Sunday 9^th March 2014

14.30 departure on Cathay flight CX198 for Hong Kong. Daytime flight was good as we were able to stay awake while watching three movies. Cathay provided a hotel room at the airport in the Regal hotel .Very nice room and we had a good night’s sleep before checking in for our flight to Hainan Island with DragonAir. We arrived at 15.30 and along with John and Francis caught a taxi to othe Baohua Harbour View Hotel in Haikou. It is a nice hotel in a good central location opposite a large park.

Tuesday 11^th March 2014

Walked along the main road for about one km to the main registration venue for Interhash 2014. Once we worked out that there are no road rules in China, we were able to negotiate a couple of major intersections by crossing when the electric motor scooters did.

Registration was a shambles, as we were amongst the first there and the staff had no idea what to do and did not speak English. I took control of the bar where they couldn’t even open the kegs, but soon got things going. After the first drink, you had to buy your own (about $1.00/cup), but because of my position as official volunteer bar manager we had free beer all day, which made for a good start to the event. That night we went around the corner to look for some food and met two locals who spoke good English and they took us to a noodle bar and insisted  on paying for the meal. One of them took Carol and Me to show us his  office from where the staff organised tours etc.

Wednesday 12^th March

The four of us took a taxi to the railway station to catch train to Quong Hai. We had instructions written in Chinese for each leg of the trip.

Taxi to Haikou Station

2nd class ticket to Quong Hai

Taxi to Baoa – (Sea Storey Bar)

Taxi to Quong Hai

Etc.

With a bit of confusion, and help from the locals we found our way through the station to our train and were pleasantly surprised by the high standard of the carriage. The trip took about one and a half hours, with three stops on the way. Each carriage has an indicator board in Chinese and English that shows the arrival time s at all the stations, as well as the train’s speed (max 198 km/hr) We arrived at each station exactly on time and caught a taxi for the 30 minute ride to our destination, although the hotel porter had written the wrong instructions and we were delivered to an expensive tourist resort. We eventually managed to find someone who worked out where we wanted to go and instructed the taxi driver.

The bar is right on the beach and is built out of driftwood and old fishing boats. It has a lot of character and we had a great meal and a few beers before we walked into the nearby village to catch a taxi back to the station. The beach was quite dirty except for the area outside the bar, where they cleared up all the rubbish. It was windy and the sea was quite rough so none of us were interested in a swim. The weather has been overcast and dull with mild temperatures since we arrived in China. The taxi ride of about 35km cost the equivalent of $14.00 and we had an hours wait in the crowded station for the train back to Haikou.

Martyn and Bev had arrived by then and that night we all walked down the street and found a busy local restaurant where nobody spoke English and the menu was all in Chinese. Luckily there were some pictures so we just took pot-luck and pointed. Martyn and I ended up with a Tofu stew, but it tasted OK. Bev and John had a hot plate with stir fried pigeon and vegetables and each ended up with a huge pile of bones. We had several beers and the total cost of the meal was under $5.00 each.

Thursday 13^th March

The hotel breakfast was a buffet of European and Chinese food so we all ate up large each morning. We decided to do the Hammersley Hash Run at midday and caught a taxi to the start beside a large intersection, with a pedestrian overbridge circling it. At registration we were given a tee shirt and a cold beer. There was an old local woman with a small cart collecting all the empties. She had a huge grin on her face with over 300 hashers giving her a real bonus compared to a normal day.

The run took us through an old part of Haikou, down narrow alleys between houses and shops, much to the amusement of the locals. We finished at a local park and Hammersley H3 had set up a large sofa made up of blocks of ice. We had a good feed with a choice of chicken or pork and a large quantity of beer in ice buckets. The circle was typical Hammersley with clever songs, great jokes and much sitting on ice and dousing with buckets of water. The circle was joined by a large crowd of locals who were amused by the antics and particularly by the down-trou’s on the ice.

Friday 14^th March

Another foggy, overcast day greeted us and after a leisurely breakfast we walked down to the registration venue.

The Red Dress Run was on the Friday so we decided to miss it and stayed at the venue for a few more beers before walking back to the hotel to  prepare for that night’s opening ceremony. As we left the hotel lobby a bus full of hashers was just leaving, so we jumped on board. It turned out to be a special bus  organised by a Malaysian hash, but we convinced them to give us a lift.

