Singapore, Ausiland and NZ

Well, after working a bit and saving a bit of dough, i am off to ausiland and New ZeaLand via Singapore. I got a great price on the tickets which will have me leaving on feb 1 and comming back some time in april. I have gotten an flexible ticket, but suspect that i will not be needing it longer than two months. The first 4 days will be in singapore, then i will be spending about a week or two in Oz, then a small flight to NZ, and a return home from auckland.
I am very excited. As well, i am going to be remideing my tent condensation problem by simply getting a new and more propper tent. The other tent was good for sunny warm days, but wont get me through this trip for sure as I will be doing lots of hiking and playing in remote places.

Stay tuned!

Newzealand In January - The preparation begins...

Ahhh finally, after many days and possibly weeks of indecision and passing the back back and forth between the brother and myself, we have decided to head to New Zealand for January.
We have heard great things about the country, and have decided to hostel and backpack it, so that should cut down on costs dramaticly. I am going to find work for the next 2 months in whatever job i can find, regardless of how much it may suck, and then off to the kiwis.
As for distance, i can honestly say that Newzealand, may be the farthest i will get for some time. With only southern africa, india, parts of china and russia being farther away.
I am stoked. Dispite the extraordinary ticket costs, I think this will be an adventure to remember.
More Later

There and back again PT 2

The weather had been the worst i had seen, and in a car i would have been fine to take it slow, but on a motorcycle, it was time to pull over. I checked the weather when i dried off in a hotel room, and decided that since there were storm warnings for the next few days, i would call the brother and cash in my return ticket home via the truck.After chatting with the bro, i fell asleep, and the next morning, after his arrival, we loaded the bike up onto the truck, and headed home.I thought the adventure would be over there, but we decided to take the ferry from Port Angeles in washington (near olympic national park) over to victoria, then the ferry from sidney to white rock, and then we drove home. Inbetween we visited both washington, and BC's capital cities, and were impressed by the architecture.We drove all night through the rain over the coquahala, and only the next day did i hear that there was a weather warning for BCs coast.All in all, it was a good trip. A little shorter than i had originally planned, but I think it was just right. I have some $$$ left over in the bank account, and i think that maybe saving it for a trip across canada this summer like i had originally planned is in order.Well, thanks for checking up on me. Sorry i couldnt post more pix. But i will get to those later, after I am all rested up.

There and back again PT1

Well, it has been a very fun trip. I cant say that i got as far as i wanted, because it was VERY cold in arizona. I yet again had to scrape ice off of my seat, and the drive through nevada had been insane near salt lake city. Try as i might, you cant compete with being so cold that your hands wont work the throttle and clutch. So in flagstaff arizona, afterseeing the giant redwoods, the oregon coast, most of california, the boneville saltflats, the northern side of the grand canyon, and most of the deserts in utah, arizona, and californina, i decided to turn around. It was a hard decision, but i think the right one.I spent a day or so contemplating the turn around, but after driving 5 days through the desert from the top of cali, to utah, and down through arizona, i decided that i could not handle driving across texas. It was becomming more of a marithon than a sight seeing tour, and i was paying for the visual experience, not the preteige of a sore rear and an empty bank account. So, the decision was made to return via the highway south of vegas and through cali.THe trip back was jsut as much fun, as i made sure to pick a route that i had not traveled before. Sticking mostly to the highway, i can say that the sacramento valley reminds me alot of home or of kelowna valley as there are lots of orchards and vinyards.Eventually after a number of days of hard riding i worked my way up to chehalis washington, right below seattle. THe past few days of weather had been pounding rain and scary mountain passes that reminded me alot of the coquahala, and almost cold enough to snow.At that point, I could not go any further.