SKY DIVING!!

YES it's true, i did a 15, 000 foot jump out of a plane even though i have never felt inclined to do this. i think there is something in the water here in new zealand!

Once my name was on that board, i knew it would be hard to turn back...

here i am less than a second after the jump!

(really no turning back at this point!)

...clearly i'm loving it!

from 15, 000 ft there is 1 minute of freefall which really doesn't seem like enough from up there.
totally a great time!


that's me and peter (dano). he rocked! the whole time he kept making jokes which distracted me (or scared me!) from thinking too much. i really surprised myself because the scariest part of the whole thing was signing my name up to do it!

if you are thinking about sky diving, don't hesitate and just go for it!
you won't regret it!

Black Water Rafting!

what is black water rafting? it's rafting in an underground cave. totally awesome!

the adventure i took part in was a combination of abseiling down into the cave, zip lining into darkness (THAT was scary!), jumping off a cliff into water with your inner tube (scarrier than jumping out of a plane!), swimming with eels, tubing through glow worm caves, crawling through tight places, and free climbing up waterfalls (with the ultimate climb in complete darkness)!!

did i like it? damn straight i did!

here's me going down into the abyss...

this is what the caves looked like (minus the glow in the background, this photo was a set up shot they use for advertising).

FACT: it takes 100 years for the cave coral hanging down from the ceiling to grow 1cm!

here's us taking a hot tang and chocolate break. the water was freezing even with 5mm wet suits!

this is us after we got to the surface and saw light again.

the whole thing took 4-5 hours and was the best thing i have done so far. even better than sky diving!! speaking of sky diving... did i mention that we did the abyss in the morning and then jumped out of a plane later that same day? let's just say that the next day was a recovery day!!

Oops... did i miss my flight?!

i have never been overseas before (since the Americas don't count!), and i have to say that this whole time zone thing is blowing my mind.

i arrived in Singapore after over 30 something hours of no real sleep, only to spend the day out and about. how could i not? i was in Asia for the first time! i met up with someone at the hostel and we spent the day on an island near the Malaysian border (can't remember the name)... but quite literally, it would have been a 2 minute swim to the water-border-fence-thingy.

we rented bikes and rode around the relaxed rural island. on the far end we found a beach (not worth swimming at) and passed out on benches in the shade for hours and hours... every once in a while coming to and agreeing to sleep longer.

on the way back we kept thinking that we were lost...that we didn't get off the bus at the right place. but in the end, the people were so outgoing and friendly that we found our way!

the next day we got up and visited a Buddhist temple. it was very peaceful there and i loved it. a very nice man took us around and helped us with what to do. i could have spent the whole day there.

later we went downtown to the harbor front and then china town... once again, i treated myself to a fantastic massage... maybe i should make a career of rating spas all over the world!

okay, so that chilled out attitude ended up biting me in the butt. as the title indicates, i missed my flight to Auckland, New Zealand! i don't know if it was the spaced-out feeling from jet lag or the massage, but i had it in my head that my flight was at 11, but in reality it was at 9. and to make things worse, i only showed up at the airport at 8:40! so i got off the subway and saw that beside my flight it said 'gate closed' in red... oh god! i knew right away what i had done... that 21:00 was NOT 9:00. so i bolted across the airport with a 20Kg pack on my back to unsuccessfully plead with them to get on that flight.

thank goodness on the subway i had met a brilliant British couple (mike and Michelle, to who i now owe my life!) who were taking Michelle's father to the airport. they were sooo sweet to run with me and then Michelle stayed with me as we figured out a new flight. if it wasn't for Michelle's quick thinking and calm attitude i swear i would have lost it! there was no way i wanted to pay for another flight! in the end everything worked out and i just had to stay another night in their hostel and wait stand-by for the overbooked morning flight. i think i had some horseshoes in my back pocket because i was about 4th on the waiting list and still made it on! hint: apparently many people miss their flights and Singapore airlines doesn't usually make you pay for it.

anyways, I'm in New Zealand now and everything so far is going great! yesterday i went to the park for live music in the park and got into an impromptu wheel wagon race with a few kids nearby. the first pic shows how terrible i was!the second pic is when the kids tried to each hold a leg.

last night i got together with sarah (brampton what?!) and dave in auckland and had a good 'ol time... the night was full of plenty of food and laughter - it was great to see an old friend again after over a year! thanks for the great times guys!

lots of love, and thanks everyone for keeping me posted via e-mail!

addy :)

Home Sweet Home

hey all!!

thanks for the kick-ass time at home! i was really happy to have seen so many shinning faces! i think it did a world of good seeing many of the people i love. also, big thanks to everyone who made it out sat night... what a great night huh?!

i have a few pics from my stay, but for the life of me i can't figure out why i didn't take a picture out the window of all the snow! i went from +30C in argentina and peru to -27C in brampton on the day i arrived. it's no wonder i got sick!

this is a picture of my brother's new cat with kavita... how sweet!

this is a pic of some of the people at jay and kavita's before we moved on to revival...

for all of you wondering about the new terminal 1 in toronto, here it is!