everything is big in Canada – even the milk comes in 4 litre bags
milk comes not only in bags, but at 1%, 2%, etc
the cheese is orange
the roads are long and fairly straight
the bugs in the Canadian woods are mean and relentlessly BITE
bald eagles appear when you least expect it
ground hogs are a novelty, except to the locals
woodpeckers are tiny
go with your original destination in mind and don’t be put off by locals who think you must have a car to get somewhere – you don’t. Public transport works fine.
strangers can be helpful and kind but sometimes they just want money
expect to be disappointed by places you have always wanted to visit, but be surprised by places you never thought you would go
the east coast of Canada is just as amazing to visit as the rest of the country – don’t be put off by distance
thankful to our friends and friends of friends who put us up in their homes and took us sight-seeing
skunks really do stink…and stink for days later
driving on the right side of the road was pretty cool (keep right, mate – thanks for the post-it, Cidy)
we legally drove through a red light (similar to our “free” left-hand turn)
we had forgotten how to drive on our return to NZ and tried to drive on the wrong side (we had been warned this would happen, thanks Beth)
karaoke Canadian style is not quite “10 guitars”
Lake Huron is enormous and it is only the third largest of the great lakes
Lake Huron has sandy beaches
we swam in Lake Huron
the northern night sky is distinctly different from the southern sky
the sun is in the southern sky – quite disorientating
public toilets have huge gaps on each side of the door. Not so much privacy as in NZ
the toilets were scary. The water sits half-way up the toilet bowl and the bowls are wide. I thought the toilets were all blocked.
take a field guide to birds as the locals don’t seem to know what they are
place furtherest north visited – Grousse Mountain, Vancouver
we touched the Atlantic Ocean
thickest fog ever – in St John (and Air Canada land planes in this fog!)
there are dog parks in San Francisco and in Canada (”Must like dogs”)
you can see the Rocky Mountains from the plane trip from Toronto to Vancouver
mission to see a moose in the wild and the Mounties in Ottawa was accomplished
Wednesday 16 July – our last day in Canada. Took a short walk to Granville Island markets across the bridge for a spot of shopping. This turned out to be a somewhat wary task for souvenir items and gifts for family. A $3 ride on the small ferry back to the opposite bank and another walk down Davie Street. We should have opted to catch the bus and ferry to Horseshoe Bay and across to Gibsons instead. Would probably have been less stressful. By 6pm we were back on the bus to the airport for the return trip home.
Determined not to miss duty free on our exit and a few more trinkets were purchased. My big mistake was thinking that with all the recent travelling I had done I was now ready to do what the locals seemed to do – buy a coffee (Timmy Hortons!) and take it onboard the flight. No, not for the uninitiated. I spilt coffee (oh noes, there goes Timmys) all over my seat on a packed 14 hour flight to Auckland. Duh. I spent the flight sitting on a blanket (which the flight crew were short of) in a somewhat uncomfortable position. Lesson learnt.
Finally arrived back in good old NZ, totally exhausted but thrilled to have been on such an amazing cross Canada trip. Our plane had arrived a little late and we missed our connecting flight to Wellington. We were rebooked on to the next possible flight (30 minutes later) and after a phone call to our friend Sandra who was collecting us from Wellington, we were off on the last leg of our journey.
Arrived in Wellington shortly after 9am on Friday morning. Exhausted, but glad of making this once in a lifetime trip.
Tuesday 15th July and our last full day in the northern hemisphere. We were up relatively early to check out the Pacific Coach schedule that would connect us with the BC Ferry for the return trip to Vancouver.
First, a stop off at Pacific Editions Ltd – northwest Coast Indian Art Print publishers as it had been closed the day before. i had wanted to buy a couple of prints. One to add to my collection (I already own a Danny Dennis print) and one for Mum. (The cost of the prints and postage to NZ were no where near as expensive as the framing once back in NZ!)
With that task in hand we were off on the midday bus back to the ferry terminal. The weather was perfect and we opted to spend the majority of the trip outside. We had missed most of the crossing going over as we had been caught up in conversation with a couple of fellow travellers from the USA (a teacher and a librarian!) This proved to be a good move – not just for the wonderful scenery, but because we were able to tick off another wild Canadian animal – a doe and her fawn were spotted on one of the small islands in the aptly named Gulf islands.
The trip was over too soon and we were deposited back at Tsawwassen ready for the hour long bus ride back to the Vancouver rail station. Then back to the Hi-hostel Vancouver to dump our luggage for a last look around the city.
