The Strata Club… no I’m not talking about Canada but Auckland Airports Strata Club, this was our first stop after flying in from Gisborne. This club is sort of like Koru Lounge but is pay as you use rather than a massive $600 a year as Koru Club requires. We had a 4 hour wait at Auckland before our thirteen hour flight to Canada. It was total bliss having a relaxing chilling out environment to relax in style with complementary drinks and food thrown in, showers and all. Well enjoyed Strata,money well spent, but it was time to catchup with Dave and Ruth whom were catching the same plane to Canada. Boarding the aircraft, we were seated just above the wing and was a brand new Baoing 777-200 with latest touch screen entertainment systems, Wifi available through the whole flight, I was also impressed with the speed of the broadband data… and obviously satellite as I’m sure mobile cell towers just didn’t pop up all over the Pacific Ocean. The other luxury we had was the “sky-couch”, no people we were not in first or business class, but cattle class now has a economy-plus that offers Sky-couch is when you pay extra to have three seats in a row which have leg rest that swing up level with the seat base to form a bed for two to lie across supplied with two full pillows blankets and a padded topper sheet…. all we can say is worth every cent. Now there was a down side… children! Now don’t go getting all defensive because I just think a bit more thought could be had by some parents who know their children can be little arse wipes. Directly behind us were two children of about 4and 5 years old whose parents were clever enough to purchase sky-couch’s for them selves and their children…. and these rodents kicked the shit out of the backs of our seats for most of the flight while the parents sky-couched behind them… sleeping very well. With a little thought they should have put the rodents behind them so they could kick the shit out of their seats… bloody sure they would have only done it once.
After a good nights sleep it was of to Surry 36km south east from our AirBnB. I had arranged to meet Sean at 10am and Tom was going to drive me there so off we went. Now although this is not the first time I have been a passenger in a left hand drive vehicle, it was certainly the furtherest I had been, lucky I trusted Toms driving as it left me to focus on learning how the traffic rules worked. Unlike good ole NZ with solid red, yellow and green lights, these tossers have multiple combination of flashing and solid lights with different combinations, a yellow centreline no matter where as applied to NZ’s white line. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a left hander or no not but it didn’t faze me at all and I was quite confident entering the roundabouts anti clockwise, making free right turns and driving across the road to turn left…. that was until I picked up “The Grunter” as Jude has nicknamed her. After going through how to hook up, turn on and operate the Grunter and sign the documents, it was time to return to Jude and Kimberley who were waiting back in Vancouver. Well how would I describe this…. see I use to be a truckie many many years ago, but the Grunter was a Ford E-350 Super Duty pickup sort of like A Nissan 4×4 but twice the size and feed a diet of steroids, seems like everything over here is big and power packed, The Grunter wasn’t the smoothest beast to drive but I did love that massive V8 rumble. I suggested to Tom that I will follow him back as he was confident driving in Canada as he and Kimbo had been here for the past year. Clocked The Grunter into gear put the foot down a little and she bolted out of the parking into traffic…. have to admit I did love the acceleration exaggerated by the sound of the powerful V8. Made my first intersection turn to the left which involved making sure the traffic from the left was clear as you have to cross to the far side to complete the turn… not long making a free right turn… yep great work and I patted myself on the back until I realised “Where the f#@k is Tom”. I thought I would panic however surprisingly I remained calm, as I had preset my GPS Navigator App I thought to myself I can do this, just stay on the right side literally and reverse everything we normally do at home…. oh and learn the other shit on the way. I managed to drive the 36km back to the girls without causing death or havoc to anyone…. well not that I would have noticed. The girls had cleaned up the AirBnB by the time I arrived back and I was pleased to see I had arrived back at the same time Tom had… only a few extra turns different on the way back. Well the first experience of Canadian driving done, the RV loaded with our gear…. the journey now begins for Jude and I.
