So here’s the coles notes version of my trip last year.

Flew into Sydney. Met up with a friend there that I hadn’t seen for a few years and got my bearings. It was nice to see a familiar face when so many things are changing at once.

I bought a shitty old car and drove through Sydney to Goulbourn. It was crazy getting used to driving on the other side of the road. I was trying to do it in Sydney no less.

After staying Goulbourn for a couple days I headed down to Canberra and took some crazy backroads out to Queanbeyan. Where I stayed with some family for a few days. I checked out the Australia War Museum and a few other things while I was there. They also took me down to Mount Kosciuszko, Australia’s tallest mountain. It wasn’t very hard to climb but was an excellent adventure. The area was beautiful.

I had planned to go down to the coast, possibly to Melbourne, then turn around and drive all the way back up to Cairns. But my family there convinced me that driving over to Adelaide was well worth the trip and I could just come back across the middle and see a bit of the “outback”. So I headed off down the coast.  I stayed in a few neat places and was just going to drive straight through Melbourne but ended up staying for a week.

There was tons of stuff to do in Melbourne. There are lots of gardens there and an awesome bus system that goes around the center of town. There is even a free one. The Aussie Rules game was awesome. I still don’t really get all the rules. The best part was a show on the docks with the Pyrophone Juggernaut.

Sadly, it was time to get on my way and I hit the Great Ocean Road. Apollo Bay was beautiful but wet, the 12 Apostles were, uh, some big rocks and Port Fairy was a little creepy(but had a volcano!)

I had no idea what to expect when I headed into the Grampians. After hiking to the Pinnacle, I decided it was one of my favorite places in Australia. The hostel there was owned by the guy who started the one in Apollo Bay and they bother were small, cozy and eco-friendly.

I had had enough of the rain though so it was time to head North. I packed my bag and headed up to Adelaide to spend a couple days. After that I started to drive to Broken Hill and realized that Australia is a really big place. I basically cut across from Adelaide to Sydney and got about as close to the “outback” as I could without being screwed if my car broke down. I just tried not the think about that happening. After 2 incredibly long days of driving I made it to Dubbo. After searching around for a place to stay, I got a decent campsite and then hit up the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. I hadn’t seen most of those animals in my life.

Despite being much further North than I was a week before, it still wasn’t sunny enough so onto the road again to Cairns. Diving on the barrier reef was incredible and I will definitely be back to do it. Re-energized and a little tanned, I headed down to the party town of Airlie Beach to do some sailing.

I was not disappointed.

And then Rockhampton was pretty boring.

I had never heard of Hervey Bay but it was apparently the gateway to Fraser Island, the Island of Sand.

After driving around the whole freakin town trying to find parking for the hostel I was going to stay at, I hung out in Brisbane for a few days with some hilarious Irish guys.

Back down in Surfer’s Paradise and Lennox Head, I stayed with some more friends and climbed Mount Warning. Damn that thing is steep.

Port MacQuarie was a cool little place. I ran a lot here getting ready for the 14k race I was going to do in Sydney when I got back there. It was on the water and sunny so I was happy.

I had been in Australia for 2 months by now and I was starting to think in Australian. Weird though….now was that an Australian or Canadian thought?

Funny that I totally blanked about what I did in Newcastle. I guess it wasn’t very exciting.

I wish I had had more time in Katoomba but I was anxious to get back to Sydney to sell the car that was falling apart around me.

The first place I stayed back in Sydney was in Bondi Beach in the same hostel we stayed at when I went down to play rugby in 2003.

Before I left for Australia, I saw a rad video who was travelling around Asia taking pictures of himself almost every day. He put it into a timelapse which showed going from clean-shaven to a dirty traveller with a bushy beard and long hair. I thought it would be neat to try. I couldn’t do it.

Cutting 2 pounds of hair off left me way faster for the 14km City to Surf running race. It went from Hyde Park all the way out to Bondi Beach. with 70,000 people in it, it’s the biggest time race in the world. I’ve never been with so many people.

