A weekend in Vancouver

I spent a good portion of the weekend with my good friend Don Blackadar and his wife Jan. We met 30 years ago at the University of Alberta. I began the Masters program in September and Don started in January. Both of us were assigned to the same grad office which we shared during our mutual time there. And from that humble beginning a great friendship began!

Don took me out to Whistler, on the Sea to Sky Highway, currently under major upgrading in preparation for the Winter Olympics set to take place in 2010. This was the first time I had ever been there even though I have been to Vancouver several times before and it was a fantastic experience!

Along the way we stopped briefly at the old copper mine - now mining museum at Britannia Beach. We then stopped for lunch at Squamish before proceeding on to Whistler.

While I have heard lots about Whistler it was incredible to see first hand - so many very long runs that even a novice skier like me could tackle without too much difficulty. The place was packed with mostly young adults out to have a good time on the slopes and made both Don and I harken back to when we were that age so long ago!

The following day Don and Jan took me to Stanley Park where we had lunch and then a nice walk along the sea wall. One of the best parts about Vancouver is the park and the only negative is that it is too bad they never made it larger!

Well, this is going to be my last post for this current trip. I have had a great time seeing so many new and wonderful places, making new friendships and renewing old ones. As I told Don, at times I have felt that if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all but I now realise I have been extremely fortunate to have been to these fantastic places and to have met all of these great people that I truly feel blessed. I hope you have enjoyed this travelogue as I sure have enjoyed creating it! Until next time...

The trip to Vancouver From Noumea

This will be a rather short entry with no accompanying photographs as seldom did opportunity present it self to take any. Friday was a very long day - literally! I left Noumea in the dark as it is over a half hours drive to the airport. I was picked up by a shuttle service at 5 am and and arrived at the airport at 6. After checking in I had to wait a while before going through security where I could then relax in the business class lounge until leaving on the 8 am flight to Sydney. 

The flight to Sydney was uneventful with the plane arriving about 11:30 am. After getting my boarding pass for the flight to Los Angeles (LA), I went to the Qantas lounge for the next several hours. There I was able to connect to the Internet and chatted with Janice and my mom for a while (at one point I had 3 separate conversations going on as I chatted with Jordan for a few minutes too!). 

The flight left Sydney at 3:20 pm and got into LA at 9:50 am the same day (after almost 14 hours in the air)! As usual I slept very little being able to only nap every so often - wide eyed until fatigue set in and I would have to close my eyes and drift off for 10 to 15 minutes until I awoke once again and then repeated the cycle. The hold over in LA wasn't too long but not very enjoyable. I got confused as to where to go to next and ended up on this shuttle bus which took me, not to the terminal I needed to go to but to a transfer station for local LA public transit! I had to wait about 15 minutes for the next shuttle as the one that dropped me off was going out of service. As it turns out all I had needed to do was walk about 100 metres to the next terminal, but I couldn't find any signs pointing me in the right direction, thus my taking the bus! 

While I let myself get a little stressed out I made it to my next flight on time. The flight to Vancouver was uneventful except for short bouts of drowsiness. I am staying at the Listel Hotel, in downtown Vancouver where I will be until this coming Wednesday. I have some meetings arranged for Monday and Tuesday. 

This weekend I plan to spend with my good friend Don and his wife Jan. Don and I both did our masters at the University of Alberta and shared an office while there. Because of my sleep habits (or inability to do so on a plane) the best thing I have done to keep jet lag at bay is spending the night in Vancouver on the return. This is the second time I have done it and both times I have been able to get a good nights sleep which helps over come jet lag dramatically! 

Well, this trip is almost over. And as before it has been very fascinating seeing the many contrasts between Canada and other parts of the world. And missing out on the -40 degree weather in Thompson hasn't been that bad either!

My visit to New Caledonia!

Well, the trip to New Caledonia was, like most of what I've seen on this trip, very fascinating! The island is very green but rugged as you can see from this first picture that I took from the plane on our approach. I apologise in that I wasn't able to take very many pictures as it rained every day I was there and not just a brief shower or two!

It turns out that the closest flat area they could find suitable for an airport for Noumea is about 40 kilometres to the north! But at least they have a very decent highway that is currently being upgraded to a 4 lane highway on par with what you would find in North America and I must assume Europe as I have never been there. And that was the beginning of many differences I saw as compared to Indonesia. While the climate is similar (very hot and humid although no where else have I experienced so much rain) nothing else compares!