[Jude]
Disembarking feeling surprisingly fresh, having probably 4 hrs shut eye not deep sleep tho, we herd through to customs like ants in long lines being shepherded but various officials this way that way… e passport stations ( dozens of them) making for quick declarations etc, then off through to get luggage and finally one last customs clearance, all taking less than half an hour which was pretty efficient! We make our way to arrival area, not expecting to be greeted, then this voice said “Mum” there was Tom and Kimbo what an awesome surprise big hugs all round. Thank goodness they were there as they got us on the light rail to get to our accommodation, in a lovely tree lined neighborhood. A bit of a walk from train station with luggage was great exercise after a 13 hour flight, sun beaming down soon made one rather sticky! Our Airbnb was a two bedroom, well appointed house. Tom and Kim were staying with us for night, Dave, Ruth and Dave L had accommodation in Surrey so off in a taxi from ours. Being late afternoon we stroll down to Oakridge Mall to sort SIM card and mobile plan out that done then food. Sushi was decided on, we found a very small sushi place not many tables ordered what we thought would do us watched the sushi chefs make our order, so very quick and boy was it delicious and plentiful far too much in fact we had to have a doggie bag! It was an extremely popular place, queue was out on the street! Once back to our house, tiredness crept in off for an early night!
Jude]
Chillwack ( just love these names) time to do a Walmart stop to stock up on provisions, Walmart a one stop shop with everything! Reasonably priced too. Loaded up we start thinking where to stop for the night, Tom had recommended ioverlander app for camp sites etc. After perusing thru app we decided on Cultus Lake just on the outskirts of Chilliwack, a pretty lake lots of camp sites with fire pits ( big truck rims with stud holes cut out) parked under the trees . Organised tea enjoyed the peace and quiet drifted off to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof
Day2
Morning was still cool and grey, breakfast done time to fill up the water tank, well that proved rather difficult it just kept pouring out! No matter how hard Shane tried he couldn’t get it off! Oh dear we thought what the hell were we going to do, troubleshooting every possible thing we ring Sean (the owner) for advise….. it is rather stiff he said so Shane put more pressure on it the handle snapped but it was off! Filling down, time to test turn on water pump nothing, try again still no water out of taps then open door under sink yes there was water pouring out of broken joint! Oh dear we thought what next, back into Chilliwack to find RV store to get appropriate parts no tools but a trusty Leatherman tool Shane’s ingenuity had it fixed in no time! Leaving Chilliwack early afternoon we hit the road east, soon it was raining, we must be rain magnets as it seems to follow us, but never mind we were on our way! Zooming along State highway 3 or Crowsnest highway remembering we are on the right hand side of the road, actually it’s not too bad as you follow the person in font lol, roundabouts going anti clockwise is one I have trouble with! Now Canadians love BIG vehicles V8 Dodges the norm haven’t seen to many small vehicles yet! All hooting along as we are in ” Grunter” V8 Ford so we not being left behind either. The scenery is fab big everything, with the rain mist hanging in the valleys as we climb up to 1300 m we drop down to 1100m and on our App for camping spots we try a bit of ” wild camping” or known to us as freedom camping down by the Similkameen River clear beautiful fast flowing river, 4 other vehicles there so we weren’t alone lol. Settling down after a lovely meal we hit the sack early, rudely awoken by a car’s alarm system going off it took ages for that to be deactivated, still raining, then at midnight the approach of a big V8 looking for spot to park, now we were fully awake and we became curtain twitchers from our bed above the cab lol.. checking out the new arrivals!
Day 3
Awoke at first light being before 5am.. listening to the river and the odd sound from the highway, eventually leaving our spot 0800. Start heading towards Princeton to pick up gas lighter as the one provide ran out! No matches as a backup either oh well on the road nice and early. Princeton a small town rather dated but did have great supermarket. We head out of town and pull off the highway for a late brekky watching logging trucks, transporters, dodges and every other macho mans truck whizz buy us. The day was improving as we dropped down into the valley, beautiful highways here in Canada, and the scenery became more dramatic huge rock faces jutting for ever skywards, I spotted my first eagles š¦
gliding over the river hoping for a tasty morsel. We make a stop at a small village called Hedley, famous in Canada for gold, back in the day $47,000,000 worth of gold taken out of them thar mountains. We spy a spotter scope on the veranda of the museum, looking through we could not believe what we were looking at perched high up on the mountain side 1524m above the town was the Hedley mascot mine, god knows how it has survived the weather elements, truly an incredible building feat! The buildings literally clinging to the mountain side! Would not have liked being under the influence of alcohol trying to stay upright lol! We had an very informative guide in the museum, a peek of the past gold rush.
On leaving Hedley we drive towards Osoyoos, yes look it up on the map! Suddenly the scenery changes to central Otago on steroids! Fruit, vineyards, big mountains, dry hot wind blowing and a beautiful lake resort. We are going to spend 2 nights here and our little camper pales in comparison to the huge Rv’s that are in this park!