I didn’t lose much and bought a couple things and did some thinking back on my last 3 months. I took a few photos along the way too.

Whew. I didn’t lose you there did I? Ok, that was 3 months in Australia. I had 1 month left and absolutely no plan for my time in New Zealand. All I knew was that I had to Zorb… and possibly bungy jump…. and maybe jet boat too.

Short and sweet New Zealand trip…. and GO!

I think there were a number of days around here that I was just generally picking my nose and not doing much. I can’t remember why I didn’t post. I took the Magic Bus south through the North Island, through Rotorua, and spent a day in Wellington. Then we needed to get ourselves to the South Island. We had the option to take the Interislander Ferry across Cook Straight or fly across. I wanted to see the area a bit differently and knew I’d be taking the ferry back on the way North so I took a little plane over. After being re-routed to a different airport on the South Island because of the wind, I finally made it to Picton.

We didn’t stay long in Picton and headed right away to Nelson where we spent a day in the Abel Tasman National Park. We took a water tax a few kilometers into the park then hiked back. Talking the bus driver on the way out he had mentioned a longer, but more interesting trail back that went up into the hills a bit more instead of along the water. “Much better views up there”, he said. We took his advice and took the high trail. It’s always interesting hiking with people you hardly know when you have no idea where you’re going. It all ended up well.

Along down the coast to Greymouth. Funny enough, it was a very grey little town that’s only claim to fame was the Monteiths Brewery, which we got a tour of. Being incredibly hung over after only a couple hours of sleep is not a great way to spend a bus ride but we made it in one piece to Franz Josef ( and to keep all our food down…).

I had heard that there were a couple of good glacier tours to do in New Zealand before I left on the trip but I didn’t really think about it again until I was down there. An option on the Magic Bus tour was a tour of the glacier or a heli-hike. The heli-hike was the same amount of time as the regular one but quite a bit more expensive.  I’m so glad I bit the bullet and in no time we were up in a helicopter and then wandering around the glacier.

I wasn’t sure if anything was going to top the experience of walking around on a massive block of moving ice. I forgot about everything you could do in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. We took a bus trip out to Milford Sound and I have to say that it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. My photos could not do it justice. To top it all off, I flew back over the mountains into Queenstown. I was a little disappointed that there weren’t enough people interested in the helicopter ride back to Queenstown. It was expensive but it would have been the most incredible way to see the area. They even stop on one of the glaciers one the way back.

Not wanting to say I went to New Zealand and didn’t snowboard, I booked some gear and headed off into the Remarkables. The snow was great but the visibility on the morning I went was atrocious. They had orange pegs in the snow so you could see where the hell you were going. I definitely bailed into a big icey hole on my first run that I couldn’t even see.

Then I did the must gut wrenching thing I’ve ever done in my life. For some reason I booked everything right when I got into Queenstown and figured it would be a good idea to go Bungy Jumping. It was an even better idea to book it on the last day I was there so I’d stew in my own nervousness for a few days before I actually got the chance to jump. If you decide to do it if you go, do it right away. I felt sick I was so nervous the days before. To top it all off, I didn’t choose the first bungy in the world off a bridge, or the platform off the side of a mountain over Queenstown, but the third tallest bungy in the world, the Nevis.

I surprised myself on the bungy though. Everyone there was scared to go, some more than other people. Some people were so scared they tried not to jump when they go to the edge but ended up falling anyways. I’m not sure if it was competition with the couple guys that jumped well before I went or the solid resolution not to look like the fool that pretty much just fell off, but as I got to the edge, all fear fell away and I managed to pull out a beautiful swan dive 134 meters above the canyon floor. I felt like I was going to die just before the bungy caught and then it was all over. I was alive and well and actually able to think about the rest of the trip for the first time in a few days.

