Vancouver Island Bound

Leaving the ski fields we headed straight for Vancouver – but we no sooner got there than we couldn’t wait to get out! The traffic is absolutely horrendous and travelling anywhere – even on public transport is ridiculous, although the public transit skytrain with its automatic driverless cabs are quite cute. Peak hour seem to last 14 hours/day, 7 days/week. We were super impressed with the environmental awareness and the effort to reduce cars of the road. A huge emphasis on push bikes – they have right of way everywhere and even have their own traffic lane. The Green-ness of BC has been a very pleasant surprise having come from the opposite in Alberta. But having now spent time in BC and particular Vancouver Island and the capital Victoria were are extremely grateful that our secondment was in Edmonton and not Victoria – our capacity to hike/ski in the spectacular Rockies would’ve been really limited. Highlights of Vancouver visit was the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens and Stanley Park where there are enormous cedars up to 800 years old. We’ve been on Vancouver Island now nearly a week. We had thought for a fleeting moment to undertake the (in)famous West Coast Trail – part of the UNESCO Pacific Rim World Heritage biosphere. But here is a short excerpt from the info sheet.. rugged uneven ground, slippery conditions, muddy trails, wooden survaces, boulders and rocky shorelines, wade rivers, negotiate steep slopes and earth slumps, climb ladders, use cable cars and follow irregular trails. Fog is common and the average summer temp is 14 deg. Incidents of hypothermia and serious physical injury are common! And of course you share the trail with black bears, wolves and cougars!!! On top of all this there are tsunami warnings (you are told if the ground shakes or the shoreline drops move to higher ground!) and high and dangerous tides and waves that can crush you between driftwood (which is enormous) – and given the high chance of rain/fog/inclement weather it’s unlikely you’ll be able to see anything anyhow…. Just why people do this – must be just to say you’ve done it…. No we’re not doing it! Our most incredible experiences here though would have to be the Butchart Gardens and the ancient forests. Primarily red cedars, douglas firs and western hemlock, many trees have been dated +1000 years old and a good majority in sections are +300 years old. They are gigantic and beautiful, and we are just so happy that they exist – it’s a special place. The loose plan now is to head north to Alaska via Kluane National Park and Yukon - had a slight change of plans re heading east.. will do that at the end of the trip we think....love this gypsy lifestyle!

Final hurrah on the ski hills

Well we begin our road trip adventure with 8 days skiing the end of the season at Banff. We couldn’t have anticipated that we would have both our best and worst skiing in this time. This has been a record breaking year for Banff’s Sunshine ski resort and we were amazed to have 30cms of fresh gorgeous powder which made for the most phenomenol few days skiing ever. Powder up to our waist in the trees made for some spectacular crashes! Ian had a couple of beaudies. But we couldn’t believe it a few days later there was overnight rain on the mountain – even on the summit – which created an ice rink on the slopes – practically impossible to ski and reminded us of NZ ski fields. We’ve become very picky when it comes to the white fluffy stuff! This pic is of our little Bigfoot trailer parked at the campground at Banff National Park with Mt Rundle in the background. The day before this it snowed on us and we were toasty warm inside!