Cam and Rach's Moose-ologue

Rockies Road Trip - Part 2 (Banff to Vancouver), 22nd - 27th June 2010

2010-06-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Today was set to be a busy day sightseeing Banff and the surrounding area. We got up early to start our day. It was a bit more overcast today but warm enough. We headed for the Banff Gondola. After a few photos with the massive Ice Explorer vehicles we headed up the gondola. What an amazing panoramic view from up here. It was a bit cooler up the top being a bit closer to the snow and more exposed to the wind. We went for a walk up to the top peak to have a look around. Typical kiwis we were and happened to be the only ones with jandals on, despite the signs warning you not to wear this kind of footwear. I've definitely walked in worse conditions with them. After several photo ops, encounters with chipmunks and a browse in the tourist shop we headed down for our next adventure.

We headed out of Banff towards Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. With our eyes pealed the entire way we didn't manage to see any wild life on the way. Maybe we are just looking too hard. Now we had truely stuck beauty. Driving into these kind of places is just breathtaking. The water is just so clear and the snow covered mountains reflecting on the water is just something else!! The pictures are fantastic but just don't quite do it justice. This is probably one of the nicest lakes I have ever seen. We had packed a picnic lunch so decided we would sit on the rocks here and have a picnic. We soon became surrounded by chipmunks and there were a few ravens hanging around. Man these things are massive and scary looking (the ravens I mean) wouldn't want one of these to peck you. After a quick pit stop we were on our way again.

Next stop was Lake Louise, now if you ever come to the Rockies this is one of the places you will most likely come to. It is pretty fantastic but to be honest I don't think you would find somewhere around here that isn't. I personally enjoyed some of the other lakes more. Still a must visit if you ever come this way. We went for a walk around the lake to try and catch the sun and shadows at different places on the lake. At different times of the day the lake can look different colours, from blue to green to turquoise. Even within the space of half an hour or so the lake looked different colours. We took a few silly photos here and then headed on our way again. Now at this point I must add that we had decided to start doing some silly plank photos, in case you don't know doing "the plank" is lying down flat in some random place to take a photo just for fun. There is no real reason just pure silliness. You may see a few of these photos in here.

It was getting a bit late in the day and getting a bit cold so we decided to head back to Banff for a swim at the hot springs, very nice and relaxing way to end the day before dinner. We went out to Wild bills for a good pub meal before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Today 23rd June was going to be a really long day, as most of our days seem to be. Today we headed to Jasper along the Ice Fields Parkway, this drive was set to take us about 4 hours. This section is probably one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on!! The Rockies are just so impressive and the mountains are huge. At this time of the year it's nice to still see the mountain tips covered in snow. We got up early again and had a big breakfast before setting off. As you have to go back towards Lake Louise to head to Jasper we decided to take the nature road again to try and find our bear. Today we were successful, right along the side of the road we spotted a grizzly bear eating dandelions. The car went crazy once again and the paparazzi were out. We managed to get nice and close without being those dangerous types of tourists. We kept our distance and managed to get some great photos along with a video. It's crazy watching some people get out of their cars just to get close to these animals, stupid people. After a while of photos and once the ranger had turned up to control the gatherers we headed off on our way again. We were all excited now. Now to find a Moose.

First stop along this journey was Peyto Lake, now this lake is just stunning and such a gorgeous blue colour. The glacier used to fill this whole valley however has receded about 2 kilometers in the last century. You can't walk down to the lake so we just had to observe it from up at the summit. I just can't get enough of this beauty, stunning!! We walked down through the shrubbery back to the car to continue.

Next stop was the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields. Another glacier that has receded several kilometers over time, where the information area and car park are used to be the glacier. We decided to get in a big snow car and take a tour to the glacier. What a fantastic trip and a must do if you are ever in the area in my opinion. On the short trip up to the glacier we got to see some mountain goats. No photos of these as they were gone by the time I got the camera out. Now this big vehicle has to maneuver down this massive hill which is icy and extremely steep, quite scary as you start heading over the top of the hill and then end up almost vertical. There were a few people in the car who were holding on pretty tight, I think we may have also got a short scream at one point. Once we got to the glacier we were able to get out for about 15-20 mins to have a walk around. We grabbed our drink bottles and dipped them into the stream that was running by, now you haven't tasted water till you have some straight off a glacier, it's just so cold and clean!! After walking around and a few more photos it was time to be on our way. We headed back to the snow cars. The journey back was just as fun however not so scary this time as we were prepared for the climb back up the hill. Once back at the information area we had a bite to eat for lunch of some overly priced food and a walk around a couple of tourist shops before heading on our way again.

We stopped at several falls along the way including Tangle Falls off the side of the road, Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls. Athabasca falls were by far the best. The Athabasca river links the freshwater ice of the Columbia Icefield to the salt water of the Artic Ocean. It was very impressive, and not somewhere you'd like to find your self ending up after paddling down the river. It wouldn't just be cold but I'm sure you'd get stuck in one of the many nooks and crannies the ice and river water has made. We took a few more photos and videos then set off on our way again.

We arrived in Jasper around dinner time. After checking into our accommodation we decided to have a look through the town of Jasper to find some where for dinner. Then collected a few things for a BBQ for tomorrow and headed back to the accommodation. We decided it would be a nice evening to have a look around the area we were staying briefly. We jumped in the car and headed to Pyramid Island. This is a small island that has been popular with locals and visitors since 1930 when the first foot bridge was built. It has a short 600m walk around the island to enjoy. The island and the surrounding lake get their name from the mountain that looks over it: Pyramid Mountain. We had a walk around watching some of the chipmunks carrying around some rubbish the humans had left, such a shame people can be so thoughtless. Despite that it was such a beautiful view on such a beautiful evening, I think there is nothing better than looking out across the water at the beautiful sky and mountains as the evening is closing in on you, just amazing!

We were staying in Jasper 2 nights so today 24 June we spent having a look around the Jasper area. Today wasn't the nicest day we have had in our trip, it was a bit cloudy and cool this morning. We decided to still take the 40 min drive towards Maligne lake. I know what you are thinking, "not another lake" but this is a must see in the Rockies. Maligne Lake is famed for the colour of is water, surrounding peaks and the three peaks visible from the lake and Spirit island. It is one of the most photographed locations in the world, and it is truly beautiful. I could only imagine how stunning this would be on a sunny day, as it was still stunning on a cloudy day. We waited for our boat and hopped on for our hour trip out to Spirit Island. Now spirit island is nothing too exciting just an island with several trees on it and a walk, however if I could be there and be surrounded by such beauty each and every day I think I'd be pretty "spirited" myself. After a few photos and a quick stop we headed back to the start.

Oh I forgot to mention. On our way to the lake we managed to see some more wildlife, turns out it just pops up when you least expect it. While driving down the road we wondered what that thing was running down the side of the road heading straight towards us. Turns out is was a proud red fox, who was carrying its prey back home. We couldn't believe our luck, you can't get more wild life than an animal with its prey!! Along the journey we also managed to see some elk and some big horn mountain sheep.

The day was beginning to brighten up a bit and the sun was trying to come out. We were still on the look out for Moose so made a few stops on our way back towards Jasper. We made a stop at Medicine lake on the way to Maligne Canyon. Waters from Maligne River flow into Medicine Lake however never appear to flow out. Medicine Lake does dry up in the summer months though leaving a thin channel of water which disappears into the shoreline. The water from here then makes it way through Maligne canyon. We went for a walk around the canyon area looking way down towards the water. We managed to hear a woodpecker on the way but couldn't quite see it. It's so hard to even hear where the sound is coming from as it seems to echo off all the walls. We finished off the walk and jumped back into the car to finish our exploring.

Next stops were Lake Annette and Lake Edith, now these are the kinds of lakes you want to have a swim in. The water is just so clear and clean, with the reflections of the mountains in them. Just beautiful!! Such a pity we didn't bring our togs with us. We headed back to the motel to decide what our next plan of action was. Once back at the motel Cam and I decided that you couldn't come to the Rockies and not have a swim in a glacier fed lake. So we got our togs on and headed down to Patricia lake. Now this water is freezing, well not quite but pretty dam close!! If I was to guess I would say approx 6-8 degrees, the type of cold that no matter how long you are in the water you never seem to catch your breath. We managed to stay in for a few photos (none of which I can post sorry as they are on Mum's camera) and a very quick swim, before getting out and heading to the spa which was conveniently located just a few minutes walk away. There is nothing quite like sitting in a spa pool all warm, when the air around you is freezing, surrounded by snow covered mountains!! Don't think I'll ever get used to that.

After the swim we took advantage of the nice evening to have a BBQ before heading to bed after our busy day.

Well tonight was the last night of our Rockies Road Trip. Another long 4 hour drive to Kamloops. We started out reasonably early on the 25th June. We only made one stop on the way to Kamloops at Spahats falls. This big waterfall comes flying out of the side of the cliff face down to the rocks below. Quite impressive, what I thought was more interesting was that the cliff face below the path you walk on to get to the lookout has a massive crack down to the base of it. This was caused by an earthquake in the past. Glad they told us about this once we had walked over it. Still worth it in the end I guess. After a short stop here were continued on to Kamloops, we wanted to get here at a reasonable hour. It's amazing how it can warm up so much after a short distance of travelling. While in Banff and Jasper the temperature had dropped a bit being closer to the mountains. However now in Kamloops the temperatures were back up to the 30's again.

To cool off we headed down to the Thompson River at Riverside park in Kamloops for a bit of a swim. After trying to help rescue a few stupid people who were nearly being carried off down the river on airbeds, we plunged into the river. It was very refreshing, not quite as cold as the last swim but still takes your breath away. We collected some food and took advantage of the nice weather again for a BBQ on the deck for dinner. Tonight was just a relaxing night before our journey back to Vancouver.

Today was set to be another 4 hour drive and we had one stop along the way so once again we were up for an early start. We headed for Hell's gate. At hell's gate you take and Airtram down the cliff face, across the Fraser river and to the platform on the other side. Over here you learn about the history of the area, can have some food and watch the waters roaring past. Here the towering rock walls of the Fraser River plunge toward each other forcing the waters through a passage only 35 m wide. Such a large amount of water powering down through such a small gap. We hung around here for a while watching the hummingbirds, having and ice cream and taking a few photos before heading back to the airtram and to continue our journey home to Vancouver. After dinner out in Vancouver we called it a night.

That concludes our 9 day, 2200 kilometer trip of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. My advise to anyone would be that this is a must do trip in your lifetime if you can manage it, however I would try to take at least 2 weeks and spend more time in each area. This is such an amazing and beautiful place, just breathtaking!!

I'm going to add one more day onto this trip. We had to make use of Cam's time off and the rental of our car so we decided to add in one more day trip. Today we got up early again to head to Whistler. Now Whistler is another place that you have to visit if heading to Vancouver. Whether you are here in summer or in winter there is plenty to see and do. We decided we had to see one of the local waterfalls so stopped off at Shannon falls. Still a great waterfall however after what we had seen in the last several days it wasn't as impressive as the other ones. After about 15 min here we continued on our way. Once in Whistler we had to bundle up a bit more, it was a bit of an overcast day and was a bit cold. We headed up on the Gondola. Along the way we managed to see 2 black bears on the side of the mountain. By the time we got the cameras out they were gone though, perhaps we can see them on the way down. Once at the top we had a few photos in the snow, yes snow in the middle of summer. It's hard to believe that this time last year there was hardly any snow and this year it was everywhere, there were still people snowboarding in the glaciers and it's near the end of June.

After perusing some of the tourist shops and getting some cheap bargains on T-shirts we headed across on the peak to peak to Blackcomb mountain. There wasn't much more to see over here other than a different view, so after some photos we went back across the peak to peak to Whistler mountain and down the Gondola. We had the cameras out however the bears had gone. After a walk around Whistler village and the shops we were on our way home again. Now Cam and I have traveled this road several times and never seen a bear. This time however we were lucky, not only a bear but a black bear and her cub just walking along one of the side roads. We did a U turn and took some photos from the other side of the road. Don't think we have any chance of seeing a Moose now so we continued.

Once back in Vancouver we took the scenic ride home first stopping up Cypress Mountain, one of the local mountains to get a view back over Vancouver and the city. Such a clear day for it and we managed to see one of the cruise ships leaving, perfect timing. Now we drove through Stanley park to the lookout where we watched the cruise ships continue their journey out of the harbour and even managed to get a picture of a raccoon!! What an amazing holiday.

Wildlife seen: Deer, Marmot, Mountain Goat, Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Elk, Red Fox, Squirrel, Chipmunk, Raven and Raccoon.

Rockies Road Trip - Part 1 (Vancouver to Banff), 19th - 21st June 2010

2010-06-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

I'll start back a few days, before the 19th June. Mum and Dad Jordan arrived on 16th June 2010 to Vancouver to spend 5 weeks in the area. I picked them up from the airport after their long haul here. We took the journey back to the city from the airport on the Canada line. After arriving at our apartment, dropping their bags off and a coffee we headed out for a walk to Canada Place. Just a short walk to check out the scenery and get a bit of a feel for the city. Luckily Vancouver had decided it would bring out a bit of sunshine for them, being late afternoon however it's wasn't out for too long. After a little walk we headed back to meet Cam and head out for some dinner. Just a relaxing evening before all the fun begins.

17th June we walked over the bridge to Granville Island for a day of perusing the shops and watching a bit of entertainment. A great place to show tourists and find a few presents to take back. Granville Island as I have probably mentioned in other posts is a public market full of international foods and local stalls. We spent the majority of the day here just looking around. After this we headed home for dinner, it's great having your parents over to visit when they then cook you dinner. Their way of contributing, which was much appreciated. After dinner we went for an evening walk around the waterfront, one of our favourite things to do on a beautiful evening. As we were walking along the waterfront we were telling Mum and Dad about how we quite often see seals, just as one popped up in front of us, perfect timing!! We walked right around to science world before heading home through the city. A nice relaxing day and evening.

Today was a stunning day in Vancouver, perfect day for a walk to Stanley Park. After a bit of a sleep in we headed down to false creek, walked along the waterfront towards second beach, such a beautiful way to see the entrance to Vancouver. It's such a long walk around Stanley Park we decided to cut across the front of it and past the Lost lagoon lake. There were some turtles who thought it was a beautiful day. There were several of them sunning themselves on some rocks with some beautiful swans swimming by, such a picture op. I have never seen this here before, Vancouver was bringing it all out for Mum and Dad so far. We stopped for a bite to eat and to watch some of the World cup football, before heading off along the waterfront, past Canada place to Gastown. Gastown is Vancouver's old town area, this is where settlers first started things in this city. Now Vancouver isn't called little Hollywood for no reason, we happened to fall upon the filming of a TV series called Facing Kate, I told Mum and Dad we could go searching for filming but never thought we would actually find some. We hung around here for a while watching, always so interesting. On our way back home we managed to find some real life action, there were several undercover cops and several people in handcuffs, not sure what kind of trouble they were in. Wow what an action packed trip. We headed home after this for dinner and an early night as we were heading off on our trip the next day.

Today we were heading off on our 9 day trip around the Rocky Mountains in Canada. Today the 19th was set to be a long day. The trip is about 4-5 hours drive from Vancouver. We were going to take it easy as it was Dad's first time driving for a while on the wrong side of the road. We also wanted to take in the scenery around us and make a few stops. We headed off nice and early on our way to Kelowna for 2 nights. Kelowna is a city in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. Kelowna is well known for it's hot weather during the summer, and the Okanagan is very well known for it's wines and fruit. On our way we stopped off at a few small places including Hope and Merritt. The sign on the way into Hope says "experience Hope" so we thought we must get out and take a few photos like good tourists. A nice little town. This started a trend of stopping off at little places along the way.

The next stop however in Merritt was perhaps one that we didn't need to make. You could just about see a tumble weed blowing in the wind. We did manage to find a supermarket here however and get some lunch, we then found a nice spot on the way at the info center to eat our lunch, it was starting to get hot now the further we got to Kelowna. We pushed on towards Kelowna as these little stops were beginning to take up a bit of our time. Now Kelowna didn't disappoint and we found out just how hot it can be arriving here to find 30+ temps. After replacing our long pants with shorts we headed off to do a bit of exploring. Now Kelowna is just beautiful, I think if I was to stay in Canada this could be a place I would be happy to be. It's right on a lake and just has a really nice feel to it. We walked around the waters edge and through the city. Back at the hotel we enjoyed a BBQ in the sun and heat, then a cool off in the pool before heading to bed ready for our next day.

Today was a bit more relaxed as we had the entire day to spend in and around Kelowna. There happened to be an event on called smoke on the water, where people who BBQ were having a competition of who could cook the best meats etc. There were a few stalls and the best part each place was chopping up pieces of their cooked meat for people to try, it was delicious and we got to have all sorts of meat selections. This happened to be right down by the lake so we took a little time to listen to the music and put our feet in the water.

After this we headed over to the car and boat show which was also happening in Kelowna today, we picked a good day to be here it seems. They had some really neat and flash old cars. They were all done up and shinny. Once we had enough looking at this we sat down for a while to enjoy some live country music that was going on, some of these people have amazing voices. In the afternoon we went out to West Kelowna to have a look at a couple of the wineries, we stopped off at one with a bit of a view for one of the most expensive coffees I have had, the company and view were worth it though. We continued on around the area to have a look at some of the flash houses and man there were some beautiful spots around this area. Far enough away from the city to feel secluded but close enough to get everything you need. Definitely somewhere I could stay. It was getting later in the afternoon so we headed back to the hotel and walked down the road for some dinner, dessert and a walk back around the area before bed time. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

We set off fairly early this morning the 21st of June on our way to Banff. Today's drive is about 6-7 hours. You would not believe just how stunning this place and drive is, everywhere you look are snow covered mountains for miles!! Banff is a very popular spot particularly in the winter for the skiing, however it is also very popular during the summer due to the beauty of the place and walks they have in the area. On our way to Banff we stopped at Salmon Arm a cute little town nestled on the shore of the Shuswap Lake. We took a few photos near the lake, had a bit of a shop around and had a bit to eat including a meat pie!! Not quite New Zealand standards but pretty good for Canada standards.

We left here sometime after lunch to stop off at Revelstoke dam, just a quick stop and a few photos as we were conscious of the time. Now we knew we would see some wildlife at some point however we didn't realise we would see so much all at once. Some of us got closer than expected. We got a snap shot of wildlife on our way to Emerald lake. As we were driving along the road we got a glimpse of a bear unfortunately by the time we got back to it, it had disappeared into the woods, I guess we'll just have to wait for our chance. Emerald lake is absolutely beautiful, the water was so blue and with the mountain behind it was very picturesque. This was our first stop off at a lake and turned out to be the start of many more lakes and waterfalls to come.

Our next stop along the way was Takakkaw falls, now here we were very lucky with the wildlife sightings. As we were driving along we could see something moving in the distance, turns out there were some deer crossing the road. We slowed down and the paparazzi were out. There was excited screams and cameras clicking like you wouldn't imagine, you would think they were standing on top each other and juggling. I must admit it's great to see things just in the wild that you wouldn't normally see at all. After our encounter here we continued on to the falls, they were pretty impressive, not the biggest stream of water but very high. It's not just the waterfalls either when its surrounds by a river, and mountains as far as you can see it's very impressive. The boys took a walk around the water to head to the base of the falls while Mum and I built and Inuksuk. An Inuksuk is a stone landmark or a cairn built by humans used by some native people of the Arctic region of North American. It happens to be one of the symbols for the winter olympics and you see them pretty much where ever there are rocks. After making our rock formation we took a few photos and headed around to the waterfall as well. It was getting a bit late at this time and we still had a bit of a drive to get to Baniff.

We headed off back down the road. On the way back to the main road there were a few more deer and then we came across this fury thing in the middle of the road, it walked right up to the car and posed for a photo, we didn't know at the time what this was but later found out it was a Marmott, something I have never heard of before. It was very cute looking but we were sensible tourists and kept on driving. We arrived late in Baniff, went out for dinner and then called it a night. Our mission for the rest of the trip now was to see as much wild life as possible.

More to come in part 2.

Bits and Bobs, 29th June - 15th June 2010

2010-06-16T10:50:00.021-07:00

The 28th May 2010 was our first year anniversary in Vancouver. On the 29th we headed out for dinner with some of our new friends and old friends to the Local Public Eatery. We had some nibbles, dinner and few drinks to celebrate. Turns out there was another reason to celebrate, our friends Andrea and Laurence are expecting a baby. It was a great evening out with friends to celebrate our time here so far.

June the 1st we went to see the Eagles at the Pacific Coliseum, this was my second time seeing them and Cam's first. We were a little far back at the venue and it was a bit hot, but they put on a great performance as usual which made up for this. Such an amazing band.

We had decided to move apartments and the rest of this week we had several appointments to look at our options. Turns out there were quite a few options out there, and lots of nice places. We had a few more places to look at next week then thought we would make up our mind after that.

Saturday 5th June we went round to Misa's house for dinner. Randall was leaving to go walk the Camino de Santiago, an old pilgrimage walk in Europe. This is about an 800 km walk and can take up to 3-5 weeks to walk, depending on your speed etc. A nice dinner out, even better when you don't have to cook anything.

On Sunday it was pouring down with rain, so we took our umbrellas and headed to Commercial drive for the Italian Day. This is another one of the street days where they block off the streets to cars, and different places set up different stalls. I must admit I have been to better ones, there weren't many stalls this time, perhaps this was due to the rain. We met up with Kim and stood in line to find a place to eat and have a drink, I think every other man and his dog thought this was a good idea in the rain. After lunch and bit of a chat we headed home for the day.

Saturday the 12th was a beautiful day in Vancouver, the sun was shining and it was warm out. We had chosen an apartment over the last week and today we headed around to sign the lease. It was a perfect place, we have a view of the mountains and the ocean in between some of the buildings. We are on the 16th floor and are on the west side of the building so can see to the west, north and south. Can't wait to move in on the 23rd of July.

After this we headed to Kits beach to meet Andrea, Laurence and some of their friends, for a picnic. We laxed out on the beach, ate strawberries, watermelon, cheese, crackers and cinnamon buns. Some went for a cold swim in the ocean while the rest of us hit the volleyball around. A nice relaxing afternoon. After this we headed around to Andrea and Laurence's for a beautiful Salmon dinner, out on their deck in the sun. Just beautiful!!

On Sunday we met up with Andrea and Laurence

again to go on a trip and picnic to Golden Ears Park. It was a slightly overcast day and a little chilly out in the forest. Once we got there we set up for our picnic, I think next time we need to organise who is going to bring what food. We had so much food to eat between the four of us, think we were going to have to take some home. After our feast we headed off for a walk, well more like a wild goose chase. Andrea decided to take us off the beaten trail, around the waterfront, through some streams and through the bush. After a while we decided against her judgement and headed back to find a proper trail.

Turned out to be quite fun actually. We jumped in the car and went to find the falls. This time we found the real trail, the weather had started clearing now as well and it was a beautiful day.The trail was absolutely beautiful and went right next to the water. After our walk, a few picture and several hours later we headed back to our picnic spot for round two of our feast. It was getting a bit late now and we had a bit of a drive back to Vancouver so we packed up and jumped in the car for our trip back. It was a really nice day away, great to be able to just jump in car and head away on a road trip.

Tuesday 15th June we headed to a pub called venue to watch and English band called Athlete. It was a great concert, I love watching bands in a smaller venue, makes it feels much more intimate. The band even stuck around afterwards for signatures and photos.