Motor bikes of any sort are very rare and cars and trucks are common (especially European brands such as Peugeot and Renaud, and a lot of Ford's). They drive on the right too so at many times it felt like driving through the coastal mountains of BC in the summer time. And you do not see people living anywhere there is a bit of flat land. Plus the houses are all of a minimum building standard that do not bring the term "hovel" to mind. Having said that it reminds me of one observation I have made about Indonesia - rarely did I see signs of building craftsmanship! Especially when it came to cement or brick work where rough shod may be too nice a term. The same cannot be said of New Caledonia.

Anyway, my good friend Laurent Sapor (I had met him on my last trip to Western Australia and we have kept in touch since) met me at the airport and then drove me to the Goro construction site. There I stayed the next few days, based in the construction camp. In this next photo the camp is outside the view, to the right. We are looking south towards the bay that is host to the port being constructed for the mine. The road in the forefront is the access to the mine which is behind. And the processing plant is to the left. They still have a lot of work to do but the word is that they expect construction to be about done come November.

I spent 2 days presenting a Datamine training course to a group of people from Exploration, including Laurent. This next picture is of a portion of the exploration camp, located a half hours drive from the construction camp, close to a lake and within a grove of pine trees within the shadow or a large ridge of ultramafic rock. Much of the island is underlain by an ophiolite complex (upper mantle thrust up onto the upper crust through tectonic action). It is these ultramafic rocks that, due to the extensive rain, have been transformed into earthy mud enriched in nickel as much of the original rock has been dissolved and carried away. Most of what is left is just iron oxides and so everywhere it is orange to dark red in color.

The exception is the upper crust that now is almost pure iron oxide (usually goethite, an iron oxide containing water). It is hard and black to dark gray in colour and does not lend itself to being a very good environment for plant growth. One exception is a rare tree that can grow in this environment and as a result survive to a very ripe old age (hundreds of years) as it is safe from the ravages of the many forest fires (either it rains a lot or not at all for extended periods of time). This last picture is of Laurent in front of one of these trees. You can see some of the mine development in the background.

My last evening in New Caledonia was spent in Noumea where I stayed at the Ramada hotel. Laurent and his wife Sandy (see the photo to the left that they were kind enough to give to me as I forgot to take one of them!) invited me to join them for dinner at a seaside restaurant (actually it is on stilts right out onto the bay) where we had an excellent meal. Of all the places I have seen, other than Sydney, none have left we with such a positive impression as has Noumea and New Caledonia, once I got over the embarrassment of not being able to speak french! And on that note here is an interesting piece of trivia - all of the stop signs say "Stop". And when I asked Laurent and Sandy about this they were surprised (they both born in France) as "stop" is an accepted French word!

The Journey Home Begins with a stop in Sydney, NSW.

Last week turned out to be a very busy one with every day spent working from 7:00 am to 6:30 - 7:30 pm as I helped the two auditors from AMEC review our resource modelling work done for Pomalaa. It was the first time I have been directly involved in such an audit (an audit of methods and procedures) and it was very revealing and I learned a lot!

The bulk of my time was spent with Geroges Verly, who lives in Vancouver and has a PhD in Geostatistics from Stanford University. This university has developed a well deserved reputation for having produced many of the best geostatisticians in the world, all under the tutelage of Andre Journel.

Saturday morning I departed Sorowako and began the long journey back to Canada although I will have a relatively brief hold over (3 full days) in New Caledonia to put on an Introduction to Datamine training course for a group of five technicians and geologists involved in the laterite exploration program there. One of them is Laurent Sapor, who I had met on my last trip to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

After leaving Sorowako I flew to Makassar, then on to Jakarta where I transferred to Singapore airlines for a flight to Singapore. After several hours there I then caught a British Airways flight to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, which is where I am now as I need to wait for my flight to Noumea, New Caledonia tomorrow. Note, if you ever have the chance/choice, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, from my perspective are two of the best whereas British Airways, while having very friendly service, was definitely lacking in comparison (i.e. plastic utensils as compared to Stainless steel). But still better than anything I've experienced on Air Canada!

The BA flight got in about 7:00 am. After clearing customs I then took a cab to the Radisson Hotel in downtown Sydney (if you are interested in seeing where it is, use Google Maps and search for "27 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia "). As I have already indicated, my next leg is not until tomorrow morning so I spent much of today walking around. The hotel is very close to Circular Quay, where the Sydney Opera house is located and to the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. I had thought of doing the walk up to the top of the bridge superstructure but the fee for the 3 1/2 hour guided tour is almost $200 AUD (about $180 CAD) and I am too cheap to spend that kind of money!

