RyanHellyer.net

“One man. One hockey stick. Many WordPress challenges.”

Princes Island Park in Calgary

Princes Island Park is a small island which is separated from downtown Calgary by a small strip of water from the Bow river. There’s lots of wild life, greenery and picnic areas to enjoy.

Princes Island Park and Bow river

Canadian Goslings

A Squirrel

Canadian Geese

Christmas turkey

Well what do you do when you’re stuck in a strange foreign land on Christmas day? You have a Christmas orphans dinner that’s what! Gregor and I bought a turkey, got a bunch of other foreigners (Gregor’s from Oz) and then we deep fried the little bugger – the turkey, not the foreigners!

The locals seemed to think it was some sort of weird Aussie/Kiwi tradition to deep fry a turkey, but of course it’s not. It was just a crazy idea of Gregor’s which turned out to be lots of fun. We also deep fried brocoli, carrots, cauliflower, Moro bars and other assorted goodies :)

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The photo below is of me standing on our rink with my Possum Bourne beanie and Speights T-shirt that my mum sent me. Of course the deep fryer was right in front of me so I couldn’t play hockey that day, but it made for a nice photo :)

Me (Ryan Hellyer) playing hockey on our front lawn

Banff National park

I’ve visited Banff township in Banff National park in the rocky mountains a few times now. It’s only an hour and a bit away from Calgary. It’s similar to Queenstown but without the lake. There’s lots of hiking (tramping) and site seeing to be down there.

Tunnel Mountain at Banff

The above photo is of Tunnel Mountain. It’s not much of a mountain, more like a steep hill. I walked to the top while there.

Cascade Mountain near Banff township

Cascade mountain (above) is out the other side of Banff township.

Bear proof bin in Banff township

Oh yeah, they have Bears in Banff! Even the rubbishi bins (see above) have to be made bear proof!

An Elk, I took this photo on the outskirts of the Banff township.

Elk in the area are allowed to wander free around the town. They’re huge beasts which look quite scary but are apparently quite harmless.

Orana Park

Family trip to Orana Park in Christchurch some time in the 1980′s.

The lions. You used to be able to drive in to the lion area during feeding time and the lions would walk around your car. Apparently they've stopped it these days due to safety concerns :(

The lions. You used to be able to drive in to the lion area during feeding time and the lions would walk around your car. Apparently they've stopped it these days due to safety concerns :(

My brother Scott trying to feed a giraffe a piece of stick.

My brother Scott trying to feed a giraffe a piece of stick.

Fishing

This was the last time I went fishing. As you can see, the last time I went fishing was quite successful :) I think I got about 10 fish in total. Unfortunately the adults at all of my fish, I never got to have any :(

Mahinerangi fish

My fish