From Kelowna, Vernon, Vancouver, London and Stockholm

The beach last Thursday was hot, very hot. Luckily the water in Okanagan Lake was chilling. Even better at chilling was though the nearby creek. A creek that was very much needed after Megan dragged me up numerous stairs to look at a waterfall.

In the afternoon I visited Darlene and her newborn girl. Darlene was my families exchange student in the late 80s. When we were done visiting I was dropped off at Megan's boyfriend Cam's place but since neither Megan nor her boyfriend was home I decided to go for a walk. It turned out to be a very long walk. When I after 2 1/2 hours found a pay phone and managed to dial the correct phone number (a 3 instead of an 8 in the end of the number) Megan and Cam couldn't believe how far I had walked. The fact that I for 2 of the hours only followed two roads says something about the town/city network over there.

After a shower and a good nights sleep (pretty good at least...the couch was kind of narrow) I started the next day with another Booster Juice. Megan got me hooked the day before and I took the chance to have another when I had the chance. We saw one of Megan's friends for a lunch dominated my scones and different coffee beverages before heading out to the creek from the day before. This time we weren't satisfied by just dipping us in the creek that wasn't that deep, instead we hiked up the creek until we found the waterfall and had a fantastic swim in the nice pool created by the powerful water.

On the way back to Cam's place I picked up my first bottle of BC wine (I had a plan coming to Canada t drink a lot of the domestic wine production but I failed) and two more Roots t-shirts. When Cam got off work the three of us headed to Megan's grandparents cabin by Mable Lake (about two hours drive north of Kelowna). We expected to see Ian (my host brother that I haven't seen for six years) and his girlfriend Danielle. They weren't there and didn't end up coming. Instead though we got to hang out with Megan's cousin, his wife and two children.

A very load thunderstorm woke me up the next day. When the sky had calmed down a bit I went for a swim in Mable Lake. I've only been at the lake once before but then I only saw it in the dark which means that I didn't really see it (I saw my first real bear driving out there that time though). Quite a walk was needed to be able to get my whole body under water!

After a nice and quiet morning and afternoon Megan, Cam and I headed into Vernon for the yearly pig roast at the Kidston's apple orchard. It is the owner of the orchard that arranges the pig roast every year to celebrate his birthday. Except the rain that was falling hard in the beginning of the party the evening turned out to be a nice one. And I finally got to see my big "brother" Ian. And I finally got to drink some of that BC wine!
Mike, Jan, Jaimie, I, Megan, Cam, Ian and Danielle.

I spent the night at Mike brother and sister-in-law's house. What a house they built! So beautiful. And the view was just fantastic overlooking Kalamalka (do not know if I got that right) Lake.

I had breakfast at the traditional breakfast place for the Kidstons in Vernon before heading for Vancouver and the airport together with Mike's cousin and Jan. It was a pretty exciting drive being able to watch Beautiful British Columbia, some of the Abbotsford airshow and visiting the Canadian-American border driving on 0 avenue.

Checking in my luggage in Vancouver I noticed to many Swedes on my flight (at least six of them). I don't want to see Swedes when I'm out traveling. Especially when I'm in my province. How dare they come there! :o) Air company!

This is the last I will write for awhile. I have no more trips planned for the moment except hopefully at least one trip to Glasgow this fall visiting my two Canadian sisters! I hope you have enjoyed my blog!

Vancouver to Kelowna

Jaimie, Nanamma and I started our drive to Vancouver already at 7:30AM on the 4th. We drove into Abbotsford 5 1/2 hours later where we met Megan and had lunch before going on a bit of a shopping spree in the SevenOaks mall. I managed to buy a carry-on bag and saved 99 dollars (When I packed in 100 Mile I discovered that I have more and heavier stuff to bring home and that I needed something bigger as carry-on luggage to put all the heavy stuff in). When we were done with the shopping we went on to Maple Ridge for gelato (Italian icecream) and then on to Port Coquitlam (PoCo) where we bought sushi for dinner before ending up at one of Megan's friends that lives there. We spent the evening chit chatting.

