We flew back into Vancouver from Anchorage late on a Tuesday evening and picked up a hire car at the airport. As we were too late for the last BC ferry to Vancouver Island, we opted to stay at a Coast Inn hotel in Tsawwassen - near to the ferry terminal. It was better than expected with comfy rooms and a rowdy yet cozy restaurant right next door for a late night dinner.
Next morning we headed off to the terminal and boarded the ferry to take us across to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. The trip across was fine and calm.
After disembarking, we headed to one of the islands main attractions - Butchart Gardens. These were simply magnificent - and that coming from a non-gardener.
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| The girls at the entrance to the gardens |
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| The Sunken Garden (an old limestone quarry) |
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| Flowers galore! |
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| The water feature in the Sunken Garden |
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| The kiddies Carousel in pavilion in the middle of the gardens |
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| The famous Rose Garden |
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| A cascading bush called...Shrubus Ilikus |
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| More roses in the Rose Garden |
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| The girls pulling faces in front of the interlocking sturgeon statue |
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| A Dragon statue in the Japanese Garden |
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| The inlet and private boating centre for the gardens |
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| The central pond near the main entrance |
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| Three desperados in the gateway thru the hedge |
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| The pond leading up to the original Butchart residence |
After visiting the gardens, we motored on down to Victoria - the main city in the island and the capital of British Columbia. Our apartment, in a renovated older style building right next to Chinatown, was modern and functional albeit a tad tight and close with four adults in residence.
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| The view from the balcony of our apartment |
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| Enjoying a vino in the Victoria apartment |
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| Looking towards the harbour from the apartment |
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| Guess who...but this time with an evening cuppa (not wine) - the House of Parliament in the background |
Being so close to Chinatown we had to sample the local Chinese fare for one night and Indian cuisine for the last night of our stay. Nothing like eating regional tucker!
We used our apartment as a base for exploring all things around Victoria. On our second day, we strolled down to the harbour...
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| The harbour in Victoria |
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| A cute little ferry on the harbour |
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| Fisherman's wharf, Victoria Harbour |
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| The BC Legislature Building (Parliament House) |
...before heading out on our whale-watching adventure. We did this in a high speed open boat with its fantastic crew of Kasey (the skipper) and Trisha and at 35 knots, we were soon skimming across the waters of the inlets towards the north of the island looking for what we all wanted to see - killer whales. We weren't disappointed as Kasey soon found us a pod of Orcas.
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| Our boat - a 20 metre long Scarab high speed mono-hull - top speed 47 knots |
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| Anne overly kitted up - before getting a smaller, properly fitted jacket! |
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| Our quarry - Orcas in the wild. A family pod of five killer whales off Swartz Bay |
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| This is how close they were to shore |
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| Breaching |
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| ...and frolicking in the shallow-ish water |
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| ...and dessert - a humpback whale tail slaps on our way into Victoria Harbour |
This was our first encounter with Orcas in the wild. Extraordinary!
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| The gals enjoying a chilled ale dockside after the Orca experience |
All too quickly our time in Victoria came to an end and we reluctantly left our digs and made our way back to the ferry and sailed away from Vancouver Island and across the straits to the Canadian mainland and back to Vancouver itself.
On the Friday evening we went out to Granville Island where we caught up with our niece Janeke who is living and working in Vancouver. We went to the Sandbar Restaurant and had a magnificent seafood dinner - a veritable gastronomic delight and a great catch up with Jani - a most memorable evening indeed.
Next day we hired bicycles and set off for Stanley Park via the waterfront. This was a fantastic ride through the park and it's many road and trails - some off-roading was a bit tougher than we had anticipated but it was a great way to explore the little green gem in the middle of urban Vancouver.
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| Three out of four - 3/4 of the musketeers dressed for action |
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| Prospect Point lookout atop Stanley Park |
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| The Lion's Gate bridge to the north shore of Vancouver |
In the afternoon it was time for a trip to Gas Town - down near the docks of Vancouver Harbour.
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| The girls in the Japanese garden in Vancouver |
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| Clocktower in Gas Town, Vancouver |
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| Canada Place - in preparation for the 150th celebration of Canada's federation of its territories |
Fabulous native indian art museum at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) if I recall right from my 1972 trip - dunno if it's still there. So ... did you guys do a bit of "swimming with the Orcas" - probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing, by the look of it ;-)
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