Off we headed towards Stanley Park. Stopping off first to hire a couple of bicycles at Spokes Bicycle Rentals right across the road from Stanley Park. I had been told by a few people that the best way to see the Park was either by bike or roller blade. So off we went, along with half the population of BC, most of them on roller blades.
Bicycling around Stanley Park is highly recommended as this park is quite large. The cycle track circles the park, passing by the obligatory totem poles, the Vancouver version of Pania of the Reef, balancing stones in the harbour, public swimming pool and another beach (if only we had known earlier!) We did take a side trip through to Beaver Lake, also recommended at beaver do live there. We finally saw an actual beaver in the wild – not just beaver noses blowing bubbles in the water as we has seen before.
Rascally racoon was another treat inside Stanley Park. These checky critters don’t mind being hand-fed by the locals and tourists alike. Surprised that so much wildlife existed within this park so close to the central city and in a park that had a huge amount of roller-blade traffic.
As time was running short, we didn’t linger in the Park, but it is something that could easily be done. Our last night in the northern hemisphere so headed back to the hostel for a much needed rest.
My goodness gracious me, were we really going to go walking all over town again on Monday???? The answer was ‘Yes dear!’
Why oh why didn’t we hire a scooter to ride around town? Oh that’s right I can’t drive them and I sure as heck wasn’t getting on behind Jo and making the poor bike work over time to get us around, so yes, it was back on my poor wee tired stumps to get me around
Shopping has got to be the worst thing ever invented when you have no idea what to purchase for people. Walking around aimlessly on tired feet does not make a happy camper and as you can see I was at the very end of my happy camper days.
House boats for sale
After a stop at the Royal British Columbia Museum where I purchased a book about Emily Carr (PAM: “Jo, who is Emily Carr?” JO: “Some famous dead Canadian artist who was born around the corner…”) and some photos of yet more totem poles, we made it all the way out to Fisherman’s Wharf where they have this little township of floating houses. There was even one for sale, for anyone interested in purchasing one of these. They were actually quite flash, some having three floors the top floor (or is it a deck) was for entertaining guests with deck chairs and BBQs. The other reason for visiting this area was to taste the local fish and chips at Barb’s Floating Fish and Chips Restaurant.
Happy seal at Fisherman's Wharf
The bonus of this was of course were the three seals that we watched being hand fed frozen fish by all and sundry. It was a little chillier this day and we had not fully prepared our wardrobe for this occasion so I froze on the dock, Jo being a little smarter than me had brought her hoodie with her so she was a tad warmer then myself and coped better in the conditions.
We slowly made our way back into town and the weather improved markedly by this stage so shopping was a goer again. We looked through several shops but time was not our best friend and some of these places were closing so we gave up on the shopping and headed home for a much deserved nanny nap.
Back to Vancouver tomorrow so we had an early night to be fresh for the return trip to the Hi Vancouver Central Hostel.
Arriving into Victoria on Sunday was a little more exciting then the other places we had visited. Let’s cast our minds back to the morning rush!
Up at sparrows fart so that we could get packed and on the our way to the Pacific Coachlines bus terminal to make the early ferry across the Georgia Strait. A quick trip with Tony at the wheel and we were on the BC Ferry. In fact Tony told us “First on first off”, very interesting as we were facing the rear of the boat on entry! Well we took off up stairs to secure a good viewing pozzy for ourselves (as did nearly everyone else on the vessel) and low and behold, who was out there in the harbour teasing us with his playful diving displays but Delta the harbour seal, cousin to Charlie from New Brunswick’s Reversing Falls.
Well the ferry headed out into the strait and slowly picked up speed and the breeze was just a little too much for we kiwi girls so we popped inside for a feed. Well there was once again a crowd so we politely asked this woman if we could share her table. Barbara, as it turned out, was a teaching librarian at a New York school. Somewhere that required armed guards to patrol the halls in an attempt to reduce crime within the four walls (they had not been to successful so far this year with one murder and three stabbings). She warmed to us and began to give us quite a wee history lesson on the teachings of her school and the advanced steps the teaching staff are taking in their delivery of the curriculum i.e. reading recovery care of the NZ education system and trips outside the school to resource centres with curriculum related sites.
Wow! As you can imagine I was absolutely astounded with this new discovery of theirs considering we seem to have been doing this very thing in our schools since forever (I didn’t want to show off too much but I couldn’t resist mentioning that NZ teachers have always looked for and used the available resources be it materials, people or places, to support their teachings). But I suppose we don’t have the behavioral problems to the same extent as poor ole Barbara. Anyway, we might keep in contact by introducing our students to each other as electronic buddies, we’ll see how that goes as her kids are a little older than mine. Time will tell…
On berthing at Victoria, it was back on the bus and sure enough we did just drive straight off as Tony had promised.