We headed out to the coast to Dunedin and ate too much chocolate at the Cadbury factory. Aside from running, there wasn’t much to do in Kaikoura because of the weather. Then it was back to Picton and across Cook Straight into Wellington. I had heard Wellington was called the Windy City but I experienced first-hand myself when I went for a run along the sea wall.

One of the most unique things you can do in New Zealand is called Zorbing. You basically get into a giant hamster ball and get rolled down a hill. It felt like being stuffed into a giant washing machine.

At this point, it felt like the trip was almost over. We were heading back towards Auckland and although there was still another section to the trip, I couldn’t help but feel sad about an incredible adventure coming to a close. I had made some amazing friends on the bus trip around New Zealand and now here was a good chance I’d never seen them again.

The last section going North from Auckland was relaxing. After the whirlwind tour of the rest of New Zealand it was nice to slow down, relax and spend the remaining time with the people I had gotten to know well on the trip. There was one more crazy adventure in store though. We all piled onto a 4 wheel drive bus to go out to Cape Rienga and on the way back 4×4′d to 90 Mile beach and the huge sand dunes in the area. Once we got there, they pulled out some boards and told us to hike to the top and slide down. We all thought the driver was crazy, until he did it himself and made some of the fastest runs out of all of us!

The bus ride back into Auckland was pretty horrible. I got sick with something that made any time away from the bathroom a scary thought.  I made the best of my last few days in Auckland, and then making sure I had all my gear and tickets, headed off to the airport.

Returning from being in other countries for 4 months was a strange experience. Before getting home, I had this feeling that things would be so different. Everything would be upside down and in different places when I got there. Everyone would be different and I wouldn’t be able to recognize anyone.

What I found though that everything was exactly the same. Everyone was doing the same things. Everyone was thinking the same way. Everyone was watching the same TV shows. Nothing had really changed. Everyone’s were almost exactly the same as I had left them 4 months earlier.

You can get addicted to travelling. I can see why that is so after only doing one international trip. It’s hard to make big changes in your life staying in the same place and being stuck in the same routine every day. Being in a different with different people and different languages and different cultures shakes things up. You can stay the same if you want but it’s hard. Travelling changes you. It lets you start fresh. It lets you be whoever you want to be.

It’s almost time to travel again and I can’t wait. I’m excited for the opportunity to see new places, meet new people and, most of all, the experience of starting fresh.

2009 was the first year I really started writing on this blog. I tried last year and got bored. My 4 month trip to Australia and New Zealand really got my excited to write and share my adventures with the rest of the world. Here are my most popular posts from this year!

10. Coming Home From Australia and New Zealand

I spent 4 months this year in Australia and New Zealand. It was the best thing I’ve ever done. Check out my thoughts on returning to Canada after spending some time down under.

9. Winter Challenge Roundup

I found the best way to get myself to do something was to make a challenge for it. If it was a contest of sorts with myself, I’d be more likely to stick with it and write about it. Here are my challenges for this winter.

8. Powerful Beyond Measure

I credit @jonathanmead with this one. What an incredible message. If you want to get riled up for the wickedness that will be your 2010, watch this now.

7. A Change In Direction

I had no idea what I was going to be writing about when I started the blog. At first it was going to be about everything I did but it quickly turned into a travel blog while I was away. After returning I wasn’t sure what to write about since I wasn’t travelling. I’m a bit addicted to trying new things, seeing what I can learn and how far I can push myself so this is what rcThink will be about. If you love these things too check this post out and let me know what you’re into.

6. My 30 Day Minimalism Challenge

I was moving out. I had loads of stuff. I didn’t want to take it all. I couldn’t take it all. I started a challenge for myself to get rid of all that I could.

5. 1 Week Into My Minimalism Challenge

A status update on the minimalism challenge. I didn’t exactly hit my goal of one thing every day for a month but I did get rid of whole lot of stuff. It did change my view on what I need and why I keep things around. I’ll be doing another one of these early in the new year to shed unneeded junk and clear my mind to accomplish all the awesomeness I’m going to in 2010.

