M - End of a full and exciting year

Well, I finished the working year having got most things done. I've never really has a job where the whole place shuts down for the Xmas season, usually I am doing some kind of customer service role where the operation carries right on through. So it is a bit of a new experience to have to get every little thing done and shut up the factory for an entire week. I was more or less up to date so there was no nightmare situation of staying late on a Friday night in a panic. I as however the second to last person to leave. I can only hope the last person wasn't far behind me.

As you can see my ring is finally ready. I am really pleased with it, all the ladies at work went nuts, they are great, it's like having 15 aunties.

Josh and I are heading off to Sante Fe in the morning, to have Christmas with family who are living there, and more family who are visiting there at the moment. I am really looking forward to seeing them all, especially my niece and nephews. Packing was a problem, we have only one pack and lots of presents to take down! We really don't have any friends to speak of here in Calgary, so we are glad we won't be sitting here in our dungeon of an apartment having home made pasta, which is how we celebrated Thanks Giving. We did finally meet some really cool people at the Canmore Ice Festival, a German girl and her Aussie husband, but they have gone to Aus to visit his family for a month over the festive season.

When we come back from holiday it will be full on effort to try and get out to do some ice and mixed climbing. I have been to one popular spot already, which is easy access and you can top rope some ice routes, or there are bolted mixed climbs. This is great as we don't have any ice screws. We don't have axes, crampons or a rope either but somehow they are all easier to come by! Buying a car has really come in handy.

The air is amazingly dry here, and it can be a real problem, people actually buy humidifier machines. Both Josh and I feel very dehydrated when we wake up each morning. I have never used hand cream in my life but now I run for it every time I do the dishes or have a shower because my hands are totally stripped.

Flying all the way to New Mexico does seem like cheating, and I keep thinking of all the places I really want to see and climb but that we will just fly right over the top of...

A very happy new year to everyone and your family!

J - Canmore ice festival

We recently spent the weekend at Canmore for the Canmore Ice Festival which was fun. It's a combined thing with ice courses, slide shows, competitions etc. We decided to camp because the weather was going to be good, but found out to our dismay that the floor of our tent is only about as waterproof as a t-shirt these days and we melted all the snow with our body heat and it formed a soggy pit where we slept. Strange because the last time we used it it was sweet.

The ice festival was fun, they put up a scaffold with chicken wire on it and dribbled water down until it turned into an ice wall. The early part of the morning was busy with the public trying ice climbing, myself included. I liked it and convinced the various industry stalls to lend me boots, ice axe etc to enter the intermediate competition, held on a mix of overhanging plywood and plastic holds, topping out onto chainsawed off icicles.


Lucky for me everyone who was looking good, fell off and I came second via the turtle approach.

Sport ice climbing has a downside though, lots of standing around doing nothing on very cold days kind of saps your motivation. Both Merewyn and I were very impressed with the Petzl Charlet new ice tool 'nomic' as well as the whole leashless climbing thing.

It is actually much easier to climb leashless with your ice tools because the leash cuts off the flow of blood to your arms as well as supporting your wrist. And on sport ice who cares if you drop it. Except maybe your belayer :)

M - oh yeah and I went out on the Friday to do an Ice Climbing Clinic, that is on real waterfalls...

M - Sorry...

Time for an update, we have forgotten about writing the blog for a while although I do mean to keep it up still.

We have been very busy with all the usual every day things, working buying groceries etc. All that got easier when we bought a car about two weeks ago, but then the temperature dropped to -25 and the rear shock which we knew was a bit dodgy froze solid! I kept driving it (carefully) but it would make this god awful banging noise over every bump. BOOM BOOM!! over the railway lines!

So we called around and managed to buy a new shock for $60, and changed it out. We did the work in the parking garage below Josh's work which is heated to about 15 deg or so, much better than our backyard in the snow. But there was a catch of course, the main bolt which goes through the bottom of the shock and holds it in had badly damaged thread, and we couldn't tighten it, it would go pop and be all loose again like the lid on a cheap drink bottle. Would you believe that bolt is a discontinued part... Turns out there is a help yourself wrecker like Pick-A- Part, so there we are in -25 plus wind chill pulling an old crashed car to bits with our minimalist tool kit. We got a bolt ok, and triumphantly we went back to the garage to put it in... then it turns out the nut it goes into which is welded into the axle was stripped as well...

We gave up about then and I took it to a mechanic to have the nut cut out and a new one put in. A bit of a nightmare in the end, but the car is pretty sweet now, if a little small!

We celebrated by going to Banff for a hot pool and a bit of adventure in the car. It seems to use no petrol at all, 339km trip and we got 5.8 litres per 100km!


Josh learns to drive on the ice with the rest of the calgarian lunatics


ice on the road


ice on the river, which doesn't ever properly freeze it just goes all crusty.


exploring Canmore a few months ago.


My job is going well, it's a cool little company. Josh is finding his job interesting, his boss suddenly got sick and won't be back at work until next year at least, that has meant a few changes and bit of extra trouble in the office.

I still don't have my engagement ring. I wanted to design my own so it has taken a while to get the design sorted and then have it cast. It is very simple with a single sapphire, I hope it turns out nice! Its a bit scary to commit to it when you can't quite imagine the result. They mock it up in this horrible green wax which makes the stone look awful, tough to convert that to white gold in your minds eye.

We are both really looking forward to Xmas, we are going to visit My brother and family who are living in Sante Fe, and with the Erasmus's coming over I will see my 3 nephews and niece. Richard, the Dutch guy we met in Alaska might be there too, he is on his way driving to Patagonia. Christmas shopping is proving tough. I haven't seen anyone for ages so I can't think what they might need, plus it needs to be small and portable (or edible) and the shops here are nuts. Most of them are reporting being only half staffed, the labour market is so tight, but the economy is booming and so everyone seems to have stacks of cash to spend. Not a happy mix for shopper or shops!

I hope everyone is well out there, leave us some comments so we know how you are all getting on.

M - Busy, busy, busy

Life is ticking along, and quite alot has been happening lately:

We might have mentioned the job market here is white hot, and sure enough I was only unemployed for 6 days! Am now working for Integral Designs doing admin, product reviews/redesign, website stuff, project management, marketing, and being a contact point for all our dealers who aren't covered by a rep. It's exciting, and hard work to learn everything, and really interesting.

We are headed to the Banff film fest in a couple of weeks, which I am really looking forward to. Integral are having a booth at the trade show part of it. The Canmore Ice Fest is also coming up soon, helping to deal with the whole onset of winter thing.

Other exciting news is that Josh proposed, and of course I said yes. No-one seems to get very worked up at this news - a little bit of screaming would be nice! We went to the rotating restaurant at the top of the Calgary Tower (like the Auckland Sky Tower but smaller) which sounds really cheesy but was very nice actually. By far the best food I've had since leaving NZ! He presented me with a plastic ring from the loony shop, ($1) but we have been to a real jeweler, and they are creating according to our specifications.

So if that's not enough news for one post well then!....

M - And frosty

Hidden Messages



I have no idea why that is appearing the wrong way around, but you get the idea as I can't be bothered fixing it. This is us trying to set off for a day climbing on the Cowbell cliffs last Sunday. My bike threw a spastic along the way - I think one of the carbs froze!

J - SNOWING !!

SNOW!!
I woke up this morning and it was all white outside. Good that it was Monday and not Sunday because we had ridden home from Canmore about 100km west yesterday. It was cold enough at 10 deg on the bike. We had a fair idea on what the weather was doing though so weren't taking chances really.

I was disappointed to learn today that the Bow river through Calgary doesn't freeze enough to skate on, apparently the weather isn't consistently cold enough as well as it flowing quite fast. It's a big river though so it would have been pretty cool if it froze up nice and solid. I could skate to work.

