We want to thank all our friends and family for following along on our adventure! It has been great to hear all the feedback and e-mails from everyone as you followed along for one stop or the whole journey. The blog has been a great way for us to keep a journal and help remember all those little things that could have easily been lost in the memory banks through this whirlwind tour.
Words can't even begin to describe what we have experienced. We are closer as a couple than ever and so fulfilled in being able to have touched so many different cultures and people in our travels. Life for both of us will never be the same as we both come home looking to re-establish our careers and business with an entirely new outlook and a much better understanding of what is really important to us. Although we won't be blogging on the next steps of our lives – we hope to all see you soon and share a story and catch up on all the updates in your lives.
Our parting advice to all – life is short, get out and see as much of this amazing world you can! The great explorers of history set out with missions to find treasures, discover new lands, expand territory and spread cultural beliefs of their homelands…unfortunately their missions also created a history of malevolent plundering, conquering and suppression, but we are now fortunate enough to live in a time that recognizes some of the wrongs and can truly appreciate these cultures that are now being preserved so that we may all have the chance to go on our own journeys of discovery. Our wanderlust has only been temporarily satiated and we know we will continue a lifetime of exploration as we are so compelled and fulfilled by the spirit of launching out to new lands and oceans for own small discoveries.
We hope to see you all soon and now that the weather is getting better we'll start planning for the backyard bbq's so we can catch up, share photo's and trade some travel stories.
The finale of our trip has been three memorable days at the Matanivusi Eco-Resort located on the south shores of Vitu Levi (see panorama picture of the coast line below). The resort, just opened last year, caters to surfers and divers and is run by an Australian couple who were able to secure land rights to an amazing secluded stretch of the coast line through a long term agreement with a local village who hold the land and fishing rights to the area. This gives them exclusive access for their guests to the nearby reefs for surfing and diving, similar to Tavarua and Namotu, but they have built a much more modern style of accommodations with 6 guest houses all connected by an elevated wooden walkway that leads to a central dining room, huge patio and beachside pool. We loved the set up with the small group of guests (one family and a few other surfers) which allowed incredible personal service from the staff and owners. Mark focused on surfing and Paula and the girls spent days doing exploring the area with guidance from a local villager. He took them along a road and cut down into a trail through the trees where he explained how they make use of the naturally growing plants for medicinal purposes, and how they grow their food in the middle of the jungle, with a small garden of taro, bananas and pumpkins growing together. He explained how they use the sea grass that washes up on the shore for fertilizer and pest control, and how they also utilize naturally growing coconuts and sugar cane. He then found a coconut and used his bushknife to quickly chop it open and scoop out some coconut meat for us to chew on. Then he disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a sugar cane stalk that he cut up so the kids could chew on the sweet, fibrous stalk – what a treat! With the giant lagoon formed by the reef, the area was ideal for sea kayaking, and some great sea life could be seen while snorkeling along the outer reef. The beauty of the area seems endless.
The resident pet was a dog named Mercedes – Sadie for short, a very sweet German Shepherd who had a face so much like our LuLu that we adopted her as our surrogate pet for our short stay. The resort owners, Brian and Donna, were very fortunate to secure this remote stretch that had a pre-existing road-base filled in for a planned resort in the 1940's that was never built. Matanivusi means "Cat's Eye" and named after the smooth rounded shells that the hermit crabs use to cap the small opening of the shells they live in.
As we prepared to load the van today to wind up our final day of this amazing trip, the staff all gathered today to sing us a song called "Isa Lei" – a heartfelt farewell song Fijians sing to those that are leaving, wishing them safe travels and the love of their village until they meet again. Very touching and a great send off for us to remember how genuinely warm the Fijians are.
We are on the plane to Auckland now where we board our final flight back to Vancouver. "Home" is a place we have not seen since December! We will work on a few final parting words to the journey on our next flight.
SURF REPORT: The set up is really good, with access to three local breaks, two of the rights are private for us only and a fast left called Pipes that also allows access to one other camp. They also go to Frigates Pass, which is a lot like Cloudbreak (Brian has a really good Australian beach boat with twin 200's – so it only takes 20 minutes out) but due to the winds and squalls, we didn't make it out. We ended up doing all our surfing at Pipes – a fast roping left break only surfable on mid to high tides. The best session had sets a couple feet over head and if you didn't make the section there was some serious punch to the pounding and the long paddle back around. If you made the wave you were flying and would scream out into the corner of the reef into about 2 feet of water and have a nice dry paddle back out to the line-up. Couple pictures – one showing a good size set wave that no one was able to get to and then one fun corner one of the guys was able to snap a picture of me on a little zipper of a wave. Matanivusi is a great way to round out a trip to Tavarua and more flexible for surf access and smaller groups.
