Tasman Sea

Thursday 13th
Umm, yes the seas did reach 6.5 metres and unfortunately were coming side/aft for maximum effect. So there was a bit of pitching, rolling & shuddering but not enough to either worry us or disturb the usual sea day activities - food, drink, talk, more of the above and of course Vivian's bridge in the afternoon.

The Captain slowed the ship down to 11knts and made a more northerly course to avoid/ minimise the effect but this is apparently making us a little late in our expected arrival in Melbourne on Saturday.  Many of the (Australian) passengers are unwell and the onboard medical centre is doing a roaring trade.  I have a cough & runny nose but thankfully have both aspirin & antibiotics in hand. 

Friday 14th
Groundhog Day.  Good news however is that my sniffles have gone and I am 99%, so pleased about that.  We have speeded up and doing just over 19 knts and thankfully the seas are down to 3/4 metres.  Most people have adjusted to the motion of the ship but unfortunately Cabin Fever has struck quite a few inexperienced cruisers, who can't wait to get off and are starting to find fault in anything.  Pity.

Saturday 15th
Nice calm entrance into Port Melbourne and a little bit of watery sun as well.  As expected, we were an hour late but that didn't worry us as we were meeting my brother Lynn & his wife Wendy at 11.00.  So a leisurely breakfast and later a cup of coffee before we got off the ship.  Of course there were some 1700 Aussies to disembark and they all had assembly times & places to meet, so was quite a bit of a logistical nightmare.

Anyway, just after 10.00 I suggested that we get off, as I was aware that we had to do immigration.  On other cruises often the immigration is done on board before port to speed up the process, but not here.  We got off the ship with no problem but ended up in a queue of several hundred departing passengers.  No transit lane - apparently not enough of us!  Anyway after 45 minutes of "friendly Immigration & Customs Officers" - Not.  we found ourselves outside and made our way down the dock to the tram stop.  Had about 5 minutes to spare before the tram arrived with Lynn & Wendy.  We found it easier to meet them at the port, rather than navigating to Melbourne.  We did the same thing last year, when we were on the Diamond and it worked out well.

Was great to catch up and we had a great time and a lovely lunch in as waterfront pub about a kilometre from the wharf.  All too soon it was coming up 3.00 and we needed to be on board by 3.30, so a bit of a mad dash.  Although we thought we were last on (& probably were the last into the departure area), we found that there were once again queues to get scanned, immigrated, rescanned and eventually get on board.

Our complaint is not so much the necessary processes, but the time involved.  For us (that is the 199 who got on in Auckland) Melbourne was a another port of call and one could reasonably expect to have the time for a look around.  The reality is that we arrived at 8.00 and were due to sail at 3.30, so allowing for officialdom, probably only 4-5 hours, which is hardly time to get into Melbourne proper, but being resilient Kiwis, no one complained ☺

A smooth sailing out of Melbourne, but quite cool, particularly as they'd had temperatures in the 30s earlier in the week.  Quite funny being the "oldies" on board and watching people consulting maps etc. trying to find out where they are going.  About 5.30, a knock on the door and it is Pauline & Bill, friends of our Vancouver friends Rohays & Don, who of course were so kind to us earlier in the year.  Anyway we had a good chat and a plan to meet up for both coffee and a photo later on.  Bill is President of their local Probus club and they ate travelling as a group of nearly 40 Probians - that is a group of Probus members in case you're wondering.

Sunday 16th
OK, real time - the Tasman is living up to it's reputation and the sea is up to a good 5 metre swell, it is windy , wet and cold.  To make matters worse, Vivian has got the cold now, so I am sharing drugs with her !!!!  However I see that the weather back home is no better, so hope it clears by Wednesday.  As I keep telling people, we were so lucky that every port day in NZ was perfect and I hope it will be the same for our new friends on board.

Not wishing our cruise away, but tomorrow will be our 2nd formal night and Tuesday is bag packing day. Nooooooo, all to quick.

Mainland visit

Monday 10th
A much nicer day than when we visited Akaroa last year.  We had to be up relatively early as we were to met in the Princess Theatre at 8.20 and from there on to ship's tenders and then to Akaroa.  We had elected to take the ship's transfer to Christchurch, where we had time on our own.

As many will be aware, it is just under 2 hours travel each way and the views were great going into Christchurch.  TV presents a pretty negative aspect in relation to the redevelopment of the city and while there are of course numerous empty sections and stripped buildings, there are also many building projects in full swing.  We were dropped off by the Museum (which BTW is great), where we had a quick coffee etc. as we were being met by our friends Karen & Merv who we met on the Med cruise last year.

I had originally said that we'd love to meet for a coffee, but no, they picked us up, gave us an extensive tour of the city and suburbs before we had lunch at Sumner.  Although there are still many empty houses yet to be moved or demolished in the Red Zone, the biggest impression was the reading.  There were so many roads in the CBD and other where roads are being repaired or otherwise simply closed.  This apparently happens on a random basis and even locals have difficulties traversing the city.

We visited the "Cardboard Cathedral", which is quite remarkable in it's design and construction.  Opposite is the site of the CTV building and adjacent is a section containing 185 empty chairs of all types, all painted white to represent each of the people who died in the earthquake.  Very poignant.   We parked just opposite and down a bit from the cathedral and there was an old building (which I think was a Club), however 15 minutes later when we returned, the last section was being demolished.  Just shows the speed in clearing sites.  However our coach driver on our way back to Akaroa pointed out a pile of rubble, where there was a Church.  This had been demolished by order of the authorities, BUT when the owner drove by and saw this he approached the authorities who said " Oops, wrong Church, Sorry".  However overall and given the complexity of the rebuild, they are doing an excellent job and everyone is most positive.

We got back to Akaroa and on to the ship on what should have been the last tender, but there were stragglers so we were a bit late sailing.  Only a short run down to Port Chalmers, so doesn't really matter.  A great opportunity to use our balcony as the sun was on our side and it was calm and relatively warm - mid/high teens.  Great views out of Akaroa.