New Zealand Trip, 30th April - 19th May 2010

2010-05-20T20:40:00.001-07:00

After leaving Vancouver on 28th April and missing a day I arrived in New Zealand on the 30th April at 5.30am in the morning. I must admit a 14 hour straight flight is so much better than having to deal with connections through the States.

I had decided to stay in Auckland that night with Tobi and Mel, and go out for dinner with a few people. Now I have decided that even after such a long flight where you don't really sleep, sleeping during the day is not a good idea. While Tobi and Mel were at work I feel asleep on the couch and just could not wake up, after 3 hours of fighting to wake up I finally dragged myself of the couch to get ready for dinner. I had a well earned coffee to try and keep me awake. We headed down the road to a dodgy looking Chinese restaurant for dinner. It had been recommended to us and was extremely busy, generally a good sign. There was a slight mix up with the booking and they thought we were supposed to come last night, after a little shuffling around and waiting we were seated. Luckily we weren't disappointed, the meals were huge, hot and really nice. We stayed there for a few hours chatting the night away. Ah how I miss those kind of nights with friends. Great fun!! After dinner half of the people had to head off, so Tobi, Mel, Claire, Matt and I headed back to Tobi and Mel's for some drinks. Didn't take long for the alcohol to have a sleepy effect on me and I was fading fast. Claire and Matt headed off and we called it a night. This was the start of a great couple of weeks.

The next morning Tobi dropped me off at the bus for my $2 trip back to Tauranga. We did take the long way back taking about 4 hours, but it was nice to just sit back, relax and take in the scenery. I arrived in the afternoon to be greeted by Mum, Dad, Vanessa and to meet my niece Hannah for the first time. We all jumped in the car and headed home for a nice roast dinner, ah nothing beats home made roast dinners!! The next day was mostly a relaxing day to catch up on a bit of R & R. We once again had a roast for dinner that night as well, this time we were joined by Blair as well. I think I'm starting to get used to the roast dinners again already.

Monday 3rd of May I met up with Trina, Jamie and Alexis at McD's for a catch up and lunch. Brings back such memories going to that McD's (the one on 11th ave), it's great to keep kids occupied in the playground. It was a nice lunch and catch up, unfortunately for me they were all heading away to Christchurch for the week coming up. Until next time.

Tuesday I met up with Jo for a famous walk around the mount and lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't walk around the mount as it was closed for repairs, bummer. We decided to walk along the beach front towards the town, we headed through town and stopped for lunch at a nice cafe. After this we headed back along pilot bay to end up at Copenhagen cones. No trip home is complete without a Copenhagen cone, well a few other things as well, but who's counting? After this I headed around to Vanessa's to spend some time with her and Hannah.

The next two days we spend mostly at Vanessa's house or out and about with Vanessa and Hannah. So nice to be able to spend so much time with them. For the first time ever I was on holiday and kept myself busy but was actually allowed to relax for a change, I was starting to feel very refreshed.

On the 7th May Jacki and I headed over to Ohope for the night. I was starting to have withdrawals from going there. We headed over about lunch time, checked out some of the shops and got some dinner and goodies for the night. It was a very nice, relaxing evening. We hung out, ate dinner and played card/dice games all night, ah the good old times!! The next morning we slept in the headed out to the town again for some more shopping for engagement party decorations. The leisurely made our way home to Tauranga. That evening I talked with Cam for his birthday and we had another roast for dinner, this time it was lamb my favourite!!

The 9th was Mother's day and Jordan's Birthday party. We had a bit of a sleep in well I should rephrase and say I had a sleep in. When I got up mum was making some stuff for Jordan's birthday party. I gave her my mother's day gift then we sat down for a coffee. We headed around to Blair and Dee's house at about 1pm I believe. There were lots of kids there and adults of course. The best part was fairy bread, to tell you the truth though I can't for the life of me remember why I liked fairy bread, perhaps it was all the colours etc because really it doesn't taste that good. The rest of the stuff was pretty good though. Turns out the birthday boy was finishing off his nap so we hung around talking while waiting for him to wake up. We all had lunch and then it was time for the presents. Children are so cute, so theolder kids are handing the presents to Jordan and he is a bit shy so just looks at them. So the kids start opening the presents for him. The adults tell the kids the presents are for Jordan so they go and grab Jordan and put him in front of the presents then precede to continue opening them themselves, very cute. A very nice 1st birthday party.

After the party we headed home to have a nap before getting ready to head out for dinner. Man kids are so tiring :) We were going to meet Blair, Dee, Dee's parents and some others at the boat house for dinner. Such a nice place to go, cheap decent sized dinners and cheap drinks, what more could you wish for. It was a nice evening to end a great day. Happy Mother's Day mum!!

Tuesday Cam arrived from Auckland via Vancouver. The family were picking him up however I went to meet him as well. Unfortunately we were a bit late, Vanessa would blame the baby but I would blame Vanessa haha. Anyway we still got to say hello before Vanessa and I headed off to do some errands while Cam and the family went back to their house to catch up. I hung out with Vanessa and Hannah for the day and then meet up with Cam for a couple of hours before heading home.

Now no trip home is complete without a trip to the Hot Pools, this is a must. Cam picked me up from Mum and Dad's and we headed out for a swim, you never really appreciate somethings till you haven't had them in a while. What I'm trying to say is the swim was fantastic!! After the swim Cam dropped me back at home, I must say it felt like we were dating for the first time ever!! Was quite exciting but a heck of a lot easier I'm sure than the actual first time.

Thursday the 13th we headed over to Hamilton so that I could meet up with my work friends and Cam with his. We had organised to meet a places near each other for convenience. After waiting a while for my friends I was worried no one was going to turn up, it turns out a slightly later time suited everyone but I hadn't checked my email. Half an hour later and everyone was there, there were a lot more people than I was expecting which was nice. We had a great lunch and chat. Afterwards I went to find Cam but it turns out he wasn't at the restaurant, I met up with him, Ed and Simon at another pub for a few drinks. We departed from there and headed to the hospital so I could meet up with a few other friends that couldn't make it to lunch, it turned out to be perfect timing as it was shift change time so I got to see more people. Was great to see everyone again.

We headed over to Jacki's new pad to check it out, and to have a coffee before headed out for dinner with Kim, Quentin, Jacki, Cam and myself. I just love being able to meet up with people and it's like you haven't even been away from each other. The meal was amazing and the company was even better. Man I haven't laughed like that in such along time!! Such a great feeling, thanks guys for the great company and laughs!!

Friday we waited for the afternoon then the troops came in to help us decorate the hall, thanks to Cam's parents, my parent's, Vanessa, Jo, Jacki and Hannah, the hall looked fabulous. After all our work we decided dinner out was a good option. We decided to go to the club. It turned out to be a good group of about 12-14 of us. Once again such good cheap meals, along with cheap drinks and pool.

Saturday the 15th was our engagement party yay!! The day was a bit of a rainy day, but that didn't stop us. We spent most of the morning and afternoon taking food, drinks etc around to the hall in preparation. My Aunty came around and we all had a nice lunch together, before taking more stuff around to the hall. Once I had transported everything I had a little time to relax before getting ready for the night. We all mucked around and got ready before heading to the hall. Once it was dark, all the fairy lights were on and the hall was completely set up it looked very beautiful. People started arriving and we were very overwhelmed with the turn out. We are both so happy with how many people could turn up and celebrate this time with us. People who traveled from near and far, it was great to see everyone. I now see how at these times it is difficult to see and spend time with everyone, I can only imagine what it is like at the wedding, I guess we will find that one out. We had such an amazing night and are so grateful for all the special people we have in our lives.

Sunday a whole bunch of family and friends came around to my parents house for leftovers/BBQ lunch. It was great as this gave us an opportunity to catch up with all the people we hadn't really been able to see the night before, perfect. Definitely think this will be something we do after our wedding. Was good to be able to see everyone before we head back to Vancouver. This time was quickly starting to creep up on us. This evening we went around to Cam's house for dinner, once again, great company and a great meal.

Well our trip home was slowly coming to an end, I knew I wouldn't have much more time to spend with my family while back so on Monday I spent the day with Vanessa and Hannah. We meet up with Mum in Greerton for lunch at a really nice crepe place. The rest of the day was spent relaxing before going around to Mum and Dad's for another roast dinner. I know what your thinking, wow that's a lot of roast dinners, but really who ever gets sick of them? Especially home cooked ones. Plus it was the last one I was probably going to have for a while.

Tuesday morning I packed all my bags and waited around for Cam's and the family to come and pick me up to head to Auckland. We left before lunch time. I said goodbye to Mum and Dad at our house before heading on our trip. I think this was the easiest goodbye yet, as I knew I would be seeing them again in a months time. We all piled in the car and traveled up to Auckland. We arrived at Cam's Aunty and Uncles for lunch and to unpack our stuff. We hung around here for a little while before getting ready to head out for the evening. After picking Trudie up from work we arrived at the Garrison pub for dinner, then headed to Alley's graduation. What a fantastic achievement Alley, a diploma in Business!! Congratulations we are both proud of you!

Wednesday was leaving day, I guess it had to come at some point but always comes too fast.

We headed to the Auckland museum for the morning/early afternoon before having a picnic on the grass. It was a beautiful day for a picnic and was reasonable warm. What a nice way to finish off our trip. We headed to the airport to check in, as usual we were super early so hung out for a drink before heading through customs. Goodbyes at the airport never seem to get easier. We will be back before you know it.

Once again another great trip. So nice to head back to your own country for a holiday you don't have to worry about being a tourist and not knowing your way around. Think I'll be coming back here.

Rest of April, 2010

2010-04-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

No other big trips happened in April. Just a few little day things and evenings out. I'll mention some of the highlights.

They are filming a series in Vancouver now called the Fringe. It used to be filmed in New York. It's very exciting walking down the street and all of a sudden being in the middle of a movie set. Tonight it was set up like there had been an explosion in the street. All the main actors were there including Joshua Jackson and Leonard Nimoy (AKA Spock), we managed to get a couple of photos and videos from a far. Still exciting.

Wednesday 14th April was a beautiful day in Vancouver.

I met up with Sharon from work for brunch at a nice place on the waterfront called Bojangles. They do nice comfort food. It was still a bit cool but we were able to sit outside in the sun. After this we went for a walk around the waterfront. Sharon had a few things to do that afternoon so I met up with Andrea and we continued the walk around Stanley Park. Over all we walked about 15-20 km's. It's so easy to just walk in this city and end up walking over 10 km's each time. We had some nice afternoon soup and scone then headed home. A nice relaxing day.

The following Sunday we headed around to Andrea's house for a Wine and Cheese evening. We all paid a little bit more to buy the cheese. We had all sorts of different crackers and breads to go with it. For a change I actually enjoyed the cheese, I think it had something to do with being more expensive and not being from Canada. We had another great evening with friends.

Monday was another beautiful day in Vancouver. It was a friends birthday so we headed out for the day. Lauren, Lynne and I went for a walk to Lighthouse Park. I think we stopped to sunbathe, eat and enjoy the view more than we actually walked, oh well we still got some exercise. We had packed a picnic lunch so sat on the rocks and ate this. I love the fact you can just go somewhere this beautiful on a public bus, and you get to see birds of prey just fly right by. After our walk we headed back to the town. We caught the bus to Granville Island and sat down to have some fish n chips before Lynne had to head off to work. It was a nice day and afternoon.

Sunday 25th I took Cam on a surprise trip to Bowen Island. Well it was mostly a surprise however once we got on the bus he kind of knew where we were going as the bus only goes to one place. Bowen Island is a 15 min ferry ride from West Vancouver. It's a small island with cafes, gift shops, restaurants, bars and lots of hiking trails. We went over for the day. It happened to be another really nice day. Once we arrived on the Island we went searching for the information centre to get a map of the place. It wasn't open but we managed to find a map anyway. We decided to go for a walk around the lake. This walk took about and hour to an hour and a half. The path was a bit boggy at times as it's still quite cold at this time, and has been raining. We weren't quite prepared for this but we carried on anyway. It was a nice quite walk with not many other people on the path.

After our walk it was lunch time. We went to a place that had been recommended to us for their fish and chips. We found a nice spot out on the deck in the sun and looked out over the water.

Once we finished lunch we had a walk around the shops looking for some gifts. We were successful and purchased a few items. I love walking around these small places you get to look at things that are made within the area and you don't usually find in just any store. You can find some real bargains. We had spent several hours here now and didn't really have much else to do except buy and ice cream and wait for the ferry. Turns out the $13 we paid for the ferry covers the trip back as well. Overall a really nice day which turned out to be quite cheap also.

Wednesday 28th was a very exciting day. The day of my next trip back to New Zealand. I went out for brunch with Lynne and Lauren from work before heading home to finish packing and headed to the airport.

Easter Weekend in San Francisco, 2nd-5th April 2010

2010-04-05T23:16:00.050-07:00

This weekend we were off to San Francisco for Easter Weekend. We arrived bright and early at the airport for our flight to find that it had been delayed by a couple of hours. We thought the culprit must have been fog however turns out it was wind. This was not going to dampen our day though, we jumped on the plane at about 10am. Turns out we were wrong, it did dampen our day, well that didn't but the rain sure did.

We arrived in San Fran and got the train to the city centre where our hotel was. It was pouring down at this stage. Lucky we had our umbrellas, Vancouver has trained us well. We checked our bags in at the hotel and decided to head out for some lunch and a wander around. We went to a pub/restaurant and had some lunch. After this we walked down through the city, admiring the cable cars, to the ferry building. It was a very beautiful building which was built in 1898. It was one of the main focal points for travellers coming to the city by train. From the Gold Rush to the 1930's this was the only way commuters and travellers could reach the city, via ferry boat. Now days it's main attraction is a peoples marketplace full of different stalls. Anyway enough about umbrellas I'm sure that's not what you came here to read.

We decided to brave the weather and headed for a walk along the waterfront down towards Pier 39. Pier 39 is well, a Pier, but not just any Pier, this pier features several waterfront attractions such as restaurants, rides, live entertainment, shopping and sea lions. On our walk here which was further than I imagined we tried to spot Alcatraz, this proved quite difficult, not only could we not see it because of the rain and the fog, we couldn't see while we were trying to tame our umbrellas. It was one of those days where it was pouring down and then the wind couldn't decide which way it wanted to blow. Lets face it we may as well just have thrown the umbrellas away with all the fighting that went on between us (the umbrella and I, I mean).

We walked around the pier, unfortunately we couldn't see Alcatraz

or the Golden Gate Bridge so we decided to settle for the sea lions for a while. Weird to see nearly 50 sea lions just sitting up on the docks. We were getting fed up with the rain so decided to take a toilet break. Now I know San Francisco is known for it's changeable weather but I wasn't quite expecting this. After 2 minutes of being inside I walked out to find I was in a completely different city!! The sun was out, there was blue sky and the clouds were almost gone. We could now see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, not that I'm complaining. It was just weird.

We headed back to the waterfront for some photo

ops and a proper look around the Pier without having to fight the weather. It's really quite a beautiful location and scene.

After the worlds worst coffee or warm milk depending on your point of view we headed back towards the city. We walked around union square for a while and found somewhere to eat for dinner. A nice little pub/restaurant right in the city. We'd had a long day so far and had to get up early the next morning so headed back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday was probably one of the best days I have ever had. The day was absolutely stunning and I can see why everyone loves this city. There is just such a nice vibe to the city, I think it helps being on the waterfront. This morning we caught a bus to Pier 33 to

catch our boat over to Alcatraz. Now if anyone goes to San Fran this is a must see, probably one of the best attractions I have ever been to. I would recommend catching the early bird boat over in the morning as you get to beat the crowds this way. It was a little cool on the boat, but the day was perfect for a great view of the city and surroundings. After our boat across we were "Welcomed to Alcatraz". After a brief introduction to the place we were on our own to tour around. We went to watch a quick video about the Island before heading inside for the tour. Once inside you get your own headset (which is free, I might add), it's such a great idea, as you walk around there is a narrative about the prison, talking to you about different people that stayed there and differet tales about the prison. The story is told by prison guards and inmates. This was very interesting. You could even pause the story along the way which is great for someone like me that likes to read everything (so I'm told anyway).

Such nice views back to the city from here, they says that inmates either loved this fact or hated it. Some loved having the view and some hated the fact they could see what they were missing out on. We had finished the tour inside so headed for a walk around the outside of the building, trying to see where they did filming for The rock. We found a few spots that we think were in the movie. After more photos we headed back to the boat. You need a decent amount of time here, we spent three and a half hours.

Once back at the mainland it was time to find the Cable cars. No visit to San Fran is a visit without these!! We tried to get on theF line, this is where you can catch one of the many historic vintage streetcars. Now streetcars do differ from Cable cars,

instead of using a mechanical cable streetcars are propelled by on-board electric motors which require a trolley pole to draw power from an overhead wire. Turns out we couldn't get on as they were so full, it appears everyone had the same idea that we had today. We decided it was a nice day for a walk anyway. We arrived at the Powell-Hyde Cable car to find a huge queue, we decided we would take our place in the line as we figured it would be like this again other days. Not a bad location to wait with beautiful views out to sea and to the Golden gate bridge. The wait wasn't as long as expected and after about half an hour we were on the Cable car. Now words can't describe just how fun this experience is, hanging off the side while you go up and down streets, people jumping on and off and the crazy driver. Just awesome!! We were going to get off at Lombard street (America's crookedest street) but decided we would never get back on, so took this right into the city.

It was getting close to dinner time, we had been recommended an Italian restaurant in Little Italy, San Fran. We jumped on a Cable car to take us as close as we could get to the restaurant, just because we could, don't think I would ever get sick of them. The restaurant was called The Stinking Rose, I believe because of all the garlic they use, pretty much everything had garlic in it, on it or around it.

It was a very interesting restaurant and I think it's fair to say we both really enjoyed it. Everywhere you looked there was another little room off the side which had tables in it, was like a rabbit warren. After eating it was time for another recommendation. We went to a bar called Saloon, I'm sure the owner was about as old as the building, well sure looked it anyway. Now I'm sure I asked for vodka and something else in it, but pretty sure it was just straight vodka. So cheap as well, its fair to say after a few I was really feeling it. Was a nice little place and what more could you ask for with cheap drinks and live music. We walked back to our hotel through the city, wow what an amazing day :)

Sunday was a horrible day weather wise, it was cold and very wet. We couldn't let this stop us though as we only had limited time here. We decided something in doors would be the best. We jumped on a public bus and headed towards the California academy of sciences. Turns out the bus to take us there went right up to the Golden Gate bridge.

We jumped off the bus in the rain to get some pictures, we though while we were out this way we may as well. It was a bit miserable so we headed to some shelter to wait on the next bus. Once at the academy we decided perhaps today wasn't the best day to come, it was pretty busy. I think once again everyone had the same idea that we had. The academy was alright, nothing too spectacular but a good way to fill in the time. They did have a pretty cool rain forest even for someone like me that doesn't like birds and things that fly around. There were some big moths and butterflies, lucky I had someone with me that I could hide behind. Once we had, had enough of reading and walking around we left.

We had been told about a Chocolate shop that was a must visit in San Fran called Ghirardelli Chocolate. It's all around the United States but is in Ghirardelli Square in San Fran which has become an official city landmark since 1965. We made our way here on the bus.

It was still poring down and cold so was nice to get inside a warm building, with lots of Chocolate and Ice Cream. The place was really busy, we had to order then hang around near tables waiting for somewhere to sit. We were so cold to begin with we had to have a hot chocolate, European style. We finally found a seat and waited for our drink. While waiting we looked around at all the beautiful desserts that were coming out, turned out this was a bad thing. After our drink we decided to get an ice cream as well, so naughty but so nice!! There were so many amazing choices I think we would have been happy with anything.

We thought the cable car on a day like today would be a good option. Thought the queues wouldn't be very long, turns out we were right and wrong at the same time. The queue wasn't as long but it was still a considerable wait so we decided to go to the streetcar for our ride back. We had to wait a bit but it was worth it. It's fun getting on all this old style transport. Once back in town we headed back to the hotel to change and head out for dinner. After walking around for a bit we settled on a Chinese restaurant, then went back to the hotel after dinner. We were both stuffed after our long day.

Monday was our last day in San Fran, very sad, I could have spent so much longer here. Think we'll have to head back some time. We left our bags at the hotel and headed to the pick up point for our movie tour. This was great fun, you travel around the city in a small shuttle looking at places where movies have been filmed.

There is a guide who is an actor in San Fran. Inside the shuttle there is a TV and as you go along looking at places they show the part of the movie on the TV that corresponds to that setting. Along with this the guide gives you information about the movie and how they film some of the scenes. It was very interesting for movie fans like us.

Some famous scenes were: the building where Will Smith works in Pursuit of Happiness, the street where Robin Williams walks across and gets his purse stolen in Mrs Doubtfire, some Dirty Harry scenes, and where the cable car roles down the hill in The Rock. We got to visit the park at the start of full house, Mrs Doubtfire's house, the house in Princess diary and we saw where Sean Connery meets his daughter in The Rock. Of course we also went to the Golden Gate Bridge where many films have been done one example being Vertigo. I would recommend this tour if your ever in San Fran. It happened to beautiful day so we got some real nice photos by Golden Gate Bridge which worked out well.

After the tour had finished we walked around Pier 39 briefly before heading to the hotel to pick up our bags and then to the airport for our flight home.

What an amazing trip in an amazing city!! Cam and I absolutely loved it here, would love to go back for some more fun. Definitely a city I would recommend to visit if you are ever in the States. I hear the best time to go is August/September for the nicest weather and April for the least fog.

March 2010

2010-03-31T17:34:00.016-07:00

Not much happened this month so I'm able to to write about it in one post.

We decided to head over to Victoria on Vancouver Island for the weekend of the 6th and 7th of March. As we had been over here before we were able to just relax and take it easy. We didn't have to be tourists, well not completely anyway. We didn't do much throughout the day, it was a beautiful day however still a little cool being Winter. We managed to see the flame for the Para-Olympics and hung around listening for a while. After this we headed around the waterfront for a stroll. Its such a beautiful walk around there and the scenery is stunning. We went to get the best fish n chips, however they were closed today. We'll have to go next time.

That evening we went on a ghost walk around Victoria, this was well worth it, not only did we get a ghost tour but it also tells you a little about the history of Victoria. We got to walk around the streets, go into dark alley ways and even into an old building which has a history of being haunted. Was a little scary but I don't think we got to experience any ghostly spirits. Would definitely like to do other walks in different cities if I can. What we didn't know until we did the walk was that the pub we had been sitting in that evening was one of the places that was believed to be haunted. Therefore we had to head back afterwards to have a few more drinks and a better look around inside at some of the things he had pointed out. A very nice old pub, and even better with live music.

The next day we were quite tired and decided to just have a coffee and then head back towards Vancouver.

March 11th, I headed out for dinner with some of the girls from work, for a Birthday dinner for one of them. We went to a restaurant called Goldfish and then out for some drinks and dancing at a bar called bar none. Not really somewhere I would have normally gone, and not the door price I would have normally paid but it was fun anyway. Had a little more to drink than expected but I didn't have to work the next day so who cares.

On March 14th 2010 in New Zealand something very exciting happened. I became and Aunty to beautiful Hannah Sophie Boud. I was talking to Mum and Dad on skype when Vanessa rung them to say she was heading to the hospital. That morning at around 4am I got a phone call from Vanessa to say Hannah had arrived very fast at 11.59pm March 14th. Its all very exciting!! Can't wait to meet her.

March 17th I went to lunch with a couple of girls from work. It was such a nice day we went for a walk around the waterfront then headed to a nice place for a coffee. I must say this was the best Cappuccino I have ever had while in Canada, I don't normally get them here as they are so bad, but this one was exceptional. I must go back.

