The Day of the Sumo!! (By Jeffrey)

One day on our family’s world trip we were rushed, very rushed indeed. We were going to something you can only see in Japan....SUMO WRESTLING!! We weren’t sure we could even get tickets. I was thinking that we had a fifty-fifty chance of getting them because we had read that you needed to be at the stadium very early to get tickets for the same day.

It took around 30 minutes to get there by train and subway on Thursday, September 18th. We got the tickets for an awesome price. It cost 4600Yen in total, about $46Cdn. Each adult was $21 and each kid was $2. We weren’t expecting it to cost so little. The matches started out by showcasing the lower ranked Sumo wrestlers. We had the best seats in the house, only four feet away from the place they wrestled. We could also ask for tea in our seats. The seats were actually cushions arranged in a group of four to one box. We sat in these seats until lunch.

After lunch we sat in seats closer to the top of the building. Also after lunch the quality of the Sumo increased. We also met an Australian whose parents were Japanese. It was really weird to hear an Australian accent in Japan.

Many people believe that Sumo wrestlers are extremely fat. Of course some of them are, but the best aren’t that fat. The bouts were actually very interesting. My dad even said “I’d rather se Sumo wrestling than see a Leaf game if given the choice again.” I don’t necessarily agree with him but I do think Sumo wrestling offered better value. Four people could attend a full day (8 hours) and have a great lunch for the price of a decent seat at a Leaf’s game!

You can watch approximately 220 Sumo bouts in one day. The average bout was about 20 seconds with the longest running to about a minute and a half. Each bout had a repetitious 3 minute ceremony prior to the bout. We had no idea what the ref and his assistant were saying at this time even after 4:00pm when we got our English commentary radios. I thought the ceremonies were not necessary, however, I enjoyed every other minute of Sumo. When the current champion (no losses in his last 20 bouts) lost to the worst wrestler in his group, everybody on the lower deck started throwing their cushions at him. It was hilarious!

On our way home we saw a Sumo wrestler all by himself on the subway. It shocked me because Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport. I thought he would have been treated like royalty. Well I guess that probably only the top Sumo wrestlers would be treated like royalty. The funny thing is that we weren’t expecting to get into the match because there are only 6 tournaments per year, however, not only did we get in but we had fabulous seats. Without a doubt I would go to another Sumo tournament. Even my sister enjoyed it!

(P.S. – you can leave me a comment if you have any questions about Sumo)

Blog Entry by Sam - Tokyo apartment

Blog Entry by Samantha - Tokyo

After flying from Australia to Japan, we rented an apartment in Tokyo. I am going to describe what the apartment looked like. The bathroom, well the toilet area, because the toilet area and washing areas were separate, had an electronic toilet that massaged and cleaned your bum. It also dried your bum with hot air too! It was a really clean toilet area, so that was nice. I spent most of my time on the toilet! The other half of the washroom had a Japanese style bath and shower. The washing area was divided into two areas. One had the washing machine and a sink for general use. The other had a Japanese style shower with a soaking tub. First you have a shower in one area and then you soak in a really deep tub. Our whole family loved the Japanese tub. It even had a heater to keep the water hot!

The bed in our bedroom was on the floor instead of carpet or tile, there was tatami mat. A tatami mat is about 1m x 3 m and made out of Styrofoam with a grass covering. In our living room we had a plasma screen TV that actually had English channels. We also had high speed internet access in our apartment, which was really useful. We had a really cool kitchen with all the supplies that we needed, so we usually ate at least two meals in every day. Also there was a nice balcony that we could see parts of Tokyo from. I loved everything in the apartment. I really liked the couch because it was a pull out bed and we made a fort with it, however, my parents would always tear it down. I would colour, read and have fun in my fort. I had a wonderful time staying in our two bedroom apartment in Tokyo!

Konnichiwa - Hello from Japan

Preface to Japan

After a 10 hour flight to Narita airport via Cairns we were finally in Japan. Everyone was looking forward to going to Japan after spending nearly 3 weeks in Australia. Quite honestly, we really were let down a little by our Australian segment of our RTW trip. The scenery was without a doubt spectacular. We only saw the east coast of Australia so we can’t say we would never come back...it’s a big country! Even though we all felt this way, the funny thing is that Elaine and I both agreed that we would move and live in Sydney in a heartbeat if given the chance. Sydney is without a doubt world class city and I have rethought my initial feelings about cities that choose to take on massive amounts of debt to host the Olympics. The infrastructure was extraordinary, the waterfront never-ending, and the makeup of the city was very multicultural. I have a friend who was offered an incredible job in Sydney but choose to turn it down....were you crazy?? We were told that Melbourne would have been nice to visit but it wasn’t possible on this trip. Outside of Sydney, the missing piece for us was the singular culture......there were no faces other than white. I think this is why we were all so excited about Japan.

