating for the first time ever!! Was quite exciting but a heck of a lot easier I'm sure than the actual first time.

Thursday the 13th we headed over to Hamilton so that I could meet up with my work friends and Cam with his. We had organised to meet a places near each other for convenience. After waiting a while for my friends I was worried no one was going to turn up, it turns out a slightly later time suited everyone but I hadn't checked my email. Half an hour later and everyone was there, there were a lot more people than I was expecting which was nice. We had a great lunch and chat. Afterwards I went to find Cam but it turns out he wasn't at the restaurant, I met up with him, Ed and Simon at another pub for a few drinks. We departed from there and headed to the hospital so I could meet up with a few other friends that couldn't make it to lunch, it turned out to be perfect timing as it was shift change time so I got to see more people. Was great to see everyone again.

We headed over to Jacki's new pad to check it out, and to have a coffee before headed out for dinner with Kim, Quentin, Jacki, Cam and myself. I just love being able to meet up with people and it's like you haven't even been away from each other. The meal was amazing and the company was even better. Man I haven't laughed like that in such along time!! Such a great feeling, thanks guys for the great company and laughs!!

Friday we waited for the afternoon then the troops came in to help us decorate the hall, thanks to Cam's parents, my parent's, Vanessa, Jo, Jacki and Hannah, the hall looked fabulous. After all our work we decided dinner out was a good option. We decided to go to the club. It turned out to be a good group of about 12-14 of us. Once again such good cheap meals, along with cheap drinks and pool.

Saturday the 15th was our engagement party yay!! The day was a bit of a rainy day, but that didn't stop us. We spent most of the morning and afternoon taking food, drinks etc around to the hall in preparation. My Aunty came around and we all had a nice lunch together, before taking more stuff around to the hall. Once I had transported everything I had a little time to relax before getting ready for the night. We all mucked around and got ready before heading to the hall. Once it was dark, all the fairy lights were on and the hall was completely set up it looked very beautiful. People started arriving and we were very overwhelmed with the turn out. We are both so happy with how many people could turn up and celebrate this time with us. People who traveled from near and far, it was great to see everyone. I now see how at these times it is difficult to see and spend time with everyone, I can only imagine what it is like at the wedding, I guess we will find that one out. We had such an amazing night and are so grateful for all the special people we have in our lives.

Sunday a whole bunch of family and friends came around to my parents house for leftovers/BBQ lunch. It was great as this gave us an opportunity to catch up with all the people we hadn't really been able to see the night before, perfect. Definitely think this will be something we do after our wedding. Was good to be able to see everyone before we head back to Vancouver. This time was quickly starting to creep up on us. This evening we went around to Cam's house for dinner, once again, great company and a great meal.

Well our trip home was slowly coming to an end, I knew I wouldn't have much more time to spend with my family while back so on Monday I spent the day with Vanessa and Hannah. We meet up with Mum in Greerton for lunch at a really nice crepe place. The rest of the day was spent relaxing before going around to Mum and Dad's for another roast dinner. I know what your thinking, wow that's a lot of roast dinners, but really who ever gets sick of them? Especially home cooked ones. Plus it was the last one I was probably going to have for a while.

Tuesday morning I packed all my bags and waited around for Cam's and the family to come and pick me up to head to Auckland. We left before lunch time. I said goodbye to Mum and Dad at our house before heading on our trip. I think this was the easiest goodbye yet, as I knew I would be seeing them again in a months time. We all piled in the car and traveled up to Auckland. We arrived at Cam's Aunty and Uncles for lunch and to unpack our stuff. We hung around here for a little while before getting ready to head out for the evening. After picking Trudie up from work we arrived at the Garrison pub for dinner, then headed to Alley's graduation. What a fantastic achievement Alley, a diploma in Business!! Congratulations we are both proud of you!

Wednesday was leaving day, I guess it had to come at some point but always comes too fast.

