Mt Cook

After that was Mount Cook. It is a town of about 100 to 150 people way out in the middle of nowhere. It is on the opposite side of the Franz josef glacier we were at a week or so ago. There is no way across the mountain range though. It was a pretty quiet time therre. Part of Brian's bucket list was to touch an iceberg. We had heard there was some really good kayaking on a glacial lake with icebergs so we booked that. We headed out at 10 in a two persom kayak (which every place we have gotten them in has called divorce kayaks). It was probably the calmest kayaking we have done because it was a lake. We got to touch a few of the icebergs while the guide crashed into them trying to make them flip. Then we headed to just under a kilometre from the front of the glacier at one side of the lake. Kayaks can't go closer as big waves form when ice falls off the glacier and they don't trust the kayaks to turn in time. The water is 2 degrees at the surface and 0.5 a foot down and you can't survive long it if you topple. While we were in the middle of the lake we felt a vibration and after the guide called back to base we found out there had been a 4.1 earthquake 20km away. It was good fun but it seems it rather depends on the day as to how good the tour is. That afternoon we went for a walk to see another of the glcial lakes.

Dunedin

It's a pretty quite town. We saved all the activites for the following day. Then we got up and headed off to a tour of the Cabury's factory. They have about a hundred extra types of Cabury's chocolate bars and sweets in New Zealand. They give you loads of free chocolate so we were quite sick by the end of it and still had a few bars left. After that we got some savoury food and salad in the supermarket. Following lunch we headed to the Speight's brewery tour. I've been on the Carlsburg factory tour which was good but this one was slightly better. It covered a good bit on the guided tour. The also go over what each of their 8 beers taste like. At the end of the tour you get 30 minutes in a bar with 7 of their 8 beers on tap. We did quite well for ourselves in the 30 minutes. I had a few glasses of their larger and a few glasses of their flagship beer which is really nice. Then I had a few glasses of their cider to end. Brian had a glass of every different beer and a few more largers and their main one. I had a taste of every beer our of his glass. Two of them tasted of coffee and supposidly one of those tasted like Guinness without the head. Anyway we were a bit tipsy after that so we headed back tto the hostel to have a few more beers and play some games of that New Zealand puzzle game with the squiggly lines.

Queenstown

Having spent our previous night drinking, our final full day in Queenstown was spent watching all the Lord of the Rings movies. We were up til half 2 in the morning doing that as there were a few delays starting due to a lack of proper codecs and waiting to get the correct cable. Nothing else happened. Finally came our last day in Queenstown. We got up and checked out and then went with Johnny for a game of frisbee golf. It was my first time playing. I have no power in my shot so it took ages for me to get around but Brian and Johnny were great at helping me play. Frisbee golf is a really fun game and I wish we had a course at home. While Brian was like 10 over par and Johnny 14 over par and I was about a million over par. I'd say after a few rounds I'd get much more reasonable figures. After that we got some lunch and headed off to Dunedin.

Queenstown

It was Paddy's day the day we arrived in Queenstown. So we headed to the hostel and grabbed some noodles and took a bit of a break before we planned on headed out. The guys in the hostel were going out so we decided to grab a few beers in the off license and join then before going to the pub. We stayed quite late in the kitchen, talking and playing drinking games and somewhere in the middle I had to go get us more beer as we had run out. After we headed out to an Irish bar but our group couldn't even fit in the bar because it was so packed. As it was late we had to head off to a non Irish bar to get space but all of town was buzzing and it was still great fun. Next day was spent with a hangover followed by mini golf. Me and Brian got the exact same in the mini golf but I think that was because his hangover was a lot worse than mine. The next day brought clay pigeon shooting. Brian was brilliant, he shot everything but the rabbits (little plastic disks that roll along the ground). Even then he got half of them. His hours on the Nintendo seem to have paid off. I didn't do as well but I did enjoy myself. I did hit more than half which made me happy. It was a great day and definitely something I would do again. That night we went on an official pub crawl. We meet up with a group of twenty or thirty and headed to a selection of pubs around the city. There were drinks promotions and free shots or drinks at each of the bars. We even drank at a pub called tardis which was cool. The logical follow on being the next day was for our hangovers which actually weren't bad at all. I got my hair cut and we booked the next three days of activities. We decided to do a different selection of activities on the second two days. 