On to Tokyo...

We arrived on Sunday, September 14. We took an express train from the airport to Shinjuku station and then transferred to another train line to arrive at Nakano station. Shinjuku station is one of the busiest stations in Japan. About a million and half people travel through this station each business day between the hours of 8am-9am. Needless to say we haven’t traveled during these times very often.
Tokyo has met many of our expectations and at the same time been quite the opposite. First off, the city is immaculate; every piece of glass is sparkling from handrails to shop windows. The subways and trains are clean and of course without graffiti. There are a massive amount of trains, subways and busses run by several different companies but somehow they manage to keep everything working together in harmony. The stations, trains and platforms are numbered in a logical manner. The trains announce each station in Japanese and then English, which has worked out quite well for us.

The Japanese people in Tokyo are very kind, courteous and of course orderly. Perhaps in a city of such magnitude there is no other option but to conform and be orderly. We have all enjoyed and tried our best to conform to their standards while visiting. There are a lot of bikes in the streets, many taxis and certainly a lot of sushi which has made Jeff and I happy.

Top 10 things that really have shattered our initial perceptions about Tokyo:

1. The subways are not as crowded as we had initially expected. We have been on the subways during rush hour a couple of times but the crowds are not that much different then on the TTC in Toronto during rush hour, although everyone does line up orderly to gain access to each car on the platform!!

2. Food is not more expensive. In fact we have found prices to be significantly less than Australia. Now with that said it it possible to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a dinner for two...and $20 for a nice sushi or other suitably delicious meal.

3. The city is clean. With a population of 35 million it is incredible that there is little to no garbage on the streets or in subway stations. The garbage men are immaculate and come each day for various collections. Tokyo is very proactive in recycling. Get this.....the garbage men have neatly pressed (you can see their press lines) uniforms, wear white gloves and use very quiet trucks.

4. There is very little noise. We have heard only 1 horn beep in our 6 days here and that was from a Western driver! The traffic is silent.

5. The Japanese youth will do anything for the latest fashion. Case in point....A new H & M clothing store (all over Toronto Samantha tells me) opened in Tokyo earlier this week. Every young, fashionable, cell phone texting Tokyion had an H & M bag. We went pass the store..... there was a line over 10 blocks long. Police with white gloves were stationed on each corner to ensure no intersections were blocked, everyone was lined up in three’s to ensure that exactly half the sidewalk was available to regular traffic flow. The line was incredibly orderly and neat and no one had seemed to have any reservations about being in such a long line. Mental Note: open a new store in Tokyo.

6. Electronics are not cheap but they are plentiful. In fact we found electronic items cheaper in Sao Paulo Brazil than in Tokyo. This has certainly disappointed Jeffrey. We have read that China is far better off for great deals on electronics.

7. Having a sitdown meal and beer at a National Sporting Event is not as expensive as one might think.

8. There are dollar stores in Tokyo (well 100Yen stores).

9. People don’t stare at us all the time. We thought that being white and travelling with children would draw a significant amount of attention. This hasn’t been the case. We were told that people would not want to sit beside us on the subway but that has been far from reality.

10. A Japanese TV converter can be worked by a Gajjin (name for white guy in Japan). The gentleman who we rented our 2 bedroom apartment from in Tokyo gave us instructions on how to use various things in the apartment (bath, shower, hot water, doors, toilet, security, elevator and of course the TV). I think he exact words were....”whatever you do just push these two buttons on the converter to keep the English channels available”. Like any other 11 year old boy, Jeff decided to push one of the other 150 Japanese buttons and we were confined to Japanese only stations for a few hours before I figured out how to get things back on line again.

So what have we been up to for the last week??

