Meegan and Jen's Australian Adventures

A rant about the thing I love!!!

I want everyone to know that I feel under alot of pressure... I mean I am in the middle of the bush here..... Jen I hope you are feeling the pressure too!!!
Your birthday story should make it on I think!!
The people deserve to know!!!!!!

]]> The following is a slightly edited e-mail……. The poor poor recipient was forced to hear my rant..and now so does the whole cyber world…..

24 hours ago I was sitting at this very computer preparing for a possible solo trip. The weather looked pretty windy and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it........... But I kept going through the motions in order to be prepared should I decide to go....

Eventually I bought my permits and was basically committed to the whole thing.... I knew I needed to get away from the store for a bit (“the bitterness” was beginning to take hold), and I was willing to paddle a bit harder to do it.... (Oh by the way I am rippin' stoned right now...which should explain the rather “odd” “style” of story telling I am using!).... As I was packing my pack my buddy BK decided he would solo up the lake with me... We leave (after a visit from Percilla), I get half way across the lake (towards the left shore, b/c we had wind cutting the lake from that direction and were going to use the tree’s as a block for the wind).... and decide that fighting wind my entire trip, dealing with the mad hordes of bugs (oh by the way dudes, shitty bugs!!!), and then dealing with my wonderful fear of the dark and combining that with middle of the woods alone paranoia...(great combo.....in a really sarcastic kinda way)

So I paddle back to the store docks, leaving Bk who is 3/4 of the way across (taking a huge ego hit, but weighing it as worth it)... I decide that a trip to drummer over Tommy-T was a better call (less shitty side wind shooting down lakes in both directions), but I couldn't leave until BK came back, other wise people may get worried about me... (Although I don't take this as a bad thing)...
Once BK came back he informed me that we were tying out boats together and we were tandeming one of them up the lake...... basically I went on the trip.... I dealt with head wind there and back this morning (I left at 8 am because it was already windy when I got up at 7am). The mosquitos were definitely out in hordes from 6pm on! (I almost shamefully admit that I did take a bug jacket, but not shamefully because THANK F'N GOD!)..... I managed to smoke myself to sleep before dark but then woke up at 2am..... I managed to keep "the fear” under control, but I definitely couldn't sleep.... I kept thinking "Don't smoke, it will only make you super paranoid"... but at 3am I gave in and went to sleep by 3:30am.... I woke up at 7am... and the decision to exit as quickly as possible was reached. (Mainly I wanted to beat any worse head wind, and I needed to get stuff done before I go back to work tomorrow).
I managed to get back by 9:30am...... it is now 11:30am... I've showered. I've cleaned. I've laundried. I've Percillaed.... and I've finally written a new entry for the web site!!!!!! BWahahahaha, thanks Clair, I appreciate the motivation!

I am sorry that it is soooo long.... I even forced my self to edit.. Basically I think of it as the story of how although trip can't be bad, it can definitely lack HIGH moments..., no pun intended……!!! BWAHAHAHAHA I LOVE TRIP!!!

And what made this one all worth it?!??!?!?!
A) I was in the woods in Algonquin park
C) I got away form the store for a night!
And
B) I tried out a suggested fire starter, and it worked! (cotton balls and Vaseline)

420 Meeting

So Meegan arrived at 415...cutting it a bit close but I still believed in her. I knew Meegan would not let me down on this great day(plus i kinda had some money bet on this...eat that Tim!).

We havent put anything on in a while....we will be. we are having web site meetings, and we also have pictures finnally, if you care, and if we havent already showed you over 300 pictures in one sitting yet.

And well you know, we do kinda have a free web site... and "we are so egotistical as to believe that people really do want that constant of an update on our lives! Bwahahaha" says Meegan.

anyway expect more

love shebaccles,
Jen

New Zealland continues....

So, the first week passed in our NZ adventure and we had only been involved in a handful of illegal activities... I must say that things were off to a good start.