4. The Most Beautiful Place I’ve Ever Seen

On my trip this year I spent a day in Milford Sound. It’s pretty much the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anything like it, almost prehistoric. The cliffs rose straight up to staggering heights out of the glassy water. The dolphins were following the boat as we cruised by. Waterfalls poured from the valleys into the fjord below. Definitely worth a read if you want to go (or go back) to New Zealand.

3. Rcthink Facelift

I had a tough time choosing a theme for rcThink. I’d change it every once and a while trying to find a fit for myself and my content. I’ve been so happy with Headlines from Woothemes that it’s on a few other blogs I write for as well. Quick advice: Find a good theme and stick to it. Do spend some time finding one you really like though.

2. Digital Nomad Blog Carnival #5

I got the change to host the 5th Digital Nomad Blog Carnival created by Cody at Thrilling Heroics . I had a fantastic time reading through and picking my favorite posts. I’ll be doing this again soon!

1. Creating the List Life

With so many ideas for adventures running around in my head I had to write them down. The best of the best appears in this list. I hope you get some inspiration to get out and really experience life from it!

Plans for 2010

It’s an incredible feeling to have a clear purpose for something. I feel like I know exactly where I want to go with this blog and I’m going to pour everything I’ve got into it and a couple other projects in 2010.

In writing this I’ve tried to experiment and see what the whole blogging thing is about and I’ve done well on some things and sucked on other things. A few things I want to improve on next year:

1. Regular Posting Schedule

I didn’t think this was going to be so hard but posting on a regular schedule ended up being near impossible for me. I’m going to experiment with schedules this year and, who knows, maybe I’ll end up with a schedule of no schedule.

2. Wrap up Challenges

I started some posts, challenges and contests this year that petered out into nothing. I won’t be doing this again. Everything will have a strong start and an even stronger finish.

3. Spend more time on Posts

I’ve never spent much time writing. In elementary school, I breezed through. In high school, it was an afterthought. In university, I always did it the night before it was due. Writing has become much more than an afterthought or lame assignment to me now and I’m going to spend much more time learning and perfecting my skills.

Gimme Your Comments

What was your favorite post you wrote this year? What are you going to do next year to improve? To make it your best yet?

What did I want to eat the next day? What did I want to do a week from now? What was everything going to be like when I got home? What was I going to do for work? What did I want to do with my life?

Wait, back up a step. What was that last one? What did I want to do with my life.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been doing a lot of reading about people leading unconventional lives, coming up with crazy business ideas and travelling the world but I had never really sat down and actually thought about what I’m doing.

It’s all fine and dandy reading about these other people that are gallivanting around the world working with new-age business and partaking in amazing adventures. But I thought it would just stay as that; reading. Now I feel myself being pulled into the world of doing anything I want, anywhere in the world.

All these people are living lives I’ve dreamed of living but always thought it would never come true. Everyone has to have dreams right? But they stay dreams.

Or so I thought.

With everything and anything now open to my excited mind, I immediately hit a  wall. How do I keep track of all this good stuff? Where do I track it all? How do I remember what I’ve done?

Enter the Life List.

The best thing I’ve seen on the Lifestyle Design blogs in all my perusing has to be the life list. There is no better thing to keep you excited about what you are doing and a way to gauge how well it’s going. My problem is that there might just be a million things that I want to do in the next year, never mind over the course of my life-time so I have a very hard time narrowing it down to a simple, easy to read list.

For inspiration I turned to a few of my favorite blogs to see what they’ve put on their lists.

Sean at Location180 was the first Life List that I saw and I will never forget how excited I got reading all those things realizing I could do the same.

JD at WageSlaveRebel also has an excellent Bucket List on the go as well with the added twist that we are going to do it with him.

I just recently found Nate’s To Do List from WhereIsNate. A solid list that I’d love to do myself, I especially liked #22: Take Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing.  That one found it’s way on to my list after good conversation with a Finnish fellow in New Zealand.