Tuesday 11th
Port Chalmers, Dunedin looked great was we sailed in. We reached the Heads about 6.30 and were able to see most of the sail in before breakfast.  Once again an early start as we had decided to do the Taieri Gorge by train.  This is a special train for Princess and departed from the port.  The normal train goes twice a day from Dunedin and left much later than our train.  Our train was about 15/18 carriages of all ages and types. Ours was about 100 years old, but had all the old world charm, a great host and most agreeable fellow passengers.

All in all it was a great trip and the scenery is great/amazing.  From a viewing perspective we felt that it was better than the Rocky Mountaineer train we did earlier this year.  Certainly everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was a lovely morning.  The return journey was a little quicker as it was downhill and we didn't have the "compulsory" Markets stop.  What we did notice however was the darkening skies and by the time we reached Dunedin Railway Station it was raining.  The rain later turned torrential for a while, however held off while we disembarked.

Once on board it really bucketed down for a while and I read today that there had been severe thunderstorms in Dunedin - but fortunately Port Chalmers missed!  The dreaded "Captain's announcement" came before dinner.  The seas in the south west of the South Island are forecast at 7metres and therefore we are staying in port overnight and sailing at 6.00 am on Wednesday, thus missing our planned Fiordland scenic cruise.  A bit disappointing, but rough seas ate probably more disappointing.

Wednesday 12th
It looked so perfect this morning when we woke just after we set sail, that it seemed a shame to be missing Fiordland.  However once we were out of the heads we felt the southerly and did our 1 mile before breakfast.  One side was sunny and cold, the other was cold and very cold and very very cold.  Anyway, only 3 times around for our mile.

A bit hard to get a seat in the Atrium as all those who normally frequent the upper decks are seeking a bit of warmth and comfort - don't blame them.  It is just on midday and the sea is a little bumpy as we reach the bottom of the Island.  Vivian has found Bridge this afternoon, so that will be nice.  We are now passing Tiwai Point and I can see the smelter.  Sun is out and sea about 2 metres.  Unfortunately it will rise to 6 metres over the next 24 hours.  Some passengers are fearful, but no worry to us!!  Now that the blog is up to date, I can get back to my book.

Nostalgia

Saturday 8th
OK, so there was a bit of motion last night but this did not disturb us and we woke just after 6.00 with sun shining as we sailed past Tologa Bay and down the coast.  Early morning cuppa and did our mile as round the deck (3 times around).  I was not dressed warmly enough as I only had shorts and shirt and it was blowing from the south at more than a gentle breeze.  Coffee was required before breakfast.

After breakfast we went back to the cabin to make sure everything was put away as we had to be out by 10.00 so they could replace the carpet.  Vivian was sceptical that they would replace it but when we got down, sure enough he was laying brand new carpet in the cabin next door.  So we have been "upgraded" from basic blue to gold circles !!!!!!

We went down to Promenade to read/do this blog (don't ask), however after 10 minutes a bloke asks me how to get the internet on his iPad.  Surprisingly there is no one in the Internet cafe, so we go through the process and help him get his emails etc.  He stays and chats for another hour, so just about time for lunch, as we are due in Napier at Noon.  We are however half an hour late and have a great view of the Bay and our entrance to the port.  There is fresh snow on the ranges and a brisk southerly, but a perfect HB day.

Lunch today is in the MDR and we sit down with a couple of women from.....Matamata.  Yes, they are part of the Matamata group.  What is more strange is that they are also our cabin neighbours.  Apparently their dinner table has been rearranged, so looks as though we we will be down to just 4 tonight.  Anyway, great company.

We have a free shuttle into Napier and spend time wandering around town, including the old Public Trust building, where I first met Vivian 46 years ago (more or less to the day or at least the month).  So I got a photo of her on the steps, which is special.  We then did a trek up Bluff Hill to our old home in Priestley Terrace.  I can confirm that they have made it much steeper than when we used to walk it ☺.  Back down and had a drink in the old Masonic Hotel, which is where we spent the first night of our honeymoon - was surprised that they didn't remember us.  More wandering around the "old town" and found the Possum Shop, where I bought a new possum/ merino jacket at a very good price.  Most of the stock they had were made in ,..........Warkworth.

Fantastic to sail out of Napier on such a perfect evening.  A bit bumpy as we make our way down the east coast.

Sunday 9th
You can't beat Wellington on a good day.  That was a saying (mainly/partially relating to rugby) that was current when I lived down here 18 years ago, and today was no exception.  OK there was a chill in the air, but it was clear and looking great.  We walked into town to meet my aunt Lois at Astoria, which still has great coffee and enjoyed a pleasant time catching up.  We then returned to the ship, had lunch and then headed back into town to meet our friends (x Vivian's school) for afternoon tea.  Great that they had booked at the Botanical Gardens, which is opposite my old apartment.  The whole experience is like a step back in time - 40/50 years yesterday in Napier & 20 years in Wellington today.

We (at last - still don't ask) are up to date &  sailing out of Wellington on our way to Akaroa.  Wellington looks great, the sun is shining and the sea smooth.  Life is great!

Calm seas ahead

Thursday dawned a mixture of sun & squally showers, but we were soon all loaded up ready for our trip down to Auckland.  Tiger was fast asleep in the sun and was not expecting another holiday so soon!  Fiona gave us a lovely cup of coffee and afghan before we drove downtown.  We are fortunate that we can drive onto the wharf and right up to the ship.  There were only 199 of us boarding in Auckland so the process was pretty smooth and we were aboard and having lunch in no time.

By now the sun was out in full and it was a delightful afternoon on our balcony, watching all the ferries coming and going.  Of course we had to attend our safety demonstration before sailing and we caught up with our neighbours (twice removed), who said that there were another 4 or so from the Warkworth area on the ship.

Dinner was an open sitting as we don't sail until 8.00, so have to wait to see who our tablemates  might be.  The sea was so calm and the moon reflecting was great - even at 4.00 in the morning, when we awoke to the sound of vacuum cleaner & blower!  When we got up later in the morning I found that the carpet by the door was wet as well.  Turned out that a water pipe outside our cabin had broken and caused the flooding.  Apparently the cabin is to be recarpeted tomorrow (Saturday). 

