Let’s just call this, “When Youtuber’s have too much time on their hands 
”.
http://xacti-passion.com
Don’t forget! YOU could win a vacation to Jamaica where I shot this video plus $3500 spending money to get to experience the exact same things I did! ALSO, you’ll get your own waterproof Xacti camera! All you have to do is CLICK HERE to vote for my video and you’ll be entered to win!
So we are going to leave China behind for a little bit (I’m a tad behind on my blog posts do to some fail internet and extensive travel/work). I am dearly sorry for that and for the confusion it might cause!
Hey guys and gals!
So right now I am sitting in amazing Jamaica blogging to you about a wonderful opportunity I have received! I have been invited to Jamaica to help launch the new Sanyo Xacti Full HD Waterproof Dual Video Camera!
Yey for pink!! <3 If you are interested in finding out more about the Camera, click here!
Basically, we have been trying out a bunch of different and exciting water sports and activities to test the functions and features of their new camera (and of course making some SWEET videos for you too! )
One exciting thing I wanted to tell YOU about was that all the videos we have been making are for the Xacti Passion website for a contest where YOU the voters/viewers could win a $10,000 vacation to the Round Hill Resort ! (The same resort we have been staying at!)
Prizes
1st prize: Round Hill, Montego Bay, Jamaica
A most beautiful and elegant boutique resort. Luxuriant gardens surround a calm, private cove with golden sand beaches.
The resort offers, not only swimming pools, bars, tennis courts but theme nights at – Beach Party, Jamaica Night, Caribbean Curry Night are popular with guests all year.
A wide variety of recreational activities on and around the property include:
Water sports, Sandy Beach, Double infinity edge pool, Snorkelling in our coral reefs, Tubing, Water skiing, Glass-Bottom boats, Windsurfing, Hobie Cats, Pedal Boats, Sea Kayaks, Deep sea fishing, Yacht charters can be arranged, Native sport fish, Private sailing tours, Sunset cruises, Great Houses, Mountain Valley Rafting, Mayfield Falls & Mineral Springs, Negril Tours, Ocho Rios / Dunns River Falls, Rainforest Bobsled in Jamaica.
Runners up: Xacti CA100 Dual Camera
1 of 15 waterproof Xacti’s to be won. SANYO’s new Xacti CA100 is waterproof up to a depth of 3 metres, high quality 14 megapixel photo or as brilliant Full HD video with 1080i. Thanks to the 12x double-range zoom, the user can easily choose between a wide angle- or tele-orientated zoom range. Vertical design and ergonomic form allow it to be operated easily with one hand.
So all you have to do is vote on your favorite video(mine of course! ) and you could win this amazing vacation or an Xacti camera! P.S. Here are some photos of the place encase your debating about voting
So let me know below if you have any questions or comments, and you should defiantly go check out the website to see some of the fantastic videos we have be making! Who knows, if you win you could be here making some yourself 
Hey everyone!
So we are on our last country for this period of travels, and it is of course CHINA! Our first stop is in Beijing, China, where we spent 4 days cruising around the city and taking in as much of the tourist spots as possible.
On our way to our first spot, we met this young Chinese boy. Now, at the airport we where told by a lovely lady called Laura that if you ever needed someone to speak English, your best bet was to ask the teenagers or young adults because it is mandatory for them to learn English in school. And what would you know, that proved to be very useful information! He showed us around for a bit and took us to the
and finally
before he had to go home for dinner XD.
So let’s talk The Forbidden City, this place was MASSIVE, it served as the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Most of the palaces, temples, and large attractions that we visited in China are from either the Ming(1368–1644) or Qinq(1644–1912) Dynasty, as they where the most recent and most things have since stayed in tact.
The Forbidden City contains over 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 rooms! Needless to say, we did NOT walk into every room. Mainly because alot of the rooms are actually closed off to the public, or if they are open, they are heavy guarded with most of the historic artifacts either already removed, or placed behind glass.
Courtyard in the Forbidden City.
The Emperor’s path, only he was allowed to walk down this, everyone else would take either the path to the left or to the right, depending on their rank.
