Return to Newfoundland
Wednesday July 31, 2024
Last year in August, we spent a week in Newfoundland, travelling all around the island and sampling the best of what it had to offer. What we discovered was a magnificent island with untouched beauty and so much fewer people than tourist hotspots like Banff. We vowed to come back, and this year, here we are again, only visiting the west side but getting the opportunity to revisit a bunch of places and cover some more of the remote areas. A week ago, we flew into Deer Lake, picked up our rental vehicles, did some grocery shopping, and settled into our Airbnb. Wifi was spotty and I could hear literally everything happening in the kitchen, but it was comfortable at least.
Thanks to my recent Canadian citizenship, I was able to get free entry for the whole car to Gros Morne National Park. We started off with the Green Gardens hike, a trail which leads to some rugged shoreline and some lush landscapes. In the afternoon, we hiked to Baker Brooks Falls. Both were a warmup for the next day’s hike to the top of the Tablelands.
Said to be a part of the exposed mantle, the landscape of the Tablelands is mostly barren and almost like an alien world, littered with interesting rocks and minerals. On the drive over, I spotted a female moose on the side of the road, which I found incredibly exciting and felt like my Canadianess had increased as a result. The start of the hike began on a boardwalk, and we continued past the end by following the main stream and began the ascent to the plateau. I find this kind of terrain interesting for hiking, and my long legs help me climb rocks with ease. At the plateau, we waited for the rest of the group to catch up and then crossed to the other side of the gorge to begin the descent. This terrain was unpleasant to walk on, and this was worsened by several black flies that perpetually buzzed around our heads. After an hour or so, we began the descent by following another stream back to the boardwalk. All in all, the hike took around six hours to complete. This was far less enjoyable than Gros Morne, but still an achievement to be proud of. We relocated to Rocky Harbour for our accommodation, where the Wifi was strong but I was on the sofa bed and had no privacy and no curtains to block the 5am sun.
With the major hikes out of the way, we did the Western Brook Pond boat tour, a cruise around a glacial carved valley with some fantastic cliffs and waterfalls adorning them. We were lucky that the morning rain had stopped in time for us to enjoy the time on the boat, and the clouds began to part slightly at the end of the cruise as well. We ended the day with a short hike around Berry Hill, and a sunset viewing at Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse.
On Tuesday, we started the long drive to the northern tip of the island. We stopped by Arches Provincial Park for a breather and continued to Port au Choix, where we saw several caribou (also known as reindeer!). Our Airbnb was in St Lunaire Griquet, and though I had a room to myself, the heating was dependent on the controls in the other room, and worse, the water smelt extremely metallic and unpleasant.
Originally we had planned to cover the historical Viking site L’Anse aux Meadows on Thursday, but since the forecast was looking wet, we brought it forward to Wednesday. We had also abandoned plans to visit Labrador due to complications with the ferry. It was fascinating to learn about the Viking settlement. Since migrating in different directions from Africa thousands of years ago, the arrival of these Norsemen marked the reunion of the Western European world with the Eastern travellers that colonised Russia and North America. We spent some time at Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve before returning to L’Anse aux Meadows for dinner at the Norseman Restaurant.
The clouds and cold rolled in on Thursday. We spent some time in St Anthony, admiring the view from Fishing Point. We spotted two icebergs floating in the sea, and drove to St Anthony’s Bight to take a closer look at one of them. We tried to follow the road along the coast to find the other, but that area was so devoid of accessible roads that we couldn’t really find a good viewing point, so we just went home and rested. Dinner was at a restaurant just five minutes away, and by that time, the rain was really bucketing down.
Our drive back to Deer Lake was long and boring, but we finished off our time in Newfoundland was a visit to the Insectarium. This was surprisingly interesting, and well worth the $15 and one hour we spent there. The butterfly garden lets you get up close with several colourful species of butterfly, and on the main exhibit floor, the staff were happy to take many of the live insects out for you to hold, including stick insects, millipedes and cockroaches! It’s been a wonderful week but I’m looking forward to being back in comfort in my own bed and apartment. Next week is a short week for work with both Canada Day and Independence Day being holidays for us.
Summer has been busy so far. I visited Little Canada, did Doors Open, saw Hadestown, and went to African Lion Safari. Matt visited from Cleveland and we went to the Illuminarium at the Distillery District, the cat cafe in Scarborough, and the fireworks for Victoria Day at Woodbine Beach. I had a very boujie dinner at Louis Louix thanks to FuzzyBot, and Korean barbeque lunch to farewell John, Tina and May. I finally finished the main story of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but still have a bunch of side quests to complete. In the meantime, I’m determined to make the most of the magnificent weather while I can, and it feels like I’ve accomplished so much already.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:11pm on Wednesday July 31, 2024 :: 0 comments :: 
Southbound
Sunday November 12, 2023
This year, I’m not flying south to spend the winter. Instead, I’m flying south for only two weeks, to four new countries, to explore some of the most beautiful parts of South America. Our first stop is Panama for a seven hour layover, where we’ll go see the canal and grab some food before getting back on the plane to Buenos Aires. I’ve been preparing for this trip for a while, and it’s required a lot of planning and organisation. I’ve been learning some rudimentary Spanish too - this’ll help me for this trip and hopefully my three months in Barcelona too.
The last few months have been incredibly busy. Our trip to Newfoundland was amazing, with a gruelling eight hour hike up and down Gros Morne, as well as a sneaky visit to the town of Dildo. Our trip to Kawartha Lakes for Thanksgiving was less amazing. We were supposed to go kayaking on the Sunday but due to rough conditions and the inexperience of the group in general, the rental company asked us to cancel the excursion but wouldn’t refund us. Instead they offered us a 50% discount on the next trip, which means we’d have to drive back out to take advantage of it. We did see some nice fall colours on the Trans Canada Hiking Trail, and some spectacular salmon jumps at Port Hope, but a few things went wrong that weekend and it was mildly frustrating.