Well first off we realized two days before leaving Australia that we didn’t have a Chinese passport. That became our immediate concern when we arrived in Japan. We had to find a Chinese embassy in Japan to process a Visa for our Canadian passports. Monday was a holiday (respect your elders) in Japan so we set out for the Chinese embassy first thing on Tuesday morning. We had researched the passport issue in the airport business class lounge and printed out everything we could find as well as firing off a couple of emails to the Canadian Embassy, the Chinese Embassy in both Beijing and Honk Kong. We finally got typical government responses back 3 days later. Fortunately we were able to get things accomplished on our own. The only thing we didn’t have was a travel voucher indicating we had arranged for accommodations in Beijing for our arrival. We found a 5 star hotel close to the embassy and I snuck into the business lounge and booked a cheap hostel for 2 nights and printed out a receipt and we were off. The kids and Elaine stayed in the hotel lobby and met some very nice people from South America and Europe. The visas were ready for our pick up yesterday (Friday) and Elaine took the subway herself to pick them up while I stayed in the apartment and began planning and booking accommodations for our travel to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima. Jeff and Samantha slept in and then got a couple of hours of reading and math done, something we have been a little lax on.

We spent most of the day cooped up in the apartment and this was getting to all of us. Jeff and Sam made a fort out of the couch and some blankets, Elaine and I urgently tried to get some affordable accommodations for the next few days via email and the telephone.

We ended up going for a walk in the evening (it was grey and rainy most of the day) in the rain with our umbrellas. We are in a suburb of Tokyo (Nakano) which is about 3 minutes by train to the main core of the city. Nakano is quite nice, small streets, lots of restaurants, bars, stores, gambling parlours....something for everyone. We had a great sushi dinner in a stand-up restaurant. The sushi chef was a really nice guy and took care of Jeff and I. He spoke very good English and reminded us of our friendly neighbour at the cottage, Bob, who is also Japanese.
After we came home Elaine and I spent another couple of hours planning for the next week (if you call booking a room and winging it planning). We wanted to store 3 of our 4 knapsacks in Tokyo while we travelled around other parts of Japan. All the rail stations have lockers, but they are only good for a maximum of 3 days and we were planning on being gone for 6. There is luggage delivery companies that are quite popular but we decided to take them back to the airport and store them there. The charge for doing this is about 500Yen/day/bag. I instead booked a room at a Hostel for the 26th, the night before we fly to Beijing. We just need a place to sleep for a couple of hours and the owner arranged to meet me at the airport this afternoon to pick up our bags and store them for the week for less than the cost of the baggage storage (plus we get a place to crash and a drive to the airport). I am actually on the train travelling back from the airport to Shinjuku station as I type this. I have just arrived and have to run......

Jeff and Sam will post an insight into Japan from their perspective shortly. I think you will like their take on our week in Tokyo!!

Videos to watch - Misner RTW trip

Here are a couple of videos you can watch. We have taken only a couple on our trip to date. The internet connection in Japan is much faster so we can now upload these for everyone. We hope to have a few really interesting ones of Tokyo over the next few days as well.

We're still in Oz - Had a great time on the Reef!

We have now been in Australia for 2 ½ weeks. We have done lots of driving (over 2400km), seen many animals and enjoyed tons of water activities. In Hervey Bay we went on a whale watching cruise. We boarded a 15m boat and set out for the Pacific. It is whale migration time in Eastern Australia, so before long we spotted our first whale. The whales put on an amazing show, even swimming under the boat. Some of the whales were longer than the boat! We enjoyed a buffet lunch and an afternoon tea aboard the ship, arriving home around 6 p.m. After Hervey Bay we drove for 2 days up the coast to Airlie Bay to get closer to the Great Barrier Reef. We decided to splurge on a 3 day/3 night sailing adventure on a boat called The Pacific Sunrise. It was 30 m long and was really lovely inside. Only 19 passengers were on the cruise and Jeff and Sam were the only children. It was 3 totally awesome days! We sailed at 2 p.m. on Wed. which was a beautiful day. That night we dined like kings, something we had not done yet in Australia. The next morning we woke up to a light rain/drizzle. After a great breakfast we all put on our full length wet suits and went snorkelling. The Reef is amazing, just like you see on T.V., bright colours, tons of fish, and glorious coral. We continued snorkelling in the afternoon after a huge lunch (spare ribs, sausages, steak, pasta salad, tossed salad...) That night it cleared up and Kevin spotted a dolphin dining on a squid beside the boat. The next day we woke up to brilliant sunshine. Everyone had such a great time snorkelling the day before that we decided to go one more time in another location. The sun really made a difference and the location was spectacular, and Jeffrey taught me how to dive deep and then clear my mask. As usual we were the last of the crew to get back to the ship. After a great curry, which we all devoured, we spent the afternoon on the Whitsunday Beach. We spent the next few hours kayaking, swimming and learning to play beach cricket. While kayaking we saw sea turtles so close to our kayak we could touch them. That night we dined on 8 different dishes, while chatting with the other passengers. The night ended with a great jam session under the stars, a ship’s version of a campfire. Jeffrey and Sammy were perfect sailors!