Friday 7th
Tauranga was very and fine and we were met by Fiona's Godmother, Janet who we had not seen for a number of years.  She took us on a short  trip around and then back to her home for a cuppa and catch up.  But, the big news from the area was the arrest of Phil Rudd of AC/DC fame.  He lives about 8 houses down the road from Janet's in a huge mansion overlooking the harbour.  The place was being staked out by media/cameras and Mob security!!! Most exciting for Tauranga. 

Janet dropped us back into Tauranga and we caught a bus back to the ship - free thanks to our Gold Cards and of course the former MP for Tauranga (I thought it most appropriate!).   Our sister ship, Sun Princess was also in port, so there were some 4,000 passengers about.  We met some of the Sun passengers and they are doing a reverse cruise to ours and they have had shocking weather, with rain & hail in Napier and rough weather down south.  They were so p!eased to see the sun at last.

Back on the ship, quietly treading our library books and a knock on the door and there is the big bunch of flowers and an apology for the inconvenience of our plumbing problem.  Not being ungrateful, but a bottle of wine would have been more useful.  Seriously though it was an unexpected and appreciative gesture by Princess.

Down for dinner later we find that we are at a table of 8, but only 6 (including us).  Heather & Jim from ..... Mt Maunganui! and Gordon & Audrey from Matamata.  Gordon & Audrey are living in a retirement community, as opposed to a village etc. and they are travelling as a group of 6 and it seems they were a bit miffed at not being allocated the same table as the others.  Anyway, all great company.  Heather & Jim had been home today and were a bit dismayed that there had been hail here too yesterday and Jim's tomatoes were severely damaged.  We have been so lucky to have missed the worst of the weather and hopefully this will continue.

Too late for the show, so had a green tea and gentle swell.  The Captain promises a change to more bumpy weather at 3.00 tomorrow we round East Cape.  We'll see!

Around New Zealand in 13 days

Well we are almost all set for our next cruise.  Just a little one around New Zealand this time, over to Melbourne and back again.   The beauty of this cruise is that we are able to do it as an Auckland to Auckland and no air travel involved.  Looking at it another way, we are joining a Melbourne to Melbourne cruise around New Zealand, which left Melbourne on Sunday.  There are a hundred or so of us Kiwis joining in Auckland and we will be the "new bods", however after we reach Melbourne, we will be the "old hats" for the onward return to Auckland.



We are sailing on the Dawn Princess and although we have been to many of the ports before, it is always great to see our own country from the sea.  Fingers are crossed that the weather will hold, particularly as it has been pretty wild over the last month.

Day 1 - Algies Bay, Auckland
Up early (even surprised Tiger) as we knew that the Dawn Princess would briefly pass through our line of sight en route to Auckland.  Sure enough, there she was at 6.45 am and managed to get a couple of photos.  Bearing in mind that she was half way to Great Barrier, she appears as a bit of a dot in the middle of "the gap" as we see it from our home.

OK, you need really good eyesight/imagination.
Great Barrier Island is in the far distance, with Little Barrier Island the larger distant island on the far left

So we are all set to go and depending on WIFI etc., next entry will be from the ship.  Plan to board about lunchtime.

Back to Vancouver

A much better day today. My first mistake was setting the alarm last night for 6.30.  I had forgotten to reset the time, as the clocks went back as we crossed over from Alberta to British Columbia.  Hence the alarm went off at 5.30.  Considering that we didn't get to sleep until after 11.00, a bit sleep deprived.  Anyway we got picked up and delivered to the train at 7.30.  Our train has grown to about 20 carriages, as they have combined 2 trains.  The really good news is that we are the last carriage, so have had some great photos of the train winding it's way along the river, on our way to Vancouver.  The process of getting us onto the coaches and then our respective carriages was impressive.  In no time we were underway.

The journey today is much better, as we are travelling down a river valley and there are far less trees to block our view.  Our cabin crew has increased to 3 as  they were 1 down yesterday. The food has once again been great and of course the weather is great - probably too warm.  Interesting to see all the logs along the way which will eventually be floated down the river.  Some of them looked pretty old, so I'm not too sure what the process is.  We seem to be keeping good time and even a little early at this stage.

Spoke too soon.  Although we were well ahead of time, we also had to manoeuvre through major marshalling yards, which took us almost half an hour.  Anyway we reached pour destination and were greeted by all the Rocky Mountaineer staff standing on the platform, waving.  A very American sorry of thing.  Our staff also thanked us enthusiastically and one of them called Holiday (yep, that's right) sang to us as we pulled in. Probably coincidental that there was an envelope for gratuities in the seat pocket, but honestly a suggested $80 was way, way over the top.  Probably the one thing which has got me most on this holiday is the tipping thing.  It's just that we don't understand it properly and are never too sure whether we are under or over tipping.  Generally I think I am getting better, but will nerd to unlearn when we get home.

Our hotel on this sector is the Holiday Inn and although it's a bit further away from the waterfront, it is handy, clean and has good, reasonable food.  Tuesday we woke to a light drizzle and a little cooler temperature as we headed to Vancouver Island and this turned out to be a big day out.  It was almost an hour to get out of Vancouver to the ferry terminal for our trip over.  We went aboard the ferry in the bus and then rushed upstairs for as coffee and as seat.  The ferry ride is 1.5 hours, but was very interesting as I didn't realise that there are so many islands on the way and we twisted and turned through them.  The smaller islands are inhabited by retirees apparently - no popping down to the shops/pub for them!

The really interesting thing we found out is that the port is close to the USA border, which runs along the 49th parallel, with the exception of Vancouver Island, which is solely Canadian territory.  This is apparently because they moved the capital of BC to Victoria at the time of setting borders.  On the other hand, there is a little point on the end of the Canadian peninsula, with a couple of hundred inhabitants and they are Americans.  The children go to school in Canada (of course) and they have to carry passports and go through border control every day.  Seemed complete madness to me.

Our purpose of visiting VI was to go to the Butchart Gardens.  These are contained in an old quarry and suffice to say that they were magnificent.  We had just over an hour and a half there and then drove further down to Victoria, another city overlooking the harbour.  The weather had cleared coming across from the mainland and was pretty well perfect for walking around.   Had plenty of time to look around and visited the Miniature Museum - most of which was very good.  Retraced our route and eventually got back to our hotel just after 9.30, in time catch the restaurant which closes at 10.00.

