NZ-UK 1997: “The big OE”

23 November 1997

Having just completed 3 days in Hawaii, I’m just waiting for my flight to Canada. This place has been interesting; it is definitely a country/state of two halves – Honolulu/Waikiki and everywhere else. The first day I was here I only slept and wandered around and slept. I must have been very tired! It was a fantastic day and I am glad it was winter or I might have fried! I applied copious amounts of sun block, only to find that I didn’t require it – even though the sun/temperature is hot it must have an ozone layer between it and here. I found the locals (with an occasional exception) to be generally impolite and unhelpful. They did however smile and say ‘aloha’ quite often but <smile> “aloha, no I can’t help you” is not quite the service that I was usually after. Similarly the shopping contained not much interest, as there seems to be franchise after franchise and no real local shops other than those that sell souvenirs. On my second day I travelled around town on a sightseeing trolley and took a few photos and found out a little more about the place. Queuing up I found that I was but one non-Japanese in a group of around 150 tourists! Still I suppose it didn’t matter the nationality of the other people – aside from an initial introduction all the narration was in English. Today I went on a tour of Oahu and found it to be very informative, great fun and interesting. The day wasn’t much chop (as far as days here go) but I saw local people doing local things and the tour guide was knowledgeable and helpful. He knew much of NZ and the pacific islands as well as everything about the local flora and fauna and customs (including Buddhism). I also discovered Mai Tai’s and found them to be very nice. The problem that I had is that there isn’t a minimum number of nips per cocktail – a fact I found out after the second one. I also met an Australian and a New Zealander on the tour – the first I encountered since Auckland and although this is surprising these days, at the time it was a pleasant change from the usual septic twang. I discovered that the ESPN in NZ is a little different from the ESPN in the States, which is devoid of anything outside of Gridiron, golf and basketball, somewhat annoying when the All Blacks are playing in Wales and Ireland at the moment.

Summary of the subsequent trip to Canada

24 November – 4 December

Arrived in Vancouver 7:00am and stumbled into Canada very short of sleep and confused. After finding out which bus to take from the airport to a youth hostel, I checked into the YHA in Burnaby St. Pretty nice hostel and quite new back then. The temp was about 8-10 deg C (certainly a change from Hawaii) and after sorting myself out, I went into downtown Vancouver for a bit of a wander and as was to be the case over the next little while, had a number of coffees. That night I met an American bloke from California and some girls from (it had to be) Invercargill who like me were on their way to Whistler in a few days. We swapped numbers and when they found it was my birthday, took me out for a drink. The next day I went across the harbour to find some ski pants for the skiing in the next week. I got a little lost and managed to catch the sea boat back to Central Van after wandering for a couple of hours. I wasn’t really lost, as in Vancouver you can nearly always see where you need to go, its just sometimes the getting there that often proves a little difficult.

Watching a game of Ice hockey at a pub, going to a Melrose Place night at a different pub and Stanley Park were all highlights (?) of my stay.

After finding the ski pants that I wanted and another couple of days wandering around and nights indulging in copious amounts of drinking in the beautiful city of Vancouver I headed up to Whistler to stay in the Shoestring Lodge and discover the mountains of Whistler/Blackcomb.

Day one was 27^th November (or in the States, Thanksgiving day) so there were a large number of seppos floating around the place. I got orientated and started my 5 days skiing in the midst of a massive dump, quickly finding out that one needs goggles during a snowfall, and the sunnies that are commonplace at home just don’t cut the mustard.

I got in touch with Belinda, Rebecca and Annabelle Robins when I got to Whistler and we went out drinking and for food a couple of times, with one particular night being a little more raunchy than the others! The girls had a party at the apartment that they were staying at and this included a whole bunch of guys from Palmerston North who had bought a van with which to travel around Canada in, an Aussie, the American I met back in Vancouver and a Mexican called Ricardo. There were also a number of Canadian students who left early on in a particularly intoxicated state to go out to see a band. It was snowing very heavily outside and one of the guys decided to board down the stairs outside the apartment in his boxers. As we had all had a reasonable number of drinks no one questioned the sensibility of this, and instead all raced outside to watch. The result of all these efforts was a NZ’er lying on his back at the bottom of the stairs and a valuable lesson that one should not try and pull a switch 180 off the bottom stair when your board is wider than the posts that hold up the hand rails. After this we drank some more and all had a couple of drinks in the hot tub. And that’s all. No, really that’s it.  I didn’t go skiing the next day, and for some reason am known as the victim. I have no memory.. and thank god there is no photographic evidence.

The last day at Whistler/Blackcomb was great, I hooked up with a NZ guy in my room from Nelson and we did Blackcomb (7^th Heaven) and gave it stink. It was cool. Said my goodbyes to all the troops, and headed off to London town, my new home, via Vancouver International airport the next morning. I almost missed the bus, but after chasing it down with my 85l backpack on, made it quite comfortably!