Guest Blogger

We took a short trip with friends to Newfoundland this week and had the sort of memorable time that everyone talks about whenever they return to Moncton from a visit to St. John's, a city like no other in Canada.

I recently returned from a visit to St. John's, Newfoundland, North America's oldest and most easterly city. St. John's is known to be saturated with Irish traditional and Celtic rock music, but for a smallish city on a fairly remote island, I was surprised by its many other live music offerings.

There are so many things to enjoy when I go back home to Newfoundland. From spending time with family and friends to hiking along the rugged coast, and taking in live music in St. John's. One of the things I look most forward to is getting out in a boat to catch a few cod.

I fell in love with St. John's, Newfoundland after spending 8 days and nights there in late summer 2011.  It's North America's oldest and most Easterly city. In the 2nd installment of an ongoing series of articles about this rocky wonderland, here's a fond look back at the hiking and walking opportunities.

As our trip to Newfoundland stretched out before us, I knew I would blog about it and I knew instantly that the theme would be gratitude to the people of Newfoundland. So it’s serendipitous that in the last few days I started reading so many words of thanks to the people of Newfoundland from the stranded passengers of 9/11 who were taken into their homes and made to feel like family.

Windswept and wild, friendly yet forlorn:  the island of Newfoundland is a corner of Canada steeped in beauty and sadness...

"Remember, give'r till ya shiver," says the man responsible for my safety just before I jump off a boat into freezing water. I've come to the most easterly point in North America in the hope of having an up close and personal experience with whales.

On July 26 – give or take a day or two, depending on weather conditions – about a dozen two-person teams will take the helms of small wooden boats called punts and row 10 miles across open ocean off Newfoundland, Canada.

Pope’s Point in Badger, central Newfoundland, bears archeological evidence of nearly every culture that has ever inhabited the island: Maritime Archaic Indian, Groswater and Dorset Palaeoeskimo, Recent Indian, Beothuk and Mi’kmaq artifacts and features have either been recovered or historically recorded to have existed there at one time.

On the May 24th weekend, our family took a trip to the Port au Port Peninsula. We spent the night in Stephenville and then started our adventure looking at the petrified forest just outside the town....

Hiking the East Coast Trail outside St. John's last fall, I had one of those rapturous, living fully in the now, experiences.

My wife, Kathy, and I had seen nobody for an entire, glorious September Sunday. The trail, the forest, the sea belonged to only us. Or rather we to them.

Amazing Place. How sweet is Newfoundland?

I once was lost…but now am found. Well, make that, lost in my own time zone! Don't worry, I didn't go off the grid, more like I was operating on Newfoundland time. Yes, interestingly enough – being the easternmost point in North America merits Newfoundland its own special time – a half an hour off kilter with the rest of the world. So, in essence, I was lost in this unique space- time continuum that exists in Newfoundland, Canada. Hence, if you really looking to "get away" [both literally and figuratively] – this is the place to go!

The first thing you notice is the air, scrubbed by a thousand miles of ocean and a hundred miles of evergreen forest. The spruce-scented breeze wafts along the shores of western Newfoundland filling the billowing sails of our tall ship, Concordia, and simultaneously purging our lungs of city smog. Even the tap water in Newfoundland (affectionately known as "the Rock" by locals) is so pristine you can fill your car battery with it.

Last August my wife ran the “Race to the Sea”. Of course I did a video. It is a day long relay race from Cape Anguille to Rose Blance. There is some beautiful scenery along the way including Wreckhouse.....

Saturday Stan and I had the good fortune to share some time with a humpback whale in Bull Arm. It had surfaced next to Stan about 200 metres away and before I knew it the whale was under me. I could see the white flippers in the waters beneath my kayak and motioned to Stan to come.

An hour on a small boat in not too calm seas brings us to the centuries old fishing villiage of Battle Harbour, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We walk around for hours not seeing another person, and it is difficult to imagine that this was once the unofficial capital of Labrador. Battle Harbour was an active fishing village from the 1770s until the east coast fisheries closed in 1992.

The Anchors Aweigh Band keep the nightlife exciting at Ocean View Hotel's Anchor Pub in Newfoundland and Labrador. Join the band and their fans, as they enjoy an evening of music, dancing, socializing and humor.

The west coast of Newfoundland has no shortage of winter activities to keep a recreation generalist like me occupied. Its not that I get tired of doing one thing, I just want to experience as much as possible in this life. Over the St. Patricks Day weekend, I did just that by engaging in four different snow sports in a four day period.

Nicky's Nose Cove. It's over in Green Bay which is in Notre Dame Bay which is on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. You can't miss it. No relation to Jerry's Nose over around Port au Port, though.

It's almost question-popping time – you know, Valentine's Day – but going down on one knee is a little…boring, right? Predictable, safe, and just not your style. Life is a big adventure, and the two of you are adventurous. So, let's go deep, 89 feet deep, in SCUBA gear, to the deck of an historic shipwreck, and spring the ring. Now, that's a proposal!