We stayed in a hostel called Adventure Queenstown hostel and I have to say it is hands down the best hostel I've ever stayed in.  They make everyone fell at home and it's like one big family.  I think it's partly because there are a lot of long-term people there (people staying from a month to a few months) and partly because the guy running it just really wants to make it the best hostel in Queenstown.  That's a pretty big task considering the sheer amount of hostels in Queenstown and the fierce competition.  Everyone hangs around in the hostel and we've extended our stay twice here.  In the kitchen everyone chats with everyone new and when there are drinking games or just card games, everyone is invited in.  Even if you just want to sit and chat with guys while they are cooking or drinking.  People make an effort and invite you to chat or watch movies with them.  The guy running the place makes a big effort and sometimes they play the wii and just ask everyone passing to play a round.  

Anyway for the first day I went horse-riding.  We went riding around a place called Glenorchy and went past a bunch of places where Lords of the Rings was filmed.  Also a few of the people in the stables had been orcs in the films as they could ride horses well.  I was worried about horse riding after hurting my back so we took it easy.  The horse I was on was an ex stunt horse and a dream to ride.  So pretty soon I was cantering around the river bed without a bothered (the next day my lower back was a bit sore and stiff but that was just the muscles from doing exercise that I wouldn't normally do).  We got to go through rivers and the horses were really sure-footed.  It seems when the river is really high the horses can end up swimming through and pulling the riders along with them which is pretty cool.  You would never get that in Ireland.  That day Brian was meant to go out on a flat raft thing with handles at the side that you lie on going down white rapids.  There was a mix up in the booking but in the end he got to go down white water rapids on a body board.  You have to be a really strong swimmer to that which is why I didn't go for it.  I'm not that strong a swimmer.  he had a fantastic time.  It went really well the first time around and then the second time he tried to film the whole thing on my camera.  It didn't go half as well that time.  There are videos of it that me and Brian have on our hard drives.  The next day I went for a walk up a little of Queenstown hill and through the Queenstown gardens.  After which I went to a spa for a half hour in a floatation tank and a massage.  I hated the floatation tank, I getting really twitchy when I can't sleep at night and have to make the bed over and over again so the sheets stay straight and I have to make sure I am lying perfect straight and everything is in exactly the right place until I can sleep.  The floatation tank was like not being able to sleep.  I spent a lot of the time trying to keep myself in the dead centre of the tank.  Also I kept getting condensation on my face and it was all uneven and my ear plugs were uneven.  Ok so I'm just a bit strange but anyway.  The massage was amazing, especially after the horse-riding.  I felt completely relaxed after.  I have never really been bothered doing a bungee so Brian spent the morning doing a bungee.  He did the biggest one in the country.  He said it was brilliant, a great adrenaline rush.  He said he would do it again but it was very expensive.  Afterwards he headed for a game of frisbee golf.  They have a permanent pitch in the Queenstown gardens.  You have to get a frisbee from the tee to a small basket with a pole and chains in the centre.  It's suppose to be a very fun game.  That night the two of us played drinking games in the hostel and then went out to bar called Fraiser with about 12 people from the hostel.  It was a really great night.  There was drinking Jenga, cards and pool. 

South Island of New Zealand

Next we headed to Franz Josef Glacier. We headed out to the pub in the hostel that night and entered a rock paper scissors contest to win a Nevis Arc swing but we both got knocked out in the first round. We had heard that your could kayak near the glacier and touch little icebergs. When we asked about it we found out it was on the Mount Cook side and not the Franz Josef side but we are stopping by Mount Cook on the way back up the island so we still plan to do that. So instead we decided to go for a walk up to see the glacier. We had the whole day to burn so when we got up to the car park near the glacier Brian decided we should go for the five hour and twenty minute walk to see the glacier from above. We had been speaking to a couple who had headed up the path directly to the front of the glacier and they said the barrier is actually quite far away from glacier and you can't get closer without being on a guided walking or climbing tour. They sounded a bit disappointed. We headed off and gradually realised walk was a bit misleading. At a few short points we had to climb up almost vertical bits of cliff and grab on to tree roots to get up. We also had to walk on really smooth rock face from streams that was at quite a steep angle. We eventually got to the top and had a great view of the front of the glacier from a hill quite close to it. It doesn't really picture well as the glacier front kinda blends in with the sky and stuff. Then it started to rain and all the way back was very slippy. We eventually got back and actually managed the walk in about 5 and a half hours. We were absolutely soaking when we got back. Upon getting back to the hostel we decided to head to the glacier hot pools and relax for two hours before grabbing food in the restaurant by the hostel.