We headed to the Auckland museum for the morning/early afternoon before having a picnic on the grass. It was a beautiful day for a picnic and was reasonable warm. What a nice way to finish off our trip. We headed to the airport to check in, as usual we were super early so hung out for a drink before heading through customs. Goodbyes at the airport never seem to get easier. We will be back before you know it.

Once again another great trip. So nice to head back to your own country for a holiday you don't have to worry about being a tourist and not knowing your way around. Think I'll be coming back here.

March 2010

Not much happened this month so I'm able to to write about it in one post.

We decided to head over to Victoria on Vancouver Island for the weekend of the 6th and 7th of March. As we had been over here before we were able to just relax and take it easy. We didn't have to be tourists, well not completely anyway. We didn't do much throughout the day, it was a beautiful day however still a little cool being Winter. We managed to see the flame for the Para-Olympics and hung around listening for a while. After this we headed around the waterfront for a stroll. Its such a beautiful walk around there and the scenery is stunning. We went to get the best fish n chips, however they were closed today. We'll have to go next time.

That evening we went on a ghost walk around Victoria, this was well worth it, not only did we get a ghost tour but it also tells you a little about the history of Victoria. We got to walk around the streets, go into dark alley ways and even into an old building which has a history of being haunted. Was a little scary but I don't think we got to experience any ghostly spirits. Would definitely like to do other walks in different cities if I can. What we didn't know until we did the walk was that the pub we had been sitting in that evening was one of the places that was believed to be haunted. Therefore we had to head back afterwards to have a few more drinks and a better look around inside at some of the things he had pointed out. A very nice old pub, and even better with live music.

The next day we were quite tired and decided to just have a coffee and then head back towards Vancouver.

March 11th, I headed out for dinner with some of the girls from work, for a Birthday dinner for one of them. We went to a restaurant called Goldfish and then out for some drinks and dancing at a bar called bar none. Not really somewhere I would have normally gone, and not the door price I would have normally paid but it was fun anyway. Had a little more to drink than expected but I didn't have to work the next day so who cares.

On March 14th 2010 in New Zealand something very exciting happened. I became and Aunty to beautiful Hannah Sophie Boud. I was talking to Mum and Dad on skype when Vanessa rung them to say she was heading to the hospital. That morning at around 4am I got a phone call from Vanessa to say Hannah had arrived very fast at 11.59pm March 14th. Its all very exciting!! Can't wait to meet her.

March 17th I went to lunch with a couple of girls from work. It was such a nice day we went for a walk around the waterfront then headed to a nice place for a coffee. I must say this was the best Cappuccino I have ever had while in Canada, I don't normally get them here as they are so bad, but this one was exceptional. I must go back.

This evening we had a Para-Olympic Ice Sledge Hockey game to go to. I left the girls and jumped on the bus to go and meet Cam. This was fun to watch basically they have what appears similar to a wheelchair that sits on one blade. They hold onto sticks which have a head to hit the ball with and a claw on the other end to pull them along the ice. Very skillful I must say, and they definitely hit into each other hard as well. It was a good game, Sweden pulled out a win against Korea. After this we decided we had to have one drink in the pub for St Paddies day so stopped by the Irish pub for one.

The last weekend in March we ended up doing a couple of things, nothing too energetic but fun none the less. Friday 26th I was off work and went for a walk along the waterfront again and headed out for lunch with Lynne and Lauren. This evening I meet Cam for some drinks and dinner at Cardero's, one of the restaurants we like here in Vancouver. It's right on the waterfront and you can get nice views from here. This particular day we had a few bald eagles circling around the water with crows chasing them. Saturday 27th was a relaxing day, we stayed home and watched a movie with some pizza, nice thing to do when its cold and raining outside.

Sunday 28th we headed to a small vegetarian place to meet up with some friends, not really my choice of food but it turned out to be not too bad. I was meeting up with an English friend Andrea that I was chatting to in February at our nursing exam. She was celebrating being in Vancouver for 1 year. The place we went to was very hippy like, we were served our drinks in jam jars, very unique we thought. We ordered some food for lunch/afternoon tea as it was 3pm at this stage and hung out there for a while drinking as the food and drinks were super cheap. We ended up leaving at about 6 or 7pm, I can't quite remember, well we tried to leave anyway except we all kept talking to each other, so decided to head to Cactus club for dinner as well. It was a great afternoon and evening, we met lot of nice people.