He was such a kind driver that he made an unscheduled stop to drop us off directly across the road from our next accommodation. We checked in and waited, foolishly, for the lift to take us to our floor, which we later discovered was actually the next one up not two up as the numbers lead us to believe.
Seaplanes at Victoria's harbour
A quick change and it was off to find the nearest whales – Jo was anxious to see these fine specimens. Victoria was a very pretty city – lots of hanging baskets overflowing with summer flowers, even on the piers. Seaplanes abounded everywhere.
We headed out on the Prince of Whales tours and were promised whales in about 45 minutes and true to form there they were, orca breaching and swimming without a care in the world. A mother and child came up so close to the boat that it felt like you could just reach down and touch them. Well worth the money!
[Note from Jo:Almost as exciting as seeing the orca was the ride back to Victoria. The conditions in the waters around the San Juan islands were pretty rough that day and our travelling companions were drenched by spray from the boat. Smaller zodiac boats travelled in our wake to reduce the impact and spray, but to little avail as there were plenty of waves to ride through. Our captain, Shamus, was egged on by Pam to "ride 'em Shamus!" and that, he did!]
On return to the dock, the local area was promoted well by the crew and many suggestions were given as to where to go for a meal. Jo and I selected a restaurant just off the dockside , Milestones, where we tasted some delicious morsels, the most novel being red corn chips!!!
Having filled our wee bellies to over flowing, we decided (well Jo did) that a brisk walk home would be of great benefit to us, so off we marched in the general direction of our hotel. Eighteen blocks from woe to go so off we went, me begrudgingly. Did I mention that my feet were killing me!!! Just checking you were up with the play.
Before we knew it we had walked three blocks. They weren’t even complete!! Some only had two addresses in them so this was actually going to be quite easy, well this is what I kept telling myself to make the trip more interesting, then we came upon, what I would say was our most creative beggar.
He made this really elaborate story up about volunteering to help clean the streets up of discarded needles from the local druggies and had managed to prick himself with a needle and needed to get to the hospital for a quick checkup and whatever. Well he was doing quite well with his story until he decided to show us the injury, which even to the untrained eye, was not new so we sent him on his way without reducing the weight in our change pocket. Why on earth didn’t he just come out with the “I need money” line and save us all from the need to fabricate the truth?
Home sweet home at last! What are the chances of getting on the computer to update our Blog? None as there was already a queue!!! Well early to bed as there is always another day of activities coming up…
Saturday 12th was another scorcher of a day and off we headed on our current adventure. (Please not too much walking my feet are killing me). Well we found the sea bus without too much drama (we followed the guy in front of us and hoped he was headed in the same direction) and piled on with the other tourists and crossed the water to the bus for the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain.
Pam on Capilano Suspension Bridge
First was the suspension bridge. As we had paid our way in town, we got priority entrance and passed the queue for tickets. The staff were dressed in period clothing to add to the atmosphere. I was in charge of the map and the stamp sheet which all visiting groups got and I headed off to find my first stamp. Of course Jo went to the Totem poles to get photos, she’s so easily distracted sometimes. Yep they were pretty amazing carvings so got heaps of picks, some even had the babies in them.
Then it was off to the actual bridge to cross the waters to the tree top walk. If you aren’t too good on swing bridges then this one could challenge you. It was 137 metres long and it swayed with each step, also because someone (and I’m not naming names) helped with the swinging. What good is a swing bridge if you can’t swing it??? Then a kind passer by told me that they have spotters out to warn people not to do this and I did run the risk of being asked to remove myself from the attraction. OK so I stopped but that didn’t stop the thing swinging anyway. What great fun and even I would recommend doing it but it is a bit pricey.
On the other side they had huge Douglas Firs, Hemlock and cedar trees and I mean HUGE. These babies would need several people to join hands to give them a decent hug. What I really wanted to know was what had happened to tree that fell across the swing bridge in 2006.
Well they had to cut it down in sections it was so big and then kart the bits away. The river below was once used for shipping the logs down stream to the ocean where they were transported to where-ever. No real excitement except that the swing bridge had survived the weight of the tree falling on it and would therefore survive the weight of this little kiwi kid and her trusty sidekick for our return trip across the bridge (the numbers of visitors was increasing exponentially).
