Summer is made to play

Taupo, New Zealand

First of all, I know, you're not used to me being silent for that long. It's rare that I stay without a word for a long time, but New Zealand's internet knocked me down.

Free wi-fi is hard to find in that part of Oceania. In McDonald's restaurants, you can only use a certain amount of Mb before being disconnected. In other places, you pay for the amount of Mb used. Upload a picture or a video and hop, no more time left...

So here I am, in Wellington, the capital of this beautiful country, in a chinese restaurant with free wi-fi.

I started my adventure in Auckland, a bipolar city like I call it, like the whole country, where it rains 15 times a day, but generally not for a long time. A mix of Sherbrooke and Montreal, the biggest city in New Zealand has nothing to impress when you first look at it. Luckily, I contacted a couchsurfer who guided me for nearly two days. He for example brought me on an old valcano for some hiking.

Four hours of bus further south, I got in Rotorua, known for it's thermal baths. But most of the points of interest are situated outside of the city. So you need a car. I just decided to walk along the lake and to go to a dinner-show about the maori culture... where I was named maori chief for the night. The lady probably chose me because I was the only lonesome traveler. Having to make weird faces in front of fifty something tourists, most of them being Koreans or Japanese, it means I will probably soon become a star in Asia. When you think of how many videos they took...

The advantage is that I met a Japanese girl I will probably see again in Tokyo, in the end of April or the beggining of May.

The next day, I left for Taupo, where cruises, sailing, skydiving, rafting, bungee and others are on the list of things we can do. I was using the city as a base to go to the Tangariro Alpine Crossing, a 19,4 km trail on the volcano they used for the Mordor in Lord of the rings. Departure : 5:40 in the morning. Start walking : arounf 7 AM. It took around 8 hours to walk the whole trail. Fortunately, my heel and my calf, which were giving me pain in the last few days, were miraculously in shape.

After fighting the sun, rain, snow, hail, rain again, I was so tired. but you'll see, it was totally worth it.

And today, after six hours on the bus, I got in Wellington, the capital. I'm here for a few days, but plans can change after that. Queenstown, which wasn't on my list, seems to be a favorite for all the travelers I meet... We'll see. If the flight is not too expensive.

In the end, note that all the terminals here refuse to read the chip on the credit cards. For an unknown reason, my Visa card wasn't working. After a reverse fee call in the phone system of my bank, I was told something like I was kind of stupid because my card is supposed to work properly. (I'm writing it in my own words). So I'll keep on looking stupid each time my card is not working.

A video of Tangariro

Here is a first video test. A short view of a walk on Tangariro Alpine Crossing.

First piece of trouble

There iAuckland, New Zealand

There it goes. It had to happen. First piece of trouble. And I'm not talking about my eardrums which almost burst when the plane landed. Or about that cold who refuses to die.

Trouble came in Los Angeles airport, yesterday (technically, it's the day before yesterday because of the jetlag).

It's always good to know, before boarding a plane, if the country of your destination will let you in if you only have a one-way ticket.

Even if New Zealand loves Canadians, even if they don't require a visa for us to stay for three months or less, they don't like us enough to take the risk of us staying. Me, I didn't know that.

In fact I did. Another guest in my hostel room, in Los Angeles, asked me if I had a plane ticket out of New Zealand. I don't know why, I didn't check if I needed one. Could have saved me some trouble.

So it was impossible to check my luggage in and to get my boarding pass without a ticket that would get me out of Kiwi land.

I had to leave, my little bundle of joy on a shoulder, to buy a ticket as fast as possible. With the Quantas Airline desk in front of me, I tried to get the best price for a one-way ticket to Australia, out of NZ. I knew I didn't have a choice anyway, especially since I didn't know either when I wanted to leave New Zealand. I gave a random date. I'm good these days to find randomly the cheapest day. But I was sure that I could have found a better deal if I could have used the internet myself in that airport.

Until anybody proves me wrong, I'll leave from Christchurch to Melbourne on March 11. And by the time the girl behind the desk ended her fight booking with a non cooperative computer, the price of the ticket... doubled. What are you gonna do? It's my luck! I need it anyway. Kaching!

Time was still going by and that annoying computer couldn't print my proof of purchase, essential for me to board my plane. It took one hour, total, before I got my document. Good thing I got to the airport three hours before take off.