Stone cut to tell the story of the Dragon and the Pearl, symbolizing the Emperor holding the world. There is all sorts of meanings, but whenever you see a Dragon and a Pearl, it is a symbol of the Emperor.
Rawr!
Next off, what is a visit to China without a bit of SHOPPING!! Yes, I am a girl and how could I resist! The amount of fake and knock-off products was unbelievable. Every major high-fashion bag brand had fakes at the market. And there was good fakes, and bad fakes. The good fakes looked so real I honesty believe you could pass it off as genuine.
In a later tour that took us to a place that shall remain anonymous for the time being, we got to stop off at a jade factory. Here they had some of the most amazing jade sculptures I have ever seen! The quality and quantity was outstanding, unfortunately the price was ridiculous, and therefor there was no jade purchasing for Nadine :/
Look closely at the photo and maybe you can see an amazing photographer at work! Heheh
Now this was a must! I HAD to see the Birds Nest Olympic 2008 Stadium, even though it was only literally a 2 second photo. I convinced our tour bus to pull over on the side of the road so I could run up and take a peek! (Cause the bus wasn’t allowed to stop there )
Anyways, that’s all for this post, TONS more China coming at you!!
-Nadine
Hey guys!
So while I was in Singapore, we just happened to be there at the same time as the Formula 1 Malaysia Grand Prix! So, since it was only an hour plane ride away Kristy, myself and a group of Kristy’s exchange student friends decided to go! And of course check out Kuala Lumpur as well
Sepang Track! VROOM!!!
Our original seats BEFORE we moved/walked around
After the race was over, we headed over the the Wyclef Jean and Fat Boy Slim concert, AND we just so happened to get in FREE. Apparently it was because we where soo early to it, hahaha. It cost 100 MYR for the people that came later hehe.
The Ferrari VIP lounge area with a shiny red car!! oooo
Since we decied to skip to pre-races, we got to spend the day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So on our spare day we got up bright and early to go check out the Petronas Towers because you can get free tickets to go up onto the middle platform deck. HOWEVER, they only hand out a limited amount per a day and even after getting there at 8:00am, they we sold out of tickets for the day, and this was the line up for the ones going up 
So instead, we just admired them from afar at took some great group shots The towers are some the the most amazing buildings I have ever seen, that’s for sure
Petronas Towers at Night
Here are some more general Kuala Lumpur pictures of the day through the city
Yes, Malaysians AND us foreigners love to shop This was in the Petronas Towers mall! 6 FLOORS!
Not bad KL, not bad, although, I still prefer Singapore :p
Hey Guys!
So here is my last installment of my Singapore videos, after this I head to Malaysia! Singapore was absolutely amazing, I think its a beautiful country, but I’ve already said enough of that Also, here is the rest of my Singapore photos! If you are interested in more of the details of each of the places in my photos, just click on the title and it will take you to their main site
As I said before in my video, I HAD to go on the flyer. Now the total time for the trip took about 30 mins… or was it 1 hour? LOL, I can’t even remember. Either way, I still thought it was pretty cool. Interesting location choice though since most of what we saw was under construction. Now, I do know that a lot of the waterfront they where constructing on was reclaimed land, meaning it was once sea and now it is being filled in with dirt to extend the waterfront. Pretty crazy stuff.
The pods where pretty nice, air conditioned, however, the glass was tinted blue and it made all my videos and photos look a bit off. That’s no biggy though. I also got to share my pod with this group from Melbourne Australia, they where quite the entertainment for the ride
Oh Sentosa Island. Now, even though Singapore is right on the southern tip of Southeast Asia, most of it’s waterfront has been used for it’s ports, or is not very nice/easily excess able. However, that’s where Sentosa Island comes in. Sentosa Island is pretty much Singapore’s only beach.
Because of this they have built up this huge mega structure sort of entity around this concept. There is tons of beach vendors for food, shopping, animal exhibits, bars, hotel, casino, entertainment shows, and now a theme park Universal Studios Singapore. Quite and interesting concept, I do question how much of the actual beach there was, since a lot of it is fake and has been brought in and built up. But in a weird way, it kinda fits in with the Singapore ideal :/ Interesting.
