Leaving.. but we'll be back soon!

We loved every moment we spent in beautiful Canada! Now this is hot on our list to be our new home.. although we are beginning to feel like there is no place like home.

However if we ever move away it shall have to be out here - every eye ful of a view is stunning.

Old Man

As we left the weirdo area on the bus, things just got more odd. This nattering old man started to talk to us, going into morbid detail of how his wife died in a car accident and how they couldn't revive her. Why do they always want to chat to me?

Annual Fireworks Competition

We left Sunset Beach and made our way over to Long Beach. We assumed that this must've been one of the best beaches as there was barely a place to stand for people. We checked out the area and sampled the water but later found that the people were just securing their seats for the fireworks show that was happening at 10pm (bear in mind it was only 2pm at the time, mighty eager dont you think?!).

This must have been one of the major attractions here because the entire beach and surrounding streets were crammed with thousands of people. There was literally nowhere to stand.

The show was grand enough. It was an international fireworks competition that spanned many nights, each country competing to put on the best show. This evening was the turn of Italy and they spared no sparkle.

On the way home there was a sea of people, all leaving at the same time. It was like the entire population of Vancouver was leaving at the same time. We felt like we were on some kind of march like when football fans leave a match back home.

Fireworks Competition

Downtown Vancouver, were having a Fireworks Competition where various countries that were participating were showing off their displays.

The Streets of Vancouver after the Fireworks Display

It was as if it was New Years Night or as if a world cup match had just finished. The atmosphere was kinda wild.

Stanley Park

This park has a load of pretty weird sculptures and a fountain jet in the lagoon. The jet would spurt water twice every five minutes. Bobbi would miss taking its photograph each time. She finally lost interest as this was the best she caught after 12 attempts.

We sat down next to the lake to watch the geese and swans swimming around. They all came out to see if we had any food to give them. I gave one goose a bit of tissue and it readily took it. I used the same gag about 5 times on the same bird, Hee hee. The goose then started pecking at my fingers looking for food.
A bunch of passing Chinese tourists felt sorry for my bare hands being pecked and gave me some cereal to feed the geese with.

This was entertaining for a short amount of time, as they were so stupidly cute.

Bite Me!

Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada - Feeding the duckies!

Sunset Beach in Vancouver

Sounds glamorous doesn't it. They even made a TV show by this name. Sadly this particular beach was a bit grubby and pretty pants. Sand wasn't up to much as it was quite filthy and shell ridden.

Ye Be Warned!

We pulled over at an information centre to get directions to a last minute hotel we'd booked for a night. The lady told us that this hotel was in a nasty area of town. She in fact told us about this a good six times, warning us to be careful once more as we left. It was kinda creepy.
Anyways, when we reached the area did have a bunch of suspect looking crowds around the streets. Guess we'll have to research the area we book into a little better next time!

Sea to Sky Highway

The sea to sky highway that runs along the west coast of Vancouver - is recommended the viewpoints along the route have some amazing lookouts to some fabulous coastal mountains.

On the drive back to Vancouver we caught a birdseye view of downtown Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the distance.

Brandywine Falls

You can tell that a pattern is forming with us going to see so many waterfalls. We just don't get anything like this back home.


Brandywine Falls was beautiful and was in an equally impressive location. After our short hike to the falls themselves we could see a stunning lake out in the near distance. Beautiful scenery, well worth a visit.

Adventure Ranch

Another activity on our wish list was horse riding. We called into the Adventure Ranch and were taken out on a tour. Bobbi rode a horse called Warrior and mine was named Merlin. We rode all around a trail which went through woods and along the roads & in the foothills of giant Mount Currie along the way.
We also had a bit of a trot now and again.
The horses would walk in line and bite the butt of the horse in front if they got too close. We also had to keep pulling the horses away from eating grass. Lazy buggers.

Although we had both been on the back of horses prior to this, but it was something else riding amonst the beauty of Canadian lakes & mountains.