I just had time to go for the check-in, eat a very bad sandwich very fast and clear security. Even if I had taken out all my liquids in a little see-through bag, two officers had to look into my Purell to make sure I wouldn't try to bomb the plane. Damn it! Gotta do what you gotta do.

In the end, everybody wanted to make sure everything was in order. Security in Los Angeles. Security in Nadi, Fidji, for the stopover (note that we just got out of the plane and that it was technically impossible to have changed the content of our luggages). Security on arrival in Auckland.

That said, a night flight seems shorter than it's 10 hours (before the stopover, 13 total). About the jetlag, I'm now 18 hours in the future compared to Quebec.

I'll see if I can get a refund for my ticket. I found one that was cheaper for the same day, same destination, even after they will have charged me some penalties.

Burgers, weeds and bitches

Hollywood Boulevard

Already almost time to leave Los Angeles, where my "stopover" was really short. Holidays are over. Adventure begins.

The angels city, not too impressive, but nice because of its sun, can be summarized in three words : burgers, weeds and bitches.

Because there is nothing like unexpected encounters to bring you back to reality.

Since I really didn't feel like drowning in a sea (!) of tourists and since I didn't want to fill my schedule with thousands of activites, I spent the day walking from Venice Beach to Santa Monica, with a small walk in town afterwards.

At lunch, I met two young Americans who started the discussion. First advice : eat a burger from the In & Out restaurant. A must do in California for any tourist. Not the walk on Hollywood Boulevard. Not an excursion in Beverly Hills. Not a LA Kings game. A burger! They were funny, the kids.

Their second advice : see a "doctor" who offers his services on the beach and can write you a prescription for "therapeutic" marijuana. "Get high on the beach, get hungry, and then, get a burger at In & Out. It'll be the best burger of your life..."

Hum! What an advice. But I'll still think about it. Can I? At least, they didn't recommand "Botox on the beach"... (That exists)

And what about that guy I met on the bus where the funny driver was called Zeus? His girlfriend, the woman who drove the other bus, the girl passengers... all bitches according to him. One cannot say he was full of nuances.


Welcome in Los Angeles!

In another subject, special greetings to Caroline, a friend I had not seen for 12 years. Saw her on Hollywood Boulevard for a coffee.

Now, I don't know when it'll be possible to access the internet again in the kiwi's country. It is possible I'll need to go in a McDonald's (yuk!), where wi-fi is free, to read my messages.

The Hardest part is Leaving

I San Diego Bay

I already have packed a lot memories. Saw a flight of pelicans. The Pacific Ocean. Palm trees everywhere. Sun in February... With the pictures and the notes that go with them to make sure I remember everything.

After three days, I'm using the wi-fi connexion on the coastal train between San Diego and Los Angeles, along the ocean, for a first assessment. First conclusion : the hardest part is leaving.

Leaving from my house to take the plane, a moment I was looking forward to, well thought, that couldn't be otherwise. But I now realize that the next six months will be filled of neverending goodbyes. Departures. We must know how to leave a city just to embrace the next one. Be confident enough to decline the invitation to go out, the night before that departure, even if a group of sympathetic Quebecois just got in the hostel. And say the last goodbye to the travelers you leave behind, those you bonded with sooooo fast.

I have been the one who stays, for three nights, while others where leaving. I became the one who left, while others stayed. And I realized I took no picture of these new friends.

In two days, I'll be the one who leaves again, on a flight to Oceania.

In the mean time, I'll need to be disciplined so my nights get longer. Just saying...

Gilly is coming out

Pacific Beach, San Diego

Here it is. I cannot hide it anymore. I'm not really traveling alone. With me, a very small gorilla you can see on the picture. Gilly (I'm not the one who chose the name) decided to follow me in my adventures.

After getting out in Newark Airport, he went for a stroll on Pacific Beach, which has a view on the ocean of the same name.

Follow him! He could be anywhere, at any time.

On a more serious note

Like I wrote, my round-the-world trip has started. With the face I have, some will understand why the border patrol asked if I have a criminal record. And why, in the airport, in a "random" check, security chose to search my luggage. At least, this time, they closed it well afterwards.

On a short flight to Newark, I could appreciated New York's skyline and the Statue of Liberty. For a guy who is always eager to get somewhere, for once, I felt like I had time. I surfed on the wave.

