Di’s Canadian Rockies (and Hawaii) Trip – July 2002

Wow, where do I start! 3 weeks of so much fun, wonderful people, beautiful places and heaps of partying – all to fit into 3 pages! I’ll do my best to make it into a “snapshot” of my trip.

Sunday 7 July 2002 (for the 2^nd time as I crossed the International Date Line!)

After an 18 hour trip from Oz to Vancouver I rang Byron, a guy who lives in Vancouver that I’d been emailing before going over, and told him I was awake enough to hire the bike that afternoon (only just!) but asked if he could meet me at the rental place as I was a little nervous with all the one-way streets through town and riding on the other side of the road. We were meant to ride over the US border that evening to see Mt Baker in the Washington Cascades but a foggy, wet evening changed our plans and we decided to look at the local lookouts surrounding Vancouver. I was rapt I’d taken my wet weather pants (along with my jacket & gloves) but bitterly regretting not taking my boots, having weighed up lugging them over there for one day’s ride. Little did I realise how much rain I’d ride through by the time I got “home” at 11.30pm!

The next morning he met me at 10 am, being 2 hours late due to his garage door slamming shut and the spring breaking, locking his bike in the garage. Goodness knows how he got it out but thank goodness he did. I hired a BMW650CS (I only had 3 bikes to choose from, the Honda Shadow, a 250 which Byron said would lose too much power in the altitude in which we’d be riding…and the BMW!). Give me the CBR600 any day for power, but give me the BMW on the days I have 800 km to ride in one day! For a change I didn’t have one aching muscle or bone in my body as I pulled into Vancouver at 12.30 am! However I wish Byron had told me of the heated handgrips long before 12.30 am when I returned to the hotel! But back to the start of the day.

We left Vancouver along the Sea to Sky Highway which is constant sweepers following along the edge of Howe Sound, a beautiful road to ride along and one I’m glad I did on the bike before I also did it on the tour. We kept stopping at lookouts and I commented on how gorgeous it was, but Byron kept telling me there were lovely mountain peaks topped with snow up above the clouds….it was a shame it was so cloudy but with only one day with a bike I was determined to make the most of it and looked on the positive side – the weather could be a lot worse, and the scenery was still gorgeous…but I must admit I couldn’t get that Dragon song “It’s been raining for so long” out of my head in early afternoon! We did an 800 km loop with the whole 800 km being spectacular (well 600 km anyway, the last 200 km was after 10 pm so it was dark! Talk about keen though, at 10 pm after tea I told Byron I was keen to head back as my tour started the next morning, and he said “I guess that means we have to head back on the highway from here then?”…..at 10 pm at night in the dark I don’t know what the point would have been in getting off the highway….at least there were no dead animals on the road though, no wombats or foxes or roos to deal with, just the danger of deer leaping out). It did fine up at about 3 pm and that provided the riding that justified the AUD$500 it cost me for the bike for the 1½ days (now you see why I only hired it ONE day). The scenery changed about 4 times, first being typically Canadian with mountains, pine trees and rivers, then at one stage it became a little more arid, then it reminded me of Tasmania, then I could have sworn I was riding through Milford Sound later in the day…..it even reminded me of Switzerland as we rode through an area with tunnel after tunnel. Who needs to travel the world, just go through British Columbia! Speaking of different areas of the world, Byron (and quite a few other Canadians I met throughout my travels) mentioned they can’t pick the difference between the Aussie and Kiwi accents-go figure!)

Tuesday 9 July 02 to Friday 19 July 02

The 11 day Contiki Canada & The Rockies tour – I’ll keep it concise so as not to bore you, but I think I fitted a whole year’s worth of experiences into 3 weeks!

Day 1 (Vancouver to Whistler): We drove up to Whistler and canoed up the beautiful River of Broken Romances (named as so many honeymooners think it’s gorgeous and hire a canoe, and then fight like cat and dog as they fight the currents and wish they’d never started it!) then had a mountain bike ride back to Whistler (silly me went for the “challenging” group for the downhill thrills, didn’t take the “uphill” required first into consideration….too much hard work for a holiday for my liking!) After dinner another kind of hard work, drinking and dancing, till the bar shut at 2.30 am! If you go to Canada here’s a tip: tip the barman well on the first drink and then you get so many freebies you more than get your money back. Also, girls MUST order from the guys and guys MUST order from the gals. It sounds crazy, but the girls ignored us and the barmen ignored the guys as they presume the opposite sex will tip them better (a real problem in Calgary which had mainly female staff!).

