DeeKnow’s Grotto

When we were in a pub at the Apex ski resort the other night Jamie and I were having a wander around the building when this dude comes walking up the stairs wearing a T-Shirt with a map of New Zealand on it.

We great him with a chorus of "Kiora's" and "Hey Bro" and it turns out he was indeed a kiwi. Kinda freeky considering we were in a small resort town in the off-season and there were only probably a hundred people in town at the most. Anyway it gets freekier.

Not only was the dude (Mark) a kiwi, but he was from Hamilton, wild aye? Next thing the three of us are yakking away talking shit and Baz and Paul come up to us to see whats goin on. They told us afterwards they couldnt understand a word we were saying coz all of a sudden we doubled our word rate. Hard case.

8:42:43 AM  

We mosied round Vancouver town today, did nothing special really, just cruising. Went up the observatory which is a wicked view, and took the ferry over to the north side of town for a water-view. Oh yeah, and we went to a Ducati dealership where a girl we met in Penticton worked. Nice stock of new Dukes and a wicked mint condition 851 ... if only I had a bigger limit on the Masterard...

Had some rain overnight which is the 1st of the trip. By midday tho it was back to clear blue skies and hot hot hot !! Brilliant. Speaking of weather, Kym emailed me today saying Turoa has 185cm of snow and Whakapapa has 120cm with snow forcast for the next 3 days. Excellenet, we're off to Turoa on Friday night for a week. NICE !!! :-)

Back at the hostel now, gonna get some dinner soon and go an watch the big Fireworks display that's on downtown at 10pm tonight.

Our flight is 7:15 in the morning which is gonna be a killer. Gotta be out at the airport by 5:00-ish coz its international. This is not the kinda time of day I wanna be dealing with international transport, in fact its not the kinda day I wanna be dealing with anything other than sleep. But hey, at least we get a full day at San Fran when we get there.

8:42:17 AM  

We took the bus today from Penticton to Vancouver on the coast. Was a 7-hour ride but through some truely amazing territory. Some of the passes we went over were freekin incredible. Massive cliff faces climbing up each side if the valley. The only comperable thing I can recall seeing is the fjords in Norway, and something like photos I've seen of Fiordland in NZ.

On arrival in Vancouver we jumped on the sky-train to town and caught a bus out to Jericho beach where we're staying in this wicked hostel. It's an old millitary accomodation complex, massive cool old constuction down beside the Jericho marina. We've been placed in a coed dorm coz the all-male ones were full. Bummer Aye? :-)

I just remembered what it was that pissed me off about hosteling in Europe when I was over there. Its all the bloody tight-arse Germans who seem to be everywhere, talking 20-times as loud as anyone else. Dont they know we can tell where they're from just by looking at their dodgy sandles.

Please Fritz ... KEEP IT DOWN ... Donner und Blitzen !!!

8:41:44 AM