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[thetikitouringlife]

Post winter flying visit to Canada 🇨🇦

[thetikitouringlife]

Onwards and upwards! ✈️ 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 🇳🇿

I know things have been a bit quiet from me of the last month or so, no excuse just one of those things I guess. Anyhow, this is what’s been going on since my last post … in this order …

I finished up the winter in the US.

I travelled to Canada for 10 days to see a friend and visit just a few of the sights - Niagra falls is awesome by the way!

I spent 6 weeks in the UK visiting friends and family.

And that brings me to the here and now.

New Zealand!

Winter is just around the corner and I start work in 10 days time. A new mountain with new trails. Let’s see what winter 2017 has in store eh?

It’s time to start the snow dance ❄️❄️❄️❄️

[thetikitouringlife]

Life .... how hard can it be right?!

I honestly believe you can achieve anything you want to if you put your mind to it. It won’t always be easy and sometimes you might not succeed first time round but if you want to do it you can.

I think sometimes people have the perception that I just swan around having the time of my life, that my life is easy with no stress. Basically, like I am on a permanent holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I have a great time and have had some amazing experiences but I am only human and even though I might not be living the 9-5 lifestyle I can still have the same worries, question my choices and direction and generally wonder ‘what the hell am I doing?!’.

As far as I am concerned life is about being happy. If you are in a situation, whether it be home, work or otherwise that makes you unhappy then you need to take a look at the bigger picture and do something. Make a change. There have been times when I have literally resorted to making a list of positives and things that I enjoy and what it is that makes me happy. Alongside the current things which are making me unhappy. If you are not happy why? What do you want/need from your life to make you happy? What needs to change in order to move closer to a happier place?

Change is not always easy, it may be scary and daunting but someone once said to me 'never try, never know’. Such a simple phrase but so true. I think that half the battle is accepting that to get to your goal, however big or small it maybe, you may experience a period of uncertainly, fear, confusion and frustration to name but a few emotions. Believe me when I say that I have felt all of these things at one time or another and undoubtedly will again in the future but the only thing stopping you is yourself and if you take a deep breath, make a commitment to the change and surround yourself with positive people good things will happen. Once in a while take a chance because you never know where it might lead.

[thetikitouringlife]

US winter is alright eh! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[thetikitouringlife]

The local sights! Dots diner, the Moover bus, view from the look out at work, our house and the view from the local hill. Not a bad wee spot to spend the winter eh?

[thetikitouringlife]

USA, USA, USA! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

After a great couple of weeks travelling the U.K. visiting people, then a month of sleeping on a put up bed at my parents in my Dads computer room it was finally time for me to get going again and back to the mountains. After a delay at Gatwick due to fog resulting in a near missed connection in Iceland I made it to Boston with all of my bags in tow which is always a winner.

As I talked about in my last post work for the winter is at The Hermitage Club. A private members only club in West Dover, Vermont. It really is the height of luxury to ski your own private ski hill that is not open to the public and definitely feels like a case of ‘how the other half live’!

I am living in a 16 person staff house with other instructors which is like a large chalet. It's pretty comfy with a huge living area and lots of space so although we are 16 it doesn’t feel like you are living on top of each other which is cool.

After a couple of days chilling out, getting my bearings and sorting out a bank account ect it was time for the first days of work. There are quite a lot of returning staff which is great as they know the ropes already and are a font of knowledge for any questions.

I will be spending the season teaching snowboarding within the seasonal kids program at the club. Every weekend the families come to stay and many of the children are enrolled in the seasonal program, being in ski school all day Saturday and Sunday as well as during the holiday periods. I have a group of snowboard kids that can already ride so it’s gonna be really good riding with them all winter and progressing their riding.

On our days off we can ride at Mount Snow which is the local public hill and 5 mins from the house on a free shuttle bus called the ‘Moover’ and yes - it is painted like a cow! It’s a fun cruisy mountain and always seems quite as we work weekends so are up there mid week. Result!

Needless to say it been a bit of a whirl wind first week. Throw into the mix that it was my birthday as well and it’s all been pretty sweet. My birthday was spent shredding at Mount Snow followed by a party at the house … the guys even made me a cake which was amazing of them.

All in all it’s been a great start to the winter with some great start of the season snow so there are no complaints from me!

[thetikitouringlife]

The next chapter

After being in New Zealand for the best part of a year and a half getting back to the UK was great to see family and friends up and down the length of the country but the overwhelming feeling I have got is that there are so many people, too many people. The roads are busy at all hours of the day and night, the streets are crammed with people shopping with bag upon bag of useless crap that they neither want or need but feel compelled to buy none the less. Also something that has struck me is the amount of homeless people, it seems that in every town you go to there are homeless people. This is not only confined to the big cities but regular towns as well. Something has to give, this country is only so big. What will it be like in 10 years time? No one knows I guess but I hope that it will be a better place than it seems to me right now.

Rant over, it’s just how I feel!

So, currently I am gearing up (read as ‘twiddling my thumbs waiting’) to head to the US for the winter. I have a job working as an instructor at a private ski hill in Vermont. It’s a pretty exciting opportunity to work in America, even more so because I have never actually been to the US before. As my first instructor job I think it will be a great foundation of experience going forward and I am keen to put into practice everything I have learnt in New Zealand and start my journey of being a snow sports instructor.

