Day Four already - ey?! Yep, Canadian’s say that a lot ey.
I’m on my second Ferry, who’s name art thou Brian, leaving the capital of British Columbia, Victoria and heading by merry coach to Whistler, high up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. By the way, Ferry’s here are very big here. Nothing like the piddling little ones at home. Ohhh no.
The weather has been more pleasant than the pleasantest thing you could think of. As an exercise, think of that; the pleasantest thing you could imagine and double it! Then put cream and honey on top. Yesterday, Sunday, was a lovely spring day. Warm but not too hot and with a soothingly nice cool sea breeze blowing every now and then in over the city.
Everyone on the tour is gradually getting to know each other. There are aussies from all over the country. I’m the youngest by a long shot and they’re all a nice, friendly bunch of people.
We had a choice of things to do on Sunday Morning. Some went fishing or schlepping for Salmon, some went up in a sea plane while others trundled about Victoria in a horse and cart. I went along with another couple on the historical tour of the city. We got to have a good look at the city from a bit of a non tourist’s point of view. Saw lots of nice houses and ended up at the Lieutenant Governor's Residence in the up market part of town.
As I said, it’s spring here and this place is awash with flowers of all sorts. It’s disgustingly pretty if that’s a valid description. We spent a good two or three hours at the Governor’s and her amazing garden. The colours and textures are so intense. The place is worked and maintained by volunteer gardening enthusiasts and they’ve done an awesome job. I’ve seen nice gardens before but this one was really like...really nice. On the way back we stopped off at a suburban mini-mart to get a drink etc. If you like strawberry’s this is the place to come. They are fricken enormous here and still really sweet and tasty. I was tempted to buy a big punnet of them (hold two fists together side by side and you can get an idea of the `standard’ size punnets filled to the brim with gorgeous and rich tasting strawberrys and only five bucks.
I had a great time with my new Handcam and digital camera filming and photographing everything. It should look really good in high def when I get home and edit it all together. I almost overdosed on Gardens today. After the ole guv’s residence we trundled off to have a look at a private garden that was just the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen. But not in a cutesy sort of way. The fence around the place was nailed nice. Some people in this world put an awful lot of work into their garden. I don’t. But that’s something else entirely.
We got back to the hotel and then it was out again at 1pm to have a look at the Butchart Gardens. This garden made the governors look like a little hobby garden.
Bloody hell it’s a big place.
I’m still trying to get over my jet lag. Not a lot of sleep at night and little kitty concussions through the day. This means it’s like having a light nodding off but rather than a light little nap after nodding off. It’s straight away into a deep sleep. I’m having trouble staying awake writing this so sorry if it’s a dull read. Here's a nice lil pic for you milk lovers. It's quite difficult finding full cream milk here. Everything is divided into percentages. 2%, 10, 15 and 25% for instance. I asked the chirpy young minimart girl if they had anything like full cream milk and she gave me a look as if I'd done a messy sneeze and forgotten to wipe the snot off my face. I only asked because I was curious to see how their milk tasted. (Hey! Some of us collect stamps, others climb mountains, I'm curious about the taste of milk internationally.) In New Zealand, for instance, it's really sweet and creamy. I didn't end up finding full cream milk, but she did recomend the brand I bought below. It just tasted like normal to me.
Got Milk!
Day 6 and I'm here in Banff, Alberta. Sitting in a Starbucks, hands shaking after a short helicopter flight over the rocky mountains. I was glad to touch earth again but I was shit scarred going up in my first helicopter flight. I would have been okay but what I thought was a solid wall I was leaning against in the copter was in fact a door and a girl opened it to help me untangle the headphones and get buckled up. From then on I was somewhat paranoid that the door would fly open. I kept my tiny brain occupied videoing the ride but I was somewhat nervous up there. Bloody spectacular view though. Strewth! But lets back up a few days shall we?
These are pics continuing on my adventure trundle to enroute to Whistler. Just about everything I see here reminds me of Twin Peaks. The haunting, jazzy soundtrack playing in my head as we drive along. Misty mountains covered in Douglas Fir and dark and foreboding skies, heavy and pregnant with either rain or snow. Some guy clicking his fingers in a rhythmic fashion - `Laura?! Lauuura?!'
Man I'm looking forward to the Festival of the Log (Twin Peaks marathon) when I get back home. 
Whistler is a cool place and not just temperature wise. This is where the Winter Olympics are going to be held in a couple of years. It has the cutest little shopping centre that looks like a little Bavarian village. Not that I know what one looks like...maybe a Disney version of one then. Either way it's very pretty and must look great in winter when it's full of snow.
The Fairmont Whistler Inn is where we stayed the night. For my mind, such as it is, fricken luxury. Tonight I had a skype chat with Dougie Robertson back in Newcastle and then went down for dinner. I gobbled down some air dried Buffalo and Truffles with shaved parmasan and olive oil for entree followed by Elk Meatloaf in a lush rich gravy and bacon with three coloured Cauliflower and garlic mashed potato's. All this topped off with a `Study' of Creme Brulei. Burp and Feck is all I'll say to that. Our breakfast's have been on a huge scale as well. Basically I just gobble down a delicious American style breakfast, chock full of all thats good for you and then sit around on my puffy white ass all day on a bus snoozing and staring gobsmacked at the scenery. Love these holidays.
Woke up nice and early and headed off to the Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops. The landscape has changed again and is now more hilly with less trees. Still, lots of trees but in comparison a lot less and full of naughty bugs eating them too. Something to do with Global Warming and hippies not allowing fires to be lit and then the bugs which need the fires to control them go ape shit and eat all the trees. Bloody Hippies.
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