Victoria, Vancouver Island

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Hi
I have arrived safely in Victoria.
Danielle and I spent a night in Vancouver before leaving the next day for Whistler. The drive was relatively miserable as it poured with rain the entire way but you could catch glimpses of the sea which I can nearly imagine as pretty on a good day. On arrival to the hotel we found our room had been upgraded which presented no problems to us. We then went and had lunch and was served by a New Zealander (the first of my trip). Whistler & the village is basically run by Australians, we only met one other Canadian while we were there. After searching for hours for an ATM which would accept Mastercard (Visa is an Olympic sponsor so the village basically only has Visa outlets), we finished our shopping and headed back (via the courtsey shuttle) to the Hotel. We then went and enjoyed the very hot Jacauzi and talked to a few guys from Northern California. After 45 minutes we both nearly fainted when exiting due to dehydration.
The next day we headed up the mountain and managed to get on the lift at around 9am, we played around on the baby slopes for awhile while Danielle renewed herself with the concepts of skiing. We then took a 25 minute Gondala ride up to the top of Whistler mountain and skied down, Danielle was pretty sore/thirsty/hungry by the end of the run. Unfortunately I had the first (AND ONLY) fall of my trip while on this run. We then had a late lunch and had a few more runs and enjoyed the peak to peak gondala ride. The last run was absolutely stunning, the sun was setting (4pm) and clouded the snow pink. The village looked perfect from above.
The next day we awoke to snow so decided to leave straight away before it got any worse, our rental car had no snow capabilities whatsoever. The drive took around 3 1/2 hours by the time we got ourselves lost in downtown Vancouver (much less concerning then downtown Jo'burg like last time). We then stayed at the airport for an hour and a half before catching a bus and then a ferry to Victoria. Danielle's friend Anne collected us from the ferry terminal and I squished in the car under my enormous ski bag.
We were both exhausted by the time we arrived back but managed to get a few essentials from the grocery store. Today I haven't achieved much apart from catching up on emails and washing. The weather is gross here, a little warmer but pretty much solid rain. Danielle has a cat, her name is Meow Meow and I think she is beginning not to hate me.
Danielle is out working tonight so Meows and I have the house to ourselves
I hope all is well and warm in NZ
Katherine
P.S I have no mobile coverage here in Canada but I should be checking emails most days

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