We are back in Fiji for our third annual trip to the small island of Tavarua where they operate one of the world’s best surf resorts. The island was discovered for its amazing surf in the 80’s by some surfers from Hawaii seeking perfect waves and they found the reefs around Tavarua offered that consistent perfection and quickly met with the local villagers who controlled the rights to the island and reefs via their ancient Qoliqoli (fishing rights to the region), so they then established a long term business so both the village and they could be prosperous. Twenty plus years later they have built out an amazing resort with 15 private bures and a central restaurant, beachside deck, pool along with tennis courts, gym and games room. The island hosts the annual World Championships Tour for surfing each May and is fully booked year round by private groups in the surf industry (we were lucky enough to get in on a trip two years ago and are holding onto our seats!). Surfing is the focus for most, but there is lot’s to do otherwise with great snorkeling, paddling, fishing, reef walking (see picture of our trip doctor, Brian Doonan, at extreme low tide at "Restaurants Reef") and touring surrounding islands. The island is staffed by the local villagers (exception is the managers and lifeguards) from Nabila & Momi villages and are the nicest happiest people we have ever encountered in our lives. Some stay on a small village on Tavarua and others commute daily about 15 minutes by boat to Vitu Levi (main island where their villages are). With the recent coup that now has a military dictatorship “temporarily” in power, there are travel warnings for Fiji and tourism has been is a nosedive for the traditional hotels and resorts, but these villages have sustained and are very healthy as the surfers have kept coming through all the instability (risk takers by nature!). The group was 37 in size this year and mostly southern Californians, a couple Australians and us Canucks! Over three years of knowing many of them we have become good friends – great to have familiar faces on some of these stops of our trip. The transport coordination from plane to bus to boat to bure is a feat the villagers have dialed – see picture – most surfers come with 3 boards and some with as many as 10! Some notables on island too were Tom Servais (one of the world’s best surf photographer) who was shooting Timmy Reyes (on lelft in fishing picture - is ranked top 10 in the world on the WCT Surf tour – taking a week off for shooting and vacation with his girlfriend), Shane Dorian as guest lifeguard (Shane is former world tour competitor and now famed as surfing the biggest and gnarliest waves in the world….he actually left today for the big wave riding competition ceremony where he hopes to win $50,000 for one of the heavy waves he rode this winter. Robert Gerard, our trip leader (lawyer for the Association of Surf Professionals (ASP) and heavily involved with many major surf industry brands) has had a week on the island for 15 years now and is regarded very highly by the Fijians making this week a favourite for them to work. On the first Sunday, Paula and our good friends Robert and Stacey, along with a few others from the group, took a day trip to Nabila village to their church service. An amazing service with singing and thanks to their travelling surfer friends with the villager kids very entertained with their funny looking visitors (see top photo). Although the invitation to church is extended to all visitors, most don’t take advantage, so when the few do attend they are appreciative and love to hear about us and where we’re from. The pastor offered us each the microphone to come up and introduce ourselves, talk about where we’re from and offer and words to the group. It was a treat to meet with so many villagers at once in their beautiful church on a hilltop surrounded by rolling green hills and palm trees and overlooking the ocean. When we had arrived by boat the pastor himself had met us at the landing with his little pickup truck, and he put the women in the cab and piled the men into the back and drove us to church, and after the service did the same back to the boat again. That probably doesn’t happen too often at other churches, so we felt pretty special! The week was hampered with a little more wind and rain than normal. This made for very dramatic backdrops (see picture of Mark on a stand-up paddleboard with rainbow...and