This evening we had a Para-Olympic Ice Sledge Hockey game to go to. I left the girls and jumped on the bus to go and meet Cam. This was fun to watch basically they have what appears similar to a wheelchair that sits on one blade. They hold onto sticks which have a head to hit the ball with and a claw on the other end to pull them along the ice. Very skillful I must say, and they definitely hit into each other hard as well. It was a good game, Sweden pulled out a win against Korea. After this we decided we had to have one drink in the pub for St Paddies day so stopped by the Irish pub for one.

The last weekend in March we ended up doing a couple of things, nothing too energetic but fun none the less. Friday 26th I was off work and went for a walk along the waterfront again and headed out for lunch with Lynne and Lauren. This evening I meet Cam for some drinks and dinner at Cardero's, one of the restaurants we like here in Vancouver. It's right on the waterfront and you can get nice views from here. This particular day we had a few bald eagles circling around the water with crows chasing them. Saturday 27th was a relaxing day, we stayed home and watched a movie with some pizza, nice thing to do when its cold and raining outside.

Sunday 28th we headed to a small vegetarian place to meet up with some friends, not really my choice of food but it turned out to be not too bad. I was meeting up with an English friend Andrea that I was chatting to in February at our nursing exam. She was celebrating being in Vancouver for 1 year. The place we went to was very hippy like, we were served our drinks in jam jars, very unique we thought. We ordered some food for lunch/afternoon tea as it was 3pm at this stage and hung out there for a while drinking as the food and drinks were super cheap. We ended up leaving at about 6 or 7pm, I can't quite remember, well we tried to leave anyway except we all kept talking to each other, so decided to head to Cactus club for dinner as well. It was a great afternoon and evening, we met lot of nice people.

Winter Olympics, 12th-28th Feb 2010

2010-02-28T22:37:00.026-08:00

February 12th was the start of 2 weeks of absolute madness in Vancouver. Olympics you say? They are just the Winter Olympics! Well that's what we initially thought anyway, its strange. I guess coming from a country that mainly focuses on the Summer Olympics, you forget the Winter Olympics are actually something important as well. Now I'm just sounding ignorant but actually I'm not haha, 2 weeks before the Olympics it felt like any other city, then all of a sudden a week before the city was starting to buzz and so were we.

Friday was the opening ceremony, I had finished a night that morning and Cam finished work at 5.30pm, we didn't really think about this day. Thought we would just head out and find somewhere to watch the opening ceremony, however every man and his dog was doing the same thing. After heading around for ages and not being able to find anywhere, we decided to join all the other people with the same problem and watch the ceremony on the street, in the rain, being projected onto the side of the sears building. It actually worked out quite well and it was a great atmosphere.

So its the end of the ceremony and we find out unexpectedly that they are going outside to light another cauldron, so we are watching the guy (Wayne Gretzky) with the flame travelling in the back of the car. We can see what streets he is passing and realise he is coming towards where we are all standing. Its funny you look around and see the expression on every bodies face, its like one big penny just dropped. People are looking at the screen, then down the street to where the car is going to drive past, then back to the screen. When the flame finally goes past the street everybody just decided to start running, they're running down the middle of the street after the flame and the car. I'm not just talking about a few people, this is about 10-20 thousand people, running down the middle of the street, a street which is open to the public I might add. The cars just don't know what to do, there are thousands of people in the middle of the road, they just have to sit there ofcourse. It was the most fun and crazy experience ever!! Everyone is yelling out, screaming and running down the street, reminded me of the scene in Jumanji where they are being chased by animals, it was madness, but awesome!

We finally arrived at the waterfront after a 1-1.5 km run, unfortunately the cauldron had already been lit, but we were just in time for the fireworks. There was a huge pile of people yahooing, and singing the national anthem, with the cauldron and the fireworks in the back ground. This, I could tell, was going to be the start of 2 awesome weeks. We headed off for dinner and a few drinks after this to Cactus club.

I was off for the weekend so we decided to head out and about to experience some of the fun. Saturday our first stop was Granville Island. Most of the teams in the Olympics had a venue set up all around Vancouver, it was called their house. The Swiss house and Atlantic Canada were set up on Granville Island. The Swiss house was too busy to sit down in so we headed to Atlantic Canada where we had dinner and several drinks before heading on.

We were told NZ didn't have a house but there was a bar called Sin Bin where the athletes were hanging out so we walked there. Unfortunately it didn't look like any Kiwis were there, actually it didn't look like they were supporting Kiwi's at all. Oh well we still watched some of the moguls, had a few drinks and met these Canadian girls that had friends in NZ. After a few photos with them we left for town.

Once again it was very difficult to get into anywhere with out having to queue for ages, so we just wandered soaking up the atmosphere, town was crazy! Every night they had special events on at Robson square. This is an area right in the middle of town that they hadset up for the Olympics. This night Jeremy Fisher was playing so we stood around listening to him for the rest of the evening. We did attempt to get into the Irish house, but as it was 1pm and it closed at 3pm we didn't really want to pay $20. So we went home.

Sunday was Valentines day, we had a booking at Season s in the Park a beautiful restaurant at Queen Elizabeth Park which over looks Vancouver from the top of a peak. During the day we went to Plaza of Nations, an area set up with foreign foods and a big screen for watching the Olympics of course. We hung out and had lunch, watched some Olympics and took a stroll around the waterside. Of course there were loads more people as there are a few Canadian Province houses down here. We couldn't get into the Russian house so queued for the Canadian Houses.

After walking around the Ontario and Quebec house, we stopped in the Saskatchewan house (easy to draw, hard to spell) for a drink and some music. A nice relaxing day so far. We didn't have too much time till our dinner booking so went to Doolin's for some drinks and to watch the final of the Mogul's (my favourite event in the Olympics). It was pretty awesome the Canadian came through in the end to beat the Auzzie, pretty good we all thought! We weren't even in a room filled of Kiwis either. After this it was time for dinner, as usual the meal and view were fantastic from the restaurant, we even got to see the fireworks from Livecity Vancouver from here, a bonus. All together another great day.

Unfortunately work got in the way of things again, it was back to work for the week. Monday night we did head down to Robson Square to watch the firework and display there. We didn't realise until the Sat night that they actually did this show every night at 9pm, we had arrived just near the end of it that night so came back to watch the whole display. It was actually really good, can't believe they can do things like this every night, must have cost quite a bit.

We had a few days of rest then went to Live city Yaletown on Thursday 18th to wander around. Live city are 2 areas that had been put together so people that couldn't go to any of the games cold hang out there, drink and watch the Olympics. This one had a coke tent which gave you free coke and you got to participate in some activities, quite fun actually. There happened to be a Canadian band playing that night also, they are Marianna's Trench. I really enjoyed them, think I may have to get the album. Kind of similar to Green day we thought. After that we enjoyed the fireworks display, once again another thing that was put on each night. This one comes with music and a visual presentation while the fireworks are going. North America really does know how to do fireworks.

Friday night Paula from work joined us for a walk around Robson Square, we watched the fireworks again as Paula hadn't seen them, this night happened to be particularly busy, people just filled the streets. We attempted to be on camera, standing behind one of the news stations, we may have been on there, but I guess we'll never know. After a few drinks at the Art Gallery Cafe we headed for a walk along the waterfront to see the cauldron. There were still loads of people walking around and getting photos with the cauldron. It was hard to get a nice photo as there were plenty of barriers surrounding, and the only way you could get a good view was by standing in another huge queue. I swear if we had waited in every queue we would never have seen as much as we did.

The next week we didn't really get up to much Olympic stuff. I guess work was getting in the way. Plus we had, had some full on Olympic days. We decided to just watch some events on the TV.

It was coming up to the last weekend of the Olympics and I am glad I

happened to have the weekend off. Vancouver was absolutely packed this weekend, it was great to see all that effort put in to organising stuff for the city paid off. Friday we went to the other Livecity Vancouver, it happened to be raining lots that day, we stood outside and watched the semi final, I think, of the hockey. Canada won anyway but they were very lucky. After this we went inside to listen to some music and for some drinks. There was a crazy but nice guy there from Montreal who provided a bit of entertainment. A relatively quite night for us I guess.

Saturday we went to the Rowing house can't remember who they were supporting, maybe Austria can't remember. There wasn't much going on here just some drinking and food. We wanted to find somewhere to stay for the night as it was the Saturday night and we knew it would be difficult to get in anywhere, which it turned out it already was. In the end we just found a good sports pub where we could watch the Olympics and drink.

Sunday 28th was the last day of the Olympics with of course the match of the Olympics. Today was the final of the Ice Hockey and the game was Canada vs USA, don't think you could wish for a better game really. Once again everyone was up super early to get a spot somewhere for the game, we thought we were up early enough but it appeared this was the one thing people wanted to do today, felt like the place had stopped. We found a place finally in front of the big screen at Plaza of Nations. What an amazing game!! It was so intense, including the times that the big screen failed and all we could do was listen to the game and not see it except for a tiny corner of the screen. I thought a riot would break out, luckily for them they got the screen working, however this happened several times throughout the game and always at the worse possible moments. So with not long till the end of the game the score was 2-1 to Canada, very intense. With about 1 minute to play USA pulled their goaly to have one more player on attack and they scored a goal with about 20 seconds to play which forced overtime. Overtime is 20 mins and its the first to score a goal. Of course the screen decided to turn off one more time in this moment, lucky not for the final section of play. Cam was filming the end of the game. It was very tense and both teams had shots on goal. Finally Canada got the winning goal and the crowd went absolutely nuts, screaming and jumping about, us included. Cam got so excited with his jumping that the camera turned off. Oh well the memories are more important.

Throughout the Olympics there was a intersection

that everyone decided was the area you would just go, have music playing, do the conga, dance and sing. It was a massive street party every night. None of the nights however compared to tonight. I have never seen so many happy and excited people. There were thousands of people just everywhere you looked. So much fun! We sat at the art gallery over looking Robson square and thousands of people. We sat there people watching, chatting and drinking. Why pay to go somewhere when you could have this. The big screen happened to be back up on the Sears building which we could conveniently see from where we were sitting, so we watched the closing ceremony here. Finally we watched one last fireworks before heading home once everything had finished. There were people playing hockey in the streets, dancing and of course singing the national anthem. It was one big city street party.

Overall this was one of the most busy and amazing 2 weeks. Definitely a once in a life time thing. If you ever get the opportunity to be part of something like this do, don't head away to be out of the madness just join in!

Bits and Pieces - 28th Jan - 7th Feb 2010

2010-02-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

After our visitors left things slowed down for a little while. Along with that it was back to work after a short amount of time off for entertaining. Nothing much happened during this time but I'll give you a little run down.

Thursday 28th we went to Granville Island for our first taste of theatre sports. This is a non-profit organisation that has different shows every week on certain nights. Its a great evening out and reasonably cheap. We loved it and will have to go back again some other night.

Sunday 31st Jan we headed to Whytecliff Park at Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. This area is on edge of Howe sound and has beautiful views to the mountains and out to the ocean. The day was a little over cast but we were still able to take some nice photos out here. We walked around the waterfront and onto the beach. We were going to go over to a little island area via rocks in the water, but as the tide was coming in we decided against this. Even though I would have liked to have the night off work, I didn't particularly feel like spending a cold winter night out there. As I had to work that night we headed toward the bus to get home. Its always nice going to different parks around here, they all have their things that make them slightly different from the next park.

On Wednesday we headed out to Doolin's for dinner and somedrinks after Anna's nursing exam. Another fun night at our local, mind you it was a bit tame for us as Cam had to work the next day and I had a study day at work.

This weekend was very exciting, it was the weekend before the Olympics so we thought we'd get a weekend of snowboarding in before it all began. Friday 5th Feb I was off work and headed out to a little cafe with Paula and Lynne a couple of friends from work. It was really busy and a great place to eat. After this I headed home to pack for our weekend away. Once Cam got home from work we left for the bus station. We decided to go in the evening to get a early start the next morning.

So on the Saturday morning we got an early start, ate some breaky and then headed up the mountain. What a beautiful day, the sun was out today which was nice as it didn't look like it would be the best this weekend. Today I was on fire, I think the best day on the snow in my life, for some reason it was like I had been snowboarding for years, Cam unfortunately wasn't having the best day, always seems to turn out this way for us. This didn't stop him however, why would it we were snow boarding on Whistler mountain!! Well actually blackcomb but same difference really. They really don't know how lucky they have it here, there is no such thing as ice, well there is but not the same kind of ice we have in NZ. Even being early in the morning the snow was pretty good to us, actually it was pretty awesome. We thought it would be quite busy being the last weekend before the Olympics but it was actually the opposite, there were no queues well if you count 2-5 mins as a queue then there was. It wasn't just nice in the fact we didn't have to wait for a chairlift, but you could be snowboarding down a run, then just sit down on the ice in the middle of the mountain, surrounded by trees with a fantastic view of Whistler, and hear absolutely nothing!! It was like we were the only peopleon the mountain, absolutely stunning!!

We headed out for some dinner at the Old Spaghetti Company, it was a nice meal, nothing to rave about but I guess it had to be done at some stage. We were pretty tired at this stage so headed back to get an early night for our next day on the snow.

Sunday we packed up, put our luggage in storage and headed up the mountain again. Like I said before we always tend to have opposite days on the mountain and today was no exception. Cam had one of the best days on the snow today, and I had a pretty average day. Most of the time I put it down to fatigue but today it could have also been the weather. The day started out reasonably good but toward the afternoon first the snow came down and then some rain, along with this came the poor visibility. We were getting pretty tired by now and had to get a bus back to Vancouver, so decided to call it a day. We were pretty close to the top of the mountain and headed all the way down. Its nice to finally be at the stage where you can go down the learner section and zoom past all the learners feels great!!

Overall an awesome weekend, think we'll be heading back here more often next year now we have had a taste for Whistler. Just awesome!!

More Visitors

2010-01-16T17:56:00.014-08:00

On Thursday the 7th Pam and Kev arrived from London. They were tired and I was working so we took it easy on them. On the 8th Anna, Alex and Webb all arrived from NZ. Anna and Alex had a very brief stopover on their way back to London. Webb was joining us for a week 'on his way to Mexico' (???). Rach was able to go out to the airport and pick up Webb and grab a quick coffee with Anna and Alex before they had to catch their next flight.

On the 9th the weekend finally arrived so I was able to spend some quality time with our visitors. Rach was on night shifts so I put on my tour guide hat and went for a walk around Stanley Park trying to find all the Canadian nature I could. I think I did pretty well, found a squirrel and raccoon and I think I saw an eagle but everyone else seemed to miss it.

When Rach woke up we headed back to our apartment - after a mojito at English Bay. It was also time for Pam and Kev to get ready for the wedding they were over for.

Webb, Andre, Nerissa, Rach and I went out to catch another Vancouver sight... The Cambie. They claim to have the cheapest beer in town and I think they might be right. Also being near Vancouver's downtown east side it attracts an interesting crowd, this night was no different. We ended up having boat races with some European tourists (can't remember any more than that sorry). It was a fun night out, and from experience very typical for a night at the Cambie.

For some reason we weren't feeling 100% on Sunday. Pam had arranged a birthday present for Kev downtown so they were up early for that, we slept in a little. When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed we decided to make the most of the cheap transit on Sundays and take Pam and Webb over to North Vancouver on the seabus. While we were there we found a nice lunch at Burgoo - great feel good food for a typical winter day. We then picked up Kev and completed the tour by exploring a bit of Gastown and an evening stroll home around False Creek before Pam and Kev had to race off for dinner.

It was an early start on Monday, we caught the early morning greyhound up to Whistler. The weather didn't exactly cooperate and kept most of the scenery out of sight - this wasn't the end of the world as a few people were struggling to stay awake anyway. After we checked into our accommodation we decided the best way to make the most of this weather was to grab something to eat, grab some beer and sit in the spa for a few drinks - we were so right.

Rach and I had a small surprise organized for the evening. All of us had got engaged in the last 6 months so we arranged a nice dinner out for us all to celebrate. Its just a shame that Niki couldn't be there too. We had a nice bottle of bubbly and some real good Alaskan King Crab - it was such a nice night.

Tuesday was Rach's birthday so we had to have a bit of adventure. We headed to the Whistler tube park, the same place Rach and I went at Christmas. We were a bit confused to start with because the signs at the base of the mountain said that the park wasn't open. Luckily Rach went inside and asked, it was open and the sign meant that it was nice and quiet for us.

When we were tired of climbing up and down the mountain we caught the bus back to Vancouver and went out for dinner. We ended up at our local favourite, The Templeton. Typical North American diner food in classic diner style.

Wednesday was another miserable wet day so we found something inside to do - explore the museum. I had to work so I was secretly glad they weren't doing anything too exciting. When the weather cleared up a little they had a wander around Granville Island and false creek again. For dinner we headed to a great restaurant right on the water in Coal Harbour called Carderos. They have great food, great drink and an amazing view.

Thursday was a quiet day for us. Pam and Kev headed down to Seattle and Webb caught his flight down to Mexico - I went to work. It was so great seeing Webb again, he's one of those friends that no matter how long its been, we pick up as though it was only yesterday that we saw each other.

On Friday Rach had a nice walk to enjoy the sun that had finally arrived then later Rach and I headed to the movies to watch Avatar (average story but great effects in 3D) while Pam and Kev were coming back from Seattle.

Saturday was the day Pam and Kev headed home. We said goodbye to them early as they had another day planned with other firends in Vancouver. We then headed down to Yaletown for a nice brunch in the sun before a games night with Emily.

It was a crazy busy week with all our visitors but it was so much fun and exactly what we needed. You're welcome back anytime!

New Years

2010-01-01T17:30:00.004-08:00

We were a little disappointed to discover that New Years is a bit of a non event in Vancouver - no fireworks, no concerts. Most people here seem to pay $50+ to go into clubs all night, we weren't so keen on this plan. We decided to to find a nice restaurant to celebrate the end of 2009 and join people in Granville Street to see 2010 in.

We started our evening at Al Porto Ristorante in Gastown. Here we had a nice Italian dinner and a few drinks. The place was very busy, everywhere we pretty much booked out being new years eve.

It was a rainy miserable night so when we finished dinner we weren't sure whether to head up to Granville Street or find somewhere dry to wait till closer to midnight. There were already a few people gathering in Granville street at 10pm so we decided to wander around taking it in. The whether got worse before it got better and we were both cold and tired. Fortunately there were people dancing around with drums providing entertainment and a little bit of warmth. It was also fun watching the police 'manage' a few people that had started the night a little early.

The major flaw with having an unofficial countdown in the middle of Vancouver is that the clock doesn't have a second hand. This made the countdown rather disorganized. There were at least 3 different countdowns separated by several minutes as people noticed their watches. The one around us must've been about right, the clock hand moved to midnight at about the right time.

We were both pretty tired after a long day after a snog and making a mess of Auld Lang Syne we headed home to bed.

Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge - 30th Dec 09

2009-12-30T17:18:00.009-08:00

Today was an amazing day, perhaps one of my top 10 days since arrival in Vancouver. Cam had won some tickets to see the Christmas lights at Capilano suspension bridge. We had decided to go with Emily from work, as she was working around Christmas time, we planned to go on this evening for a friends Christmas Day.

The weather was pretty crappy today unfortunately but I think this added to the day in some way. We headed over to North Vancouver in the morning around 10am, initially we had decided to eat lunch up the mountain however it was booked out, so we went to another of our favourite winter/comfort restaurants, Burgoo. After another beautiful lunch here we caught the bus and went up the mountain. We decided to get an annual pass this time as we have now been here 2 times and pretty much would have made back our money by now. Anyway we jumped on sky-ride, its was raining down the mountain but as we got higher up it was snowing and quite heavy as well, it looked beautiful. They do sleigh rides up there, but these are sitting on a thing which is being towed by a tractor like thing, not very authentic but fun none the less.

Now it was snow fight and snow angel time, soooo much fun, even did a little woop woop woop Homer fun in the snow going round n circles, ah fun times being a kid. We walked around in the snow, this was pre snow-boots time and my feet were freezing and soaked, but it was well worth it. We headed up to the little cafe and sat down for a hot chocolate and beaver tail. A beaver tail is not actually from a beaver but this really nice, fried dough (pastry) type thing, covered in all sorts of things depending on what you feel like. I had a sugar and cinnamon one, delicious. Just beautiful, sitting on the top of a mountain in the snow drinking hot chocolate. Then it really started snowing and we decided to do some ice skating, well Emily and I ice skated and Cam watched again. It was so funny Emily was using the zimmmer frame (the type of frame the elderly use), very good when you are just learning though, she then left this behind and ventured out on her own, I thought she was pretty good for someone who has only done it a few times.

It was getting later, dark and really starting to snow now. We were all quite wet and getting cold so headed back down on the sky-ride, bound for Capilano Suspension Bridge. There weren't many people around which was nice, we got to take our time and walk around. It was really airy walking across the suspension bridge which is 70m high from the river below and 137m across, in the pitch black. When you look down you can only just make out the water and rocks below, it was also really quiet which made it more airy. We walked around for a while, looked at the lights twisted around up in the trees and then walked back across the bridge. Cam also won 2 tickets to try glass blowing. This is no easy thing, however we did have professionals there to try and fix the messes we were trying to make, well actually I don't think we did too bad they just had to help us out a few times. We got to keep the glass as well which was pretty cool. We had to hang around and wait for these to cool a bit so we sat round listening to the carol singers. As it was getting late and we were quite cold being wet, once we had our glass we headed back towards Vancouver.

On our way home we stopped for a quick drink and bite to eat at Doolins. What a fantastic fun filled day!!

Christmas 2009 - 24th Dec - 27th Dec

2009-12-27T14:58:00.003-08:00

So this year we were very excited about Christmas time, there is just something about North America and how they celebrate Christmas, there are lots of lights all over the place and fun events to go to. Well not so much at Christmas time but prior to Christmas as you may have seen in the last blog.

I finished work at 7am on Christmas eve and Cam finished at lunch time which gave me a short time to have a sleep while Cam was working. He managed to get home a little earlier which was nice, we checked skype to see if any family were online, however being Christmas Day in New Zealand I think everyone was having a good time and no one was there to chat. It was a beautiful day in Vancouver, a little chilly however the sun was out so we made the most of it and headed down to False Creek on the waterfront and went for a walk. It was beautiful and there were plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine.

This evening we had been invited to Paula's house (a friend from work), to spend the evening with her family for dinner. After a quick chat with family we headed out to Paula's, with a Kiwi Pavlova in tow. Paula went and picked up Emily from work while Cam, Chris (Paula's husband) and their 2 girls watched some old fashioned Tom and Jerry, wow what a blast from the past. We feasted on roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, and veges accompanied by a few drinks. Not to forget doing the North American thing and opening a present from each other. It was such a great evening and nice to be surrounded by great company, especially with other family and friends so far away.

The next day of course was CHRISTMAS DAY!! We got up pretty early at 6.30am, well early considering we had no younger children around. It looked like it was going to be another beautiful day in Vancouver, actually the forecast for the rest of Christmas looked pretty good. We turned on all our Christmas lights and sat down to the Jordan family tradition of Croissants and orange juice, unfortunately we forgot to get out the eggnog we had bought, oh well maybe next year, still haven't tried it yet. Anyway next we sat down and opened up a few presents from santa before opening several more presents while skyping the McConnochie's. Our pile of wrapping paper looked quite impressive for 2 people, however as that pile got higher the present pile got lower :( Thank you everyone for all your gifts and not too mention the chocolate we received, I think we'll be eating this for several months, we pretty much have a one shelf in the fridge and one shelf in the cupboard full of Chocolate, not that I'm complaining YUM!!