And without further adue, here is The List.

I’ve started this post on the eve before I fly home to Canada from New Zealand. I’ve spent three months in Australia and one in New Zealand and while I’m excited to head home to my car, my family and my bed, I’m sad this trip is coming to an end.

Having only driven and flown to a few place in North America previous to this trip, I didn’t have much experience in overseas extended travel. I was about as green as they come when I landed in Sydney four months ago. Scared, excited and completely unaware of all the intricacies of travel, it took a while to figure everything out and become comfortable with it. Luckily I had arranged to meet a friend in Sydney when I got there so I wasn’t totally alone. After that I hadn’t  planned anything.

I’m normally someone who likes to have things planned. It makes everything smoother and puts my mind at ease when I know 3 days from now where I’ll be and what I’m doing. I’m also very lazy. I don’t like to plan much because it is work. It requires reading, emailing, money and time. After reading so much on ditching the guide books and just do what comes up, I decided to give it a shot. I was in Australia and New Zealand during the winter, or low season, and I wasn’t too worried about booking.

My last minute plans were only disrupted a few times. The vast majority of the time I rocked up to whatever town I could find along the way and went with whatever happened. I don’t recommend this way if you are on a tight schedule or absolutely have to stay at a certain place or do a particular activity but for me it worked well.

Instead of driving around New Zealand like I did Australia, I switched it up a bit. I booked the best “hop on, hop off” bus I could find in New Zealand, the Magic Bus. What resulted was a very different trip than in Australia but one that I’m very fond of. Thinking back now, I had a better time in New Zealand because of the adventures and people I met on the bus.

Back at home, I still second guess myself on which way I should look when crossing traffic. I highly recommend driving when there are other people on the road so you can follow them.

If anyone has any questions or comments about the trip, please let me know in the comments down below!

Duneboarding in New Zealand

Back in Auckland from my whirlwind trip around New Zealand, I was thankful to have a day or 2 rest before hopping on the plane and heading home.

I just had one more trip to do up to Cape Reinga, the top of New Zealand.

Because of the way the bus schedule worked we would head up to Paihia the first day, do a day trip to the cape the second, and then have a day to relax on the third.

I was expecting this part of the trip to be pretty slow and just a scenic drive up to the cape and back. We got to Paihia and went on a cruise out to the “Hole in the Rock”.  It’s basically a massive hole in one of the rocks that you can drive through with your boat as long as the water isn’t too high. Unfortunately our boat was a little big and the water too high so we didn’t fit. We did get to see plenty of dolphins playing around the boat along the way.

I didn’t realize that we would be doing some dune boarding on the way up to the cape. I had never even seen it before and was excited to give it a try. I assumed it would be on a fairly small dune and the sleds wouldn’t go very fast.

Just getting to the dunes was a bit of an adventure. Right on 90-mile beach, the dunes rise up off the beach and are bigger than I thought. The road ends abruptly and turns into a stream that heads down to the beach. That didn’t stop the bus driver. He slowed a little to make sure we were in the right gear and then plowed on through the river.

Careful not to stop in the gooey sand he showed us the smaller dunes the “Oldies” would be sliding down. There were a few buses hitting the dunes that day and a couple were primarily an older crowd. He quickly hauled the bus around so were facing a much larger dune with wind whipping up sand over the top. We’d be climbing that.

Our guide and bus driver had an incredible amount of energy and as soon as everyone had a board set about explaining how we were supposed to do this without breaking our necks.

He flops down in the mud by the stream and explains where to put your arms, feet, body and how to stop. Then he hops up and starts to run up the sand dune.

It wasn’t small. And sand is about as hard to hike up as snow, minus the cold. 2 steps up, 1 step back.

Near the top, I couldn’t wait to rest to catch a breath but had to get right to do the top ridge to do it. Stop before and you’ll be assaulted by sand whipping over the top of the dune and down the other side.

