Di and Cam

Hi all,

A lot has happened since our last update so prepare yourselves for an epic story (by Cam)...

After Christmas in Vancouver we started our road trip in “Big Red” (Heather's Dodge Ram) to Calgary through the Rocky Mountains for New Years with Di's family. With “Big Red” full to the gunnels with all of Heather's, Di's, Lara's and Cam's stuff the first stage of the trip was to Kelowna to visit Granny. This is where the snow on the trip started. The photo below is of Heather, Diana and Lara on the lakefront.

From Kelowna we headed for Calgary to stay with Di's Uncle Guy and Aunty Heather. This drive took us through the Rocky Mountains. This was a great drive, the sun was shining and the Rockys were showing off all their beauty - highly recommended. On the way we stopped off at Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel (as seen in the picture of Diana below).

Our time in Calgary was a lot of fun with all of Diana's aunties and uncles and most of the cousins making the trip over. This stage of the trip has not been well documented as priority was given to eating and drinking. New Years was spent eating a massive smoked turkey cooked on the BBQ (thanks Tom) and drinking (only) a little too much. A big thank you to Guy and Heather for all the experimental dishes and making us feel at home. The photo below is of Jeff, Lara, Heather, Di and Cam on New Years Day with everyone feeling "bright-eyed and bushy tailed".

From Calgary we embarked on our trip back to Vancouver via a little town called Jasper. This stage of the journey was rather 'eventful'. Up until this point in the trip we had not had a snow fall as yet, plenty on the ground but none falling from the air. We were hoping it would snow at some point and well, did it snow. From Calgary we headed for Lake Louise a very picturesque lake. Just before Lake Louise it started to snow and like the tourists we were we enjoyed every last flake of it as snow had not featured in our internet-printed forecast. The picture below is of Cam and Di at the lake in the snow.

From the lake we headed off for Jasper (it was still snowing). This was a good decision as the main highway back to Vancouver was now closed due to a couple of avalanches which came down and blocked the highway and it was not due to open until the next afternoon. The road to Jasper was through two National Parks that we will definitely come back and visit during summer as they would be amazing to explore (there were groups of tourists exploring with the aid of snowshoes and poles, but, unfortunately, we weren’t prepared for that).

We should have realised what to expect on the road ahead when the flashing lights let us know the road conditions ahead were “Poor” but at this stage we were still enjoying the snow - tourists. The road ahead was some white knuckle driving through 250km of nearly white-out conditions at an average of about 50km/h. We were starting to hope the snow would stop so we could see where we were going and we subsequently found out that this road was closed very soon after we had been on it. For all the driving Jasper was a whistle stop tour as it was still snowing and we wanted to make the most of the light (it gets dark here at about 5pm in winter).

As if our drive had not been eventful enough we decided to push on to a small town called Blue River as the snow had slowed and the roads looked good. We were also keen to minimise the driving to be done the next day. About ¾ of the way to Blue River the snow started again. We were a bit sick of the snow by now. About 30km out from Jasper we hit a patch of black ice, spun the truck and put it into a snow bank. No one was hurt as the snow acted like a great big airbag and cushioned our impact. We didn’t really like the snow at all at this point. After we found out that 4-Low wouldn’t get us out of the ditch we flagged down some traffic to ask them to call a tow truck as we were out of cell phone reception. Soon after this a friendly tow truck driver pulled us out. After inspection of the truck for damage, with literally not even a scratch to be found, we headed off again – this time at around 25-30km/h.

Upon arrival in Blue River we checked into an average hotel and got dinner from the local service station as all two of the local restaurants had decided to shut early for some reason. Then we went to bed. It was still snowing.

When we awoke in the morning the sun was shining and it wasn’t snowing – YEAH! The rest of the drive back to Vancouver was uneventful (comparatively) apart from another hour of driving in the snow, which we took in our stride, as we were pros by now. A big thank you to Di’s mum for driving “Big Red” and getting us all home in one piece.

An eventful end to a great road trip - and something interesting for you guys back home to read

From then on we have restricted ourselves to day trips around Vancouver. Our first trip was over to Vancouver Island. The picture below is of us on a horse called “Duke”.

Our next outing was out to a NHL hockey game. We watched the Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton (just North of Calgary) Oilers in extra time. This was a lot of fun with lots of music, flying whales, and figure skaters, who I think are the ice hockey equivalent of cheerleaders. The photo below is of the croud and part of the ice.

The next day we explored a little bit of Vancouver city taking in Gastown, Chinatown, Stanley Park and Granville Island. The photo below is of us in Gastown by a steam-powered clock which Cam found rather intersting.

Our next trip was up to Whistler which is known for its great skiing and where most of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. The photo below is of the village from the gondola. As we had had a reaonably hard night the night before (thank you for the crab dinner Jeff) this trip didn't include any skiing or snowboarding of any sort though it did look very good.

As we had just dived in Tahiti we thought we sould see how the other half lived and decided we would give diving in Canada a go. Our dive site and Diana and Cam in Dry Suits can be seen in the photos below.

This was a fun dive with lots of interesting fish and anemones among three boat wrecks. Even with Dry Suits we both found the dive cold with a water temperature of about 6 degrees C. Of note: the sign that can be seen in the middle of the picture in the photo above was blown away while we were under water. Not to be put off we are planning another dive hopefully tomorrow.

That brings us to today where Vancouver had its biggest snow dump seen in years. Below are some pictures of Heather's house and driveway, which we shovelled.

Well, that's probably enough reading for everyone for now. We should try and post updates a bit more frequently so that they can be slightly more manageable!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun back home

Diana and Cam