We have been staying in Townsville, about 4 hours north of Airlie beach. We have rented a small cabin across the street from the ocean. The road is a little busy in front of us; however, the view is quite nice and we have tennis courts that we have used extensively. Townsville is a pretty town but it seems like a strange place. You can’t swim in the Ocean because there are small jelly fish that can kill you. No matter how minimal the sting is from some varieties you will still likely end up in the hospital. We have learned that the phrase “Everything is bigger and deadlier in Australia” is almost true.....except that there are quite a few small creatures that can kill you as well. We returned our rental car to the airport yesterday morning and Kevin and I walked back to the cabin (about 3.5km). Today the kids wrote a recount for school and did some reading. After a long tennis match we went for a nice walk along the boardwalk. We were going to head home and have dinner but it was half price pizza on Tuesday so we had a Hawaiian pizza. When we turned the corner to go home there was a McD’s and we had promised Jeff and Sam a McFlurry after some great improvement on the tennis courts. We ended up having a small dinner at McD’s----not quite the intention prior to setting out on our walk! Tomorrow we will do some laundry, get everything settled for our upcoming stay in Japan, arrange accommodation in Sydney for 3 nights, a tennis game, and dispose of some of our clothing to lighten our loads (we will actually need to carry our knapsacks shortly). We don’t instead to extend our stay in Australia but we are going to stay in Japan for two weeks rather than the one week originally planned.

A Koala yesterday and a Whale today

We saw our first Koala Bear yesterday....another animal ticked off of Samantha's list. We set out on a whale watch this afternoon. We are staying in Hervey Bay for two nights in a very comfortable self contained apartment across the street from the Ocean (wish we could stay longer as it is very comfortable and large). Elaine cooked the kids some eggs this morning, and we headed to the beautiful sandy beach after breakfast.

A couple of days ago we began playing "Rock Boche Ball." Jeff was getting a little bored of the beach and I thought we could come up with a competitive game to keep him occupied. The rules are fairly straightforward----everyone finds 3 rocks of their choice, we pick a rock to be "shot rock," someone tosses the shot rock and we try to get closest to it. Today Elaine was the "Boche Rock" King!! The beaches are deserted, so we haven't killed anyone with the game yet. Sometimes the game gets a little competitive....but we are all speaking to one another again.

After a nice buffet lunch and fairly calm boat ride into the open ocean this afternoon......we finally saw them.

We took about 400 pictures and after some editing we have some pretty spectacular photos. These humpback whales have finished mating in the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef. They are now on their way back to Antartica to feed on Krill. We had a great day out on the water with perfect weather (Sunny and 21C). Tomorrow morning we will head up North on our way to the Great Barrier Reef. If you like the pictures, be sure to check out our online photo albulm. If you don't have the link.....send us a quick email and we will send it to you.

Trip Summary July 21st-Aug 26th

Travel Summary - Toronto to Sydney (July 21st - Aug 26th)

We have been on 10 flights, flown for over 47 hours, and have travelled over 20,000 miles by airplane.

We have flown:
1) Toronto to Lima, Peru (9 hours)
2) Lima to Cuzco, Peru (1.5 hours)
3) Cuzco to Lima (1.5 hours)
4) Lima to Sao Paulo, Brazil (5 hours)
5) Sao Paulo to Santiago, Chile (4.5 hours)
6) Santiago to Easter Island, Chile (5.5 hours)
7) Easter Island to Santiago (4.5 hours)
8) Santiago to Auckland, New Zealand (13 hours)
9) Auckland to Sydney, Australia (3 hours)

Other Highlights and funny tidbits:

1) Crazy cab ride from Cuzco to Ollyaytantambo. We had 6 people in the cab (the four of us, our guide and driver). We drove at high speeds on winding mountain roads. Jeff and Sam slept through the entire drive on Elaine’s lap due to the fact that Elaine gave each of them an Adult dose of Gravol.