Finally we make it to the top. Myself and a Finnish fellow named Antti made it to the top first after the guide and we hurry over to where we’re supposed to slide down.

The first run was fun but I wasn’t sure how fast or far I would go so I dragged my feet a little.  Wicked. Now that I know what it’s like time to hurl myself down the hill.  I trudge all the way back up to the top of the dune hop in line. Once we’ve gone once and know what to expect we’re allowed to cut the line and go further down the dune. Antti and I rush over past the rest of the wide-eyed first timers and rip down the dune a second time.

I pretty much laughed the whole way down. It’s like sliding down a huge hill on a sled in the snow but nice and warm. Aside from all the sand getting into my ears, eyes, mouth and nose it was a wicked ride.

Antti and I managed to get up the dune 3 more times and got a little further each time. The stream went along the bottom of the dune so if you were going fast enough you’d go right over the stream into the swamp beyond. I didn’t quite make it into the swamp but did get onto a little island in the middle of the stream. The last 2 times we raced a couple other people all the way down.

We hit up a beautiful beach on the way out of the dunes and hopped in the water to get rid of all the sand. Even after the swim and a shower later, I still was finding sand everywhere. It was a small price to pay for an awesome trip to the sand dunes.

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That’s what it felt like. Like getting into a washing machine.

After leaving Wellington and heading north we had a bit of time to look around in Rotorua. I wanted to try Zorbing.

After watching some videos and hearing everyone talking about it, Zorbing was definitely something on the New Zealand to-do list.  I had gone through Rotorua on the way south but the weather was horrible so I decided to wait until I was going north.

Out of a bus load of people, Russell and I wanted to go. I’m not sure if everyone else was scared or were trying to save money. We got our certificates printed up, changed into our swim suits and headed on up the hilll in a ragged old 4×4.

There are 2 runs down that you can choose from. One is straight and wide and the zorb gets moving a faster on the way down this one. The other one that I did zig-zagged down the hill and ended up in the same place as the straight one.

The Zorb guy topped up the ball with some air and then shot a bunch of warm water into it. He turns to me and says run and dive in. Really? Ok!  After diving through the small hole in the side and feeling like a fish in a hamster ball, he zipped up the cover and opened the gate.

I heard a tap on the outside of the ball so I was ready to go. Moving the ball is not as easy at it looks. I threw all my weight at the downhill side of the ball and I was off.

My original plan was to try and stay standed up the entire ride. I had heard it was really hard to do and you find yourself on your ass as soon as you start moving. It was damn near impossible! I gave a couple of pushes in the right direction and then I was down. The Zorb gained some speed down the first stretch and then launched up and hit the fence in the corner. Both the water and I were up in the air. I came down first. The water decided to as well but in the general vicinity of my face.

The rest of the way down I felt like I was stuck in a washing machine. I couldn’t tell which way was up. The water was sloshing around like crazy and up and over me. I couldn’t stop laughing the entire way down but in doing so ended up with a bunch of water in my mouth ever corner with all the water flying around.

Coming to a stop at the bottom they unzipped the cover, snapped a couple photos and then I slid out feet first. I was lucky to land on my feet on the way out, most don’t. They come flying out with all the water and land on their ass.

I had no idea what to expect going to Zorb. It ended up being one of the most fun things I’ve done on my trip and I’m definitely glad I went.

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By that I mean Wellington. Because of it’s position and the weather in the area, Wellington is an incredibly windy city. I got to experience first hand what the wind was like on my last run there.

I was only going to spend one night in Wellington because I wanted to get moving North and have a few extra days in Rotorua. I ended up washing everything in my backpack because of my own stupidity and needed an extra day for things to dry out.

I haven’t run much in New Zealand. Being on the bus almost every day and being sick for a week has taken it’s toll and I feel like I’ve been on a tour, sleeping or on the bus the entire time. I was excited to get out and stretch my legs.

