Vancouver to Vancouver Island

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Arrival

So after arriving in Vancouver last Friday night, we've finally had some time to relax and take a breathe in breathtaking Banff. James and I had different flights, so Erica, being the delightful sister that she is met me at the airport just after 2.30pm and then we both collected James at around 8 that same night.

After I spent an agonising hour in the heat of Vancouver customs, Erica bustled me into a taxi and took me to her home in East Vancouver. Once I'd dumped the bags in her lounge room, we headed into the city ('downtown Vancouver') for some food. Erica took me to an all-you-can-eat japanese restaurant, with possibly the best sushi and sashimi I've ever had. Big slabs of fish and california rolls and tempura and sake for $20 - bargain!

Welcome drinks

We then headed back out to the airport to pick up James. He didn't have the luxury of getting comfortable at Ez's place, given that there were welcoming drinks for us at her place of work - the Samesun Hostel. We caught a taxi downtown and dumped James' bags behind the staff counter, just in time for our first jager-bomb. I believe (through third party stories) that we possibly consumed about 5 of these before getting stuck into pitchers of canadian beer. I know pizza and shots were involved later in the night, but unfortunately, I only remember waking up on Erica's couch late the next afternoon.

Vancouver - the city

Given our 'jet-lag' we were thankfully shouted a great late lunch/early dinner at a mexican restaurant just around the corner from Ez's house. With food in our bellies, James and I decided to take in some sights around the town while Erica made arrangements for her leaving party that night - at her house.

We caught the train back into the city, to a place called Gastown, named after a clever barman who offered free booze to anyone who would help build his bar within a week. They got it done in 24 hours and he repaid them as promised and told them stories of his earlier travels, giving him the name 'Gassie'. It's kind of like the Prahran of Melbourne - all converted warehouses, cool bars and harbour-side views. We walked along the 'sea wall', a walkway spanning the entire circumfrence of the city edge and including Stanley Park, their enormous recreational park which sticks out from the city and has fantastic views of the north shore. James and I stopped short of walking the whole way around the park, when it started getting dark, and I realised thongs weren't the best option for a 4 hour jaunt.

Back on the train and me with blisters from where my thongs had rubbed, James and I stumbled back to East Van to join the part at Ez's house. Needless to say it was big, it was loud and it was great fun. It was fantastic to see all her friends and I think it was likewise for them. I carked it at 3am, sneaking out with some of Ez's friends to stay at the hostel for the night, while James and co, continued until about 6am, a worthy back-up effort, given the previous night's performance. The next day, with Cookie (Ez) still feeling the effects of the night before, James and I hired bikes to make the full trip around the city fringes. It's an amazing city Vancouver, and there are so many different areas/cultures/enclaves with the city skyline dominated by very new apartment buildings which cover most of the south-west corner of the area. There are markets on Granville Island (a short ferry away), high end shopping in downtown, the Stanley Park (with aquarium and hidden lakes), little china town and parks and buses everywhere. After finish off our bike trip, we headed back to East Van to check on Ez and see what the night had in store for us. We ended up having an easy night-in, watching 5th element and just having some pizza and beers (pizza in Vancouver is pretty damn good).

On Monday morning, Ez, Simmo (her boyf), James and I headed to the Aquarium in Stanley Park as we'd heard how great it was .... well, lets just say we didn't stay very long. It was a little small unfortunately and I think we've been blessed with some very cool sea worlds and melb aquaraiums in Australia. So we left Simmo to work (ha ha!) and took a sea ferry across to the North Shore of Vancouver, from here there is a bus to Grouse Mountain - it's cool just because of the name ..... Grouse! We took a gondola ride (very expensive we thought!) up to the top and checked out some rescued bears, a lumberjack show and tried some 'beaver tails', pastry with a variety of different toppings (yum!!) - such as maple syrup butter or chocolate spread. It was starting to turn a little chilly by this time, so we made the dash back down the mountain (choosing not to undertake the scenic, walking route, called the Grouse Grind (hmmm) and back onto the bus/sea ferry/bus back to downtown Van. From here, we caught up with Simmo once again and visited the Memphic Blues restaurant on Commercial Drive. Commercial Dr is a street away from Ez's house and has that eclectic/alternative feel of St Kilda with some great bars and pubs etc. Memphis Blues is known for it's meat, lots and lots of meat. We purchase an 'Elvis Platter' and as you can guess from the name, it was big - I mean huge! Full of ribs, chicken wings, steaks, yam fries (sweet potato fries), slaw (coleslaw), sauces - almost enough to feed an army, but in our capable hands (or stomachs) it was finished off in no time. Washed down with some good beer, it was a fantastic meal for the end of the day.