Mark with Robert having a shower "Au Natural" in a downpour) but unfortunately buggier too and our bure was across the island in the guest house of one of the owners so we had to traverse a jungle each morning and night - thank goodness for Deet! The island is also home to one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, nick-named the “ten step snake” as that’s as far as you get – fortunately they are non-aggressive and fairly elusive, so not a big concern, but they do come on land at night so we had to keep our flashlights handy for the walk in the dark. A huge highlight of each week is “Fiji Night”, where the entire staff gathers for their weekly gathering and performance and they engage the guests with the song and dance that they love. The night begins with a ceremony where everyone has a drink of kava, which is a root that is mashed into a powder and put into a bowl of water that ends up looking and tasting like dirty sock water gives the locals a mild narcotic effect after several bowls. All is hosted by the village chief, Druku, who gives speeches in Fijian and English and is presented with gifts (more kava) by Robert, our trip leader, on our behalf. A Fijian feast is next and followed by some amazing song and dance by the villagers whose singing is so powerful and amazing. See the video below - this is the Bula Bula song (it's dark but the sound and energy hopefully still comes through). The week was over way too fast and we have to say goodbye to our new and old friends (see picture of Robert Vince, originally from Vancouver but now produces movies for Disney and lives in Malibu, with his girlfriend Stacy and his son Tyler) and yet another place we have grown to love. We are onto our last three days of the adventure – now staying in Matanivusi Beach Eco Resort! SURF REPORT: A rare north wind started the week and made for some bumpy conditions at their two most famous breaks: Cloudbreak and Restaurants. This wind though worked well for Tavarua Rights and we scored 3 great days of fun head high surf there. The SW trades came back later in the week and the swell went huge – 15 foot faces at Cloudbreak! The big day had Shane Dorian and Timmy Reyes put on a show for Tom Servais to shoot – but with a little too much west in some of the swells they had to pay heavily. Watch the mags in a couple months for shots for sure!. There were a lot of broken boards and heavy workings that day. Shane said to me describing a huge wipeout where he broke a board: “I got worked so hard….it was fun” – fun for him would have killed most of us! Timmy also came home with a broken board and some serious reef cuts. I retreated to Restaurants that day for surf that was 6-8 foot faces and pure magic – running fast and hard for 400meters. The next day I ventured out to Cloudbreak with a big lump in my throat and got out with one mission – play safe! Earlier in the week I had been taken out my a 10-footer that closed out in front of me (too slow!) and then ripped my leash right off my leg and left me in the impact zone for 3 waves 10-12ft where I had to swim to the bottom and hold the reef, push off grab a breath and repeat 2-X’s more. I swam for 20 minutes in a heavy current making no progress and the boatman finally picked me up…..so my mission was not to have that happen again! The word was it was smaller – but when we arrived we found the “clean up sets” were still pumping just as big but not as often as the day prior. It was a day full of the adrenaline and you had to paddle into the bombs with so much aggression and confidence. I ended up with a couple of the biggest waves of my life, faster than I have ever gone on a surfboard and on one wave I got deeper in a barrel than I have ever been. Unfortunately that perspective from that deep in a tube is so foreign to me I panicked and jumped off after about 5 seconds and not sure if I could make it out – but our boatman said I would have made it if I held on (maybe next year!).The tavi trip ended today with a fun day with 6-8ft faces and after that heavy day, this was totally fun and playful. Surfing backside with a lot more confidence and speed has actually turned me into enjoying lefts now – a big breakthrough of this trip! I unfortunately don’t have any good pictures of the big stuff – and only a pic’s of the surf from the boat after I returned and a video of empty big waves. I hope to get some sent to me from others to show you Shane and Timmy’s action.