Randoms Days and Events - 25th Sept - 12th Oct

As we have said in other blogs we have had less time over here to be tourists, therefore this post is over a longer period of time and I'll only mention the things we have been up to. We have however found a few friends over here and have been enjoying living in a big city with so many things to see and do. Or so many nice places to go out to for dinner and drinking. It is very convenient living in the center of town and being able to just decide to go out for dinner, walking out your front door and being just minutes away from everything.

Any who, for some reason everything happened to come up at once, the evening after coming back from Vegas we happened to have tickets to Pearl Jam (Sept 25th 09). When I arrived in Vancouver there were so many concerts happening and we didn't have enough money to buy any. I said to Cam if Pearl Jam come, I don't care how much money we have we are going. So of course when the news came that they were coming we snapped up some tickets. Once again the band put on an awesome performance, however not quite as good as the last time. I guess we had real high expectations, it also didn't help that they sung Last Kiss (the worst Pearl Jam song in history). Don't get me wrong still thoroughly enjoyed it, they played for just over an hour and then came back on and did an encore that was the same length. So we got a full 2 and a bit hours worth which is better than most bands now days, and they did do Yellow Ledbetter which was awesome.

As my nursing exam was coming up on the 7th October the next week for me consisted mainly of study and for Cam work. We did manage to get out to one of our local pubs again for a few drinks and to watch a hockey game. Do you think its a bad sign when the waitress at the pub knows what you normally order to drink?? This pub is Doolin's Irish pub, what more could you wish for than a pub that plays sport on the TV's (including Rugby), has live music (which also plays kiwi music at times), and sells alcohol? I think this is why its become our local.

As we finally have two incomes we thought it was a good time to do some shopping. Cam desperately needed work shirts, and I well needed what ever I could find. Its awesome shopping here, I manage to find something I can fit and looks good every time. Cam ended up with about 3 things and I ended up with 2, ha see girls don't always get more things.

October 7th was my nursing exam, unfortunately I had to be there at 7.15 am which meant I had to get up at 5.10am to get the train and bus out to the venue. I had to leave real early as the public transport system doesn't run as often at that time of the morning. The exam runs for 7 hours which is crazy, its so hard to concentrate for that amount of time normally let alone after getting up at 5 in the morning. You do get an hour break in between but its still tough. I must say its the most stupid exam I have ever had to do, we all thought it was stupid, I mean really these sort of questions decide whether or not I am good enough to be a nurse. Hard to say how it went really, I guess I'll see in about another 3-4 weeks time.

The end of the exam called for a good night out drinking. Of course we headed out to our local again (Doolins) for dinner and drinks. What do you get when you have several Brits, 2 kiwis, an Aussie and an Irish girl in an Irish pub??? Chaos!! We started drinking about 4 and by midnight most of us were ready to head home, I know we must be getting older, but to be fair we had been up for a long time and had a long exam that we sat. Had an awesome night out with new friends, pub food and drinking.

The weekend from the 9th till the 12th was a long weekend, the 12th was Thanksgiving, we were very excited to be having our first ever real thanksgiving. The Friday night (9th) Cam, Emily and I headed out for dinner at Sip a restaurant in Vancouver. Places were pretty full being late on a Friday evening so we took what seats we could, which happened to be sitting at the bar in front of the chefs while they were cooking. It was like Hell's Kitchen however the head chef wasn't horrible. Its quite interesting watching to see how they manage to get all meals cooked and out on time together. I had ribs of course which were beautiful, the head chef actually stood there and asked us how our meals were going, we said they were beautiful and the chef that cooked them was actually there to over hear and say thank you. It was fun.

