22 July - Friday - Rocky Mountaineer Day 3 - Whistler to Vancouver

G'day All,

Since we had the upgrade and adjoining rooms we utilised both bathrooms and made the most of the space, if only for the night. We decided overnight to do the chair lift to the top of Whistler and also do the Peak 2 Peak gondola ride as well. For someone not keen on heights Penny was getting amongst it with yet another elevated activity :-)

Looking back towards Whistler as we ascend to the top.

At the top of Whistler mountain.

Gold gold gold.

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains. It holds world records for the longest free span between ropeway towers at 3.03 kilometres and highest point above the ground t 436 metres. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola was built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of CDN$51 million.

Peak 2 peak looking from Whistler towards Blackcomb mountain.

View from Gondola

Passing another Gondola

It's a long way across and down.

View from the top of Blackcomb Mountain.

Once we got off the gondola we had a look around and noticed a marmot just below the lookout viewing area. This is the animal that Whistler was renamed after, the marmots are abundant on the mountain and surrounding area and make a whistling sound.

 Marmot.

From here we had to head down hill on the ski chair lift, another challenge for Penny with her little legs swinging in the breeze.

Penny wasn't so sure about descending on the ski lift.

After we had our feet firmly back on the ground we did a bit of a walk around Whistler village and then headed back to the hotel ready to catch the bus to drop us back to the train for the last leg to Vancouver.

River on way to Vancouver

Beside the fjord as we head to Vancouver.

The train pulled up in Vancouver and the rocky Mountaineer crew kindly organised a voucher for a taxi from the station to the Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel, for a while it was looking like we would have to carry our luggage a few blocks as this wasn't a regular drop off point. We decided to rest up for the night with the view to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Vancouver in the morning as we didn't need to be at Canada Place at the Port of Vancouver until 12pm to book into the Holland America cruise. So rest up we did.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

21 July - Thursday - Rocky Mountaineer Day 2 - Quesnel to Whistler

G'day All,

Up bright and early and heading for Whistler. The scenery changed quite a bit from Quesnel (with a silent "S") to Whistler, transiting from pastures and forest to arid bare hillsides and chasms and back to forest on approach to Whistler.

Onwards we go . . .

Across the bridges.

Passing the lakes.

To changing landscapes

Through the arid chasms.

And back towards water.

The mountains beginning to change.

Higher the mountains rise, dusted in snow.

Contemplation.

Back into the forest as we enter Whistler.

We arrived in Whistler at checked into the Fairmont Chateau overlooking the Upper Village. When we opened the room we noticed we had no luggage so I went down to the front counter to see what was going on. The concierge said the bags had been delivered to room 507 but we were in room 505, a quick check revealed that we had been booked in to both rooms (?). He organised for our bags to be delivered to 505 and all was well in the world. About 30 mins after we got settled there was a knock at the door where another staff member informed us that we had been given an upgrade and had both 505 and 507 adjoining rooms with 507 more or less being the formal lounge and second bathroom. Sweet gig but only for overnight so we really didn't get to utilise both rooms fully. We did a quick lap around Whistler and decided it was time to seek out a place to eat and what better idea than an Aussie icon, a pie. Owned and operated by Aussies, Peaked Pies will open its second store in Vancouver in a couple of months. The pies were absolutely what we needed to fill (over fill) our bellies, if you find your self in Whistler or Vancouver look them up for a taste of home :-)

Aussie pies in Canada.

Hunger pangs satisfied it was off to bed, tomorrow was a free day until mid afternoon, we had nothing planned so had a look at some things to do but left the decision up to the weather on what we would do as it looked like it may be a sunny day after quite a cloudy trip to date.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

01 August - Monday - Vancouver (British Columbia Day)

G'day All,

Said farewell to Victoria today, although we had a near miss, sleeping through our alarm. Luckily we had heaps of time to spare but I haven't seen the pair of us move so fast to repack 3 suitcases and down breakfast. We thought we were getting picked up at the hotel but turns out we had to meet at the bus depot about 200 meters from the hotel. No problem really just unexpected, departure time was also an hour earlier than we thought. Made it to the coach terminal with heaps of time and besides glaring at the queue jumpers at the bus stop everything went smoothly. Coach went from down town Victoria to the ferry and at Vancouver dropped us of at the Fairmont hotel, not our hotel but as close as he was going. This meant carting two backpacks and three suitcases five + blocks to the Rosedale on Robson suites we are staying at. To avoid blocking the pavement we rigged up a suitcase train :-)

Suitcase Train . . .