]]> So Pixie and I rose early Monday morning (well 9am.....) to catch the train to Wellington, where we picked-up our car for ROAD TRIP #2!!! We had our addaptor for the cd player, we had snacks, we had maps, basically we had everything needed for a good road trip. Well the gods had other plans, much to our original excitement, there was a cd player in the car... but it didn't work.... No tape player for the addaptor.... and the radio only worked during flat open areas (which there really wasn't any... remember the mountains from Lord of the Rings).... Hmmmmmmm.. whatcha gonna do, eventaully Pixie beat me down for my singing and we just delt with the fuzzy radio.
ON the road trip we saw alot of pretty sweeet stuff! Our basic route was to leave from the bottom of the North Island and drive up the middle to the Corimundel peninsula. We visited Thermal pockets (basically sulfer, gassy, farts from the earth), a hot beach (where you dig up the sand during low tide and hot water comes up). Pixie had to drive some of the craziest, winding, thin, roads I have ever seen (thank god it was a car and not the campervan)!!!!! I think my favorite part has to be the views we saw, continuously you were surrounded by the most unbelievable sites! And no picture we took really did it justice (in my humble opinion). Finally on the last day my cold had cleared up enough for my second real experience of driving on the otherside of the road, good times, good times!! (the first driving story is an inperson kinda tale, seeing as it implicates me in a crime..bwahahahaha)
We went to the museum in Wellington once more..still didn't see it all.. Although it aloud us to photograph some Kiwi birds since we failed to fins any on our road trip!
We just want to thank Pete for letting us crash at his place while we were in the country!! You are always welcome here!
So it was finally time to leave NZ... and with one final F-U the country demanded $25 more dollars before we could fly out.... there were much plotting on the part of Pixie and I ("just how long before they would be forced to deport us?", "What act would get us kicked out, but not thrown in jail?", you know the usual)
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but I will always remember the beauty and how drinking and smoking really was just a second nature!! So free, so natural....

Alittle slow off the start

Ok, so I am sure you are all getting antcy (sp?).... "Where are they?", "What has happened?", "Last we heard they were in NZ!"...
Well listen, it has been a heckteck couple of weeks OK!!! But fear not the last of the updates will appear soon!!

M.J. and PIXIE DownUnder... The Final Evolution
(Meegan and Jennifer...Meegz and Jen.... M.J. and Pixie)
-Stay tuned for the reunion show

Which by the way is this weekend in Waterloo! We'll be at Chris and Chad's until Tuesday March 15th

So Mr. New Zealand, we finally meet....

First it was yes, then it was maybe not, then yes again, then definatly no, then defiantly yes...... you guys must have been as confused as we were all were when chad told us about the "personal" business his mom was opening..."but who would sleep with her Chad? AND PAY?!?!?!"

]]> So our first run-in with customs... No Pixie you CAN'T take a swiss army knife on a plane. A moment of silence for her lost friend........ Then there was the cranberries in our peanuts, and dirt in our boots.... o.k. guys, are things getting a little out of hand? But in the end we managed to meet up with Pete (a friend I had met through Dave W the year before). It doesn't take long for a friend of his to drop by, and already Pixie and I are in the middle of a search for "thepot".
The next day things went a little down for me, my imune system finally broke down and I caught Pixies wonderful sickness. So once again, out of commision.
We have caught most of the sunsets since we have been here. Two min behind Pete's house is the beach, and you can see the South Island. Date night continues, only this week it was barefoot walking down the beach after some frozen goodness (obviously at sunset).
We made it into Wellington earlier this week, cute busling town! We went to the museum, and it has the ROM beat hands down! Although you can tell there is alot more money in it.
We have also made it to the pub (the theory was that the alcohol would be good for my throat, and thats what we are sticking to). The local band that was playing was really quite enertaining!
Tomorrow Pixie and I are renting a car and taking some time to drive up to the top of the north Island. We have heard soe great things!! So stay tunned!!

Sydney.....Take Two

And action.... this scene of our drama unfoilds in an already opened chapter of our Australian adventures... this time we drive into Sydney (to return our Campervan).......

