Whistler

I went up to Whistler to go skiing and was suprised to see all these dogs in town. Wow, does every person in Canada own a dog? After walking further along the village I found an area with foodstands. "Sweet, free or cheap food". But I was quickly dissapointed. Seems like springsundays in Whistler are reserved for dogs! The stands were all full of dogfood, snacks and touys! They even had a competition for dogs and their owners called "the Canine Musical Freestyle". Basically it was ladies older than 30 (40?) putting on stupid costumes and music, trying to make their dogs to stuff that could look like dancing. Getting your dog to walk inbetween your legs seemed to be the big hit amongs all the contestants, and walking on two feet, but not all of the dogs had good balance. Here is one dog on two legs while the owner is spinning around in circles! After having a good laugh from these guys I set out to do some skiing with Christy. Fresh snow on the mountain was a good sign! We hiked up a small hill and found heaven! Fresh snow and not many skitracks! Need to put this up, because Ive bought myself new skies! Theire called huge, and they really are! Really fun to ski on, but I got supertired very quickly! Christy had to do some waiting while my thighs were burning! View from the bottom after skiing the Blackcomb Glasier! =) Couldnt have wished for a better day!

Vancouver & Squamish

Vancouver skylight! Had a nice realixing week there checking out the sights and having late mornings! First day I walked from Jericho Beach where my hostel was, all the way to downtown Vancouver. Took a couple of hours, but the weather was nice and I had a good lunch at the Waterfront Mall before I took the bus back. Next day I had an outing to Grouse Mountain. They wanted to charge me 40dollars just to catch the gondola to the top, so i skipped that, just took a photo of these tough people! ;) And then I paid 25 dollars to see Capilano Suspension Bridge! Canada wants money for everything! And whats worse: The price you think youre gonna pay is always wrong. Something had the stupid idea of not including the tax in the price in the stores! They add it at the register. So when Ive been smart and found the right amount of money to be quicker when I pay, I always have to find some more, because I forget about the tax! And when I look at stuff and think "Heey, this is REALLY cheap, I think Im gonna buy this" Then Ill get a shock when they say I have to pay 10% more cause the taxes arent included. STupid stupid rules. Anyways, I found out that the suspension bridge wasnt all I got to see for 25dollars. They had two treewalks. One on the ground and one up in the trees. =) Even though it is spring in Vancouver and the flowers are all over the place it was pretty cold! But maybe thats just me reacting after leaving Waiheke Island and 25degrees! It does look warm, doesnt it? This is Jericho Beach and you can see Downtown Vancouver and the forest area to the left is Stanley Park. These cherry flowers have apparantly been blossoming since the olympics! =) Really pretty. I had a walk around Stanley Park and saw this suspension bridge. It connects North Vancouver with Downtown and South Vancouver. After a week in Vancouver I found the Greyhound terminal and got on a bus to Squamish to see Greg and Christy! =) They took me up "The chief". Awesome views of Squamish! And I think Squamish ran out of names to give their roads..

4551 km

This is a little something to remember "the best car ever". I met this car in the end of February and from the day I bought it we started bonding. It never got a name, I was planning on calling it Vidkun if it broke down, but like a loyal dog it just kept on going. Maybe Passopp would have been good?

We saw a lot during our time in New Zealand. Sunshine, rain, fog and even a huge fire! Beaches, mountains, rivers and thousands of sheep. It took me through tiny townships and the huge city of Auckland. Never stopped and just kept on going superfast up the hills. Of course it got tired in the steepest, curviest hills, but we always made it to our planned stop.

I havnt got too many photos of it, but here are some =) Hokitika Wild Foods Festival Somewhere on the West Coast before Franz Joseph Tractor caravan on the Westcoast Just before Queenstown Having fun;) Southern Scenic Route Selling the car in Auckland. Sad moment :~ [

LA

Okey, I think its safe to share this with you guys since Im actually safe and sound in Vancouver. LA was scary. I got to the airport after twelve hours, two movies and some good (!!!) nflightmeals. I had the adress to the hostel I had booked and fixed myself a shuttle there. LA is a HUGE city. Taking public transport from one end to the other can easily take half a day or more! After an hour in the shuttle he dropped me off, pointet at a building and told me that was the place. I paid him, took my bags and walked into the backgarden.

After some looking around and trying to find out if anyone was there I realised this did not look good. I had the "hostels" number so I called it. A guy answered and I told him I couldnt find out where the entrance was. After walking out on the street and reading the sign, I realised I was on the WRONG street! Took some time but luckily the hostelguy realised where I was and drove to pick me up.

When I got there I wasnt very impressed. It was a hostel in the sense of bed and shelter above your hed, not in the european or australian/kiwi way! It was the guy who owned the house and he had just put up some beds in the first room and rented them out! And one of the boys there could tell me that North Hollywood is one of the worst areas in La when it comes to gangs. Apparantly everyone is carrying guns around here. There was a old russian babuscha living in the kitchenarea who could maximum 10 english words.

But I left there whole and alive three days later! I locked my bags everyday and night so nothing got stolen from me either. I also made some changes to my plans. When I realised that just getting to San Fransisco would take me 8 hours on a bus I bought a ticket straight to Vancouver. I simply cant be bothered carrying my bags all over the huge cities of the states this year. Maybe sometime later!