Following day we headed off early as we had a five hour drive followed by a two hour drive. We were also driving with an Irish guy called Liam who was in the hostel room at the last place with us. He was a really nice guy from Mayo and he was planning on getting a bus down to Queenstown. Even with our stop in Wanaka along the way we would still be arriving in Queenstown quicker than the bus. Over the last two nights we had been talking to him in the pub and found out we were all going the same way. The distance wasn't too bad on the trip but there were some seriously windy roads up and down mountains along the way. The views were absolutely amazing. We stopped in Wanaka about lunch time. We dropped Liam off in the town as he didn't really have much interest in giant puzzles and we went to the puzzling world there. There was a 1.5 kilometer maze with stairs in it. The maze itself wasn't really that hard in the end. We had it done in a lot less time then it said it took but I imagine that may have been for kids. We weren't the only adults doing it though as there were a few other couples we met along the way. You didn't have to find your way out, you just had to find your way to the four towers and then back to the start. After that came four illusion rooms which were interesting. The main one was pretty cool. It was a room entirely at about a 45 degree angle. It had various bits that completely freaked out your brain. Water that looked like it was running uphill and a big eye illusion wall. Then we played a few puzzles in the cafe while getting lunch. Things like building triangles out of various pieces of wood and that wiggle line making games. We played 3D connect 4 for a while. Me and Eoin had a 3D connect 4 when we were kids but it had 4 layers where you could place tokens. This one was 16 metal prongs and you put beads on them. We played for quite a while, both of us winning as much as losing. We would have kept playing only we told Liam we would collect him at 3. As I was navigator I chose the shortest route to Queenstown. It was especially up and down in the end but we did save a bit of time and Brian definitely wasn't bored driving. We did worry a bit about running out a petrol as towns are laid out fairly spread out along the way and not all of them had petrol stations.

Barrytown

I would recommend this to anyone going to New Zealand. Do knife making. It is so much fun and you get a really good knife at the end of it. So you start off with a long piece of carbon steel. Then you put it in a forge and heat it glowing orange (but not sparking cause then its burnt). Then you hammer it on one side. This will eventually be the sharp strong side. The hammering puts extra carbon in that side from the coke on the fire. The guy there told you when you were ready to move on. Then you cut the handle to size and filled it down on 4 sanding belts. This is the first set of sanding. Then we drilled through the handle on the steal to attach a brass and wooden handle We could only do this because the rest of the blade doesn't have as much carbon and is soft enough to drill. Then we sanded down the handle to a better shape Then we went for lunch. In that time the main guy there tidied up everyones blade so when we came back after lunch they looked great. At lunch we had toasted sandwiches and got to see some especially short Shetland ponies and swing on an absolutely giant swing which took 5 people to pull back to the highest point. Brian also took a hand as some axe throwing. They said on average girls make better knifes than girls but all the knives seem to come out beautifully. After lunch we spend most of the time grinding down the knife making it shinier and shinier. At the end we had to sand the knives by hand with very finely grained paper. Then the handle was stained and detected with shoe polish. It took the whole day but it was brilliant. Everyone had a good time and there were only a few more guys than girls.

South Island of New Zealand

Next day we went wine touring in Blenheim. It was a fantastic trip. We started at 10 and got to try about 6 different wines in each of the 7 wineries we visited. We got collected and dropped off at our hotel. The smaller wineries were a lot more interesting than the larger ones but there were a few people who requested wineries on the tour and they all seemed to be quite big ones. We seemed to like the Riesling, Gerwurztrominer (I've never heard of it in Ireland) and Pinot Gris. There was a lot of not nice Riesling though. But when they were nice, they were fantastic. They seem to be what desert wines are made of but that doesn't mean they are always sweet. I got a bottle of that in the second last place we went to and Brian got a bottle of Gerwurztrominer. I would easily do a wine tour again a few times. It was a great way to spend time. We got food when we got back. Next day we got a really nice lunch for 11 dollars as two of the women we were with on the wine tour gave us a voucher they had but never got a chance to use on their trip to New Zealand. It was a 35 dollar voucher which was really nice. Then we went on an exhausting 5 hour trip down to Greymouth and then a further trip to Arthur's Pass. It was a long day so we just got dinner and went to the cinema to see True Grit. It was a pretty boring film where a few bits didn't even make sense.

