Here are some more pictures from my may-gical holiday down under. They use lots of really colorful adjectives like “magical” and “fantastic” to describe things we would consistently call “cool” or “awesome.” It makes you feel kind of simple after a while. Plus their accent is like ear candy.

On the street in Nelson. You tell me…

Me and my seal. Not nearly as cool as a monkey.

A “wee hec-tor’s dowl-fin.” We swam with them, it was meh.

My brother’s favorite pose. Damn that lake was cool.

This is the drive back from swimming with the dolphins in Akaroa, near Christchurch.

An excellent disc golf hole in Queenstown. The basket is so tempting, you can almost smell the ace coming. And then you 4 it.

As you can see Milford sound is fucking awesome, and so am I while doing my Japanese tourist impression.

So, it turns out that in real life Grand Theft Auto is not nearly as fun as in the game. It’s more like in The Big Lebowski. The whole time I’m walking up and down the block going, “Where’s your car, Dude?” and, “You fucking know it’s been stolen.” Of course, the impound lot was closed as of an hour before I found out my car had been there for a week, and I had to wait until the next day to pick it up. Or I should say, buy it back. $220 for my own car, minus a window and an ignition. Who are the real crooks here?

Now I had to pay another $200 to get the window fixed and I don’t even have time to get the ignition fixed, so to make sure people don’t start my car and drive away with a screwdriver (again), I got The Club. Of course, I have insurance but with a $1000 deductible, which does me very little good when the total bill is like six or seven hundred.

Since I found out about this on December 30th, I think it qualifies as my year 2007 lowlight. The highlight, however, came only weeks before on the Siberian Adventure in New Zealand, putting everything in perspective:

We flew up in this tiny plane (I’m sure weasel can enlighten us as to it’s make and model number) with a pilot that we saw drink a fifth of Jagermeister himself at a party the night before.

We land in this unbelievable mountain valley, wade across the river, and hike 2 hours down to the base of the valley. Who or what awaited us there?

A freaking Jet Boat. Not a motor boat or a speed boat. A JET-BOAT. Coolest thing ever made and the best trifecta of activities I’ve ever experienced.

The single greatest activity of my life, however, which I will now also claim as the unbeatable highlight of my 2008 was captured for the ages thanks to digital technology:

That’s right. That’s me, with a monkey on my shoulder. We say Honduras is a poor country but kids there have pet monkeys! How poor can you really be if you can afford a monkey that just sits on your shoulder and weakly strangles you with it’s freakish hand-tail.

OK- Just so you guys know, I have been banished to New Zealand for the remainder of December and I will be burdened with a cruise in the Caribbean for a week in January so you will not be blessed with my posts for a dreadfully long while. Before I go enjoy about a month of summer, I decided to take in one last day at Loveland Valley due to the 35 inches of snow that we had gotten in the last 4 days. What do you think I found there? POW-POW. Lots of it:

We only took pictures on one run, so they don’t really do it justice, but it was totally cool, I assure you. See you next month with pictures and stories from the other side of the world!!

Why is it that people can be so interested in what is foreign and strange?

I’m speaking in terms of foreign countries, in this instance. Why do us residents of Canada - or even residents of the US of A or even Australia - look outwards for their entertainment?

I’m interested in history, geography, and heck, even differing cultures. I don’t make it a hobby or anything, but when a friend of mine starts reading a detailed book on the history of North Korea, I’m interested. And that bugs me.

I can see inhabitants of smaller countries wanting to escape. In Portugal, culture and geography is largely the same throughout. Compared to Canada, I mean. You’d want to travel to Germany - England - Egypt - and see what there is to see. But here in Canada? They speak a foreign language on the opposite end of the country. In the north end of the country they speak yet another language. We have native indian reserves larger than some small countries!

Take Nunavut, for instance. The North West Territories was (and probably still is) the largest province in Canada. Due to some native land claims, the Government of Canada decided to cleave our largest province in twain, and give the Eastern bit to the Inuit - which named the province “Nunavut” in April of 1999. Sounds pretty generous of us, eh? Well did you know that if it were a country, Nunavut would rank 13th largest country in the world? Yeah, it’s pretty fuckin’ generous. It’s bigger than Mexico for Chrissakes.

And get this - I had no idea until just a few hours ago, but Canada wasn’t fully independant of the UK until 1982. EIGHTY-FUCKIN-TWO! Who knew?! Canada was named and given it’s own flag in 1867 - which makes us just a smidgen under 150 years old - but in terms of actual seperation from mommy and daddy? We aren’t even out of puberty yet!

I wonder what else awaits me in my own country. What other tidbits or facts are there to learn? What places or people will I be amazed with?