Day 2 (Whistler to Kamloops): We went up the mountain on a gondola and some of up enjoyed a helicopter ride over Whistler. Our pilot, Craig, got his experience mustering cattle in the Northern Territory – and it showed!! You’d swear he was rounding up mountain goats the way he flew! What a thrill! Then we headed to Kamloops to a hotel with a pool overlooking a beautiful valley, which I really appreciated as, from the time we left Vancouver we were in a heatwave all tour – it was well into the 30’s every day. Of course that didn’t stop us getting in the hot tub that night though!

Day 3 (Kamloops to Jasper): We had a picnic in the foreground of Mt Robson which is the highest peak in Canada, and typical of the scenery the whole time. Those of us who wanted a thrill then headed to the Fraser River for whitewater rafting. The anticipated thrill wasn’t there as the rapids were only rating 2 and 3 (they’re not allowed to take you down rating 5 rapids over there due to “public liability insurance”…sound familiar?!), however the scenery compensated, it was beyond description, and it was so hot we actually had a bit of a swim in the freezing river in our wetsuits while our wonderful guides loaded the rafts (well they had to earn their $2 tip!). Need I say it…another big night at the hotel bar!

Day 4 (Jasper): On a lovely morning drive to Maligne Canyon for a gorgeous hour hike we were treated to a couple of deer and elk grazing right near the road. We had a policy on the tour that if you see wildlife you shout it out and the driver slams on his brakes just about throwing everyone through the windscreen and if you survive that you get the wonderful opportunity of a close-up photo! Talk about wildlife though…MOSQUITOS….like you wouldn’t believe. The funny thing is only the Americans (both of them) came up literally in welts during the hike and then the English (all 4 of them) came up in welts about 4 days later….the Aussies were bitten but didn’t react to them. We must have immunity from all our bites over here! It’s the last time I forget the Aeroguard though!

Then we enjoyed a boat cruise on spectacular Maligne Lake to take photos of a gorgeous little island called Spirit Island…where a deer kindly wandered out there for the benefit our photos it seemed! On the way back to Jasper we were treated to a baby black bear by the side of the road eating wildflowers…and almost a trip through the windscreen of the bus again! A migraine stopped any chance of partying at the bar tonight, though I heard the music in the bar downstairs coming up through the floor!

Day 5 (Jasper to Calgary): After a few photo stops at gorgeous waterfalls & lakes with gorgeous local wildlife (not animals this time!) we did the snocoach trip up the Athabasca Glacier…however unlike NZ they don’t give you spiky shoes. Amazingly no-one fell over and we had a chance to take some happy snaps, drink crystal clear water off the glacier, freeze our butts off and head back down to the heat again. We had a picnic at which we had to valiantly fight off the local squirrels….as cute as they were, we were dying to feed them but our guide warned us that if they’re fed by tourists they’d starve in the Winter when the food stops. More photo stops….lakes, mountains, waterfalls, pinetrees etc etc. That evening we hit a western bar called Wranchmans across the road where a lot of our group rode the mechanical bull…those crazy enough to want swollen hands from being stuck in the rope, burns from riding in shorts or just the standard huge black bruise on their thighs from hanging on….thank goodness I said no to that!

Day 6 (Calgary Stampede): Wahoo…bucking horses & bulls & chuckwagon races etc. Won’t list all the details but it was a fantastic day, and then a spectacular stage show & fireworks in the night.

Day 7 (Calgary to Banff): After a walk around Calgary discovering there’s nothing else really there aside from the Stampede, we headed to Banff for another helicopter ride, this time over the heart of the Rockies….more Australian heritage as we had an Aussie pilot who had married a Canadian and now enjoyed working his way through the Rockies in different chopper jobs. How depressed I suddenly was with my computer job!! More spectacular scenery…if you’ve seen the Anthony Hopkins movie “The Bear” you’ll know what it was like, that’s where they shot the movie but the movie was supposedly set in Alaska. I was having a ball on the flight, between the awesome scenery and the fun of the massive turbulence we were experiencing (not due to mustering experience this time)….until the girl opposite me utilised her sick bag!