Wednesday 11th
A quiet day thankfully.  The first without an alarm for a week.  We went up the Vancouver Lookout (Tower), as this was also included with our Rocky Mountaineer package.  It was a good day for viewing the city, as tomorrow is likely to see some showers later in the day.  It was lovely to just amble around without having to continually check the time too be back on the bus!!!  Vivian has just had a swim in the heated pool here in the hotel and you never know, tomorrow I may join her.

Sadly tomorrow is the last full day of our holiday and it is amazing how much we have seen and all the people/friends we have met.  The joys of travel.  We are looking forward to a final dinner with Rohays & Don tomorrow night, but not the bag stuffing on Friday!

Black bear paw on the left. Grizzly on right

Spa pool in Jasper

Rocky Mountaineer

Logs on Fraser River

Butchart Gardens

More......

Steam clock in Gastown, Vancouver

Random observations

As we enter into the final phase of our adventures in North America, a few things come to mind.

Black bears can be brown, grey or even white.  Grizzly bears are brown, but have a hump behind the shoulder.  Bears are solitary animals except in the breeding season in June.  Mum bear looks after her cubs for 2 years and then they are on their own. Bears have no natural predators, most die by train!  Bears are naturally woosies & prefer to eat dandelion & berries, rather than people.

Canadians & Alaskans (can't comment on others) are polite drivers.  You can cross a road by just holding up your hand.  The 4 way stop encourages politeness ( would hate to see what would happen in NZ).  Most music in public places is stuck in the 60s & 70s - the only exception I heard was Lorde in a pub in Calgary!!

There are few songbirds to be heard.  Glaciers come in all shapes and sizes.  Light switches work upside down.  Toilet bowls are (over)full of water.  An Entree is a Main.  Salads come first.  Many TV channels means more of nothing.  The list price means nothing.  Sales tax comes on everything later.  Sales tax in Alberta is much less than British Columbia.  The main industry in BC is lumber.  The main industry in Alberta is oil.

There are 2 competing train companies in Canada.  Trains can have up to 300 carriages.  Containers are often double stacked.  Trains can be 1.5 kilometres long.  Trains traverse the whole of Canada to take goods to the port (east or west) nearest to the destination (Europe or Asia).  Alaska is a favourite destination for Koreans, as it is close.  The railway through to British Columbia was constructed to encourage BC to join Canada,  there was concern that US would take it.  US paid the equivalent of 2c an acre to buy Alaska from Russia.  Alaska has the biggest vegetables, as they get 22 hours of sunlight during the growing season.

The treeline in the Rockies is at 7,000 feet.  99% of the Rocky Mountaineer track is below 7,000 feet.  Bears are nearly impossible to see from a moving bus/train.  The Athabasca Glacier is 1,000 ft thick.  Salmon swim up to 1,000 miles to spawn/& die.  In Alaska they don't do salmon farming, just hatcheries to ensure supplies for fishers, both commercial & recreational.   The original Royal Canadian Mounted Police were established to control/discourage whiskey traders from selling their firewater to First Nations people.

This is my last post for this holiday, and we are sitting in the lobby, having checked out.  Our friend Rohays will take us to the airport at 4.00, so we have a few hours to fill in.   We are missing out on Saturday but will be home early Sunday morning.  Hope that this blog has been at least partially illuminating.  To those who commented, thanks. To those who read this blog, thanks also.  To those who didn't, you missed a lot!!

Rocky Mountaineer

Sunday 8 June
Up again at 6.00 as we have to have our bags out by 6.45 to be picked up and taken to the train station across the road.  Bring one to follow instructions I do as we are instructed.  We are not having breakfast this morning, breakfast is provided on the train.  Anyway, with all our luggage gone and nothing inspiring on TV we decided to go downstairs.  Down there we find our bags & the RM representative, who checks us in - i.e. gives us a boarding pass and tags our bags.  She tells us to go across the road to the station and wait for boarding at 8.10.  Our bags are being taken care of and will be in Kamloops when we arrive this afternoon. 

Well, that is the plan, but as we found out shortly after leaving Jasper, plans do not always work out.  A once in a decade event has just taken place and there is a slip ( they call it a mudslide) on the road between Jasper and Kamloops.  So what? We are on as train.  Ah ha that is the problem, because RM plans to be super efficient and have luggage in room before we arrive, the luggage all goes by truck!  The news is that because trucks can't go through National Parks, the only way to get to Kamloops is via Calgary - a long, long way - about a 12 hour drive instead of 6.  End of story our bags should arrive about 10.00 pm.  Just in time to be reloaded for the onward journey to Vancouver.  The funny thing is that this only affects Gold & Silver passengers, as Red class were required to pack an overnight as their luggage was never going to be available in Kamloops!

Sooo, while we wait we decided to explore Kamloops and armed with a map we headed down to the river.  The good news is that the temperature was 27 this afternoon and a bit breezy. Pleasant conditions and enjoyable walk shared with English couple from Battle, who were part of our original 18.  On our way back met up with Christine & Peter from Timaru, talking with our Adelaide friends and we were then joined by another English couple from our train coach.  All in all quite a gathering.  Walked back to our hotel with Christine & Peter and had another hilarious meal with them.  The restaurant would have done Fawlty Towers proud.  A good cheap meal as we were not hungry after all the food on the train.

The trip from Jasper was a disappointment in some ways, as most of us had an expectation of snow covered peaks etc. somewhat similar to what we had seen from the coaches on our various trips.  This was not the case and really all we saw were more and more trees PLUS another bear!!!!  The food and hospitality has been great and I really think that we have to accept that the Rockies as such are all over  after Jasper and this is just a trip back to Vancouver, with sights as a bonus.  Christine & Peter confirmed that their view from Gold Class is no better - just higher priced trees ☺

Just to touch on yesterday, beautiful day again, great tour but ABC. We seem to have moved into canyon country now.  Saw some lovely lakes early in the morning before the breeze got up.  At one lake we got trapped in a wedding party at 10.00 in the morning.  There was a long causeway and the bridal party started at one end just before we arrived to cross back to our bus.  We didn't stay for the reception though.  Saw another black bear just down by the river, but he wandered behind a bush before we could get a photo.  Just a half day tour, so had the afternoon to wander, but after a long lunch with Christine & Peter, we wandered back to our hotel, waylaid by Led (92) & his daughter Christine from England, so very social afternoon.  Watched our train arrive in anticipation of the morning, had a spa on the roof of our hotel and had dinner at the same restaurant we had lunch and dinner in the previous night.  Great salmon!