OK – we had to open the blog with a picture to clearly show where we are – so as cliché as it is, we are posting a field of sheep! We arrived in Auckland as their autumn weather season was taking a hold and we launched our camper-van tour of the North Island. We started off with a quick pit-stop in downtown Auckland to deal with a minor crisis: our camera battery charger stopped working. Our first impressions after driving around and seeing New Zealand's biggest city was one very similar to Vancouver with a bay city set with central access to all the outdoor action. An entire economy has exploded in the last 20 years focused on adventure tourism – with bungee madness leading the way – they even built a giant bungee off the landmark Auckland tower! With access to wild rivers, mountains, caves and the ocean, and exploring them via every possible means it really does feel like BC but more condensed…like a sub-tropical Vancouver Island. The downtown Auckland scene is very international, loaded with travelling backpackers and trekkers with hostels, pubs and stores catering to all of them. A cool hip vibe emanates the streets and with a dress-code of urban casual cool crossed with an edge of outdoor…again kind like Vancouver or Portland. A fun urban observation (unique to anywhere we have been so far) is how they manage their major downtown pedestrian crossings – instead of the pedestrian crossing along with traffic, they instead have all lights go red and have a pedestrian "free-for all", as we call it. People not only follow the "box" directional of the cross walks – but you can also cross in an "X" pattern too. It works very well! After a few tips from a local surf shop, we headed out for the west coast and a small beach town of Muriwai where Mark snuck in a late day surf and we then settled into our cozy campervan for a restful night listening to the ocean waves. We awoke to cloudy and worsening weather so we decided to venture way north to Cape Reigna (Maori legend holds this as the leaping off point for all spirits). We found a small town of Anipara and camped at Shipwreck's beach, which is the start of 90 Mile beach which runs up to the cape. We awoke to more rain and no waves and explored the remnants of the old shipwreck (see pic – all that is left is the old prop drive). With the bleak weather and a better weather/surf forecast in the south, we hit the road again driving for 8 hours through the incredible green endless rolling hills on Highway 1 that actually tours you through both the East and West coasts along its' route. The common scenery throughout our entire drive-time was all the farmland. The only land that wasn't home to either sheep, cows or horses were the small towns along the way – and some of them had livestock right in town as well! With rolling hills everywhere, it's amusing to see sheep perched precariously on terraced hillsides steep enough to produce a bad fall should one slip, and cows lined up on ridges barely wide enough to stand on, happily chewing away.
We arrived at our soon-to-be favourite stop in New Zealand: Raglan, a small old fishing village that has become a surf Mecca for the island. It is very similar to Byron Bay in Australia, but on a much cozier and smaller scale with just one main street of shops, cafes and restaurants. In hindsight, we would have spent a few more days there as it offered lots of activity – biking, hiking, surf, paddling, golf and more. The weather broke (still cool though – low 20's), the swell picked up (see Mark's surf report) and we had a nice end to our 6 days in NZ.
We are on the plane to Fiji to meet up with a group we have been going with for the last several years and will be staying on the small island of Tavarua (http://www.tavarua.com/) for our final tropical blast before heading home! SURF REPORT: NZ surf has a lot of options with both an East and West coast exposed to great swell – unfortunately they require a lot of driving to explore. I picked up a great guide book (if anyone is going to NZ – you can borrow it as it is the best I have ever seen) and tuned into their best forecast site (http://www.surf2surf.com/). We arrived with a solid 6-8ft swell in the water for the West Coast and the set up of New Zealand's west coast is a little like a mirror to Australia's east coast. Big headlands with North facing protected bays provided the setting for world class left point breaks. My first surf was as close to Auckland as possible as daylight was burning, so we headed for Maori Bay that the guide book described as "heavy" and "be ready to take a few on the head". The paddle was very heavy with 10-minutes of grinding to get out and the surf was tough with very shifty peaks and big clean-out sets coming through every 10 minutes…all made for one rugged surf (see picture of bay). Water was still warm – I trunked it with a neoprene vest – but shortie is the call (about 20degrees C or 70deg F). The North tip of the island holds a world-class left called Shipwrecks – but turned dead flat so missed seeing this one. With a 2m forecast for Raglan – that was the target and we were not disappointed. Raglan has an amazing set up with a series of breaks along the bay (Indicators, Whale Bay and Manu Bay) as well as the beach section where the surf club is. This spreads the crowd out very nicely. I surfed at Manu Bay – you park right beside the break and it is a very fun 400m+ wave. The swell was building through the day and got better and better with up to 2 foot overhead on the biggest set waves. I surfed until I couldn't paddle the long haul out anymore after each long ride (see picture and you ride the wave wrapping around the point all the way to the beach just above the boat ramp). I captured two video clips to show the setup – 1st is Manu Bay (in the morning as it started to pick up) and the 2nd is of Indicators through Whale Bay that are above Manu . And – they have a golf course there too! It's a must go spot on the surfers world tour list!!
