We've flown in a helicopter!!

Why oh why would you travel by bus/ferry/bus when you can go in a helicopter we cried!! We got a hot tip that you could get to Victoria via helicopter on a $75.00 standby rate. We worked out that this would only be a little more expensive than the ferry but MUCH less hassle, quicker (35min rather than 5hrs). Most importantly neither of us have been in a helicopter (and maybe after our schmancy dinner we've got airs).

It was great fun. Loud. Lots of vibration. Shame we were sharing with a bunch of commuters who didn't quite share our enthusiasm :) Check the photos (sorry - there's a bunch of photos we've been trying to load but our wireless connection at this hostel is dodgy, stay tuned for the photos!)…

A Sch'mancy Dinner

A Kelly Post: Well, Weesie – what can I say… Thanks so much for the Christmas present. It was well worth the wait!! (background story - Theresa gave us a dinner voucher for a restaurant in Vancouver for Christmas 06)

I don't know how you searched and found a restaurant for Vancouver, I'm assuming you just made a guess and chose one pretty randomly on the net.?? well little sister - guess what you chose for your gumby big sister and her boyfriend. Oh.. just one of the fanciest, schmanciest restaurants in town! That's right - it's where the famous people go (we were promised Cuba Gooding Junior and Jean Claude Vandamme). When I called to make a reservation and they found out that I was staying at the 'I think' renowned for being dodgy American Backpackers hostel - I got that famous "oh.. really?".

Anyways, we spruced up as best we could and pretended that we damn well belonged in a restaurant like that for the night (think Montrachet x 5). I was called 'the lady' all night much to my pleasure..."would the lady like the halibut this evening" ... and plenty more just like that. If anyone asked I was going to say that I was from Home and Away visiting friends in BC.

The food, service and ambience was lovely. A little disappointed there were no famous people in sight.. but I think I'll get over it. We left the restaurant with a gorgeous glow and a spring in our step.

Thanks Weesie!! Josh says "Thanks Weesie" as well!!

Wild parks on the city edge

A Josh Post: About 40mins ferry and bus from downtown in north Vancouver (seen in the background of the photo in our last post) Lynn Canyon was amazing. An enourmous volume of water flows through this narrow gorge with western red cedar / Douglas fir forest in the valley above.

We fortunately got word that we could visit here for free and have as good or better day spent in the forest than visiting the more hyped Capilano gorge and suspension bridge. (Capilano is the next valley/gorge west).

Kelly was a little nervous walking onto the suspension bridge and kept edging behind me as we approached. (two steps forward one back). It was a long way down and the bridge had a lot of movement. Kel was still not entirely comfortable with it the second time around with a little sideways movement as others walked across it at the same time as we did.

It was unbelievable how deep some of the pools were (30 feet) and how powerful the water was. This would explain the number of memorials along the riverside and the walking trails.

Hostels

A Josh Post: Located “on the edge hell” according to the evening manager, as it was on the seedier side of town, it turned out that this place was quite enjoyable for us both. While it was an old grotty and dungy building, and the kitchen was rarely kept clean by most guests, the bathrooms and toilets were cleaner than some of the other supposedly cleaner/newer hostels we have stayed at.

We met a whole cast of characters; young Mexican labourers, Aussie travelers, Canadian 20something upshots, Spanish travellers, and lots of smokers. The manager began each introduction to new guests with “this is a smoking hostel. You can smoke everywhere except in the rooms”.

The kitchen and lounge were well populated each evening with the regulars and some newbies, and we had some fun nights in. I’m missing it to be honest.

Observations on Vancouver

A Josh Post: In Vancouver the folks have generally been lovely and most helpful, but we did observe an aggressive edge to some;
“watch-it asshole!” - someone sitting down against/on someone on the bus
Plus a few other “asshole” incidents involving sharing the road with taxis and waiting in line at an understaffed seven eleven

Homelessness / drug / mental issues is a very visible problem in Vancouver. There was begging at each street corner, and many people working the bins for recyclables or pushing shopping trolleys full of blankets and possessions. I was constantly wondering how does this happen? It has often been a talking point for us and our fellow hostel dwellers. How close are the rest of us to being in that situation? Certainly steels my resolve to keep away from drugs.

So upright!!

We hired bikes one arvo and rode around the outside of the city and around a fair bit of Stanley Park. The bikes had us sitting very upright, and this felt very odd after having been riding road bikes for the last few months (and Kelly for much longer). It was a great way for us to see a lot in a short amount of time and gave us great idea of the city as a whole.

some features in stanley park had interperetive panels such as this which also had amusing photo tips.

