Friday 3 January 2014

Downunder Beginnings


The time has arrived! We are in Australia!  Time to start our blog.  I suppose we may take turns but right now I (Felicia) will be your narrator. 

It was a long trip but we made it.  We started out playing our tour send-off in Vancouver on Monday at The Wired Monk, for which our good Aussie friend, Jason Lowe, joined us.  It was a lovely, warm little show and felt just right.  We were tired so it was nice to play something low-key and comfortable.  Nan (the owner) opened the shop just for us! Special!

Jaime and I got to stay at a Holiday inn near the Airport that night (we needed to be at the airport for 7:30am) thanks to Jaime's parents!  It was nice to sleep in a comfortable bed and get  a couple more hours of RnR (even though it didn't feel like enough).  It was still dark in Vancouver and raining (of course) as we waved goodbye and left on the airport shuttle! Marina had to be up even earlier because she had to bus from downtown (worth it to spend one more night with her lovely girlfriend from Hamilton ON! Awwww).

The first flight was abuot 5.5 hours (not bad!) and even though the little girl next to me was kicking me and farting constantly - it didn't take away from the amazing feeling of watching Oahu come into view: full of sun, beaches and palm trees.  Walking off the plane we felt a hot burst of humid, hibiscus scented air and we all got ear-splitting grins!  

My friend David Doig agreed to pick us up and play tour guide for a day, so at 3:30pm Hawaiian time (5:30ish in Victoria) we set off on our New Years Eve adventure.  

We went straight to the Market and bought a nice ripe pinapple, macadamian nuts and a bottle of champaign! Then we went back to his place where we met his tortois (Puna) and had a little jam!  

Then we  were off to the beach to eat a sushi dinner at sunset! 

What a lovely night; wading in the salty water as the sun went down... feeling that warm sand between our cold white Canadian toes! We got all dressed up and went out with our champagne and sat in a big tree in a park near the beach, drinking and smoking a little vanilla cigar.  We rang in the new year and popped the bottle as we all talked about our New Year's resolutions: Jaime and I just resolved to stop sucking at what we suck at and be better at what we want to be better at! Marina and Dave agreed  ;)


Then we walked around Waikiki and enjoyed the fireworks with droves of other folks!  We got home around 1am and quickly tucked into bed - had to be up at 4:30am that morning to go catch our flight to Australia!  Of course that little cat nap felt like almost nothing at all but Dave was kind enough to get up with us and drive us tot he Airport!  What a guy! Thanks Dave!  We made a very short little video log which you can watch 
here!  

Check-in was a bit of a pain with long lines and some stress with the travel visas (make sure to buy a travel visa AHEAD of time if you ever go to Australia! hehe) but it was hard to stay grumpy watching the Hawaiian sunrise as we were shuttled to our gate by a friendly fellow in a Hawaiian shirt!  We ate a fresh papaya (did you know you can eat papaya seeds and they taste a bit peppery?) and boarded the plane...  

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