Saturday was Emily's birthday, we headed out for lunch with her to a diner just down the road, we had heard good reviews and they even had the worlds best $5 shakes which we just had to get. The food was great but unfortunately the waitress was the worse person I have ever been served by, she was just down right bitchy, so after telling Emily that she couldn't have a side of half salad and half chips she then we on to tell me that my meal was huge and that I could share my chips with Emily. I think we'll prob go back and try it again, she may have been just having a bad day. After this we went to another one of our favourite places for drinks, this one is called Milestones, its a chain over here. We had a few drinks out then headed home.

Sunday was a great day, but very expensive. Several snow shops were having thanksgiving sales so we decided to take up the opportunity to go out and buy snowboards and boots for the season coming up. We got a bargain, managed to get 2 snowboards and bindings, and some boots for me, for the cheap price of $1000, we had a look for retail prices in New Zealand and we got ours for about 1/3 of the price of what we could get them for over there. It was all very exciting, we couldn't wait to get home to try them out. First we had to cart them on the busy bus home, ah fun times. This evening we were supposed to head out for a night out at a nightclub however plans changed so Cam and I decided to head out for a few drinks, a few drinks turned into several drinks and several pubs, well actually only 3. There are so many places to go here, we decided to walk down Granville street, the main night life street in Vancouver and stop in at a few places we hadn't been to. We managed to find several nice places. At about midnight we decided to head down to the waterfront for a walk, its so beautiful along the waterfront looking out at North Vancouver and all the lights. then we decided to call it a night.

Monday 12th was thanksgiving, our first actual thanksgiving and we were both off so decided to head out for dinner that night. During the day we were going to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge however got down to the seabus and it was going in 25 minutes so decided to head to Van Dusen Botanical Gardens instead. We had been told that it was really nice going in Autumn as all the trees are different colours and leaves are falling. It was beautiful out there and much better for the price compared to the last botanical gardens we went to.

In the evening Cam, Emily and I had booked to go to Four Seasons Hotel for a three course thanksgiving dinner. It was very flash and a great excuse to get dressed up and buy an expensive bottle of wine. It was funny we had just been talking about how most places don't seem to give you wine like they are supposed to with the whole showing us the bottle, letting us taste it etc, but they did here and we even had a fancy stand thing with ice. It was very exciting. Oh and when we got there they lady that showed us to our table even took our coats. The dinner was absolutely beautiful and we ate far too much, well worth it though. It was a nice evening out but unfortunately we forgot to take photos, woops, I guess we were caught up with good conversation and food. We'll have to remember next time. We did however remember to toast to what we were thankful for.

BC day, Apartment searching and new people - 03/08/09-09/08/09

Another public holiday in Canada, I think its great the way they have done it here, there is a public holiday pretty much every month except for 3 months. It just so happened that I had this one off as well. We didn't do too much this day just thought we would take it easy. Apparently there is a world police and fire games which happens every 2 years that happens all around the world. There are about 50-70 countries competing depending on what site you read. Basically it is police and fire people, correction officers and customs officers that compete in many events such as: athletics, ice hockey, rugby, shooting, swimming and many other sports. All events are free, we decided to head to Burnaby (a city within the greater Vancouver area) to watch the track and field athletics. The main events we could see were long jump, running, and high jump. We mainly watched long jump, some of these people could jump really far, in the 18-25 group one guy jumped 6.98 m, considering they don't do this for a living that's pretty far considering in the Olympics they get to mostly 7.5m some up to nearly 9m. I thought they were pretty good.

After this we decided to head to the Night market at Richmond. It was a bit frustrating really, we had heard the night market was great and that they were looking at moving the venue, so we have been looking at the official website for the last 2 months which keeps saying check back for the new location of the night market. However the night market has been going since May yet the website continues to tell us its not on, turns out you don't look for the official website you go to a completely different one, ah annoying. Any who we decided to go, it just so happened the bus that runs to the market from where we were happened to be was full when it arrived, and the next bus was 1 hour away. With Cam having a dead battery on his phone we had to wing it, we walked to another bus stop. One bus trip, one train trip and then 3 more different buses later and about an hour or 2 in time, we arrived at the market. The funny thing was that the people that had obviously waited for the next bus to arrive where we started from, were walking out of the market as we walked in, should've waited. Oh well it was a good trip and wow we can't believe how helpful bus drivers are, we even had one which stopped past the bus stop to get us further.