[thetikitouringlife]

Pictures are like a diary - memories of a time and place in your life and what was going on. Pretty cool eh?

[thetikitouringlife]

U.K. wanderings to pass the time between winters. It’s not my cup of tea but there are a few pretty sweet spots, some of the people aren't too bad either! 🇬🇧

[thetikitouringlife]

Travel and friends

Good friends are worth their weight in gold and I for one consider myself rich. Rich with good friends that I have made from a wealth of different places and experiences. Old friends that are in the UK, newer friends from all over the world that I have met over the course of my travels in the last 7 years. What has become interesting to me is that when you live a transient life of back and forth travel, belonging everywhere but nowhere at the same time, you come to realise that time doesn't stop. People move on in their lives. Sometimes it can feel like you have drifted apart from the friendship you once had in a certain time and place but you know what? That's ok. Things change. People change. What doesn't change though is the fact that good friends are good friends. Just because you may now be on different paths to the one you were both on when you initially forged the friendship it doesn't mean it had to end. After all, if everyone was the same and ended up wanting the same things from life the world would be a very different place. I guess you could say it's this diversity in opinions, cultures, beliefs and wants that drives me to go to more places, meet more people, have more experiences and make more friends. Friends that I am yet to meet. Not everyone you meet will be a friend forever but whether they are passing through your life for a matter of days or weeks or will be there for you for many years to come my advice is to embrace them for the friendship they offer at that moment in time and enjoy your similarities and differences in equal measure. Friendship is valuable. Embrace old friends and make new friends, for friendship really is worth its weight in gold.

[thetikitouringlife]

In summery it was a great trip, I met some cool people, caught up with old friends and had a fab holiday in perfect weather before headed back to NZ to get on with a winter of riding, training and general shenanigans. Onwards and upwards to the next challenge!

[thetikitouringlife]

My final destination was to be Cairns in the tropical North Queensland. Tropical it definitely was with several random down pours of rain in the few days I was there that never lasted for long but would have you soaked to the bone if you got caught out! The main thing I was looking forward to was my snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef and after an hour or so fast speed transfer out to the reef on our boat we were good to go. Upon diving into the water I was greeted by an underwater wonderland, it was like I had submerged into a tropical fish tank, just amazing. We snorkelled at three different sites during the day and I saw so much amazing sea life. A reef shark, massive clams and sea cucumbers on the sea bed, clown fish, parrot fish, all different type of coral and so much more. I think it is safe to say that I have another big tick on my bucket list.

[thetikitouringlife]

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday islands where I took a 2 day boat trip on a trimaran to explore the islands. The experience turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip and the 24 other people on the boat were a great fun international group. The water was as flat as a pancake which made for a lot of chilled out cruising around to various snorkelling spots which held a huge variety of fish of all sizes shapes and colours! We also visited the famous idillic white silica sand shores of Whitehaven beach where the sand is so fine you can use it to buff your skin and even clean your teeth! The 3 man crew of the by were fab and really knew their stuff about the areas ecosystem. One evening when we're heading into a bay to anchor up for the night we were even treated to a visit from a sea eagle who was more than happy to spend some time circling the boat whilst the crew threw steak into the sky for it to catch clean out of the air as it swooped past.

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Stretching for 120 km just off the Queensland coast is the worlds largest sand bar island - Fraser Island. You can't visit the east coast of Aus without taking a trip so I signed up to go on a 3 day tour of the island. The days were spent cruising around in a convoy of 4x4s seeing all the sights and the evenings spent camping in the bush. Fortunately the camp was already set up and functioning so all we had to do was turn up, roll out our sleeping bags and cook our dinner. I ended up in a wagon with a great bunch of people and did a lot of the driving which was great fun, a mix of bouncing around negotiating the inland tracks and then blasting along the wide flat beaches. We saw all the sights from the ship wreak of SS Maheno to the champagne rock pools big enough for swimming and more. A highlight for me was watching some whales from the rocky crop panoramic vantage point called Indian Head. They were so close you could see their whole bodies, magnificent creatures.

[thetikitouringlife]

10 mins up the road from Buderim I stopped for a flying visit for 24 hours to see my friend from the winter, Amy. We started the day with some SUP surfing, great fun but harder than it looks! This was followed by heading inland to a creek for some swimming, it was bloody freezing but there were some fun rope swings so we braved the cold. We finished off the day back on the sea front toasting marshmallows for yet another sunset. A glorious day with a glorious friend who I will hopefully see again sooner rather than later somewhere around the world!

[thetikitouringlife]

My friends Helen and Ade moved 'down under' three years ago and it had actually been a total of seven years since we'd last met up, they now live in a town called Buderim located on the Sunshine Coast and these guys were a must do on my trip over to Aussie. With them now being a family with four kids my visit was always going to be non stop action. Throw a 7th birthday celebration into the mix and I think it is fair to say I had a great time, albeit a slightly exhausting one! It was great to see them, they certainly looked after me and I think it shows the test of good friendship that despite not having seen them for many years it seemed like only last week since we had last met.

[thetikitouringlife]

My next brief stop was the city of Brisbane. Upon arrival it struck me as very similar to London in that there is a meandering river which slices through the middle of the city. As a city it has all of the usual art galleries and museums, however on the banks of the river it also has the unique feature of a the city centre south bank area complete with man made beach, lagoon and lifeguard!