True to form, there was someone holding up the works for what I thought was the classic photo on the bridge, when this voice appeared from no-where advising visitors to keep moving, here was the hidden staff member who could have expelled me from this attraction, I said a silent thank-you to my friendly passer by. But wait, no-one was taking photos and we still were moving at a snails pace. Then I discovered her. Let’s call her ‘The Sacred’. although terrified was probably a better description. How on earth had she got across the bridge I will never know (limited english) so I carefully extricated her hands from the wires and slowly stepped her to the end of the bridge. Many thank-yous later we were all able to get off the bridge. Not so much fun on the return trip. Boy did she ruin a good swing!
I had a few more stamps to collect so we wandered around the last of the totems and then Jo discovered the Gift shop, I was doomed to wait again. Lucky it was a sunny day as I was able to catch a few gammas in the courtyard while Jo did her thing inside.
Finally we were able to leave this place and move onto another high rise attraction, Grouse Mountain. The bus took us right to the Gondolas. A lovely girl from Tauranga told us that it would take 6 minutes to get to the top of the mountain and most of the activities at the top were included in the price (sorry no helicopter flights, they are extra) but otherwise there was heaps to do.
On disembarking from the gondola, Jo and I were encountered with lots and lots of people and children running around and squealing, I had to investigate. What were they all doing that looked like so much fun??? and there before our eyes was snow!! Yep in the middle of their summer this mountain is so high that it still had patches of snow everywhere and obviously a lot of people like to play in snow, so when in Rome….
Pam eating snow
After getting wet and cold in the snow, Jo and I went carried on exploring this mountain. We went on a chair lift to get more amazing views of Vancouver, watched and listened to the talks about the grizzly bears, peregrine falcons, bald eagles and lumber jacks with all the shows that went with these. As you can imagine, I was getting rather thirsty from all this activity, so we went to the local for a cold one. There we met a nice couple from Wanganui who shared parts of their trip with us and we with them. We were finally able to talk to someone who got us and we didn’t have to repeat ourselves to, what a giggle!
The day was beginning to wear us down so off the mountain we decided to go. As we had discovered through our trip, there are queues everywhere and sure enough here was another one for the gondola. One whole hour later, we actually made it on to the gondola to get off the mountain, not what you need on a hot day with little to no shade. (Please take me home. I’m hot and my feet are killing me.)
Back in town, we slowly made our way back to the hostel and take-aways from the meal with Jen. Nothing comes in small amounts over here and although Jo and I were getting quite good at ordering one meal and sharing it we had forgotten to do so last night and they shift you on quickly so your meals are packed up and sent home with you, like it or not!!!!
But the meal was very nice and it was great to be able to just sit and rest so that’s what I did. Jo of course went and worked on the computer trying to work out how to do computer stuff in a strange town.
Off to Victoria tomorrow, maybe the whales will be out!
Finally I get the thunder storms and lightning but alas it’s only 1am!!! Yep and it had the diesired effect, it woke me up and the kids. Well who needed sleep anyway.
So up we got at a bright and early 5:30am so we could get ourselves organised to be ready for the taxi and a have brief moment of farewell to the Toronto crew. The taxi was on-time and away we went into rush hour traffic to get our flight to Vancouver.
Having arrived in Vancouver we decided it was quicker and easier to catch a cab to our next destination, Hi Vancouver Central in downtown Vancouver. We made the street almost immediately on departure from the airport only to have to travel on it for about half an hour to actually reach our accommodation. What long streets they have over here!
After a quick change of clothes, the temperature was a little cooler than we were getting used to, we headed out to explore (which meant more walking) the local arae and familiarise ourselves with the street lay-out. Food of course was the first hurdle and having partaken in some of the local cusine, we headed out.
As you may be aware, the town is preparing itself for the 2010 Winter Olympics and there are construction sites everywhere. Jo and I found this ‘Hole in the ground’ that must have been at least four to five stories deep and this random woman stopped to talk / share her knowledge of the town and then proceeded to tell us all about the ‘low life’ and where they hang out in this fair city. Another warning to stay clear of East Hastings Street!! Strange but this intrigued us a little (may be we could criuse the street to see what it really was like).
Onwards and upwards. Trying to find a way to disengage this woman from us proved to be a challenge but we meandered off to the nearest corner and waited to see where she was heading and we took the other direction. This was fortunate as we ended up at the Information Centre. These two lovelys that worked there were very informative, giving us advise about Grousse Mountain, Capilano Suspension Bridge, whale watching, Davie Street and public transport.