2) The only time we actually have carried our knapsacks on our back was from the town centre to our lodgings in Ollyantaytambo (which was about a tenth of a mile.....and we were all exhausted). We’re not backpackers.

3) Stayed in a wonderful place with a native family. In Ollantaytambo we went; river rafting in a Technical Level 3 rapids, went on a terrifying horseback ride through the Andes, foot trek up a mountain through ancient ruins, ate street meet, took a cab into the high mountains to experience village life, discovered and drank copious amounts of Cocoa Tea, fed the Lamas at our lodgings, ate traditional Peruvian breakfasts and dinners, and overall had an amazing time.

4) We took a dome train from Ollyantaytambo to Aqua Calientes (the closest town to Machu Pichu). The train was fun and comfortable. We took a luxury bus to Machu Pichu which was quite scary as it traversed the cutbacks up the mountain to Machu Pichu. We hired an English speaking guide to take us through Machu Pichu where we learned all about the ancient Inca civilization. Elaine and Sammy took a 3 hour hike along the Inca trail to the Sunshine Pass while Jeff and Kevin relaxed in the shade and talked with two women from California who provided ideas for Australia. We had our nicest and most expensive dinner to date in a French restaurant that was recommended in one of our travel books. If you ever go, look for the Misner Trip business card on the wall!! Jeff became obsessed with buying soccer shirts everywhere we went while Samantha was persuaded (with 100 Sols) to learn to play Euchre. We flew back to Cuzco in business class (had wished it was a longer flight) and spent 4 nights in a really interesting room overlooking a beautiful plaza. The prices were cheap, the food was good, and the markets were fun to shop at. After a quick stop in Lima we were off to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We stayed at the Maksoud Plaza, a lovely hotel in central Sao Paulo. The service was great, the pool was very warm, and the view of the city was magnificent. We went to the Japanese Sunday market in Liberdade via the Metro, Jeff and Kevin went off to see a Brazilian soccer match. The goalie scored the majority of the goals on free kicks. We went to central park (very similar to New York’s central park except Sao Paulo has 22 million inhabitants). Jeff, Sam and Kevin went to a late night electronics mall to buy some cheap movies and video games.

5) We arrived in Santiago in the evening; fortunately we had made arrangements to be picked up from the airport (found on Craigslist). The next day, Elaine became the navigator and took us on the Metro to the central Fish Market (similar to St. Lawrence market) where we had a great Chilean seafood lunch with wine. The next day we went by Metro again to Cristal Hill where we had a terrific view of the city from the Gondola. If it wasn’t for the smog then Santiago might be considered one of the prettiest capitals of the world. We all thought it was neat to be standing beside a palm tree while looking at snow covered mountains. We went to the Santiago zoo on the same hill which was better than expected.

6) We left for Portillio the next morning where we had a terrific time skiing. Everyone was friendly and spoke English. We met other people from Toronto and the US as well as the members of the Men‘s Canadian ski team. We stayed in a backpacker dorm (two sets of bunk beds) to save $$ but were allowed to use all the facilities of the hotel which was about 20 feet away from where we slept. The kids loved the bunks and Elaine hated the communal bathrooms. We ate like pigs (4 meals a day....breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner)....no weight loss here! We left two days early because of a storm that was expected to leave everyone stranded for several days. Portillio eventually saw 200cm of fresh powder fall.....too bad we had to leave early!!