On the downside there are lots of shivering homeless in Calgary today.

M - respectable clothing

Josh succummed first, we went shopping for him as soon as we arrived in Calgary, and yesterday it was m turn. I went down to the Chinook Centre, a huge mall in the SE. The theory is that I will have job interviews to go to soon...

After four months of Tshirts and shorts, looking at nice clothes was quite distressing, I really could have done with a Christine or a Wendy to help me out! But I am tough and so I shopped alone. Did quite well too I think, pants for under $15 and two shirts, each $24 down from $35. Only trouble is I got grey pants and now that I think about it I'm not sure they go so well with my brown shoes. Might have to go back.

I like the clothing sizes here, I am a 10 again! And when I went into the Gap I became an 8! I think I will buy some of their clothes for that reason alone.

As we travelled through Alaska, I told Josh all about teh big fluffy cotton hoodie I was going to buy the second I arrived in Calgary. This is the kin of item which was totally impractical to have on our trip, but the ultimate in slouchy comfort. I still don't have one! Who would think that such a thing would be so hard to find?

We are of to Canmore for the weekend, to visit Richard our Dutch friend. He is working as a fudgepacker there at the moment, which he takes great delight in telling everyone. He mentioned something about hotpools in Banff too!

Possibility of snow forecast, or at least rain, so we are thinking maybe we won't ride our bikes. Surely there are bus services...

M - My cutie neice

Madeline wearing the hat I crocheted for her birthday while we were in Alaska.

M - I quit!

I have yet to find a new job, but without the time to look for one I have decided to finish up my current job and look for real. So I have to work until Saturday and that will be my last day.

Josh seems to be settling in at his job, and getting used to starting at 8.30am. It has been very funny to hear him complain about me keeping him up at night, he really needs to get to sleep, and about how it would be great if I would only get up at the same time as him... It is music to my ears after all those early morning jobs I used to do, very strange how familiar those complaints are. I have been trying to help by making lunch for us to take some days and I will try to start getting up at the same time in the morning!

The Futon workled out so we now have two places to sit, and we even had a visitor to stay so it has performed it's bed function as well. Our visitor was Richard who we met in Tok when we first got to Alaska. Richard is from the Netherlands, and is currently staying in Canmore, so he drove down to spend a weekend with us. We celebrated by going to a local pub for dinner.

On the sunday we made the most of knowing someone with a car - Josh found a TV on Craigs List and the boys were able to go and pick it up. Bonus was a free DVD player. Unfortunatly reception is almost non-exsistant in our cave, but creative use of the cable internet is helping there.

I still don't really like Calgary much, but we are begining to feel more settled. Having a decent stock of food in the cupboard and plates to eat it off makes a big difference. Not to mention a couch to relax on in the evenings and my knitting!!

M - long time no posting

Well some things have happened but it hasn't been terribly exciting since I last wrote. One highlight was Josh getting a job. He accepted the job offer I mentioned in the last post, so he has now been one whole week at Presslogic. We lucked out by starting one week before they were having their very belated Go Live/Xmas 2005 party. Thankfully they are not like IRD in that I get to go to these things too. The party consisted of Lazer tag with all the wives and kids joining in, which turned out to be a lot of fun, and Josh and I both won prizes. Josh for shooting the boss's kid the most times (he had played many times before and was much better than the rest of us) and me for getting the highest overall score in the third round. That makes me the only person to beat that kid!

Then the adults went out for dinner at a local casino. Very good crab and shrimp, I ate far too much! It's difficult to get used to coming home smelling of cigarettes again, I had to take a shower right away and out all my clothes through the wash.

Josh is finding the work environment very different, as they use a progamming methodology involving working in pairs in a single room which has a number of communal workstations. He has his own desk in an office, but is never there during the day and really only uses it for email. Part of the reason for taking this job is that Josh was keen to try this type of developing.

Getting our bed last week was very exciting after 3 and a bit months on a thermarest, but the bed we have is really awful. I can feel the springs in my back and I have a really hard time getting to sleep. Still no couch, but we are going to see a 2nd hand futon sofa later this week which will hopefully work out. I'm keen to get a futon one so that all the 100's of people who are going to visit us will have somewhere to sleep. (hint, hint!)

The weather has improved thankfully, a very respectable 23 degrees yesterday, and yesterday we got a fantastic view of the Rocky Mountains laid out to our west all glistening white in the sun. I can't wait to get out there...

M - About the Salmon...

My Mum tells me that her book of NZ nature says there is Chinook or Quinnat, Altlantic and Sockeye in NZ all introduced in 1868 but taking until 1921 to properly establish. Sockeye are landlocked by hydrodams on Waitaki River and Atlantic are confined to LakesTe Anau and Manapouri. Chinnook is most common in Waimakariri, Rakaia and Rangitata and Lower Waitaki. The chinnook come from the Sacramento River in California.

Mean while we have been very busy getting our house better set up. We now have a bed, which is a bit like sleeping on an enourmous jellyfish, and have scored heaps of kitchen stuff from a garage sale next door, the Salvation Army and the local Looney shop ($1). We have also invested in a new laptop and cable internet, so have been catching up with people on Skype.

Our living room furniture is still resticted to one chair and a TV cabinet, and without a car it might stay that way for a wee while yet.

Josh has been to a few interviews, and has one promosing offer which he is considering. Meanwhile I have been working, at Spirit West/Outdoor Approach but have just this moring told my employer that I don't really like it there and will be looking for a new job. There are so many oppotunities here at the moment, that it seems to present a great oppotunity to find a rewarding position.

After seemingly eternal sunshine, we are having a few days of rain, and it is snowing in the mountians. It is about 8 degrees outside, but doesn't really feel cold to me at all as there is no wind. The city could do with a bit of a wash.

M - Longterm campsite located

Looking for a place to live has been Josh's full time occupation since we landed in Calgary. We have looked at 1 bedroom flats, 'batchelor' units (studio apartments) and basement apartments, which are usually under a retired couple's house. For the last few days we have been staying in one of those basement apartments thanks to my new employer setting it up (thanks Steve!) Mostly all of these places have fallen into two categories, either nice but expensive and lots of competition to move in, or else grotty. Finally however we have found a compromise.

It is a basement apartment in the suburb of Ramsay, but the people upstairs are other renters not the owners, so it is more like living in an apartment building. Totally separate entrances make things a bit more private too. The layout is really weird, and not very space efficient, but as we have no furniture we're not super concerned about fitting everything in! Best of all we can move in tomorrow night which is when we have to be out of the other place. Plan B was to sleep in the shop! Oh and it's right near the zoo.

In other news we spent 6 hours yesterday at the Market Mall shopping for interview clothes for Josh. It as painful for all involved, but he now has a very swish get up, who can imagine him with new shoes, dress pants, crisp shirt and even a tie? I hardly recognised him in the shop, even the wild beard shown in the previous post has been all neatly trimmed.

Calgary has way too many shopping malls, and big box retail is out of control. We visited a couple more today as we began getting stuff to set up our new home. We came to Calgary because we were tired of camping, but it will be thermarests on the floor at least to begin with. At least we won't have to pack up each morning.

J - Some recent photos

Fish wheel. Catches salmon while you sleep :)

Merewyn makes a break for the US border near Haines.

Mereywn has an ear ache in Valdez.

Valdez Alaska home port of the Exxon Valdez. Cloudy/Rainy. Perpetually.

Peter Pan salmon cannery, Valdez.

Merewyn the pannier fairy searches for goodies.


I land a coho salmon from Jeff Kellys boat in Sitka. Meanwhile Jeff is landing the same salmon on the other side of the boat. A 1/2 hour fishing line fiasco ensues...

Merewyn on Beaver Lake, Sitka Alaska.

Sarah, myself and Lynn. Family friends from Sitka.