We arrived at Century Park before the other buses and were able to get our food from a wide selection of Chinese dishes with relative ease. Beer was more of a problem, as they had not yet put the quart bottles on the ice, The venue was huge, in the open air and with no cover or seating. The wind was quite strong and as the night went on, everyone got colder and colder. The local performances were  ok and we got a bit of shelter about 75 metres from the stage, in front of the sound system controller. By about 9.30, everyone had had enough of the cold and caught the buses back to our hotels.

Saturday 15^th March

Another foggy, overcast day greeted us and after a leisurely breakfast we walked down to the registration venue. Carol and I attended a meeting of about 20 regular attendees of  previous Interhashes to try to sort out some ground rules for bidders for future events. As an Interhash has a budget of about $1.5 million we saw a need to have some sort of overview of the organising committee and drew up a protocol for bidders for future events. Both Bali and Fiji who are bidding for Interhash 2016 have agreed to this protocol and will require future bidders to also agree to it.

We caught a bus to the run site  near an old village with two ancient pagodas as a backdrop for the circle.

The run of about 6.5km took us through fields of chillies, chokos, beans, and bananas. The trail went around a lake and past a field where locals were using  a 12tonne digger to clear the rocky ground in preparation for the new planting season. Further on more locals had a small generator powering hydraulic breakers  to break the rocks down into paving slabs.

Carol and I both ended up on the ice more than once for doing over 14 Interhashes, more than 2000 runs and being a GM (Carol). The bus trip back to the main venue was quite quiet and we were able to get a feed before most of the others arrived back.

We were keen to avoid the problem of last night with a lack of cold beer, so Father (from Rotorua) and I commandeered a small truck and set up a drink station where we arranged a large supply of ice and a stack of cases of beer.  We had a busy night as we had the only really cold beer at the venue, but we managed to keep up with the demand until the end of the night. Hammersley hash put on about the only act of the night, and the rest of the entertainment was provided by local entertainers. The night wasn’t as cold as Friday but everything finished about 10.30.

Sunday 16^th March

A much smaller number of Hashers was waiting to catch the run buses and there were only about 35 on our run that was based at a beautifully landscaped park near a new residential development. We ran through aloe vera, banana. pineapple and starfruit plantations. There were only three on the long run, four of us did the medium run (6.8km) and the rest were on the short run. We had only eight English speakers at the On on ,so Carol ,as a G.M., was called on to run part of the circle. We had a one hour bus trip back to the main venue, and the night was similar to Saturday, apart from the announcement that Bali had won the bid for Interhash 2016 with 900 votes to Fiji’s 500. The venue again shut down at 10.30, after most people had made their way back to their hotels

The general organisation of the event left a bit to be desired, but all the blame can’t be placed on the organisers as the Gov’t pulled the plug on a substantial amount of finance and support with only a couple of months’ notice. This left them with having to run the event with a very reduced budget and a different venue. We still had a great time and enjoyed ourselves as normal.

Monday 17^th March

We had a quiet day to recover from the excesses of the previous four days and went for a walk in the large park opposite our hotel. We spent a bit of time in a market and spent a small amount of money there. Prices in China are not as low as they used to be (apart from food and beer at $1.00/ quart bottle) so we have not done much shopping. In the evening we again went to a local restaurant and had a similar experience to Thursday night, with much pot-luck in our selections; but with generally favourable results.

Tuesday18th March

Hainan Air flight HU7336 left Haikou at 1315 and we had a pleasant flight of 75 minutes to Guilin.

Photo is of 4 of us squeezing into a CNG tanked taxi to get to the airport.

We met up with Jeff and Marietta from Tauranga who were to join us for our trip in the southern province of China based around Guilin. Our guide,  Cory, met us at the airport and we loaded our bags into the van that was to be our transport and support vehicle for the next seven days. After we had checked into the Guilin Bravo Hotel and unpacked our bags, we were collected and taken to a local bike shop to select the bikes that would be our main transport for a couple of days. To our surprise thay were good quality Merida and Giant mountain bikes. We went for a two hour ride around the busy city streets, dodging cars, motor scooters and pedestrians. We stopped at a Tea Research Centre and learnt a lot about the different types of tea and finished with a tea ceremony, where we tasted a variety of teas. After our return to the hotel we walked around the corner to a small restaurant. More people in Guilin speak English than in Haikou, so we were able to order our meals with more certainty.

Photo from Mountain Retreat Hotel in Yangshoo, Guilin Area– Sunday 23rd March….