Sunset at English Bay
Having had a look around, we decided it was time to catch up with Jen (a friend of a friend). We went out to a Thai restaurant, Kam’s Place, in Davie Street and then walked down to English Bay for sunset. The beach was very organised with logs placed evenly along the beach for people to lean on. A bit too organised!
Jen then took us on a tiki tour around town and even drove through East Hastings Street (doors were tightly locked as this is the sleazy part of town) but then we ended up at this amazing ice cream shop with 218 different ice cream flavours (La Casa Gelato)! This really should be on the tourist maps. The place was crowded with people, who like us, had come to sample their wares and decide which tasty flavour most appealed and make a purchase. Not all did actually purchase an ice-cream, having filled themselves on the tastings. Garlic ice-cream!!! What next??
As we were starting to display signs of exhaustion, Jen took us back to our accommodations and we said a rather tired good night. If only we knew where we were cause sure enough there were sounds coming from all directions and when we peeked out the window, cops were everywhere. Not liking to miss out on anything, we hurredly got dressed and proceeded out into the darkening night.
Yep, we were right in the middle of party central (Courney Place during the British Rugby Tour) and this seemed standard for them and the cops were there for everyones ‘protection’. Even little children were downtown showing off their skills on the X-Box Rock Band game, pubs had queues that went for miles and everyone seemed happy to wait their turn to enter these establishments. Well it was all a bit too much for the little Kiwi Girls so we headed off back to our room hoping we would get some sleep before the big day ahead.
Niagara Falls weather had improved the previous afternoon, so by Thursday it was hot and humid again. We made a quick shopping stop in town (Clare’s Harley Davidsons shop and the Mounties giftshop), then back on the road for a smooth ride back to Toronto. That is, until just before the Don Valley Parkway when the traffic halted. A cyclist had been hit by a car on the freeway – what they were doing on the freeway no one knows. So we were stopped in traffic for half an hour, but managed to take a turn off through Scarborough to drop the wedding suits off.
This was our last day in Toronto and we had tickets to a Blue Jays baseball game, but we also wanted to go up the CN Tower, so off we raced back into downtown Toronto. The view from the CN Tower was amazing, but I wouldn’t bother spending the extra $9 to go to the Sky Pod.
Clare, Trish, Murray and Pam watching the Blue Jay baseball game
We got to the Blue Jays game at the end of the 3rd innings so we hadn’t missed much. The Blue Jays were trailing the Baltimore Orioles by the last two innings proved to be the exciting ones. The Blue Jays finally managed to win by one run.
Back on the train home to Scarborough to pack. While having a relaxing coffee at home, we were startled by a noise outside. We sent Murray to investigate. It was the elusive Rocky Raccoon rummaging through the rubbish bins. There he was precariously balanced on the wooden fence, stunned by our flashlight.
A late night of packing, sleepless as the rain came down, hot and humid, thunder and lightening, critters hanging from the tree above the bed (we were sleeping in the sun room), and an early check-in at the airport meant only a few hours sleep.
Wednesday we were up at dawn to catch the Maid of the Mist and view the Falls up close. Leanne and the kids came with us – we managed to find a car park that was quite a walk from the ferry departure point, but it meant that we had a nice walk along the river and had great views of both waterfalls.
The day started out overcast but was very humid. There was spray constantly coming off the falls so staying 100% dry was not an option. Luckily for us, the queue to the Maid of the Mist wasn’t very long (possibly due to overcast skies) and we were on the boat in no time. The force of the spray up close to the Horseshoe falls was amazing – hard to look directly at them and keep your eyes open. All too soon we were back at shore.
We headed back to the Embassy Suites to collect Trish (who was now feeling a bit better) to buy snacks and bubbly for the wedding, which was to be held at 4pm. I stayed with Clare waiting for the flowers and bouquet to arrive. Clare insisted on going to the bar for a drink around 2.30pm and I couldn’t get her to come back to the room to get changed for the wedding. Thanks to Chris texting from NZ telling Clare to get her butt up to the room and stop mucking around, the wedding may never have happened.
The marriage celebrant, Rev Deb arrived just before 4pm. Chris rang from NZ three times to listen in on the speaker phone before the wedding party were finally ready at 4.20pm and the ceremony began. With Pam prompting Clare with “I will”, the ceremony was completed, the official documents signed, and the bubbly poured.
Dinner was held at the Keg Steakhouse and Bar overlooking the Falls. The reservation had been mucked up as we had asked for a table with a view, but the staff were very accommodating and we had a table with a view in no time. The Falls were lit up at night and a fireworks display held at 10pm.
We had a few celebratory drinks after dinner, then a tidy up of the room so we could head off early to Toronto the next morning.