Here is a photo of me the Kristy, the best friend I mentioned in the video And of course its us in front of one of the most amazing shopping centers in Singapore! Down below is a photo of the markets we went to visit, basically everything you see there was $10 SGD. However, you couldn’t try the clothes on, so it was always a guessing game, haha. AND, all the sized where ridiculously small, I was a large-xlarge there >.<
Restaurants and food galore! Had amazing Thai food here, and then ice cream that made me sick for a day! That sucked
The Merlion!! This is apparently a MUST-SEE in Singapore. It was a pretty awesome looking statue, now if your interested in the significance, click the title for the wiki article
Here are a few pictures from the campus that I thought I would randomly throw in since this is where my friend Kristy was studying for a term and that’s why I went down to visit her. It suppose to be a brand new campus, and it was quite lovely!
I had a bit of free time when I was down there so I decided to check out the Singapore Museum, since I do love Museum, even though they might be a bit lame to SOME people! Anyways, they have this student deal so I got to see both exhibits for I think it was $14 SGD, that was pretty awesome. Learned about Singapore history and Egypt!
Yummy! And to end this post, here’s some Guava and Watermelon shaved ice!! hehe
So today’s the last day of my Bay of Island trip, and it’s a rather easy one. We had lots of free time today so I decided to go horseback riding! Since I had this weird desire to go lol. So the company I went through was called Horse Trek’n and while its wasn’t the most amazing horse tour I’ve ever been on, it was still a lot of fun, AND the view from the top of the volcano was stunning.
Me and Boss, he was my horse’s name
On the ride I meet this guy called Mohamed from Saudi Arabia! I’ve never meet anyone from there before, and it was very exciting, he was very nice and a experienced traveler, he’s been traveling for the last 3 years and has already been to New Zealand 3 times before!!
Next we stopped at this mountain range called the Three Sisters, I believe, I could be wrong, I need to write everything down!!!
Then we took a quick little pit-stop at this huge souvenir shop that had this amazing carved out staircase Kauri Tree. Defiantly want that in my house.
And last, just before arriving into Auckland we had a quick glance at the Haruru Falls in Waitangi. These falls while beautiful and easily accessible, lost a lot of appeal to me due to the fact that at the lagoon there was spray paint on the trees, cigarette butts on the ground, and beer bottles floating in the water. It’s really shame, but this usually always happens when you have a built up popular tourist spot, it get the visitors both good and bad.
So today was a VERY long day
We took a bus tour called the Dune Rider up to Cape Reinga for a day trip today and it started bright and early! First we drove out onto this beach 90 Mile Beach, and I’m not even joking you, it was like 90 miles long, it just never ended. Here I meet this really friendly German girl that our paths keep crossing, she’s been traveling around NZ as well. There are actually a lot of Germans and Europeans here, way more than North Americans I am finding.
Me and Riccarda! <3 My German friend
After our lovely scenic drive we stop as some sand dunes just off the beach, where I got the chance to try out some dune surfing! It was pretty sick, more pictures and videos of that to come!
After we where all successful sandy, we then drove to down to this remote beach just a few km or so from the Cape. Now I don’t know the name of it, but it was stunning, and of course I had to jump in for a quick swim to wash the sand off.
After lunch, we finally got a chance to head up to the Cape Reinga, and we where fortunate enough to have very little wind today, where as in most cases, it can get extremely windy. Now I haven’t seen a lot of things in this world, but honesty, this place MUST be one of the most gorgeous places in the world. I can’t even describe how stunning it was, and I know pictures NEVER do justice to these places.
I love it that everytime I look at these photos I am still stunned by how amazing they are. ANYWAYS! On the way back to Paihia we stop at this Gumdiggers Park where we got a chance to learn a bit about New Zealand history, which to nerdy people like me, I found it quite amazing, but I can see it be rather boring to some. Gum for those that don’t know is resinous sap from damaged Kauri trees that has congealed into hard lumps and then falling onto the ground and after thousands of years, hardens to form fossilized Kauri Copal (aka, NZ Amber). Gumdiggers are the people that dig up the Gum
It’s actually crazy to think that in that pit are trees over 46,000 years old! It’s part of the buried forest that was covered in the last ice age I believe.
Here is an example of a piece of Ancient Kauri Gum.
-Nadine
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