But over to something more fun. I didnt waste my short time in LA. I was there for three nights, which gave me two full days. So day nr 1 = Universal Studios =) Took me just over an hour to walk there from my bed! Some photos follows, guess which TV-series or Movie!

nr1 nr2 nr3 nr4 nr5 day nr2 = DISNEYLAND. My dream for so long, but definitly an effort to get there! Walked 20minutes to the metro, metro to Downtown LA, Amtrak train to Anaheim, and finally bus to Disneyland! Just missing plane and boat on the list I think.... I really enjoyed the day, it was really nice weather, but I missed someone to take the rides with. Ended up spending lots of time in the souvenirshops and got some cool stuff=) The highlight of the day? Getting a hug from Goofy!!!!!!!!!!! Coolest disneycharacter by far. No competition. I can really relate to him ;) HAHA Goofys house! Yep, thats what I had from LA. As Ive said, Im in Vancouver now and completely loving the city. Heard some rumours about fresh springpowder in the mountains so skiing should be a goal to do before I leave=) Fingers crossed that the next update wont be too far away!

Waiheke Island Easter!

The Norwegian easterbunny leaves the candy in an egg in the kitchen, but the new zealand easterbunny hides them all over the garden. That means easteregghunt! Since I was slow out of bed and had to put my contacts on, I didnt find a single piece of these chocolates! The rest of the kids were too quick for me!

After a good breakfast and checking out the perfect beach, we put on our sneakers and went for a walk! =) Check out lucky Bryony gets some shade from Sarahs hat! View of Palm Beach - heaven in Waiheke! We saw some cool postboxes, houses, and chairs! Even some fancy art! Im a huge fan of winter and snow, and was slightly sad not to be on the normal easter crosscountry trip this year. But if you have too celebrate in a different way - Waiheke easter is GREAT! Specially when it gave us summerweather. April is the second month of autumn - think october in Norway - so walking around in bikini all day isnt a given!

Here is Alexandra eating breakfast on the deck after a morning run and swim in the sea! L O V E L Y Bored? Do something upside down!

Northland

Have to start this blogentry with some serious news. My dear eighties sunglasses - bought at Paddys market in Sydney for 9 dollars - are broken! Finito - kaput - ødelagt! I will surely miss them - I already have many times. Eventhough they were weird in appearance they were some primo sunglasses.

On the upside: I finally got to see a face i knew again.!!!!! Visiting Alexandra in Auckland. First thing to do? Make homemade tortillapizza! Yummy:) Second thing to do? Pick rubbish in Ambury Park! Who can complain when the sun is shining and you get an easteregg when youre done? And they had some animals! Goats, birds and pigs were the ones we saw :) Since Alex is the most serious student in the universe, and I still had some undiscovered territory left in NZ, i left her on Monday and drove up to Whangarei. Whangarei didnt have too many exciting activities or grand sights, but they had some cool stuff to take photos of;) These are actually MUCH bigger than me! Theyre everywhere in NZ, often alongside the road, and someone must have given them a familypack of fertilizer, cause we dont get them this big in Norway! After two days in Whangarei, I drove to Paihia. Nice little beachcity in the Bay of Islands. I was booked onto a dolphintour, where I was gonna swim with dolphins:) But when I got to the wharf the tour was cancelled because of rough sea! Got some of my money back and got booked onto a different tour. Dolphincruise and Hole In The Rock sightseeing:) We set off from the bay, and just as we could start spotting the rock that was supposed to have a hole in it - the skipper turned around. "Sorry folks, the sea is too rough, we wont go out to the Rock today." Talk about bad luck for me! Got to see a cool sailboat though... AND, we found some dolphins on the way back. They were jumping and playing and showing off for all the tourists, but I couldnt get any photos of one in the air.. Thursday was an early start. A bus picked me up at 7:15. Cape Reinga was the target with different stops on the way there and back. First was Puketi Kauri Forest. The threes here can be 2000 year old! They were massive. The one you can see in the photo fell down many many years ago, it was probably 1,5 meter wide! Queen Elizabeth came to visit this forest in 1990 and for that they built a walkway and put red carpets on it. They didnt want the queen to get her shoes dirty of course! After some breakfast at Taipa Beach we set off towards Cape Reinga. The lighthouse is on a cliff right above the ocean, and you can actually see a change where The Tasman Sea collide with The Pacific Ocean! Normally the Pacific Ocean is much calmer than the Tasman. My guide told us it was because the Aussies always kept stirring up trouble.. Høh høh høh. 5700km. . Thats how far Ill fly next Saturday :) In Maori Religion Cape Reinga is where the souls travel to when someone has died. They come to the cliff down there and the old tree hanging off it is where they plunge out to fly home to the Pacific Islands - where the first Maori settlers came from. If they have been good they will get wings and fly back, if not theyll fall into the ocean and get eaten by a seamonster! Next stop was some sanddunes. SANDBOARDING:) I had though it would be like snowboarding - you'd try and stand on a board down the dunes. NOO, youre supposed to land on your stomach down the dunes, and at the bottom lift the board up so that you slide over the shallow waters.. I tried it ones - kind of made it. Second time I tried it from the suicide hill - got soaking wet and sand up my shorts! =) Gave the rest of the group a good laugh! And we got to try and stand on them after some nagging to the busdriver. Much easier. Could jump off the bloody board before i hit the water! View from the top. Just lay down of your stomach and glide down:) The road from here might not look like a road, but it is actually a state Highway. 90 Mile Beach! Just had to drive through a minor river to get to it ;) One hour of driving on a beach and trying to hit the seagulls! Second last stop was Ancient Kauri Kindom. Could see a ancient Gekko caught in Kaurigum and a hollowed out Kauri tree made into a staircase!

After that we had the best Fush'N'Chups Ive had in NZ. The fish was freshly caught that day - perfect end of a cool day! OR, the best part was being able to make someone believe my Aprils Fools Day Joke! You know who you are ;)