We spent the morning finding our way around the house, doing washing, checking out the immediate area and then going along the coast to a well known cafe to see how the coffee measured up. Not bad at all. After lunch we took the car along to the coastal walkway and walked along as far as we could to the Vancouver Island ferry jetty and mariner. Strangely, it was cooler at the house property than in town and we were soon stripped down to singlet and shorts as it was much warmer along the coast. The views from the walkway are out to a large island with Vancouver Island in the distance with snow capped mountains. It is a peaceful laid back sort of location which is hardly surprising since the road goes only 20 odd ... read more

Today is a huge 122km bike race from Vancouver to Whistler with 4000 entries. It is called the GranFondo and is one of the main cycling events in North America each year. The main car park is closed for competitors and prize giving, roads are diverted and the main road has a lane taken out. So, what to do in order not to get too tangled with this event? Our host suggested that since we were in Whistler South we should continue in that area and hike up a river valley to a small lake called Logger Lake. It would also incorporate seeing the bike riders coming up the main route into Whistler. First, we went into Creekside to get some lunch then packed a backpack and set off on a shared bike trail just down ... read more

Our day started with a shoe purchase for me since my Nike's are bald and we're intending to do some hiking in Whistler. The sports shop guy was a sport enthusiast and very helpful. He had also run in NZ so there was much to talk about. We had an amazing driving day as we went through dramatic scenery. As we left Kamloops we travelled alongside a large lake where we could see an incredibly long train on the other side so we stopped to take a photos and a video. The train must have been more than a kilometre long with two engines hauling it along. It looked like a long coloured snake against the mountains and lake. We drove through badlands with heavily eroded steep rocky hillsides dropping away to flat irrigated farmland. At ... read more

Today was a travel day through some pretty amazing territory. It wasn't what we expected at all. In effect it is all desert apart from the valleys which are all irrigated. Outside of the irrigated areas are rocks, gravel, tussock, low scrub and the wide river of the Okanogan River dammed in places along the way. The colours were unrelenting grey and brown with green to liven it up along the river terraces. It was like driving through a very big Waitaki River valley like we have in the South Island. It was Central Otago and Marlborough rolled into one except for the vastness. We drove over 250km and nearly the whole way was apples, pears, stone fruit, cherry orchards and vineyards. Can you imagine the size of the production? Along the valleys were huge packing ... read more

Today has been a day of exercise. We met Don and Jane at the house, adjusted the bikes, and set off up the Lake to the end of the road. At Fields Point turnoff we stopped for a catchup and I managed to get my foot stuck in the pedal and fell off. Not elegantly either. Lindsay and Don continued to the road end (2 miles ahead) while I went rock hunting with Jane (willingly or not) being educated all about intrusive metamorphic rocks. There was a pile of blasted out rocks so it was easy to check out pegmatite sills and quartz veins in the gneiss, schist and amphiboles. Interesting for me anyway. We all caught up again at Kelly's Store (Umbria Cafe) for an excellent coffee. The young woman there was most accommodating as ... read more