Anyway the night markets were ok, I'm sure I have seen better, maybe being a public holiday it wasn't as busy as normal, perhaps we will have to go back once the website tells us it is open hehe. They did have some nice different foods, Cam had a nice squid and prawn skewers and I had chicken skewers and some curly potato with seasoning (these were yummo!!). However it was quite expensive. They did have some really cheap things at the stalls though, we did resist a few things.

Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't really get up to much, back to work for me so I'm usually pretty tired, and only get home at 8pm ish.

So we thought hard about our living situation. It appears that our lease agreement actually said that if we wanted to extend our lease past 31st August then we had to do this by June 30th. As it was now the start of August and we had not extended it we though we better look at new apartments. I'm sure if we wanted to stay where we are we probably could, but decided we have had enough of collecting other peoples mail, getting calls all the time for someone else, never being able to get hold of the landlord and living in complete clutter. We checked out Craig's list, like trade me and discovered that all of a sudden there were heaps of apartments for rent that were furnished, turned out to be perfect. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent looking at apartments, in 3 days we looked at about 8 different places. We did have difficulty trying to decide on one as we actually found about 3 really nice places. One would only lease for up to 3 months which was not great for us as that would bring us up to just before the Olympics so that crossed that one off and the other was subletting, which he wasn't allowed to do so another cross, which left us with the one we have accepted. It means we will be moving in to town, first time to be moving by public transport which should be fun. We move September 1st ad will be there for 11 months.

Friday night we went out for drinks at the winking judge pub in town. One of the girls from work who started at the same time as me has just arrived from London and doesn't know anyone over here, so we invited her out for the evening. Just had a quiet few drinks, it was a great evening. We'll have new friends in no time.

Saturday night I rung home for the first time, it was Dads birthday in New Zealand but the day before for us. It was great timing as I got to talk to Mum, Dad and Vanessa. Was great to catch up on all the gossip and hear some familiar voices. Yes we were home on a Saturday evening, but I had to work the next morning at 7am and it was my first day at work on my own.

As I just said Sunday was my first official day at work, I was all on my own. They were really nice to me and I got an easy patient load, still makes me laugh that I only get 3 patients and very occasionally get 4 depending on the patients. Turns out 2 of the patients were what I have cared for in the past so that was good also. Only thing was that everything that I haven't experienced on my orientation days happened to pop up, Murphy's law I guess. For a first day though I must say it was pretty good, it happened to be more quiet that usual and everyone was very helpful. You just have to share the questions around different people hehe, so they don't get sick of you. I think once I get used to the hospital system and policies I will really enjoy it.

This evening we went to our new apartment to sign the lease. Our new landlord is very nice and friendly, also she lives in the building so at least we won't have a problem getting a hold of her. We'll post some photos when we have some.

Whistler, Drinks and Picnics - 13/07/09-19/07/09

Monday and Tuesday for me were spent at work on study days. Tuesday while at work Cam joined Sarah for a few drinks in town at a Cafe above the Vancouver Art Gallery. What better to do than to spend a beautiful afternoon drinking. I finished my study day early today so headed into town to join them. It was nice sitting out in the sun, listening to music, drinking and talking amongst friends. Sarah's friend joined us toward the end and then the 2 of them headed off for dinner. Cam and I headed off for dinner also, I had been craving Wendy's since I saw it in the first week of arriving in Vancouver, so we decided to have this. We have actually been really good since arriving, we hardly ever have take aways so this was a bit of a treat.

