Week two:  

Nick: I wish I could write about all the new adventures in the outback we had this week, but I’m sure you can do most of them at home.  This week consisted mostly of adventures in overseas banking and job hunting.  There was a lot of tension in the air as both Amanda and I pushed out sleep deprived minds to the brink of insanity.  No need to worry, after the dust settles I’m sure we will be no crazier than when you last saw us.

For this entry I will focus on all the positives.  I will start with the fact that we have found a fully equip campervan to tour the coast with.  It is even in our budget, that is to say it would be if we could access any of our money.  That’s where the majority of our stress has come from.(Amanda writes.... Dealing with TD Canada Trust was not easy. Advice: if you want to be able to transfer money from your Canadian accounts to your new overseas account, before you travel find out if it is something that can be done fairly easily. In my case transferring money took 2-4 business days and cannot be done on internet banking, I had to fax all the information to a branch, after I spoke to someone. And when you are a day ahead it can be a little hard. Also dont get a bank draft from TD mine looked like a photo copy, so they held it for 2 weeks.
  We were lucky in that we have found a nice French couple that is willing to hold it for us until it goes through.  When we met them we sat for hours at a nearby coffee shop discussing their trip for the past year and the one we hope to do.  The second big thing to happen is that Amanda has found work in her field of dental assisting here in the city and has started right away.  It is through a temp agency, and her location of employment will change day to day but there seems to already be plenty of work for her to do.  I myself was getting anxious to do something that will bring money in rather than the follow the trend of passing it out.  I handed out many online resumes and got a hit from a marketing company not far from where we are.  I was hesitant to even take the interview as I have no formal attire and very little experience in that sort of thing.  I decided to take a shot as it was the only bite I got so far.  I went it and gave it my best shot.  Lucky for me the mate doin’ the interview was a fellow Canadian and we hit it off.  I was invited back later in the day for a second interview with three others.  Another Canadian, and Gal from Norway and myself met over coffee with the same fellow from before.  We chatted about what the company does and a lot about what he misses about Canada (his number one was Wendy’s).  This brought us into the mid afternoon and were brought in one by one for the final verdict.  I was second in line but I can tell from the way he spoke that everyone from the second meeting got a position, including myself.  So on the way home today I stopped off for some business attire and a haircut for my new job that starts Monday.  Wish me luck for I have a new suit to pay off.

We did get one afternoon off this week (seems like we haven’t had much time to be tourists yet) for which we spent at the beach.  The sun was hot and the water was clear and refreshing.  I rented a surf board for another try at it.  I got up only half dozen times or so, and only rode one wave full to the end,  but was lucky to see a school of dolphins chasing a boarder down the wave.  It was something out of a video and I am sure will be a highlight of my stay.

Though we have been working hard we did have some fun too.........

Australian Museum-they are clear
and really tiny-great 

$40 gets you unlimited bus/train/ferry
 for one week

As we were walking by.....

Great views from Sydney harbour

Wonderful lunch-Four Olives-Manly

I new there was a statue
somewhere
 in the world doing this

What we learned in Australia this week:
Cheers means thank you
A pension is called your Super account
Stand on the left side of the escalator if you want to ride, people on the right want to walk up
French couple taught us how to show waitresses you arnt pleased with your meal-using your utensils
Australian people think I am American
Gas tanks are not that easy to find on an older model
Really beautiful sea shells can kill you

Also dealing with TD Canada Trust for purchase of the van was not easy. Advice: if you want to be able to transfer money from your Canadian accounts to your new overseas account, before you travel find out if it is something that can be done fairly easily. In my case transferring money took 2-4 business days and cannot be done on internet banking, I had to fax all the information to a branch, after I spoke to someone. And when you are a day ahead it can be a little hard. Also dont get a bank draft from TD apparently mine looked like a photo copy, so they held it for 2 weeks. Everything has now worked out but only because Nick got pooped on by a bird, which here, means good luck!!!

Saturday Oct 2nd 6am:

Amanda writes…. Agnes (Nick‘s mum), Nick and I rise to get ready for a very important day. Australia bound. This is the first day of our 3 day journey, or is it only 2 days. Loosing or it is gaining times zones is a little confusing. So we are off, its now 7:30am and we head to Halifax, NS. We say our goodbyes to Agnes and we wish each other Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
We boarded Air Canada(all flights with Air Canada)  to Toronto at 4:20 pm. A smaller plane, it take takes us only an hour and a half. From Toronto after a 3 hour wait, some food and some hot sauce packets for the road we are off on our 2nd flight, to Vancouver. A huge plane with probably we calculated 160 people. Sections of 3 seats, 3 rows down the plane. They even had those new executive class seats where you can spread your legs out in front, like a bed, though your back is still upright. Though I don’t know looking at them that someone taller than 6 feet could lay their legs out. Needless to say we didn’t get to try.
So this plane we will stay on, there is no getting off till Sydney, so we thought……Fortunately 6 hours later when we arrive in Vancouver we are surprised to learn we have to get off the plane for about 45 minutes. Yes! We get to walk and stretch our legs. Nick and I felt like we could barely walk after sitting so long, your legs cramp so much.  What where we going to do for 15 hours. At this point we couldn’t really think about that, considering it was already around 4:30 am NB time, we where pretty tired.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Nick writes....  All in all if it wasn’t for having to sit in one place for 15 hours the ride wasn’t so bad.  You are fed every 4 hours or so and you don’t have to leave your seat.  You have almost an endless supply of new releases to entertain you.  With a few movies, and nap, a couple decent meals, broken up with the occasional  cocktail on the house I can honestly say it wasn’t half bad.  Our customs’ visit went better than we thought with them pushing us right through (it may have had something to do with the agents love for peanut butter).  With our minds in a fog, and little information on how to get to our hostel we pondered different strategies at the information board.  While standing there with no signs of brain activity a man approaches us with an offer to drive us there for 12 dollars.  In most cases this would send up a red flag to say this is too good to be true, but there are a few other backpackers waiting with him already and we roll the dice.  Turns out he is a hired shuttle for many hostels in the area and when we arrive he checks us in and find that we are there for 7 nights which entitles us to a free ride.  With a smile he waves and we are left to settle in.

Our first impressions are anything but excitement.  We enter a room with a sink on one wall and a double bunk bed on the other.  The floor is littered with cigarette butts and it has a funk about it.  Every color is dulled with a grime.  We are told to settle in while they clean it.  Unhopeful we set our things down and attempt to take in our “free breakfast”.  I guess there was a bit of a misassumption with the definition of breakfast, because we were welcomed to a bag of white bread and a bucket of jam, as well as a box of cornflakes and a jug of milk.  It technically is close to what I would normally have to eat but I guess I had my heart set on the Best Western style buffet…

After the room is cleaned we enter to find the grime, and fewer cigarettes.  We tidy up a bit ourselves and settle in to our new home for the next week.   We made it our goal to stay up until it gets dark.  It wasn’t hard once we started our tour of the city.  “Can’t fall asleep with your feet moving” we decided.  The weather was great all day.  We left wearing sweaters and pants and could walk around town in a t-shirt and shorts without worry.  The first thing we noticed was the wildlife in the city.  There were tropical birds of all kinds making  noises neither of us had heard before.  The trees were interesting and some even cartoon like in the park.  The trail we were on took us right to the Sydney Opera House.  It is a must see.  I can say it makes a nice postcard but in the end its just that.  Moving on…We find that MacDonald’s is the hot spot for free wireless.  At the nearest location they have fashioned a long table just for that where people wander in and mooch all they want.  We make it to nightfall and greet the pillows with two hard wallops.

The next day is spent getting our bearing around the city and finding the essential stores and setting up banking and tax information.

Bondi Beach

We reward ourselves the next day with a trip to Bondi beach which is a short ride on the train.  The weather starts out with mist then the sun comes out with full force.  The ocean is cool and refreshing.  The surfers are wearing wetsuits but only to fend off the Bluebottles (jellyfish).  We have a Oceanside picnic and I hire a board and wetsuit to try my hand at catching a wave.  It turns out very few of the techniques from snowboarding are transferable.  I will have to learn this one from scratch.  Despite the SPF 30 we still find ourselves scorched when we return

The remaindered of the week seemed to blur together.  We wandered around the city a bit more taking in Paddy’s Market and China town, the Australian Museum, and a couple other neighbourhoods in our area.  It turns out there are more hostels in that area than we could count, and the backpackers on the str
eet outnumbered what seemed to be the locals.  We bummed around the hostel making résumés and searching for a campervan to buy.  We ran into a couple fellow Canadians.  Two from Winnipeg, one from Quebec, and another from London Ontario.  The rest consisted of a littler of French, German, English, Brazilian, and Hollandish.  There were even a couple local boys who were students and one that was just hiding out while his and his lady were on the mend.

Nearing the end of our stay we took down mobile numbers and played a few games of cards.  Today we are hopping on the train, and the city bus and are relocating to Noah’s Hostel at Bondi Beach. …

Day 7 Sept 8^th:

Amanda writes….

That morning we met Nicole (my cousin) at Bayview and Eglington.We spent the afternoon relaxing. While she was busy we had dinner at Lemon Grass, on Bayview, best Thai we have had. Dessert: Hollywood Gelato, also on Bayview-skor, caramel, lemon, pineapple and pistachio. MMMMM

….. stayed the night at her apartment.

Sept 9^th Day 8:

Amanda writes….