We went in to downtown Vancouver early on Tuesday for the appointment Megan and Jaimie had for their British Visa application. While they were being finger printed the rest of us went up and down Robson Street. The afternoon was spent on Main Street which had a lot of nice small clothing stores. I usually don't like shopping clothes when it is too hot outside which it was so I didn't actually buy anything except at Mountain Equipment Co-Op where I am now a lifetime member.

While Jaimie and Nanamma headed home for 100 Mile, Megan and I returned to PoCo where we had a nice and quiet evening with her friend. We started watching a movie, but I was too beat to finish it and went to bed half way through.

Megan and her friend slept in until two in the afternoon yesterday. I didn't quite sleep that long even though I had a few power naps in the sun/shadow after waking up at nine. Megan and I going to Kelowna that day ended up hitting the afternoon traffic. After some bad decisions about road choices we got out of the Lower Mainland around 6PM. Since we decided to take the scenic route at Hope we didn't arrive in Kelowna until after 10PM. It was a pretty amazing road though :o)

The weather is beautiful today and the plan is to hit the beach!

The yellow flower!

For your information. The yellow flower is called tiger lily!

Last day in 100 Mile!

So it's my last day in 100 Mile and I'm sitting inside updating my blog. Pretty sad, eh? Well, this might be my last chance to update you on my Canada trip. What have I been doing all week? Good question. I better consult my mini diary. Okey, now I know!

On Tuesday I spent the morning making Dumle muffins. Muffins with caramel for you that don't know what Dumle is. Then I had lunch with my Canadian aunt Arlene. She is not really my aunt, but she is of Norweigan descent and pretty much acted like an aunt when I was here for my exchange. After the lunch I spent time with Jaimie. We and a neighbor went on a long walk in bear country. I have a hard time relaxing in those areas, but we didn't even see one from a distance which I wouldn't have minded.

Wednesday was pretty quiet. I had lunch with Jaimie, but we sat behind a laptop each so there was not much of a conversation with it. I got to drive Jan's Ford home from town all by myself. It was fun! Great car! I went out for dinner seeing my old teachers Mr Ardiel (who was the first one that got me interested in geography) and Mrs Lamoureux (I hope I got the spelling right on the last one).

I had to set the alarm for Thursday morning. Jan and I were driving up to Prince George (4 hours north of 100 Mile) to pick up Megan who finally was done tree planting (not really, but she took a few days off to see me and to go river rafting). I got to drive half the way! Fun, fun, fun!!! It was great seeing Megan again! She was really tired though. After some shopping in PG we drove back south. After an evening of visiting and waxing of legs (Megan's legs were pretty hairy and disgusting). Since I had taken over her room we shared the bed for the night. She is a real blanket thief!!! Not many hours of sleep that night.

100 Mile isn't a large town but on Friday I managed to spend 4 1/2 hours there mostly watching Megan run errands. Then we went home, she packed and left for her river rafting. After Megan left Jaimie and I went for another bike ride out to the highway and back which is about 12 km with all the tiering hills on the way back. I went to bed early happy to have the whole bed all to my self again :o)

Time for some sightseeing! Jan, Mike, Jaimie and Jan's friend Donna took me to see three water falls and a beautiful meadow on Trophy Mountain. I didn't get to see the longest water fall in Canada though which I think is about 140 m, but I need to save stuff for my next visit! I got to see though one black bear on the road during the trip. I could have seen two if I didn't have a power nap! We also could have seen grizzly bears up on Trophy Mtn, but there was too much people up there which scared them away. They apparently like some of the flowers that grow up there.

I don't want to bore you with too much text so here are some pictures!

The gang on yesterday's road trip to water falls and Trophy Mtn. Here sitting by the edge of Canim Falls.

Me and Canim Falls in the background.
The meadow filled with flowers at Trophy Mtn.


Me in the meadow.

The third water fall of the day, and probably the coolest. I can't remember its name though. It started with S.

Kidston's wonderful cat Phoenix.

And the two Border Collies, Bella and Brie .

Another humming bird picture. I got three in there. You can just see the tail of the third one in the upper right corner.

Jaimie got offended when I didn't put her flower picture on my blog that I talked about in a previous contribution. So here it is! Beautiful!
See you later alligator! Or not!

The weekend!

To start this session a flower. I don't know what flower but it was beautiful. Jaimie took an even nicer picture of it, but I can't just steel her pictures!