Well we are fed & watered and it is currently 10.30, with no sign of our cases. The issue is now whether to just go to bed in undies and get some sleep or keep waiting.  Given that we have to be downstairs for our shuttle at 7.15 tomorrow, I think 11.00 will be our cutoff point.  So here we are, sitting, waiting, wondering.  Ah, tomorrow is another day and a new set of adventures as we arrive back in Vancouver.

Latest update - 10.45  1 out of 3 bags delivered, so at least we have nightwear!

Explanation of photos in the last post

For some reason my blogging programme decided to take time off and went into a loop every time I tried to add narrative.  So, from memory:

1. Main Street Banff
2. Emerald Lake
3. Lake Louise
4. Lake Louise this morning (note the fresh ice)
5. Athabasca Glacier
6. Our "Bus" driver lending a hand
7. The black bear
8. Typical woodlands
9. Columbia Icefields (should have been between 5 & 6).

Hopefully the next post will go back to normal. 

It is currently 11.00 pm Friday night & still quite bright outside - we are expecting 0 degrees overnight and another beautiful day tomorrow.

It snowed!

Thursday 5th
Woke to find that the temperature had plummeted and was sitting on 1 or 2 degrees.  Apparently it rained last night, but we didn't hear a thing.  Clearly however it had snowed at high altitudes and it was good to see some fresh dusting on the higher peaks.  I must now apologise for my comments about lack of snow cover😩. Our drive today was to the Yoho National Park & then to Lake Louise ( by lunchtime).  As we reached a higher altitude, fresh snow was evident and made the real Rockies spectacular.  Apparently there is some debate as to where they start - some say back where we did the helicopter flight yesterday, while others say the start of the National Park.  What we also established is that helicopters are prohibited from all National Parks, which is why we could only fly in adjacent foothills.  All things are explained... eventually!

Our trip took us out of the province of Alberta into British Columbia and the Yoho park and then back to Alberta for Lake Louise.  The defining thing is that water flows east on the Bow River, from Lake Louise and after that the waters flow through BC to the west. At Jasper, waters flow north to the Arctic.  So we are very much travelling the great divide.

Good news - We saw a BEAR, a grizzly grazing beside the main road.  The driver stopped and the bear just ignored us (OK it was behind the animal fence running along the highway).  Unfortunately it was a bit far away for decent photos.  In the Yoho National Park we saw water. Picturesque, postcard material.  Before that we stopped at the historic railway spiral, where the trains go back on themselves threefold.  All goof and back on the bus, when the driver says "here comes a train" so out we all traipse.  It actually takes a good 5 minutes to reach the spiral part we are watching, having already completed a 180 degree turn under the highway.  Probably hard to put this in words, but imagine a train over 1.5 kilometres long (2 locos in front, 1 in the middle and another one at the rear) travelling to the right, then reappearing travelling away from you into a tunnel, reappearing on the right from another tunnel and heading away - all visible at the same time.  Great engineering & of course much bigger than our Rarimu Spiral.

We arrived at Lake Louise about 1.00 and are staying in this magnificent château type hotel.  Very, very expensive and no free internet, hence this post will have to wait!!!!!  All that aside, a most awe inspiring sight, with frozen lake, towering mountains and everything I had imagined.  We arrived in sun, it started snowing just a tad, sun came out, went in, came out (getting the picture?) and then snowed quite heavily for a while.  Couldn't be more perfect as we sat and ate and later drank with this vista. It is supposed to be -3 overnight, so am looking forward to the morning.

Friday 6 June
Well, it lived up to expectation and while it did snow somewhat higher up, nothing settled around the hotel, but it was cold enough to refreeze that part of the lake that had thawed yesterday.  The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky - perfection.

We had a great drive heading to Jasper, & while we saw numerous (ABG, rather than the usual ABC we experience in Europe) glaciers and had a full description of what and where etc.  The highlight however was the Ice Explorer on the Athabasca Glacier.  We went up onto the glacier in these special buses, which cost $1.5m and all but one in the world are on this glacier - I think it is 20+.  The only other one is at McMurdo Base.  Hugh wheels and they are needed to traverse the ice and one of the slopes down/up the Moraine is the steepest commercial roadway in the world.  Just as well it was in all wheel traction mode.  Our driver on this machine was a young girl from Brisbane.  Once again a great experience and more importantly, used our Kathmandu jackets & shoes, although it was actually colder at the Cafe downhill.  Funnily, although we seemed quite a long way up the glacier, we were probably only a third of the way.

Some more waterfalls and we headed off to Jasper, our driver turned off his commentary so people could rest/sleep.  After 3/4 hour the bus comes to as sudden halt and sure enough there is a black bear grazing on the side of the road.  He backed up the bus, so got a reasonable photo.  The bear got tired of the attention and wandered behind a bush.  The driver said that the bear was about 3 years old and clearly it had recently kicked out of home ( which apparently happens after 2 years - Mum just gets tired of them and is looking for more fun with a new "husband"!!).  I am pretty sure that the grizzly we saw yesterday was in the same boat.

Got into Jasper just before 6.00 and we have a cute hotel opposite the train station, in the centre of town.  We are very fortunate as the group (which has grown to 36) are spread over numerous hotels, many are miles out of town.  Great to have WiFi again and also we haver 2 days here, with a city tour tomorrow morning.  At least it is not too early and we don't have to pack our bags before breakfast.  One of the annoying things about conducted tours - not complaining however, just commenting.

Rockies for real

Wednesday 4th
It is after dinner and I am settling down for the night, but want to record our day today. BUT as usual I will mention our last day in Calgary first.  We did the Calgary Tower fairly early in the morning, before the haze (or any rain) set in.  Had great views all the way to the Rockies on one side and then out to the endless prairies to the east.  Because of all the high rise buildings, one could not describe the view as "awesome", but it was still worth the visit.