Carol and I borrowed a couple of bikes and rode for about an hour around the local area. Mike and Patti live in a lovely well maintained neighbourhood with large houses on good sized sections, but after riding through a couple of similar areas we came to a couple of streets of small unkempt properties where the residents seemed to have no interest in their homes.

That afternoon, Patti and Mike put on a BBQ for us with Sam and Lauras’ wedding party. It was great to have a bit more time with them and the barbequed ribs were something we’ll have to try at home.

Day 22 – Monday 2nd September 2013 (Labor Day)

We decided to drive all the way to Portland in one day, so that we could have a full day to see the city before flying home.

We were advised to take the Interstate Highway, about a seven and a half hour trip of 430 miles, but decided on the slower but more interesting drive through the centre of Oregon.

After a couple of changes of mind we finally headed west on highway 20-26. Although some of the roads were dead straight through quite barren landscape for dozens of miles, there was enough variety to make the trip interesting until we arrived at Burns and bought some lunch at the Safeway supermarket.

Back on the road again, we turned up a side road that bypassed Bend and went through Pineville. The road wound its’ way through scrub land that gradually changed to small trees until we came to a huge storage area containing 1000’s of containers stacked up to four high.  Adjoining the storage area was a series of warehouses and a trucking yard belonging to Les Schwab Tires. This is about the only tyre company that we have seen on our whole trip and it appears that this must be their main distribution centre for the North-west.

The landscape gradually changed as we headed further northwest and we could see several large snow-capped mountains in the distance. The road climbed gradually as we approached the Mt Hood National Park area and the forests were more like driving through NZ pine forests.

Up till this point the roads had been mainly free of traffic and we had maintained fairly high speeds. At one point Carol noticed that the speedo had crept over 80mph, but once we passed the summit of Mt Hood we ran into the returning holiday traffic and crawled at 10 mph for 30 minutes, until we reached a double-lane section of road leading into Portland. We arrived at the Best Western Pony Soldier hotel after a 9 hour drive, which included a lunch break and several photo stops. We had filled the tank at Boise and the on-board computer gave a running calculation of distance left against fuel available. The calculation was always in our favour by about 20 miles and we arrived at the hotel with only a sniff of gas in the tank following the 460 mile drive.

Scenes from the trip:

We had a swim in the hotel pool to freshen up and then walked along the road to Bill’s Diner and had the daily special of a hamburger and a pint for $5.00 each. The hamburger meat patty was large and thick, well worth the $5.00, although the pint was Budweiser and after all the great beers we had drunk, tasted like water.

Day 23 -Tuesday 3^rd September 2013

Our last full day, and after returning the car, we paid $2.00 each for an all-day pass (honoured citizens rate- there are some advantages being 65) and caught the train into town. Portland straddles the Columbia River that is spanned by many bridges, and has a riverfront walk. Otherwise the city appears unremarkable apart from its’ public transport system and the dress of many of the younger citizens which was very punk and with lots of tattoos. The light-rail trains run through the city and there is also a network of trams through the city centre and out to the suburbs.

We visited many shops and took a tram along the river to have a ride on an aerial cable car that runs up to the hospital.

I eventually dragged Carol into a bar for a well-earned beer, before we caught the train back towards the hotel. Carol conveniently managed to steer me onto a train that required us to transfer at a stop where there was another shopping centre, but after a short break we finally arrived back at the hotel.

While packing our bags for our return home we were considering what to do for a meal, when Carol decided that she needed one more pair of running shoes, so we once more climbed onto the train to go to a nearby mall. The one pair of shoes turned into shoes, trousers and a pair of swim togs for me and we eventually bought a pizza and headed back to the hotel.

Day 24 – Wednesday 4^th September

Flew home at 9.40am The end of a great holiday. We flew Hawaian Airlines from Portland to Honolulu (5.5 hours) and after a 2.5 hour stopover continued to Auckland (8.5 hours) finally arriving home at 11.00pm after taking a taxi to Mum’s place to collect our car. She was up waiting for us and had prepared a box of food to restock our fridge for the next morning.

Both British Columbia and  the NW states of USA are well worth a visit. People are friendly and the scenery is spectacular. Seems safe and it was easy to get around, particularly with the GPS. We had been warned about the police and how hard they were on speeding, but on the whole 5000km trip we saw less than six police cars on the road, so unless they had a whole lot of hidden speed cameras, the trip was uneventful. Accommodation was not difficult to find and we booked in advance only for Portland, Vancouver and Spokane. Everywhere else it was relatively easy to find a motel when driving through a town.