Now Wednesday was an exciting day. Sarah was staying with a friend in North Vancouver who happened to let us borrow her car for the day while she was at work. We took this perfect opportunity to head to Whistler for the day. It just so happened that the weather was perfect, it was beautiful, sunny and extremely hot. So we headed off early in the morning to get the most out of the day, as it takes about an hour and a half to get there. We headed a little past Whistler to Pemberton as Sarah had heard that this was beautiful place to visit. It was a quite, little town in the countryside, surrounded by mountains and the view was beautiful. It reminded me of the movies. There were some beautiful houses in this area. We stopped at a little petrol station/town store/McDonald's and had lunch, its amazing McDonald's is everywhere. Who would of thought you could get a picture in front of McDonald's with huge mountains in the background.




We continued on our journey back towards Whistler and stopped at Nairn Falls. There was a 1.5km walk along the river to the falls. Over 150 million years ago the area was near the shore of a vast ocean. Gradually the earths crust moved upwards and crushed nearby volcanic islands against the shoreline. Further upheavals and other movements of the earth's crust changed this area from a seashore to a mountainous area. The falls were huge and very powerful, it was very beautiful.





Next stop was Whistler, it seems that even on a weekday in the middle of summer there are plenty of people that want to visit Whistler. Still not packed though is was quite nice, we didn't have to wait for anything. We stood around for a little while watching the mountains bikers on their jumps and turns. Now if you were a mountain biker I think this would be an awesome place for you, not really my kind of thing looked pretty exciting but dangerous. So we headed up the gondola towards the summit, the gondola takes you almost to the top but not all the way, you have to get off walk down a small distance and then catch the chair lift to the top. This chair lift is quite steep and in summer all you are looking down at (well mostly), is really sharp rocks. Now the view from up here was very panoramic and beautiful. It was a really nice day but a bit hazy unfortunately as it always seems to be. They have a big monument at the summit called an Inunnguaq commonly mistaken as the Inukshuk. It is a stacked rock in human form which models the Inukshuk as created by the inuit (native) people of Canada's Artic. It was used as a guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time it has become a symbol of hope and friendship across Canada. The Olympics 2010 emblem is an interpretation of this. This spot also seemed very popular for taking photos, with a peak called black tusk in the background.



We had our first sighting, this time it was a chipmunk not that I would have recognised this by looking at it. They are very small and cute. We fooled around up here taking random photos, and repaying favours by taking photos for others, before we headed down the chairlift to go across the peak to peak gondola. The peak to peak gondola connects the incredibly high mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. It is 4.4 kms long and 436 metres above the valley floor. This breaks 3 world records of the longest unsupported span of 3.024 kms, highest lift of its kind at 436 m above and it completes the longest continuous life system on the globe. I thought this was going to be really scary looking at it from the bottom, turns out it wasn't that scary. We were lucky as there were only 5 of us in our gondola and it takes up to 28 people. Some of them have glass bottoms but the wait for them was much longer and we would be stuffed in like sardines with others, so decided to go for extra room instead, turns out you couldn't even stand on the glass. We walked around the top of Blackcomb for a little while and then headed back down the chair lift on this side to the bottom. We had a short walk around the Whistler village before heading on our way home as it was getting a little late. After a petrol stop and dinner time we headed back along the sea to sky highway towards Vancouver.


Along the way we had several stops taking photos of the beautiful scenery as the sun had just gone behind the mountains. It was great to be able to get pictures in the start of the day and then complement these with dusk photos. The lakes and ocean around this area was very stunning. All in all a very long tiring day, but soooo worth it, we had a blast. Thanks Sarah for driving (and thanks to your friend for the car).


The next day was another nice day, we were a bit tired from the previous day so decided to have a relaxing afternoon sitting at Charlson Park, listening to music and admiring the view, before heading home to make mince pies. Turns out you can follow a recipe from good old Edmond's but pies just don't turn out the same. There was something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it, needed just a little more flavour, this is just one small thing I was missing from NZ after 7 weeks of no pies. Guess it'll be good for us in the end haha. Tonight was Sarah's last night in Vancouver and she was staying with us, however I missed her, turns out starting 12 hour shifts can be quite tiring and I had to head to bed before she made it back to ours. That's alright got to wake her bright and early the next morning and say goodbye as I was heading out the door to work.

