Roadtripping western Canada

Vancouver Island, BC - I went on a tour to Vancouver Island for the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. We left on the Friday and went up to Horseshoe Bay where we caught the ferry to Nanaimo. Once there we travelled across the island to Tofino. The next day I went whale watching with some of the guys on the tour. The day started off nice but then packed up and got very cold and rainy. We saw 2 grey whales and a bunch of sea lions and went to some natural hot springs for a dip.



Upon our return to Tofino we had a few drinks and then hit the only pub in town. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The next day we headed to Victoria via numerous small coastal towns. In Victoria we went to a Jamaican restaurant for dinner then went out on the town. After a wander around Victoria for the day, we then caught the ferry back to the mainland.

Canadian Rockies Roadtrip - On the Tuesday, I then jumped in on a roadtrip with a bunch of randoms to the Canadian Rockies. A Kiwi girl, Kelly, got a cheap rental minivan and 7 of us headed for the hills.

Roadtrip crew: NZ - Me, Kelly, Rebecca; AUS - Michelle, Mick; ENG - Lisa, Max

GOAL: To see wild bears, moose, beavers, wolves.



Kelowna, BC - Our first stop was Kelowna where we went for a wander along the beach front and then went into town for drinks. I introduced everyone to the drinking game, 'circle of death', and after 2 games of that and a game of 'I have never' we were well acquainted with each other and boogied down until closing.

Lake Louise, AB - We made it into the Rockies and got into town fairly late so we had a meal and then chilled out in the hostel for the night. It is here that I tried and fell in love with a Canadian meal called poutine. It is hot chips (fries) topped with curds and gravy. It is very nice. We went and had a look at the very picturesque Lake Louise before we made our way to Calgary.



Calgary, AB - Upon our arrival we located the only hostel in town and noticed that it was surrounded by crackheads and bums so thought better of it and decided to stay in a motel. After dumping our stuff we went out to dinner. Mick and I went and had Alberta steak while the others went to an Irish pub then we met up at Cowboys bar. On the Thursday night we were there, they had 25c beers for sale. The cups were only about 200ml but the beer was home brew and so cheap that a round of 4 beers for each person was only $7. Needless to say we were quite under the influence very quickly.



Then the DJ started playing line dancing music so we all jumped on the dance floor. The crowd was all in their early to mid twenties but they all knew each line dance. The group of us foreigners made great fools of ourselves as we hopelessly attempted to follow the steps as everybody else did everything in time. It was great fun though, for the half hour of country music then we rocked the rest of the night away with the girls getting some 10 to 2 action from randoms.

The next day we all split up and did different things in Calgary. Max, Bex and I wanted to see a movie but the cinema in town didn't open until 6:00pm, so we spent several hours walking around aimlessly and buying scratchy tickets. Max and I lost on all our tickets but Bex won twice, winning $26. On our way out of Calgary we stopped and watched some Friday Night Football for a short period of time. It really is a slow game to watch.



Banff, AB - Into Banff for a couple of nights. We went and had a few quiets at an english pub and some games of pool and the next day we hiked up Tunnel Mountain and had a look over the town and out to the surrounding mountains. After a drive around town we got the cards out again and started up another game of circle of death before hitting the town again and dancing 'til close.


Check out the name of the loop on the sign

Icefields Parkway to Jasper, AB - We were supposedly going to have an early start however we left for Jasper at about 12:30pm along the Icefields Parkway, a very picturesque drive up the Rockies. It was very pretty with big mountains, glaciers and turquoise lakes. It was supposed to be our best chance of seeing the wildlife we were to eager to catch a glimpse of. We saw no animals the whole way up until we got just out of Jasper and saw some elk (wapiti). Very much a consolation prize to the animals we were really after. That night we DIDN'T go out cos it was a Sunday and we had an 11 hour drive the next day to Whistler via Kamloops.



Whistler, BC - After a long day's drive in 2 hour driver shifts we made it to Whistler before dark. Luckily there aren't many traffic cops on the highways outside of the towns and we made the trip in good time. Being our last night of the road trip and not achieving our goal of seeing the animals we wanted, we went and celebrated/comiserated in the way we knew best and went to the pub.



The next day we trekked back to Vancouver where Lisa flew back home and Kelly went to her place. The rest of us stayed at the same hostel for a couple of days before I left to head east again.