We settled ourselves into our twin room then went for a wander to check out grocery stores in the area & find a place to eat. We chose a Chinese restaurant place called Peaceful - very yummy food with good vege selection. Back at the hostel we planned our last couple of days then tried to get comfy at hostel but it was a bit warm & too noisy outside to have the window open.
30 Oct - Monday: As we hadn't found a decent grocery store last evening we took ourselves to Nesters in order to buy breakfast stuff. Back at the hostel we ate our breaky then headed off to to the airport to collect our bikes from the delivery company. Got a day-pass Compass card from Waterfront station & took the Canada Line to YVT airport where we received our bike boxes sometime after 11am. Once we had them we put them in storage until Wed arvo. After a cuppa we took the metro to Olympic Village stop from where we caught a wee ferry to Granville island.
Three pictures above are of Bill Reid's Jade Canoe at YVR - About-the-jade-canoe
It was lovely to mosey around the food markets - some great food on offer so we made sure we took advantage of the cafes etc. Shopped around for gifts but ended up with very little except some maple syrup & calendars!
Late afternoon we took another water taxi to David Lam Park from where we walked back to our hostel checking out the apartments, shops & parks on the way. Rested for a while then walked to Mainland Street to meet C's cousin and his wife at Banter Room for delicious meal - I chose a thai curry but boy, the hot chilly I nearly swallowed was HOT!! Nearly died! :-( Lovely to meet Alan and Cheryl & hear about their holiday in Portugal & England.
Walked back to hostel via part of Chinatown where C found Cacao 70 Dippery - she had an intense choc drink ...... heart palpitation intensity. Once back at the hostel we chatted to a couple of other hostelers then wrote up our diaries before settling for sleep.
Tuesday: A misty day - cooler than Monday. After breaky we took bus #4 to UBC campus, where the MOA is located - a highly recommended museum. We got there around 1045 & spent until 2pm there ........ not enough time to take in this amazing collection of West Coast First Nation art plus the art of indigenous peoples art from the Pacific circle area i.e. Japan, Taiwan, Tonga, PNG, Aust, NZ, Fiji etc. I really liked the room where local First Nation individuals had chosen a particular item from their Nation and had commented on it. This exhibition was called In a different light.
There was also a wonderful exhibition on the rights of nature for Amazonia with a display of artefacts and of the charters etc of the nations e.g. Ecuador. Associated book is 'The Rights-of-Nature".
We had arranged to meet Roseanna at Bean Around the World cafe at 2.30pm so marched quickly across campus to meet her on time - delightful arvo of chat, catching up with her PhD studies & to congratulate her on being awarded another prestigious PhD scholarship. Wonderful talk with someone so passionate about her research & about her vibrant life beyond studies of music, tramping & good friends. She, like us, was excited about the final results of the NZ elections so we had some chat about that, too!
Afterwards, called in to the Museum of Biodiversity but weren't prepared to pay $14 entry each for just an hour so walked down to Wreck Beach as Roseanna suggested we do. Went via Gate 6, passed the sign stating that the beach was clothes optional. Only a couple of nudists enjoying the last of the sunshine despite the cool breeze. - one had a hat & jacket on but nothing else whilst other was braving the elements completely. There was wonderful light on the water, lots of big logs washed up on the beach, a regal heron standing on a stump just out from the coast and, as we walked to the other gate, we scrambled over rocks & conglomerates left from the cliff face slumping. Chatted to a woman doing the crossword sitting on a log under a tarpaulin. Finally found Gate 4 & began the climb up heaps of stairs to come out by the MOA; by then it was quite cold as the sun had dropped low.
Took a crowded bus back into town - got off on to go to the Vancouver Art Gallery as Tues is pay what you'd like donation night. An interesting collection but was not keen on their modern art from 1970s exhibition - did not 'speak' to me! However, their collection of Emily Carr was outstanding - we spent most of our time looking at her art & admiring the development of her style.
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| An Emily Carr |
The town was full of people celebrating Halloween with painted faces, masks, onesies, silly hats, costumes etc. Lots of smell of dope in the air. Also many homeless people camping out around the area of our hostel & down around the Gastown/Chinatown area. Walked back to Cacao 70 for another round of chocolate & icecream. Back at the hostel I enjoyed the last drop of Victoria gin with tonic; a great nightcap.
Wednesday: We completed our packing after breaky, left our bags at the hostel & walked across to Stanley Park where we hired a couple of bikes so we could do a circuit of the park. It was a lovely sunny day but when in the shade it was very definitely Autumnal temperatures. We stopped at various viewpoints & enjoyed watching the ships, ferries and float planes gloing about their business. The bikes we hired were terrible after spending months touring on our well-made bicycles! After such an experience it is not surprising some people are put off cycling!
Had lunch in the Coal Harbour neighbourhood before heading off to Gastown for last minute shopping. Not the best time to visit as we got caught up with a Japanese school party visiting as well as a large Chinese tour party all out shopping as well! Still managed to purchase a few items. Got back to the hostel to collect our bags just after 3.15pm & dragged our even heavier bags to the metro station. Was so pleased to arrive at the airport where we collected our bikes, weighed our bags, repacked & wheeled all off to check-in where we were told we had to repack our bike boxes as they were over-weight despite the Lufthansa agent assuring me that our boxes could be up to 32kg - ours weighed 26kg & 28kg - but Air NZ (code share with Lufthansa) have different rules & enforce the 23kg rule for checked baggage. With some sleight of hand we managed to rejig our bags to be acceptable weights but it meant we had no time to amble through duty-free at Vancouver Airport. At least at the gate there were still some vege savoury tarts and lamingtons left over from the celebration of 10 years Air NZ flying out of Vancouver.
Luckily Caroline, during check-in, had spotted that again our tickets had us seated apart & that we were on stand-by! She got that sorted while I continued re-packing - apparently mistakes like that are from travel agent end - after the problems we'd had while we were organising our trip and when we came out of Frankfurt & now Vancouver we will avoid Flight Centre in the future .... if we ever travel again!
The flight was uneventful, food okay but nothing special. Great selection of things to watch or listen to. I watched My Year with Helen and a web series entitled Ngā Ringa Toi o Tahu about Ngai Tahu artists and slept intermittently. Arrived in at Auckland around 6.20am then went through the long process of collecting our bags, going through passport control, customs & biosecurity. We knew that they would be interested in our bikes, boots and tent so were not surprised when we didn't make our 8am flight but AirNZ staff got us re-booked on the 9am.
Lovely to fly into Chch to find it in full sunshine & 20+C. Once the shuttle got us home we unpacked & got all our clothes in the washing machine, leaving it to do its stuff whilst we went with Jeni & Dudley down to The Front Room for lunch. Lovely to be home. :-)
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