We made it!

Well, what can we say – Josh and I made it without missing any planes and only losing two books in the process (while in transit in Hawaii we had to clear customs, get a temporary visa exemption and check in all over again – in the confusion of having his shoes and bag investigated the books will never be seen again)!!

We actually had quite pleasant plane trips because our flights weren’t full and you could spread out to sleep which makes such a difference.

We are in Vancouver and it is being very stereotypically rainy (not in the heavy downpour kinda way but in passing showers and grey skies). But it doesn’t matter, cause like Melbourne, Vancouver is one of those cities where it doesn’t seem to matter what the weather is like – it doesn’t stop anyone from doing anything that’s for sure.

We arrived last night to find out that our double room was actually a bunk in a single room! (Just the romantic weekend Kelly had planned with her STA voucher -JBM) But despite this our hostel is in a great location and will do for now.. (ah.. back in backpacker land where you have to take what you can get sometimes).

We’ve spent today walking around Stanley Park and watching the massive cruise liners leave the bay. Stanley Park is the main park here on the peninsula at the entrance to the bay and is beautiful. As we were walking around today we stumbled across a woodpecker in the park. They are hilarious, they go for the wood hammer and tongs and really do sound like someone hammering.

redwood in Stanley Park

Our other highlight was walking down the street tonight and running into Josh’s old childhood friend Gavin with his girlfriend Amy. Turns out they live on the other side of the block to where we’re staying – it’s just like we’re in Brisbane!

Bula Vinaka! Fiji

Bula!! We loved it! But as suspected it was more expensive than we’d originally hoped. However, who can complain about spending three days lounging around in clear blue waters, hammocks and bures. The only way we knew what the time was, was when the drums sounded to signify meal time. The place we were staying on the edge of an island was small enough that you could hear it from wherever you were and respond to the call.

We stayed in these cute little Bures on the beach. Everyone kept their doors and windows open (the island was too small to get away with stealing anything) and you slept with a mosquito net around you and the sound of the waves lapping just outside.

Our biggest highlight of the trip was on Friday morning they spotted manta rays just around the corner from where we were staying. We all jumped into tinnys and whizzed around to where they’d been seen. It was so amazing. They would let us jump in at the beginning of this channel with snorkels and flippers and we would float down with the current hoping that a manta ray would pass by us as they swam against the current feeding on krill..

Well – pass by us they did! We saw a couple every time we went down. They are so beautiful and graceful and some of them were going slowly enough that you could follow them and dive underneath to check out their gills and the little fishes that attach themselves to their underbelly to catch the krill leftovers. They weren’t bothered by us at all and the biggest one that we saw they reckon was about 6m wide tip to tip!! Another one did a somersault in front of us – so cool!!! (but so exhausting after trying to follow them against the current for about an hour)

The snorkelling there was spectacular. You could hop in the water any side of the island we were staying in and paddle out to some of the best coral and fish displays that I’ve seen. Josh and I hung out for ages always finding some new bizarre fish, slug or piece of coral to be fascinated by. Our dive instructor who was Canadian who has also worked in Australia said it was the best she’d ever seen.

We also had a memorable sea kayak trip out to try and see the Manta Rays by ourselves (which was unsuccessful). There was a storm approaching and we had decided to head back (about a half hour paddle) when Josh started to suspect he was sinking… I looked at his kayak and said it looked fine and literally from that moment on it started to sink quite dramatically, we both got the giggles as he became more and more unstable. We had to aim for this little beach which we luckily made it to and empty out gallons of water and then make a quick mission back before it could fill again.

Other highlights included this amazing meteor we saw go cruising through the sky. It appeared really close and was in the sky for what seemed ages. We were on the beach having a bonfire and it was a great present to three of the backpackers about to celebrate their birthdays at midnight. Others included Josh playing volleyball in his DT’s with the big Fijians!!, the sound of BULLAAAaaaa everywhere you went, great food and Jacqui – I even tried Daruka which the chef made up for us especially… it was great!

So we boarded the plane for Vancouver maybe not as refreshed as we’d hoped due to being so active but really happy that we made the stopover.

Thanks Brisvegas Friends!

What fun farewell moments - You guys rock!

We're going to miss you!!

(and of course - thanks Bazza for the shoot :)

7 days till take off

Well.. the move is done and it's now 7 days till we launch the kel and josh OS adventure! We can't wait until we're actually on that plane and the packing, moving, labelling and storing part is over.. But there's a lot of socialising left to do before that moment!