I took to the seawall heading south from the harbour in Wellington and did ran about 4 kilometers down the path. The wind was howling out of the bay and was pushing sea spray up and over the bank and across the path. I missed most of the big waves but I was still almost covered in salt by the time I turned around.

Running with the wind is easy. It wasn’t actually that easy because the wind was pushing hard enough that I had to lean back into it and I battled to keep some sort of pace.

Running against the wind is not easy. The wind was incredibly gusty and I’d be leaning into it for 30 seconds pushing as hard as I could to continue at the same pace and then it would drop off to nothing and I’d nearly fall on my face. Some of the gusts were strong enough to push my feet together, tripping me up,  and I almost hit the pavement a few times.

I laughed out loud a few times on the run as I felt ridiculous trying to remain upright and run in the wind. I was happy to be back at the hostel and get out of the gusts afterwards and into a nice hot shower.

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Somewhere along my trip I got the crazy idea to do a bungy jump. I didn’t really want to spend the money to do a skydive so I figured bungy jumping would be the next best thing. Little did I know that everyone thinks bungying is harder. You have to jump yourself.

There are 3 bungies around Queenstown. We saw the first and original bungy at the Kawarau Bridge. It’s 43 meters high. On the way into town on the bus we stopped for a bit to watch a few people jump. Most of the people looked scared to death. A few were able to dive out like they recommend. The others just fell or hop off feet first. I took away a valuable tip though: don’t jump feet first.

I never saw the second bungy but it was on an open ledge at the top of the gondola above Queenstown. The smallest of the bungies, it might be the most interesting because you run and jump and there’s nothing but dirt and rock below you. You can even do it at night.

I figured I’d just throw everything I had at my goal and do the Nevis. I had heard it was the scariest thing ever and at 134 meters I believed it. That’s 3 times the height of the bridge jump was had seen. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous as the day before and the morning of the bungy. I was trying to think of every possible excuse to get out of it. Talking to a guy from the hostel that had done it the day before, he had mentioned not being able to do it if you were sick… or was that the skydiving? I had a bit of a cold at this point and would be quite disappointed if I couldn’t jump because of it. At the same time, getting out of it for reasons out of my control wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

I arrived at the office to check in and much to my dismay, everything was a go. The weather was good, everything was running, having a bit of a cold couldn’t get me out of it now.

There were videos of the bungy  playing at the office and at first I avoided them. I didn’t want to know what I was getting myself into. I found myself drawn to them though and they almost had a calming effect. It didn’t look that bad. It’s only a 8.5 second free fall to a 6 inch deep creek below. I’ll only end up horribly mangled or dead if something goes wrong. No problem.

I was thankful for the 45 minute bus ride out of town to the bungy. Anything to put it off a little bit more. I tried to collect my thoughts but only ended up more nervous. An American guy near the front of the bus wouldn’t stop talking. He sounded nervous but was trying to cover it up. Who was I kidding, I was so nervous I could hardly talk.

At the Nevis, I had given into the fact that I was going to throw myself from a perfect safe platform 134 meters into the canyon below. We got harnessed up and I checked and rechecked that things were buckled and tight enough. Poppping out the other side of the building, the gondola comes into view.  I was standing on the view platform when a few other people arrived.

The order of the bungy is always heaviest to lightest and to my surprise, I would be near the end. The surprised fellow that was to be first came up beside me and took one look at the canyon. He muttered, “That’s bullshit”, and quietly wandered away.

6 of us slid over to the main gondola at a time on the small one and got our leg straps done up. I had forgotten about the full body harness I had on but this made it all the more real. It was like having shackles around my ankles. “You’re not going anywhere but down,” they were saying.

The first guy got up to go. He looked scared out of his mind. Standing on the edge and looking down he mumbled something and fell off the edge. Wow. After being hauled up to the Gondola and breathing again, all he could say was how cool that was. I didn’t believe him.