Even so I had a good time walking around, enjoying the sights, including performances by aborigines using the didgeridoo, chanting and dancing, as seen in this picture.

I got a laugh, which I will share with you as there is a restaurant on the quay, near the opera house, called "Minus 15°" who describe themselves as "The Coolest Experience in Sydney"! Note the parka!

This last photo is of the Sydney downtown skyline from in front of the opera house. Unlike my experience in Western Australia , Sydney has not been a disappointment but was everything I had been led to believe. A very beautiful setting and a well laid out city with a very modern cosmopolitan look (unlike anything I saw in Indonesia, that's for sure!). Even some geology as the quay is carved into a sandstone headland with excellent cross-bedding! Prices are generally on the high side but I already knew that based on my 2 previous trips. The one disappointment is that, at supper I tried to have a Foster's and came up empty handed, again! For those of you who are not aware of this for a few years I had taken a hankering to the Canadian version. I no longer drink it in Canada as it is hard to find. But I have always been curious as to how similar, or different, it is to the Australian original as made famous by Crocodile Dundee. On 3 trips now I am still shooting blanks! Oh well, maybe next time, if there is a next time.

Trip to Pomalaa

Well, I'm back in Sorowako after spending a few days traveling to and from Pomalaa, another mining operation the company has on the island of Sulawesi ( literally translates as "island of Iron" by the way). For those interested on locating Pomalaa you may have difficulty in that the source I checked, Google Maps, does not have it but it is about 10 km south of the village of Kolaka, itself about 150 km west of Kendari, on the southeast arm of Sulawesi.

Myself and Ade Kadarusman left Sorowako Thursday morning and flew to Makassar where we waited for Ted Eggleston and Georges Verly, both with Amec. They arrived at about 10:30 from Denpasar. As we had about 4 or 5 hours to kill Adi arranged for a car and driver and we took a trip to downtown Makasser. The airport is quite a ways out and they are currently building a new 4 lane highway to the airport thus it took us close to an hour to get there!

The first stop we made was to a place where they have replicas of different villages depicting the types of houses characteristic to some of the major ethnic groups. On Sulawesi 3 of these are the Makassars, the Bugis (the dominate group around Sorowako) and the Torajans. The latter are the source of a very distinctive building structure that, like the Inukshuk of Canada, the rest of Sulawesi has more or less adopted as a symbol for the rest of the world. As you can see in this first photo. They are characterised by up swept peaks at both ends, are on stilts and have ornate carvings and painted symbols.

After there we then went for lunch at a seafood restaurant. What was unusual, at least for me, was the fact they had fresh fish of a number of varieties in coolers at the front. Similarly the cooking facilities were more or less out side, again at the front where they had a large grill going as well as a deep fryer. We (actually Ade) selected what fish we wanted and then chose how we wanted it prepared.

It was quite good! Although I must say I haven't found anything here that was offensive, at least to my palette! Some things I do try and stay clear of or at least consume in moderation. For example they use tofu a fair amount and like to deep fry items in palm oil.

After lunch we went to "Fort Rotterdam" - a relic from the Dutch colonial days, and about the only sign I had seen up to this point of remnants of their long period of influence and control over the country. Making the trip to down-town Makassar also exposed me for the first time to something that I also got to see a lot once we got to the east side of the island, and that is the "bemo" (or at least that is the name referenced in my phrase book). These are "public transportation" vehicles and consist of aqua coloured mini-vans. And they are all over the place and become a real nuisance as they will stop anywhere and do anything (i.e. back-up while still in the driving lane!). Note the ones in front of the Fort entrance.

The fort is also home to a museum which records both the colonial history but also information on the ethnic groups and cultural characteristics of the Indonesians.

We then returned to the airport for our flight across to Kendari, which takes less than 1 hour. We spent the night there and left in the morning for Pomalaa at 5:30, before sunrise. While only about 150 km it takes a full 4 hours as much is narrow, winding roads, that rather than go straight through various valleys go along the hill sides and follow every curvature they make! It appeared that on every sharp corner there would be a small cluster of shops, again each with virtually the same spectrum of snacks and drinks as the one beside it! I guess the store operators figure that you have to slow down anyways so that would be a good place to set up shop.