Vancouver Island

The following morning (Tuesday) we'd planned to take the ferry across to Vancouver Island for a few days. Erica hadn't been yet and I'd heard it was pretty special, so we packed what we needed and headed off on the buses again down south of Vancouver to a place called Tsawwassen - the departure point for ferries to Victoria. Victoria is actually the capital of British Columbia, but you wouldn't think it based on Van-residents. Apparently the Victorian-ites are ok with this though, they have a quiet sense of knowing whose boss for their province. Our ferry took 1.5 hours to reach the Island, and we didn't end up in the city itself until after 7.30. Finding out that the hostel was full made it a little more difficult, so we trekked down the mainstreet to a Traveller's Inn for more expensive sleep that night. Given it was a Tuesday, coming on 9pm by the time we settled in, there weren't many people around, but we found a good little Japanese place and had some more great sushi to keep us satisfied. While Erica and I wandered back to the hotel to relax, James caught up with a friend of his from snow boarding in NZ and kicked on at the various bars in the city until the early hours.

The following day we hired a car for the drive up to Nanaimo, another city on the Island which was also a ferry destination from the mainland. We planned tostay there the night and get back to Van city on Thursday for the trip east across the Rockies. Hiring the car was easy, we got a cheap, economical Toyota Yaris, 3 doors, very simple - and thought that would be a great way to head up the Island. Little did we know of the adventures to come!

Vancouver Island can be drive from north to south in approx 9 hours, it's possible 1.5 times the size of Tasmania and has some of the most stunning views in British Columbia apparently. From what we saw, that sounds about right. It also has some great surfing, fishing, kayaking and adventure trekking. There are enormous mountains and some of the deepest lakes. We headed out of Victoria and headed north and came into contact with one of these lakes. There's a region on the Island called Cowichen which is becoming famous for its wine growing. We thought it could be a good idea to take an inland road right along the side of Lake Cowichan and reach a place called Port Alberni, which is at the bottom of a massive fjord. We filled up on petrol and got our little Yaris on the road. Very soon however, the road became dirt and the dirt became filled with pot-holes. As it was me that was driving, I was starting to wonder at the intelligence of this move, but we'd had a local tell us there were a few 'rough spots' but it would be fine to get through. Needless to say, a lot of the beauty at this time was lost on me, but the other two seemed to think it was great fun, so we surged foward in our little matchbox car. At some point, my luck run out and I hit something hard on the road with the undercarriage of the car. In my usual way, I got angry, cursed and stopped talking to my siblings :-) thinking it was a stupid idea and we should head back. But of course, majority rules, so James got behind the wheel and continued along the road. Unfortunately, his luck run out as well, when we came to a road barrier which meant we couldn't go any further. Admitting defeat (finally!) we turned around to make the 1.5 hr trip back to Lake Cowichan and to Nanaimo beyond that. It was on the trip back when it all became worth it. We stopped at a little camping area on the Lake, very small, but with toilet facilities for Erica ... we took some lovely photos, stretched our legs, cursed our little cheap car and then hopped back in for some more bumps, jumps and cursing. As we drove out of the camp site however, we saw the most amazing thing on the road! A female elk, standing there, staring at us, not running away, and beside her in some bushes, her elk-hubby - chewing on the branches of one of the trees. Instead of running away, they stayed where they were, long enough for us, as the tourists we are, to get our cameras, shoot some pics and then wonder at how we were going to get past. It ended up, that they were happy enough to move for us as we crawled towards them in the car, and thankfully, we got a good video of all the action to show interested parties later on. To top off this complete misadventure, as we bumped our way further towards civilisation, we spotted a bear (that's right, a true, dinkum, native bear!!) lumbering across the road ahead of us. Not enough time to take photos, but was definitely the highlight of the trip at that point.

Last stop

We crawled into Nanaimo later that night, and booked ourselves into a hostel called the Cambie. It was a very quiet down, certainly not much of 'a scene', but we had a bar downstairs with service at your table and Ez and James met a few entertaining characters late in the night to keep them occupied, while I snuck back up to bed for some 40-winks. The next day, we checked out, dropped off the car to the rental place (with no mention of our adventure!) and got back on the ferry to the mainland.

to be continued ...... Vancouver to Banff

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Photos

Lane behind Erica's house
You can see Van city skyline in the background.

Victoria city - streetscape
This is just one image of the colourful streets in Victoria ... they were, how do you say .... picturesque!

Our dirt road challenged little car
Bless it's cotton socks, even after taking a massive beating, the rental lady thought it was clean as a whistle! Good tidings for us.

Lake Cowichan - critically examined by Erica
I think she was checking out some tiny dead fish in this picture .... we were making all sorts of theories up.

Elk
The female elk we found in a camp site near Lake Cowichan .... isn't she gorgeous!

Ferry return to Vancouver, BC
Erica was hung over, James was tired and I was well rested :-)

Bus ride after Ferry from Van Island
There was a little more life in the kids by the time!