Friday was spent at Green Lake. By the time we got there the weather wasn't that nice anymore though so I spent the afternoon reading gossip. Don't buy both Intouch and People like I did. They both contain the same pictures and the same information! I made ärtsoppa for dinner which I think was appreciated :o) It was of course served with Swedish punch. The punch really heated Jan up!

Saturday wasn't very exciting. I baked a cake in the morning for a funeral that Jan and Mike went to in the afternoon. Jaimie came home from her friends place in the afternoon and I came with her to get the horse trailer that had been repaired. By the time both we and Jan and Mike got home it started raining so we stayed in watching tennis for the late afternoon, early evening.

The weather was awful for most of Sunday. And the day didn't improve by Mike hurting his back leaning over to put on his horse boots. Somehow we decided to take a trip to the near by ski hill Mt Timothy where I spent lots of time in the winter. First we had to take the kayaks off the roof which made us very wet since we decided doing it when the rain was at its worst. So we all had to change clothes. Mike didn't come of course. I don't think his back would have liked the bumpy road to the top of the hill. Before getting up there we stopped at this field that is so beautiful in the winter time when it is snow all over. Jaimie and Jan made me climb up one of the hay bales. Except the rash I got on my legs from the hay it was a new and pretty fun experience. The ski hill really is more beautiful in the winter time. It looked kind of sad in the summer time, but the new chair lift was nice.

Getting back we all sat around doing nothing pretty much. Gordon my old high school friend and next door neighbor came by. He had been forest fire fighting in the Kootneys (Rockies) for the past two weeks.

Today has been another lazy day. Jan had to go and look at this horse in Prichard so I'm sitting around waiting for Jaimie to get off work.

To end this session a picture of me kind of kayaking. I don't really know what I'm doing with the paddle there...

Riding!

Jan made me go riding today. Well, I kind of wanted to, but since I am a control freak it kind of freaks me out not being in 100 % control. You never know when the horse will jump! Just thought I would put up some pictures...


I spent the morning trying to take pictures of the humming birds. One picture turned out okey. Their wings are so cool!
And a picture from yesterday. Going home from kayaking Jan discovered that we had a flat tire that we had to change before going home. Jan did really well!!! I just managed the camera. Kayaking was gorgeous by the way!

Tourist

I spent yesterday being a tourist in 100 Mile. I saw the water fall by the park for the first time in 7 years. It hadn't grown... I also went to the 108 Heritage site where a few old buildings from the gold rush and the time after have been put up. I haven't been there for 6 years. Not much had changed though except the newly built log church.


On the way back we were slowed down by a sheep herd that must have escaped from their owner. This event led up to me, Jan, her neighbor Val and her relative Haley trying to save a cow that was a bit lost. Even though we opened the gate for him he decided to jump through the barbed wire fence.

Planned for today is another attempt at kayaking on Ruth Lake. The rain stopped us last time, but the weather looks pretty nice today so hopefully we will make it around the whole lake this time.

More pictures...

What a beautiful weekend we've had. It is still not to warm though, the temperature is just right for not being over heated. I had my first swim in Canada on Saturday in the 108 Lake. I was supposed to have gone for a swim yesterday at Green Lake too, but the wind out there didn't really make you that up for it. The camp chairs (the wind picked them up and dropped them in the water), Jan, Mike and Paul all went in though. Only Paul didn't mind the cold water! Jaimie has finally beat me in crib. She is still about 10 wins behind me! I guess I don't have much else to tell you about this weekend. For those interested though. I talked to Darlene on Saturday and the baby hadn't arrived yet. Here are some pictures!
The Kidstons' log house and property with the arena in the foreground.

Jaimie riding in the arena.

The view from the porch. Fields, lakes and lots of forest!


For those interested in geography and that remembers Peter Haggett and "On the Beach". Jan took geography in the end of the 70s and Haggett was used already back then. The beach chapter is pretty much the same as in the newer versions.



















You all must be impressed by the lack of self portrait pictures! :o) Don't worry I will probably do a spp theme any day now!

Finally Friday!