We decided the weather outside was too nice to be sitting inside for the rest of the day so headed out ice skating, well I did some ice skating and Cam just watched/video'd the fun. This was probably my 2nd or 3rd time Ice skating and considering this I thought I did pretty well. I did have to hold on to the rail for several trips around, but never fell over so thats a bonus. Cam went to do some videoing somewhere else which gave me the opportunity to pick up some snow to surprise him with on the next trip round, ah don't think I ever get tired of snow fights. It was a bit busy to really feel comfortable but by the end I didn't have to hold onto the rail, until next time...

We were lucky enough to be invited around to Mel's (a person from work) house for Christmas dinner. She is from Ontario and invited a group of people who don't have family or know a lot of people in Vancouver around to her house for dinner. She had cooked up a huge turkey and veges and everyone bought something along to share. It was a huge feast!! there was soooo much stuff left over that Mel had to give stuff to everyone to take home. It was a beautiful meal and time to spend with new friends. Everyone headed off reasonably early, as some had to work the next morning. Cam and I didn't drink too much as we were off early to Whistler in the morning, how ever we did stick around to play some board games with Emily, Mel and another person who's name I forget. As always we were one of the last ones to leave but it wasn't too late after all. Overall a great first Christmas day in a different country.

We were wishing for a white Christmas in Vancouver however once we realised that wasn't going to happen we had to go and find the snow ourselves. We booked a night in Whistler and headed there early on Boxing Day morning. This was our first visit in Whistler in the Winter, the trip up there was just amazing. There was snow and icicles in the trees and the sun was shining, we couldn't have picked a better day to travel on the sea to sky highway. We took our snowboards with us but once we got to Whistler and had brunch it was already midday or so, price of a pass vs amount of time on the snow was the decision, we decided it was going to cost too much for the amount of time we were going to get so the snowboarding would have to wait till another time. A very tough decision to make.

We headed up to the tube park on the mountain instead. Imagine going flying down the mountain on a large plastic tube, kind of like a sea biscuit. It was awesome!! They push you from the top and you go down either straight or they make you spin around, the track is calved into the snow. I felt like a little kid again, great fun!! We headed back to our hotel after this for a nice swim in the spa pools, theres something about sitting in a spa, with snow surrounding the spa pool, where its freezing cold outside and your toasty and warm in the pool. The only downside is having to get out. Unfortunately we had to do this at some point, so thought we would head out for dinner, can't remember where we went but I'm sure it was nice anyway. Another great day.

From Whistler - Christmas 2009

Th 27th we just chilled, slept in and then went for brunch. We got the earlier bus back to Vancouver as Cam was going round to someones house from his work for a boys night of Ice Hockey and pizza. The Canucks won that night in a good game. The end to an awesome 4 days over Christmas, back to work for me tomorrow and more holidays for Cam.

Christmas Lights and leading up to Christmas - 14th Dec - 20th Dec

2009-12-20T17:07:00.001-08:00

Well the week and a half leading up to Christmas was mostly full of food, drinking and looking at Christmas lights with a few days of work for me and normal days working for Cam. That's ok though as he gets 11 days off over Christmas and New Year.

Monday 14th I headed over to North Vancouver with Emily to meet Paula who picked us up from the sea bus. We headed up towards her house which is near Edgemont village in North Vancouver. This is a really neat little village full of cute little stores great for finding gifts and unique stuff you can't find in other places. Somewhere I will have to remember, to pick up special birthday gifts and other gifts. We sat down for a coffee here and then headed round to Paula's house for a look. It was very exciting as had been snowing the week before that and there was snow around this area on the ground as its higher up and closer to the mountains. There is something about walking around a rural community, up near the mountains with snow all over the ground. Emily and I were jumping up and down in the snow as it crunched underneath us. After this we headed to one of my favourite restaurants, Burgoo, this place is great in winter, it just feels so homely and cosy. Full of comfort food. A nice relaxing day with friends.

This evening Cam and I headed to a Canucks Hockey game, tickets care of someone from his work. My second hockey game and Cam's third, however my first NHL game. To be honest it was a great game and the Canucks won but as Cam mentioned in one of our other blogs, not as good I thought as the Giants (minors) game that we had seen about a week or so before. People just didn't seem as into it as they were for the other game. Think I will still have to go to another one before I make up my mind though. I'm sure it could be better depending on who is playing and what they are playing for, this game was near the beginning so it may get more exciting.

Tuesday evening we decided to head out for some drinks at our local Doolins, was just going to be a few drinks and then we were going to head home for dinner. Emily, Cam and I decided that we couldn't be bothered cooking dinner so we all headed to Sanafir, a Tapa restaurant on Granville Street. This place was great and I can't believe we haven't seen it before. When we arrived the lady at the door said "sorry but we only have a bed available". We were like, "what do you mean a bed?" She said "you haven't been here before have you?" So we headed up the stairs to find that when she said bed this was actually what she meant, so we sat on a bed with net curtains around it and everything and shared a selection of Tapas, it was a very unique and fun experience.

Friday the 18th we headed to Stanley Park to look at the lights that they set up annually for Christmas. We walked around and looked at the lights, listened to singers/musicians singing Christmas carols and looked at the animals, luckily we managed to get a ticket on the train just in time, as it sold out not long after. This turned out to be well worth the money, the train ride goes for 15 minutes all through the forest area with lights, actors and music all the way around. It was very festive and nice to see children running around the place. I only wish they would do more of this sort of thing in New Zealand, really make you excited for Christmas, as I was of course already, for some reason more than normal.

On the Saturday we went to do some more shopping at one of the malls in Vancouver, for some work shirts I think for Cam, can't really remember now. All I know is that we came back with a few things each. This evening we headed for a walk down to false creek to look at the lights along the waterfront which was really nice, we headed down toward English bay and stopped for a drink at a pub down there, then walked down Denman Street and toward Canada Place to look at the light show that was supposed to be happening there. We think that maybe we were too late as it wasn't really doing anything, just different colours. Still a nice evening stroll, its just so beautiful down there at night time with the lights reflecting on the water.

The Sunday was a wet day so what better to do than to go to the Maritime Museum. It was quite interesting actually. So far I have really enjoyed all of the educational places we have been to. Here you get to go on an old boat called St Roch which has been restored, it used to be used by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) AKA The Mounties, to serve as a supply ship for isolated arctic RCMP detachments. It was quite fun to walk around the ship and see the small confinements that the people used to sleep and live in for days on end. Think they would get to know each other pretty well in these sort of conditions. A good way to spend a rainy day.

Giants Game 9th Dec

2009-12-09T16:19:00.003-08:00

Through one of my work mates I was able to score a couple of free tickets to see the Vancouver Giants play Chilliwack Bruins. This was Rach`s first Canadian Ice Hockey game... and she was lucky to get there. The bus out to the Coliseum has a stop at the West and East end of one street, Rach wanted the east end... but got off the bus at the west end. Being still a few kilometres from the coliseum she had to wait 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive. She eventually made it 15 minutes before puck drop, just enough time to grab some food and find our seats - We ended up in nice seats, about half way up, right on half way.

Rach and I both found the Giants to be a more genuine Hockey experience. Sure the players on the ice weren't playing to the same standard but the crowd was there to support and enjoy the game. The result was great too, the Giants won it 5 nil.

Chirstmas Preaparations. December 2 - 6

2009-12-06T14:41:00.003-08:00

Given it was now December and we could see Christmas lights going up in apartments around us we decided we should do some decorating ourselves. For obvious reasons we didn't bring a lot of decorations with us from NZ so on Wednesday night we did a trip out to Canadian Tire (For Kiwis - Its like a Warehouse with a Repco attached, and yes, they spell tyre wrong). After spending just under $100 we had a small tree, lights and some decorations. We spent the rest of the evening blasting terrible Christmas music and decorating the apartment. We were very happy with the results.

Thursday night we decided to appreciate someone else's work and went to the waterfront and back through town enjoying all the Christmas lights setup around the city. The large Christmas tree in front of the art gallery was great, especially with the lights on the Fairmont Hotel in the background.

With decorations up the only thing left to do was shopping. Fortunately we had an early start on this sending things back to NZ with Rach in November. Rach carried on with the shopping both Thursday and Friday, I however, had to wait for the weekend - and the chaos that involves.

On Saturday Rach's work had their Christmas party. 80 Doctors and Nurses took over Chivana Restaurant and Lounge in Kits. The food was great, the place was great. There were a lot of prize draws; a lot of the management staff and doctors had donated the prizes. Rach did well and got a basket full of chocolate, it's going to take us a long time to get through it all. I think everyone had a fantastic night.

On Sunday Rach managed to get an LOA (Leave of absence) from work so we decided to take a break from all the Christmas festivities and head up Grouse Mountain for some snowboarding. We got there early afternoon and stayed till afterdark. The sunsets are spectacular from up there and view while night snowboarding is breathtaking...

Back to New Zealand!! 19th Nov - 26th Nov

2009-11-26T16:30:00.016-08:00

So I was supposed to work a night shift on the Wednesday finishing at 7am, flying out of Vancouver at 2.30pm that day. Turns out I was able to get the night off and therefore was able to pack, spend the night with Cam and get a good nights sleep before my travelling adventures the next day.

19th November was flying day. Cam said goodbye and headed off to work, I was so excited and worried about travelling and getting to all my connecting flights that I couldn't sleep anymore. Thought I may as well get up and get ready for my long travel. As flights only go direct to NZ on Fridays and Sundays I had to get a flight to LA and then on to New Zealand. So packed and ready to go I carted my 2 suitcases, 6 or so blocks down the road in the rain to the train station. I couldn't quite hold the umbrella as well, so got a little bit wet on the way. I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so could go through to the gate and relax for a while. I had all my bridesmaid stuff with me as carry on, as the wedding was the day I arrived and wanted to have it with me in case my luggage didn't make it all the way there.

Anyway I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand with smooth travelling. I got my connecting flight to Tauranga and arrived there about half an hour prior to time of arrival, feeling very excited and relieved to be there early. Mum, Dad and Carlene picked me up from the airport and we headed to the supermarket before heading home to start the getting ready part of the day. After a series of hugs, hellos and conversation I was able to have a small rest and seat before getting ready for the day. Vanessa's friends were here to help out and do our hair and makeup. Vanessa was in the process of getting her hair done so I took a long awaited shower. Its amazing how great you can feel after a shower. Then lunch and I felt even better. After this it was my turn for my hair to be done and makeup time for Vanessa. The morning continued to consist of getting ready, eating and taking photos.

With a near hiccup of not being able to get one of the cars started we headed off in the cars for a tour around to end up at the wedding venue (fashionably late of course!!). The venue was a small park called Bell Common down Cambridge road, very secluded and beautiful under one of the big trees. As I hadn't been home to be involved in the planning I was given my instructions once we arrived. Fairly straight forward except for the heals digging into the grass of course and nearly tripping over. The wedding was beautiful and the weather held out nicely for it, I have heard that the best photos are when its overcast anyway.

After speeches, vows and several tears shed they were pronounced married, after the register was signed it was time for some well earned drinks, nibbles and chatter (not to forget a little dancing with the flower girls). People gathered for several photos and then after an hour or so the bridal party was left for more photos at the park. We then headed off to Yatton park for more photos, some drinks and nibbles. It was a very relaxing and stress free time here, luckily the weather held out once again, just starting to spit as we hopped back into the cars.

The reception was held at The Historic Village which made for a beautiful venue for photos. Well actually a great venue all together. The reception went as most others including, food, speeches, laughter and toasts to the bride and groom, Vanessa and Jarrod Boud. With of course an evening of dancing, chit chat and presents. A great day and evening, everything went beautifully and appeared very calm and relaxed. Congratulations once again to the bride and groom.

The bride and groom headed off after the end of the reception curfew, and a few of us decided to continue the night away and headed off to Tauranga town for some drinking and dancing. Man how things have changed, well have they or have I just changed?? I'm sure people never used to do some of the things these young people were doing on the dance floor, I mean get a room, I think your in!! Haha maybe I'm just getting older. Still made for a fun and entertaining night.

Sunday morning I was stuffed, don't know if it was wise flying half way around the world, being at a wedding all day the same day I arrive and staying up till 4.30 in the morning, oh well it was worth it. Sunday was a cruisy day anyway, we lazed around at mum and dads, visitors and relatives came over for lunch and we sat around talking. Most people had left around 3-4pm and just a few of us remained. We headed off that evening to baywave for some hydro-sliding and wave pools. This was great and even more fun when you have young children to take with you, even if you are a little tired and hungover. Think I'm going to be a great Aunty!! Well not the hungover part.

Monday was such a beautiful day and involved several of my favourite things. Mum borrowed Joan's car. We all pilled in including Carlene, Mum, Nicola, Tyler, Hollie, Lochie and myself and headed out to the Mt beach to meet Vanessa and Jarrod for fish and chips on the beach. The day was just stunning except for the small amount of wind. We sat on the bank and had fish n chips, Dad met us briefly in his lunch break also. After this Jarrod entertained the kids down on the beach, while the rest of us basked in the sun. I did go for a swim, well briefly the water was quite cold, well I guess to be expected in November, still can say I had a swim though. We packed up after this and headed to the mount shops and bayfair for a little shopping, well mainly for the kids, I didn't spend too much, except a few Christmas things.

This evening I headed to Cam's parents house for a nice home cooked meal. It was great to catch up with the rest of the family and have a glass of wine. Unfortunately I couldn't see them a little more but the trip was quite brief, I'll be able to spend more time next trip I promise.

After this we went to the hot pools for an evening swim, we didn't have much time arriving at 9pm but it was still great, its the small things you realise you miss being able to just do when ever you want. They have hot springs over here in Canada but just not as accessible. You do trade one thing for another I guess. Makes the experience so much better when you can't have it all the time. It was such a great day, so many great things all mixed into one, family, beach, fish n chips, swimming and fun!!

Tuesday Carlene, Nicola and the kids were leaving. It was sad to see them go, had been so nice catching up with you all. We dropped them all off at the airport and after some sad goodbyes waved them off on the plane. Now that you are over you flying fear Carlene I'm sure we'll be able to see you more. I headed out for lunch and a catch up with Jo, today was another beautiful day and hot, Jo was even wearing a skirt and yes I got to witness it. We had lunch and a catch up on the strand at a restaurant, was very nice thanks Jo. After this I went home and had a rest on the couch in the sun, it had been such a busy last few days and I think it was starting to catch up on me. Trina, Jamie and Alexis came over for a visit on their way home from a walk, we sat out on the deck and ate some snacks and had a few drinks. Lucky we had, had some children here over the last week so and there were still some kids toys available for Alexis to play with, she is growing fast and so cute. Was great to see you all again, can't wait to catch up next time.

Wednesday was a relaxing day with Mum, we headed down town Tauranga to do some Christmas shopping and to have lunch, another beautiful day out, I had been so lucky with my time there, the weather and company had been awesome. We cruised around the shops and sat down for a lunch in a cafe, I got to have a pie which was great. I sat in the car for a little while, while mum got some Christmas presents then we headed home. Blair and Dee came over for dinner that night with Jordan, as well as Vanessa and Jarrod and we had a nice roast meal, just what I needed on my last night here, it was yum!!

Today was leaving day, it had been such a short and action packed trip home I wasn't quite ready to leave. I wrapped up some presents this morning and packed my bags, I wasn't very organised at all, very unlike me, I think I thought I had more time than I did, I only just finished packing my bag with about 10 minutes to spare before we had to leave. We headed off to Tauranga airport. Here I was met by Dad and to my surprise Cam's mum and Alley which was nice. Even though it was still hard, it was easier to leave this time well easier in the fact I didn't ball my eyes out haha. I said my goodbyes and boarded the plane.

My trip back to Vancouver when without delays or problems, my connections worked out fine and if anything the timings were perfect, I did have to wait at Auckland airport for several hours but that was ok as there was an A380 that had stopped so I went and took some videos of that for Cam and his new obsession with planes. I finally boarded the plane and to my surprise it wasn't that full and I got 3 seats to myself which was awesome, got to rest the whole way with my feet up, not that I could sleep much anyway.

I arrived in Vancouver about 5.30pm about and hour before I left New Zealand, so funny how that works, caught the train and Cam meet me at the station to help pull my bags, how nice!! Over all a fantastic trip, beautiful weather and company. So glad I could be there for your special day Vanessa and Jarrod!!

Tickets to NZ and Christmas Shopping - 1st Nov - 18th Nov

2009-11-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

These few weeks consisted mainly of me getting ready to head back to New Zealand, buying wedding stuff for Vanessa's wedding and buying Christmas presents to take home. It consisted mostly of spending lots of money, but it was fun!!

The second of November I booked my flights to New Zealand for my fleeting 6 days in New Zealand and 3 days flying trip. Even though it was for a short amount of time I was looking forward to it and had already begun counting down the days till I flew out.

On the Tuesday Cam got to go to his first Canucks game at GM place. Apparently it was pretty awesome. I'm guessing it will be the first of many games if possible. Its funny that in this sport there are rules on how you can fight and fighting is actually allowed. Makes for good entertainment according to Cam. I think it just give boys a chance to compensate for something they may be missing. Can't wait for my first game.

The 6th of November we decided to have a Canadian engagement party with some of the friends we had made over here. We headed down to the Lions pub for a few drinks before heading down to the waterfront to a beautiful restaurant which over looks the harbour, Stanley park and North Vancouver called Carderos. It was a lovely evening celebrating our engagement with great food, drinks, friends and conversation.

On the 7th, Lauren, a girl from work was celebrating her birthday at a nice little restaurant in Kits. We decided to head there for a few quiet drinks after having dinner at home. Well a few quite drinks turn into several loud drinks, which turned into a great night of fun and laughter. Really glad we made the effort to go out, had a great evening.

Saturday 7th through to Sunday 9th of Nov, mostly consisted of Christmas shopping, I figure as I will be going home I may as well utilize the 2 baggage thing and save on postage by taking all my presents home. On the Sunday I also found my bridesmaid dress which was very exciting as I thought it was perfect and didn't take too long to find. I just hope it fits in at the wedding with everyone else.

Not much else to share up to the 18th of Oct as the majority of our spare time, when I wasn't working, consisted of Christmas shopping. Its hard to believe we hadn't even reached December and had pretty much completed all of our shopping. I feel I am going to be quite organised this year for a change.

Mostly work and a few drinks and dinners!! 19th Oct - 31st Oct

2009-10-31T15:18:00.001-07:00

Well not too much to report for the rest of October. A few birthdays, dinner, drinks and our family having an engagement party for us.

Happy Birthday to all of those who celebrated in October. 10th Oct - Happy Birthday Emily. 16 Oct - Happy Birthday Trina. 20th Oct - Happy Birthday Tobi. 23rd Oct - Happy Birthday Anna. 24th Oct - Happy Birthday Mum. Although we weren't there to celebrate with all of you, we were thinking of you all.

October 23rd was Anna's birthday, a new friend we have meet here in Canada. Anna is from Ireland. We headed out for dinner and then on to our local (Doolins) for a few drinks. Dinner was very nice, we went to a little Thai place in Yaletown. The night got a little messy for some with a few too many drinks and the icing of a muffin all over someones dress as they sat down in it. So a nice dinner, a few drinks and a birthday cake later we headed to Doolins. Unfortunately there was a cover charge and with me having to work at 7am the next morning, I headed home.

Once home we went on skype to chat to our families who were having an engagement party on our behalf, thanks guys. It appears they were celebrating quite well, it is good to know however that even before we are married our families get on quite well. We'll be home in May to celebrate as well with our engagement party (further details to come).

The 30th October Emily, Anna, Cam and myself headed out to a sushi restaurant in Kits. According to them the sushi was beautiful, however my taste buds don't quite understand this. The place however was very bubbly, fun and I did enjoy the atmosphere. After this we were looking for somewhere to have a few drinks however the place we had found wasn't quite the right kind of place so we headed back to our local Doolins. Cam and I headed off about midnight as once again I had to work at 7am, Emily and Anna continued the night away drinking.

A grand surprise!! 17th Oct - 18th Oct

2009-10-18T14:55:00.003-07:00

So we had this weekend off. I was trying to plan something the weekend before for this weekend but was having difficulty trying to find a hotel or somewhere to stay. I decided to give up and have a look the following night, however Cam told me that night not to worry that he had sorted the weekend and it was a surprise weekend away. This was very exciting, I love surprises but don't like them at the same time. I mean its nice to be surprised but then you constantly want to know what is going to happen, where you are going to go and what you are going to do there.

Anyway we had to get up super early (I think about 4.45am) on the Saturday morning to catch whatever form of transport we were getting, I had it in my head that we were going on a bus as we were going to the bus station, turns out we were getting a train. I had found out by this time that we were going to Seattle, which on its own was very exciting. Anyway we were lucky that we managed to make the train on time. First of all we saw a car accident, well actually we didn't see one, but we certainly heard it and nearly missed the bus. Then the bus that we got on was supposed to drop us off at a stop were we could get the next bus but apparently that bus wasn't coming this morning. So we decided to get a taxi instead, don't quite know why we didn't do this in the first place, hindsight huh great concept.

So we arrived at the bus depot right on time, after all the formalities of customs etc, we boarded our train in business class. It was exciting first time on a train in ages and first time from one country to another and we were in business class. Turns out economy may have been better haha, it appeared Cam and I had the only seats in the entire business class that were ok, everyone else seemed to be disappointed with everything and anything, ah snobs. We thought it was fine, more room, money off the cafe foods and only a little bit more expensive. We were to find out on the way back the best part of being in business class but I'll share that later.

We didn't get to see too much on our journey to begin with as it was dark and rainy. Throughout the journey the weather started to clear up and we could actually see a bit of the coastline, its quite a nice view. We arrived in Seattle just before lunch time and caught a taxi to our hotel, The Sheraton. It was very fancy and we were on the 32nd floor (I think) with a beautiful view to the space needle and some of the city, we were facing North westish. We even had special access to the club lounge and continental breakfast.

We decided to dump our bags down and go for lunch and a walk through the city. We headed down to the famous fish market, didn't really know what to expect actually, but mostly there are all sorts of stalls selling all sorts of things and then some fish stands.

We sat at a diner there over looking the water and had some lunch. After this we weren't too sure what to do so we headed back to the hotel to go for a swim in the pool on the 35th floor with awesome views. When then only really had enough time to get ready to go out for a few drinks and dinner. I didn't know where we were heading for dinner so just followed Cam. We went to this really nice french restaurant over looking the water, I don't know what it was but I think something to do with women's intuition, and I started to get suspicious about certain things, not sure what or why but I was. We finished up with our meal and headed out for a walk.

We wandered down towards the markets over looking the water. Cam started taking photos of the 2 of us and now I was really starting to get suspicious. It had been raining quite a lot that day so he got down on one knee in the puddles and popped the question. As most of you will probably know by now I said yes. So now we have joined the majority of our friends and are now engaged. It was a wonderful, romantic surprise. Also the beginning of a night of drinking and dancing to celebrate.

View from where he popped the question.

We decided to head out to a few pubs/nightclubs to have a few or several drinks to celebrate and ended up staying out for some time dancing and drinking. It was a great evening/night out in Seattle and I'm sure one I will always remember.

Then next day we didn't have any particular plans other than to go up the space needle. We couldn't come to Seattle and not go up this. After having a long sleep in, we went for continental breakfast which was awesome, lots of bagels, toast, fruit, yogurt, slices and pastries. A real continental American breakfast, shame about the crappy coffee. Anyway after this we stored our luggage and headed to the monorail, which transports you straight to space needle. The views from the top were amazing, we didn't have the best weather but better than the day before and there were actually some blue sky moments. I like the way you don't have to take photos through glass up the top of this tower, means you can get some nice photos.