Sitka sound.

M - Legally and gainfully employed

The remainder of our time in Sitka passed by in a whirlwind. We did go fishing and caught a very respectable Coho salmon (which reminds me can someone who knows what species of salmon we have in NZ please leave a comment about that?) and even saw a couple more puffins too. We also caught up with Lynne Chassin, another family friend of the Groom's and Josh was going to give her a ride on the back of his bike but before we knew it time was up and we were heading for the ferry terminal.

Unfortunately with all the excitement, we clear forgot that we were supposed to have got proof of funds to show Canadian customs that we have access to NZ $4000 in order to have our working visa's processed...

So another couple of boring days on the ferry and we get off at Prince Rupert, BC and line up to present ourselves at customs, and it was at that moment that I remembered we were supposed to have got the paperwork. There was no other option but to hope that they somehow let us through, so we presented our letters and gave the poor border patrol lady quite a headace. Normally people in our situation would be sent back over the border, but Prince Rupert is a 6 hour ferry ride from that imaginary line in the sea. After phone calls to superiors and various questions about how much money we did have, and what jobs we were intending to get we were issued visitors permits and allowed in, but no working visa. Perhaps we might be able to sort it out at an inland office they suggested.

A three day ride to Calgary was mostly uneventful. Once in town we spent a frustrating day walking all over the place trying to find an ATM which would give us an account balance, and find the Customs and Immigration Office. When we finally did find the office it had closed a half hour earlier - at 3pm! The nice lady at the call centre suggested that if we printed out a statement from our internet banking then that might be sufficient but she couldn't say for sure, but that we would have to present at a port of entry, no inland office could help us.

There is only one thing for it, and we start riding south towards Carway, the border with Montana. We really didn't want to have to do this for a few reasons, my bike has a very worn rear tyre, which wouldn't be so bad but it has worn quite unevenly. Josh's bike has been developing a problem with one of the front brake disks for a while now, which is becomming quite bad. Add to that his fork seals which have leaked on and off throughout the trip have now totally C**ped themselves and the fork oil is leaking all over the front brake assembly. Luckily both problems are on the same side so there is at least one functioning disk on the other side!

Nasty sidewinds and the annoyance at having to make the trip are allayed slightly by the nice campground we discover in Nanton. It has grass (!) and fresh water (!!) and for a loonie you can even get a hot shower (this is just a bonus really) . A loonie is $1, it has a piture of a bird called a loon on it. $2 is called a toonie (ofcourse). Anyway the campground was so nice we stayed there both ways.

Just showing up at the border wasn't enough, we had to go out through USA customs, and then back in again. Josh was holding his breath to see if they honored my visa... but sure enough two fingerprints and $6 later we did a U-ie and rode right back into Canada.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT THEY NEVER EVEN ASKED FOR PROOF OF FUNDS!!!!!!

Grrrr. Josh wanted to show it to them anyhow! To top all that off I started my new job today, on time and completly legit.

Our new mission is finding somewhere to live.

M - Sitka Sunshine

Well the boat ride was mostly uneventful, except for the usual problems of motocycles on a surface that moves around. We had checked in earlier in the day, and specifically asked did they have tie downs on board to secure the bikes? Yes of course! Well they didn't. One of the crew pulled a bit of string off a roll and handed it to Josh. Being climbing type folk however we had a few slings and bits of webbing so were able to make do. I tied my bike to some shelves, and Josh tied his down to a handy pipe of some kind! At least on the Interislander there are chains running across the floor you can secure to.

We arrived at 8ish in Sitka after a fairly boring trip. We did meet some nice people, and saw whales a few times too which would be the highlight. Jeff Kelly, an old family friend of the Groom's met us at the terminal. We are staying in "The Cottage" a great little building right next to Jeff and Deb's house. The house itself is rented, and Jeff and Deb live on Long Island which is about 20mins boat ride away. So since then we have been exploring around Sitka, seeing Josh's old house which Donn built (it's very square and straight but I like it!), the island, dong a bit of sea kayaking and looking at totem poles and museums. Every few days the town goes nuts as 100's of fat middle age people pour in off the cruise ships, like today there are two cruise ships and a sternwheeler in town.

We are hoping to do some fishing and see some more puffins before we leave town on Thursday for three days on the ferry...

Sitke is known for it's wet climate

M - Historic Haines

A very exciting thing which has nothing to do with our trip. You should know that before I came away on this trip I was coaching a group of teenagers for competitive rock climbing which is called Sportclimbing. Well, three of my group were selected for the NZ youth team, and they are now in Zurich, Switzerland preparing for the big competition in Austia. You can read their travel diary and see some photos www.nzsf.org.nz

Well done to Bob, Annika, and Georgia, your hard work is paying off and I'm sure you will do great in the Champs! Bob went last year as well but for Annika and George this is their first trip. I'm very jealous seeing photos of you in Switzerland, I would really like to go there again.

Anyhow, back to our trip, since my last big update we have been all over the Kenai Peninsula. We had some great weather as we travelled down, staying on the beach in Ninilchick (see photo with dead fish) visited the carnival gone mad which is the Homer Spit and more great weather in Seward. So great that we stayed 3 nights in their rather nice rather cheap town campground. We went on a cruise in Ressurection Bay, the main objective of which was to see Puffins! Yay Puffins! Seward is pretty, it's touristy but copes well with it. The upper part of town where you drive in and out has a nasty fish cannery smell however.

We also went up to Exit Glacier and hiked our way up to the Harding icefield which caused all sorts of comparisons to the Fox Neve which is not an easy comparison to make as the Harding Icefield is flat. We would have loved to jump up and stomp around on the ice but running shoes are not suitable for this sort of shenanigan so we had to restrain ourselves.

Then we drove up intending to visit Whittier. I had read something about tunnels on the way to Whittier. We stopped briefly along the way and chatted to an American woman who told us some interesting things. There is indeed two tunnels to Whittier, one of which is a toll tunnel and only open for 15mins every hour - and it costs $12 ea and in her words "They don't like anyone coming in who doesn't live there" AND everyone there lives in a single big apartment block. This we have GOT to see. And it all come true, and would you belive we went to a cafe cos it was so cold and rainy and Josh bought a esspresso which was easily the best coffee we have had in the USA - In Whittier!!! Josh said it was the best coffee he ever had in his life but he was very cold. We met a couple of interesting people there, Mike and his daughter Tracy, and Brian who are living on their boats, and would you believe it the very next day they were all heading off to Sitka, so we will try to catch up with them there and we might even get to do some sailing. Brian is single handing, and hopes to sail all the way to NZ following the same route the Grooms did.

Then came Valdez, town of a thousand RVs. The interesting thing there was going into a cannery to buy some fish and having to walk right through the canning floor. It didn't smell as bad as Seward. Also we met a fishing captain who showed us his boat and as we walked away we realised he must have been a Kiwi but he didn't say...

In the last day or so we have ridden back along a section of the AlCan we already rode on the way in, back into the yukon, then we turned south at Haines Junction and now we are in Haines, which is Alaska again! On the way through, you must pass through a little town named Tok (pronounced Toke) which has the dubious distinction of being the coldest place in Alaska. It's a cool little town (indeed!) and it has a motorcycle only campground the Thompson's Eagle's Claw where we stayed on the way in and now out again. The Thompson's gave Josh a "Grown in Alaska" sticker which he now has proudly on his helmet.

I'm liking Haines, it has a long history and heaps of Victorian buildings. There are a lot of little galleries and native arts here. This afternoon we visited an antique cannery, which has possibly the only remaining examples of the machines which were used up until the late 70's. They are all operational, but have been converted to electric from the old steam system, and slowed down X10 so you can actually see what is happening.