South Island of New Zealand

We flew into Christchurch but didn't get to see any of the city. We had organised to rent a car as the tourist board was advising people to stay out of the city. So we got our car and headed out to Hamner Springs. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we booked into our Motel and wet to the thermal baths. We soaked for about three hours, really enjoying ourselves and relaxing. It was a short stop as the next day we headed to Kaikoura. We booked some swimming with seals and went to the supermarket. We then went for a walk around some of the coast. Turns out there are seals all around the coast. We saw one all on its own in the first spot. Then we went out to a second spot with loads of them. We started walking out to the and realised there was one about 2 metres in front of us. They are quite camouflaged on the coast. That night we found out about the earthquake in Japan and the Tsunami warnings for everywhere with an ocean edge nearby. The next day they said the seal swimming was canceled because of the Tsunami. They said it was because they were so close in on the rocks but the tourist office said nothing else was canceled because we were on the other side of the island. In the end we book a last minute kayaking trip to view the seals. The tour actually turned out great. We had two person kayaks and Brian and me were together in one. We saw tiny penguins that continually dive down the whole time. Really hard to get a picture of as they don't stay on the surface at all. First we went to a big bay and saw a load of seals lazing about. They were everywhere. We got a few pictures and headed out to the next few bays. We learned a bit about the seaweed around us. Some of which is strong enough to destroy rocks. We got to sea some seals climbing up rocks which was quite impressive. The New Zealand fur seal is one type with two tail fins so they can climb quite well. On the way back Brian notice a seal splashing around as we went over we saw him eating an octopus. We got right up to him and he didn't mind It seams seals mind people a lot more on land but in water they aren't that bothered by people. So we got to see a seal eat an octopus up close and personal. On the way back in two seals came along and swam beside and under our boats. It was a really cool experience.

Auckland

There was one quick day in Auckland. We took a walk the day we arrived up Mount Eden which had a big dip in the middle. We got some Indian for dinner and then it started to lash rain. We decided to leave off going out in the centre of Auckland and decided to stay local. First we had a really nice bottle of Pinot Gris from Man O War. It was really nice. No one else in the hostel was going out so we headed to a local Irish bar. It was really like a proper Irish bar. There were three old Irish men at the bar we got talking to. The bar tenders were also Irish. It was so like home. We got lost on our way home and took ages to get back. Next day we got to the airport and booked some of our accommodation on a free Internet kiosk. All the internet is so expensive in New Zealand.

Vancouver

So we got back to Vancouver quite late in the night and headed to a cheap hotel near to Chinatown. There are a lot of homeless people in that area of Vancouver and its quite depressing wandering that area of the city. Next day we dropped back our ski gear and had a potter around town. We finally found a nice cheap area filled with souvenir shops and spent the day wandering the city. I got a few things for home and some sweets. We saw a steam powered clock and booked a trip for the next day. Earlier in the day we had bought tickets for the cinema but someone had put the printing paper glossy side up in the machine. In the end we had to go up to the cinema and tell them the tickets didn't print and they pulled up all our info but we got sweets as well as tickets at the machines. They couldn't reprint the sweets tickets so they said to come in 45 minutes early (at 6.15, this is important later) to get a manager to sort it out and also to queue for the cinema. They don't have assigned seating there even if its busy. You just have to queue up early before the film starts and there is a big queue. So we arrived just before 6 and the manager was acting really weird. He kept stressing that we were meant to be there at quarter past. We just thought it was weird. We waiting around til about half in the end messing on the machines as no one was queuing for the film. Then we got our food off the manager. At 7 we went up to ask if we could go in and the guy laughed at us and said we would have to queue. We didn't understand as the film was suppose to start. Turns out Brians watch was exactly an hour fast so it was only 6 and we never realised. It was hilarious and embarrassing but we just sat down eating our food until we had to queue. We saw the adjustment bureau, it was quite good but not worth the two hour wait :) Next day we headed to Vancouver Island. Its a really scenic place. We headed out to Victoria and went to a bug museum to burn time before going to the gardens that the tourist office recommended. The bug museum was really great and completely outshone the gardens. We got to hold tarantula, scorpions and various stick insects. They had loads of info and a little herd of dogs outside that were very fun to play with. One left the zoo on my backpack though. We found it at the bus stop and Brian had to run back with him before the bus came (he is much faster than me). At the bus stop we learned Brian's watch was 10 minutes fast so at this point we realised it was completely broken. We then went to the gardens that were very picturesque. There were a lot of different styles and an indoor and outdoor area. There was also some fountains and things. It was a really nice walk around. On the last day our plans for beach walks and trips to the park kinda failed. We missed the bus cause we didn't know the time and the bus was 38 dollars which was way to much for one day but yo had to buy a pass or something. Then we wandered around town and went to a book shop and I returned a book I had previously got for two different ones.