Amanda and I, we found this lonely gaint
sunflower taking Calliegh for a walk

11:00am we leave the big city to drive to Kingston. First stop is to see my best friend, Amanda.  Jamie, Amanda’s bf and Calliegh, the famous pitbull who not only is a champion long distance jumper but has managed to escape the harsh laws of pitbull ownership regs in Ontario, met us at their house. When Amanda knew we were at the house, she was soon there. Like every time we see each other it’s excitement, sigh of relief, sisters meeting after a long awaited reunion, and just like we had left off from the last day we were together. Best friends never loose the connection.

Arrived at my mums, that night after a good visit with Amanda and Jamie. It was great to see my mum and she was just as happy to see me. The next 9 days we visited with lots of friends and family: Lunch with Kell, my friend from high school, she is great, expecting her first baby, a girl,  with her boy friend Justin. That night is BMX racing, every Wednesday night at the one and only track in Kingston, founded by Jamie’s dad. Nick tried it and was very successful, unlike me, last year who could barely make it through the kiddie track. Later that night we visited Tab another friend from high school and her bf Billy. We chatted while her possibly pregnant chawawa, bounced back on forth from my lap to hers.

The rest of the week was spent catching up and talking about Nick and my future adventures in Australia. We visited my grandfather in Trenton.  Hearing about Nick’s Segway, he was excited when we said we would bring it back so he could try it.  He rode it around the lobby as others watched in interest. We even got the director of the retirement home to try it. He will be 97 this December and there is no stopping his capabilities just make sure to talk into his left ear, other than that he is a wild man on a Segway.

Sept  19^th.   An elegant MacDermaid family reunion at Lake of the Mountain- a unique spot in Prince Edward County marked the end of our time in Kingston. At the top of the hill on one side there is Adolphus reach, which connects to Lake Ontario, and on the other side is a lake which could probably take an hour to canoe. This lake has many theories how it was formed. Whatever hypothesis you chose to go with there was no doubting it was a neat spot.

 It was time. We said our good bye to my mum, a few tears, a couple pictures in front of famous bus and a long hug. Now it was off to Quebec City then onto NB for a visit with Nick’s mum and his family……

Sept 19th-21st Kingston to Woodstock:   

Taking a break in Upper Quebec

Nick:  At this point we are anxious to make time.  Fewer stops for sights and food until we get to old Quebec.  With packed lunches and a full tank of gas we put the pedal down and gunned it to 88.  We stay in the bus just outside of the city.  Well rested we head in.  The next park proved to be one of the hardest parts of the whole trip; finding a place to park a bus (which is too small for their “bus” parking and too big for regular parking lots). After two hours of driving round and round one way streets Amanda spots a metered place on an end and we are set.  Old Quebec is a must see to anyone who hasn’t.  Its buildings and horse drawn carriages place you back into a different time, if not a different country.  We explore many shops and take in a bite along side the harbour.  French onion soup seemed to be appropriate.  The waiter was most impressive with his greetings in all languages as the cruise ships passengers came and went.  We left the city as twilight started and were NB bound.

 Finding a place to sleep was getting harder as the hills increased and our No. 1 rule (no slants) was becoming harder to abide by.  We wound up pulling in with the truckers along the border where Andrew Taylor and I once spent a night in C2C 1.  We covered the windows and fell asleep next to the purring diesels.  This location worked in our favour as we awoke to bathrooms and showers and even breakfast.  The new NB highway took us with good time all the way to Heartland without a hitch.  There we walked the longest covered bridge in the world.  From there we went into Woodstock to get a Greco garlic finger which I had been craving for years.  Then off to Limestone (where I grew up) to start the unpacking process.

Sept 21st-Oct 2nd  Final chance to pack:

Nick:  I will not bore you all with details but I will toss in a couple highlights to our final week in Canada.  

Worlds Larget Axe, Nackawic NB

B.F.A.M.'s
 (brothers from another
mother)

Much like our time in Kingston, the majority of our time was spent in NB was visiting family and friends.  The largest gathering was hosted by my gracious mother over a turkey dinner.  I have got to say thanks to her as I will likely not see one at Thanksgiving or Christmas this year.  Amanda made it through the baking, and the “grilling”.  We hoped to have a chance to work the harvester for a day or two but the weather had a different plan.  Tea and pie seemed just as tasty none the less.  The segway had its rounds here as well.  The Fredericton boys maxed out the km on more than one occasion.

Falls on the Maliseet Trail 

 While waiting for the weather we toured the world’s largest Axe and hiked the Maliseet trail.  The majority of the rest of our stay consisted of cleaning out the bus, packing unneeded possessions away, and tossing the rest in go/no-go piles.  Then up at 6:00am and off to Halifax for the 2 day journey to Australia......