Back Home

Earlier this week I was told that my uncle had passed away. I then made the decision to coming back to Canada and quickly booked a flight. Luckily I was able to find one that brings me to Timmins for a reasonable price. I made it on time for the funeral. It was good to be here with family.
This being said let me tell you about my little adventure back home. Wednesday morning (Australia time) Phil, Mel and Nick accompanied me to the Brisbane airport. From there I flew to Sydney. It was my first time in Sydney. I didn’t get to see much. The flight to Sydney was late and because of this, I only had approximately 45 minutes to: change terminals to an international terminal, exit through customs, find the Air Canada check-in desk, get my tickets for my connection flights, pass back through customs and make my way to my newly appointed gate. I ran my ass off to make it to the Air Canada desk as soon as possible. All the check-in desks were closed. I thought I was staying in Sydney. Luckily there was still one girl at the desk. When she saw me arriving in a rush she knew exactly who I was. “Mr. Brunet” she said. She quickly gave me my ticket and an express pass to avoid the line-up at customs. I did some more running and made it to my gate on time. Once happily on the plane, the pilot told us that the flight was to be delayed due to a problem with the water reservoir. This delay caused me to arrive in Toronto later than expected and therefore I had to take a later flight into Timmins. I was lucky however to get a flight to Timmins that night. When I was getting my new boarding pass, there was a girl beside me who was stuck in the same situation as I was in and flying to Timmins. I got the last ticket. She had to wait till the next day to fly out. I later found out that Jenn had changed my flight online because she was aware of the delay. So if it wasn’t for her I would have missed the funeral. Thanks Jenn. I arrived in Timmins at about midnight on Wednesday.

I am now back home in the cold surrounded by mountains of snow on every corner…

Nick will keep the roadtrip alive for me!!!

Darcey

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Mount Tibrogargan

After waking up Brent from his hung over nap, Phil, Nick, Brent and I went to visit the Glass House Mountains where we climbed Mount Tibrogargan. The Mountain was almost 1000 feet high and steep. It was a lot steeper than I expected. It was more of a climb than a hike. A sign warned us that the climb should be done only by experienced climbers and extremely fit people. None of us had climbing experience and I wouldn’t say we were extremely fit but we made it to the top. It took us 2.5 hours to get up and then back down again. The climb was fun and coming back down was even more fun. We got to see the fruit farms and other surrounding mountains. We had a great day!

Darcey

Great Ocean Road Trip

The road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide was awesome! We we’re on the road for three days in a mini bus and stayed in two different hostels.  On the first day we got to go to Bells beach. One of the top 5 beaches of Australia. That day we also got to see the twelve apostles, see some koalas, go swimming and chill with our new friends. The hostel was nice. We played cards and had a few drinks. The second day was just as fun as the first. We got to visit some waterfalls, hiked up a mountain and got to pet some kangaroos. We then went to a farm where some kangaroos usually hang out. We fed them, petted them and even got to see an albino kangaroo.  Nick was so pumped to feed the kangaroos! The third day we went spelunking. Cave exploring. The caves were cool. We had to fit through some pretty tight spots! One of the girls almost got stuck. We then went to visit a winery and got to have some free samples. We had a good trip. The drive was nice. We got to see a lot of wildlife like kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, emus and weird looking birds. The only downer about this road trip was our tour guide. On the last day she got mad at us because we were not entertaining her and she was bored. She then yelled out that she would play some crappy music because she was so bored. The music was loud! The Ipods were useless.

Darcey

Driving me crazy!

As most of you probably know, in Australia they drive on the left side of the road. One would think that this wouldn’t affect us much because we don’t have a car, right? Wrong! I’m not too sure about Nick, but I know that I am greatly affected by this difference. I get very confused when I go out for a run or walk or when Nick and I go out for a ride on the push bikes (push bikes = Australian term for pedal bikes). Often I will look to my left first when crossing the road and then to the right only to find out there’s a car passing by right in front of me. Biking and walking down the road feels weird because you have to do so on the wrong side. The worst is when crossing at an intersection. I just don’t know where the cars are coming from. 

Another weird difference that I would have to get used to if ever I were to drive here is the lack of stop signs. Most intersections do not require you to stop. You simply have to yield. There are a lot of round-a-bouts and there is no turning right (left over here I guess) on red lights.
This said, I won’t be renting a car for a while. I’ll try to master the push bike first.

