The First Entry

A couple of my friends write Blogs.  It seems like a good way of keeping people in the loop with what you're up to and where you are.  So I'm gonna take a stab at it, and hopefully not bore the pants off anyone in the process!

Where to begin.  I am in year 3 of my travels.  I left New Zealand in Feb 06 for London where I spent 2 years.  I lived in Fulham for the first year and then moved to Westbourne Park.  I had so much fun in London, I don't think I've ever been as happy as I was there.  If I start writing about my time and experiences there I think I would end up writing a small novel, which I don't want to do for my first blog entry, so perhaps I'll write about that later on!

After London, I returned home to NZ for 3 months, where I got to spend some much needed time with my family, in particular my two newphews, Daniel (5) and Ryan (7 months) and my niece Nicole (3) who had grown so much!  It was my first time meeting Ryan and it was wonderful spending time with him and getting to know his little personality.  I also had my 24th birthday in New Zealand which was great as many of my friends flew up to Auckland to celebrate with me.  

When the 3 months were up I returned to London for a few weeks and then headed to Ireland where I lived in Galway for 2 months.  I did a Paddywagon bus tour around the main cities in Ireland which was brilliant, we had an Irish tour guide who told us stories and filled us in on the history of all the places we visited. 

This time in Ireland was really a time filler as I waited for my flight to Canada which for me was to be chapter two of my world travels.  

Here I am now, in Toronto Canada where I've been based for the past 3 months.  When I first came over I flew with one of my best friends Hermione.  It worked out perfectly as Hermione is from Canada so I essentially had a tour guide showing me the sites!  

She took me to her latest hometown of Gananoque, 2 hours East of Toronto.  The town was gorgeous, very picturesque and small.  Gananoque is right in an area called the Thousand Islands, which is exactly that, a region right on the edge of a beautiful river with Islands dotted around for as far as you could see.  

I'm really glad I got to see that area as I haven't found Toronto to be all that pretty, which is something I expected of Canada.  It's a big city and I think now after 3 months here that the time has come for me to move somewhere smaller.  So in 2 days (Nov 18th) I'm moving to Banff!  

So many people have told me how beautiful the West Coast is so I can't wait to get out there and see it for myself.  I'm hoping to get a job in a bar or restaurant out there and then spend the days on the ski slopes.  I did think about working on the mountain, it's still something I might do but there are pros and cons to doing that.  

If you work for the mountain you get accommodation provided, but you have to share a room with at least a couple of other people.  You also get a free ski pass which usually costs about $900.  BUT, you get paid a very average wage, they have a system where you get paid a bonus at the end of the ski season, problem is I'm not going to be there until the end of the season so I'd miss out on that.  

I have spent the last 3 months living in a hostel here in Toronto and I'm starting to get a little tired of sharing my room with someone, it would be great to have my own space and I think I would be happier living in a flat share in downtown Banff, working in a bar or restaurant making decent tips in the evenings.  Forking out the money for the ski pass.  Spending days on the snow and then having my own room to go home to.  It seems much more appealing at this stage.

Goodness knows what will eventuate though, one thing I've learned with travel is that things often don't pan out as you plan them to!  I'll update my blog when I have a job and somewhere to live out there!  Fingers crossed.