Because we now know the city so well, we wandered down to the water & then back to the Devonian Gardens on the 4th floor off the mall.  We established that the pianist we saw yesterday was just a random player, as the piano is a public asset and anyone can perform anything whenever!  The gardeners were in full activity pruning the shrubs with nail scissors - I jest, but at the speed of what they were doing, this would be a job for life.  After lunch we ventured into the Skyway and by miracles  actually made it back to our hotel on the first attempt.  Packing was the order of the day when we got to our room.

OK, so this morning we boarded our coach for day 1 of our travel package.  There are only 18 of us, 2 other Kiwis, 4 Aussies and the rest UK - No Americans.  We travel west towards Banff and stop about halfway there for our 12 minute helicopter ride.  It was both short and although it gave a good overview of the eastern side of part of the Rockies range, it was not as impressive as the flight we did at Mt Cook 20 odd years ago.  It was interesting how much the snow had melted since we flew in on Saturday and it was possibly the lack of snow which partially detracted from the experience.  We were in a 6 seated helicopter, so all in all we were there for about an hour.  All the surrounding land is owned by First Nations people (think that our driver was one as he was insistent that Indians came from India!).  Anyway, they had a Casino on site as well but he said that they were getting smarter and just owned the Casino and had someone else operating it.

Onwards and around a lovely lake (so many that I have forgotten the name) where apart from the beauty we saw horned sheep & Elks.  Later we saw a couple of deer a well.  In fact we saw 3, the last one was running up the main street of Banff as we were eating dinner.  No, venison was not on the menu.  By middayish we reached Banff and had lunch.  It is a little expensive here. A sandwiching was $7.95.  One good thing was that they were very nice and a simple sandwich  is something we have been missing over the last week.  After lunch it was backwards & forwards through town and out to the Falls and back to town & back out over the same route to the first hotel site and back again.  OK, not a great fan of city tours.  However we eventually got out of town and up to Sulphur Mountain and the Banff Gondola.  We went up 700m and I am pleased I grabbed my jacket when we're got off the bus as we were well above the remaining snowline.  Mighty views of all the surrounding mountains.

We went both up and back (by coincidence) with a couple from Northern Ireland.  After this expedition, it was back to Banff and our hotel, which is more than adequate, but not quite the suite experience of Calgary.  We are about a kilometre from town, so decided to walk in to get some photos, as we hadn't before as we'd assumed that our hotel would be in the centre.  Just shows that you shouldn't assume anything.  Wandering back we found that the town was suddenly crowded with many buses arriving and perhaps thousands of tourists, mainly Asian walking into town.  Certainly much busiest than it had been at lunchtime or when wee walked in.

Dinner was in the hotel and thankfully there is a Keg Steakhouse in house.  This is a chain and we had one just down from our hotel in Calgary, so we knew that price was reasonable & quality good.  Just a little note though, a tourist town adds an extra dollar or two!!!  Vivian had commented as we came into the restaurant that we'd been to the one in Calgary, so they ran around and got us a window table.  Lovely. 

There were an Asian couple sitting adjacent and it wasn't until the end of the meal when I made a comment about the Australian flag flying and no NZ one, when they said that they had lived in Christchurch for 10 years, but had now returned to Singapore.  Just surprising who you meet.  They have just about finished their tour and are on a Princess cruise on Saturday.   Everyone, both on our tour and just generally are very friendly and enjoying the experience.  We look forward to tomorrow & Lake Louise.  We will have a different driver tomorrow, as the whole Rockies thing is so segmented and people do their own mix & mingle.  Today's driver was surprised that we were all doing the same complete tour.  Who knows, tomorrow our little band of travellers may increase.  Oh, forgot to mention that at the top of the Gondola we also saw a very tame/hungry Squirrel.  Vivian is still holding out for bears, although she is certain she saw one just after the Elks.  No photo: It didn't happen I say.  Tomorrow is another adventure.

In the air

Up high

Horny sheep

Elk grazing

Down to Banff

Top of the gondola, by the NZ emblem, showing the way home!

Calgary in summer

Well we didn't think much of Seattle's airport - it was filthy everywhere, but thankfully it was only just over an hour and yes the temperature was in the mid 20s, a vast improvement on our departure from Anchorage.  We were impressed however that we did not have to go through any security screening and were soon about our plane for the flight to Calgary.  Vivian is still panicking about our bags!!   The flight is actually just over an hour and a half (I had overlooked the time change as we are going to Alberta).   Had a great flight and some more magnificent views over the mountain tops which were covered in snow.   About 20 minutes away from Calgary we ran into some heavy cloud and we started circling over the mountains (great views still) and the Captain comes on to say the airport is currently closed due to thunderstorms, but that we should be clear in about 15 minutes.  So we continue our scenic flight and then down the plains and around the suburbs of Calgary before our approach to the airport.  Calgary looks very new and clean from the air, with lots of subdivisions spreading out from the city.  Most of the houses are smaller multistory ones in small blocks.  Some lifestyle type homes also abound, many 3 storied.

No problems in landing and going through immigration, although the girl we struck could do with a personality transplant.  I mean we say we are only staying in Canada for a fortnight and are doing the Rockies, so why does it matter whether we came from Seattle or Anchorage - they are both USA!  Got a shuttle to our hotel and when we got to our room we were pleasantly surprised to see we had a suite, a view & a balcony☺

After unpacking we thought it was time for a meal as we hadn't really eaten all day, so enquired at the desk and were recommended the steakhouse down 1 block.  The 4th Avenue location is very much downtown business area, with little in the way of cafe's etc, which seems to be a common thread on this trip.  Anyway, back to dinner, we rock on down and of course it is Saturday night and the place is packed.  We were soon seated and had a most magnificent steak meal, preceded by the biggest shrimps that we had come across.  The added bonus was that the ships were free, as a promotion from the hotel/steakhouse ( don't sneeze at $24).  As we had lost a couple of hours since we left in the morning, we headed to bed, being quite happy that it is now dark at night!

Sunday 1 June
A pleasant surprise was that we now find that breakfast is included, as this wasn't stipulated when we booked.  Our stay is part of the Rocky Mountaineer package and the extra nights part of our free bonus for early booking, so we're just go with the flow.  Back to breakfast, which is served in the basement, had the usual things and was a good apart from the coffee. Tea in future.

