Ken and Rach

So we decided to move to Canada. On the 9th March we flew into Vancouver and started to make a new life.

We found a place to live; a three bedroom, top story place with a balcony facing west for the afternoon sun. Ken and I moved in with our kiwi mate Matt I.

Ken managed to confirm a job before we left NZ, so he started work fairly promptly after arriving. Matt and I however didnt find work immediately so spent our hours furnishing the house with "free stuff". Canadian's seem to find it easier to give stuff away than sell it or take it to the dump. We also spent some hours learning to brew beer.

Which turned out to be fairly easy, cheap, fun and best of all, it tastes great. Matt built us a beer storage cupboard down in the laundry, which has turned out to be well required with 18 x 23 L batches to date.

Pretty soon we were hosting homebrew tasting sessions!!!

Canada, and especially British Columbia, is all about the outdoors so it wasnt long until we started getting out and about. Our first hike was up a rock called Stawamus Chief, a 6km hike gainning 500 metres. The warning signs on the trail included the following:

Here's a pic of the Chief.

And me at the top.

There is a lot of forestry in BC and transporting the logs is often done via water.

Two months after arriving we went to see the Alice and Wonderland movie in 3D. This gave us inspiration for the theme of our flat warming.... The Mad Hatters Tea Party. Here is the Rabbit's Hole.....

And the Tea Party in the Garden.....

It was a great turn out with lots of fun and games to be had.....

Part of what "makes" the living on the North Shore is the outdoor mecca on our door step. The north shore is lined with mountains some just 5 kms from our place. So it was a give in that we would have to take advantage of this opportunity and get ourselves into mountain biking. Here's Ken doing his thing a little further north, up at Whistler bike park.

On Anzac Day I stepped up and bought me a Kona Dawg. Here's me doing my thing in the forrest.

Just 30 second stroll from out place is the Capilano River. Which is controlled by the Cleaveland Dam which holds 1/3 of Vancouver drinking water. This is where we do bombs in summer after work, however the water doesnt warm up so it's always a quick dip.

This river is one of the rivers salmon come to spawn in every season. So Ken got himself some tackle and proceeded to see how much he could loose over the season. This was the only one he managed to catch thus far. It tasted real good though.

And when the water is real low, he snorkles to get his tackle back.

Futher up the river is a Hatchery. This is a picture of the fish ladder that allows the fish to get up past the dam.

It was about time to get ourselves some motorised wheels. We figured that if we are going to be outdoors alot, we better get a vehicle that can handle the places we want to go. So the Toyota 4Runner was the answer.

With the new truck we started taking advantage of the long weekends. We took a trip inland to the interior with our bikes to find sunshine and my friend Katy.

Most of the outdoors we had seen so far was from the safety and speed of our bikes. We decided to get up close with nature.... and all it had to offer with a hike up the Camel's Hump near Vernon. Road access to the trail head was 4x4 which let us see how the new 4runner would handle and it seemed to do the trick. Unfamilar with the Canadian outdoors and wildlife and worried about all the talk of bears waking up after hibernation, our walk was brisk and alert and we whistled and sang all the way. As a result, no bears were seen, but on the way out of the bush a Bob Cat run across infront of the truck. It was quite exciting. Here's me and Katy at the top of Camel's Hump. The photo looks back down the valley to Vernon.

We also saw some Marmots.

Shortly after the 4th flatmate, Brett, arrived back in Vancouver, the boys got together and found us Disco Stu. A 1970 delight with 135 horses on the back and only 22 hrs on the clock. Ken spent some time sorting out the sound system and we were ready for action.

The first trip away with the new boat was back to the interior to Osoyoos and Vernon again. At Osoyoos staying with Brett's Old Man's Cousin, we took Disco Stu for a spin and watched the fireworks display for Canada Day. Here I saw Humming Birds for the 1st time. They are amazing......

The summer was in full swing with beer and bbqs going strong.

The following weekend was the Victoria Ska Festival. So we got the kiwi crews together and headed out for some homegrown tunes, Katchfire and The Black Seeds.

The ferry trip to Victoria, Vancouver Island on the way to the festival was a great place for some homebrew in the sun.

At the end of July the annual international fireworks competition is held in Vancouver. This year the finalist were US, Spain, Mexico and China.

So we headed down to the water to watch the extravagansa unfold.

Based on a recommendation by a friend Benie, I checked out a shop in downtown called Dressew. And as a result hand sewed myself a bag. Cheers Benie!!!

Our first camping trip in August was to Lake Harrison. We took our boat Disco Stu and the 4x4 and headed off to Hale Creek Campsite.

Here we were introduced to the North American game of Beer Pong. Which uses cups of beer and a pingpong ball and an accurate throw. This game went on for hours.

We made sure a bit of BYC was had. The Canadian baseball swing caused havoc with the wickets though.

I found this crazy little fella in the grass.

Camping isnt camping without camp milo.

A few weeks later it was time for another adventure. So a mate Rhys and I decided to climb the Black Tusk. A 33 km hike through forest, medows, scree, ice and rock climbs.

There were spectacular views of the Garibaldi lakes from the medows full of wild flowers.

And pretty amazing landscapes.

The start of September brought about Labour Day so for the long weekend we took the boat on the ferry to the Sunshine Coast. Putting Disco Stu in near Sechelt we headed down the inlet to a boat access only campsite.

A crew of 17 made for a great time.

Games of fris-knock alway provided entertainment.

And we got inventive as the evenings went on with games of "Unders and Overs"

The following weekend we landed an opportunity to go whitewater rafting down the Thompson River. (Thanks Shaun). It was about a 4 hour mission as the wind was blowing up the river. Dead salmon really stink.

On the bank we saw a bear.

Here's me and Brett.

After camping the night we made a couple of fishing rods out of some sticks and headed to he waters edge for some fishing as thousands of salmon were in the river. My rod was the only sucessful one but the fish was big enough for us all for lunch.