Saturday we were heading out for the evening to David Lam park for a picnic and outdoor movie. Unfortunately we arrived off the bus with our picnic rug, chairs, chiller bags and backpacks ready for several hours out, and there were hardly any people there. This was a little concerning. Anyway one thing we looked at said the Saturday however these details we set up wrong and the actual day was Sunday. So we ended up having a really nice picnic, in comfort, overlooking false creek watching the cyclists, people and dogs going by while the sun was going down. Turned out great anyway. So as it was a Saturday night and there was now no movie we decided to head out to Cactus club cafe in town for dessert and a drink. I had a really nice peanut butter crunch fudge thingy and Cam had a slice of cheesecake. Normally I don't like cheesecake at restaurants however it seems they know how to make them in Vancouver. To top it off we had a frozen cappuccino martini with vodka, coffee liqueur, creme de cacao and cream whip, which tasted like coffee and alcoholic goodness, it was awesome. Tonight was also another movie/film spotting at the Marine building (a beautiful old building in the centre of Vancouver, which was once one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver). Unfortunately we didn't get any glimpses of stars, this time they actually had the area sealed off, so maybe there were more famous people involved, oh well one day!!

Sunday was another hot sunny day. This called for a swim and laze around at kits beach. I'm actually starting to get a little bit tanned now (even on my legs, thought this would never happen), I guess that's what happens when you go from one summer to another and when the country you move to actually has an ozone layer. Its great to only need sunscreen on once in the day. The water today was actually warm, of course you get the initial cold but once you were under it was really nice. I would say it was about 19 or 20 degrees this day which beats the 16 or 17 it has been. We lay in the sun for a while, listened to music and had a drink before heading home. A nice relaxing day.

Holiday over for one - 06/07/09-12/07/09

So this week was the start of work and end of my official holiday. If only every day was like the first and I actually got paid for a full day. They eased me into it with a 4 hour generic hospital orientation, then we got to go home. This half day was about policies/procedures, disasters, infection control, human resources and what is available to us from the hospital. The day also included other safety/need to know things. We also had croissants, donuts, fruit platters, pastries and coffee to keep us going for the day which was awesome.

After getting home, then doing the groceries and having dinner we headed off to the Cambie again for drinks with a couple of guys Cam went to school with, Justin and Dave. It was a great evening of a few drinks, catching up on old times (for Cam), discussing Vancouver and watching a bit of sports. We go a month not having people to go out with then 3 nights in a row we catch up with people, it was really great. Turns out I think we have found somewhere that may play the All Blacks games, well they were advertising the tri nations on the TV, so fingers crossed we may get to catch at least one game. We headed home at a reasonably decent time as I had to get up at "normal" time again to head to work for a normal 8 hour day of nursing orientation.

So Tuesday and Wednesday at my new job were about getting to know each other and the leaders within the hospital. We spent a lot of time discussing the values and missions of the hospital, how these related to us and what we wanted/expected of the hospital. It was actually good to write down your ideas, then all the leaders went around the room looking at what our expectations were and what we wanted out of this experience. We spent time talking about different policies and safety. I can't believe how positive the staff seem here, you get a really good vibe being there, lets hope it stays this way. The people that spoke to us seemed to really love working here and it made you feel really positive and wanted. It is encouraging that about 80% of people that spoke to us have been in the organisation for over 20 years without leaving, so maybe we will end up staying longer, who knows. The last half of Wednesday we were shown around our unit, looked at the computer systems, registered for courses and talked about what we wanted to learn from the unit. I always forget how tiring learning is, I was stuffed when I got home.