Flying into Papua New Guinea ("PNG") was perhaps our most exhilarating feeling of the "unknown" of the entire trip so far. We choose PNG to really see what this remote end of the earth would be like. A little background (in case you're like us and know very little): PNG was under Australian rule until '75 and further back a variety of island colonizations leave history over much of this island chain all focused on extracting the vast resources of the area – gold, copper, forestry, fish, palm oil, cocoa etc. Our destination was a small village called Dalom, 200kms from a small airport in Kavieng on PNG's northern most island of New Ireland province. On the way up we had to do a lay-over in PNG's capital, Port Moresby, which is a city built to support the extraction of the resources and harbours a large ex-pat community. There are massive corruption problems due to a corrupt government and then an even bigger crime problem from the large disparity of wealth around the haves and have-nots created from the dealings with the international markets. Our hotel was a highly secure compound overlooking the airport and due to safety concerns we were advised to not even leave the hotel. The highlands of PNG's main island have become a lawless landscape of gun-runners, drug lords and a bushland gang culture lead by a group called the "rascals" who permeate into the cities as well. Everyone caries weapons – guns or at the least large bushknifes that are often used for things other than clearing bush. Getting to New Ireland where it is mainly plantation workers and village subsistence living changes the tone and outlook to the more passive S. Pacific lifestyle we had hoped to find. Our 3 hour drive to Dalom in the back of the truck was filled with endless waiving to the small villagers – very friendly and welcoming. Dalom is a village of perhaps 100 people built along 2km's of beach front with a village guest house which we stayed in. A family originally from Hawaii discovered the area years back when they lived in Moresby and headed to Dalom for family surf get-aways. They then struck a business deal to start bringing other surfers to the guest house. We turned out to be the last guests they would manage at Dalom as they recently secured land another 30kms down the road and are building their own guest huts at another great break that will open next year. It is a working palm and cocoa plantation which the family is already experienced with. We had fresh chocolate each night and a great lesson on how chocolate is made. (see pic of cocoa fruit with fleshy white fruit covering the pods inside). The setting at Dalom is so pristine with our guest house built on the shore of a 1km long river that appears at the base of a mountain behind the village. The large limestone formations allow the rainforest's water up in the mountains to drain and percolate through the rocks and appear randomly along the entire coastline – each river providing the basis for another village along the coast. We had a blast hiking up to the source of the river and jumping in on boogie boards to ride the river out to the ocean. It also supplies the villagers with drinking water, a bathing zone, laundry area and play area for the village – always someone hanging out and very curious about us (especially funny when the village kids mimicked Paula's yoga poses from across the river!).
The people are very friendly with strong family village structure. Interestingly in New Ireland, only women can own land, therfore retaining a great deal of power. Also striking is many have a unique look you wouldn't expect – black skinned but with blond hair! (see picture of local village kids). All seem very happy and content living off the land in the purist simplest lifestyle (note that there was one tribe discovered in the 1980's in PNGs mountains that had never seen a westerner – and there was cannibalism practiced as late as the '70's and still a law on the books for this!). The men all carry bush knives to clear the paths that overgrow constantly in the plantations (and used to solve disputes - ask Mark about the graphic bush-knife incident one of the guys he was surfing with took in at the Kavieng hostpital) and most are addicted to chewing a local stimulant, betel nut, which they mix with lime and a local mustard stick that turns their entire mouth bright red. It looks like a mouth full of blood with rotting teeth - not that pretty, but common to almost every age group and gender. Travelling through the islands was also different – planes are more like buses. No boarding passes, minimal security, unscheduled stops enroute not on our itinerary, and the locals travelling with anything and everything. (see picture of Taro Route on the luggage carousel!)
Our week was very slow, peaceful and eye opening to be able to watch how people who have only been brushed by western ways live their lives day to day. It was almost shocking to leave our hut in the morning and be in a hotel in Brisbane that night! Today we are off to New Zealand for the second to last stop on the epic journey – back to life in a campervan touring the North Island.