Calgary was flooded last June/July and this is still very evident.  Out hotel sub basement was extensively devastated, so the pool and gym etc. are still out of action, although there is a lot of work going on and I believe they plan to have it all completed later in the month for the summer season.  Walked extensively and now have a good understanding of the layout of the place.  We walked over to the (replica) original Fort Calgary and then down and along the Bow river, which along with it's sister the Elbow river, which joins by the Fort was responsible for the floods.  As I have commented, there are many repairs to structures and paths etc. being carried out, but overall the city is great for walkers, joggers and cyclists.  A great network.  Sunday just happened to also be the Calgary Marathon, which is run in a number of events covering different lengths.  Overall there were some 15,000 participants who raised over $1.5m for various charities.  A beautiful morning and was getting very hot by midday.

We continued our walk along the river, looking for a cafe, but still to no avail.  Walked over to Prince's Park Island in the middle of the Bow and found a cafe serving brunch, so decided to do that.  By now it is about 1.30.  We had noted the clouds gathering to the west and the threat of showers but were not to concerned.  No sooner had we left then it rained. BIG spots.  It wasn't cold however, but we did get wet getting back to the hotel.  Lesson learned - it rains every afternoon.  Had dinner in the hotel, which is also downstairs and was in the bar area.  Given that it was Sunday, it was extremely quiet.

Monday 2 June
Slept in and just made breakfast.  Back to walking around again and this time we headed off over the river and walked up the 155 steps to the top overlooking the city.  These stairs are used extensively by the fitness fanatics (mainly young girls) who run up and down numerous times as well as doing other exercises at both top and bottom.  I was exhausted just watching them.  Back down and onto the mainland, we made our way to the Core shopping mall in the middle of town.  Grabbed a coffee & a muffin from a healthy shop, so that should be good for us.  Our main purpose was to visit the gardens on the 4th floor.  After a roundabout experience, we reached these magnificent gardens, situated on one of the overpasses between a couple (or more) buildings.  We'll go back tomorrow and have lunch up there too.  We also found out that the city has a network of inter building walkways called +15 Skywalk - if only wee had known that yesterday, we could have kept dry!  Oh yes, on our way back to the hotel today the rain started, but was only a few spots.  I was much more comfortable in shorts & T-shirt today, so I am still keeping all those winter woolies in the suitcase.  Long may it last.

Southern Rockies

From our room - towards the airport

Canada Geese & families

Overlooking Bow River & city. Towards the Rockies

Top of the stair walk

Garden on the 4th floor

...and again

Calgary calling

Saturday 31 May
We are somewhere over the Gulf of Alaska en route to Seattle and then up to Calgary.  We woke to relatively heavy rain this morning and were pleased that we were off to the airport, rather than sightseeing.  Our hotel provided a free shuttle, so we had to be ready at 7.00, which meant no breakfast until we reached the airport. It was actually worth waiting for and wee enjoyed the fresh cooked meal & endless coffee, which was probably not a good thing given we are on a 3 hour flight (& another 3 hours out of Seattle).

Yesterday was cloudy and a little drizzle, but not enough to put us off walking into town and having ( processed) breakfast.  The coffee was good though.  After that we went back down to the river to check out whether any salmon were running. There were a lot more fishermen as the tide was just off high tide.  The tides here are 30 odd feet, so when we were down yesterday it was a negative low tide.  No salmon to be seen though!, but good exercise.

We took the free trolley back up to town and then the midday sightseeing tour.  After that it WS on to the Museum - which was excellent.  The weather held and by late evening it WS fine.  In fact I took a photo at 10.30 which showed the sin shining on the mountains in the distance, although much of the snow we saw on the first day seems to have gone.

The people of Anchorage are all very friendly and laid back.  We enjoyed them very much.  As I have commented before, the CBD is really pretty small and there is not a lot to see outside of Museums and the like.  One thing did strike us, they are really focused on the 1964 earthquake, possibly because it was the 50th anniversary last month.  We were really unaware of the devastation caused and the changes to the topography - a drop of 22 feet in many places along the fault line.  The quake was a 9.2, which is certainly massive when compared with NZ.  Was most reassured when we were told that they have 100s daily and just last Sunday a 5.6 was felt.  As we were on the 9th floor, I am pleased they did not have a repeat while we were there.  Another useless bit of information was that a quarter of all private aircraft are based in Anchorage and that young people can get their pilot's licence before their drivers!

Safely in Seattle, had the most magnificent views over the mountains on our way down. The sky was so clear and of course we were on the port side to get the view.  Just time for a coffee & muffin for lunch and we are off on a smaller plane to Calgary.  Oh, it is Hot here!!!!!

Anchorage

!Wednesday 28th
So we had elected to do a ship's tour on our way from Whittier to Anchorage.  It is about 80km and an ordinary transfer (you have no alternative) is almost as much as the tour.  I should note that the majority where carrying on to Denali National Park and the lodges owned by Princess.  Others had morning flights out of Anchorage, so that left s relatively small number who either had evening flights, were renting a car or who were staying in Anchorage.  I would have to say with hindsight that this was the best value tour we had taken.  I know it's only money, but ....

We had a full bus of 50 and our driver was a retired music teacher (born etc on Anchorage) and filled us with many stories as well as songs.  To summon us back to the bus he had an antelope horn, which amused others around our various stops. A quick tour of Whittier took 5 minutes, as there is nothing there!  We then queued up to go through the 2 mile tunnel out of Whittier.  This is a combined rail/road tunnel and is one way with defined opening times each way.  Our northbound was scheduled for 9.00 and we only had a 5 minute wait.  Amazing engineering through the mountain with a glacier on top.