We got the the airport and I took my phone out of my bag only to find the screen was completely black except for some lines of coloured pixels. I turned it off in the hope that it was just temporary (I had to hope). Anyway in thee end it was definitely broken. So disappointing, especially while away. I was very attached to the phone. Usually I do something to them ut this had been in a net pocket in my backpack so it was safe and wouldn't have been affect by anyone bumping into to me or putting it too heavily on the ground. So it just broke. Also we lost pancake Tuesday coming over the date line :(

Skiing

When we got up the mountain it turns out we were staying in a beautiful ski lodge. It had a really traditional ski feel to it and was all wood and stone on the inside. It was right at the bottom of all the slopes. So as soon as we checked in and dropped off our bags, we headed out to get our free passes and rent ski equipment. I have only skied once for about 3 hours so I was a bit worried about the whole thing. When we were renting our equipment we also both got three lessons. Brian got intermediate ones and I got beginner ones. I went down the bunny slope after Brian and fell over as I couldn't remember how to do anything at all. Then I decided to wait til the lesson started before doing anything else while Brian waited on the bunny slope skiing down. He was flying and seemed to remember a whole lot. Then our lesson started and Brian headed off to the real slopes and I learned the basics. We paid for group lessons but as the ski resort was empty on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays we got individual lessons one on one with instructors. The lesson when really well and I was flying on the bunny slope so we headed off to a beginner slope. It went a big disastrously and I fell over three times just getting down the one slope. The instructor had taken that into account so we ended up skiing into the hotel at the same time as Brian came back. He had a great time. They covered improving the basic stuff on some beginner slope (it had been maybe 8 years since Brian skied). Then they went out on some intermediate slopes and he seemed to be flying. We got some hot chocolate and wandered around the visit for a while. It was really nice but really small and only had one ski shop, a food shop and a few restaurants/bars. When we got back we headed out to the hotel's outdoor hot tubs. The ground from the hotel to the hot tub seemed to be headed as I was worried it would be very cold on my toes. It was great, we were the only ones out there and we could see skiers go past as we were getting in. We were in about half an hour but the heat got the better of us by then. By half way through the bubbles in the tub were freezing on top. It was really strange being in a boiling hot tub with frozen bubbles.

Next day when I woke up I was feel a little unwell so I stayed in bed an extra hour to try and feel better. When I got out on the bunny slope to practice I was doing ok. For my lesson in the afternoon I let my instructor know I wasn't doing the best but after a few more runs on the bunny slope I was still ok so we headed out to the beginner slopes. On the first slope I fell twice and by that point my tummy was terribly upset as it didn't seem to like the falling bit. We went down another slope into the villiage and I fell again because my legs were all weak so we called it a day (we only cut it 15 minutes short). Brian had a fantastic day that day. He was doing jumps and going down black slopes. He seemed to have a great time with his instructor. The next day I don't have much to say cause I was sick in my bed. My tummy needed a little break from falling over. Brian had his last lesson which went really well. He ended up with my instructor as his never turned up. They covered a lot of the stuff he had been doing on the previous days, I assume to get better at it. I managed to get my last lesson moved to the next day. One of the many good advantages of having an empty ski resort seems to be getting last minute lessons and change. It also means you can be the first on a slope, even me who only went out on the beginner slopes in the afternoon and there are no lift queues. They have tonnes of slopes from beginner to double black diamonds. As much as any of the other resorts except maybe whistler where the olympics were held. It was so strange that it was empty and seems to cater to school groups and the locals from Penticton on the weekends. On the last day I started on the bunny slope again but then loads of school kids came and upset me. So I stopped skiing til Brian came over and convinced me to go with him on the beginner slopes. I was still having trouble turning but he was very convincing so we went. I turned out to have a really great time skiing with him. I did have to walk down one big turn on the slope because I was worried about crashing into trees. It was ok though as Brian walked with me. That afternoon my instructor decided I was thinking too much about the whole thing. She made me go down the slope without looking at my skis or thinking about turning or how I couldn't turn right very well. As soon as I stopped thinking I was doing great. So for the rest of the lesson I went down all the beginner slopes without falling on any. We even met Brian on a ski lift and got to chat to him. Turns out he had spoken to our instructor about our difficulties getting home because we had no transport. So she organised us a lift with one of the girls who lived in Penticton and worked in the resort. It was really handy as she was going that way at 4 and we needed to be in town for 5. On our final day we got up and checked out and headed for a bit of ice-skating. When we were renting skates we didn't know whether we needed hockey or figure skating skates. So we got hockey but they didn't seem right to skate on. They had no ankle support or brakes and I had some real difficulty on them altogether. We headed back for lunch and after were going to change them. However when we had lunch they had an offer to win a snow board if you bought a certain type of beer. We tried the beer and then found out you had to live there to enter. In the end we stayed and enjoyed a few honey lagers before heading back to the bus station. It was a really nice afternoon and we had a great time.