SURF REPORT: PNG has developed a great program to ensure long term uncrowded surf travel is developed. The boat tour operators and the land camps have banded together to set a quota program to be able to surf on the islands regions (no region has over 20 quota for any one period). I was actually trying to get to go to Nusa Island retreat for this trip – but could not get in on the quota due to the holiday and Dalom was the recommended option. Nusa is a more upscale full service setting with boats to take you to a variety of breaks – see picture of the island from the air and the amazing right point called Pikanini. This was the end of the N. Swell season in PNG but I did have waves every day in the waist to slightly overhead size range. I arrived to find a group of local expats staying for the Easter weekend and was fortunate to be able to get to ride along for a venture down the coast to a great left hander called Pitakin – apparently I was about the 12th guy to ever surf there and that was after the 6 of them!?!? See the panorama shot of the set up off a cool rock point – where the locals were so enthralled seeing surfers they sat for hours watching every wave and hooted and cheered every time we rode a wave close to the point. The rest of the week I was totally solo, except a couple locals who have been learning to surf on donated boards (alls surfers pay reef fees that go to building local surfing clubs with boards and coaching). Shane, who leads the surf resort business for Dalom, had an unfortunate personal tragedy with his wife losing a baby and therefore I was left without transport – or boat to access the amazing surf at offshore islands 30min's offshore. His family has bought a new plantation and building a new resort ready for next year: http://www.newirelandsurf.com/ - that could be really good. I was left to surf on the Dalom Reef that is right off the end of the river's sandbar. Normally the waves break down the reef and peel really well – but the swell all week was a little too North and made it behave a little more like a shifty beach break (see pic of me on average wave) but on a very shallow reef that I felt lucky to not leave with any scars. Lots of good waves to be had – but not the long reef break waves of Bali, Tavarua I was dreaming of. Lots of sea life too – I constantly saw barracudas, tunas, sharks, dolphins, turtles, flying fish cruising the reef – nature at its best!
The Australian road show continued north along the #1 highway of this continent's East Coast. We found it amazing how strong an influence the water is on the everyday life of Australians – they truly worship their water sport heroes and tend to focus all their recreation on water activities (Aussie Rules Football definitely is like the NHL in Canada too!). We have experienced some of the same type of water-based lifestyles in Hawaii, California and other beach towns that have bred some of the great "watermen" – but here in Australia it goes to another level with swimmers and surfers making front page news. The Bell's Beach ASP World Cup Surf event is on down in Melbourne this week and all the buzz was on the TV and newspapers that Kelly Slater saw the forecast for a big swell and was now a late entry for the contest. Each town we stopped in has a huge surf club set on the beach which is also the center of their recreational and social lives. Where kids are left on their own or within peer groups to learn ocean activities in other regions, in Australia they are taught from an early age within this surf-club structure the ways of the ocean. The result is a much more rounded water culture and a much stronger respect for the general rules of surfing. The "surf punk" of California or the tough guy local surfers of Hawaii are attitudes you do not see here – even though the surf breaks are equally as crowded. Generally we experienced good people with great attitudes living wonderful healthy lifestyles.
We focused our trip north from Seal Rocks (see below) to three main areas that really captured the soul of the Australian water sport culture. All are towns built around big headlands with bays facing north. This shelters them from the prevailing South Easterly winds and also grooms the swells that run up the coast and wrap into these bays making some of the best surf breaks in the world (very similar to the south facing bays of California and Baja that we all love to surf at):
Byron Bay/Lennox Heads: In the north end of New South Wales we rolled into a famous surf break called Lennox Head and found a camp site set between a lake and the ocean. The lake is mentioned as it is a very unique "tea-tree" lake that has the leaves of tea-trees all around it fall off and stain the water dark. We swam in the lake and it was very spooky – you can not see your feet in knee deep water and when you dive in and open your eyes 6 feet under it is pitch black and only a faint light from above when you look up. It is apparently very healthy for your skin & hair and the locals all love to take daily dips. The Surf at Lennox was unfortunately blown out with on-shore winds and relegated us to a Yoga session on a beautiful desolate headland point – but the pictures in the local shops and cafés showed that this is one of the true great point breaks of the world. Lennox lies just 15 minutes from Byron Bay and we ventured north with one pit stop to visit a friend we met on our trip to Bali, Sva, and his partner Christa. They live on a great spread of land set at the end of a dirt road and along a water cannel that leads to the ocean, surrounded by a forest with amazing birds, pet donkeys and roaming Wallabies. They are ex-pat Canadians and have fallen in love with the lifestyle and culture around Byron Bay. Sva directed us to a Clark Beach Campervan Park, which could not have been in a more ideal setting – right on the beach and in the main part of the bay where all the surfing action takes place. The headland of Byron is the most Easterly point on the continent (see pic.) and the town of Byron is a lot like Paia in Maui, where a strong hippie and surf contingent found this beautiful spot and settled here in the 60's and 70's. As they matured and mellowed, the town has developed but without many chain stores. Lots of backpackers, travelling surfers and the drumming hippies still around that combined with the tourists making it a fun place to hang out. One of the regular sites on our caravan trip are vans rented by a company called Wicked Travel – which had offices and a big hub office in Byron. The vans they rent all have very colorful paintings and graffiti that is both thought provoking and somewhat brash and definitely catches your attention (see pic – a more tame example). The surf at the bay has many options – from beach break along the main section to mushy beginner peelers over shallow sand bars in the bay, long boarding point break fun off "the pass" and ripping fast long waves off Wategoes at the top of the headland (and where all the rich n famous vacation – Elle and Mick are regulars!) and then on the South of the headland is yet another long deserted beach that works when the SE winds are not blowing (See the panorama picture taken from the lookout over "the pass" that shows the entire view looking 180-degress from South to North – Watagoe Beach down through Byron Beach).