]]> And in beautiful M.J. and Pixie style we obviously get SERIOUSLY lost!! However, fret not, for like always our characters manage to find there way safely to the required spot!!!! Once in Sydney Pixie and I stayed with a family contact she had. And boy was it a welcome change from the Camper Van lifestyle. They fed us sooo well (we felt guilty, and tried to get them to let us babysit there two kids for a night, but they would have non of it!), Thia, steak, lamb, great salads.... FABULOUS.
We would make our way down to the beach (Botany Bay)each day to get some sun, play guitar, and just chill-out. On one eventful day a guy went by us, jumped into the ocean fully dressed, then came back to chat. He tried to convince me to come busk with him (me play guitar and him sing)... We very quickly were overwhelmed by the self proclaimed ADD... although we did make the first venture to try the busking thing, we decided to back out when 10 min later he decided it was time to move again....

After a few days it was back to Epping (a part of Sydney where my friend Sarah lives) to hang out until it was time to go to New Zealand (the 10th). We managed to see such programming as the OC (shame we know), desperate housewives, and lots of Sex and the City. Pixie and Sarah both got sick (although I managed to avoid it while in Sydney), so it was lots of R&R. We did manage to have one imporomptu night of drinking with some guys who live in the appartment above Sarah's (and Pixie and I broke into our second pool while drunk in Australia). Eventually things, that evening, got a little sketchy, lets just say crazy ex-girlfriend and things being thrown. The moral of the story is: Never leave a Nalgene on the railing from the appartment above your's deck, especially if you can't go back up there and you aren't tall enough to swing at it with the broom yourself (bwahahahaha, Pixie!!)
Things were generally peaceful in Sydney and we were grateful for them opening there homes to us!

ONTO NEW ZEALAND

No more porn....

So, we just discovered all the wonderful porn advertisments that had made there way onto the comments in our site... sorry to all those of you that were finding them useful, but we have now deleted them.... I know, we just have no sense of adventure!

No more porn....

Back to the road trip....

So we left Mooloolaba, and got back onto the road for the last leg of our drive down the east coast!!

]]> Next it was onto Byron Bay, best described as a surfer/hippie town. The hsops were great, we actually wanted to go into most of them... and much to pixies delight there was a great fairy/pixie theme all over the place!!!
During our wandering we were handed a sheet which got us into a local bar called the cheeky monkey, for a $5 dinner. You see it was Australia day (Jan 26th), and there was much shananigans to be had. So being tempted by cheap dinner that we didn't have to make, PIxie and I gave in to the temptation.
Well, lets just start at the begining, bad dinner..... but cheap so not complaints. During dinner all of a sudden Pixie turned to me and told me to go to the stage. Me being the brilliant leader I am obyed without even asking what it was for. Well next thing I know I am on the stage with 3 other poeple involved in a beer tasting contest (we were each handed 2 glass's and we had to guess which was which). Well I was the only one who won (although I engaged the help of two guys in the front row). So we got a free pitcher and two glass's of beer out of the deal.
We met two local guys, who shared a drink with us, and as it turned out, Pixie and I finally got out of our "dry" spell. The four of us booked it to the beach for a quick session before back to the bar. Dancing dancing dancing..... (we may have ditched earlier two gentlmen by this point, although one of them kept showing up with more beer and then disapearing.... odd boy, very very odd boy). We befriended the guy who gave a digery-doo (sp?) show at the bar a little earlier in the night... Oh and one other side note, one of the guys who help me win the contest became a little crazy and we watched three bouncers forcefully remove him from the bar in a very interesting "pin-down" type manuver....
Woke the next morning for something we had been waiting for for quite some time.... ON TO NIMBIN!!!!! WHat to tell you about NImbin... well it was everything we were told it would be and then some.... (Clairissa C, you NEED to go there!! And DAve W you need to become the mayor!!!!)... OLDSChool hippies as far as the eye can see. We made it to the first shop before we were asked if we wanted to buy pot... we made it half a block further before our first cookie offer... Sitting and watching the community work was very very interesting! There was even a rally against the prohibition of marijuana going on the day we got there. I want to go back to the cookie for a min. here. There was an entire business run on these cookies, and there were cookie ladies EVERYWHERE. Why don't we have cookie ladies back in Canada? HUH? Well, I guess I could be the brownie lady..bwahahahaha. Well PIxie and I stayed in Nimbim for two nights.... and rarely (other than our trips to town) left the good'ol campervan... really there was no need! We had pot again.. although on a slightly less positive note, it rained alot, AND we discovered that our mighty campervan leaked... shitty shitty deal!
So basically this brings us to the end of the road trip.. the next night we booked it as close to Sydney as e could... packed... played on the water slide (which may or may not have been for 12 years of age and under, AND we may or may not have convinced a 60 year old to join us on it...)
The next day we headed to Sydney... got reall really really lost.... but in the end it all worked out... and now here we are, back in Sydney!