Day 8 (Banff – Quadbikes and Steakfry): After shutting my eyes from 4am to 7am I staggered out of my chalet to meet the shuttlebus taking Carson and me to Yoho National Park for a 3 hour quadbike ride. I had only been on a quadbike once, years ago in Hawaii…and this was NOTHING like that one. 3 hours of crossing creeks and logs and bogs and clearing grown-over trails by just holding your head down and letting your helmet push the branches away….then we hit “oh shit hill”, named by the cross country skiers who enjoy ski-ing along the trail and all of a sudden find straight-down drop (for those of you who use Pigeon Bank Road it’s similar to that). With a warning to feather our brakes, ensure we don’t lock them up and concentrate on staying on the trail I proceeded to fly down the hill with my brakes not making the slightest impression on my speed….thank goodness I followed the third part of his instructions in concentrating on staying on the trail! One of the guys made the comment: "When was the last time you rode something with just ONE horsepower Dianne?!"

With a whole 45 minutes to shower and peel off our mud and dust covered clothes it was off again, this time on a steakfry in Banff National Park. Unfortunately by law you can’t ride faster than walking pace anywhere in the park but again the scenery compensation…along with the horse every now and then breaking into a trot until he caught up to one in front again. After the most delicious steak I’ve ever eaten (probably reducing the number of bulls available for next year’s Calgary Stampede) and an unsuccessful attempt at using a lassoo, it was back to the chalets for a room party till 3am!

Day 9 (Banff to Kelowna): It was a bus day today, and the chance to rest a little! We had a picnic stop at a park closed to our tour guide’s last two tours due to too many bears appearing there to eat the wildflowers. The guys pulled out the footy as per usual but this time whenever one disappeared into the forest to retrieve it the rest of us would start wondering if one of the bears was enjoying a steak lunch!

Five minutes down the road from the picnic stop and what do we see…another black bear, munching away on wildflowers near the edge of the road (bet he’s spewing he missed out on his human steak…but I’m sure if he had walked in front of the bus he may have caught one of us flying through the front windscreen!). Hmmm…the scene in the movie “The Bear” where a guy is mauled flashed through our minds!

Not much to do in Kelowna in the evening so some of us gave ten pin bowling a go then played pool till about 12.30 – an early night by Contiki standards, some were tiring from the pace!

Day 10 (back to where it all started – Vancouver): A day tour of Vancouver in the arvo and in the evening we enjoyed a boat cruise on the harbour…where we pulled up beside the most incredible boat you’ve ever seen (unless you’ve seen Greg Norman’s!) complete with helicopter and speedboat on the back of it – turns out it belongs to Barbara Streisand….and seeing the standard of living she enjoys is enough to make anyone take up singing lessons! Back to the hotel bar for one last dance and the guys got the chance to see some “coyote” girls whoop it up on the bar, then a room party (never did make it back to my room that night, could have save on accommodation if I’d known that!)….then the tour basically ended. Time for a holiday to recover!

The next few days I stayed on in Vancouver seeing the local sights with an English girl who stayed on the same amount of time which was great as I had company to hang out with. I saw Capilano Suspension Bridge & Grouse Mountain, the next day did a day tour to Vancouver Island including a beautiful ferry trip each way, and the third day walked to all the sites of Vancouver including the aquarium where a beluga whale which had been born at 6pm the night before was swimming around with its mum-cute!

Hawaii: After all that company and partying I thought I would be a little lonely in Hawaii – then I discovered Duke’s Canoe Club! If you ever go to Hawaii alone simply head to this bar, plant yourself on a bar stool and talk to whoever comes up to order drinks – they simply love the Aussie accent and most others are there alone too and love having someone to talk to. Most were there for work, mostly pilots actually as there’s so many flights through Hawaii, but I also met everyone from honeymooners, to students, to engineers, to you-name-it. It was meant to be 4 days of R&R for me but day 1 I headed down to the beach and after a few hours got bored so headed to the bar and stayed there all arvo and evening, then the next day was talked into going ocean-kayaking which was way too much hard work for holidays but introduced me to more friends (and 5 blisters!). I then hired a GPZ250 on my third day and rode up to the North Shore (Sunset Beach) and on the 4^th day went snorkelling at Hanauma Bay where exotic tropical fish swim right up to you which was definitely the highlight of my stopover (along with all the people I met).

Well that’s it….3 weeks jam packed with fun, spectacular scenery and a wealth of memorable experiences I’ll treasure. Now it’s time to start saving for the next one!

Di (PS if you see me riding really slow on my next club ride spare me some sympathy, I’m trying to recover from my holiday!)