Coolungata was the next stop - located right on the border where you enter Queensland and the famous Gold Coast, where things start to get bigger and busier. This is home to the famed surf breaks Snapper Rocks, Super-Bank, D-Bah and Kirra. The ASP Surf Tour contest was here just two weeks ago and even on a blown out not so good day, you can see the amazing set up this huge point is for surfing. Like Byron Bay, there are about 10 choices within 1km to surf. Mark went right for the main point and jumped in with a pack of about 100 surfers – saying he has never seen a congregation of that many good surfers in one place in his life. He ended up working his way down about 5 different sections of surf over a couple hours. Check out the video that shows the set up around the Snapper Rock point: Note that Mark identifies the buildings way in the background as Brisbane – but they turned out to be Surfers Paradise, which we drove in and out of as quick as possible (over developed and very touristy – like Waikiki or Miami). Noosa at the top of the Sunshine Coast was the next stop. We ran straight into Easter weekend traffic leaving Brisbane heading North to the beach – kind of like the rush to the Okanagan on a summer holiday weekend, with us stuck in a 3 lane highway that ground to a dead stop. We diverted to surface roads and got to drive by Steve Irwin's famous zoo on the way – but too late in the day to stop. Arriving into Noosa, we instantly found its appeal with a long strip of great restaurants, shops and nice accommodation. We awoke at our caravan park at 6am on Good Friday to get a head start on the beach crowd, but when we arrived at the main lot it was already full by 7am! Another example of the active, water-loving culture they live by. Noosa had the biggest mix of water based activities in one place we have seen so far. Paddle boards of all types – prone, sit, stand-up, surfboards of every type and size, boogie boarders, lessons, long distance swimmers and a massive Noosa Surf Club house anchoring most of the action along with the biggest contingent of life guard's you have seen outside of a Baywatch episode! The holiday made the surf crazy crowded – but great to see the set up of the famous Noosa longbord wave (we saw one guy on a standup board with his dog catch about 10 waves – see picture and on the farthest wave out - the puppy was fully gripping the nose hanging 10!) and further up to a series of great right hand point breaks that are all great world class waves. Noosa is a little more glitz and high end than Byron but with an even broader water sport lifestyle it is very appealing – somewhere we both agreed would by an amazing place to live (their record all time low is only 11C and average cold days are 21C!!). The Campervan was a great way to see the east coast and really touch into the varied communities of the region. The coast has endless caravan parks with fantastic locations. One surprise to us was the high cost of living in Australia – especially food costs! A basic meal for two at an average bistro costs about $50-$60 w/o drinks – needless to say we used the campervan kitchen facility as much as possible. We are off to Papua New Guinea today for a week at the "Dalom Surf Retreat" – about 3 hours from the small port of Kavieng which is on a small northern island of PNG. The most remote location of our entire trip and we will be staying in a village guest house where we will have access to 100's of spots to dive, swim, surf and explore in what is known "the final frontier" of remote terrain on this planet.