We have to stay up all night tonight, and at 4am-ish we will board the ferry to go to Sitka. This is a big part of our trip, going back to the place where Josh was born. So we will be on the boat all day tommorrow, landing in Sitka at 8:30pm - Alaska is big!

This post is very rambling as I am rushing as I run out of time yet again!

J -Rainy old Valdez

We are here in Valdez the end of the oil pipeline. They say that Valdez is beautiful and judging by the 700 (Merewyn's guess) RV's that are crammed in to this tiny town it probably is. The rain is here however and you can see nothing. They say that Valdez is surrounded by mountains and having been to some of the other ports in this area I am inclined to believe them. They also say that the drive to/from Valdez over the Thompson Pass is the finest in Alaska, again I will have to take their word for it. It was only cold.

Onward to less rainy places.

J - Some pictures

For some of these you might need to rotate your head. Sorry. Thanks to Sylvain Ducasse, our friend from Quebec for use of his computer, and thanks to someone across the street for free wireless internet access. It is a little slow thought guys maybe you should upgrade :)
























Dead fish at sunset.

















The sign forest at Watson Lake in the Yukon

















Typical Alaska scenery, mountains, overcast, still water, fireweed by the roadside and a sign with bullet holes in it. Every single road sign in Alaska has bullet holes, except when you are inside the major towns. I should know we have ridden 90% of the roads now.

















Contrast Alaska and Canada :)

















baloony adventures

















Me and Bryan sing to the other tourists. Mostly Bryan.
































Merewyn gets wet at the Glaciar National Park Montana
















the smoke blotted out the sun for 150 miles

J - Climate Change

Climate change is pretty noticeable up here in Alaska and Northern Canada. All the locals that we speak to, at least the ones that have been here a while, it's the same story. 'When I first got here it would go down to 60 below and stay there for 3 weeks but now it only goes down to 40 or so.' Some think it's a great thing :) The national parks all have these amazing shots of glaciers tumbling into the sea or just generally looking big and impressive. If you walk out to see them however the are usually looking a bit sick. The most obvious sign though is the pine beetle which gets under the bark of the pines and in 2 years turns them a bright red, in 3 years kills them. There are some huge patches of this around the place. The cold winters kill the pine beetle and they have been quite warm recently.

This might mean a bit more people move to Alaska in the long term if the winters keep getting milder.

M - Northern Exposure

We have arrived in Fairbanks, likely the northern most point of our trip. It is light here until after midnight, and the sun shines until about 10.30. The longest day was way back on June 21, but we have been travelling north so quickly that until now the days have been getting longer not shorter.

To finish my previous post, we had a great camp next to Lake Dease on the Cassiar Highway, and heard a large animal in the night. It appeared to jump into the lake, and then wade out again. After seeing the bears fishing we were convinced it must have been a bear ( a black bear in my imagination - less dangerous) but several people have said it was more likly a Moose. That is really annoying as I have yet to see a moose!

The very next day we are riding along the Alcan Highway, and right there is a baby Grizzly next to the road. We stopped a fair way back and waited to see if Mum was about before we tried to go past. This cub was all alone however, and it seems likely that Mum was killed by a car a few days earlier. He wasn't scared at all of cars and big motorhomes going by, so we rode past slowly and he freaked out and ran away! Funny how animals ignore cars but motorcyclists are identified as people/animals. I hope the cub is ok, the survival rate is only about 1 in 3 on average.

Along we rolled, and then we saw a very huge pickup truck with an enourmous caravan attatched, and similarly large amounts of white smoke billowing about. They had a cell phone, but that isn't much use in the back of Alaska. So we carried on until Jake's Corner and phoned a tow truck for them. I hope the tow truck came (we saw a likely looking vehicle heading that way) and I hope it didn't bankrupt them.

The next day was feezing cold, so we stayed a night in Tok, at the Thompson's Motorbike Campground which was quite neat. There we met two people from Washington, Jim and Clover and two Dutch tourists, Franz and Richard. Richard is travelling in a Subaru Leone which is hardly a motorcycle but we liked him so that was ok. Besides his Leone has done over 400,000km and he is planning to drive it to Panama yet!

Once we got to Fairbanks things warmed up, and we (Josh and I, and Richard) are now staying at the Go North Base Camp which was reccommended to us by Franz and is very nice. There is a group of 10 Kiwis here who all sound like Lyn of Tawa.

Almost out of time (again) so it's happy birthday to Christine, and to Christopher, I had reason to vistit the post office today (hint, hint).

J - The most amazing thing

The most amazing thing just happened. Mereywn was cutting her fingernails and as I stood there waiting a fingernail clipping came careening off the scissor blades and wedged itself solidly in my left nostril. I reflexively began to snort wildly to clear my airway and after a few vigorous snortings it seemed to come free though there was still a lingering feeling of its presence in my nose as if one of its smaller brothers was still there.

M - Rain, Rain, Rain

Well we haven't written much lately so I will start back in Montana and catch y'all up.

Obviously it was very hot, (you can tell this by reading Josh's last post I think he might have been going a bit gooey) and some of the time we couldn't keep riding. So, we found a reststop off the side of the I-90 and hid under a tree for about 3 hours. I recovered quickest when the sprinklers came on to water the grass and I ran around like my nephews would have been proud. Finally we decided it was bearable to head off at about 6pm and just as we were about to pull out another motorcyclist pulled in next to us. So we met Lee, who was from Pensilvania, but spending the summer working in Montana. Lee knew of a good place to camp, so off we went, up into some mountains to escape the heat. Lee was very helpful, with lots of info about Alaska as he had taken a trip there recently. He also convinced us that we should buy some Bear spray, a kind of super Mace which can save your be-hind if a bear decides it wants a piece of you. We had been thinking about this already, so it wasn't a hard sell. In the morning he insisted on buying us breakfast which was very nice - thanks again Lee!

So we carried on, heading towards Glacier National Park, and finally got off the dreaded I-90. On entering Montana we were dissapointed to discover that there are in fact speed limits there. They are not very limiting however, 75m/h in the day on the interstate, and now we were on a minor highway, which in California would be 55, it was 70 daytime, and 65 nightime. Trucks have their own limits which are a bit lower but they mostly ignore them. We almost never travel at the speed limit, tootaling along about 65 most of the time. So along we went, and on a really nasty bend with no shoulder there was a motorcyclist stopped at the side trying to do something around the rear of his bike. We had to go back to help, but turning around was a bit tricky with a truck blasting past at 70+ and not moving over much at all.

So we met Mike, whose chain had fallen off and was now jammed around the rear axle. We helped him shift to a safer spot and got the bike sorted out. He was also from the East coast, and was working in Montana doing forest thinning. He invited us to come and pitch our tent at his forest camp, where we met his work mates CJ and Erin. Mike had cold beer! And then he insisted on buying us dinner so we had two meals bought for us in one day.

The next day we made it to Glacier, and rode the "Going to the Sun Road" which Josh's dad had told us a lot about. It is very spectacular and I can well understand why you didn't want to ride your bycicle over there Donn! Following Lee's reccomendation we went over to Many Glacier, where the campsite was full!!! But they squeezed us in and we got to pitch our tent on a driveway. And here we met Brian, who had a guitar and a harmonica both of which he could play very well.

Josh and I were feeling like a bit of a break, so the following day we hiked up to Grimmel Glacier, and Brian joined us with his guitar. There are lots of bears in the area, so we kept a good lookout the whole way (we haven't got any bear spray yet) and Brian played songs for the other hikers who asked nicely. At the top the glacier was a bit of a let down, (it was tiny and mostly melted) but there was a herd of Big Horn Sheep. We stayed up there for a couple of hours and it was great to see Josh playing guitar again.

Then it was time to leave the states, and we crossed into Canada. We decided to go up to Calgary to check out job prospects, and I went into a few outdoor shops to ask about work. I now have a job offer that I am mulling over! Calgary is booming, so there should be no shortage of work, but finding a place to live might be harder.

