Seaplane to Victoria, BC (Vancouver Island)

Found myself traipsing amongst the myriad of Google-chrome tabs I've collected since I set off, and luckily landed back on one of my original "would-like-to-do" items on my adventure list which was now advertised 85% off with limited availability — a sea-plane flight to Victoria harbour on Vancouver Island. Naturally, this quickly spurred on the first bookings that would make up a 10 day or so trip across much of the island. Vancouver, very much like Auckland in winter can be rather dreary, but as luck would have it I managed to find an afternoon of perfect weather either side of a number of quite miserable days. The flight was absolutely neato — took all of 30 minutes flying over a good portion of USA airspace and the collection of San Juan islands north west of Seattle. I had a great window seat underneath the wing (a description encompassing all seats bar the pilots mind you), and ended up with a handful of neat photos. When I arrived I checked into the hostel just a few hundred metres from the dock, put together my day-pack and chased the sunset down to Ogden point — more or less the south-west tip of Victoria. Was very surprised how nice it was walking along the un-sheltered beach in the middle of Winter. Zero wind, nice and snug in my polar fleece jacket, I had a nice walk along the smooth rocks and tree sized driftwood which made up the coastline. Glad I bought my sunglasses though, the harsh angle of the sun this far north would otherwise spoil it a bit. Spotted a small bob of sea lions out on the dock at Ogden, but they were either too camera shy or had other engagements which required attention,  rather than striking a pose or two for a tourist — the blubbery bastards can hold their breaths for 30 minutes so I wasn't about to hang around either. Finished off the daylight watching the ferry depart across the setting sun, which will be my end-game plan from Nanaimo back to Vancouver in time for a (11-20% chance) white Christmas.

Capilano Suspension Bridge (North Vancouver)

Now this was quite an adventure.  The Capilano suspension bridge is 137 metres long, and sits 70 metres above the river below.  It is anchored to massive pillars on either side of the canyon and otherwise moves freely — so with minimal foot traffic it bounces quite a bit.  On the other side is a temperate rainforest home to 1300 year old Douglas-firs, with a 30 metre high tree-top boardwalk.

Also, (as clearly demonstrated below), I have managed to master the art of the DSLR-selfie.

Lions Gate Bridge

Yahoo! Weather is no longer my friend.  Gave me the hourly forecast of clear skies — made it a third of the way on my 10 kilometre round trip from downtown Vancouver out to Lions Gate Bridge (connecting North Vancouver), and it began bucketing down.  Had several layers, waterproof and all, but ended up absolutely soaked.  Finally got there and part of my tripod wouldn't work, so I put together a caveman-esque construct with some branches which seemed to do the trick.  Couldn't keep the rain off my lens, but came away with these photos so I'm pretty pleased.  On the way back I accidentally pocket-dialed 911, which led to an interesting call-back shortly after with a question or seven, but I got back alright in one piece.  Some good night practice shots for when I track down the Aurora Borealis further north.

Downtown Vancouver

As I've been so slack, thought I should clear the backlog and upload a few assorted pics. Had the first Vancouver snow, with a 4am walk to the park with Sovereign the Samoyed, and cats in tow. No considerable snow yet or since — just a light dust here and there. We had temperatures of 8°/14° C one day, then -9°/0° the next which I find rather peculiar. A hop, skip and a jump away in Calgary they're having lows of -25°C, so there is definitely snow to be had. Over a few occasions I've essentially covered all of Downtown Vancouver on foot, and all of the photos below were taken along the way. Visited the Granville Island Brewery with my drinking companion Chase, and a great effort went into sampling each of the brews on tap following breakfast which included a litre of Gelato. I've also been to see John Wick at the local picture theatre, which was everything it needed to be, as well as Interstellar which was excellent as expected — another Nolan film with a physics discussion to follow on the trip home, as well as a beautiful Hanz Zimmer score. Favourite movie I've seen though in a while was Boyhood, which (along with 6 other films) I saw on the 14 hour flight here from Sydney.