We drove through Joseph to Wallowa Lake which is a pleasant holiday destination with log cabins scattered amongst the pine trees near the lake edge. There are lots of trails into the hills, ranging from half hour walks to several day tramps.

We then returned to Joseph to head to the Hell’s Canyon Lookout. The road wound through narrow forest trails, and although sealed, was very tight and we saw very few cars. We did pass a campsite with a couple of fifth-wheelers beside a river. After about an hour, we turned up a dirt road to a plateau where the signs recommended use by four wheel drive vehicles only. Naturally we carried on and arrived at a small lake [pond]where there were some more R.V ‘s parked up and people fishing for small trout.

We bounced back down the road and continued to the lookout over Hell’s Canyon. It was truly impressive; over one mile deep (deeper than the Grand Canyon) and very wide.

We then re-joined the sealed road and dropped down to the Snake River in the bottom of the canyon and drove downstream to the Hell’s Canyon dam. We had lunch overlooking the rapids below the dam where we met three motorcyclists, all with BMW bikes. Two were new 1100cc bikes and the other was 47 years old in almost showroom condition. They told us of an alternative road out of the canyon.

We found the turn-off after a few miles, with a sign advising that it was an unmaintained  4wd service road only. We could see that it was carved out of the side of the canyon and twisted and turned back on itself all the way to the top. After about two seconds of indecision, we headed up, and up and up. The road was narrow and bumpy and very tight, but as I was on the side with the big drops, Carol was quite happy. Very similar to the TV program ‘Roads from Hell’, luckily with no other traffic. The front wheel drive of our Chev Malibu, struggled a couple of time with the loose metal and big bumps, but after forty five minutes and a couple of stops for photos we reached the top.

Further on, we came to a fork in the road and a sign advising that as we were on forest roads without any road signs, that we should obtain forest maps. As we were miles from any civilisation, we had no idea how anyone could obtain them. Maybe the sign was someone’s idea of a joke. Our GPS had by this stage given up any chance of our following instructions and turning back down the road, (as if we could have!), so proceeded to try to send us in the opposite direction to where our instincts suggested we should go. For once we ignored it and eventually came to an intersection with a signboard that again seemed to point us in the wrong direction. After a short discussion as to which way we should go, we again followed our instincts and started off, just as a vehicle came up the road from the direction we were heading. The driver confirmed that we were right, so we carried on towards Council.

The road signs showed that we had about 120 miles to travel to Boise and a clock in the town was one hour ahead of our watches. We realised then that we were back on mountain time and were going to be a bit late arriving at Mike and Patti’s place. The GPS was back on our side by then and we cruised down the highway and arrived at their home without any problems.

Mike greeted me with a cold beer (what a great guy) and Patti had prepared an enjoyable meal for us.

Day 20 – Saturday 31st August 2013

After breakfast and a wander in their garden, playing with Tugly (the dog), Patti and Mike took us on a tour of Boise. We started with a visit to the Western Trailers factory where Mike works designing the huge  specialised trailers that we have seen everywhere on this trip, carting all sorts of materials. I could have spent the whole day there taking in the scale of the manufacturing process, but Carol had seen enough after one and a half hours, so we headed down town. On the way there we had passed a military base with more hardware lined up than the NZ army and air force could even dream about.

All through our trip, whenever we told people that we were going to Boise, the almost universal comment was “Why?” After our visit, all we can assume is that most of them had never been there.

We drove up to the dam that supplies most of the water for the city and surrounding farms, via an impressive canal. The area is a popular venue for swimming and boating.

The city itself is well laid out with lots of parks and gardens that must be watered continually, as the area is basically a desert.

We visited the City Art Gallery and an outdoor memorial to Anne Frank. No one seemed to know why Boise should have a memorial to Anne Frank, but it was interesting nevertheless.

We rounded off our trip with lunch and visits to a couple of good pubs serving excellent craft beers. –We have noted throughout the trip, that the whole of the north-west including British Columbia prides itself on the quality of its’ brewing industry, and I can see why-

The evening was spent at home watching a football match, eating pizza and drinking beer. The local college, Boise (Oregon), was playing away at Seattle (Washington) and were expected to win, so Carol and I supported Seattle who won by a huge margin. The game took 3.5 hours which included numerous stops for television advertising during the breaks for the teams to change from offensive to defensive plays and coaches time-outs. There are about 51 players per team with 11 on the field at a time. The stadium in Seattle had 70,000 spectators.