Traffic is also bad as we discovered when we tried to leave. We drove up into the mountains, through Banff and Jasper national parks. A National Park Pass for Canada is about twice as expensive as in the USA but we decided to stump up the cash. Leaving Alberta, we stopped in for a couple of days in Prince George, staying with Jeff Noaks who came and helped with the building of the Mud House in Taheke. We took this oppotunity to change the oil in the bikes again. Oh and we bought some Bear Spray, 1% Capsisum with a 5 - 8m range.

Then ever more westward, finally turning north onto the Cassiar Highway. This was an important moment, as we have been saying for over two years that we were going to come and ride this road, and finally there we were.

We took a side trip out to Stewart, and crossed the Canada/US border to stand in Hyder Alaska. Then that evening at the campsite we met Harlan who was from Washington State, and he told us that there is a place in Hyder where you can view bears in the wild as they come to fish the spawning Salmon. So we caught a ride with him, and went back into Hyder. We saw two Black Bears, and two Grizzlies, one of which had three cubs. Mostly they wern't very good fishermen, but the mother bear had her technique sorted and fed her babies. There were many Bald Eagles hanging around hoping to get leftovers.

I'm out of time now, but we have made it up to Whitehorse, with only two more bear encounters, and helped only one other person at the side of the road but I will have to tell you all about that next time!

M - Oh Canada!

Hi we are in Calgary now and I only have 7 mins internet time left. We are looking at Jobs and the cost of living etc to see if we might want to come back and live here after Alaska. So Uncle Paul we are actually not that far from Edmonton afterall!

Calgary is booming, help wanted signs everywhere. Time to go and buy some bear spray now.

J - The beauty of the west

'To appreciate the beauty of the west you have to get over the color green'. It's true, you do. You also have to get over towering mountains, glaciers, rivers, valleys, little streams flowing over ancient granite, cool forests, fertile flood plain, windy coastline. The West has none of these things. The landscape is just overbearingly flat with straight roads and short grass.

The beauty of the west is in the animals, people and experiences, a 40 year old man with a single shattered tooth is not embarrased about it but desperate to share the experiences of the road. A pronghorn that stamps around for a moment offended that we are camping in his desert and then, bored, runs away. Just after sunrise the desert is cool and bright for few minutes before the sun strikes. A bird that can fly backwards, floating in the wind. Little prairie dogs barking in the evening and the fat old sun going down in the sky.

Of course this is all very hard to appreciate at 114 deg. I think that beauty probably goes and hides under a rock until the sun sets when this happens. So it's lucky that we missed out on todays forecasted temperature by riding into an enormous prairie fire which blotted out the sun.

M - Evaporation is my friend

Another post! We are in another library, this time in Billings and it is 100 degrees f outside and rising, way too hot for me. Yesterday as we left Rapid City it was still getting hotter, and we had to stop at a rest area and eat our lunch in the foyer of the bathrooms where there was air conditioning. It wasn't very cool though, I'm sure it was still 85 in there, so it took me a long time to cool off. Just before we rode off we soaked ourselves with water, and Josh even filled his helmet. We both chose to ride without our gloves.

So we survived until Buffalo, where a sign said 101f but there was no stopping until we had escaped up into the Big Horn Mountains, gaining about an extra 600ft of elevation gave some relief. And better yet we found a grassy campsite by a stream, so there was much froliking in the cool water.

Today we have succumbed and are not wearing our heavy pants. We have got our gloves back on however as my hands got quite sunburnt and Josh's are sore too. We are always being passed by people on cruiser bikes wearing shorts and T-shirt and no helmet, and they must think we are mad to be wearing so much. I used to think they were mad to be wearing so little!

Wyoming has changed a little since we were here 3 weeks ago, mostly there are fires. 40,000 acres burnt near Gilette in the past couple of days. We saw a fire just starting as we crossed the border into Montana and ever since Dayton we have been riding in a big cloud of smoke. That's about 100 miles and we still have not got to the fire yet which has aparently been burning for 3 days. I think it is no coincedence that these all seem to be right next to the Interstate.

The newspaper tells me that temperatures in Alaska are in the 60's. San Francisco is at about 75 - maybe we should have stayed there! If we can get to the north western corner of Montana it should drop into the 80's.

J - rain + minnesota interstate = maintenance

Upon leaving Monroe after a nice stay in real beds,about 5 miles out it began to really pour, 40 miles later M's bike stopped. Assuming wet electrics we stripped it down and started hunting with the voltmeter. Should have checked for spark first but the plug socket was buried... silly. We jump started the bike, packed up, stalled, pushed for a while, unpacked, jumpstarted again, and 10 miles later another stall. Eventually we discovered that the breather hose goes through a tiny eensy weesny little hole which had a drop of rain water in it (and probably other crap). This was preventing air from entering the tank and that was preventing fuel from leaving the tank. It was an easy fix but it took a while to figure it out.

It took the best part of the day in fact and by the time we left we only had time for a few more miles before stopping in the most expensive state park in the world $35 for camping with no showers. But don't worry we didn't pay :) We had many racoon visitors, so cute ambling around during the day, so very persistent at night :)

Minnesota I-90, east Minnesota, is pretty bad. There are holes in that road you could stow a King James Bible in. Mereywn tried to clean her wing mirrors in the Badlands this morning by breathing on them and rubbing but no matter how quick she was she couldn't rub before the fog was dry.

We are here in Rapid City, S Dakota getting a new chain for M's bike and hiding in the library until it is ready as it is 93 degrees outside. I saw a cool store today '#1. Pawn & Gun'. Rapid City is a gambling town.

There are only a couple more long days until we hit the cool juicy mountains.

M - Summertime + Family = Yardwork!

We have now experienced a "Cousins Reunion" Wisconsin style. It was really fun, and a family of 10 children sure can produce a large third generation. The reunion was at Josh's Uncle Paul and his wife Kay's house. They have a very beautiful house, and with all the preparations they were making we offered to come over the day before and help tidy up the outside. Paul was still reassembling the upstairs bathroom he has been re-doing, so Josh was his assistant and forehead wiper, while Mary, Aunty Sue and Josh's cousin Joey got stuck in outside. After we swept the leaves off the patio it was so hot Mary jumped in the pool to cool down, and I even enticed Josh downstairs for a dip.

People traveled from all over Wisconsin and furthur to attend the reunion, and Joe and Sally, Josh's grandparents, came over from their apartment. Sally has parkinson's, so this was quite a big outing for her. Joe is the youngest of his 9 siblings, all of whom have passed away. Great Aunt Marie died at 99, and lived in the family home in Fort Atkinson until her death earlier this year. It was decided therefore that on the 4th of July holiday, the cousins would meet to attempt to clean out the house.

Somehow I found myself getting out of bed at 6am (There's a 6am???!) to go to Fort Atkinson. It was fun for the first 6 or 7 hours, but what a huge job. The next morning we were up at 6am, and off to Sullivan with Uncle Matt to have an annual inspection of his hot air baloon. I was so tired I fell asleep on the goods lift on the back of his truck!

This all paid off when on Thursday evening the weather came right and Josh and I went for a ride in the balloon. Matt had planned it so that we would fly right over Monroe, but when he sent up a test balloon the wind had changed and we were going to go the other direction. So we flew over farmland and saw all kinds of wildlife. Landing is quite exciting as you never know quite where you will end up. The ground crew follows by road, and when Matt spies a good place to land they have to go and find the landowner and get permission. We then spent the evening convincing Mary she really wanted a flight, so then we were up again at 6am to set up the balloon. It was planned that the other passenger would be Joey, but he was unable to make it out of bed! Josh took his place for his sencond turn. I rode along in the Chase Commander with Teresa as Cheif Ground Crew.

