Winter Wonderland

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Well it's been a while since I've written and so much has happened so I thought it was time to update everyone. So I moved to Canmore, Alberta from Vancouver in October to take up a job as a travel agent and spend the winter in the Canadian Rockies.
I spend a week travelling the 900kms from Vancouver to Canmore. Along the way I stopped at a couple of small towns. The first was Shuswap Lake just outside Chase. It was an interesting hostel - made from old railway carriages converted into dorms, each with a bathroom and kitchen. Unfortunately it rained the whole time I was there so I didn't get to see much. There was a beaver lodge on the shore of the lake but the beaver couldn't be convinced to leave and let me get a picture. On my final day, I went to the mouth of the river where the salmon spawn. During the big spawning years, the river is overrun by salmon but I only saw 50-100 salmon.
Next I moved on to Golden which really only had a ski field and not too much else. And then to Lake Louise where I experienced my first winter snow fall! About 1 cm of snow fell overnight which was very exciting at the time (not so much now though!). Lake Louise is a tiny tourist town on the lake in the middle of the Rockies. It's has spectacular views of the Rockies. I'm looking forward to visiting again soon to see it in winter.
Finally I arrived in Canmore and the scenery took my breath away. Canmore is on the Bow River and nestled between two mountain chains. It's just outside the Banff National Park so a number of people have holiday homes here as you have to work in Banff to own a home there. It makes for a strange dynamic in the town, during the week the town is quite quiet but it comes alive at the weekends. There are a number of great restaurants and boutique shops catering to the weekenders but not many places to buy household items. I was lucky enough to housesit for my first month in Canmore so I had accommodation when I arrived. And a month to find permenant accommodation.
I started my job that week, it was quite easy to get into as we use Sabre which I used in NZ. But the things we sell are completely different from NZ. I had to learn all about the Caribbean Islands and cruises. It took a bit of getting use to as I'm use to selling adventure tours, hostels and airfares.
The first month I spend finding my feet in Canmore and wandering round the town. Through my workmates contacts, I managed to find a great apartment on the hill overlooking Canmore which I share which an English girl who works at the local ski field. And I even managed to borrow a car from a workmate who spends the winter in Palm Springs (very sensible!) so I am finally mobile!
One of my first excursions with the car was to go to the mall in Calgary (about an hours drive away) to pick up some stuff for the house. It was an interesting drive, I was driving at the speed limit and I was the slowest car on the highway, every car overtook me! There didn't seem to be any cops on the highway or any speed cameras. The cops also don't seem to do any random breathe testing in Canada.
Towards the end of November, the first snow fall and turned Canmore into a beautiful winter wonderland. The first couple of snows didn't stick but by the start of December we had permenant snow on the ground. The roads in Canmore are pretty good, grit and salt are laid on the road so ice doesn't build up. But Banff is a completely different story - as it is a national park, they cannot salt the road so it is always very icy and scary to drive on. Needless to say, I always try and avoid driving in Banff.
I went skiing at Norquay just before Christmas for the first time in about five years. I was really surprised how easy it was and how the technique came back so quickly. I have plans to go skiing a couple more time before I leave Canmore however I am waiting for ideal snow conditions.

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