We arrived in Sydney after a long red-eye flight from Bangkok (had to backtrack due to our world ticket we are on) and hopped into our new home on wheels – a campervan! Complete with bathroom-shower, mini-kitchen and a big bed, this big beast feels like driving a one-tonne truck but is great to be able to be able to pull over and call it a night where ever we venture to – but city parking is not an option!! We ventured to Cronulla beach, South of Sydney, on the first afternoon and it was very cool to drop right into a classic beach town with the centre of attention being their surf club. A huge modern clubhouse sits right on the beach with storage for every type of watercraft imaginable underneath including paddleboards of all types, surfboards and the big boats the lifeguards row with oars and use for competitions going out through the surf. After an early dinner we decided to make our way to the north beaches of the area where we found a really nice caravan park right on Narrabeen beach – another great beach town that has built amazing swimming pools right into the tidal pools off the headlands of the beach (click on panorama pic.).
We ventured out to take in the sites of Sydney the next day but as driving the rig downtown was not an option, we went to Manley Beach and took the ferry down to the Circular Quay that is right next to the famed Sydney Opera House. It was the perfect way to take in the city and the action in the harbour on a Saturday was so amazing to watch – from layers of sailboats racing, tall ship cruises, jet boat tours – it was 10x's as busy as any day in the Vancouver Harbour. Back to Manley and an afternoon body surfing and cruising this upscale beach town finished off the day nicely before we put in about 3 hours on the road heading north to get as close as we could make it to Seal Rocks.
Today we awoke early in a small caravan park on the #1 highway at the turnoff to Seal Rocks and ventured down the road to where it turned to gravel and took us to a spot called Treachery Beach. Sounds ominous but is a beautiful stretch of beach way off the beaten path that Mark was tipped off to as a great spot for surf and a spectacular setting. Headlands of uplifted sandstone form great caves and natural pools for swimming and exploring on each end of this mile plus long beach. The water was the clearest we have seen anywhere, even with the sandy bottom. Some surf, sun and swimming took us to early afternoon where we then ventured another few hundred km's north to Emerald Beach where we finally saw our first wild Kangaroos! Tomorrow AM we will hit the road to Queensland and Lennox Head & Byron Bay on the Gold Coast. Before we leave on Friday from Brisbane, we will be hitting Noosa on the sunshine coast as well. Stay tuned for more Aussie updates!
SURF REPORT: After big fun surf of Bali, the small waves of Australia are not that inspiring so I actually didn't surf until this morning at Treachery Beach (see pic of the setting). Super glassy knee to shoulder waves but the crowds made it a little tough. It was good to rest the sore shoulder I have from a rotator cuff tear I had in Peru and take it easy until some bigger waves come! Hopefully I will get to see Snapper Rocks in its full glory! I am still waking up with flashbacks to the big hairy lefts from Uluwatu though.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain
Flying into Fiji - our last stop of the tour!
That's Tavarua island...The heart shaped island where we were engaged 2 years ago
A Tropical View!
looking up from our beach home in PNG
Our Recent Home on Wheels in Australia
....on the road from Sydney to Brisbane!
Bali - our favourite!
Desa Seni Resort is an amazing village built from traditional village huts moved from Java. A very blissful home for 10-days! www.desaseni.com
Our Recent Digs in Mumbai (...Bombay)
A unique quaint hotel in the heart of the action in Mumbai - everything you picture of Mumbai is within 200 yards of the hotel!
Africian Perfection!
50 feet from the beach at J-Bay, South Africa! Check out the surf action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo468SMJWxU
View from our Home in France
Just outside our front door on the Champs Elysees
The Itinerary
In this order, starting Dec 24:
Peru: Punta Hermosa & Cuzco Argentina: Buenos Aires & Bariloche Brazil: Rio de Janeiro & Florionopolis Portugal: Lisbon & Ereciera Switzerland/French Alps: Geneva, Chamonix & Verbier Paris London Italy: Venice, Rome Malta South Africa: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth (J Bay!) India: Mumbai (Bombay), Goa Bangkok Bali - Desa Seni Resort (Cangu) Australia: Camper-Van Tour (Sidney to Brisbane) Papua New Guinea - Dalom Retreat New Zealand: North Island Camper-Van Tour Fiji: Tavarua Island & Matanivusi Resort (Pacific Harbour)
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The rest of the week I was totally solo, except a couple locals who have been learning to surf on donated boards (alls surfers pay reef fees that go to building local surfing clubs with boards and coaching). Shane, who leads the surf resort business for Dalom, had an unfortunate personal tragedy with his wife losing a baby and therefore I was left without transport – or boat to access the amazing surf at offshore islands 30min's offshore. His family has bought a new plantation and building a new resort ready for next year: 
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