Thursday was a day off work for me, we slept in for a little while, then headed to be tourists again. This time our destination was Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is located in Chinatown, Vancouver. It was built in 1985-86 to maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. It was built using equipment/materials sent over from China and uses only this equipment. It honors principles and techniques from the Ming dynasty garden, halls and pathways are constructed with precise joinery and without the use of nails, screws or glue. Even though it is a reasonably small-moderate garden there is a lot of story behind the construction of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decided to take the free tour they had on offer which described why everything is constructed in the way it is and how yin and yang have a role in this (feng Sui). I found it very informative, I think if we hadn't done this we would have been in and out in 20 mins or so. It meant that we actually had things in particular to take photos of. There was a piece of embroidery that looks the same on the front as it does on the back, there is no bad side (something I thought you would appreciate Kay). Only thing is you can't really appreciate it properly from the photo.

The garden is set up in a masculine/femine way (yin and yang). For the women it has an outside walk which is set up so that there are two pathways for different times of the day so that she can stay in the shade. It has seats along the side of the pathway which are made uncomfortable to sit on with your back directly against the ledge so you have to sit sideways which is more flattering. These areas have beautiful views of the gardens and water, these areas were used for the scholar to entertain his guests. This particular garden is a scholars garden, scholars worked for the emperor. They built these gardens at their houses outside of the city, they built them away from the city as their the emperors generally changed their mood frequently, one minute you may be his best friend and the next minute he hated you. This was a place to go to do their work away from the emperor. This garden had an area away from the water where the scholar would do his work in peace from the running water and he would have someone playing a musical instrument in the corner while he was working. It was quite interesting the difference in noise from one area to the other just by stepping through a door way in the walls around the garden. Overall this was much better than I was expecting from when we first entered.

After leaving the garden we walked past the guiness book of records worlds skinniest building. It goes from the red part of the building to the dark blue, the lighter blue stripe on the left hand side is a different building. We were shown this on our sins of the city tour.

Friday was another day off for me. We decided to go for another walk today through Stanley Park, there are so many different walks around the area, we still haven't managed to get around them all. We headed off to find Lumberman's Arch which we though we were near when we were last walking around the area however we couldn't find it. This time we found it and it was right next to where we had been before but was obscured by trees from our direction, easy to miss. Lumberman's Arch is the site where 2 squamish nations log houses were situated at one point in history. It is a basically a huge arch made from a tree trunk. It was home of Khwaykhway a major village and gathering place. It was such a hot day we decided to sit in the shade and have an ice block.

After this we headed into Stanley Park and headed towards Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake is currently changing from a lake to a bog which may eventually become a meadow and then a forest ecosystem. There is a decreased amount of incoming water, increased amounts of sediments and incomplete decomposed plant material which is accumulating on the lake bottom, this is making the lake decrease in size. Lillies were introduced to the lake and are now overtaking which has slightly increased the rate which Beaver Lake is transitioning from a lake to a bog. The area around the lake is home to many Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Sundews (a carnivorous plant) and flying squirrels. Well actually they don't fly but are called this as they jump from tree to tree, jumping gaps up to 58m wide. We did see some but not jumping. From here we headed along Stanley Park seawall and back home, another beautiful, hot, sunny day.

Just a random photo we took on our way, a 2 ways over bridge accross the road with designated lanes, weird.

Saturday and Sunday we my first 2 12hour days at work. We were straight into it you don't get any days off here, on my first day we had 3 reasonably complex patients. However it was good for me as these 3 patients were similar to what I have looked after in New Zealand, which was helpful. It helps having nursed before as things are very different over here, so its nice to have the general nursing processes sorted, then I just have to adapt to the way things are done over here, what I am or aren't allowed to do, different paper work and of course the different medication names. I guess something I will get used to eventually, though it makes you feel like a brand new nurse again. The other thing I find difficult is the accent, its so frustrating. Its hard to believe that we all speak English but it can be so different. I really feel for people now that go to a different country where they speak a different language. Its even had with the different names for things eg: torch=flashlight, nappy=diaper, plaster=bandaid. Oh I can't forget loo, but they just don't even know what that means hehe. We didn't end up doing anything these evenings after work as I was stuffed, I think 12 hour shifts will mean work, eat and sleep. Activities will have to wait for days off I think.