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Published: August 7th 2007
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So I finally made it, all of the planning and saving has finally paid off, I'm in Canada! It only took 25 hours to get from Wellington to Vancouver with stops along the way in Auckland and Los Angeles. My flight from Auckland to Los Angeles was completely full so unfortunately I wasn't upgraded. Then I had to wait for an hour and a half to pass through Immigration in Los Angeles and then to my horror, I was informed that I didn't even need to have got a visa for the US! Ugh!
The flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver was great as the whole flight was over land and gave good views of California, Oregon and Washington. We even flew over Mt St Helens and saw some steam coming out of the crater. It was a great experience arriving into Vancouver Airport, everyone is very friendly and helpful and it is one of the nicest airports I have ever been through. Then just a short taxi ride, on the wrong side of the road, to the hostel in Vancouver Downtown for a long awaited shower and bed.
My first full day in Canada was spend setting up my life.
I now have a Canadian Social Insurance Number, a bank account with the Royal Bank of Canada and a Canadian SIM card for my phone. Email me if you want the number so you can call or text me.
In the evening I set out to explore the Richmond Night Market with my roommates. Richmond is south of downtown Vancouver in a predominately Chinese area. Vancouver has a high number of Asian immigrants, 40% of their population is ethically east Asian. After a couple of wrong turns and bad directions we find the night market, but was a bit of a disappointment as most of the stalls seems to be the same as ones you get in NZ. But it was nice to see a different part of Vancouver.
Vancouver is very green with lots of the trees and parks. The largest park in Vancouver is Stanley Park and occupies the northern tip of the peninsula of downtown Vancouver. In the park, there is an aquarium with white beluga whales, dolphins and the cutest sea otters. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of the sea otters due the reflections of the walls of their enclosure. The otters reminded me
a lot of cats, they were floating in the water on their backs scratching their bellies and grooming themselves. One playful otter had a buoy on the string which he was chasing and rolling over. Also in the park are a couple of nice beaches, some big totem poles and a rose garden. I was at Stanley Park on a Saturday and there was three weddings in progress as I walked through the park.
Then on Sunday, I decided to get a bird's eye view of Vancouver and travelled out of the city to North Vancouver and took the skyride up Grouse Mountain. The North Shore mountains overlook Vancouver and are popular for walking in summer and skiing in winter. Grouse Mountain has a gondola to near the top and a number of attractions at the top. We took in a lumberjack show with demonstrations of sawing, axe throwing, log climbing and rolling. They have a wildlife rescue centre up the mountain with a number of birds of prey, grizzly bears and wolves.
It's currently one of the hottest summers on record in British Columbia and the weather has been hot (25 - 35 degrees) and sunny everyday that I
was in Vancouver so after some sunburn I decided to move on to Victoria on Vancouver Island which has a milder climate. The trip from Vancouver to Victoria takes about 3 hours and involves a ferry trip through the Southern Gulf Islands. It reminded me a lot of the Cook Strait crossing but was a lot quicker and calmer.
Victoria is the state capital of British Columbia and was settled early in the colonial history of Canada. It was used as a trading port for logs, gold and fur. It still has a lot of beautiful colonial buildings.
After thinking I was coming to Victoria for some cooler weather, my first day was a bit of a shock, it was 34 degrees and the hottest day on record in Victoria. But luckily today is a lot cooler. I am enjoying Victoria and I think I was make this my home for the next couple of months. I am going to start job hunting in the next couple of days for something suitable for the summer.
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Katherine
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Howdy!
Oh my god, you didn't need a visa?!?!?! Why didn't they tell you that? Mind you, I wouldn't have got donuts had you not gone to Akld... Any news on Krispy Kremes? (not that I'm obsessed). Sarah was telling me her family has a curly fries maker they got from the States - you should keep a look out for one! (Had curly fries before HP the other night). Yay photos, it looks cool.