Summer Trip 2007

This is the two of us at our friends' (Graaf and Lish's) wedding in early August. It was beautiful. We had a great time seeing everyone and being part of the festivities.

This is me with my good friends the 506ers, who I lived with for a year at Queen's (Phil, Graeme, Graaf, me, Brad and Steve).

This is Bettina with her American sister Sarah. Sarah and her finance Steve are getting married in Mexico in February.

This is Bettina and me at the place where we bought the ring.

--We saw lots of family this trip and we have some more pictures we'll post soon.--

More World Trip Pics

This is a rock formation called London Bridge, by the Great Ocean Road, near Melbourne. We went there on a road trip with Bettina's dad Ian and his wife Rose.

Me with a hungry little Wallabie, at Clealand Wildlife Sanctuary in Adelaide.

These are Bettina's friends in Adelaide: Kate, who's husband Vic is looking at the camera, has her hands around Craig, who is married to Nicky, who's having her tummy touched by me --because she's pregnant.

On the right is Nathan, Bettina's brother, and Laura his girlfriend is on the left. We never figured out how they won all the boardgames we played.
Bettina saying goodbye to her brother Nathan in Adelaide. Me at the top of a 40 meter sandhill that we slid down on bodyboards in Fiji.

... Bettina falling off at the bottom of the hill.

Us enjoying a little drinky-poo on the beach. They were all out of cocktail umbrellas so we had to steal a real flower for this photo! :-]

This is me 18 meters (!!) under the Pacific, doing my first scuba dive in Fiji. Our friend Christy took this with her under water camera.
This is Christy from California and Colin from Perth. They were my scuba buddies. :-)

This is Phil and Amy, very good friends of mine from university in Canada. We visited them in Singapore. What a life!

Our big trip

A few pictures from our trip.


Us in Hong Kong before we spent all but $2 of our money on tea sets and ties.

Bettina on the beach in Fiji. This particular beach was the most beautiful place I had ever been.

Walking through the jungle in Fiji.



This is me jumping off the Skytower in Auckland. It's a 192 meter jump, the highest in the Southern Hemisphere apparently. It was pretty scary, but pretty cool to have done.


Us in Argentina before we went to see a tango show. (The tango is from Argentina).

Some Fijian kids waving at us as we walked by on a long dirt road.

Two friends of ours Camilla and Frank, who are from Denmark. We're hoping to visit them there soon.

***There are many more pictures of our trip to come once we get ourselves organized.

See ya!

NZ, Fiji and Australia

Lots has happened since Chile. We were in New Zealand only for the day, but we made the most of it. After hitting Starbucks and a strolling around the city we did some shopping in a quaint little market Bettina found by the Auckland harbour. After that, I took an elevator 40 floors up the city's Sky Tower (see picture), put on a harness and did the Sky Jump, the highest jump in the southern hemisphere (!!), 192 meters (620 feet) down to the concrete below. Unbelievable!

Next to Fiji.
Fijians are very friendly, even if they sometimes charge $6 for a bottle of water. We did a tour there, so we trekked through the jungle, went to a Chief's house and drank Cava (the ceremonial drink), visited a local school, and of course visited loads of beautiful beaches. The coolest thing I did here was that I went on my first scuba dive (Bettina's gone before), 17 meters down, on a coral reef off the coast of Voli Voli. One of the guys on the dive, who's been on 10 dives around the world, said that it was the best one he's done because we got to go through caves within the coral reef. It was really an amazing experience. I would definitely like to dive again.

Australia
Finally, after 3 years, we've made it to Australia. Fortunately, none of it has come as too much of a culture shock. We spent the day first in Sydney with Danish friends we met in Fiji, seeing the requisite sights around the harbour. Then we on to Adelaide, which may be the most laid back city I've ever been to. It moves at a slow pace and is so quiet that I can't help but relax. Bettina's family and friends have been great and it's been good to finally see where Bettina grew up. I'm glad we're going to have another couple of weeks here before going back to the hustle and bussle of London.

(Unfortunately the internet connection we're using right now is dial-up and it isn't letting us upload any of the big pictures we've taken, but hopefully we'll be able to post some soon.)

Chile is an Understatement

Just a few thing that should be said about Chile: it´s very cold here in July, the people are friendly, and Canadians have to pay a $180 (US) tax before leaving the airport just for being Canadian. Coming from London we thought we would never find another city to be more expensive, but we were wrong. Chile blows England out of the water a book that would cost 3GBP is the equivalent of 14GBP here. There is a real west coast vibe here though. It feels somewhat like Vancouver and Seattle; or maybe it was the rain. A few good stories to tell about our time here, but our plane is leaving.

¡Tonight we Tango!

Day two of our trip and we're about to go on a big tour of Buenos Aires. We're both enjoying the city and I (Tim) am especially enjoying the chance to experiment with my Spanish with unsuspecting locals. Yesterday in a Havana cafe, we had a world traveller moment when the Lonely Planet TV show came on behind us and they were touring London.

The city reminds me a lot of Cairo, with its oversized buildings and smog, but it also feels very American (N and S American). There is a great feeling of space, with exceptionally wide roads and fields between buildings in the suburbs. Very different than the UK, of course. Argentinians also have a cowboy culture, with lots of leather, knives, and male kissing (see: broke back mountain). The shopping here is also really cheap, so we won't leave here without our share of ponchos.

We'll keep you posted.

Fiji here we come

It's Friday the 21st of July. Bettina and I have fully packed our room in Kings Cross and are set to fly out of Heathrow tomorrow night.

We really can't wait for this picture to be us (minus the speedo for me) --well maybe not MINUS. I'll probably substitute it with something else. We'll see. As long as I get a girly drink with a little umbrella in it, I'll be happy.

YAY US!