Darcey

First Weekend in Australia

We’ve done so many cool things this past weekend that I don’t even know how to start this post. Friday night we went to Marty’s (one of our new friends) beach house in Sunshine Coast. The beach is 30 seconds away from the house. Very nice location. That night we drank some beer and went out to a nearby bar. Saturday we visited Sunshine Coast and the nearby mountains where we went for a small hike and swim in the waterfalls. The forest is very tropical and different.
Saturday night we went to Mel’s parent’s for a BBQ. The Australians love their BBQ’s. I’ll admit I think I love them just as much as they do! Before dinner we went for a swim in their pool and had a few beer on the patio. The dinner was great! We had some homemade Pavlova (Australian cake) and homemade cheese cake for dessert. Mel’s parents are very nice. I can’t wait for the next BBQ.
Sunday morning we went to the flea market. We had some mini Dutch pancakes. They didn’t fill us up so we then went to the Humble Pies for a meat pie. Meat pies are everywhere here in Australia. We then went fishing, tried to catch some lung fish but nothing. Later on in the day we went to the botanical gardens and to the park for a little game of touch footy. We ordered dinner from a local seafood shop and ate our fish and chips on the beach. Nick and I had for the first time in our lives a deep fried pineapple. We also tried some shark. It was good. We ended the weekend by watching a movie here at Phil and Mel’s. 

Darcey

Toronto – Dubai – Singapore – Brisbane

Three days after leaving Toronto we arrived in Brisbane.  We left the 26th and arrived here the 29th.  Emirates was a very good airline to fly with. On our first flight (13 hour flight) we got three meals. Very impressive meals. Also the drinks were free. We only had the one glass of wine because we didn’t want to get bloated and have to fart the entire way. Our first stop was in Dubai. Dubai is the fastest growing city in the world. Nick and I visited the city by taxi. We paid $65 American for a cab ride that lasted more than 1 hour. He brought us to all the cool spots. We got to see the Marina, the 7 star hotel, the tallest building in the world and the palm tree shaped island. The buildings are huge and covered in lights. Because the city is growing so fast, there was construction on every corner. The city was unreal! We then flew to Brisbane via Singapore. It took us a while to get through custom and get our bags. Our friends Phil, Mel and Shane we’re anxiously waiting for us at the airport. It’s nice to see them again. We are now at Phil and Mel’s in Redcliffe just outside of Brisbane. Finally in Australia.

Darcey

Before leaving

I have been really busy for the past couple weeks so I would like to apologize for the delay in the website updating. I will try to update it on a regular basis from now on. For those of you who didn’t know, we put up some pictures of my going away party at work. Before leaving I spent a little over a week in Sudbury. That was awesome. They had the Hill Carney ball hockey tournament and a concert featuring 4 bands. I got to spend some time with Laura and got to see the guys before leaving. Even J-F was in Sudbury. Oh yeah, and I got to be a vegetarian for the week. That was hard!
On Sunday, my mom picked me up in Sudbury to drive me to Orillia. As I go to put my bags in her trunk, Paul jumps out of the trunk! He came along for the ride. That night we meet up with some of Paul’s friends in Barrie. We went out for dinner to Moose Winooski’s. I had my last poutine for a while.
On monday the 26th, after having supper with Nick’s aunt and uncle we made it to the Toronto airport. Our adventure begins. Posts are coming very soon!!

Darcey

Back Home

Due to the lack of time and the absence of internet connection, we haven’t been able to put up any posts since Pittsburgh. Here’s an update of our progress. The Pittsburgh game was awesome. They won against the flyers and we got to see Crosby score a sweet goal. Even though the arena is the oldest in the NHL, we had a blast at the game. In Ottawa and Montreal we had friends and family come join us for our last two games. The Ottawa game wasn’t very exciting. They didn’t play good. Boston won that game. The Montreal game on the other hand was the total opposite. It had to be the best game we saw. The fans there are loud. They love their Habs! Montreal won the game.
We ended the road trip with a little detour to Sudbury where we partied with friends, had BBQs and watched more hockey on TV. Now we’re back in Timmins and will be planting trees for the summer.
The past 8 months have been unreal. I had the time of my life on this road trip. We got to see a lot of cool things and make new friends. Thanks to everyone who followed us on our trip and we will see you soon.
PS. I’m so pumped that the little truck made it the entire way!!

Darcey

Taking it easy

Last night we arrived at our campground near Washington, PA. We rented a cabin for a couple days. We needed a place to stay until the Penguins game tomorrow night. The cabin is quite cozy and the people here seem friendly. Last night we watched the game on a big screen TV with the owners from the campground. They are pretty cool. The guy comes from Sudbury and the girl from Thunder Bay. He told us a bunch of hockey stories from when he was young. Today we’re taking it easy and tomorrow we get to watch the Penguins play the Flyers.

Darcey

Saving money

The other day when we went to Wal-Mart, Danny and I noticed that they had some really good deals on food. We bought a massive sandwich for $5. We split it and couldn’t finish it for lunch. The left over’s served as a bedtime snack that night. We also bought $5 of lunch meat that will last us for a good 4 lunches. To my surprise, the Wal-Mart had cookies that my mom use to buy when we were kids that I can no longer find in Canada. I was more pumped than Paul (my oldre bro) with his new snowblower and a foot of snow. The cookies were awesome. They were so awesome that my head would explode if I even began to blog about how awesome they were!
Anyways, the food was cheap and the junk food even cheaper. A normal price for a chocolate bar was 50 cents. Maybe that would help explain the high percentage of obese people in the States. Thank you Wal-Mart for helping us save money on our trip.

Oh yeah and today i bought a towel for $1.50. Not bad!

Darcey