Work has also been busy, with several difficult technical problems to solve. We’ve got a new programmer starting while I’m away, and I’m hoping that’ll alleviate some of our challenges. The industry is in a state of volatility at the moment, with thousands of layoffs happening all over the place. 2024 will probably be much of the same. I’m just glad my job is safe and I’m constantly reassured by our CEO that Prytania is going to be fine.
I went to the CNE this year with Hardeep. It was a welcome return to Exhibition Place, and the air show had been buzzing around Toronto skies a few days prior. The dog show was hilarious and adorable at the same time, and it was video games themed, so extra special. The food was as expected - expensive and nothing to write home about, but the most surprising experience was the audio sensory light exhibit in a dark room. It was a kaleidoscope of colourful patterns and fractals and geometry with a gentle soundtrack to accompany. A couple of weeks later, I tried to show him the salmon run on the Humber River, but we saw nothing. Instead, we went for dumplings in Chinatown and then went kayaking around the Toronto Islands. At night, we wandered around the city for Nuit Blanche, but nothing was notable.
I was at Hemingways with Emilio for the Rugby World Cup final, New Zealand versus South Africa. There were a lot of Springboks supporters, but there were a lot of black jerseys around as well. The atmosphere was fun and jovial, with a few “chaaa hooo!”s throughout the game, but alas, it wasn’t the result that the we were hoping for. Has to feel a bit bad for Sam Cane too. As soon as the final whistle blew, I was out of there.
Emotionally, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster too, with ups and downs. We had to cancel our work trip to Los Angeles because of the hotel workers’ strike. The darker days have forced me to bring out my sun lamp, to force my brain to start making the happy chemicals. We haven’t gotten our first snowfall yet, but after I get back from South America, it’ll only be a month until Christmas!
Posted by Jeremy at 1:03am on Sunday November 12, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Back in the Air
Thursday August 31, 2023
It feels like a long time since I’ve been at the airport - really only five and a half months - but it seemed momentous to be back at Pearson on this sunny Friday morning as we embarked on our flight to Newfoundland.
Summer has been busy. Just the way I like it. There’s been festivals and food and events. There’s been hikes and dinners and visits. There’s been cause for celebration, and moments of grief and reflection. I always tell people how alive the city is during summer and this year is the first year without COVID restrictions, so people were keen to get back into how things were pre-2020.
I’d basically recovered from my back injury by the time Charlotte, my old flatmate, had come to visit me in May. She was here for an academic conference at York University, but had a few days to explore the highlights of Toronto. I took her to all my favourite restaurants; there were too many to go to and she didn’t have enough stomach space for all the ice cream. We took a day trip to Niagara on the Lake and had lunch at a winery specialising in ice wine cocktails, and then did the Whirlpool Cable Car and the boat tour into the Niagara Falls in the afternoon. The next day, we went to the zoo and suffered through 90 minutes on the 401 because they’d closed all but one lane on Collectors for construction. She was really lucky on this trip; she managed to see a raccoon when I took her to High Park Zoo, and a groundhog wandering the zoo grounds, as well as my two favourite neighbourhood cats, Dobby and Lhasa.
Rohit was in from Calgary for a couple of days for work, so I caught up with him for the usual dumplings in Chinatown. I went to the Pride Parade too, which was a really welcoming, jovial atmosphere. We had a hotpot and barbeque picnic out in Milliken Park for Canada Day and stayed to watch the fireworks. I went to watch a couple of drone shows too, one out in Woodbine Beach and the other by Ontario Place.
Perhaps the most significant event in the past few months is that I’ve become a dual New Zealand and Canadian citizen. I drove all the way out to Mississauga to attend my citizenship ceremony with 100 other people, and we were presided over by Judge Albert Wong, who was born in Malaysia and came to Canada and served in the armed forces. His story was fascinating and he was hilarious, and the fact that we were both born in Malaysia made the ceremony so much more poignant. It was a memorable event, and a few weeks later, I got my passport.
This is important because I’ll be travelling the to US next month for a work conference, and since I had to surrender my PR card at the ceremony, the Canadian passport is my only ticket back into the country. I’m looking forward to the event though, the company had planned to do it in Vancouver but Beyoncé’s concert was at the same time and we couldn’t get accommodation, so we shifted it to Los Angeles. I’m hoping there will be visits to Universal and Disneyland!
I mentioned in my last post that in May, Mum's eldest sister passed away. Imagine my horror when, on a Sunday night after badminton in July, I got a text from my sister that another of Mum's sisters passed away, this time the aunt that was closest in age to her. I managed to see her in December, and in my heart I knew it may be the last opportunity I had, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. This one really hurt. On the night that my mother passed away, my aunt was already on her way to Auckland from Kuala Lumpur, unaware that she was too late. She was devastated when she arrived. Because of my citizenship ceremony, I wasn't able to leave the country, but I still tried to watch what I could on Zoom. In her memory, I snuck "Power of Your Love" into the church service the following Sunday. We sang it at Mum's funeral too, its poignant first line "Lord I come to you; let my heart be changed, renewed" so rich in meaning for the occasion.
The week ahead will be a refreshing break from the busyness of summer, as we explore Canada’s easternmost province and all its rugged beauty. Like New Zealand, Newfoundland's scenery is largely unspoiled and untouched by human civilisation, so it's not uncommon for the best views to be hidden behind strenuous four hour hikes; in fact, our trip highlight is the eight hour hike up Gros Morne, the second highest peak on the island. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:57am on Thursday August 31, 2023 :: 0 comments ::