Adventure Ranch

This was Warrior the horse i was riding in the foothills of Mt Currie, Pemberton Valley, Canada

Nairn falls

Hey to our good friend Stuart Nairn back home. We have found a waterfall bearing your name.


Nairn Falls was really fierce, the water slammed down so heavily.



We found a small area down by the water that had some sand and a log to sit on. Paul dipped his foot in and it instantly went numb.
I guess the water was coming down from the glaciers.

Pemberton Valley

Again we ended up with a fantastic view from our hotel. Perfect for sitting by the outdoor pool sipping ice cold drinks.

We chose Pemberton Valley which around 35 miles north of the Popular Whistler resort.
We found Pemberton was more pleasant, without the hustle bustle of the tourists, very peaceful & not to mention the beautiful surroundings.

Ross Bay

Back in Victoria we hired some bicycles out for the day to tour some of the bays,along the south coast of Victoria

We found a lovely pebble beach called Ross Bay. It had such beautiful clear waters.

We decided to stop for a dip and to skim some stones. We ended up splashing and covering each other in a water fight.

Bambi

Driving around a housing area I suddenly shouted Bambi! It's a Bambi, look! Bobbi baffled by what this actually meant, stopped the car anyway. Then as she looked there was a big deer running about. One woman had to chase it out of her garden to stop the deer eating her plants.

Beach Walk

Waking up to the amazing view at the Parksville apartment again we could see the tide was out hundreds of metres back. We decided to head out and take a walk along the beach. As we walked there were loads of crabs running around, burying themselves in the sand.
We seen a whole bunch of clams washed up on the beach and wondered if they had any pearls inside. After smashing the poor things open sadly there were no pearls, merely a big lump of snot like life form.

Smart Car

So we hired a smart car - which was like a dream for Paul as he's wanted one for a long time now, we've been meaning to take one for a test drive, but hadnt got round to it... until now!

It really got a lot of attention in Canada from people.. - i've always thought they are ugly.. but great to drive.... and goes without saying -they are soooo tiny!

So we decided to drive up North of Vancouver Island we stopped at a few places in Parksville until we found the most beautiful place of our whole journey - Ocean Sands Resort

Parksville

We stumbled upon the most fantastic apartments complex called the Ocean Sands. We had an apartment right on the ocean front with an amazing mountain view. It looked so much like paradise it was unreal.

In fact there was one point I was about to walk out onto the balcony but was so taken with the wonderous scenery outside, that I didn't notice the semi transparent screen over the doorway. I walked directly into it whilst carrying a glass of milk, half covering myself in the process. I paused there for a moment, squeezed up against the screen until I realized what a fool I'd been. - (HA! HA! That was hillarious sorry people i couldnt capture the moment on camera for you guys - Bobbi)

We also had a kitchen to prepare our meals and make us feel at home. My God! We want to live here.

Can you beat this view?

This was the view from our apartment at the Ocean Sands Resort in Parksville, Vancouver Island, Canada

Bastian Square

This was a nice little area for cafes and bars. Not a huge amount going on at the time but would be a great place to hang and chill out - Paul

It was poo! Dont bother! - Bobbi

The granny scenario in Thunderbird Park

No this is not a park full of funny space puppets like in the Thunderbirds TV show. It was a park with loads of totem poles scattered around. Quite small, and not really even worth calling it a park.

However - While we stood there arm in arm admiring the Totem Poles some old lady walks along in the distance shaking her head. I thought for a second - was that to us? So as she appeared to be walking back & forth, we decided to stand there and give one another a passionate kiss for her benefit, when she next peered out from behind the bush, she witnessed it alright which sent her off in a huff, raising her arms up in the air & nodding her head in disgust, directly at us.
What the heck was that about?! - The old Granny must've been a nun in her time! Easily offended old bat! She really made us feel like we were running around the park in the nudie the way she reacted.

