Guess I'll keep on ramblin'....

Well, it's almost time to come home, unforuntately. It's been a great trip, been to all parts of the world, and even seen some of the states that I haven't really seen before. We have biked down the volcano here, gone ziplining, diving, body surfing in the waves, and even found a bbq place owned by some people from Auburn, Al, (one of my favorite college towns in the states!!). Yup, it's been good here, and got turkey on thanksgiving, so what more can you ask for? Tomorrow is my last full day here, then I'm back on Monday to start coaching again. Get a job? Well...we'll see ;)

Anyway, there will be many pics coming in December, there are no places to do it in Maui so it will have to happen when I get home. Luckily I don't have a lot of better things to do (except laundry...yikes!) so there should be a lot of pics coming. Don't stop the music just yet!!!

Hawaii and other thoughts

I'm in Maui now (I know, rough life), weather is good and the fam all made it here all right (Parents, and my brother Larry's family from Vermont). I went to Honolulu a day early and did the tour of the island, the north shore for some surf spectating (they were catching 25 ft. waves!), Pearl Harbor (which was really pretty well done, though it made me want to dive more wrecks!), and then walking Wikiki beach at sunset by myself, it was romantic :) I was pretty tired so I just ate at the hotel, I know I'm not much fun. Got up the next morning and hiked up Diamondhead crater which was nice, though it was a bit cloudy so I didn't quite get the outstanding views but it wasn't bad. Then off on a 37 minute flight to Maui too meet up with my parents, which all worked out. We drove down to Kihei to get into our condo's, which will work just fine, and I went and played in the ocean and had a happy hour drink (which is from 2-6, nice!). Of course, Hawaii is expensive, but the weather is nice, and we've got ziplining, diving, biking down the volcano all set up here, and tonight we are going to a "traditional" luau, apparently it's differnt from the normal ones? I have no idea how, but I'll trust my parents on this one.


As for Pearl Harbor....in my travels now, I've ticked off a lot of WW2 sites: Pearl Harbor, Truk Lagoon, Churchil's bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker (which is a parking lot), Brandenburg gate, the orginal Nazi meeting room, and even Auswietz (I know I spelled that wrong, sorry...), and the more I see, the more the was doesn't make any sense. A lot of people died for one man's vision of a perfect world, and that guy was aboslutely insane and caused the world a great deal of tragedy. The whole thing seems pointless, especially Japan's involvement with him. Just frustrates me that one man for not much of a reason can really screw this world up and cost so many people their lives...

Time to move on....

(edit: I was doing this in Fiji but internet ran out and you could only buy hours, not just parts of hours, and I finally got back to the internet)

Well, it's time to move on from Fiji and head to the states, Hawaii for me (I know, rough), and home for Desi. We went on a jetboat tour yesterday and ended up spending 2 hours at a local village which was really good, ate local food (a lot of banana's and tapioca root), danced with them, played rugby with the kids, an all around good time! But all good things must come to an end, and so it does. On to meet with the fam for Thanksgiving in Hawaii!


Oh, and congrats to Steph, my niece on her wedding! Hopefully you guys have a great life together! :)

Pics!

internet time is low and I don't have all my pics with me, but here are a couple to whet your appetite for when I finally get back and have them sorted out!


Ahh yes, Adam and Ed, together again, at the Goat Head brewery....




More sunsets in Chuuk:

Sunset in Chuuk

Fiji Time!

So Desi and I are here in Fiji, having a blast so far. We took an island cruise out to the Mamanucas, a small chain of islands off the northwest coast of the main island here, which was really fun. We snorkeled off the beach where they filmed the movie "Castaway", and had Kava, which made my tongue numb, really weird.

