“I’m a Newfoundlander born and bred and I’ll be one till I die, I’m proud to be an islander and here’s the reason why…”
The opening lyric to the song “The Islander” by Bruce Moss rings true with almost every Newfoundlander. We “newfies” are fiercely proud of the rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean that we call home (AND Labrador) and for good reason. During the 23 years I have been on earth so far I have had the privilege of growing up on the island of Newfoundland and exploring it to its fullest! This series will be all about Newfoundland and this first installment in the series is a general overview of my time exploring the province.
A quick Google or YouTube search of Newfoundland will usually yield two types of results: amazing Newfoundland and Labrador tourism ads and hilarious videos of many of our residents (more on that in another post)!
Despite our unpredictable weather anyone who takes the time to explore Newfoundland and Labrador is usually pleasantly surprised! With thousands of kilometres of coastline to discover, two National Parks on the island and one in Labrador (there is a second currently in development), and quirky communities left, right, and centre, there’s plenty to explore!
Growing up in Newfoundland you are either considered a townie or a baymen. Because I grew up in Mount Pearl, a city on the east coast of the island portion of the province I get lumped into the townie category. To me, townie and baymen are just playful words people on the island use to describe where you grew up, and I love both the town and the bay. That said, as much as I love “town” I think that some of the best things to see in Newfoundland are found outside of St. John’s.
I grew up with parents who both fell into the “baymen” category, and for that I am extremely grateful, because it meant I spent a lot of my childhood exploring the province and experiencing both “town” and “the bay”. Two of my personal favourite places in the province, thanks to my parents, are two small fishing communities called Branch and St. Shott’s.
These places may not be featured in the next tourism commercials but they both have a special place in my heart and have helped shape who I am as a person. Both the people and the views in these communities make up many of the memories of my childhood and I’m very thankful that they do. I will dedicate future posts in this series to these two small towns that I love so much!
Another thing that I am extremely grateful to my parents for is the fact that during my childhood we never left the island. To some that may sound strange, and many children I grew up with went to Florida with their families every year, but my family did something different, we travelled all around Newfoundland. When I was younger I hated the fact that I had never travelled to Florida, but the older I’ve gotten the more and more grateful I’ve become that my parents gave my sister and I the opportunity to see the entirety of our province.
We spent every major holiday and many weekends in both Branch and St. Shott’s but during summer vacation was when the real adventures would take place. Our family, along with the families of many of my relatives and family friends, would load up the mini van with our camping gear and spend two weeks vacationing in some part(s) of the province. We visited both National Parks on the island, as well as staying in many other small communities, and visiting provincial parks.
These family vacations came to an end as I began junior high, around age 12, but even a decade later I can still vividly remember my favourite waterfall in Gros Morne and other small towns that stole my heart! Not only do the places we visited hold great memories for me, but the people we went on these vacations with are still part of my life and mean so much to me!
In the fall of 2015, I had the amazing opportunity to work on behalf of the Provincial Government of Newfoundland and Labrador with a program called Getting the Message Out (GMO). This program gave me the opportunity to speak to youth across the province about entrepreneurship and civic engagement opportunities within the province with a team of three other Memorial University students. This job also gave me the chance to rediscover parts of the province I hadn’t been to since I was a kid and to explore a few of the places I hadn’t visited yet.
One of these places was Labrador. Known as “The Big Land”, Labrador is the mainland portion of the province. Attached to Quebec, Labrador is a large body of land that is ruggedly beautiful. Not for the faint-of-heart, Labrador gets really cold in the winter and hot in the summer. It doesn’t boast any fancy malls or skyscrapers but it does have amazing rivers for salmon fishing and a dirt road highway.
While working for GMO my partner for the trip and I got to adventure along the dirt road highway down the coast of Labrador. It was a beautiful drive and one of the best work experiences I have had to date!
Another thing that I rave about when I talk to people about Newfoundland is the East Coast Trail. It boasts over 300 kilometres of developed trail on the Avalon Peninsula (east coast) of the province. These trails provide hikes of varying degrees of difficulty but they all share one common factor, they are all stunningly beautiful and scenic.
If you have a peek at my Instagram you will see that a LOT of my photos are taken on the East Coast Trail (ECT). The ECT currently has 26 developed trails that are available to the public, two of which have only recently opened. Of these 26 trails my friend Amanda (yes, the same Amanda I referenced in my first post) and I have completed 24.
In 2014 when there was only 24 trails on the list we decided that we were going to complete the ECT before we moved out of Newfoundland! Even after the two newest trails were added we decided that we were going to stick with the original list and shortly before my move to Vancouver we completed our list!
The East Coast Trail is such a passion of mine that I will be sharing more photos from each hike in a separate East Coast Trail series! These photos are too beautiful not to share so stay tuned!
There are still so many awesome things about Newfoundland, so keep an eye out for part two of the series! In part two I’ll go over some of my favourite things in “town” aka St. John’s, such as restaurants, bars/George Street, and not-too-far-from-town adventures that anyone can do on the weekend!
My hope for this series is to educate anyone who visits this blog who isn’t from Newfoundland about it and to possibly introduce Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to other awesome things they can do in the province. I will be sharing some of my favourite places, people, and things from the province as the series continues! But if anyone has any requests for an installment for this series let me know in a comment below!
Thanks for reading!
xo
– L
Laura B. Greene 
Hilarious: I give that exact spiel word-for-word about being resentful as a kid that my friends were in a Florida every spring and I was “stuck” camping and exploring with my family on the island. 10+ years later I am one of very few people who can say they truly know their home province. Plus all the family time and memories is invaluable, and the “magic” of Disney doesn’t come close.
The friend for life isn’t a bad bonus, either ❤️
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