Gee's If your reading this old woman (while surfing your daily porn fix): if you dont like what you see, then dont look!!

Under Sea Garden

This was great. Although we've seen a few of these underwater things now, this one didn't disappoint. I don't know what they did to the fish there to make them so friendly but they were crazy. Each fish would swim right up to the glass and look at you. They would follow you all over the place.
The octopus were really great too. They were so big and came right up to the glass to see you. Sometimes you could see them walking along the base of the tank with all their legs.

Watch them go on the video:RTW Video blog

Madame Tussauds

Guess if you've been to one you've been to em all. The wax models were kinda ok although the Elvis model was a bit pants. We think we'll see better Elvis lookalikes in Vegas. NEXT!!!




Diana- Princess of Wales - was shocking!






The Royals - What were they thinking?

Under Sea Gardens

And Another.

Parliament Building

Pretty grand looking building with a statue of Queen Victoria outside. Pretty nice view of the harbour. We didn't go into the building as, that seemed a bit dull.

Hello Victoria

Victoria was again a place with fantastic mountain views and it's always nice to be near the ocean.
First day of sight seeing in Vancouver Island, we decide to take a walk down towards the Victoria's wharf area. Quite a few of the more well known sights could be found along this way.

Porteau Cove

This was a pretty little bay where you could see loads of people going diving. There are around 3 shipwrecks beneath in the reef that sank in 1992 that divers were taken down to see.The buoys mark the shallower wrecks.

Shannon Falls

This was a waterfall well worth seeing. It was set within a lovely provicial park. You could see a rainbow emitting from the water. We were a little more careful rock hopping this time.
We went to a restaurant over the road and ended up waiting for about an hour for real poor quality food. The one benefit was that they had a few wild bunnies outside that were tame enough to feed.

Horseshoe Bay

Along the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver city through North Vancouver and the rest of British Columbia dotted along the route we spotted Horseshoe Bay.

This was pretty much your average pier. It had fantastic views of the mountains there but heck in Vancouver it's hard to go anywhere that doesn't. We decided to head back as it was getting late and we had to head further to see Shannon Falls before we prepared for our visit to Vancouver Island.

Lynn Canyon Park

We originally came here because Bobbi thought i'd get scared walking over the suspension bridge. Bah!

We walked across with ease and Bobbi thought she was clever jumping up and down to make the bridge shake.

Further down we decided to cross the water by rock hopping. As we got further in we realized that it was getting more difficult to cross. Bobbi fell in about three times. Once she fell in and I had to grab her arms to stop her from falling back. I on the other hand slipped only once and Bobbi didn't see!
We seen a really tame squirel who was sitting on a nearby log eating.
We finally get to the other side where we could see a waterfall. The journey to the other side was worth the effort. We decided to walk back on ourselves to find another way back across the water. We didn't much fancy falling in again. Back at the start far below the rope bridge, there was a large log leading from one side of the water to the other. There was still quite a drop down to the rocks below. Bobbi walked over it like it was nothing. I on the other hand crawled along it, crying like BA Barackus on a plane. Onlookers found this very amusing just a you will when you watch the movie found here.

Finally over my ordeal we head over the suspension bridge again. This time there were a bunch of Chinese tourists walking over, one of which was terrified. Bobbi thought t is was great and started to jump up and down again. This tourist was petrified. His friends started laughing. But then Bobbi lost her footing and slid onto her front, lying on the bridge. The tourists erupted into laughter and started taking photos. It goes to show, what goes around comes around.

Lynn Canyon Park, Vancouver

You guys gotta watch this - this is my sweetheart teaching you all how not to cross a running stream, most hillarious, I couldnt help but capture the moment! This one's for the great-grand kids!!

Click Here: RTW Video blog

How not to cross a running stream

My darling very gracefully passing along the log.

The Black Bear

After a hard core day of sight seeing we decided to dig into a meal at The Black Bear pub/restaurant. The food was delicious, we recommend the steak. I also tried Honey Lager which was a refreshing change, real tastey. Staff were also real friendly and helpful. Two thumbs up for the Black Bear folks.