Where the space needle is, was the site of the 1962 Worlds' fair, there is still rides and stalls underneath the needle. None of these were open when we were there. We found this cool fountain though which provided entertainment for a while. The water squirted out of it but you didn't know where, when and how far it would come out. The children found it very amusing and ended up getting soaked. I shouldn't lie I guess, we found it quite amusing also.

We had a few more hours to kill in Seattle before heading back to Vancouver. We decided to head to EMP (Experience Music Project) and Science Fiction Museum. Both very cool museums to visit especially when it comes to music and Seattle. Its basically all about music and pays particular attention to some Seattle born greats such as Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam and Nevana. It also has areas where you can play some music, listen to music, listen to people involved in music and some music artifacts. A place I would recommend for those who enjoy music and science fiction (or even if you don't like science fiction).

Now it was about time to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the bus station. We decided to stop for dinner on the way back, after taking one last trip on monorail. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much on the train ride back as it was dark as well. We decided to try and get some sleep as I had to work in the morning. Now being in business class works the best once you arrive back in Vancouver, as they keep all of the economy class inside the train while business class can head out and through customs. Which meant we were pretty much at the front of the queue, awesome.

Randoms Days and Events - 25th Sept - 12th Oct

2009-10-12T15:52:00.001-07:00

As we have said in other blogs we have had less time over here to be tourists, therefore this post is over a longer period of time and I'll only mention the things we have been up to. We have however found a few friends over here and have been enjoying living in a big city with so many things to see and do. Or so many nice places to go out to for dinner and drinking. It is very convenient living in the center of town and being able to just decide to go out for dinner, walking out your front door and being just minutes away from everything.

Any who, for some reason everything happened to come up at once, the evening after coming back from Vegas we happened to have tickets to Pearl Jam (Sept 25th 09). When I arrived in Vancouver there were so many concerts happening and we didn't have enough money to buy any. I said to Cam if Pearl Jam come, I don't care how much money we have we are going. So of course when the news came that they were coming we snapped up some tickets. Once again the band put on an awesome performance, however not quite as good as the last time. I guess we had real high expectations, it also didn't help that they sung Last Kiss (the worst Pearl Jam song in history). Don't get me wrong still thoroughly enjoyed it, they played for just over an hour and then came back on and did an encore that was the same length. So we got a full 2 and a bit hours worth which is better than most bands now days, and they did do Yellow Ledbetter which was awesome.

As my nursing exam was coming up on the 7th October the next week for me consisted mainly of study and for Cam work. We did manage to get out to one of our local pubs again for a few drinks and to watch a hockey game. Do you think its a bad sign when the waitress at the pub knows what you normally order to drink?? This pub is Doolin's Irish pub, what more could you wish for than a pub that plays sport on the TV's (including Rugby), has live music (which also plays kiwi music at times), and sells alcohol? I think this is why its become our local.

As we finally have two incomes we thought it was a good time to do some shopping. Cam desperately needed work shirts, and I well needed what ever I could find. Its awesome shopping here, I manage to find something I can fit and looks good every time. Cam ended up with about 3 things and I ended up with 2, ha see girls don't always get more things.

October 7th was my nursing exam, unfortunately I had to be there at 7.15 am which meant I had to get up at 5.10am to get the train and bus out to the venue. I had to leave real early as the public transport system doesn't run as often at that time of the morning. The exam runs for 7 hours which is crazy, its so hard to concentrate for that amount of time normally let alone after getting up at 5 in the morning. You do get an hour break in between but its still tough. I must say its the most stupid exam I have ever had to do, we all thought it was stupid, I mean really these sort of questions decide whether or not I am good enough to be a nurse. Hard to say how it went really, I guess I'll see in about another 3-4 weeks time.

The end of the exam called for a good night out drinking. Of course we headed out to our local again (Doolins) for dinner and drinks. What do you get when you have several Brits, 2 kiwis, an Aussie and an Irish girl in an Irish pub??? Chaos!! We started drinking about 4 and by midnight most of us were ready to head home, I know we must be getting older, but to be fair we had been up for a long time and had a long exam that we sat. Had an awesome night out with new friends, pub food and drinking.

The weekend from the 9th till the 12th was a long weekend, the 12th was Thanksgiving, we were very excited to be having our first ever real thanksgiving. The Friday night (9th) Cam, Emily and I headed out for dinner at Sip a restaurant in Vancouver. Places were pretty full being late on a Friday evening so we took what seats we could, which happened to be sitting at the bar in front of the chefs while they were cooking. It was like Hell's Kitchen however the head chef wasn't horrible. Its quite interesting watching to see how they manage to get all meals cooked and out on time together. I had ribs of course which were beautiful, the head chef actually stood there and asked us how our meals were going, we said they were beautiful and the chef that cooked them was actually there to over hear and say thank you. It was fun.

Saturday was Emily's birthday, we headed out for lunch with her to a diner just down the road, we had heard good reviews and they even had the worlds best $5 shakes which we just had to get. The food was great but unfortunately the waitress was the worse person I have ever been served by, she was just down right bitchy, so after telling Emily that she couldn't have a side of half salad and half chips she then we on to tell me that my meal was huge and that I could share my chips with Emily. I think we'll prob go back and try it again, she may have been just having a bad day. After this we went to another one of our favourite places for drinks, this one is called Milestones, its a chain over here. We had a few drinks out then headed home.

Sunday was a great day, but very expensive. Several snow shops were having thanksgiving sales so we decided to take up the opportunity to go out and buy snowboards and boots for the season coming up. We got a bargain, managed to get 2 snowboards and bindings, and some boots for me, for the cheap price of $1000, we had a look for retail prices in New Zealand and we got ours for about 1/3 of the price of what we could get them for over there. It was all very exciting, we couldn't wait to get home to try them out. First we had to cart them on the busy bus home, ah fun times. This evening we were supposed to head out for a night out at a nightclub however plans changed so Cam and I decided to head out for a few drinks, a few drinks turned into several drinks and several pubs, well actually only 3. There are so many places to go here, we decided to walk down Granville street, the main night life street in Vancouver and stop in at a few places we hadn't been to. We managed to find several nice places. At about midnight we decided to head down to the waterfront for a walk, its so beautiful along the waterfront looking out at North Vancouver and all the lights. then we decided to call it a night.

Monday 12th was thanksgiving, our first actual thanksgiving and we were both off so decided to head out for dinner that night. During the day we were going to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge however got down to the seabus and it was going in 25 minutes so decided to head to Van Dusen Botanical Gardens instead. We had been told that it was really nice going in Autumn as all the trees are different colours and leaves are falling. It was beautiful out there and much better for the price compared to the last botanical gardens we went to.

In the evening Cam, Emily and I had booked to go to Four Seasons Hotel for a three course thanksgiving dinner. It was very flash and a great excuse to get dressed up and buy an expensive bottle of wine. It was funny we had just been talking about how most places don't seem to give you wine like they are supposed to with the whole showing us the bottle, letting us taste it etc, but they did here and we even had a fancy stand thing with ice. It was very exciting. Oh and when we got there they lady that showed us to our table even took our coats. The dinner was absolutely beautiful and we ate far too much, well worth it though. It was a nice evening out but unfortunately we forgot to take photos, woops, I guess we were caught up with good conversation and food. We'll have to remember next time. We did however remember to toast to what we were thankful for.

Las Vegas 21st -24th Sept

2009-09-24T14:14:00.009-07:00

After Jacki's visit to Vancouver we hadn't had enough so we headed down to Las Vegas to catch-up with her again. It was well timed to because I got a phone call on the Friday before from UBC offering me a job. It meant we didn't have to worry so much about our budget while we holidayed.

We wanted to cram as much Vegas in as we could so Rach finished a night shift on the 21st and basically came home and changed before we headed to the airport.
The flight down was great, we headed down the coast then inland over forests around Portland, over a few remaining Californian fires then over the desert to Vegas. We knew where we were as soon as you step off the plane, they have slot machines in the waiting area.

We got a cab to our hotel, Excalibur, and met Jacki. We had prebooked tickets to Cirque du Solei at TI (used to be treasure Island) so we went for a trek down The Strip to collect the tickets. The Strip was crazy! It was packed with tourists and the two mile walk to TI took us two hours. We did stop for photos a few times along the way, just like everyone else. We had tickets to the medieval show at Excalibur that night so we had to get back quick so we got the monorail back. The Medieval show was good, pretty similar to do show Rach and I went to in LA. Its a medieval 'competition' between the different seating sections. Its really a good show with some American cheese thrown in. Surprisingly Rach had managed to stay awake all this time - 36 hours! We were well overdue a sleep when the show was over so headed back to our room.

On Tuesday we had a lot of Casinos to explore. We started by heading south to the Luxor and grabbing some breakfast/lunch. We then continued south to Mandalay Bay. This is as far south as we went, each of the hotel/casinos has a different theme and it is amazing the lengths some of them go to with the themes. After exploring Mandalay Bay we caught the free train back to Excalibur. We then continued north exploring New York New York, Monte Carlo, Paris, Ballys, The Flamingo and back to Excalibur. I can't really explain how cool these casinos were, hopefully the photos do a good job of it.

The Cirque du Solei show was on tonight so we got dressed up and jumped back on the monorail to TI. The show was amazing! We left a little disappointed that it hadn't gone on for longer - that's got to be a good sign. There were amazing tricks on the trapeze and an old guy was hilarious playing/interfering with the show, although he was obviously part of it. While way up that end of the strip we stuck around to catch the show outside TI, Sirens. We waited around for almost an hour to catch the show... and it was disappointing. Apparently used to be a great battle between pirates... now its like that but with softcore porn included and a script written by testosterone OD-ing teenagers. The volcano outside the Mirage was great. They use water, light and fire to simulate the island in the middle of their water feature blowing up, and the effect works really well.

After the show we continued inside the Mirage and had a look around then onto the Bellagio. Unfortunately by the time we got there the water fountain display had stopped for the night. After finding that out we decided it was time to start heading back to the hotel for bed. On the way we thought we should do a little bit of gambling while we were there. I put a couple of dollars into the machine and managed to spend it all in one spin, my Las Vegas gambling was done in a couple of seconds. The others managed to carry on for a couple of minutes before the money ran out. After all that excitement it was definitely time for bed.

We still had a lot to get done on Wednesday. We still had some time left on our 24 monorail tickets so we decided to make the most of it and head right up the north end to the Sahara and the Stratosphere. These hotel/casinos were obviously a lot older than the ones we'd been exploring at the southern end of the strip. The decor needed a bit of an update. Joined to the Sahara there was a roller coaster. Rach and I were real keen to go on the one at New York New York but while here we thought we'd go on this one too. It was only a short roller coaster but it was cool that it started inside, shot outside, went underground then up again... then the same in reverse. Rach and I then went for a look in the Stratosphere while Jacki went souvenir shopping. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go up the tower but we do have to go on those rides at some point.

We then headed back to the main section of the strip and had a walk through Paris on our way to the Coke store and M&M World. They were both cool, M&M world was four stories of M&M products, it also had a 3D movie. After all this walking and shopping we were exhausted so headed back to the hotel to drop off our bags. We then splashed out and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. This was a new restaurant, it opened only three weeks earlier. It was fitted with Microsoft Surface's in the waiting areas, I had fun playing around with it... then Rach and Jacki did too on our way out.

We then headed back up the Strip to explore the Venetian and go up the Eiffel tower at Paris. It was great timing as the Bellagio fountains started just as we got to the top. We watched that show and explored the views from up the tower before heading down and seeing the show again from the ground - just like in Oceans 11. After that it was getting late again and Rach and I had flights back to Vancouver the next day so we made our way back to the hotel for bed.

Our last morning in Las Vegas was quiet, just breakfast at the hotel then off to the airport for us.

It was a shame our trip was packed into only a few days but I'm so glad we made the effort to go. We've got a list of things that we need to do next time we're there.

More Visitors 7th Sept - 12th Sept

2009-09-12T13:13:00.004-07:00

With Rach working on Sunday night we made Monday morning a quiet day. Jacki, Katie and I headed up the Vancouver Lookout. The weather forecast was bad the entire time we had visitors so unfortunately there was a bit of cloud around. After about an hour of me playing tourist guide up the lookout we headed for a nice walk around the waterfront to Stanley Park.

Like we were when we first arrived, Jacki wanted to get a photo of a squirrel. In Stanley Park that's usually an easy task... for some reason it wasn't this day. What was weird was that Raccoons were suddenly more common. We managed to get some good photos of them instead and had to abandon finding a squirrel. Rach had got up while we were 'going on a squirrel hunt' so we headed back to regroup.

It was still relatively early in the day so we decided to squeeze a visit to Granville Island in. Its always nice wandering around doing a bit of window shopping. We also grabbed a quick bite while we were there and watched a couple of the buskers. Once we had explored all the Island streets and had enough on the swings we headed home for some dinner. Rach, Jacki and Katie went back up the lookout after dinner to see the city at night since the tickets were still valid.

On Tuesday we we caught the seabus over to the north shore to go up Grouse Mountain. If you remember back to our post on June 28th, Rach and I had already been up here and its great cheap fun. Its really cheap if you do the Grouse Grind but none of us had the energy or desire to do that. We got the cable car up this time which I found rather over priced - but I'm comparing to a free walk up there. There is a good amount of entertainment up the top for free so I guess its not so bad.

Up the top it was a lot busier than last time, not with people it was animals. The bears were roaming around their enclosure giving everyone a good look. There was a family of Black Tailed Deer and we even saw a Grouse up Grouse Mountain. There was also a bit of wild Black Bear activity up there this day. We didn't see them but did find a fresh looking foot print - I honed all my tracking skills to identify it. We watched the lumberjack show again, for Rach and I it was our third time now. Its a little different when you know all the secrets but its still a good show. We got the chair lift up to the very top peak which we didn't do last time we were up here. There were spectacular views of Vancouver from up there, you could see right down into Washington too.

It was a long day and we were all exhausted, too exhausted to cook so we went out for dinner at The Keg. Its a chain restaurant but like most chains here the food is fantastic. We then walked around the corner from home to visit one of Katie's friends and her spoiled dog. Had a quick drink there before heading home a collapsing in bed.

We were finding it exhausting being tourists so took it easy on Wednesday morning - all we had planned for the day was heading to Vancouver Island. I got some good news (and bad timing) that morning; UBC wanted me back for a second interview... this week, when I was meant to be at Vancouver Island. I couldn't really reschedule too much so made a time Friday afternoon so I could have a day on the Island still. It was about 2pm when we headed off for the Ferry. It was a bit of a trek, but also surprising how far we could get for only $18. We first got the Canada Line to Brighouse Staton where we caught a bus to Tsawwassen where we got the Ferry over to Swartz Bay. It was funny that we were able to use a train, bus and ferry all in a couple of hours to get over to the island. Jacki's uncle, Bruce, picked us up from the ferry terminals and took us round to their place in Sidney. They have an amazing place right on the water, we were so spoilt there. Bruce had been out fishing that morning so we had fresh Salmon for dinner that night, just like real Canadians.

Thursday was now my only full day on Vancouver Island so we packed as much touring of Victoria as we could. Bruce gave us the scenic route down to Victoria and did a good job as a tour guide to get us started. Bruce eventually had to head off and do some work so we were on our own. We started with a short walk around the waterfront past the Legislative Buildings and the Empress Hotel. We didn't get far before deciding to catch one of the water taxis for a quick tour around the harbour. The first boat we got on to was great, the driver offered a great commentary. We were told it was a hop-on hop-off type thing so we got off at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a dock full of house boats and one local Seal. The poor old seal looked like it had bad cataracts and would surely be dead if had to fend for itself. It survives now on fish that people feed it at the wharf. It was unusual to have a seal follow you while you walk around. When we jumped back on the water taxi it was more of a taxi on the water, we just travelled straight back to the main dock where we'd started without any commentary at all - it was a little disappointing.

With limited time we decided it'd be best to plan the rest of our Victoria tour so we headed to the information center. We grabbed pamphlets and got some information on buses and headed up Government Street to grab some lunch. We ended up eating at Irish Times Pub - we seem to love the Irish pubs in Canada. While sitting in the pub we had a look through the pamphlets we grabbed and found one of the maps included an Alley Tour and we happened to be sitting at the start of it so we decided to follow it. It took us down some great back alleyways, my favourite had to be the last one, Fan Tan Alley. It was no wider then two people and about four stories high on both sides. There were a few quirky shops down the way and when we came out we were in Chinatown. We headed back down Government Street toward the harbour stopping at a couple of places to try and find a shirt for my job interview tomorrow. I really didn't enjoy my Victoria shopping experience, I felt like I was in a mini 'Queer Eye for Me' episode, and I really didn't like it. We eventually found a polite way to get out of that shop and found a shirt in Tip Top Tailors, they had the right level of helpfulness there.

After that stress we needed ice cream so we all grabbed sundaes and sat around the harbour eating them. We were then ready to continue our tour. We headed up and explored The Empress Hotel and then the Legislative buildings. Unfortunately we were 5 minutes too late to go inside the legislative builds so we wandered around the grounds and stumbled upon horse and carriage tours - between the four of us we couldn't come up with a reason not to. We took a 15 minute tour around Beacon Hill area looking at all the old houses - it was very romantic :-). It was almost 6 when we got back so we found a bus stop and got a ride back to Bruce and Debbie's place in Sidney.

Friday I had to get up early and catch the 8am ferry back so I could be ready from my interview at 3pm. The interview went ok, it was a practical test this time and I got the impression it had gone well - even with a few answers that I was disappointed with. The guy interviewing me basically said at the end of it that I knew what I was doing and he was just concerned about my work permit and me being over qualified - not in those words of course. It was good to hear that after three months of disappointing job hunting.

Meanwhile - on The Island Rach, Jacki and Katie had a quiet day in Sidney. Checking out the museum there and walking along the beach. They then left Jacki behind and headed back to Vancouver. On their ferry ride home they were lucky enough to see Orca's breaching - that was disappointing because I really wanted to and had been looking hard for them on both rides. Rach was also loaded up on frozen Salmon before leaving so we now have a freezer full, we're so stoked about that but need to learn some recipes - we've never cooked Salmon before.

Katie had an early flight home on Saturday morning and Rach was working again. I gave Katie a hand getting to the airport and watched some more planes before heading home and back to reality.

It was so nice seeing familiar faces again and it was fun being tourists again - the budget hadn't allowed us to do that for a while. It was also tough going back to reality.

Many Changes 31 Aug - 6 Sept

2009-09-06T19:40:00.002-07:00

We seem to have managed to get ourselves into a bit of a routine so not much tourist-ing going on and not been too much to write about - hence the fact we had nothing to write about last week.

Monday was packing day. It was a brilliant plan to have Monday free to pack so we could move on Tuesday morning. According to our lease we had to be out by noon so preparation was key. Fortunately we got a little more time to move because we couldn't arrange a time to meet the landlord to hand it over, unfortunately someone slipped too much alcohol into my Beer on Sunday night so I wasn't contributing much. Rach put her OCD tendencies to good use and had the place looking better than when we moved in by the time I managed to roll out of bed.

Moving day went well. It took us four trips on the bus with our suitcases to move. The buses were relatively quiet. The new train, the Canada Line, opened a week earlier which made the 98 B-Line bus a ghost train at times - this worked well for us trying to squeeze on with our suitcases. While lugging our suitcases to the bus stop on one of the trips I missed a call on my cellphone - they didn't seem to leave a voicemail so I thought nothing of it. After the fourth trip and finally putting my feet up in the evening I got a txt saying I did have a voicemail after all. It turns out someone wanted me to come in for a job interview - tomorrow. It was now 5:30p.m. so I left a voicemail message for him saying that was fine and I'd call back tomorrow to confirm. That was the best I could do in the circumstances.

I got up early (by unemployed standards) on Tuesday to call back about the job interview. It turns out that they couldn't do the interview that day anymore so we rescheduled for Wednesday. This worked well for me, it gave me more to to decide what I'd wear and to unpack it.

After the successful move and me finally getting an interview after three months of trying we thought we'd earned a night out. Sunday was still haunting me so it was never going to be a big night out. We headed down to Milestones in Yaletown - a nice wander from our new apartment. Emily joined us for our celebrations - I blame her influence for Sunday so I was on high alert. We had a fantastic meal and some nice Mojitos - it was a great evening out. Being the gentleman I am we walked Emily to her apartment before heading back to ours. On the way we saw this:

Its a skunk in case you can't tell. I never thought we'd see one of those in downtown Vancouver. We still find seeing squirrels exciting so we were ecstatic about this sighting.

I hate interviews and this one was no exception. I felt the overall feeling of it was good; conversation flowed, I came across as knowing what I was doing. I was however disappointed with a few um... err... ahh, answers. Generally when I feel good about an interview, as I initially did about this one, I don't get the job. So I wrote that one off as a good practice run.

Friday was a day we'd both been looking forward to for a long time - Jacki arrived today! I like watching the planes land at the airport so I got there about an hour before Jacki was expected and stopped at Templeton station to watch planes for a bit. I timed it well and saw a 747 and a couple of A340s. After escorting Jacki back to the apartment she was surprisingly wide awake so we went for a quick walk. The weather was fantastic and it was expected to pack up for the rest of her stay so I wanted to show her the mountains while they were still visible. We walked around Gastown and along the waterfront to Coal Harbour. A nice quick look at the highlights of downtown - in my opinion.

Rach was free the next two days thanks to an LOA so we bought a pass for the Museum of Vancouver, the Space Centre and the Maritime Museum. It was good value getting the pass for all three and we've get plenty of time to use them - apart from Jacki's short stay of course. We did the Museum of Vancouver (The MOV for locals) on Saturday. It was fun, they had a lot of interactive displays and things for me to act like an idiot with. On Sunday Rach and I explored the Space Centre. Jacki joined us for most of this time but wanted to go next door to the Maritime Museum in the afternoon because otherwise she wouldn't get a chance. The Space Centre has a lot of shows and scheduled displays so we were basically moving between a theatre and the planetarium. It was a great way to spent a rainy Vancouver day and I think we all learned a thing or two. Rach had to work that night so we rushed home to grab something to eat. Jacki and I had a lazy night in front of the box to rest our aching feet.

It was a busy but not very exciting week. With Jacki and Katie here next week there'll be more to write about then.

Fairs and Movies - 17/08/09-23/08/09

2009-08-24T20:52:00.017-07:00

This week there really isn't much to tell. Man working sucks hehe. There is an endless supply of money and I don't have to work, yeah right!!

Monday to Thursday were working days for me and we didn't get up to anything really.

Friday morning I finished my night shift and had a sleep till after midday. Tonight we packed up our picnic blanket and chairs and headed out for a night at the movies, outdoors. We stopped for takeaways on the way and then headed to Connaught Park, to watch UP outdoors and on Big screen. There was quite a turn out. Once again I really enjoyed this movie, still pulls on the heart strings the second time and I shead a few more tears. We'll have to keep an eye out for more outdoor movies its such a great idea.

Annually, PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) a non-profit organisation, runs a 17 day summer fair at Hastings Park. In 2010 it will have been running for 100 years. The fair has heaps of shopping stalls, food and drink stalls, rides, entertainment and of course candy floss. The entertainment included a dog show where different dogs would jump over things and run through things, a car show, Celtic dancing show, and a Lumberjack show. They also had other animal shows however we skipped these ones. They also had different bands playing, the final band was a tribute beetles band, they were very good. Then finally they finished off with a musical/dance pyrotechnic show, this was awesome with fireworks, clowns, old bicycles and lights. It was very well done and we really enjoyed our day. We were here for about 12 hours, Cam described it as a cross between field days and the big day out.