Yesterday we drove down to Pacific Harbor, thinking that we would take what they said was a "main, sealed road" but it was more out by the beach for some ocean views. Uh....turned out to be an unsealed, not main road for about 20 km, and we had to cross a sugar cane train bridge in the car, that was fun! But we eventually made it down here, after stopping at the Intercontintal hotel for lunch, which was absolutely incredible, and we got to go body surfing on Natodola beach as well. Also we stopped at the Sigatoka sand dunes and saw what must have been 20-25 ft. waves crashing in to the beach! No body surfing there...

Today is resort day, and tomorrow we are off river rafting, then Saturday we are jetboating up the Sigatoka river, and unfortunately, Sunday is our last day here :( Sorry she has to go home, but I'll be heading on for Hawaii.

Goodbye Melbourne, Hello Fiji!

Well, it's been a great time down under in Melbourne. I got offered a job at a microbrewery saw Tiger miss a few putts :) had an adult beverage or two and even got to catch up with Emma who was on the trek in Nepal! But, all good things must come to an end. Luckily for me, it just means that more good things are on the horizon (see why I quit my job and did this??!!) as I'm heading to Fiji to see my girlfriend for the first time in 7 weeks. We've got a lot of good stuff planned, some hiking, tour of the islands, probably some beach time and maybe even some diving. I've heard great things about Fiji, as long as they aren't having a military coup!

Thanks to Adam and Michelle for hosting and taking me around! It was great to catch up with you guys, and Emma great to see you again!

Hmmmm....

So no pics yet...any mac users out there want to help me out? Iphoto only lets me import my whole card, instead of just 5 or so pics (out of 1180) that I want to put on the blog....any ideas to just get a couple pics in?

In other news, I was offered a job today at the Red Hill microbrewery for the summer (and it was a serious offer!). I didn't take it, but don't think I didn't consider it....man.....

And, I'm going to see Tiger tomorrow! He is all the sensation in Melbourne, and also 6 under co-leading! We'll do the best we can to see who we can see, and my darkhorse pick James Nitties is also tied for the lead and a group behind him, so tomorrow and the next day should be heaps of fun!

Finally, out of the rain....

Well, we spent 5 days in Airlie beach/Hamilton Island (which is basically a resort island, much nicer than normal hostels!), however....they got 55 mm (2.5 inches) of rain in those days, plus today, they got another 34.2 mm (1.5 inches) of rain, the monthly average for Nov. is 54.2 mm....oh well. However, Adam and I still had fun, we did rent a car and tour around the area of Airlie beach (who knew there was actually a town in oz called Dingo Beach...ha!!!) and we tried to do the best we could on Hamilton Island but no tours went either day we were there, so no visit to Whitehaven beach, couldn't trust it to go hiking, and the spa wasn't any hotter than a normal pool...so yes, we ended up at the pub there :) But now we are down in Melbourne, and it is supposed to be sunny and fine for the next many days, which is great. We went to a microbrewery with a tour tonight, although the tour wasn't much of a tour but more "come behind here, this is the operation". Tomorrow we are heading out and about greater Melbourne, then Friday and Saturday to King's Heath Golf course for the Australian Masters. Tiger is here and being mobbed by the masses, but we will be there to see it in person!

With any luck I'll get some more pics up soon...

Arlie Beach

But it's raining....not as much to do, but I think we will manage. It's just a small beach town, and it's another spot in Oz where you can't swim in the ocean due to hazardous creatures out there, so they built a lagoon. It would actually be nice if you didn't get soaked while just sitting next to it...

Still in Chuuk

For just a couple more days. We've been diving the heck out of this place, well, because there isn't a heck of a lot else to do. You can only walk to the grocery store and back so many times....oh well. But there have been a lot of good wrecks, we've seen all sorts of stuff, torpedos, depth charges, gas masks, deck guns, tanks, mobile anti-tank guns, a bicycle, even an operating table, some bones, and a couple skulls. But Jason is done diving, and my last day is tomorrow, and then I'm off for Oz to get back to frickin' civilization! Which is a good thing because apparently I'm out of contact solution and no one on the island wears them, so that's a bit of a problem...