Cleveland Dam

On the way back down from the mountain we checked out Cleveland Dam. It was surrounded by a pleasant little park. The dam looked really peaceful and yes again, a fantastic view. A short walk further we could see the Capilano Reservoir which was a nice introduction to some of the fantastic water attractions in Vancouver .

Grouse Mountain

We decided to tackle one of the mountains so we could get a better view of the city, and heck traveling to the top of a mountain is an activity in itself. Grouse Mountain also had a nature park(that's nature not naturist).
They crammed about 30 of us into a cable car to carry us to the top(good job it wasn't a naturist park). Being so high above ground level would have been pretty scary a few months back but having been on such cable cars and zip lines etc, we were pretty easy with it all.
On reaching the top we were met with even more awesome views than before. It overlooked the entire city. We could see snow caped mountains and nearby lakes. Canada is so beautiful. Already we want to live here.

We had just entered the nature park and already we could see a deer on the other side of some bushes. Despite all of the attention it was getting from onlooki people, it stood completely still, looking in the opposite direction. Must have been checking out the views also.

First stop we wanted to see some grizzly's. As we head over to the enclosure there was a pretty high fence and we could see little more than a glimpse of some bears butt sticking through the bushes. We wasted a good 10 minutes there before moving further round to see a bear looking out at the public from a cliff. Wow I thought, time to film. Just then my camera ran out of battery and I had to change the pack. By the time I got it changed round the bear had got bored and turned round to go. Again I had footage of a bears butt. So the score is now at 2 bears butts and 1 back of a deers head. Damn!

Joy, we walked a little further round and there were two big bat grizzly bears sitting soaking up all the attention from the public. At one point they were cleaning themselves in the water using leaves as scrubbers. They looked so cute. Guess this is easy to say when they are the other side of a fence! Would be just a little different to come face2face with one roaming wild and free.

As we walked on there were loads of ravens and hawks flying overhead. There was also a wild bird show on up there. Another of the shows we decided to miss was the "world famous" Lumberjack Show. It basically had a bunch of guys competing to saw and chop wood with an audience looking on and "wooo"ing a plenty as they do in this neck of the woods. But we took a photie of the statues situated around the mountain for the blog.

We finished off our Grouse Mountain trip on a ski lift ride that took us further out to see the best views. Man we can never get bored of seeing this stuff. This was recommended to us by some family of ours - (Thanks Dave & Alison) and it was ace. A dead cert to see if anyone is visiting Vancouver. It's also a popular ski resort in the winter! - check out the link in the sidebar.

Canada Place

This was our first real taste of Canadian views. We looked out on a vast mountainscape. We could see Grouse Mountain and many others, it was so vast and huge. It was completely breath taking. We don't have anything like this back home.

Customs in Hawaii

As we reached Hawaii you could tell we were in USA territory as they did all they could to leave that

"We are in a time of war"

feeling in your head.

"9/11 could happen again, be scared".

We were traveling to Canada via Hawaii and we were made to get off the plane and go through customs and checks, just to get back on the same plane. Major waste of time. Americans Huh!

Arriving in Fiji

As we entered Fiji airport there were guys playing tropical sounding tunes on a guitar and singing. Everything seemed pretty relaxed as none of the airport shops would open unless there was a flight due in.
As when we were directed to the waiting lounge all was closed, then everything slowly started opening up, then as soon as we were intructed to board the plane they began closing again.

Feels like Groundhog day

It felt like a never ending day when we left Oz to head for Canada - we left at 1pm and 9 hours later we arrived in Hawaii and as we had travelled through timezones, we were back to the 7am on the 14th July.
We were totally exhausted yet I simply couldn’t sleep whilst my hunny was playing sleeping beauty on the flight..

I asked him to smile to the camera and he give me this.. ahh my tired baby!