No spoiler involved in the next paragraph. Yesterday we didn't really get up to much. Only interesting thing really was the movies. I can't believe how packed it was, we got there an hour early and had to join a massive cue to get into the movie, turns out we were able to get a good seat, the cinema was completely sold out. We went to see District 9, had heard only good things about it. We came out not really knowing how we felt about it, if you go to see it remember to keep an open mind, very weird and not like anything I have ever seen. Trust Peter Jackson to put some money into this kind of movie. Overall I think all three of us liked it.

Holidays - 10/08/09-16/08/09

2009-08-16T16:47:00.010-07:00

Nothing much to report this week. It turns out summer has decided to end for this week. It has turned cold well max of 18 degrees and the rain has decided to start for a little while.

Monday was my second day on my own at work and this was a really good day, nothing too different seemed to pop up and I had a really great team of people to work with. Its great during the day there is lots of support on and always at least one senior person you can turn to for help. Also these senior people don't have patients so its a little easier to ask for help. We'll see how I like it after a really busy day though.

Tuesday was my last study day as such. It was a surgery study day so really relevant for me and it helped for working on the ward. We also got to meet a few of the doctors, physios and other health team members which was nice.

Wednesday we booked a flight to Vegas to join Jacki on her holiday, a bit impulsive but they had a seat sale on and only had 3 seats left on one particular flight so we bought them. Will only be for 2 and a half days so may have to go back another time. Very exciting though.

Thursday tickets went on sale for Pearl Jam in Vancouver, well the presale anyway but unfortunately we weren't quick enough, we will have to try for the public sale to see what we can get. Another average day at home, was a bit cooler here, decided to do some more baking.

Friday we managed to get tickets to Pearl Jam and pretty good seats if you ask me, so can't wait for that show on September 25th 09, woohoo!!

Friday we went to the Museum of Anthropology which according to our book is one of the 1000 things you need to do before you die in USA and Canada. So another tick off our list. The museum is part of UBC which is the University of British Columbia, it used to be on the same site however it is now just across the road. The museums collections, exhibitions and programs are renowned for giving incite into the cultures of indigenous people from around the world. It holds many ethnographic and archaeological objects, many of these originate from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Some of these objects include totem poles (or story poles), carved boxes, bowls and feast dishes. The museum also has sections on pieces of gold, silver, wood, ceramic and other materials. It was very interesting and once again we were just in time for a free tour which went for 1 hour. Its great to catch these tours as they show you the things which are the most relevant or significant, it enables you to hear a bit about most things and then you can go around and take a more detailed look at what interests you. Totem poles (story poles) are carved by the indigenous people of British Columbia. They are made out of red cedar and are used to tell a story or to identify which tribe/community they are from.

There was a room full of European ceramics which was bought over by Dr Walter. C. Koerner, who made his money in Canada in forestry, this whole collection was his own and there were 600 pieces collected over a span of almost eighty years. Not really my sort of thing but there was a really cool tiled stove which is still used in Europe as a source of heating.

The exhibition at the moment even has a touch of kiwi, it seems we pop up more than I expected over here. The exhibition had photos taken by a kiwi photographer who had taken pictures of Samoan families or communities in New Zealand. These photos were showing the culture of getting tatau (tattoos) within the Samoan community. Not a lot to read but the photos were interesting.

The last room we looked at on the tour was the Bill Reid Rotunda room. Reid is from the Haida community, he was originally a jeweler however became a sculptor and painter after learning about his first nations history. His sculpture called "The Raven and the First Men" which is made out of yellow cedar is in the museum. This depicts a moment in the ancestral past of the Haida people when a Raven, a wise and powerful yet mischievous trickster, has just found the first humans in a clam shell on the beach and is coaxing them in and out. This man has 7 honorary doctorates from different universities, seems pretty smart if you ask me.

So Saturday was another free event in Vancouver. It was 40 years since Woodstock so Kitsilano (Kits) decided to put on a 40 years since Woodstock, summer of love, car free street day. They had 4 stages with bands playing 60's music and the street was full of old 1950/60's cars which were awesome. They also had some stalls, shops were having sales and off course food and a beer garden. It was a nice day to walk around and look at things, there was not as much to see as other days we have been to however the music was great and the bands had done well to dress up in 60's gear.

We had invited Emily along a new friend of ours from work, we had a drink at Kits and then decided to head into town for another drink, we had come this far and it was only early in the evening and dinner time so we decided to continue on for dinner and a few more drinks. I enjoy the frequent martini, margarita and cocktail specials they have each day. It was a good day and evening. Spontaneous drinks and evenings are the best.

Nothing to tell for Sunday just a relaxing day.

BC day, Apartment searching and new people - 03/08/09-09/08/09

2009-08-09T15:10:00.008-07:00

Another public holiday in Canada, I think its great the way they have done it here, there is a public holiday pretty much every month except for 3 months. It just so happened that I had this one off as well. We didn't do too much this day just thought we would take it easy. Apparently there is a world police and fire games which happens every 2 years that happens all around the world. There are about 50-70 countries competing depending on what site you read. Basically it is police and fire people, correction officers and customs officers that compete in many events such as: athletics, ice hockey, rugby, shooting, swimming and many other sports. All events are free, we decided to head to Burnaby (a city within the greater Vancouver area) to watch the track and field athletics. The main events we could see were long jump, running, and high jump. We mainly watched long jump, some of these people could jump really far, in the 18-25 group one guy jumped 6.98 m, considering they don't do this for a living that's pretty far considering in the Olympics they get to mostly 7.5m some up to nearly 9m. I thought they were pretty good.

After this we decided to head to the Night market at Richmond. It was a bit frustrating really, we had heard the night market was great and that they were looking at moving the venue, so we have been looking at the official website for the last 2 months which keeps saying check back for the new location of the night market. However the night market has been going since May yet the website continues to tell us its not on, turns out you don't look for the official website you go to a completely different one, ah annoying. Any who we decided to go, it just so happened the bus that runs to the market from where we were happened to be was full when it arrived, and the next bus was 1 hour away. With Cam having a dead battery on his phone we had to wing it, we walked to another bus stop. One bus trip, one train trip and then 3 more different buses later and about an hour or 2 in time, we arrived at the market. The funny thing was that the people that had obviously waited for the next bus to arrive where we started from, were walking out of the market as we walked in, should've waited. Oh well it was a good trip and wow we can't believe how helpful bus drivers are, we even had one which stopped past the bus stop to get us further.

Anyway the night markets were ok, I'm sure I have seen better, maybe being a public holiday it wasn't as busy as normal, perhaps we will have to go back once the website tells us it is open hehe. They did have some nice different foods, Cam had a nice squid and prawn skewers and I had chicken skewers and some curly potato with seasoning (these were yummo!!). However it was quite expensive. They did have some really cheap things at the stalls though, we did resist a few things.

Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't really get up to much, back to work for me so I'm usually pretty tired, and only get home at 8pm ish.

So we thought hard about our living situation. It appears that our lease agreement actually said that if we wanted to extend our lease past 31st August then we had to do this by June 30th. As it was now the start of August and we had not extended it we though we better look at new apartments. I'm sure if we wanted to stay where we are we probably could, but decided we have had enough of collecting other peoples mail, getting calls all the time for someone else, never being able to get hold of the landlord and living in complete clutter. We checked out Craig's list, like trade me and discovered that all of a sudden there were heaps of apartments for rent that were furnished, turned out to be perfect. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent looking at apartments, in 3 days we looked at about 8 different places. We did have difficulty trying to decide on one as we actually found about 3 really nice places. One would only lease for up to 3 months which was not great for us as that would bring us up to just before the Olympics so that crossed that one off and the other was subletting, which he wasn't allowed to do so another cross, which left us with the one we have accepted. It means we will be moving in to town, first time to be moving by public transport which should be fun. We move September 1st ad will be there for 11 months.

Friday night we went out for drinks at the winking judge pub in town. One of the girls from work who started at the same time as me has just arrived from London and doesn't know anyone over here, so we invited her out for the evening. Just had a quiet few drinks, it was a great evening. We'll have new friends in no time.

Saturday night I rung home for the first time, it was Dads birthday in New Zealand but the day before for us. It was great timing as I got to talk to Mum, Dad and Vanessa. Was great to catch up on all the gossip and hear some familiar voices. Yes we were home on a Saturday evening, but I had to work the next morning at 7am and it was my first day at work on my own.

As I just said Sunday was my first official day at work, I was all on my own. They were really nice to me and I got an easy patient load, still makes me laugh that I only get 3 patients and very occasionally get 4 depending on the patients. Turns out 2 of the patients were what I have cared for in the past so that was good also. Only thing was that everything that I haven't experienced on my orientation days happened to pop up, Murphy's law I guess. For a first day though I must say it was pretty good, it happened to be more quiet that usual and everyone was very helpful. You just have to share the questions around different people hehe, so they don't get sick of you. I think once I get used to the hospital system and policies I will really enjoy it.

This evening we went to our new apartment to sign the lease. Our new landlord is very nice and friendly, also she lives in the building so at least we won't have a problem getting a hold of her. We'll post some photos when we have some.

Hot weather, first concert, and fire works - 27/07/09-2/08/09

2009-08-02T18:56:00.004-07:00

So the weeks are starting to go really fast again now that I'm working and we have stopped doing so many things. Its a bit strange really, normally the holidays go quicker than working days but that doesn't seem to be the way at the moment.

The weather this week continued similar to the last week, it has been so hot, temperatures this week hit the highest recorded temperatures in Vancouver. The airport temp said 34.4 degrees but the temp monitor in the city area hit 40 degrees. Some areas around Vancouver got even higher, I'm sure I had no sleep or very little for about a week.

Anyway Monday was one of these hot days and we decided to head to Stanley Park and sit under a tree in the shade after I had done a little study at work for our teaching sessions. Its nice just sitting watching into the port area of Burrard inlet, watching the boats and planes coming in and out, as well as the people walking around. We lazed around listening to music and people watching. After this we headed back home for a relaxing evening.

Tuesday was another work/study day for me. While at work I had a text from Cam saying that he had something planned for us at 7pm so not to organise anything to do. After getting home from work I was trying to guess what on earth it could be that we were going to do. Since we don't really have any friends in Vancouver as yet that we hang out with, my closest guesses were the movies, dessert as we had already had dinner, or the police and fire games which are happening at the moment. It was much better that all of these put together.

They had made tickets cheaper for a Blink 182 concert which Cam bought so this was where we were going. A very nice surprise as we have had so many tempting concerts to go to but have had to say no. The supporting band happened to be All American Rejects, one of my favourites, this band came to New Zealand to play before Simple plan however we found out about 2-3 hours before the concert that they had cancelled. This band was the actually reason I wanted to go. So finally I got to see them. There were 2 other Canadian bands who performed first then, All American Rejects and then Blink 182. Its been about 7 or 8 years since I had seen Blink 182 at the big day out and they were just as good as when I saw them then. Dammit (the song) was awesome live and was their last song, I had actually forgotten this was there song. All American Rejects were also awesome. Overall a great evening and a great first concert in Vancouver.

This was awesome, look closely at the photo on the right and you will see the drummer playing the drums while the platform he is sitting on is up in the air, he moved all around the stage and the flatform also spun round. Looked really effective.

The next day I had work in the morning, after I finished I wasn't up for anything, I was stuffed. Thursday was another work day and we didn't get up to anything.

Friday was my first official pay day in about 2 months and we went shopping, it was great. I have wanted to go shopping in such a long time. Unfortunately we still had to be careful with how much we spent but both of us ended up going home with a pair of shoes. Mine were for work so not that great but still shopping and when you work 12 hours on your feet, comfort is important (yes Pam it is). Can't wait for the next time!!

Annually Vancouver has a HSBC celebration of light. This is where 4 countries compete with a fireworks display over 4 nights over 2 weeks, eg wed, sat, wed, sat. They have a barge in the middle of English bay, which is off the beach near downtown. Thousands of people camp out having picnics, swimming and playing in the park all around the bay, waiting for the fireworks which start at 10pm. Each display goes for about 30 minutes and are amazing. Normally the countries do there thing on the first few nights and then on the last night they all let of a display. However this time they didn't have a finale, the different counties did their display on different nights. The 4 countries involved were Canada, South Africa, England and China. We happened to go on the last night only, which was China and they won this year. Turns out we picked the right night.

We decided to make a night out of it, pack up a picnic and head to the waterfront around 6pm. We had our cheese and crackers, ham, eggs, potato salad, tomato and caramel cake for dessert while watching the sunset behind the mountains in the distance. It was extremely picturesque, about the 3rd or 4th time we have seen the sunset here. I think its about time for a sunrise. The fireworks were very good, I think these were a little more subtle than some of the other nights but still good especially for the last couple of minutes. We decided to walk home after this as the buses were packed and there was heaps of traffic, turns out we made the right decision, we walked for about 15 mins and never had a bus go past.

Sunday was another warm day, today we headed out to watch the Gay Pride Parade in the gay and lesbian area of town. Turns out Vancouver is very open when it comes to this population. To be honest I was expecting a little more glitz and glam with the parade. They had some floats, people on bikes (some naked), people marching with signs etc, but it wasn't as out there as I was expecting. I think some things freaked me out more than it did for Cam which was surprising hehe. We didn't stay for long and headed home.

First night shifts, movies and Lantern Festival - 20/07/09-26/07/09

2009-07-26T20:05:00.011-07:00

This week was a little less action packed as I begun my night shifts and worked most of the weekdays. So not many interesting things to report.

Monday was a nice warm evening so we went for a walk after dinner to Granville Island, to get a feel for it at night. Its nice looking across the water to all the lights of the city. There are some nice looking restaurants there, we may have to head back one evening.

Tuesday was a half day at work for me, after this we headed into town for a small amount of much needed summer clothes shopping. We can't wait to actually be able to go shopping properly, so much saving time and no spending gets to you in the end, never thought I'd say that. We got tickets to the movies, headed home for dinner and then back into town to see Ice Age 3 in 3D. We both found this hilarious. Both of us laughed most of the way through the movie. There was one point we were in hysterics, I had trouble seeing through the tears streaming down my face. I don't know what it was, but I just think they had more adult jokes placed throughout it. I definitely recommend this to everyone, if you enjoyed the first one.

Due to starting nights on Wednesday (my first 12 hour night) we had a late one the night before and a bit of a sleep in on Weds. Today we headed for a relaxing lunch at Hurricane bar in Yale town. They had beautiful meals, great location, reasonably cheap and the waitress we had was very good. All great components of a great meal out. The one time I don't mind tipping someone. We walked back along false creek towards home and I had a bit of a snooze before starting work.

Night shift went surprisingly well for the first day anyway. Actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. I think I will start to like 12 hours. The only thing is when your working you work, eat and sleep, I feel too tired to do anything else, well things that are energetic anyway.

Friday morning I finished my night shifts and slept till about 2pm. We decided to have a nice night in and watch movies. Picked 2 very different movies. Yes man with Jim Carey was the first movie and this was surprisingly good, even Cam liked it and hes not the biggest fan of Jim. It even had Rhys Darby in it and he was hilarious. If you want to watch a movie that you can have a good laugh in and not have to pay much attention then this is the movie for you. The second movie was completely different, this was Valkyrie, based on the true story of a plot to kill Hitler. This was also quite good in its own way, didn't blow us a way but still worth watching.

Saturday started out to be a really nice day, but ended up with lots of rain, thunder and lightening, which started right before the Illuminati Lantern Festival at Trout Lake Park. This is a festival which happens every year, hundreds of people gather with home made lanterns or anything that glows. There are performers, stalls and lanterns set up all around the lake. There are no lights as such, just the light from the lanterns. We headed over to Alison's house (a lady I just met who has started at the hospital) which was about 10 minutes walk to Trout Lake park. We enjoyed sitting around in the sun drinking mojitos made by Alison and other drinks while chatting the evening away.

The weather started clouding over so we moved onto the covered deck for dinner when it started raining. Along with this came the constant lightening and thunder (apparently something Vancouver never gets), it must have gone on for at least 1-2 hours. The rain wasn't going to stop us though, we all borrowed rain coats off Alison and headed out into the rain. On our way to the festival people were telling us it was cancelled, we decided to continue along for a look anyway as we could hear drums in the distance. Good thing we didn't listen to those people, even though there weren't as many people or lanterns as other years (according to Alison) there were still enough around to get the idea. Initially there were supposed to be fireworks as well, however these were cancelled due to the grass being so dry with the heat Vancouver has been having. It was pretty funny really considering now it was poring with rain. We didn't need fireworks anyway the lightening took care of this. It was beautiful walking around looking at all the neat hand made lanterns and seeing lights glowing in the dark in the distance. Alison had an awesome jellyfish lantern. We ended up reasonably wet, well I wasn't too bad, but worth it.

Sunday (yesterday), yes we are catching up on our blog, was Caribbean day in North Vancouver. We should not have gone to this as now I really want to go a Caribbean place, it looks soooo nice. Definitely think I have to do it one day though. Didn't really get up to much here as it was so hot, must have been around the late 20's/early 30's, only supposed to get hotter next week as well (Another thing that doesn't happen in Vancouver either apparently). We had some traditional Trinidad and Tobago food though, well I went for the chicken curry but Cam had goat curry, wasn't too bad but think we could have found a better stall. Then we sat in the shade and looked out at the ocean drinking smoothies, another relaxing day over.

Whistler, Drinks and Picnics - 13/07/09-19/07/09

2009-07-19T23:16:00.012-07:00

Monday and Tuesday for me were spent at work on study days. Tuesday while at work Cam joined Sarah for a few drinks in town at a Cafe above the Vancouver Art Gallery. What better to do than to spend a beautiful afternoon drinking. I finished my study day early today so headed into town to join them. It was nice sitting out in the sun, listening to music, drinking and talking amongst friends. Sarah's friend joined us toward the end and then the 2 of them headed off for dinner. Cam and I headed off for dinner also, I had been craving Wendy's since I saw it in the first week of arriving in Vancouver, so we decided to have this. We have actually been really good since arriving, we hardly ever have take aways so this was a bit of a treat.

Now Wednesday was an exciting day. Sarah was staying with a friend in North Vancouver who happened to let us borrow her car for the day while she was at work. We took this perfect opportunity to head to Whistler for the day. It just so happened that the weather was perfect, it was beautiful, sunny and extremely hot. So we headed off early in the morning to get the most out of the day, as it takes about an hour and a half to get there. We headed a little past Whistler to Pemberton as Sarah had heard that this was beautiful place to visit. It was a quite, little town in the countryside, surrounded by mountains and the view was beautiful. It reminded me of the movies. There were some beautiful houses in this area. We stopped at a little petrol station/town store/McDonald's and had lunch, its amazing McDonald's is everywhere. Who would of thought you could get a picture in front of McDonald's with huge mountains in the background.

We continued on our journey back towards Whistler and stopped at Nairn Falls. There was a 1.5km walk along the river to the falls. Over 150 million years ago the area was near the shore of a vast ocean. Gradually the earths crust moved upwards and crushed nearby volcanic islands against the shoreline. Further upheavals and other movements of the earth's crust changed this area from a seashore to a mountainous area. The falls were huge and very powerful, it was very beautiful.

Next stop was Whistler, it seems that even on a weekday in the middle of summer there are plenty of people that want to visit Whistler. Still not packed though is was quite nice, we didn't have to wait for anything. We stood around for a little while watching the mountains bikers on their jumps and turns. Now if you were a mountain biker I think this would be an awesome place for you, not really my kind of thing looked pretty exciting but dangerous. So we headed up the gondola towards the summit, the gondola takes you almost to the top but not all the way, you have to get off walk down a small distance and then catch the chair lift to the top. This chair lift is quite steep and in summer all you are looking down at (well mostly), is really sharp rocks. Now the view from up here was very panoramic and beautiful. It was a really nice day but a bit hazy unfortunately as it always seems to be. They have a big monument at the summit called an Inunnguaq commonly mistaken as the Inukshuk. It is a stacked rock in human form which models the Inukshuk as created by the inuit (native) people of Canada's Artic. It was used as a guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time it has become a symbol of hope and friendship across Canada. The Olympics 2010 emblem is an interpretation of this. This spot also seemed very popular for taking photos, with a peak called black tusk in the background.

We had our first sighting, this time it was a chipmunk not that I would have recognised this by looking at it. They are very small and cute. We fooled around up here taking random photos, and repaying favours by taking photos for others, before we headed down the chairlift to go across the peak to peak gondola. The peak to peak gondola connects the incredibly high mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. It is 4.4 kms long and 436 metres above the valley floor. This breaks 3 world records of the longest unsupported span of 3.024 kms, highest lift of its kind at 436 m above and it completes the longest continuous life system on the globe. I thought this was going to be really scary looking at it from the bottom, turns out it wasn't that scary. We were lucky as there were only 5 of us in our gondola and it takes up to 28 people. Some of them have glass bottoms but the wait for them was much longer and we would be stuffed in like sardines with others, so decided to go for extra room instead, turns out you couldn't even stand on the glass. We walked around the top of Blackcomb for a little while and then headed back down the chair lift on this side to the bottom. We had a short walk around the Whistler village before heading on our way home as it was getting a little late. After a petrol stop and dinner time we headed back along the sea to sky highway towards Vancouver.

Along the way we had several stops taking photos of the beautiful scenery as the sun had just gone behind the mountains. It was great to be able to get pictures in the start of the day and then complement these with dusk photos. The lakes and ocean around this area was very stunning. All in all a very long tiring day, but soooo worth it, we had a blast. Thanks Sarah for driving (and thanks to your friend for the car).

The next day was another nice day, we were a bit tired from the previous day so decided to have a relaxing afternoon sitting at Charlson Park, listening to music and admiring the view, before heading home to make mince pies. Turns out you can follow a recipe from good old Edmond's but pies just don't turn out the same. There was something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it, needed just a little more flavour, this is just one small thing I was missing from NZ after 7 weeks of no pies. Guess it'll be good for us in the end haha. Tonight was Sarah's last night in Vancouver and she was staying with us, however I missed her, turns out starting 12 hour shifts can be quite tiring and I had to head to bed before she made it back to ours. That's alright got to wake her bright and early the next morning and say goodbye as I was heading out the door to work.

Saturday we were heading out for the evening to David Lam park for a picnic and outdoor movie. Unfortunately we arrived off the bus with our picnic rug, chairs, chiller bags and backpacks ready for several hours out, and there were hardly any people there. This was a little concerning. Anyway one thing we looked at said the Saturday however these details we set up wrong and the actual day was Sunday. So we ended up having a really nice picnic, in comfort, overlooking false creek watching the cyclists, people and dogs going by while the sun was going down. Turned out great anyway. So as it was a Saturday night and there was now no movie we decided to head out to Cactus club cafe in town for dessert and a drink. I had a really nice peanut butter crunch fudge thingy and Cam had a slice of cheesecake. Normally I don't like cheesecake at restaurants however it seems they know how to make them in Vancouver. To top it off we had a frozen cappuccino martini with vodka, coffee liqueur, creme de cacao and cream whip, which tasted like coffee and alcoholic goodness, it was awesome. Tonight was also another movie/film spotting at the Marine building (a beautiful old building in the centre of Vancouver, which was once one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver). Unfortunately we didn't get any glimpses of stars, this time they actually had the area sealed off, so maybe there were more famous people involved, oh well one day!!

