BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Travel

Aaron: Beer, bear and bare.

Aaron — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:10:20 +0000

Being essentially on holiday, I have found myself doing a lot of things in Canada that normally just wouldn’t be a part of my life in New Zealand.

Generally speaking I’ve been getting a lot more exercise than previously by walking and biking all over the city (no car you see), I’ve been going and doing decent hikes of 4 hours plus at least once every three weeks and I’ve also been drinking a lot more alcohol too to take just three examples.

All of these can be attributed to still being in a tourist mindset and as such, walking around this amazing city with ‘tourist goggles’ on as I like to call it – getting out to a…

Aaron: Travel, great. What about emigrating?

Aaron — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:00:03 +0000

A good friend of mine is a GP who has fairly recently emigrated to the UK and I got to talking to her recently about the logistics of moving countries as it relates to those with health issues like diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer, mental illness and everything else that occasionally plagues us.

For those of us lucky enough to live in relatively wealthy and developed countries like New Zealand we wouldn’t necessarily stop to think about how damn lucky we are to receive such outstanding healthcare compared to the billions of people in the work that simply don’t, often resulting in death from simple infections let alone chronic illness like diabetes.

Now imagine that for whatever reason you have immigrated somewhere for whatever reason be…

Aaron: 20th Birthday

Aaron — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:15:00 +0000

In my search for Canadian experiences with which to fill my days and ensure that I make the most of our time here, I have been looking at several cultural activities and trips which are must see and must dos in and near Montréal.

On the list so far are:

New York baby! Hiking in the Laurentides mountain ranges Cirque Du Soleil (which comes from Montréal) See an Ice Hockey game live Go Ice Skating on a frozen lake/river Jump the boarder to the states and see Vermont Go to Niagara falls Check out the great lakes Ski at night (under lights) Stay in a cosy wood cabin on the side of a lake in all 4 seasons Eat as much

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Aaron: Diabetes and Montréal, Canada.

Aaron — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:15:24 +0000

Wow. Canada.

It has been almost six full weeks since we left New Zealand now and what an eventful six weeks they have been!

I’ve already posted about our time in America and a little bit about the trip via Tahiti so it’s about time I get you all up to date with Canada!

Of course, the first couple of weeks were busy with lots of time spent basking in the 30+ degree heat and taking an initial look around town. My former workmates in NZ had given us a gift of bikes which we immediately put to use tripping all over the city enjoying the parks, festivals and summer activities that Montréal has to offer.…

Aaron: Travel Insurance Policy Comparison

Aaron — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:00:20 +0000

During the preparation phase for our move to Montreal, one of the most important things we needed to investigate and organise was a fully comprehensive travel insurance policy, no small feat given that I am, obviously, a diabetic.

Fortunately for me, I used to work as a travel agent for STA who primarily focus on the student and youth travel market and I often got stuck in arguments with ‘budget conscious travelers’ (to put it politely) who were never too keen on spending what amounts to a decent chunk of money on something so ethereal as travel insurance.

To these people I always had four stock standard responses:

If you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford to travel You

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Aaron: The road less travelled.

Aaron — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:00:40 +0000

As of the weekend, we have arrived safely in San Francisco in one piece – and both sighed a breath of relief having had a manic couple of weeks which saw (between the two of us), the release of an album – with its associated gig, a masters thesis completed, quitting of two jobs, selling of cars, a court case (me vs. a bad driver), saying goodbye to 13 nieces and nephews plus 6 siblings plus parents and friends, selling the cars and packing up our entire lives.

Needless to say, it was all quite intense!

Tahiti was absolutely amazing (and amazingly expensive too, a can of coke costs around 4 dollars), but wasn’t without its drama as I came…

Good luck Aaron!

Nic — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:28:00 +0000

So we’ve been talking about it for a while now, and the time has finally come. Tomorrow afternoon, Aaron is jetting off to Montreal (via Tahiti and San Francisco) for his new life. Us Aucklanders had a special dinner for him on Monday last week where I gave a short speech and I’ll highlight it here… Aaron has been a great friend, co-blogger and all-round good sort. I’m going to miss him a great deal. He’ll still be blogging once he reaches and settles in Canada, but he’s on a bit of a holiday for the next few weeks, so for now I thought I’d post this lovely pic of he and his husband Andy from dinner last week, and…

Aaron: The end is nigh

Aaron — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:00:45 +0000

After months of planning (some of it in secret) I’m all but ready to grab my passport and run out the door to my seat on Tahiti Nui flight TN102 to Papeete, then LA and then Montréal!

Needless to say, I’m rather excited about this prospect (especially given the looks of the image to the left and my 1 week stay there) but I still have this nagging bug around the whole diabetes aspect of it all. It’s not enough of a worry to deter me from stepping on the plane by any means but it does create a heck of a lot of extra work. I was packing on Sunday avo so that I got a feel for just…

Aaron: CGMS, here I come.

Aaron — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:30:35 +0000

I was at the outpatients clinic recently to see my diabetes nurse for our 6 monthly catch up and it couldn’t possibly have been better timing I have to say.

At the time I’d had a couple of rough weeks due to a lot of stress from various things that had been going on (which lead to this post) so it was good timing to be meeting with the diabetes nurse to be able talk over the hiccups and what might be going on to cause them. Lots and lots of highs had been causing me no end of problems and I needed to talk through some strategies to get things back on track.

One of the options…

Aaron: Exciting news!

Aaron — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:30:58 +0000

It is with a strange mix of excitement, trepidation, sadness and expectation that I can finally tell you guys that I am moving to Montreal in exactly 8 weeks today!

It has been a long time in our dreams and a good time in planning but as of last week, I have resigned from the job I love and on August 3rd, I will say goodbye to a good many friends, family, colleagues and the country I love for what is already promising to be an incredible adventure.

We have tickets, insurance, hostels, backpacks, itineraries, bus transfers, hotels, activities and visas all done as well as a long list of paperwork for taxes and all that guff well underway. All…