Drink Canada Dry!!!

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The Need to leave London was getting too great!! i hadnt been on holiday since New York in Jan and even though i was leaving in 6 weeks or so i couldnt handle it. Where was this famous English Summer? All i had seen was rain rain and hail!! After arriving last year to a heat wave i was eagerly anticipating Summer this year, especially after the weather we had had in April........

Well Summer still hasnt happened here yet and its the middle of July!! i think i made a good move heading to Canada for quick break and to see some Sunshine 😊 I went over there to see a girl Liz and i had met in Egypt the previous year. According to her she lived in the "armpit of Canada" but seeing as winter hadnt really lost its grip on London i thought it couldnt have been any worse there.

So off i headed to Kitchener, ON.......the trip started off brilliantly, not. Some guy managed to check in, but then forget that he actually had to board the plane so we had to wait until his bags were taken off before we could depart!! So an hour late already, and we were on a tight schedule on the other end, as as soon as i was picked up we were heading out on a 6hr drive to a Camping ground, and we had to pick people up on the way!!

At the other end of the flight, the landing wasnt exactly what you would call text book.....bouncing 3 times before finally getting the wheels to stay on the ground, overhead compartments opening and bags falling out....welcome to Canada!!

After walking out into the Arrivals area and not seeing Krysten i thought...here we go!! but i managed to find her after a coupl of minutes of looking. Really good to she here again, though got a shock when she opened her mouth (forgotten about the accent) We picked up a couple of mates in Toronto and headed out, meeting up with the rest of the crew at a town along the way....We were trying to push as far as we could that night so the drive in the morning wasnt too long.

We ended up in a town called Cobden and looking for a motel to stay in at 1am!!! needless to say there wasnt a motel open at that hour. We were fruitlessly scouring the town in the 2 cars, before deciding that the grass verge was looking very appealing (we did have tents as we were staying at the whitwater rafting place the next night)....we eventually gave up and camped in a park (which we later found out was actually a campsite!!) By the time i hit the sack, i had been up for over 24hrs!! With my body well out of sync it decided to wake me up 4hrs later (thinking it was 11am london time) so i had gotten practically no sleep, and had to go white water rafting...when i clambered out of the tent, into the sunshine (i gets light here very early) and discovered that we couldnt have chosen a more idillic spot for my first morning in Canada. We had managed to camp right next to a massive lake (see photos).

The leader on our white water rafting trip was believe it or not, not a Canadian, but an Aussie (they seem to be everywhere!!) Due to a lack of booties (well neoprene boots) that were my size i had the luxury of duct taping my Jandels to my feet!! We were all piled into the typical American/Canadian yellow school buses and driven up river to our put in spot. Our trip started off brilliantly, with our guide breaking his oar straight away!! so we had to do a little extra paddling and go pick up an extra one....meanwhile the sun was buring my fair skin (thanks to london) as it was up over 30 degrees, so i took the opportunity to push Krysten in the water and promptly jumped in afterwards. Out of the entire group ( i think there was a total of 12 rafts) Krysten was the first person in the water, and when she ended up in the water a cheer went up from several of the rafts 😊

I dont think i have every had to paddle sooo much in my life...back in NZ when i went white water rafting our river was rapids most of the way down with only the occassional rest in a calm bit of water...and it was a rest in the flat water so we could recover for the next rapid. But the day was great had a lot of fun, we even managed to do a bit of surfing at one point and managed to get the whole front of the raft under water!! As we finished the last rapid we were all allowed to jump overboard and float downstream.....we were picked up a little later by our guide and we then paddled to our pontoon, where there was a bbq and beer waiting for us!! talk about the best end to the day..and we slowly chugged back into the bay were the rafting company and campsite was.

Needless to say after a couple on the boat on the way in, the beers continued to flow into the night, and had an interesting night....We played a little volleyball early in the night which was a lot of fun, then played a couple of drinking games as well, before thinking it would be funny to play horse and carriage with one of the carts used in the campsite...after this it was off to the beach, via some stairs, which nearly ended in disaster as Pete (one of Krystens mates) thought he was strong enough to get the cart, in which was a chilly bin (which was full of beer and ice) and a Jess(another friend), down the stairs...after several pleadings Pete did let Jess out, and luckily so, as Pete nearly flattened himself when getting the cart down the stairs!!

As dusk was falling we decided to take out a couple of the paddle boats (the ones that you "cycle") to one of the islands...this was a true effort and my legs were burning by the time we got there.....by the way they are designed for 2 people but Krysten and I had to ferry another person as well, who didnt want to help Paddle!! After spending some time on the island and claiming it as our nation and trying to settle on it we set off home again...this time i wasnt paddling, just the girls were...halfway home, Krysten thought it would be funny to pretend to push me in, luckily i caught myself just in time....this was hard as i was holding a beer in one hand and perciuosly perched on the front of this contraption...after just settling back down again, i get another foot in the back and this time due to my wet feet i go all the way in....did i mention i was fully clothed??? after everyone had had a good laugh the girls werent bothered with paddling anymore, so i grabbed a hold on the boat and swam them back to shore!!

The night ended in the main hall listening to a live band and after numerous drinks Pete decided that the night needed a little more livening up as the band had stopped playing, so he promptly got on stage and somehow managed to pull on the bottom half of a wetsuit that looked like it belonged to a 10yr old, and started dancing to the music that was playing....very shortly after several dodgy movements the band was back up on stage and Pete was back in his seat....i think everyone had seen enough 😊

The next morning was a little hard getting up, and the boys had to pack up the tents while the girls were off showering and making themselves look pretty...well trying anyway..haha sorry joking. We were back in the Cougar again for another 6hrs, and by this time my butt was soo numb i couldnt really feel it anymore....for those of you who dont know what a Cougar is, its a 2 door SMALL sports car, and we had 4 people in it!!! i couldnt sit up straight as my head woudl be through the roof.....and this is a car that we spent 12hrs in!!! not the most pleasant experience!!

After dropping the boys off we headed out East to Krystens house.....

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