The weather was holding, so Josh and I turned out as crew that evening, and Matt took Paul and Kay up. I would have still been good in the morning again, but everyone voted to sleep in! A big thanks to everyone who came out to help crew so that we could fly.

Since then we have taken a tour of the local brewery, which was interesting and included free samples, and as today is Teresa's birthday I made a cake to celebrate. Happy 18th Teresa!

The final Uncle, Peter is arriving tonight, and John has driven down from Hudson again to see him, so tomorrow Mary and all her siblings will be together.

J - Picture time

This is a photo dump.

view out the tent in Cape Blanco state campground in Oregon.

Dr Thunder! Ooooh! Yeah!

John Day Fossil grounds, Painted hills Unit.

Toketee falls hot springs Oregon.

A road, a very long road.

The Nose. There are 7 climbers in this picture. Can you find them all?

California sunset.

Yosemite meadow.

J - Motorcycle mechanics

Well I've always been a bit scathing of motorcycle mechanics. I've had chains improperly adjusted, tires put on backwards and bolts snapped off and then glued back in with contact cement. Today was another nail in the coffin. My bike has been running rough ever since I got it, you can hear one cylinder missing at low revs. I finally got time to look at it now that we have a garage at our disposal and found that the 3rd spark plug had been inserted when there was gravel in the chamber.

There were rocks in between the plug rim and the head cover!?!

Now I don't know that a mechanic did it but I don't think the guy who owned it changed his own plugs. It's a real pain on a 4 cylinder sport bike. You have to take it half to pieces.

We rigged up this vacuum fitting out of our fuel siphoning tube and some electrical tape, the vacuum overheated and stopped after a while but we sucked the rocks out. I hope none of them dropped into the cylinder ...

Yup anyway it sounds better now, still a little rough but hey :)

It's been good to hang out with my family. Haven't seen most of them for about 15 years now. And the cheese is good here, so is the beer. Plus they have showers and beds :)

Maybe we'll even find time to upload some photos.

J - Episode 14, in which Josh finds a tick in a strange and terrible place

From Wyoming through South Dakota and Minnesota it has been a flat windy marathon over the bumpy cracked up concrete surfaces of the interstate. At 130km/h with 3cm of tired foam between your buttocks and the battery it can become very tiresome.

Water is found only 20 metres under the ground and tastes like it has been sitting in a plastic container in the sun for 3 weeks. But there is a huge amount of life in the prairie if you look.

Pete struck again in Keystone South Dakota 2 miles from Mt Rushmore and hasn't been seen since.

We missed out on seeing the Museum of Spam. 'Spam has done a lot for that town.' We will have to see it on the way back.

Probably the most interesting spot was Plankinton, which was having it's 125th ?quasi-sesqui-centennial? something or other. We were kindly taken in by a nice family, shown how to drink Miller and tomato juice, play the slot machines, and party with the locals. Especially one Chuck, an oil man from Wyoming with too much money and not enough beer.

Wisconsin is nice, it's like Austria probably or the North Island (with swiss people), green, lots of cows, cheese, corn. And whats more, it has corners, a welcome change.

J - things that go crunch in the night

The Tetons were impressive, the Grand Teton was shrouded in clouds however.

Pete turned out to be a constant companion for the next few days. We met him again, after our soggy conversations in Jackson, in Huckleberry hotsprings braving the bacteria and radiation which the local information desk warned us about. It was cool and we were dirty so we decided to brave the same. Caught up to him again touring through Yellowstone and convinced him to ride out that day. Making his total 120 miles. But there were no tent camping areas East of Yellowstone because of Grizzly danger so at 9:15 or so he showed up, kind of buggered after doing about 150 mi. We then caught up to him the next day hitching out of Cody so we gave him a ride. He hasn't unexpectedly shown up in the last 2 days however so maybe our paths have divirged for good. He seems to pedal faster than we ride so he is probably in South Dakota by now.

Yellowstone was a complete circus, complete with interstate-esque roads and flyovers. But it was a very beautiful one. Sadly is was devastated by fire in the '80s so it is a bit bare at the moment. The Bear and Bison on the sides (and in the middle) of the road were a bit of a traffic hazard. Our first taste of Xanterra the company that has been given the contract for managing portions of the National parks was a bitter one. Sadly we didn't make it to Mammoth Hot Springs.

After YNP and Cody we headed once more for the cool juicy mountains. The Bighorn mountains this time. One of our camps there was quite a way into the forest and in the middle of the night I woke up to hear something pretty heavy was walking slowly past our tent. I got out to find out what was going, feeling just a little nervous :) but it was gone.

The Buffalo city library seems to have a Basque fetish going on with titles like Basque Sheepherders of the American West, and Cooking With Our Basque Friends proudly displayed.

M - Shoot em up cowboy!

Here we are in Jackson Hole, about to head into the Grand Teton national park, and then to Yellowstone.

Weather has been less than brilliant, we rode across the Idaho plains in a roaring headwind, Josh used half a tank of gas in about 40 miles. Then camped at Little Elk Creek which was really nice - until it started to rain. It poured down all night, with thunder and lightening. Then to top that - we got hail in the morning. At this point we were seriously considering spending the whole day in bed.

Well it seemed to be clearing... so up we got and headed into Wyoming. Aparently the hail which fell here was golfball sized! The rain wasn't leaving us in peace, so we succumbed, and spent the night in an RV park. $20 it's the most we have spent to camp so far, and it was pretty crap honestly. But on the plus side we got to have showers (first time for 8 days!) and met a nice guy, Pete from the UK who is cycle touring. We might manage to camp in the same place as him tonight as well.

Hopefully we will get to the Huckleberry hot springs just south of the Yellowstone border.

Time to go, internet access is only 15mins at Teton County Library!

J - Dry bread, chipmunks, camp hosts.

Well, the Oregon coast was too wet. Sad because I had wanted to see some of it but rain is no fun on a motorcycle. Luckily it hasn't rained since we left the coast. 10 days later we are in Idaho. Idaho ('famous potatoes' license plates proclaim) is a lot prettier and more interesting than those plates give it credit for. We've just finished a ride through the sawtooth mountain range. Meadows and wildflowers, snow covered peaks, we camped at a lake at 2000 metres which mirrored the 3000 metre (meter) mountains 5 miles away... Anyone would think that we were in Wyoming. It is also very dry, though this season has been a drought killer for Idaho in terms of rainfall it is so dry that in the 1 minute it takes between taking the bread out of the bag and assembling the sandwich it goes all crusty and crispy on the outside. Welcome to the American west I guess. I hear it is very cold and snowy in NZ right now.

We are meeting lots of the locals here and there though there is a distinct lack of women and young people amoungst them. By and large it is old men in the supermarket parking lot who see our motorcycles and are envious/sympathetic. Or Harley riders who are always very very polite.

Meeting them is important otherwise you unknowingly drive past all sorts of great things, hotsprings mostly, which are invaluable to the dirty stinking motorcycle travellor and not to be passed by.

Camp hosts are of course an interesting source of local knowledge though there is only so much local knowledge one has when ones RV is permanently set down in a public campground for the priviledge of free parking and gas for the generator. They come in all flavours though some interesting and some not. Some even serve as a sort of local youth counselor for the more regular inhabitants. The camp host is the one who is responsible for running the campground and so the process of deciding what to pay is a little bit of a negotiation. Does the U.S. Forest service accept the golden eagle pass for 1/2 price camping? Or do they not? Are two motorcycles traveling together technically considered to be 1 vehicle or two? What about a 25 litre Dodge Behemoth towing a 3 axle Caravan towing a Jeep? Are they technically considered 1 vehicle or 6? Do we A) count the axles B) count the wheels or C) count the people and divide by 2. I know I sound bitter but it is certainly true that the best campsite of all is one that has no camp host. These are usually found just a wee way down the forestry access roads or hiding behind some bushes next to a stream.