Vancouver

So on our way to Vancouver Brian got his first full body scan in the naked scanners.  He went back through security to grab money out of the ATM as we had loads of time.  So the guy got suspicious the second time around.  Getting from Vancouver airport to the hotel was pretty easy.  We were staying in a hotel cause the hostels in Vancouver are so very very expensive.  It was a choice between a hotel outside of downtown right beside the subway/tram or a hostel for the same price in a very bad part of town which was'nt very clean.  On the plane we were told by the friendly guy next to us that it never ever snows in Vancouver just in the surrounding area.  We took the Skytrain from the airport to our hotel and as soon as we got off it we were covered in snow.  It was a downright blizzard.  In the end only about an inch stuck but the receptionist in the hotel also told us it never snowed and we must have brought the weather with us (not sure where from...).  The hotel was really and for some reason had two double beds like a lot of hotel rooms we have stayed in which we booked just as doubles. 

The next day we went shopping in Wallmart as we had a fridge and food was expensive. That was the first day I tried to fix my laptop. I had downloaded a program to create a bootable linux formated usb and the new netook OS. We asked a guy in a laptop repair shop to use the programs to create the disk (my laptop at this point could do nothing and it's really hard to repair a laptop without a pc of some kind. In internet cafes you don't get admin access to pc's so you can't install programs or format us sticks. Anyway the guy actually seemed to know what he was doing and created the bootable usb. I spent a lot of the day working on it and still have a few things which I gave up on in the end. While I was doing all this Brian skyped his family to say hello and because he had sent a parcel that had just arrived with them. A few other bits and pieces happened but mostly the next day a we went to do the touristy thing and look around Vancouver. It's a massive city but it's very functional. People kept saying there was loads to do without being specific. They are definitely some of the nicest people in the world though. Whenever we opened a map for longer than a minute someone would ask if we were ok. While waiting in line at Tim Hortons for donuts, we were giving out that we couldn't find a book shop and a fire fighter behind us gave us directions to one and asked us how we were getting on. Tim Horton's donuts are really nice in Canada, I don't really like the ones in Spar back home. They don't seem to travel well or they don't take being left out. The shops are really busy over there and very similar to Starbucks in style. We went up the Skytower in downtown. It was 15 dollars and tax and so boring. That left us a little down heartened about tourism in Canada. We spent the day wandering the city but it was freezing so in the afternoon we decided to buy some beers and head home. It turns out 12 bottles of Miller is 28 dollars and then tax. (This seems to be getting a bit down We did have a great time here and once the skiing and stuff gets going it really picks up). Next day we headed to the traditional Chinese garden in Vancouver's Chinatown. It was about 10 dollars in but we got a tour of the place which a history of the founder and information about what makes it a Chinese garden and some traditional tea. Turns out they have to import the rock in the garden from a specific place in China in order for it to be a traditional Chinese garden. It looked really beautiful but the weather was pretty cold and crisp. A lot of effort seems to go into the fine detail and getting a ying and yang element throughout the garden. After we went inside for our tea which was great to warm us up. While we were there we got to try out Chinese calligraphy on these really cool things called budda boards. They almost feel like slate on one side and soft on the other. They have a paper like appearance on the soft side and when you paint on with water to the paper like side, it appears like black ink. They seem to be set up to have a lot of groups of school kids in there so I think they were aimed at teaching them calligraphy without making as mess cause the most they could do was spill water. We had fun messing about with them.