We arrived at about 2 pm and checked in, this is our last stop for a couple of days before heading home. We will do a couple of things in Vancouver and wind down a bit from what has been a fairly busy schedule for a holiday. Found a great place about 30 metres from the hotel that did a great Japanese beef curry, our first non-buttered vegetables in weeks.

Laundry day today as we've about run out of clean clothes, there is only so many times you can turn a pair of jocks about ;-) luckily it didn't get to that but I was getting close.

Cheers

Gary and Penny.

31 July - Sunday - Victoria - Orca and whale watching

G'day All,

The morning was pretty easy with a light breakfast and waiting for the 10 am pick up to get us to the BC Whale Watching tour. Greeted once again by an Aussie (Matthew) for this Aussie operated tour. Set out at 10:30 with captain Jim on a hurricane rated zodiac with cabin (for extra comfort) in search of whales and technically dolphins as Orca's are not whales but belong to the dolphin family. It was only about 3 miles out from the harbour that we encountered our first lone humpback whale in the distance. It did a nice tail flip for us and we continued on down along the Washington State coast line around Seattle in search of Orcas.

Up he / she comes . . .

and down he / she goes . . .

The radio was abuzz with activity closer to shore so we headed on over to see if there was any Orcas to be found. We found two separate pairs and followed them for a bit then sat quiet to see if they would come closer as the shadow from the boat causes fish to hide in its shadow and sets the dinner table for the Orcas. After a little wait it appeared that the pair split up, one going around us the other heading straight for us, a tactic used to come from both sides of their prey. Orcas move very quickly and no sooner than we saw the fin coming towards us than it had gone beneath us and out the other side, grabbing a decent photo was difficult due to their speed and relatively short time on the surface. Regardless of the lack of good photo opportunities it was great to see these Orcas in their natural environment.

The female Orca heads right for us to investigate what's happening.

The female Orca cruises passed, sometimes I wonder who is watching who.

Clipper sailing by the Orcas play ground.

On our return from the whale tour we had a bite to eat and headed back to the room to catch out breath and got ready for a night down on Victoria’s Inner Harbour for the 27th annual Victoria Symphony Splash. Splash is now one of the largest annual symphony events in North America. The event attracts up to 40,000 Victoria residents and visitors, and over 400 volunteers contribute to its goal of brining the symphony to the people. The finale was Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture complete with cannons, tubular bells and a fireworks display over head. Afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat and I took a few night shots at Victoria harbour.

Fireworks over the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

More fireworks over the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

. . . and some more fireworks.

The Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria.

Victoria Harbour looking towards the Fairmont Empress Hotel.

Victoria Harbour looking towards British Columbia Parliament buildings.

The British Columbia Parliament Buildings at night.

Victoria Harbour by night.

Looks like we have managed to catch a few public holidays during this trip, Canada day on arrival, followed by USA celebrations across from Niagara and tomorrow is British Columbia Day. So lots happening around us for the trip. Last night in Victoria and its off to Vancouver tomorrow.

Cheers

Gary and Penny

30 July - Saturday - Vancouver to Victoria - Butchart Gardens

G'day All,

An early room delivered breakfast that was over catered for due to somebody (Penny) putting 2 against two hot breakfasts meaning we had four hot breakfasts as well as cereal :-) Well at least we could fill up for lunch as well... Transfers all went well, albeit a bit of a shuffle between the pick up at 8:30 am by a small bus to get us to the coach which took us to the ferry (vehicular ferry) and then continued to take us to the final stop at Victoria at around 1:30 pm. Thought we were getting dropped off at the Chateau Victoria Hotel but that wasn't the case, luckily it was only a 100 metre walk to the hotel from the drop off point. We checked in as the room was ready, dropped the bags in the room had a quick freshen up before jumping on the public bus to get to Butchart Gardens.

A point to note here for any Australian or State government public transport officials, "Pick up your game!" as the costs of public transport in Victoria and Canada generally are crazily cheap. Butchart Gardens are about a 40 min drive from down town Victoria and its fare? . . .  $2.50 regardless of the stop off along the route or $5 for an all day pass. The route was equivalent to travelling Ipswich to Brisbane for $5 return! We had a bit of a chuckle at one of the bus drivers who took us to the gardens and named him Mad Max as he must have been one of the drivers for the movie, the leather glove gave the game away but the bus was pushed to its limits for most of the trip :-).

The gardens are amazing and have been going for more than 100 years, well laid out, well manicured and everything in bloom, a few examples below.

During the summer months the gardens also put on a fireworks show so we stayed for that too, it was an Aladdin theme and quite well done.

There were thousands at the event meaning we caught the last bus home at 11:20 pm. Sleep in tomorrow as we forewent the HOHO bus and booked an Orca whale watching tour instead at 10 am.

Cheers
Gary and Penny