We have discovered a new low in petrol standards. 85 octane. I wondered why petrol was so cheap in Idaho! In Oregon it's because there is no sales tax. Not in Idaho. Our bikes haven't complained though.

Sadly I don't think we will make it to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on this run. Perhaps on the way back.

There are lots of interesting places on the map in Idaho. Hells Canyon, The Headwaters of the River of No Return, the Sawtooth Mountains, Snake River and the Experimental Breeder Reactor #1. Now it is onward to the Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone NP.

New food of the week, Albertsons canned whole potatoes.

P.S. We have turned East and are now heading generally towards Wisconsin for my June 1st family reunion. Alaska will have to wait. Probably a good thing as it is most likely freezing up there right now.

M - When I die please don't name a freeway after me!

Well it's been a busy two weeks since I was last at a computer. From San Fran we went almost all the way to Yosemite. We didn't quite make it though, so spent the first night in a campground near Buck Meadows on the 120. In the morning we were woken by the sound of a woodpecker, crazy little thing smacking his head into the tree again and again!

Yosemite was as amazing as you would expect - but what a zoo. Busy with cars and people and tour buses everywhere. We were very lucky to get into Camp 4 which is where all the climbers base themselves. Heading off for a walk, we wandered through the meadow all flooded with spring snow melt - and we saw a bear! He was pretty brown for a Black Bear and was as shocked to see us as we were to see him. The rules are that you stand together to look bigger, and throw sticks and make lots of noise, which I did while Josh just stood there... anyhow he loped off to the side and we could continue our walk. I understand you don't respond to a Grizzly bear that way, but I'm still hoping not to meet any of those.

We met some great people in camp 4, in particular our neighbour from Aus, and a fellow Bivouac employee from Hamilton, and his climbing buddy. All of these guys lent us climbing gear and Josh and I were able to do a bit of climbing while we were in tha valley. We also walked up to a few of the waterfalls which tumble in from up high. There were lots of squirrels running around, we saw a cayote, and a racoon tried to steal our dinner. In total we spent four nights in the Yosemite Valley.

The road through Yosemite towards Nevada is still closed in with snow, so we had to leave out the way we came, very nervous as we were really short of petrol. It was snowing in Camp 4 that morning, and we thought it would be a good idea to get moving if the weather was turning bad, we were keen to get back on the bikes. Stupidly however we then decided to cross the Sierra Nevadas on HW4 over Ebetts Pass. We got rain, then sleet, then snow! Uggh it was freezing, and we had to go slowly because the snow kept freezing over our visors, and they were misting up from our breath really badly, so yuo had to ride with it open, only that was even colder!

Saviour! Just when you need one the most - there's a hot pools! yay! We stumbed over and then into Glover Hot Springs State Park. Ahhhh...

Since then we have ridden up the side of lake Tahoe, crossed briefly into Nevada where we nearly got lost and seperated taking the wrong highway in Reno, visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, most of which is closed due to 30 feet of snow, and been to Lake Shasta. At lake Shasta we saw a Turkey vulture (which Josh nearly ran over), more squirrels, a chipmunk (which I nearly ran over), ospeys, two bald eagles, and the second largest dam in the USA (which we had to walk over since it's closed to vehicles post 9/11).

And right now I am writing this in southern Oregan. This morning we woke up in California, right in the middle of the coastal redwoods. Aparently the coastal drive up here is really beatiful, but it was covered in a thick sea fog so I'm really not sure!

So all in all about 1500 miles so far. I promise I will try to add posts a bit more often!

M- We're outta here!

Well looks like we might make it out of here today. We have two bikes, registered and almost insured. Josh is installling electrics into them, so we can use our radios and charge things such as the phone and camera as we ride along.

Here is the new bike:



Jeff and his flatmates keep telling us not to go yet, so I guess we were pretty good guests. You guys can come and stay with us anytime!

We didn't get to go to Alcatraz, but I'm sure Josh would say "that's something we can do when we are old."

The boys have finished college for the semester, and after the tests ended there was some serious drinking to do of course. and then some serious recovery. Here is Jeff all snuggled up preparing for the third night in a row...



Huge thank you again to Jeff, James and Pete the vegan!

I really love reading the comments everyone is leaving for us - keep them comming!

M- And maybe another bike...

A couple of days ago we looked at an ok bike... Anyhow we were waiting for the Russian owner to cave in on the price, but he seemed pretty stubborn. He advertised it at $2000, and we really only wanted to pay $1800. He had said he wouldn't go lower than $1900...

We had a couple of others to look at today, one old one down in the Mission district (close) and one new good sounding one over in Berkley. We couldn't get hold of the guy in Berkely, so went to the mission in the mean time. That old bike was a bit shot, so not a goer, and when we got home there was an email to say that the one in Berkeley was already sold - after only one day!

Grrr, we are keen to get moving outta here, so we said we'd meet the $1900 for the Russian. We are going to pick it up tomorrow.

I think it's time Josh wrote a post, he's feeling well enough to drink white rum!

Some stuff we saw today:


2400 Fulton St, just up the road, where Jefferson Airplane used to live.

St Ignatius Church on Fulton which is big and impressive. (This is only the top half)


Big Pink house which is crazy!

M- Back to searching

Josh got pretty bad yesterday, fever of 101F and heaps of coughing. He stayed at home while I travelled out to the airport to meet my brother Richard and his family. They are moving to Sante Fe and transiting through San Fran. Dad said they had about 16 bags plus hand luggage, so might need some help. I was intending to go anyway as I wanted to see them as they come through, it might be a while before we get to Sante Fe if at all. Anyhow somehow I missed them. I don't really understand how, I was right outside the gate when they landed and I waited about an hour and a half. When their flight had dissapeared off all the boards and there were no longer anyone coming out of the door I gave up. Maybe I just left too soon? A taxi driver had told me it normally takes about 15mins to clear customs.

Richard had tried to call our cell phone which I had left with Josh. It wouldn't have helped though as it is broken and and the person on the other end can't hear us. We can hear them fine! Rick left a msg to say call him back, but didn't leave his number and it didn't show on our missed calls list only "Withheld"

So, that was a bit of a waste of a day, but it meant that Josh had a quiet one. He was still very ot last night as we went to bed, but feels better this morning, so I think he's on the mend. I had threatened that if he was still so bad today I would take him to a doctor, that might have done it!



Here is a photo of Jeff's flat where we are staying (thanks again Jeff!) You can see the new bike parked outside. Jeff's flat is the 1st floor.

M- We have bought a bike!

It's a Suzuki Bandit 1200, and we had to ride it home from East bay, over the Bay bridge. That was quite fun, but the toll gates were a surprise! Luckily we had some money.

If you've read the previous post about the negotiation difficulties, then imagine we give him $2300 like we agreed, but he is uming and ahing, so Josh starts looking for another $100, but instead he decides to give us $100 back! "You guys can have it for $2200".

M- We might have bought a bike?

Maybe, we're not quite sure, you see the guy wasn't very easy to talk to. As we set off from Fulton, I said to Josh: "I've got a good feeling about this one". He has a cold so just grunted in reply. We had to get there by 6pm, so we take the BART train under the bay to Oakland. Unfortunatly I put us on the wrong train and we never went past the station we were expecting to get off at. By the time we realised we were way down south somewhere! No big drama, just catch one back the other way, only we were now seriously late. Then the next drama was to hurry to the bus stop, then realise we didn't have anything smaller that a $20 which the buses just will not accept. Ahhh! Josh buys a coke to solve that problem, and the bus shows up, driven by the world's most unelpful bus driver. Basically we don't know where we are going, our map only has half the streets on it. We get off the bus when we see our street, only now we are at number 600, and the bike is at number 2260!!!! It's about 10 to 6 so Josh calls ahead as we start walking. The guy explains to Josh about 10 times that we could have stayed on the bus and got off at the other end - yes ok we realise that AND IT'S A BIT LATE NOW! He was off to the library so we walked the rest of the`way and then sat in the sun in his driveway until he returned.