7) Kevin negotiated transportation to Portillio and a tour of the coast north of Santiago with a Chilean named Hector (same guy we found on Craigslist). Hector soon became like a member of our family. He spent 10 to 12 hours a day taking us on custom made tours. We stopped at Erruzziz winery on the way from Portillio to Valpariso which was the highlight of the day. Sam and Jeff enjoyed the winery as much as the adults. We drank an award winning Shraz, ate lovely cheese, and had a delightful conversation with a gentleman from the winery while we sat out on the terrace overlooking the vineyard. Hector arranged accommodation with a lovely couple who had just started a B&B in Valpariso. Our room had a double bed and two singles with television. There was a common bathroom; however, we were the only ones staying here so we had the place to ourselves. Valparaiso (world heritage site) was a beautiful town on a hill overlooking a busy port. We went up and down to the main part of town on a funicular (an inclined railway system that was installed in the 1800’s providing transportation up the hill for the wealthy merchants.) This is the port that the majority of cruise ships who visit South America stop at. We toured Vina del Mar on our own the next day. We got on a local bus by the ocean and just stayed on it until the end (no one spoke English) figuring we could make our way back somehow. We had a lovely walk along the boardwalk and craft market, ate McDonald’s ice-cream and candy apples, but had to get back as Samantha had a fever. A cab driver offered to take us back for 20,000 Chilean Pesos (about $40) but we decided to take the bus ($3 for all of us) instead. The bus driver dropped us back where we needed to be after Kevin showed him a picture of a Statue that was on the digital camera where we started our day. We arrived safely and the bus ride was clean and fast. Samantha went straight to bed after a warm bath. Our hosts, Fernando and Jenny were very worried about Samantha and offered to take her to the hospital. They were very kind (we bought them some Merlot and left them a Canadian baseball hat before we left). Samantha’s fever was gone the next morning and we were all better again. Hector took us for a city tour the next day. We had never seen so much rain in our lives. Literally, the roads were like rivers coming down the streets. We had a great traditional Chilean lunch. Hector took us to a local restaurant where we had “The menu of the day” – a starter, an entrée, wine, and dessert for 3000 Chilean pesos (about $6 per person). The next day Hector took us to 3 wineries which was fun, and the day after he took us on an incredible drive up the coast where we all had an incredible day. We saw penguins along the coast, Sammy went crazy! Hector had picked us up at 9 in the morning and we returned at 10pm. We had to pack and be up at 4:30am for our drive to the Santiago airport for our 8am flight. We were sad to say goodbye to our new found friend, Hector.

8) We arrived in Easter Island just before lunch. The sun was out but there was a light drizzle of rain. The hosts from our B & B picked us up at the airport and presented us with flower lays for our arrival. We checked into our room where we had one double bed and 3 singles. The weather was cool and very damp. It then began to rain. Kevin went out to about 10 different places that rented cars and found a place that agreed to rent us a 4 door 4x4 Suzuki for two days for 54,000 CLP (about $110). The roads around the island are really rough.....we really mean rough!! Pot holes everywhere and since it rained so much, it looked as if there were small lakes everywhere. The 4x4 worked out fine, although the windows only went up and down about a mm/sec, and you had to open the driver’s door from the outside, and the passenger’s window (Elaine’s) didn’t move up or down and the defrost didn’t work very well. It was fun to drive and we think everyone would have loved to see Elaine’s face while we drove in it. The Moai were really interesting to see. We saw lots of wild horses, some with babies. Once again, Sammy went wild! The Island and ocean views were really beautiful when it wasn’t rainy but two days was definitely enough. If you ever go don’t spend more than 3 would be our recommendation.

9) The travel to Australia was really long..... We had to fly back to Santiago even though we were almost half way to Australia already. We had a 5 hour wait in the Santiago airport before our flight to Sydney. Fortunately we were able to use the Business/First class lounges because of Samantha and Kevin’s elite flying status. We went to the Admiral’s Club (American Airlines) first and the kids loved all the first class treatment. Complimentary drinks, sandwiches, cheese etc. While Kevin and Elaine sampled all the expensive Chilean Reserve wines. We made a few calls home to Canada and booked our car rental for Australia. We went to the LAN airlines lounge after (another perk of Elite flying status). Jeff and Samantha loved the Sushi and other foods while they used the web on the computers in the lounge. Our 5 hour stopover flew by in no time. We flew from Santiago, Chile (11pm) to Sydney, Australia with a 1 hour stopover in Auckland, New Zealand. The flight from Santiago to Auckland was about 13 hours long. Fortunately, the plane was not full and we could spread out a little (as we had four middle seats). Jeff sat ahead and had two seats to himself, Kevin ran to 4 empty seats in the front only to find they were reserved for the flight staff to sleep in, so he came back to sit with Elaine and Samantha. Samantha and Kevin became very cranky in the middle of the night because Sam kept kicking Kevin while Elaine took up 3 of the 4 seats herself. Kevin attempted to physically remove Elaine, however she countered his attack! It was not the nicest flight we have ever had.....but it did manage to get us back on budget after our trip to Easter Island.