Then, I left for San Diego, where rain took over the citizen's joy. It stopped right when I landed. I'm not making it up. From the sky, we could see the pouring rain on the city. In fact, getting in San Diego on a plane is very special because the airport is right in the city. When you go down, it's a little bit like you're gonna crash in some skyscrappers.

Once I got to the hostel, I got that normal doubt I was expecting. Living out of a suitcase for six months...  I got in a hostel room with a strange smell, where others had already marked their territory. Maybe I'm too old for that.

I slept on that. Asking myself if it was a good thing to start my trip in the States.

But after spending almost the whole day on a near empty beach, under the sun, not too warm but just enough, letting the Pacific Ocean calm me, I was zen. In the end, I needed an easy break from Quebec. Nothing too different or too disturbing. Just a break. Like a holiday before the adventure. In a country where I understand the language and where I can be understood too in spite of my accent.

One down. 180 to go...

San Diego

A simple word to confirm I got in San Diego...

Even if I brought my own computer, it didn't seem like the wifi was working. So I went back to the old time, when I was using the hostel computer, without any french accent on the keyboard.

My round-the-world trip has started. First real day to come. (And I will correct that post as soon as my computer works...)

Add : (Just needed to talk about it... Now it works)

It's departure time

I should be asleep. Since a few hours. But the thing is, my luggages are not complete. The electronic gadgets still need to charge, clothes need to dry. I still have to figure out what stuff I'll sacrifice to be able to carry everything.

In a few hours, I'll leave my native Sherbrooke for six months. I've never been away from my town for that long. Never! And yet, I just feel emptiness. Six months, that is a very long time, but it's short to travel around the world.

"You must be excited!", everybody asks.

No! Niet! No butterflies. Just sweet resignation. A survival mechanism, probably, like for the one who jumps in space in spite of a fear of heights. The brain got disconnected, is unable to process it all. Probably doesn't want to get what is happening, neither the consequences of past and future choices. Doesn't want to anticipate all the problems that will inevitably come in each time zone.

The people, they'll live by procuration. Have already started. That's a lot of occasionnal tourists I bring with me, in a metaphoric way. They tell me to make to most of it at all time, even if each time I travel, I tell myself the same thing without feeling anything more. Those people will wake up every morning in their daily life. Excitement will go away. The Earth will keep on turning. And when I'll be back, they'll be surprised to find out all I missed that happened here. "True, you were already gone when..."

I wanted to go.

I'm going!

But it's scary in a way. The cartesien planner in me has been taking each day at a time for a couple a weeks now. And he doesn't understand. Doesn't understand how the world turns without his cartesien logic. All of that while facing the evidence.

No kids. No house. Tired of waiting on the world to change. That crazy urge to breath new air. To live without those sticks that break themselves in my front wheel. That crazy urge to dip my lips in a big bowl of freedom. To take care of the "all-alone" (tu-seul) in me, to take an expression from the french-canadian author Michel Tremblay.

There is also my thirties, waving not that far in front of me, that I can see because it didn't make me nearsighted yet.

There is no good reason to leave. Just reasons to stop hanging on. Just reasons to take the steering wheel to stop going nowhere.

I'm not going to find the unexpected in me. "You'll change, you'll see", you'll tell me. Maybe. Maybe not. Or maybe I was already the one I'll be when I'll get back.

So don't tell me I won't be back before the end of summer. My brain still thinks it's only going for a short holiday on the superficial beaches and boulevard of California.

Note

To all of those who thought : "We won't write to you. You'll have so much more to do than read what we send..."

I answer : don't hesitate. I will read your letters with joy and will answer faster than you think. I'll be exploring, but I won't disappear. Skype, Facebook and others are already bookmarked on my computer.

Two weeks to go

In two weeks, my trip around the world will have started. But it's not because my departure time gets closer and closer that everything gets done by itself.

I finally canceled my subscription to the newspaper, told the car and home insurances I was going, wrote a will, just in case. Better not to take chances. By taking my car out of the road, I will save some money on registration and insurances. House wise, the beauty of renting a place is there will be no change to my insurance.

I told the SPA that my two cats would stay somewhere else (had to think about that), made photocopies of my traveling documents, credit cards and others, to leave a copy at my parent's house and to have one myself in case of a problem. I also sent it all in my e-mail. Then I'll be able to access my documents anytime.

And I finally ordered my JR pass for Japan. It is a pass for strangers you can order online before you get in the country. You can save on transportation with it. But you must activate it in the three months following your purchase.