Mooloolaba (try and pronounce it i dare you?)

Mooloolaba is a nice place on the east coast.

]]> We were luckey enough to stay at a contact that I recieved from my Godmother back in Canada. We litteraly just called up and asked a complete stranger if we could stay at there house. Drew was possably one of the best hosts one could ask for. Really in the end we were like his addopted children. Not only did he give us his son's car to drive around town but when we went out he gave us his boat! Exact words were something like "its safer to drive a boat drunk then a car", so we didnt argue. And over dinner that MJ and I cooked as a thankyou for letting us stay, we got threw a bottle of wine each(a little tipsy). But the house itself was fantastic, looking out over the bay, with huge sliding door windows(it was a house of MJ's dream world). Then after dinner and more wine, MJ and Ileft this house to go find a bar and more alcohol.

So apon cruzing accross the bay, climbing up a very sketchy ladder, and around a fence in witch we had to climb rocks that hung over the water...and yes we had to do this same proccess backwards on the way home when we were very intoxicated....dont worrie we survived!

anyway....we found a bar, met some locals, hung out at some locals house(sketchy, but what else could it be?) were offerd surfing lessons, but when we woke up the next morning there was no way we were going, so we ditched them(sorry guys).

So we ditched surfing and went to the Austrailian Zoo, we missed the Crock Hunter by like an hour....yes we got very, very lost on the way to the zoo, dont ask. And since we missed him we stocked his house on the bay! Once at the zoo we saw all the animals, pet a kangaroo and a koala i want one as a pet now). Oh and it pissed rain the entire time we were there only to stop when we got home. Makes scence.

Other then that Mooloolaba was a fantastic little beah town with surfers, and not alot of roundabouts!

Canoeing the everglades....

In the span of 24 hours and on one canoe trip we saw: Rainforest, everglades, salt water, fresh water (lakes and rivers), and dessert........

]]> After being picked-up from the caravan park, which we had been staying at, Pixie and I joined the 9 other people heading out on the adventure!
First we took a water taxi across a larger body of water, there we were given a brief info session.... which in the end was actually really not worth much.... meh
We then did a small side trip up a river into the rainforrest, the fish were crazy!!!!
It didn't take long for the rest of the group to realize that Pixie and I actually knew what were were doing, was that annoying... well maybe a little, we spent alot of time trying to do our own thing, but always answering questions and being looked to for direction (even though this was suppose to be a self guided trip).
It was awesome to get paddling again!!! As we made our way through the everglades we saw our first kangaroo in the wild, yay!!
ON the second day we got up around 6am and paddled up stream to do an 11km (return) hike up a mountain to this HUGE dessert patch. It was the craziest thing, completely surrounded by forrest!!! It was sooo beautiful, you could even see the ocean from one side... you will love the pics!!
The water was sooo warm, it was like getting into a warm bath, which was not the refreshing dip we were looking for after that long hike in crazy heat (rarely have I sweat that much), but we took what we could get!!!
Actually the water looked like tea, we were told it was because of the gum trees that populated the area.
So in the end, the trip was a great time! As far as the parts that were paddling, and adventuring... but the equipment and sites were sub-par, at best! A trip that would have gone better if we had done it ourselves...but this is not us being bitter, I swear ;-)....
In conclusion: Tripping in Canada, far far supperior!!! Long live Algonquin!!!!!!

And so the road trip begins!!!

