Blogs from Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 4

It was a long 30 hours, having departed on Thursday, 24 September from Brisbane at 6.00am into Sydney from where we flew to Vancouver, boarded another flight into Victoria, arriving at 11.30am on the SAME day! A little recovery time and a shower later on what was a very showery and grey day, we walked for about 5 hours taking in some of the local area and just doing our best to stay awake until evening. The British Columbia Parliament building is spectacular and grand in every detail! We were speechless at the beauty of its interior. Our hotel is well appointed, overlooking the picturesque Victoria Harbour, with large car and passenger ferries docking out in front of us, along with many other large and small water vessels. Everywhere in every bar and hotel "happy hour" ... read more

At night we think about what happens next. We got some more money than expected so we think about renting a car for a week and see the Island. BUT it is crazily expensive!! So we end up looking at cars in Craigslist again. We make a trip to Victoria on Wednesday the 9th of September to check some adds. A dealer offers us a 3.600 cad minivan, with not much space but it could do if we get cozy. We decide to buy it, but not today, let us come back tomorrow with the money. Diego checks the net once more and… there it is, a big, nice and cheap GMC Safari from 1992. It is 23 years old, in very good shape though. We get it registered incredibly easy and head back to Cobble ... read more

Geo: 48.4644, -123.38Butchart Gardens, VictoriaSeptember 5th Did you know that Canada also has a Labor Day holiday? But I guess in their case it would be "Labour Day", eh? We didn't either and it is the same weekend as the holiday in the US. This weekend. Had we known we might have switched our sightseeing agendas between today and yesterday. Today we are going to Butchart Gardens, and with it being a holiday AND the last Saturday night of the Butchart Gardens fireworks show, we're sure to be in a crowd.We walk a few blocks from the hotel to catch the bus and we're on our way. The Butchart Gardens are built over a limestone quarry, and the area is still owned by the Butchart family. It is unbelievable. Imagine one of the biggest, most beautiful, ... read more

Geo: 48.4644, -123.38It is our last day on the Ibis...this morning we began with a nice breakfast of granola topped with the last of the blackberry goo. Delicious!We have a long way to go to get back to Oak Harbor in Victoria, and we get busy. The dinghy is brought around to the front of the boat, reloaded and tied down, the anchor is hauled in and off we go. John is at the helm and the sun comes out! The sea is calm....there is a nice breeze and it isn't raining! The sails are up but we are still motoring. After a long while of cruising along, Jeff relieves John. They are following the "rum" line. At least that's what I thought they've been saying all week; rum line. Of course, every time they say ... read more

We touch land in Swartz Bay, and jump into the bus taking us to Victoria downtown. Just stepping out of the bus and we already like it. Victoria has a strong British atmosphere with it's own special taste. Finally the decision is made to spend our money on booking two nights in an expensive Hostel and some rental bikes. We soon discover that everything in Victoria is expensive :S All in all, the good city-feelings we couldn’t find in Vancouver are here around every corner. After two days of exploring the area and finding deer in the city parks, we try to get north to our WWOOFing place in Cobble Hill. It is a day early and we want to make a stop in Mill Bay. As we are on a low budget we want to ... read more

Our adventure started on Saturday morning with the boys dropping us at Sydney airport. They didn't hang around long and I discovered James Anthony's Facebook post the next day saying "getting rid of the parentals for 6 weeks.. Yay". Thanks for that buddy! If anyone hears about a crazy Facebook party that got crashed by randoms and with police attending, somewhere in Roselands, PLEASE DO NOT tell me until it's time for us to go home. The Fiji Airways flights were full to the brim but they were really smooth and the attendants were lovely and the food was really quite good (but then again I pretty much eat anything as you can tell by my waistline). There was a two and half hour layover in Fiji. This is where we had our first "drama". After ... read more