I've already been here for a week. Tuesday was a quiet day. I'm on vacation right so I'm allowed to just relax, sun tan for a bit on the porch. They really have a wonderful porch with a beautiful view. You can see forest for miles and miles. Maybe I should add a picture of the house and view soon. In the late afternoon I went for ladies night at the tennis court. I don't enjoy doubles that much though, but in the end I got to play a single with my sister Jaimie. We tied but had quite a good game except our serves. On Wednesday Jan (my second mum) and I went to Kamloops two and a half hours south of 100 Mile. Since Jan took geography at University before marrying Mike we of course talked about how the language changes from wet and vegetation rich to very dry and vegetation poor. We only made one stop though to take pictures of this iron rich mountain/hill. In Kamloops we went to all the fun stores like Canadian Superstor, Wal-Mart, Chapters (including Starbucks), Staples and of course Costco (my favorite). You by everything in huge packages there. It's great fun. We also went to Jysk which I thought was a Swedish store, but I learned that it was Danish. Well, anyway it is Scandinavian. Jan had never been there before but is going again for sure. We saw Nancy something in the lamp store. She won some Olympic medal in alpine skiing at the 1968 Olympics (was that a winter Olympics?) She is still a huge roll model for young skiers here. I think almost every ski hill has a Nancy Green club for young skiers. Yesterday was another lazy day until it was time for this weeks kayaking. We went to Ruth Lake but only had time for 1 1/2 hours of kayaking since a thunderstorm was coming our way. We got away with just a little bit of rain in the end. I don't know what the plan is for the weekend it really depends on the weather. After a week of sunshine the weather is a bit crappy today. We might go to Sun Peak for Sunday. There is some quilting thing going on up there. I'm not so interested in that but it would be fun to see Sun Peaks though. I never got to see it in the winter time when I was here for my exchange and it sounds like it is a cool place. Jaimie is going to Vancouver Sunday to Monday since she has to take some finger print for her Visa or something like that. She is coming to Scotland and Glasgow to finish her law studies this fall. Hopefully she will come to Sweden for Christmas. Well it is time to get out there and see a little bit of 100 Mile!

Summer in 100 Mile!

I've already been here for four days! The trip here was kind of exciting. First of all I tried to bring a full water bottle through security at Heathrow. I did not succeed. But I didn't loose my nice Nalgene bottle either. The security guard was really nice and went and just pored the water out. I guess she noticed that I wasn't terrorist material.

I thought I really would like Air Canada, but I missed New Zealand Air. Air Canada didn't have a single movie I wanted to watch! And it was a touch screen instead of a remote control which meant that the 8 year old Norwegian boy behind me could both hit me in the back with his feet (which he did a lot) and pick me in the head since he wasn't a gentle pusher of the buttons. I asked him once in Swedish to quit it out...but I don't know if he understood it or not!

I got some really nice pictures of the Canadian shield and the Coastal mountains of BC. I missed the Rockies though. My favorite picture is of a glacier and downtown Vancouver.

When I arrived at the airport I went to this information desk to see the quickest and cheapest way to the Greyhound bus depot. Since the taxi would be so expensive the man suggested taking the shuttle bus to downtown Vancouver and then the Skytrain. I arrived at the airport at 3.35 PM and the Greyhound was leaving at 5.45PM so I didn't have much time. The shuttle bus left the airport at 4.30PM and I didn't get off until 5.15PM. So I was kind of stressed out trying to find the Skytrain which wasn't easy. I didn't see a single sign for it. But after asking around I catched it at 5.25PM. Luckily it was just 3 stops with the train and when I got off this Australian backpacker helped me find the place. I actually had 10 minutes to buy the tickets but the line was so long so I missed the bus with about a minute. Then I was really lucky because there was another bus that would catch up with my bus at Chilliwack (about 2 hour drive east of Vancouver)! So i made it to 100 Mile finally. Jan, Jaimie and her "boyfriend" Paul ( I don't know if the use those terms yet) picked me up at 1:30AM when I arrived after I had text messaged Rickard to phone Jan since I couldn't get the number to work when I tried to phone in Chilliwack.