Onwards to Portage Visitors Centre, where there was a large blue iceberg parked outside. They assured us that they hadn't towed it from the glacier but it was just natural according to the wind direction.  I forgot to mention that it was cold and wet, the worst day we'd had, but the showers came and went and it was not too bad at the Centre.  However we then moved on to the little (comparatively) boat onto Portage lake and then up to the glacier itself.  Being a small purpose built boat, we were able to get up close.  However the rain & wind chill did not encourage us to stay on the top deck for long.  A great mini cruise and well worth it, which is more than can be said for our next stop at a gift shop (what else) and cafe. Distinct unmemorable 😠

By some chance of confusion or something, some of the passengers convinced our driver that we were supposed to also go to the Wildlife Rescue Centre and after he checked with his office we got the OK.  I won't go into the details other than to say that we were extremely lucky.  Anyway we saw all the wildlife in a semi natural environment.  Vivian was excited yo see both brown & black bears, particularly as they just happened to wander into view for a short time while we were standing there.

Moving on, a 45 minute drive along the foreshore to the airport, where we dropped off half the bus load and then 15 minutes into Anchorage.  Vivian was soooo relieved to see our bags sitting there!  We were all set to walk the 7 or 8 blocks to the hotel, when one of the staff at the Hospitality Centre said that our hotel would pick us up.  Sure enough after a phone call and 10 minute wait, the van arrived and delivered us here.  We're on the 9th floor and have a great view towards the south.  OK, it is a 2* hotel but it has all the services necessary and a good dining room.  It is a little out of town - see above, but after today, there is little benefit in being in the CBD.  But I am ahead of my self again.

Thursday 29th
Had a great sleep and didn't make breakfast until 9.00. Fortunately it is on until 11.00, so no rush.  Another overcast day with temperature around 11 degrees.  Donned our coats and trotted off.  Well Anchorage is a bit of a nothing town.  If you took out all the governmental agencies, there would just be a few hotels.  The hotels to do well, as a large number of cruise ship passengers have a night or so before or after there cruise.  However as I mentioned earlier, Princess and their sister line Holland America, heavily promote their Denali packages.  Back to Anchorage, we walked and walked - even had a hard time finding a cafe.  We are certainly very fortunate in NZ.  Resorted to Starbucks in the end and then headed off to the stream by the railway to see the salmon, which we had been told were running.  We had thought it too early, but we still went and had an extensive walk through the backblocks of the town.  We eventually reached the spot and when talking with 2 lots of fishers, found out that it was low tide and the salmon don't come until high tide.  We were not going to stand there for 6 hours, so walked back to town for a bite to eat.  By now it was after 3.00 and we still could not find any cafes or other eateries.  We did in the end and then came back to the hotel, where at last the blog is completely up to date.

Onwards to Anchorage

Tuesday 27 May
Must have been a big day yesterday as we slept in until 8.00 and only just made breakfast in time.  Funnily, we were not the only ones as we soon found out.  We are basically heading west across the Bay of Alaska towards Whittier & College Fjords.  Yesterday's wonderful weather has been replaced by cloudy, cold weather with the odd light shower.  We did our mile walk in between the drizzle and sighted another whale along the way.  We finished off our coffee card (from our Ocean Princess cruise) and caught up with Wilson & Jenny from West Australia - he was the former Australian Cabinet Minister I mentioned earlier.  Well that filled in a couple of hours ☺ and it was time for lunch and then Vivian was off to bridge again.

Unfortunately the time has come to pack our bags and work out what we may need tonight/tomorrow. It has been a bit of a nightmare as we were given luggage tags and details for disembarkation, which turned out to be wrong, even though we'd queried it.  So fingers are crossed that we get reunited with our bags in Anchorage.  Actually the bag packing turned out to be a pretty simple job although I'll leave the locking part until after dinner.

At about 6.00, we entered the College Fjords (which are named after various US colleges).  Unfortunately the weather was not the best, but we made our way up Harvard Sound and got as far as Yale before the ship stopped.  We could see numerous glaciers and also got to see many Otters & Seals playing alongside the ship.  BUT, what we saw most were substantial icebergs.  I have the feeling that these originated as pack ice, as they were much thicker than the ones we saw yesterday.  Anyway the Captain was erring on the side of caution as I am sure he didn't want a Titanic on his hands, not that they were that big, but clearly there was a lot under the water.

By 7.30 we decided that we'd go down for dinner before the crowds descended - which they didn't...  Anyway, forgot to mention that we met up with this English couple, much older than us, about 4 nights ago.  Hazel & Terry come out to NZ/Australia every year and had a great affinity with us.  Purely by coincidence we ended up with them at our table every night.  We'd turn up to the dining room door and there they were.  The same happened tonight.  Very pleasant company and Terry was an Accountant/partner in a major London practice (I see from his card that he has an OBE, but we never asked about that.  Anyway the amazing coincidence is that when we first met them Vivian said that we lived just north of Auckland and immediately Terry said "is it near Warkworth?". Turns out that they have friends in Warkworth who they visit when in NZ.  On our 3rd dinner, somehow we were talking about where they live just out of London, near Windsor and we suddenly realised that we had stayed in their little village when we were in UK 4 years ago.  Incredible.

In good Princess tradition, the parade of the Bombe Alaska took place (just as we had finished main course).  Given that we were at anytime dining, our timing was perfect.  To keep up my reputation however, I still had to have my Princess Loveboat Dream as well.  For those not in the known, it is a simple chocolate mousse which I have every night on every cruise.  Who said I was predictable?   Anyway, got back to the cabin and had the bags outside our door by 10.15 and in to bed.  No sooner had we just about got to sleep, when the thrusters came on and I found that we were berthing at Whittier at 11.00.  ahead of schedule.

Wednesday 28 May
Had a final breakfast onboard and disembarked at 8.30.  Our adventures of the day will be revealed in a later post, as it is currently 10.30 pm, although it looks like midday outside!!

Voyage of the Glaciers

Here are a few photos of our journey northbound on the wonderful Island Princess,

Ketchican - Creek Street

Ketchikan

Our "Duck"

Arriving at Juneau early in the morning

The Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau

Salmon bake in Juneau

Skagway

Skagway on way to Mushers Camp (no, not us on horses!)

Mushing buggy

Our team of Alaskan Huskies

Our leaders having a rest

9 week old husky puppy

Still Skagway 

Main Street Skagway

Glacier Bay

Up close to the glacier

College Fjord - numerous glaciers

Whittier - blown down from Portage Glacier

Cruising Portage Lake

Portage Glacier

Portage Animal Refuge

A bear at last!!