After hitting a few snags in the road trip planning, Pixie and I have started out down the East Coast....

]]> So PIxie has managed to master the sketchy driving on the wrong side of the road in a giant ass vehicle..Props to her for not killing us yet!! One question still remains.. The roundabouts... evil or good?!?!?! We'll let you know....
Night one ended in Townsville, where it was SOOOO humid, sleeping really was not an option! And as soon as it got dark, oh MAN, the bugs came out in swarms... I have never seen anything like it! We booked it out of there super early in the morning!
Since then days have been generally hot but the evening have cooled significantly!!
We have had many run in with birds at the sites..including crazy peacocks, and swarms of birds in tree above the van (causing us to have to hide from the shit storms)!!!
We have had truckers trying to pick us up, and lots of sketchy trailor parks boyz....... (sorry dave W, not interested)
We are now in NOosa, and tomorrow we embarck on our canoe trip through the everglades!!!
Stayed tunned (our internet time runs out in 2 mins, which is why this is rushed.....)

And so that was Cairns eh?!?!....

We came, we saw, we drank... and well we lived the life of the rich and famous.... sorta.

]]> So we arrived in Cairns, eventaully makig our way to the hostel we had booked... We arrived with little hope of anything beyond sketchy, well we were very surprised that we had managed to book ourselves into the royal plaza of hostels.. Infact I don't think we can even call it a hostel... Truelly it was a resort, basically there were a handful of actual backpackers there. The swimming pool was actually clean, and even had a little waterfall thingy, there was a "bubble" pool, a bar, a fridge in our room and a sink (now that was us being spoiled), airconditioning that WE controlled... We didn't know what to do withourselves.
On our second night we managed to hook-up with a couple people and headed towards a local bar called the Woolshed...before hitting the bar the group of us hit the bottle shop and pre-drank in a park on the way there... always a good sign...on to the bar... Well jesus, it was quite the bar... dancing up a storm, 5 tequilla sunrises each for $12... Now that is not safe... (don't be fooled that is not all we drank)... and generally good times all round. We managed to make our way home sometime after..ummmm... 3ish... (times a little sketchy).
We liked it so much we made our way back again the next night, although we did manage to leave alittle earlier...
On the Sat. Pixie and I joined a bunch of people and boated out to the great barrier reef for some snorkelling fun. It was awesome, the water was a nice 27 degrees... yes that is the OCEAN temprature... the reef was beautiful, and we tok tons of pics with an underwater camera. It was quite the natural wonder for sure!
We spent the majority of the week lounging around the pool area, getting some sun.. well that is until we got too much sun, and burnt the shit out of ourselves... which led to both of us getting colds..BOOOO....
In the end we exited Cairns via our Camper Van on the monday..
We just want to put a quick shout out and a HUGE thanks to Nejla... You rock girl.. you had better make it to Canada, you know we'll hook you up!!!

Date Night

Well M.J. and I have noticed that Saterday night has become "Date night". Yes we do spend all of our time together but inorder to keep things from falling appart we need a moral booster every once in a while. And that is where "date night" comes in.

]]> Last Saterday, we went to play pool and have a couple of beers. After this we headed to anohter bar and danced untill the sun came up. It was really unforgetable.

Last night M.J. and I headed down the street to The Figtree for dinner. It was a wonderful dinner with dessert to top it off. After we got back to the resort and played a couple games of pool, weather or not we are getting better really depends on how much we drink.

The plan for next week is a box of wine in the everglades, as we have booked a canoe, a Canadian canoe trip just outside of Noosa.

Now don't get the wrong idea, just because it is date night does not mean that we are "together" (no we are NOT rubbing aloe over eachother contrary to what Chad and Jordan may think!).

Untill another date night...

And onto the van...

Tomorrow Pixie and I pick-up a van and begin our two week adventure down the east caost... where this will take us, well we have no idea. Really we haven't even looked at a map. We have made a few contacts along the way, and there will be a canoe trip in the NOosa Evergaldes next Sat (Fri Canada time). Keep looking for random postings from this section.
tick-tick-tick to March 1st!