Anyhow he wanted $2500, not a bad price for a 1998 Suzuki Bandit 1100. It's in good nik, but could do with a tune and will need a new rear tyre soon... we offered him $2400 as he had explained that he had turned down $2200 already. After about six or seven hours of him thinking, checking with his wife, and asking random questions about our overseas licences, insurance and have we checked with the DMV? he finally said we could have it for $2300 (thats $100 less than we offered) and gave us a ride back to the BART station.

So, keep your keyboards crossed that the deal hasn't changed before tomorrow night when we go back with some cash!

Josh is loosing his voice so I made campbells soup for dinner.

M - Tram ride time

No bikes to look at today, so we set out in the afternoon, and have now tried both the trams, and the cable car. Different from the Wellington cable car, this one runs up the middle of a main street, which is too steep for ordinary trams (and the old horse drawn ones I think!). There appears to be a cable underground which is constantly running (you can hear it when you walk over the line) and I think the streetcar grabs onto it when it wants to move. Can anyone confirm/explain this better? Add a comment.

Air quality wise today was much better. We could see much further and a local explained to us that most of the clag was in fact sand and dust blown up from the desert rather than pollution. Apparently the indigenous people noticed this before the white man came along, so it is unlikely to be related to vehicle emissions.

Generally I have found attitudes (and bylaws) here to pollution, public transport, and waste to be more enlightened than in NZ. I’m told this will change once we leave San Fran however. The trolley buses run all over the city and have “Zero Emission Vehicle” painted proudly on them. Perhaps I should email Kamikaze Kerry…

M - It's exactly as I feared!

So far the coffe has been terrible!

To be fair I haven't actually been to a proper cafe yet, we are on a tight budget after all...

San Francisco is working out pretty nice so far. We are staying with Jeff Fink in a student flat which is every bit just like a student flat in NZ, creakey floorboards and all. Jeff's Mom and Josh's mum are cousins. Jeff and his flatmates Pete and James are really great, giving us a place to stay and heaps of advice and help.

There is great public transport here, the BART train which runs from the airport right across the Bay area, and buses all around the central city called MUNI (pronounced Moonie). Muni costs $1.50 pp and you get a transfer for a second ride within 90mins. We quickly discovered thought that the drivers don't check the transfers, so you pay one fare in the morning and then use them to get onto buses for the rest of the day.

Visitors to NZ often comment on the clean clear air, and when I was in Europe I could see why, and now I see it again. San Fran doesn't seem particularly polluted, but the view is definitly limited by the clag hanging in the air.

We are on the hunt for our motorbikes, and looked at two today. There are heaps all over the city, so I am optimistic about finding something. J and I discussed how we were both nervous about test riding bikes without first being used to being on the other side of the road, but as it happened the oppotunity came out at Ocean Beach where it is pretty quiet traffic wise, and not much in the way of intersections. So Josh was able to have a cruise up and down on practise a bit in relative safety.

We are really close to the Haight-Ashbury part of town where the whole 69 summer of love thing went on. To me it is just like Cuba St, so I feel quite at home there. Also close is the Golden Gate park. It is really cool, often overgrown and wild. It makes a nice change from completely manacured sculpted gardens often found in major cities. We have yet to get to see the Bay Bridge, but I saw the the towers today from the bus.

I guess I will get used to it, but I find the poor people begging on the streets a little bit hard to deal with. The locals just ignore them, as I suppose we do at home, but there are so many of them, and unlike in Wellington, these people are activly begging, I presume for their survival. They are amazingly cheerful however, the american service ethic even counts for the Bums, as you look the other way or shake your head they call out "Have a nice day!"

J - paging passenger Buzz Aldrin...

Getting there is half the fun. Mostly it was lots of confusion mixed with waiting.

Anyway we left NZ with not much fuss but arrived in Tahiti overdressed for 26C, I swear it was 110% humidity. Merewyn forgot the name of the place we had booked so we wandered around the deserted Tahiti airport at 9pm, aimlessly for a while, we were getting a bit stressed out because there was no one there really except a few souls who wanted to rip us off. We tried to get a taxi ride for an earthly sum into Papeete, failed, and eventually called on a fellow NZ'er who had the foresight to buy a Lonely Planet. This sadly did not contain the address but we decided to go in with his plans and we were soon ferried off to Pension Maha Iti, by a nice frenchman.

The place was nice, lots of stray dogs and things but quite a lot of character. At 11:15pm the roosters started crowing, and they didn't stop until about 6am when most of them by the sound of their voice had shattered their vocal chords. Apparently the neighbour has 5 roosters. At about 6am I dimly remembered that there were ear plugs in the air tahiti comfort pack, these allowed me to actually get by conscious level down far enough to dream some quite bizarre and confused dreams for an hour or two until 9.

The next day we hauled our enormous collection of baggage onto the local bus and headed off into Papeete, I am still amazed at the amount of scooters there. Everyone has one.



We wandered around, inevitably got very hot and decided that a swim was in order. Swimming is not permitted in the city. We bussed out to Mahina for a swim, which was good, we seem to have stumbled on a kite surfer beach. That was cool.



Back in Papeete we had a brief foray into discovering the 'seedy underbelly' of Papeete but couldn't really find anything.





We had a little trouble catching the airport bus, there didn't seem to be any signs, it was dark and everone was gone, the bus terminal was abandoned and so one but eventually a bus like vehicle stopped and we got on and away we went to the checkin. "I'm sorry you can't go into the USA you don't have a return ticket." Lots of waiting, for officials muttering secrets, and a swipe of Merewyns $500 limit (sssh) visa allowed us to get on the flight.


Maybe 10 hours later we arrived in some sort of disgusting smog filled hell. I commented to Merewyn that it was good that we weren't staying in LA. (apologies to any LA residents) She concurred. Merewyn walks up the immigration counter all nervous because of the last debacle. 'I'm sorry you will have to go back to ..." No! Wait! I have a Visa! '...the end of the line and fillout form 245I, then come back.'


We proceeded thanks to the kind but unsolicited direction of about 10 airport staff, to our transfer flight and immediatly were selected for 'double screening'. Yay! The experience was a little more interesting when Buzz Aldrin was also selected for double screening and we got to furtively point and stare at the glorious american hero just behind us in line. Merewyns official seemed quite nice, mine was a dick but we got through eventually.

Not completely though, in regulated chaos and the maze of queue ribbons (they had people who's only job it was was to stand their and unhitch the ribbon to let people through in to the 'next level' of screening, not just 1 but 10 or 20.) merewyn left behind her passport and boarding pass (which every official in the whole of LAX inspected).

Paging passenger Merilyn Ellis please come to gate 40 to pick up a lost item... It's not just the newbies that lose their cool either, 10 seconds later it was. Paging passenger Buzz Aldrin please come to gate 40 to pick up a lost item...

I looked around No one in the airport even blinked.

M - The beginning...

We are off tomorrow on an adventure around the USA on motorbikes. Then when we are tired of travelling around we are going to live in Canada for a year.

Our first stop will be a night in Papeete, Tahiti. Hopefully this will be a chance to relax after all the stress of getting ready to leave. Josh spent time in Tahiti when he was a kid so it will be nice to go back. Once we arrive in San Francisco we will be busy again, trying to find suitable motorcycles to buy and getting organised.

Right now we are feeling tired and looking forward to getting on the plane. Last job to do is to find a decent book...