Sunday was another hot sunny day. This called for a swim and laze around at kits beach. I'm actually starting to get a little bit tanned now (even on my legs, thought this would never happen), I guess that's what happens when you go from one summer to another and when the country you move to actually has an ozone layer. Its great to only need sunscreen on once in the day. The water today was actually warm, of course you get the initial cold but once you were under it was really nice. I would say it was about 19 or 20 degrees this day which beats the 16 or 17 it has been. We lay in the sun for a while, listened to music and had a drink before heading home. A nice relaxing day.

Holiday over for one - 06/07/09-12/07/09

2009-07-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

So this week was the start of work and end of my official holiday. If only every day was like the first and I actually got paid for a full day. They eased me into it with a 4 hour generic hospital orientation, then we got to go home. This half day was about policies/procedures, disasters, infection control, human resources and what is available to us from the hospital. The day also included other safety/need to know things. We also had croissants, donuts, fruit platters, pastries and coffee to keep us going for the day which was awesome.

After getting home, then doing the groceries and having dinner we headed off to the Cambie again for drinks with a couple of guys Cam went to school with, Justin and Dave. It was a great evening of a few drinks, catching up on old times (for Cam), discussing Vancouver and watching a bit of sports. We go a month not having people to go out with then 3 nights in a row we catch up with people, it was really great. Turns out I think we have found somewhere that may play the All Blacks games, well they were advertising the tri nations on the TV, so fingers crossed we may get to catch at least one game. We headed home at a reasonably decent time as I had to get up at "normal" time again to head to work for a normal 8 hour day of nursing orientation.

So Tuesday and Wednesday at my new job were about getting to know each other and the leaders within the hospital. We spent a lot of time discussing the values and missions of the hospital, how these related to us and what we wanted/expected of the hospital. It was actually good to write down your ideas, then all the leaders went around the room looking at what our expectations were and what we wanted out of this experience. We spent time talking about different policies and safety. I can't believe how positive the staff seem here, you get a really good vibe being there, lets hope it stays this way. The people that spoke to us seemed to really love working here and it made you feel really positive and wanted. It is encouraging that about 80% of people that spoke to us have been in the organisation for over 20 years without leaving, so maybe we will end up staying longer, who knows. The last half of Wednesday we were shown around our unit, looked at the computer systems, registered for courses and talked about what we wanted to learn from the unit. I always forget how tiring learning is, I was stuffed when I got home.

Thursday was a day off work for me, we slept in for a little while, then headed to be tourists again. This time our destination was Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is located in Chinatown, Vancouver. It was built in 1985-86 to maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. It was built using equipment/materials sent over from China and uses only this equipment. It honors principles and techniques from the Ming dynasty garden, halls and pathways are constructed with precise joinery and without the use of nails, screws or glue. Even though it is a reasonably small-moderate garden there is a lot of story behind the construction of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decided to take the free tour they had on offer which described why everything is constructed in the way it is and how yin and yang have a role in this (feng Sui). I found it very informative, I think if we hadn't done this we would have been in and out in 20 mins or so. It meant that we actually had things in particular to take photos of. There was a piece of embroidery that looks the same on the front as it does on the back, there is no bad side (something I thought you would appreciate Kay). Only thing is you can't really appreciate it properly from the photo.

The garden is set up in a masculine/femine way (yin and yang). For the women it has an outside walk which is set up so that there are two pathways for different times of the day so that she can stay in the shade. It has seats along the side of the pathway which are made uncomfortable to sit on with your back directly against the ledge so you have to sit sideways which is more flattering. These areas have beautiful views of the gardens and water, these areas were used for the scholar to entertain his guests. This particular garden is a scholars garden, scholars worked for the emperor. They built these gardens at their houses outside of the city, they built them away from the city as their the emperors generally changed their mood frequently, one minute you may be his best friend and the next minute he hated you. This was a place to go to do their work away from the emperor. This garden had an area away from the water where the scholar would do his work in peace from the running water and he would have someone playing a musical instrument in the corner while he was working. It was quite interesting the difference in noise from one area to the other just by stepping through a door way in the walls around the garden. Overall this was much better than I was expecting from when we first entered.

After leaving the garden we walked past the guiness book of records worlds skinniest building. It goes from the red part of the building to the dark blue, the lighter blue stripe on the left hand side is a different building. We were shown this on our sins of the city tour.

Friday was another day off for me. We decided to go for another walk today through Stanley Park, there are so many different walks around the area, we still haven't managed to get around them all. We headed off to find Lumberman's Arch which we though we were near when we were last walking around the area however we couldn't find it. This time we found it and it was right next to where we had been before but was obscured by trees from our direction, easy to miss. Lumberman's Arch is the site where 2 squamish nations log houses were situated at one point in history. It is a basically a huge arch made from a tree trunk. It was home of Khwaykhway a major village and gathering place. It was such a hot day we decided to sit in the shade and have an ice block.

After this we headed into Stanley Park and headed towards Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake is currently changing from a lake to a bog which may eventually become a meadow and then a forest ecosystem. There is a decreased amount of incoming water, increased amounts of sediments and incomplete decomposed plant material which is accumulating on the lake bottom, this is making the lake decrease in size. Lillies were introduced to the lake and are now overtaking which has slightly increased the rate which Beaver Lake is transitioning from a lake to a bog. The area around the lake is home to many Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Sundews (a carnivorous plant) and flying squirrels. Well actually they don't fly but are called this as they jump from tree to tree, jumping gaps up to 58m wide. We did see some but not jumping. From here we headed along Stanley Park seawall and back home, another beautiful, hot, sunny day.

Just a random photo we took on our way, a 2 ways over bridge accross the road with designated lanes, weird.

Saturday and Sunday we my first 2 12hour days at work. We were straight into it you don't get any days off here, on my first day we had 3 reasonably complex patients. However it was good for me as these 3 patients were similar to what I have looked after in New Zealand, which was helpful. It helps having nursed before as things are very different over here, so its nice to have the general nursing processes sorted, then I just have to adapt to the way things are done over here, what I am or aren't allowed to do, different paper work and of course the different medication names. I guess something I will get used to eventually, though it makes you feel like a brand new nurse again. The other thing I find difficult is the accent, its so frustrating. Its hard to believe that we all speak English but it can be so different. I really feel for people now that go to a different country where they speak a different language. Its even had with the different names for things eg: torch=flashlight, nappy=diaper, plaster=bandaid. Oh I can't forget loo, but they just don't even know what that means hehe. We didn't end up doing anything these evenings after work as I was stuffed, I think 12 hour shifts will mean work, eat and sleep. Activities will have to wait for days off I think.

Richmond, Botanical Gardens, Vancouver Lookout and CANADA DAY!

2009-07-05T17:46:00.019-07:00

On Monday we realised that our 2 zone bus pass expired in a few days. We decided to make the most of it and have a trip down to Richmond. Richmond is a City just south of Vancouver, it has a large shopping centre, a Buddhist temple... and not much else that we could find.

We headed straight to the Buddhist temple. Its a nice garden and buildings modelled on the Forbidden City. It was really nice but similar to temples we had seen in Thailand not that long ago. It didn't take us too long to put a tick in that box. From there we headed back to Richmond Centre which is a massive shopping centre - and also the main bus terminal in Richmond. After a couple of hours wandering round the mall we had had a nice lunch in the food court, found Rach a new earring butterfly and found Rach some clothes for her first week at work (which was getting close fast). After wandering malls and gardens all day we were stuffed and our feet were sore so that was all we could manage that day.

On Tuesday we carried on with the garden theme and went out to UBC to see their botanical gardens. Given that we had to pay admission, I'd have to say I was a little disappointed. It wasn't hugely expensive, but it wasn't a huge garden either. To be honest, Hamilton Gardens are better and free. After that we wandered around the coast starting at Wreck Beach... Vancouver's "clothing optional" beach. Based on my experiences at most European beaches, you only see things that you really didn't want to. It was hard work, despite keeping our eye's on the ground right in front of us we were slipping on rocks the whole way around the beach and Rach got some massive blisters as evidence of the pain we went through. Here's a look at the mission/walk:
It took a lot out of us so we headed home after that to put our feet up.

Wednesday was a big day... it was Canada Day! We started the day down at Granville Island. The place was crazy, people were everywhere and the atmosphere was fantastic. We wandered the stalls and watched the performers before grabbing ourselves a spot for the parade. It was just a small parade, only took about 15 minutes to pass but it was really well done with a lot of effort put in by most participants. After the parade they had speeches and the National Anthem on a stage in a park on Granville Island. I think everyone there had goose bumps after the anthem, it was really nice to see everyone so passionate about their country.

After Granville Island we headed into town to catch the celebrations there. They had four areas setup with stalls, stages and hundreds of people! We had a small brush with fame here too, at the main stage we stopped for a quick bite and sat right next to where Elise Estrada walked past. Unfortunately we didn't have cameras ready and we didn't know who she was. After that excitement wound down we wandered up Thurlow St to grab a spot for the day's second parade. This parade was fantastic! It went on for ages and finished with what was basically a street party. We left the party and headed to the conference centre to hold a good spot for the much anticipated fireworks display. We got a fantastic spot, right on the water only about 100m from where the fireworks were being fired from. We had a bit of time to kill while we waited for the display to start so we took some great photos of the sun going down over Stanley Park. After the sun was gone, we took some more fantastic photos of the fireworks.

Canada Day was fantastic. It's such a good thing to get everyone outside together just celebrating their country. I really think New Zealand should do the same, the only thing NZ has that compares to these celebrations is New Years.

We got home late after the Canada Day celebrations so took it easy on Thursday.

On Friday we packed a picnic and went to second beach. We had a nice afternoon sitting on the beach watching the world go by. We packed up early and headed home because we wanted to catch Transformers 2 that night. We had grabbed our tickets on our way to the beach, which was lucky because it was insanely busy. We got to the theatre about 20 minutes before it started... and we were lucky to find two seats together. It was a nice evening but the movie was disappointing. It was like an 80's movie had been made with modern CG effects - which i guess it is in a way, shame the story line was of that era too.

Saturday was a fantastic day, one of the best since we've been here. We started the day with nothing planned so decided to make the most of the good weather and go up Vancouver Lookout. Unfortunately it wasn't as clearer day as Friday had been, a bit of a haze had rolled in. It was still a good day and an amazing view from up there. While we were up there we got a txt from Sarah who had flown in from NZ on Friday on her way through. She was at Kits beach and invited us to join her. So once we were done up the lookout we headed there. She had already spent a few hours there when we eventually arrived so they were starting to pack up. Instead we went round to Marie's place - she was a friend of Sarah's from when Sarah lived here. Marie was lovely we attempted to make burgers while drinking Sangria. The burgers were a small disaster but it was still a really nice evening. After dinner we tagged along with our new found friends to catch some of the Vancouver Jazz Fest... unfortunately we arrived half way through the last song. Instead Rach and I headed back to Vancouver Lookout to see the city at night. It was surprisingly different and I'm glad we made the trip back there.

Sunday was a day we'd been looking forward to for a while. We had heard good reviews for the local Les Miserables production so we grab a couple of tickets a few weeks earlier. We were not disappointed. It was a fantastic production and so well done. They've extended their production another couple of weeks because of the demand so we're obviously not the only ones that were impressed by it. After we got out of the theatre we headed back to the park to try again at catching the Vancouver Jazz Fest.

We meet Sarah there this evening and had another good catch up with her. Its so weird catching up with another Kiwi on the other side of the world. The music was quite different this night and wasn't really do it for either of us so we headed home early so Rach could get a good sleep for work the next morning.

Vancouver "Holiday" still.. 22/06/09-28/06/09

2009-06-28T21:38:00.036-07:00

This week was mostly cruisy well in some respect. We had a few relaxing days but the few days we did do things were quite tough.

Monday we headed to Yaletown to have a look. Yaletown is an old brick-warehouse district in Vancouver which has been changed into apartments, swanky bars and cafes, and boutiques. This is where people come to be seen, especially at night when bars are often packed with designers and visiting celebs. It still shows some of its industrial past with railway lines remaining on the roads. Today was a bit of a cloudy and threatening to rain day which was a bit cooler so we stopped off in one of Yaletowns cafes for a coffee and waited to try and spot some celebrities. Unfortunately none were out this day. One day I keep telling myself, one day. I will continue to wave at all limousines that drive past me in the hope that one day Robin Williams will stop and jump out to say Hello. After a little walk through Yaletown which isn't that big we headed for a walk along False Creek not to do anything in particular other than to walk, we did however spot a seal in the water, it took us a while to be convinced it was one as no one else seemed to take notice, after a while of watching an waiting for him to pop up again we finally got photographic evidence.

This evening we went for a walk just around the road to an extremely rich area. It is a hugh one way round about street filled with really old mansions. Most only seemed to have one or two people in them and a small light on in one small part of the house, seems like such a waste that would be awesome for a family.

Tuesday was a tough day. We decided to head to North Vancouver and do the Grouse Grind. Now for sain people you can catch the gondola up the mountain but we decided to walk/hike, along with many other people that day, and to add to the amount of people who have already done it. I have climbed a few mountains or hills before and have done the Tongariro crossing but this hike it truly tough. Its a 3km walk which no doesn't sound far but make that 3km walk climbing 853 metres at an average grade of 30 degrees and it now appears much harder. I think if I had read that before hand I may have thought twice about it hehe. It took us 1 hour 40 mins which I thought was a good effort considering they say it takes about 2 hours for a novice hiker, not just walker but hiker. The fastest official times were set in 2007 for both men and women in the official Grind mountain run event, but the overall unofficial record was set in 2004 by Jonathan Wyatt a New Zealander, his time was 24 mins 22 secs. Now I have no idea how this is possible, stuff that.

Now half way up you think why the heck am I doing this and once you get to the top you get to find out why, the view from up here was amazing, unfortunately a bit of a hazy day but still beautiful. A little tip from normally one of the most prepared people I know remember to take a jersey as even though you are freakin hot when you get up there, it soon gets extremely cold, especially when there are still small amounts ice/snow up the top (in the middle of summer might I add) and you are 1128m high.

While up Grouse mountain there are also many things to do and see, once again we opted for the free options which were actually really good. We watched a lumberjacks show which had the former fastest tree climber in it, quite humorous. Then we watched the birds of prey show featuring eagle, turkey vulture, owl and the famous peregrine falcon. This show even had a touch of Kiwi in saying the turkey vulture and the kiwi were the only 2 birds that use there sense of smell to find foods (this is debated however). Then we visited the bear enclosure which has 2 grizzly bears. There are also chair lifts up higher, helicopter rides, zip lines across mountain tops and tandem parachuting but all of these cost money so maybe another time. After we had finished up here we headed back down on the sky ride to the bottom for only $5 compared to $25 if you don't do the grouse grind so I guess another positive for the climb.

Wednesday was another work day for me as I headed into the hospital to sort out my roster for end of September through October. Also a buy some scrubs day. All around not a very interesting day but necessary.

Thursday was a yuck cold and rainy day so we decided to hang around at home. Nothing else to report really.

Friday I headed to the HR office to fill out some forms for work before we headed out for the afternoon to the Police museum and for the 'Sins of the City' tour. The police museum was very interesting, showing some old police uniforms, signal boxes, and boards talking about the history of police in Vancouver. It also had sections on drugs found through Vancouver, counterfeit money, guns and various home made weapons confiscated from civilians some of these were really gruesome looking, its amazing what people come up with. Then you went thought to the old morgue and autopsy room which was very interesting, a little disturbing and a bit yuck/gruesome. Built back in 1932 this building was built as the Coroner's Court and City Analyst's Laboratory. The coroners facility was moved in 1980 to Vancouver general hospital and this became a film location between 1980-1986. The analysts lab was last used in 1995 at this site. The morgue area had actual stories in Vancouver about robberies, murders and a family killing. Some of these cases were solved but some weren't, I can't believe they actually had real photos from the houses where the killings took place it was a bit airy and weird.

Then for the even weirder part: The autopsy room which was equipped with silver body beds, tools that used to be used for autopsies, and then there were the body parts that had been inspected during an autopsy being preserved. These had descriptions next to them of what they show, this was a bit yuck but also very interesting.

After this we headed out on our 'Sins of the city tour' this is a tour around the oldest parts of Vancouver. Check out the sins of the city link to see a video on the tour. There were only 3 of us on this particular tour so made it very intimate. We learned about the prostitution, alcohol and drug history of the city. Along with this we were told about the general idea of how Vancouver came about and the racial and labour tension, particularly against the Japanese and Chinese for different reasons. I found this particular tour very interesting, we walked across one of the bad street here a couple of times. The guide told us that sometimes he has homeless people that come up and ask if they are talking about them, he tells them no I'm talking about the history of the city, sometimes he said they stick around to listen as they find it interesting. I would recommend this tour to others if you come to visit.

This mosaic was put here to commererate the racism and riots in 1907 against the Chinese and Japanese. It is depicting a stick breaking windows which happened in "Japtown" and Chinatown in 1907. This mosaic is on Alexander Street in Vancouver. It says Noodle House on it.

Today (Saturday) was an opening day of one of the completed sections/stops of the new Canada line (train from Vancouver airport to the city), due to open early September and for the Olympics. This was at Oakridge center, we headed down to the new train to have a walk on it, got free juice, walked around the mall there, and sat down to listen to music. Then after this we headed to central park to have a walk around, through the forest and around a couple of small lakes. We then caught the sky train home for dinner. After this we went out for another dessert at a different just dessert and coffee shop. Apparently the death by chocolate restaurant franchise was developed in New Zealand in 1991. Unfortunately I wasn't too impressed with mine and had better at the cheesecake shop down the road, but Cam liked his. May just have to try something different, my expectations for Baked Alaska were quite high as I have tried some nice ones back in NZ, thought this would compare if not be better considering we are close to Alaska hehe.

Sunday was another relaxing day of rest to end the week.

Vancouver "Holiday": 15/06/09-21/06/09

2009-06-21T23:10:00.035-07:00

Monday we ventured back to Granville Island to find our way around and learn about the place without the crowds, turns out its a bigger area than I thought. There are some really cool shops around here, ideal for gifts and souvenirs. Also ideal if you would like to spend $55,000 on a rock sculpture, this was the most expensive however for a bargain you could get a smaller one. Its very green in this city, we stopped for a cold drink and most things you find are organic, also our smoothies were served in a cup with a straw made out of corn, which I thought was quite interesting, making them both biodegradable. Keep and eye out in most places you go for recycle bins. Granville Island also tends to have many buskers, the guy today could do a particularly cool trick of putting a partially blown up animal balloon down his nose and out his mouth, actually quite yuck if you ask me.

Tuesday was yet another park visit, this time to Queen Elizabeth Park, we had been told you could get beautiful views of the city from here, apparently that is correct. This park has 2 quarry gardens whatever that means, one bigger than the other. We walked around admiring the gardens, bridges and water feature before taking some nice pictures of the city, unfortunately today was a bit overcast and hazy therefore the photos aren't as good as they could be. After this we headed to the golf course for a little pitch and putt, I remember now why I haven't played that often, its really hard to get a pitching wedge to actually pitch, so I decided to putt from the rough. Cam however didn't seem to find this as difficult. Plus you can only do 18 holes so can get frustrating if your not very good, still fun though.

Wednesday was a quiet day can't really remember what happened this day, I know I did some baking, boring really.

Thursday was quite exciting really, we decided to go on another walk, this time to Seymour Conservation Reserve, there were just bears at this place apparently. This is out near Lynn Valley one of our other walks however slightly further, and once again another park you could not explore in one day. I think the furthest you could walk was about 12kms one way and that was from one end to the other. Not including all the side trails you could do. We walked about 13kms this day, to view our walk click here.

After stopping by the trout fishing lake (where they periodically release new catchable trout into the lake from the hatchery up the road), we headed on our walk along a traffic like road, however no cars drive on this. It is only for walkers, cyclists, strollers and roller bladers. It was really quiet and weird, an empty road winding through the forest with random people on it every now and then. This road kept going for about another 6kms and we had already walked 6kms so if we went all the way we would have had to walk 24kms, we decided 12kms would be enough for today. We headed off on another path and back along the Seymour River to the start.

We spend over a week in LA and don't see anything even slightly related to stardom, and then we go walking way out in the bush in Vancouver and stumble across filming on one of the public tracks. We're yet to figure out what they were filming for, apparently they were filming US coastguard (this is what they tell us) but we have googled that and can't find it anywhere, so who knows. We'll keep you posted. They even asked us to hang out with them until they had shot a small section and showed us what they were doing on their screens. It was all very exciting, however a little bit of a blur now. I guess they call it North Hollywood for a reason. It appears they have shot a few things out there such as X-files, MacGyver and RV just to name a few.

After our brush with fame we stumbled across an amazing view where we stopped for a snack, why would they not want to film movies here. This area was also where the film base was, unfortunately we didn't see anyone famous we knew. We headed along the river in the bushes and then finished off our walk with an extremely steep climb for about 1km, I think probably the steepest you could go without stairs, I guess we had, had it easy the rest of the walk. Overall a really nice day and walk.

Friday was a cruisy day really, we had a well earned sleep in and then headed into town to visit Gastown. Quite a well known tourist area in Vancouver, not sure why it took us this long to get here, I think it may have had something to do with the fact it is right next to the dodgy area and not being familiar with the area we didn't want to venture near it. Turns out Gastown and Chinatown are near the dodgy area but if you stay away from Hastings street and visit them in the day you will be fine. Gastown became the first "town" area, after the arrival of alcohol bought here by "Gassy Jack", well this is the short story, to see more click the link above. The main attraction in this area is the steam clock. Built by Raymond Saunders, steam winds the weights and blows the whistlers. For more information on this click here (too hard for me to write it all here).

After this we went for another walk through the city, this time to a new area along Denman street and up Davie Street, this area is the west end and has a substantial gay population living in this area. One particular pub had a guy wearing a cowboy hat and then I noticed that there were actually only guys in this pub. Seems like a nice area though, friendly people and really busy. We had been recommended the Cambie pub by Sarah so decided to check it out, I must admit we saw the place from the outside and were just about to leave, it just looked a little dodgy and not quite the place I would like to go. I don't think I would have ever considered it, if it hadn't been recommended. Apparently first impressions aren't always correct it was like a real mans pub inside and did seem a little rough but the place definitely grew on us. Loud music, pool, TV's with sport on everywhere and a lively feel to the place. Think we will prob go back here at some point.

A few drinks later we headed home for dinner, however the first dinner I made was crap and I think the first time I have ever thrown a dinner out. So we had second dinner which was so much better. After this it was time for Cheesecake, there is an awesome shop down the road that just sells homemade cheesecake, hot drinks and cold drinks called cheesecake etc., and its non baked cheesecake, even better! (something for you Jacki). Its a really cute little shop that only opens late at night, its purely candle lit (except for the fridge) and they have music playing. I think live music normally as they have a piano there but no one played for us this night. I'm sure we will be back though. Finally we talk a walk along Granville Bridge to take a photo of the city at night, it looks really beautiful with all the lights and water around.

We couldn't decide what to do today, tossed up between the Scandinavian day or dragon boat racing, however ended up buying tickets to the Canadians (Vancouver) baseball game against the Everett Aquasox from Washington for that night instead. We decided to give these other 2 things a miss and do boring grocery shopping instead. For those of you who have done grocery shopping and then had to carry all your bags on the bus home, its a bitch and I think we have now found out you don't do this on a Saturday. May have to get one of those nanna bags that you pull along on wheels but just don't know if I can bring myself to use one hehe. Unfortunately our nearest grocery store is 4 normal blocks North and 2 Tobi blocks East (about 4-5 large blocks normal people size). From the bus to our apartment is about the only time I wish I have a car.