I supposedly brought the nice summer weather here! :o) It hasn't been too warm yet but very sunny. On Friday I had a pick nick with Jaimie and Paul which was nice! We went to Jan's mum's cabin at Green Lake for the weekend. It was assume. I went for a few kayak rides on the lake trying to get a even browner tan (which worked perfectly)! The Sunday ended with Mike taking me out to the tennis court. I haven't played since last time I was here three years ago so I was really rusty. But it was great fun! I really have to try and play when I get back again to Sweden.

The only thing planned for this week is a trip to Kamloops on Wednesday! I'm excited especially about visiting Costco again! I will tell you how that goes later! And now I'm going to go map hunting! It is going to be interesting to compare the map selection at the BC visitor centers with the visitor centers in NZ.

Talk to you later alligators!

Time for this years next trip...this time to sweet lovely Canada!

Welcome back! Time to dust off this old blog again. It did not have time to get too dusty luckily. As some of you know I got a job for the fall and hopefully for next spring mapping (together with 69 other people) the agricultural land of Sweden. Since I do not start until the middle of August I thought it would be a good idea to spend some of that first paycheck in advance. And there is no better way of doing that than taking a trip to Canada. I will do my best updating you on my adventures over there!

Home sweet home...or is it sour?

Just to let everyone now I returned safely to Stockholm yesterday evening after way to many hours in the air (Tonga-Samoa-Los Angeles 10.30 hours, Los Angelse-London 9.30 hours, London-Stockholm 2.30 hours).

Luckily we all except two students that couldn't make it could prepare for the flight on the tiny island of Atata half a hour boat ride from the main island of Tonga. We stayed at the Royal Sunset Island Resort with the beach and the ocean water just ten meters away on the western side of our bungalow and maybe 50 meters away on the eastern side. We didn't realize all this until the morning after we arrived. The boat ride out to the island after dark was quite exciting especially when the boat was stopped by the coral reef (grundstötning). We managed to get out there eventually but I think it took about 40 minutes longer than it normally takes.

Except tanning and bathing time have been spent snorkeling, exploring the waters by a piece of floating material (EasyRider) and waiting for the next meal and for the happy hour in the bar. There weren't much else you could do out there than that.
The flight home wasn't too bad even though I didn't like the stop at Samoa in the middle of the night where we all had to get off and wait for an hour before we could return to our seats.

Actually the flight between London and Stockholm was quite bad since it sounded like the engines were installed inside the plane. We wore ear plugs the whole way which didn't really help!

I am a little sad to be home. It is always difficult to return to a everyday life after such an adventure that this trip has been. I will probably get used to it faster than I expect though. I hope you have enjoyed the my page and I hope to see you again when I fly away again!

Last day on NZ!!!

It's the last day on NZ which is quite incredible. Time really flies when you are having fun. The last couple of days have really been filled with fun especially the black water rafting in Waitomo, the place we went to after Rotorua. The Waitomo is made up of karst which is limestone that have been weathered and eroded into large underground tunnel- and cave systems. Water is important in this weathering process so usually you can find lots of water in the tunnels. We went in wearing wet suits and carrying a floating ring that we used going through the parts with deep water. I think everyone had the most fun though jumping backwards over small water falls holding the ring against the bum. You could get quite a good splash from that jump.

From Waitomo we drove up to the Coromandel peninsula which we didn't get to see much of the first day since we drove that after dark. It wasn't too exciting in the day light though except the huge Kauri trees that can become thousands of years old. Most of them were cut down in the beginning of the last century but a few are still standing looking amazing.

Yesterday we drove into Auckland. We are staying at a hostel in the central part and will get two hours today to do the city. We had a walk around yesterday (city excursion), but didn't get to do any shopping so I will do my very best today. I know a few stores that I want to visit.

The flight to Tonga leaves at 3.30PM and we will arrive at 7.20PM (Tonga time). We are being picked up from the airport on the main island to go to a smaller island where i guess you only can find the resort we are staying at. It is supposedly very narrow and 3 km in length.

I think this will be the last I write on this trip. I hope you all have enjoyed it!!! I will let you know when I am safe and sound at home!!! First a couple of pictures though!!!


Flying over Napier.

2500 meters up in the air on the volcanoe Mt Ruapehu. The crater lake is visible in the background (if you look really close).

Getting ready for the black water rafting experience in the Waitomo caves.