Eventually we organised an over night bus to Penticton which was the nearest town to Apex Mountain where we were skiing. We arrived at 6 in the morning but we hadn't counted on the hotel (it was more of a motel but it called itself a hotel) not having a 24 hour reception. We got a taxi down from the bus station as we didn't have a map and saw the sign saying the hotel wasn't open til 10. We didn't really have an idea what to do as it was absolutely freezing at that point. The taxi driver stopped when she say us standing outside the door and we told her that they weren't open so she phoned her head office and found out where the nearest 24 Denny's was. So we took her advice and headed over there. We got a really big breakfast with tonnes of food. It was really nice but seriously heavy. That took up about an hour but we had three more to burn. Brian was talking to the waitress and she was fine to let us sit there until out hotel opened except to offer refils on our coffee. The hotel was quite nice in the end. It was on a beach at the edge of a lake and was really orientated towards a summer resort. We thought that was a little unusual considering it was right next to a ski resort. We had heard there were shuttle buses up to the mountain so we asked where to get them at reception. Turns out they only run on the weekends. No one goes to Apex during the week which is why we paid 69 dollars for out accommodation and got free 60 dollar a day ski passes from Monday to Thursday. We had no idea how to get up there as the only options were to rent a shuttle bus which cost 150 dollars or get a taxi at about 75 dollars. In the end the receptionist phoned us and said that the husband of one of the other receptionists had offered to drop us up the mountain after he got off work as a baker for the price of petrol. We assumed when we first heard that he was going up anyway but it turns out he was just doing it because we didn't have another option to get up the mountain.

Las Vegas

We arrived in Vegas on Friday night. When we got the shuttle from the airport we got a book a vochures. As we were only staying three days we decided to take advantage of the offers. The first night we went to a comedy gig called Finding the Caveman. It was an observational comedy thing on the differences between guys aand girls. It was very funny and in a kind of venue similiar to Vicar Street with tables and stuff. We got free buffet dinner after which was really good. The rest of the night and before the gig we spent on the slot machines as all the shows are in casinos. We got up fairly late the next day and messed about in the hostel a while. Later on we headed out to the casinos before heading to a comedy magic gig. I'm not that big into magic shows but it was quite good. I think Brian was a little disappointed cause it wasn't really any magic that he hadn't seen before. It was free though. Then there was more time in the casinos and finally we headed to a knight's show thing. They had knights jousting and we had a big dinner we had to eat with our hands. We got to eat a whole chicken with it (it was a little smaller than the normal sized ones in a rotissary but I didn't come close to finishing it). That was absolutely brilliant. I really enjoyed it. We were sitting in the Irish section cheering on the Irish knight. Some of the guys in the crowd got really involved and started up chants and we spent our time booing the French knight and then there was an evil dragon knight who they all fought. It was a really good show that I would definitely go see again. They had really well trained horses as well and they had sparks and stuff when the swords were clashing and indoor fireworks at the end. That day Brian and myslef did really well on the slot machines and on the 1 cent machines I made like 12 dollars after putting in 1 dollar (that is pretty good for me) and Brian made like 35 dollars on 1 dollar. Definitely the best haul. On the last day we got up and I pottered around for the morning. Brian went off and got himself a scaffold in his ear at the piercing shop. It looks really great but it was very sore for the first few days. Brian also wants me to mention he looks really hot. That day we spent in the casinos. We decided to go all out and spend a bit of money getting involved in proper table games. Brian played a little roulette and lost all the money he had for roulette in two spins even thoguh he bet on like 8 things. Then he played Black Jack. He started with 40 dollars and went all the way up to 150 dollars over the course of about half and hour to an hour and then over the next half hour to an hour he lost it all. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. After loosing my Black Jack money I moved to Roulette and had a great time. I made about twice my money and then lost it but really slowly winning bits and pieces here and there. It was a really enjoyable way to spend the weekend. We got free dinner in the hostel and that was the end of our holiday in Vegas.

Laptop

For those of you who may not know my laptop has been broken for the past few weeks. I didn't really use this laptop a lot before coming on the holiday. It has Xandros as a OS and it seems to follow a horrible cycle that I eventually got sick of. I factory reset it and then it works perfectly but it has very old versions of programs. Eventually I want to view a new document or open a website that supports a newer browser version then mine. So I update it. Once I start to update the OS I only have a while before it stops working. In the end I created a USB boot disk for the new Ubuntu netbook but it didn't correctly support my wireless card. Eventually I remembered I could tether my phone to it and update the drivers so in the end everything was sorted but I haven't updated teh blog since the start of it.