Anyway enough boring grocery talk and on to the exciting stuff. Our FIRST Baseball game at Nat Bailey Stadium, and to make it better it turned out to be a sold out game and the first of the season. The stadium holds 5182 people, it is a smaller than others as the Vancouver team is in the minor league, but still just as fun and just like the movies. There was a brass band playing outside, people in the isles offering beer and hotdogs, mascots, singing of the national anthems by a 5 year old (which we didn't know), and chants through the crowd. Half way through the mascot and some kids stood on the side of the field and made the crowd get up and sing the Baseball game song and do exercises it was funny, but the crowd participation was amazing just about everyone got involved. Unfortunately the Canadians didn't win this day but did win the other 2 games against the Everett Aquasox. Still a very fun evening for us. Oh also being the first game of the season they had fireworks at the end, turns out they do this every Saturday game. They were very good but after Disneyland not quite the same, as this time we had a streaker who ran across the field with the fireworks in the background and did a running dive across the plate, it was awesome!! Definately think I could become a fan of this sport, very entertaining.

Sunday was a cruisy day walking down the street for Greek Day. Another blocking of the street from cars and enjoying music, shopping and the most of all food. It was a shame we had already had lunch this day as the food looked and smelt beautiful. Basically chicken and beef on sticks, bread and these dough balls deep fried and drizzled with honey and cinnamon called loukoumades (they looked good). Really good turn out here also, was hard to make your way through the crowds. We entered in a draw to win a trip to Greece but unfortunately didn't win, oh well maybe next competition. Anyway weather was getting a bit crap, yes our first cold day here which actually looked like it was going to rain, so we headed home for hot chocolates and a movie marathon. Nothing like watching several movies in a row on a crap day and going to bed at 2am on a Sunday night has you have no work tomorrow. Sorry guys I'll be working soon so won't be able to gloat. The end of another action packed week in Vancouver.

Our Vancouver "Holiday" Continues 8/6/2009-14/6/2009

2009-06-14T16:56:00.016-07:00

We took a small break from our holiday on Monday. Rach had a visit to her new job and I spend a couple of hours applying for jobs. We were like normal people for a bit.

On Tuesday we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a well timed visit because they had a Beluga baby born on Sunday. Unfortunately this also meant that they weren't letting people to close to their environment so they can bond. We got a few photos from the side but we need to go back so we can see from the underwater viewing area. The Aquarium was good, we were a little disappointed with the outside areas. They were smaller than we expected and really only three animals. They made up for it with their indoor exhibits. They had a nice range of animals and good informative displays - its all about education!

Wednesday was a quiet one. We went in to town to do a few things and I applied for another job or two.

Thursday we walked MILES. We headed down to False Creek with plans to head round to Kits Beach. We go to Kits and thought we've "come this far, so thought we might as well keep on going'. So we ended up at Jericho Beach, all 10kms of walking. It was really nice there and we'll we were there we noticed a bald eagle circling above - we'd learned about them on Tuesday at the Aquarium.

On Friday we needed a rest. We laxed around home and did a few jobs then headed to the pub, it was a Friday night after all. We started at the Frog and Firken, it was great, we sat at the bar and had a couple of drinks while watching the Stanley Cup final. After that we wandered down the Earls for a nice dinner, the place was packed because of the Stanley Cup final. It was a nice meal so we might have to go back there next time we feel rich. After dinner we headed into town hoping to find some live music... we wandered Granville Street and tried a few places, nothing had what we wanted so we headed home. We've done more research since then so we'll try a few more places next time.

Luckily we didn't have enough to drink Friday night so we weren't hungover on Saturday so headed to Lighthouse Park. It's a nice small park with some beautiful post card Canadian coastline. Its amazing how far from the city we seem to be able to get on a city bus.

Sunday was a great day so we headed to the Main St Car Free Day. It's exactly what it sounds like, its a day on main st when cars are blocked off. There was a great turn out and the weather was perfect. We spent a couple of hours wandering the street visiting the stalls. Vancouver is great for always having something on to see and do - this is a great example.

Vancouver 1/06/09-7/06/09

2009-06-07T17:57:00.001-07:00

Our first week in Vancouver continued with beautiful and hot weather contradictory to what we had heard about Vancouver. Aparently they were having a particularly hot spell at the moment. Along with this came our first sighting of a squirrel, right outside our apartment.

Monday Bob (the guy who organised the apartment etc) picked us up and took us to get our social insurance number (equivillent to IRD number) and to get a bank account. He also took us for a tour around our area, showed us some tourist things in town and showed us what areas were dodgy in town including where we had been the day before. After this he drove us around Stanley Park, across the Lions Gate bridge and some way up Mt Cypress to look at the view over the city. Unfortunately I had my camera with me, but the battery was still in the charger from the night before, gutted. Oh well I'm sure we will be back up there again.

Tuesday was a rest day and then we were back into the tourist scene again on Wednesday. Today we hired a tandem bike and rode around Stanley Park. It was a bit of a shaky start but by about a third of the way around we had it under control. Its so weird being on a bike and not being able to steer, also weird not really being able to see where you are going when you have someone in front of you, scary to begin with. Cam drove all the way, well actually I tried steering about half way around however we nearly ended up in the bush so decided that Cam would continue.

Anyway we started our trip visiting the totem poles. These are the mosted visited tourist attraction in British Columbia. The totem was the British Columbia Indians coat of arms, they are unique to the North West Coast of British Columbia and Lower Alaska. Each carving tells of a real or mythical event and each carving on each pole has a meaning. After this we headed along the seawall past the Lions gate bridge and lighthouse, past third beach and second beach to the lost lagoon, the lagoon used to fill with water from Coal Harbour in the early 1900's, then a causeway was built causing the lagoon to be constant fresh water pond.

We returned our bikes and then went back to Stanley park to walk around a little. We ended up finding Brockton Oval where they play cricket and rugby with a beautiful view, yeah who knew. I'm told it doesn't get used too often. We walked down some of the other tracks around the park and then headed home. Have to save the rest of Stanley Park for another day, it is such a huge area, hard to believe it is right by the city.

Thursday we decided to be people that actually lived in the city and headed to the movies. We went to see UP 3D. This is a good movie, however quite sad, think I cried about 3-4 times, more than The Lion King and Finding Nemo. It was awesome in 3D, this was the first movie I had ever seen 3D. We also ended up getting free tickets for another movie as the lights came on and the sound stopped for about 5 mins, we did end up missing this part of the movie but it was made worth while at the end. After this we jumped on one of the sky trains to have a look around.

Friday was another park walking day. We caught the seabus across to North Vancouver and then the bus to Lynn Canyon. Lynn Canyon is a rainforest area surrounding Lynn Creek. It has a suspension bridge and is 250 hectares. So after reading the warning signs about bears and cougars in the area we headed off for our walk. We crossed the suspension bridge, unfortunately the signs said you couldn't jump or run on the bridge, luckily there were too many visitors to tempt us. We headed down to Twin Falls and back to the start, after a stop for lunch and walk around the ecology centre where we found a pamphlet on what to do if you come across a bear (purhaps something we should of had before hand), we were off again on another walk. This time we stayed on this side of the creek and headed toward pipeline bridge. Named this as it had a pipeline running beside it, the bridge was nothing to rave about but was extremely high above the creek. We headed across it anyway and down some more tracks to 30 foot pool, I'm guessing it was called this as at one point it was 30 feet?? Not to sure but there were silly people jumping off the rock into a small area of water. The surrounding area wasn't that deep and it definately wasn't that wide. Finally we headed back and across the suspension bridge again, this time not so crowded so we had some time to take some photos. A really nice setting once again, and the water is so clear. This evening we ended up at the Crepe Cafe for a second dinner as leftovers weren't quite enough, this is yum food and reasonably priced think we'll have to go back here again.

Saturday was a cruisy day at Granville Island. Granville Island is underneith the Granville Bridge, and no its not actually an Island, it connects to the land and is mostly surrounded by false creek. Is used to be an industrial penninsular but is now full with restaurants, bars, theatres and artisan businesses. Along with this is the public market full with stalls selling, cheese, bakery stuff, meat, vegies and many other specialty foods. It appears on the weekends in summer it is really busy, we faught our way through the crowds to get out fruit and veges for the next couple of weeks and then attempted to look around, after a while of carrying heavy bags we hung around looking for a table to sit at to eat lunch, this turned out to be quite difficult, but we got one in the end. We decided to come back here another day for a better look around with less people so we knew where to go when it was busy again.

Sunday was another cruisy day, we headed to Metrotown on the sky train. Metrotown is a huge shopping complex, I will definately have to come back here once I get paid and have plenty of money to do some shopping. This place is huge, about the size of silvia park but 2 stores of it. We just wondered round being tourists dreaming about the things we would like to buy, and actually looking for a hair cutter for Cam, what a mission this turned out to be, it was very frustrating, turns out you find them at the London drug store, yes thats right who would have thought. It surprises me how many shops here have drug in there title, like shoppers drug mart, and you can find all sorts of things in these shops. Anyway nothing much else to say about this day.

Vancouver - First Weekend

2009-05-31T20:55:00.001-07:00

So arriving in Vancouver was sooooo relaxing after the crap departure we had from LAX. The easiest part surprisingly was security, give me this any day over dealing with United airlines. This was the most frustrating and long experience I have ever had at an airport, mix this with not enough staff, people running late for flights and stress and you get Chaos. Anyway so you wait ages for a lady (only nice person here) to talk you through the system which prints off your bag tags, then you wait another 10mins for someone to come and tag your bag, at this point he tells you they are too heavy saying each needed to be 50Lbs contradictory to the several times you had checked with the travel agent that it could be a combined weight. So after repacking to get within the weights we stood in the cue again that was 3 times as long now, finally got our bags tagged but then had to wait 15mins for a different person to check your passport, then you could precede to security. Moral of the story, don't fly with United airlines they are rubbish.

Once getting through the friendly, smiling security that welcomed you with a good attempt of Kia ora, it felt like we were in a different place, the people over this side were so relaxed, friendly and helpful it was amazing. We sat down with half an hour before boarding and had a well earned coffee (semi real coffee also). You would not believe how good this felt after an early 4.30am start and extremely stressful check in.

We managed to get the exit seats in our small jet plane which was awesome as we had extra leg room. We had to read the safety booklet and verbally say that yes we could do all of the things the safety booklet wanted from us in an emergency, weird had never had to do this before. Turns out we didn't have to use it thankfully. We were very lucky with the weather this day, the view from the plane and into Vancouver was beautiful on this clear, sunny day. I didn't get to quite see it all as I slept for some of it, luckily Cam was there.

Arriving at Vancouver airport we had to head to the immigration area to collect our visas, we were at the front of the line and only 2 of 3 people here, according to the one other person behind us, this is very rare. What a change from LAX the people here were very friendly and joking around. Only one hick up, the officer couldn't find one of my papers on the system, wasn't quite sure why she wouldn't look for 6ordan, pretty close to my surname I thought, it appeared they had spelt my name wrong. So after collecting our visas we headed to collect our luggage, this appeared to be an easy step as our luggage was the only stuff going around on the conveyor belt very unusual. Outside we were meet by Bob who had arranged our apartment and took us there. We were given a few groceries and shown around the apartment, before being left to ourselves. Today we had a short walk around the area, checked out our apartment and caught up on a few emails as we were too tired for anything else.

View from our apartment to the East.

Our second day in Vancouver was a 12km walk around Vancouver city and surrounding areas. First we headed along False Creek toward the East side of the city. I still can't believe how many parks and grassed areas there are in this city, it just looks beautiful everywhere you go. Well especially the weather we have had the past 2 days, sunny both days and about 25-30 degrees. Anyway we headed along False Creek, across the Cambie Street bridge and toward BC and GM place. BC place is home to the BC Lions, Vancouver's Football team and GM place is home to the Canucks, Vancouver's Ice Hockey team. Also good places to find as these are where most of the concerts are held. I can't believe how much will power I have had, from now to August there are about 6 concerts I would see, including: ACDC, Greenday, Aerosmith, Blink 182 with supporting guests All American Rejects and Coldplay. Lucky we don't have enough money to buy all of these.

After this we walked through town to find Robson Street one of Vancouver's famous shopping streets. Unfortunately we managed to find one of the most dodgy areas of Vancouver on our way, it was amazing how you could be walking along in a nice area and then cross a road be on the same street and there were people crowded round in alleyways doing who knows what and weird people talking to themselves and asking for money, I wanted to get out of there and quick. So we made it to Robson street walked down here just window shopping of course, till we start work and have money to spend, on our way to Stanley Park. Stanley Park park is just a short walk from downtown and is 1000 acres of walkways, picnic spots, sports parks, cafes and forest areas. From Stanley park on your way round you have views to the city centre, across to North and West Vancouver, out across the harbour, and across to the west of Vancouver. We only walked a short way around here today as it was, hot and we had been walking for a while. We headed back along the waterfront to Canada Place, where the convention centre is and where cruise ships dock. After this we headed home via bus this time, to finally sit down and relax.

LA Holiday - Disneyland

2009-05-29T20:07:00.024-07:00

So we had 3 mammoth days (Tues 26th, Thurs 28th and Fri 29th May) at Disneyland and California Park which were awesome. California Park is the newest addition to The Walt Disney Company, it opened in 2001, right across from Disneyland. I would recommend for any one going to these parks that you should have at least 3 days here, with only 2 of us I think this was a perfect amount of time. I would imagine if you had more people that you would need more time here. So our first day on the Tuesday was completely at Disneyland. It was a long 13 hour day. Just a hint to anyone planning on going to Disneyland make sure you utilise the fast pass that they have for certain rides, it is FREE, and helps you to get to rides quicker. Wish we had know this for the first day. There is only one catch you can only have one fast pass at a time.

Anyway back to the fun of Disneyland!! First stop was Tomorrow land for an inside roller coaster adventure and Shooting Z's (literally) at the Buzz light year ride, this was really cool the first interactive ride I have been on and worth it. You sit in the ride and shoot at the Z's with your gun to earn points, shame I couldn't beat Cam no matter how hard I tried, silly boys always better at those sort of things. Also at the end they had a computer that you could send your picture they took of you with your game faces on, to your email (really cool). We didn't even know it had been taken.

The teacups were one of the must do's as Cam hadn't been here before and surprisingly I enjoyed them. All I remember from last time was that they were slow and hard to move. So with my expectations low we boarded the teacups, perhaps last time was preparing me for this time. Turns out this time they seemed easier to turn and not so slow after all, don't know how fast everyone else was going as we could hardly see them as we spun furiously around. Maybe it was the energy Cam had gained from all the cotton candy.

These twirling adventures called for some slower rides, so we decided to have a trip on the story book boat and the famous "its a small world after all" ride. This was actually really well done, it has recently been refurbished and now features a small touch of Kiwi in it, which was really exciting. I think we ended up going on pretty much every ride this first day in Disneyland, we thought we would go hard one day in each park and then relax on our final day which was lucky as this day happened to be the busiest day of all.

Wednesday evening we decided to relax again for the day as the bus to Medieval times picked us up at 4.50pm and kind of ruined any plans to go to a theme park. We did a little shopping, 2 pairs of sketchers later (second pair half price, who could resist) we headed home before heading out for our dinner and show at Medieval Times. It was a tough choice between this show and a pirate show but due to recommendations we went with this one. It was good but I would say I have seen better. The meal however was awesome, no utensils necessary and half a chicken later there was a mess everywhere. The show was well done with jousting and other medieval games and stunts, except our silly knight didn't follow through with our expectations and fell to another component.

Thursday began as a magic morning at Disneyland. A magic morning means you get to enter the park, with other people of course, an hour before the park opens. We decided to go here first today, then switch over to California Park at 10am when it opened for the day. Turns out we picked the best day to do this as it was very quiet for Disneyland standards, we waited for one particular ride for 40mins, other than this 20 mins was the longest we ever waited, it was awesome.

Just a few fun photos:

California park is quite different to Disneyland I thought, has similar shows and the same happy feeling about it but its just different. The themes and rides are different. I get the feeling this is aimed more toward older children and adults. I found the rides were more generic and less Disney, but I still liked them. Plus they produced more adrenalin than Disneyland rides. I had 2 favourite rides here including the Hollywood Tower Hotel and the Toy story rides. Both very different to what I have experienced before and I think this was the reason I like them the most. The Hollywood Tower is awesome, however if you don't like elevators that work properly then I don't recommend this ride. The toy story is another interactive ride where you wear 3D glasses and play 5 different games along the way also very cool. This was the ride with the longest wait time, well worth it though.

Tonight we watched the Disney parade. This sort of fun entertainment really is what makes this place "the happiest place on earth". You get to sing and dance in the streets and get to see all your favourite Disney characters, my kind of party. I don't think anyone could stand here and watch this and not feel happy. Today we also got to meet Mickey it really was a magic day.

For our final day in Disneyland and Los Angeles we just cruised around, going on a few things we hadn't done, going on rides we enjoyed again and taking more photos. We had lunch at a restaurant that we had to book the day before, turns out it was very popular. It is in the dark with candle light only, it also happens to be the scene for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. So your sitting there eating while people are drifting past in boats on a ride. Such a good idea. Finally tonight we set aside for seeing the fireworks display, we had seen it several times on the balcony of our hotel, but tonight we got to actually witnessed the storyline of the fireworks. They were very well done. Disneyland opened till 12am this night however we left about 10/10.30ish as we had to get up at 4.30 am for our flight to Vancouver.

All in all this was a tiring, busy, fun and exciting holiday. Just how it should be on holiday I guess, getting the best out of the time you have there.

LA Holiday - Universal Studios

2009-05-25T20:42:00.002-07:00

Today was another early morning and long day ahead at Universal Studios. We finally got to do our first rides today after being so close to so many rides for 3 days woohoo!! Now we thought it was going to be extremely busy today being a public holiday, however it appears people did not want to spend this day at an amusement facility. Turns out this was perfect as I don't think we would have fit everything in if it was busier. In comparison to when I was here last the queues were tiny. The longest I think we waited here was approx 20mins. We started off taking the traditional tourist shot, but of course we had to get NZ in there somewhere, turns out we managed this twice in one photo.

I recommend visiting the man who is standing next to the sign which says "how to plan your day". This is very helpful as he tells you where you are best to start and where to go from there. First on the agenda was the studio tour where you jump in a cart and get taken around the back lots of universal. Here they show you where certain shows and movies are filmed and give some insight into how effects are done for movies. The scene for war of the worlds was amazing, so much work goes into just one small section of a movie.

A few Simpson's, Jurassic park and mummy moments later I got to meet Matt Damon, the highlight of my tour, however he didn't really response to questions and just seemed to stand there looking worried all the time. Perhaps he has something against New Zealanders?

Next Cam got to star in a movie, never thought this would happen, I feel he did quite well for a first timer, hes a natural, think there could be something in this for him.

Anyway enough about us. Now Universal studios really knows about making things interesting. You never even get board waiting in lines, there are Simpson episodes on TV, scary dark corridors to walk down on your way to the mummy ride, with air that squirts out etc and they really know how to do a motion master, you actually loose your stomach when going up and over, like on a roller coaster. This really is movie watches/lovers heaven.

Our last stop before heading home for the day was the Universal city walk, this is similar to Downtown Disney but in a smaller scale. It has lots of restaurants/cafes and shops. After a quick walk down here we were due back on the bus for our trip back. Once back it was a few drinks before heading off to bed, eagerly awaiting our first day at Disneyland the following day.

LA Holiday - Hollywood Tour/Santa Monica

2009-05-24T20:56:00.007-07:00

Today was our LA Hollywood Tour/Trip to Santa Monica. For these tours they have a new system from when I was last there, you get picked up from outside your hotel, get taken to a depot where you exchange your ticket for a bus pass and/or event ticket. Then you board your particular bus for the day. Turns out this system works really when your the first bus here which was good for us this day, but doesn't work so well, as we found out the next day when your bus is one of the last to arrive, not really sure why this stop was necessary to be honest. Any who, our bus driver this day was quite a character which was good as we had to listen to him for the whole day. First of all after picking up 2 people which were forgotten, we headed past the Hollywood sign to Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard (This was the host for the Oscars 1944-46). Here we stopped and walked along the Hollywood walk of fame looking for our favourite actors, unfortunately we only found their footprints, hand prints and stars with their names on them.

After this we headed down Hollywood Boulevard to take a photo of the famous Hollywood sign. The sign formerly known as Hollywood land, was initially an outdoor ad campaign for a suburban housing development called "hollywoodland". It was last lit up for the new millennium. See http://www.hollywoodsign.org/ for more information, this is quite informative. Along Hollywood boulevard there are lot of people dressed up as characters such as, Jack Sparrow, Spiderman, Darth Vader just to name a few. A helpful hint give to us by our driver, try and take random photos of them without them knowing otherwise you'll have to give them money. However you don't always get the best shots.

After this we headed to Beverley hills via sunset strip ending up at rodeo drive. Sunset strip is mostly known for its trademark array of colourful billboards however has become a hangout for rock stars, movie stars and entertainers. We did not however happen to see any, but with the cars we saw around I'm sure they were there somewhere. We then headed down a street which has the boarders of Beverley hills on one side and West Hollywood on the other side, you can clearly see the difference in this photo. The houses on the West Hollywood side are the most expensive in Hollywood only because they look directly over to Beverley Hills. Beverley Hills even has its own coloured fire hydrants and police station it is perfect.

Next stop was Rodeo drive, man this street looks flash, according to the bus driver the clothing doesn't have any pricing on it and if you have to ask how much it is then you can't afford it. Only the rich shop here of course. Last stop before Santa Monica was the farmers market just another cheap, busy place to shop. They did have this awesome hot sauces shop here and I just had to take this photo. I could have spent ages here looking at these funny labels.

Our final stop on this trip was Santa Monica. Now we think we have a beautiful beach at the mount, well it is, but not like this one. Same beautiful white sand but about twice the size. It has a nice, huge, pier with a small amusement park on it, unfortunately it was a long weekend in LA for Memorial day. The ques were huge for the rides and we didn't get to go on them. The beach also has a huge grassed area where people play games, exercise and just hang out. Unfortunately I didn't get many photos here, well only got one as my camera ran out of battery, but I suggest if you are in LA you visit Santa Monica, and preferably not on a public holiday.

LA Holdiay - Downtown Disney

2009-05-23T20:48:00.001-07:00

Today we had a relaxing day touring around the Anaheim and Buena Park areas. We had all our other tours planned and booked. First we headed to Buena Park via the public bus system. We had to get off at one street and catch the next bus to Buena Park. I felt a little uneasy here, the neighbourhood and people seemed fine, but all I keep thinking of were the movies where someone pulls over beats you up, steels all your stuff and then drives off. Turns out it was fine. It surprises me how many Spanish speaking people/communities there are in LA. We walked around the area for a while, visiting a farmers market, knotts berry farm, and around the Buena Park area. After this we headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, a few drinks and then a visit to Downtown Disney.

Downtown Disney is in between the 2 parks, Disneyland and California Park, it is a street full of shops, restaurants, bars, lights, people and street entertainment. We stopped for a drink in the outside bar, where I believe there have been sightings of Elvis. Then headed to Naples for dinner where we got balloon animal hats which were awesome.

After dinner we sat around and watched a few of the many buskers that were out and did a bit of window shopping. Then we headed back for a few more drinks at the hotel and to watch the fireworks from Disneyland on the balcony of the hotel. Who knew there was actually a story to the fireworks which 6 days later we found out. So the random fireworks shooting here, there and everywhere and the long pauses in between, were actually planned. Who knew fireworks could be so sad :(