One of the things they repeat over and over before you jump is to make sure you dive out. It makes for a better video and makes for a softer landing at the bottom.  Almost everyone just fell off the ledge before I went. A couple of fellows had managed a bit of a jump and that gave me hope. What would happen when I got to the edge?

It was quite windy the day I went so we had to wait for the gusts to die down before jumping. The fellow holding your harness behind you would say “3,2, 1, go” and then you jump, no ifs ands or buts. The American guy that had so much to say on the bus was very quiet just before he went. His first try didn’t result in much and he was still standing on the edge staring down. The bungy guy gave him a little pep talk and then started the countdown again. The second time was met with more hesitation and was going to pull back but he had gone to far. With wild flapping of his arms, he was gone.

My turn. I sat down in the chair, got my feet hooked into the stirrups and was hooked up. No turning back now. Oddly calm, I smiled for the camera and waddled up to the edge. Waiting for the wind to die down I had second to check out the view. It doesn’t look that far down but I know it is.

3…..2…..1…. go.

I think about doing the best swan dive I can muster and leap.

8.5 seconds of screaming toward the ground hardly being able to breathe and it’s over. I’m at the end of the bungy. I’m not dead, I’m not mangled, I’m quite happy actually. Happy that I didn’t freeze. Happy that I jumped well. Happy that it’s over.

On the second bounce I reach up and grab the strap that releases my feet and then I’m hanging out in the sun waiting to be lifted back into the Gondola. A round metal contraption hurtles down the bungy and clips into the attachment above me and starts the slow ascent. I felt like Neo in the  Matrix being hauled up into the ship.

For the first time in 2 days I can actually think clearly. I’m not constantly worrying about what the bungy was going to be like. There was still lots of things to do on my trip and they hadn’t even entered my mind after I started thinking about the bungy.

It scared me half to death but it was one of the best things I’ve done on my trip. I’ll definitely be looking for more of those to do!

Check out the video to see what it was like.

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I couldn’t see a thing.

There were three lifts. 2 of them went up a bit higher and the third stayed more central and lower on the mountain. I tried one of the higher lifts first and found that all I could see was white and the odd marker that showed the middle of the run. Just getting to the next marker was a bit of a nightmare and I hit the snow pretty hard a few times sailing over unseen holes in the snow.

The rented boots and board were treating me fine. The combination of wind, snow, fog and old, scratched goggles were frustrating me. I had my sunglasses with me so I tried those out instead. They worked ok but each run I had to dry them out and unstick all the snow from the front of the lenses.

Finally giving up I went in to have something warm to drink and mull over my options. I was very close to throwing in the towel and heading down the mountain. I would have to wait until the next bus just after lunch to do that though. May as well stick it out till then and see what happens.

I was struck with an idea on the way out and found myself in the ski shop trying on goggles with yellow lense. I hadn’t intended on buying any since I couldn’t use them for the rest of the trip and they would just take up space but after spending money to get to the mountain I was determined to make things work. I’ve been looking for some goggles with yellow lenses for dirtbiking at home anyways so I’ll be able to use them again.

By the afternoon it had cleared up a little.

With the fog drifting away and my new goggles I was able to make it down the run without regularly sprawling on my face.

I had no expectations going up to the mountain so I can’t say I was disappointed. I wouldn’t rave about my day at the Remarkables either. Every mountain has its good days and bad though and I’d imagine my day would have been one of the bad ones.

Areas that had regular wind run across it ended up icey and slick. Dips in the sun were reduced to piles of slush that grabbed my board and threatened to throw me over the front. There were too many flat spot for my liking. Skiiers wouldn’t have minded pushing through the little uphill bits to get back to the lodge by I can’t say I was pleased to take off a binding and hike up.

The lifts were all quads but were of the old style so a liftee had to hold the chair every time or your knees were abruptly taken out by the seat.

Not having boarded much last year I was glad to get out on the snow. I will be riding as much as possible this year and hopefully the snow at home will be a fair bit better than what I found at the Remarkables.

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