Pomalaa is right on the west coast of the southeast arm of Sulawesi. There Amtam, the Indonesian national mining company, has a ferro-nickel plant. While they have mined out all of the available ore from their land holdings PTInco is mining from their land holdings next door and selling the ore as feed to the Antam plant. Here is a view from the top of the hill that PTInco is mining looking towards the Gulf Of Bone ("Bo - nay") with a glimpse of the Amtam plant.

The next day, after touring around the mine site looking at how they do their drilling, ore control sampling, mining and sample preparation and assaying we then drove back to Kendari.

Kendari is like no place I have seen in Indonesia so far in that it actually looked a bit metropolitan, an impression I did not get from Makassar (as for Jakarta I have only seen the airport). Streets were relatively wide with wide boulevards and virtually all buildings looked reasonably well maintained. As in Makassar though those darn aqua bemos are everywhere!

One store that is very common (and many of the Indonesians make sure they stop at while in Makassar before returning to Sorowako) is KFC! As they do tend to deep fry things a lot and chicken is a common meat source around here it actually is a natural fit!

The next morning we made our way back to Sorowako, via Makassar. While a bit of a whirlwind trip it still was quite fascinating seeing the different styles of houses, relative to Sorowako, as well as the different way of mining.

Living and Working in Sorowako

Today I am going to do something a little different. Rather than describe one of my local adventures I am instead going to show you where I have been staying and working.

This first picture is of about two thirds of Block A of the dormitory complex. In total there are three 2 story buildings surrounding a central cafeteria building (you can just see a corner of in on the right hand edge of the photo). Currently I am staying in room A24, on the ground floor, just in behind the red ford truck peeking out amongst the pack. That truck by the way is the one I have been using the last few days.

The rooms are comfortable enough and certainly aren't what you would call fancy. All have a bed (so far rooms I have stayed in have had: a single, two singles, and now a queen), a desk, a small refrigerator, a small TV and some chairs. My friend Andrew is staying at another complex called the "guest house". Other than nicer TV and furniture the rooms are essentially the same size. The one advantage of the guest house is that it is right beside the Yacht Club so it is just a short walk down to Lake Matano if you want to go for a swim.

Because they pickup and deliver laundry every day it isn't imperative that you have lot of clothes here.

My day usually begins at 4:45 in the morning at which time I shave, shower and get ready for the day. I had been spending some time on my previous visit instant messaging with Janice and my mom until breakfast time (6:00 am) but for some reason that isn't working now.

I usually end up at the office sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 and stay until 4:30 to 5:00 - long days for sure but then there really isn't much else to do as the sun is set by 6:30 pm!

This next picture is of the Mines Engineering building where the geology department is based and where I too have been hanging my hat. The big rock out front is an example of peridotite with Ni rich saprolite seams and can be distinguished by the emerald green colour.

Of note here is that just about everyone from Superintendent and up has a company supplied vehicle with Toyota Kijang vans being very common as are Toyota, Isuzu, Mazda and Ford compact pickups, typically with four-wheel drive (when it rains the laterite can be pretty gummy).

Like many I usually wait until 7:00 pm for supper. At that time I can expect to see most of the usual crowd, many of whom are from New Zealand although there are a couple based in Vancouver and some from Toronto.

Lights out is usually at 9:00 pm and then the cycle begins all over.

Tomorrow I am off to Pomalaa. Myself and Ade Kaderusman are off to Makassar where we will meet 2 people from AMEC. From there we will fly to Kendari, on the east coast of South-east Sulawesi and will then drive across to Pomalaa on the west side. We return to Sorowako (I was informed that this is the correct spelling although you also see "Soroako" a lot too) on the 10th. By then I should have more to add. Until then!

Matabunto Falls

On my previous trip to Sorowako in October Anto, Selvi and Tuti had taken me to Matabunto Falls. Well, this morning my friend Richard Jones (another Kiwi) invited me to join him and several others on a trip once again to the same falls. He assured me he would show me more than what I had experienced during my first visit. And he delivered!

We drove out in Richards truck and met up with Mike (an IT consultant from Arizona) and a couple of his lady friends (their names unfortunately I do not remember). The falls are accessed by a dirt track from the village of Wasupunda. Unlike my previous trip we walked the last few hundred metres as the road is very rough and rutted. Along the way we passed a grove of Cocoa trees and I remembered Leonard asking me what the cocoa tree looks like so, I took a picture!

The cocoa trees have broad, ovate leaves and the cocoa pods grow from just about anywhere on the tree such as the trunk and from branches. Once ripe (they turn yellow and then dark red) the locals pick the pods, remove the beans from inside, dry them and then sell. It is one of the local cash crops found around here.