10) We arrived in Sydney at 7 in the morning after flying past the International Date Line (we left on Thursday evening and arrived Sat morning). We rented car from Hertz in the Sydney airport and decided to upgrade to a midsize for more room and automatic transmission. This was a very good decision because all of our luggage fits into the trunk and because driving a standard on the wrong side of the road would be a little difficult. A manual transmission while sitting on the wrong side of the car would have been a little challenging --- plus we promised the Grandma’s we would be careful with the kids. Elaine has become more comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road (she’s currently driving while I’m typing this). Sam and Jeff are now sleeping in the back seat. Coincidentally they fall asleep as soon as they ask if I could charge their PSP or IPod and I instead suggest that doing some Math homework might be a good idea. Well at least it’s quiet right now, outside of the speed alarm going off that we set at 120km/hr. Like I said, Elaine is getting more comfortable with driving on the wrong side of the road!!

5th Day in Australia
We decided to do a top 10 list of Australia for our friends this morning. We know that this will be a work in progress so expect updates over the next couple of weeks.

Top 10 things in OZ so far:

10) The abundant colourful birds
9) Delicious Fruit
8) Milk tastes the same
7) Ocean Tides
6) Tennis – Jeff loves to play and is quite good
5) Fully equipped Cabins on the ocean are less than half the price of an Easter Island hotel room
4) Tourist Information Centres
3) People speak English (although with a funny accent Mates)
2) Kevin is awake each morning before the Sun rises
1) Great Scenery

The pits in OZ so far:

10) Wine isn’t cheap like Chile
9) Everything is backwards i.e. Light switches down for on
8) Cell coverage is worse than Peru
7) Groceries are more expensive than Toronto
6) Kevin is asleep by 7pm (it gets dark by 5:30pm)
5) Driving on the Wrong side of the road!!
4) Driving on the Wrong side of the road!!
3) Driving on the Wrong side of the road!!
2) Driving on the Wrong side of the road!!
1) Driving on the Wrong side of the road!!

Morning Sunrise

Kevin is awake to see the morning sunrise from our deck!!

As we get used to using all the different software we hope to make things a little more interesting for everyone. Here is a link to a map that shows where we are this morning and where we are heading to next....

http://www.whereis.com/?id=286F1EB3C5BD0A

Moonee Beach NSW, Australia

We took this picture last night. We are staying in a campground on the ocean. It's common to find family campgrounds along the ocean. They have facilities for tents, Campervans, and cabins. The cabins are great.....they have a small kitchenette, two bedrooms ( queen, two singles or two sets of bunks), lots of windows, AC and Heat, Sat TV/CD/DVD player, Hairdryer, deck, shower (hot water).

The ocean is nothing less than spectacular! We haven't gone fishing or whale watching yet; however, we plan to do these things before we leave. We are heading up the coast to Brisbane later this morning where we hope to see and touch some Koala bears.

We are ultimatley heading to the Great Barrier Reef over the next few days. If we can continue to stay in places like Moonee Beach than our travels to the Great Barrier Reef will be very memorable for years to come. Don't forget to take a look at our photo's online for more detailed pictures. Please forward the link to our Blog to anyone you think might like to see it. We only have a certain amount of addresses that get notified upon a new update. No worries mates.......from Oz

Jeffrey's Easter Isand head

Hello everybody this is my version of dumb dumb give me gum gum. I'm about 1.5 metres tall so think of how big that puppy is? Im glad I went to Easter Island , but boy I am not going back. It was raining the whole time. But I'm not going back there again. I'm having a great time!

Sincerely,
Jeffrey
Misner

"Another animal find by Sammy"

"A cute babby horse in a pack of horses"

We were going to see some heads in Easter Island but right beside the heads I saw a big pack of wild hources and in that pack I spotted 2 babby hourses. That wasn't the only thing that was wild there, there was tons of wild chickens and they had tons of babby chickens too. Now we are in Australia and there are tons of wild turkeys. Love your friend Sammy!!

"15 Heads are better then 1"

This is a picture of 15 Moai, quite close to the quarry. It's hard to see from this picture but they are very large and on the ocean. These were restored with the generosity of the Japanese government in the 60's after a Sunami destroyed them. They all face inwards (back to the ocean). We were really impressed with these Moai.

