Tour Continues- Victoria, Whales & Whistler!

Lets pick up right where we left off, after breakfast the next morning we trundled down to the shore front of Victoria (I still feel weird saying Victoria and trying to remember it is a city and not the state back home in Australia!) to hop on board a zodiac for some whale watching!

We had to sign waives, I feel like any time you have to sign one you know it's something fun you are about to do, like they are saying 'it's not our fault if you suffer a mild case of death'.

Anywho, we were given some very fetching orange suits to wear, just incase we did somehow end up in the freezing cold ocean to prevent hypothermia, plus the wind chill once we got moving on our little zodiac was deliciously brisk! Our guide on this tour was great, really knew his stuff on orcas and immersed you in the experience, his boat driving skills were impressive, getting us airborne a few times off of other boats wakes.

It didn't take long to find our first orca, being my first ever whale up close (by close I mean 100 ft as there are very strict laws), I was loving it! The orcas are such intelligent creatures too, they stick in the pod they are born into their entire lives, never leaving the side of their mothers and only meeting up with other pods to mate and hunt.

We eventually found a whole pod of them just cruising very slowly, getting ready for a 'resting pattern' because they never actually sleep or stop moving their whole lives, they are able to control how much brain power and energy they are exerting, its truly amazing!

This was one of the many times on this trip I've really regretted not bringing my bigger zoom lens, but just being around the whales and seeing them was enough...easily another thing off of my bucket list.

After all that excitement, we made our way back for some lunch, classic hotdog!

That afternoon we went for a hike in Goldstream Provincial Park, even though there wasnt much water about everything is so green, everywhere we go! Cara soon discovered her $5 Kmart shoes were not going to cut it this trip haha, as much as she didn't want to admit it.

For dinner, any guesses for what I had?

This was actually at a restaurant that own's a farm near by, alot of the food we were served was sourced from there, t'was really good.

We were up the next morning super early, again, and heading back to the mainland to begin was I was most excited about for this group tour, Whistler and the Canadian Rockies!

We arrived in Whistler after cruising along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, easily one of the most scenic roads I have ever been on. We checked into our hotel and set off for a hike to see some rivers and a train crash that had happened around 60 years ago, but they left alot of the wreckage there, it has become a place for some great pieces of graffiti and become part of a BMX track! It was quite bizarre, just a train wreck in the middle of a dense forest area.

We then ventured to a wood oven pizza place for dinner. I'm going to call it and say it was close to the very best pizza I have ever had, just doesn't quite pip Oscar's back home! They make it right in front of you here, the oven right next to us and were even chopping wood right behind us for the fire!

More of Whistler to come in the next blog, I hope in the next day or so, where we currently are has only satellite internet and uploading photos is a pain in my ass to say the least!

Group Adventure Begins & Off To Vancouver Island

Morning all,

This was our last full day in Vancouver, I really wasn't ready to leave, it reminded me so much of our little Adelaide back home and being autumn the colours of everything changing where beautiful. We packed and checked out of our hotel, headed over and dropped our bags at the new hotel where our group tour was starting, as it wasn't starting until that evening we went off wandering Vancouver again. Starbucks is pretty much Maccas back home, on every corner almost...funnily enough there are barely any fast food places around the CBD. 

We ended up finding a park and relaxed there, enjoying the cool weather and sun. I don't want to come home to Summer!

Meeting everyone for the first time in our tour group is always an awkward moment, people are all trying to get a sense for what each person is like. Luckily our group was pretty good, mostly because I was there (joking of course....sorta), we scored mostly Aussies in our group and a few others from various places around the world. Cara and I (I was made to edit that) made instant friends with Amelia and Alice, a couple of girls from Melbourne, we really became close over the trip. I'm writing this a week into our tour and the four of us spend most of our time hanging out, it makes the trip so much more awesome when you click with people. That's not to say we don't get along with everyone! haha We really like everyone on our trip, everyone is so laid back and easy going...or they are good at pretending to like us. Our tour leader, Josh is fantastic and patient with all the photos I'm always wanting to take!

That evening we all met and went for some Himalayan, no burgers sadly, but it was delicious! 

Up to early the next day we stuffed our faces at buffet brekky and set off towards the ferry to cross to Vancouver island, stopping at Granville Island briefly to see the Totems, Vancouver Skyline and the view of the Lions Gate Bridge.

The ferry crossing took a good hour and a bit, I've never been on one so large! It was carrying trucks, buses, had a Starbucks and all. Vancouver Island is so damn pretty and I find it so weird that the capital of BC is the city of Victoria, which is actually on the island. We drove into Victoria, I don't even know the best way to describe this city, it's so gorgeous, with a heavy (I think?) British influence on the buildings and how the whole city is planned out. We had lunch at a little shanty town called 'Fisherman's Wharf' the fish is so fresh there, obviously we just had to have fish and chips for lunch, oh! and found possibly the best cinnamon donuts of life!

We had an afternoon of free time and explored the city, which is really just a big town, then met for dinner at a local brewery, once again I had to try all of the beers and a burger....again! haha.

I'm so sorry the posts are so scattered, this trip is just so busy and I want to get the most out of being here, who knows when I will get back, besides Canada is just so so disgustingly beautiful! 

There is just so much to talk about throughout this tour so I'm going to leave this post there, enjoy the rest of the photos and I'll post more soon!