Matabunto Falls is the result of a small river flowing over the edge of a limestone escarpment and forms series of cascades. What makes them especially interesting is that there is a lot of travertine (calcium carbonate) that has coated the rocks and even tree parts at least 6 inches thick. In many places the travertine has formed walls that now have dammed the stream to form small pools and has enhanced the cascade effect.

To the left is a picture of Richard standing in front of one set of cascades (I don't know why he has his eyes shut!) holding a bunch of bananas he bought from a vendor at the bottom of the stairs that give access to the lower half of the falls.

And here is Mike and his lady friends enjoying the cooling effects of the water!

Here I am standing on a wall of travertine. The one behind me has created a fairly deep pool behind it about as deep as the travertine wall is high.

In a couple of places, to aid people to climb up beside the falls, someone have carved footholds in the travertine.

And finally another group of visitors in front of the tallest cascade of the falls. I noticed too another difference from my previous visit a couple of months now is that entrepreneurship is alive and well in Indonesia with several small kiosks present where you can buy drinks and fruit from the locals. Now if they would fix up the road I'm sure they will be able to get far more visitors, although there were quite a few there by the time be decided to leave!

Another weekend in Soroako

Things are going well here. At times though I feel as if I am spinning my wheels when it comes to work but that is because I am too impatient and the models I am working on take so much time. But I do feel progress is being made. This coming Thursday I am scheduled to fly down to the SE part of the island to Pomalaa, the site I have been working on to see first hand the property, how they are mining there and to help show around some process auditors from the Engineering firm, AMEC. I'm really looking forward to this trip and will make sure I take pictures of the mining as it apparently is different than here at Soroako.

Now that I have spent some time here (now about 9 weeks altogether over the last year and a bit) I have met a lot of people and made a lot of new friends. One of the first was Rolando, with the Internal Tax Audit department. This morning, for the second week in a row we went golfing together (he has lent me a spare set of clubs he has with him). Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I can't show you photo's of the course. It is quite challenging with a number of water hazards. Today was especially humid so I was soaked in sweat pretty quickly. Scored a 52 on the front 9 and 54 on the back. Not bad for the second time out in months!

A recent arrival here in Soroako is a fellow by the name of Andrew, an engineer with the firm Beca, out of Auckland, New Zealand. We met soon after his arrival and have discovered that we have a lot in common, including wives who quilt and who, when they found out we were first coming here, asked that we pick up some quilting fabric for them!

Needless to say I had to show Andrew around to the few places I had found starting with the F Market, at what the Expat Canadians refer to the "Sears Mall" (the main aisle has a roof over it and therefore is the closest to a shopping mall like back home). There I took him to a small shop that has some fabric and from where I got some batik for Janice my first time here.

After looking around there we then drove to Wawondula, as it was market day and I also wanted to go back to the little dress shop I had found there my last trip.

This is Andrew on the left standing at the local "hardware store". We didn't get there until after 2pm and they were starting to shut things down due to the heat of the day.





And here is my favorite shop - "Diana Butiq"! I'm not sure if the woman who runs the shop is named Diana but she recognised me right away when we walked in! I bought several more sarongs, this time keeping to just ones from Bali which I plan to bring back as gifts. Note, if you would like one too, please email me and let me know and if you have any favorite colour. I can't promise though as I do have limited luggage space.





After looking around the market we then drove to Wasuponda, the next village down the road. For those of you that I gave my travelogue to at Christmas time you may recall that the village name literally means "pineapple on rock" and just as you enter the village is this statue of - a pineapple on a rock! Some of the local kids came over to say hi. One thing about the people here in Indonesia, they sure are friendly!





After we returned to Soroako Andrew suggested we go for a swim at the "yacht club". While there we met up with Warren Flannery and his wife as they were preparing to go sailing on their catamaran. They used to live in Thompson then Warren quit and joined Potash Corp. in Saskatchewan and now is back working for Inco here in Soroako.







Some of the other engineers working for Beca arrived later on to cool down after a game of indoor cricket. That is Matt on the right getting ready to go wind sailing.

Now I apologise to all of you back in Thompson who I see are experiencing -38 degrees C in that I am NOT bragging about the weather here! But I now fully appreciate why just about every Canadian I have met here loves the place. It may not have a lot of amenities that we take for granted, such as shopping malls and wide selection of goods but it in effect offers the best of Canada 365 days of the year as far as weather is concerned. Until next time!