Vancouver & surrounds with Nic and Mike

May 26 - June 9

I was quite glad to arrive in Vancouver and very happy to hear a real kiwi accent from a friend back home when Nic met me at the airport to take me back to their flat.

It was very nice to be back in a Western home again. For all the wonders of travelling South America, the joys of hot water for washing the dishes, of being able to flush toilet paper, of being able to look up public transport information on the internet and of speciality, craft beers was a welcome relief.

Mike was away for a few days, but Nic and I amused ourselves with a museum trip, and a little party in honour of Jono's birthday back home. I was also very glad to be eating home-cooked Western meals... Like roast carrots... And cereal (although no weet-bix!)

A happy birthday from Vancouver to Auckland!

Nic was then working for a couple of days, and suggested I head over to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Despite being a lot smaller (now) that Vancouver, it is the capital of British Columbia* and is quite a nice city, with very much a British influence on some of the architecture. So after a bus, three Skytrains (Vancouver's metro), another bus, a ferry and a final bus, I arrived in Victoria.

During my stay, I spent some time exploring the city area, with a very picturesque inner harbour and prominently placed state government buildings, where I did a very interesting free tour. Apparently after their recent elections, the new Prime Minister is not actually a member of parliament - under First Past the Post, she did not win her electorate but is still head of the governing party. For all the detractors of MMP in NZ, at least our Prime Minister gets a vote!

British Columbia Parliament

I also visited a very impressive miniatures museum:

One of the miniatures displays

On one day, I hired a bicycle and spent the day exploring more of the surrounds of Victoria. I spent a while following the "Galloping Goose Trail", (along an old railway line where a train nicknamed the "Goose" used to run), as well as a few parks and then around the southern coast. It was very pleasant biking through a pine tree forest, and I spotted quite a few squirrels in an inner-city park too.

Ride the Galloping Goose Trail!

Squirrel! (OK, it might not be exciting to you, but we don't get them in New Zealand)

On my last day, to the ferry, I visited the Butchart Gardens, a sort of private botanic gardens with some very nice flowers in bloom and some other neat additions too. I discovered my camera was able to pick up some amazing detail on the flowers, most of which had droplets of water (yes, it was raining again) and I quite enjoyed taking photos of all of them.

Butchart Gardens pretty flower photo #1

Butchart Gardens pretty flower photo #2

Butchart Gardens pretty flower photo #3

Butchart Gardens pretty flower photo #4

Nice fountain

Creative hedge trimming

Totem poles ("American Indian" tribes of course existed - and still do - in Canada too)

After I got back to Vancouver on the Wednesday, Nic had a couple of days off work, so we explored Vancouver city a bit. It's a very nicely laid out place - a lot more space than South American cities, I guess - and there's a lovely waterfront area, and Stanley Park (a nice spot right near the city). We even got some fine summer weather!

Vancouver waterfront

Vancouver Harbour

Steam clock in the older Gastown part of the city centre

The thing that struck me the most was the distances - Vancouver (and it's satellite cities) is very spread out, and it can take a long time to get anywhere, with a high reliance on private cars. This was such a contrast to the density of places like Cusco, Santa Marta, or various others, where travel was by bus or foot, maybe taxi. Vancouver was certainly a very well

It was nice to just to be relaxing in a house, getting up when I wanted, having a quiet day at home, recharging the batteries a bit after a pretty busy last couple of weeks in Colombia. I went for a couple of walks in a nearby park, where I watched a bit of a local baseball game there, caught up on my diary a bit, and enjoyed the pine forest surroundings.

Gorgeous reflection on a lake in Mundy park near Nic & Mike's place

I was keen to see some ice hockey, but it was out of season, so instead, one evening, Nic and I went to a roller derby - the Vancouver team was well-beaten by the London team - for a rather hilarious night of "sport", and left talking like seasoned derby pros!

When Mike got back we had a good catch-up, played some computer games, went for a little walk, and reminisced about good old times back in out Christchurch Puna St flat (miss you guys - Jono, Elana, Hamish, Jade and Rachel!). I also even managed a game of bridge at a local club - my first in over 4 months - with Nic and Mike's landlady, Betsy.

I should mention that Betsy was also very hospitable during my stay - Nic and Mike's place is the downstairs part of her house, and she let me stay in her own guest bedroom upstairs for the whole two weeks. Thanks Betsy!

I was lucky enough to have my birthday there too, and it was nice to spend it with a couple of old friends. Mum had sent a parcel all the way from NZ, which was really special too, with some gifts to remind me of home. We went out for dinner, had a few beers, played some good ol' Split Enz up loud in the living room, and watched the All Blacks demolish France at 3am in the morning. A great birthday!

Birthday day brunch - yummy omelette!

Cards and gifts from back home in NZ - and NZ$15 won on a couple of scratchies!

It seemed silly not to go to Whistler while we were there, so for my last night we drove there and stayed in a house owned by Betsy. It was worth it just for the drive - there was some lovely scenery - even if it was out of the skiing season.

One of the most awesome road signs I've ever seen the words in brackets are the names given to those places by the local tribes

Mike & I at Shannon Falls

The "Chief"

Gorgeous pine forest scenery at Whistler

Whistler hosted the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

And with that, all of a sudden, 2 very enjoyable weeks in Vancouver were gone. I had a great time with my old mates Nic & Mike - thanks so much for having me there & I hope to see you guys again soon! Come to Europe!


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* I just realised I travelled from Colombia to British Columbia. Apparently this spelling discrepancy has existed for a long time. I'd thought with a "u" would be more correct, since they are named after Christopher Columbus. However, he was an Italian man and apparently in Italian his name is Cristoforo Colombo. So I guess both are equally "correct".

To confuse the situation more, his name in Spanish is Cristóbal Colón, and strictly speaking the man is from Genoa, where it is Christoffa Corombo. If Wikipedia is to be believed, there are further different spellings in Portuguese, Latin and Catalan too.