Our 2nd Day on Easter Island

It's still sunny and hasn't started raining yet (that's why we are smiling). This is the quarry where all the heads were carved before being taken to their respective places along the coast. We rented our 4x4 to ensure we could see everything in two days and to conserve our $$ as Easter Island is quite expensive. We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast that had hot water most of the time with a lovely hot breakfast each morning to start our day. Quite honestly, two days is enough on Easter Island. The running joke was there wasn't any concern of Dad wanting to move to Easter Island to live. Jeff was quite happy about this revelation. We were all glad we went but we know we are never coming back either. We visited a museum, travelled around about 80% of the island, and drove through about 25 small lakes.....one we didn't as I was even too leary about going through. I think I was just too afraid of Elaine's wrath if we got stuck in the mud/water/rainstorm since we were only about half an hour away from a hot shower and comfy beds. These pics were taken on Aug 20th.

Our 1st Easter Island Stone Heads

We rented a 1980's 4x4 Suzuki sidekick (weren't these outlawed at one time?) on Easter Island for two days. On the first afternoon we drove (Samantha drove too....sorry Grandmas) to an extinct volcano and to these restored Stone heads, also known as Moai. Even in the rain they were still pretty impressive. The kids enjoyed the offroading experience just as much as seeing the Heads. We drove through a number of puddles or small lakes that had us all laughing our heads off, well not Elaine, but certainly the rest of us.

Easter Island

Well we arrive at Easter Island. Approximately 3000 miles off the coast of Santiago, Chile. Easter Island belongs to Chile.....so are Chilean Pesos are still welcome. It was quite wet, somewhat like the weather we understand Toronto has had for most of the summer.

Penguins in Chile

We think these are Humboldt penguins. We took this picture about 3 hours north of Santiago Chile. We had a guide, Hector, who drove us up the coast from Vina Del Mar. It was an incredible Ocean drive. We went through six or more seaside towns and got out numerous times to hike/walk along the ocean trails. At one point we came across a spot where these penguins were. Most people in Chile would never believe there were Penguins outside of Patagonia but there are!!

Kevin's 1st Full Day on the slopes

Chile is a fantastic place!! The wine is phenomenal and it's cheap too! Oh yeah, the skiing isn't too shaby either. We are staying at Portillio, South America's oldest ski resort. Being the oldest ski resort in South America, the history is incredible. The resort is about 2 1/2 hours from Santiago Chile, and there is nothing else here except this small resort (about 400 guests). We are between Santiago and Mendoza, Argentina. The snow is fantastic, light, fast and fun!! We are expecting snow overnight as the barometer is falling :)

An added bonus this week......the Men's Canadian Ski Team arrived this afternoon. Their course is being set up tonight. For those of you who do not follow skiing, this current team is said to be better than the days of the "The Crazy Canucks." Last year, the men's team made it to the podium more than 12 times. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the team members and maybe get the odd autograph myself.

I don't think anyone could not marvel at the beautiful sceery. Portillio sits entirely above the treeline. We look at Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. On some of the steepest advanced runs, the hills are so steep they require specialized lifts (a combination of a slingshot, 5 man poma lift)....I'm waiting for a little more powder to dampen the carnage my knees will likely take. The hotel looks out on a beautiful lake that is nestled between the mountains and provides great opportunities for pictures....sorry I forgot to take a picture as we were too busy eating/skiing. Here's a link to the view from where I'm sitting and typing this....

Jeffrey's 1st Day on the slopes

hello everybody. Its me Jeff. I'mhavinga great time here. Hope everybody's o.k back home. My first day onthe slopes was amazing. we were skiingin the stinken moutains. it was crazy. The only problem was I'm skiing on skis that are only 130cm long and my sister is skiing on140 skis. After my picture that you see to the left Isnowed my dad and accidently my dads camera( he freaked out on me and my mom could here from the top of the hill).

sincerly
the one
and only
Jeffrey
Misner

Sam's 1st Day on the slopes

We arived in Chile about 4 days ago. Today we went skiing in the morning and the afternoon it was so cool because we were skiing on moutains. We get free meals and they are pretty good. After we skied, Dad and I went to the pool and hot tub to relax. The cool thing is that if you looked behind you you could see the mountians coverd with snow. So far its been great!

Elaine's 1st Full Day on the slopes

Chile has been awesome so far. The skiing is really different from anywhere I've been. There is no ice even though it is mild outside. Santiago was a great city to stay in. We did alot of typical tourist things, the warf, zoo, cathedrals.... The people were friendly and we traveled mainly on the metro. We are here at Portillo for another 6 days of skiing. The Canadian Ski Team arrived today, however, we haven't seen them on the slopes yet. We are sitting in the library waiting for dinner, enjoying a glass of red wine. Tomorrow we are going to ski some harder runs. Life is fine!