Today (I’ve finally caught up) we drove up into the Kootenay National Park on the road to Banff, so Carol could finally go into the Rocky Mountains, as opposed to all the other mountain ranges we had been over. We went as far as the Great Divide, that is the highest point in the Rockies, from where water flows in both directions east and west. In theory you could pour a cup of water on the ground and some would flow to the Pacific and the rest to the Atlantic.

At the side of the road we saw a female elk (or moose?) with twins, drinking from a bit of swampy ground. The twins initially disappeared into the bush but soon came back and ignored us as we photographed them. We drove back towards Radium Hot Springs, stopping occasionally for photographs and headed south.

The weather was lovely and sunny again and we travelled along the foothills of the Rockies, past Columbia Lake which is the source of the Columbia River, that flow all the way to the pacific at Astoria in Oregon, where we stayed a week ago. We continued south through some beautiful scenery and unremarkable towns and stopped for lunch in the War Memorial Park in Creston, just north of the USA border.

The border crossing into Idaho, took only a couple of minutes and we were soon heading through flatter land to Bonners Ferry and a pleasant, reasonably priced motel (Carriage House Inn). We drove to a scenic wildlife reserve 5 miles out of town, but all we saw were some birds on a distant pond and a small herd of deer in the distance. Luckily there was no charge for the entrance, or we would have been really upset. Back in town we stopped at a brew pub and had a tasting stick of 7 of their brews for $7.00  The beer was really good and dinner of fish and chips for Carol and a burger for me went down well. We are now back in the hotel room and Carol has asked to turn the a.c. on cold as the temp. is certainly warmer than it has been for the last week. Tomorrow it is down to Couer d’Alene and then Spokane.

Day 17 – Wednesday 28^th August 2013

Had a fairly straightforward trip down towards Sand Point, Or., which is on the edge of a lake. There is an interesting, enclosed pedestrian bridge over a river and we were intrigued by the boat marina where the boats are stored under sunshades, or are they for snow protection?

With the landscape gradually opening out into river valleys and continued to Coeur d’Alene, which is a pleasant town with a university right on the lake edge. There was no parking for us to stop for lunch so we headed east towards Spokane and stopped at a rest area just out of town.

Note the large RV towing a caravan in the background.

Spokane is a lot bigger than when I was here 32 years ago and we took a long time driving through city traffic before we headed west towards the Ramada Hotel about 5 miles out of town. We were a bit early to check in at the hotel so visited a Ross’s Clearance store for Carol to do some more shopping. She now has the jeans she wanted, so hopefully that will be the end of traipsing the aisles. The Ramada has a nice indoor swimming pool, so we spent some time in there before driving about a mile into town to meet with Brad and family for dinner at Onions Restaurant. We had a pleasant evening and a huge meal (doggie bags for most) and were back at the hotel for a reasonably early night.

Day 18 –Thursday 28^th August 2013

We visited the Spokane Falls, that are right in the centre of town and very impressive. There is a gondola that runs alongside the falls, but there was no parking as there were roadworks and preparations for Labor day in the area.

We then took the freeway down to Lewistown, mainly travelling through wheat fields, and drove in circles for half an hour before finally making what turned out to be an inspired choice too drive down the western side of the Snake River in Oregon.

We stopped at a small town for lunch at a café. Our drinks were served almost immediately, but we seemed to be waiting ages for our meals. Eventually a waitress came over to us and apologised that they had lost our order. She promised that we would have our food as soon as possible, and when it arrived it appeared that they had gone out of their way to make up for the delay. The waitress then said that the owner was preparing a voucher for us to have a free meal at another time, but when we said that we were just passing through, she offered us some free doughnuts. The owner then came over with more apologies and gave us our money back. We left with a doggie bag of Carol’s left overs, a tray of eight huge doughnuts, plus the meal refunded. Carol left a $5 tip.

We then had a fabulous 100 mile drive. The road started as a switchback up to a plateau and wheat fields as far as you could see. We then dropped down into the Joseph River canyon and along the valley floor, before winding our way up towards the Wallowa mountains and through pine forests. We stopped at a lookout over the valley and read about how the native tribes had lived in the area before being forced off their land in the mid 1800’s. We saw a herd of buffalo in a paddock, before arriving at the small town of Enterprise, where we are staying at the Ponderosa Motel. Good value at $87 including taxes.

This road is not suitable for large vehicles such as 5^th wheelers – Peter and Triss!

We had a nice cooked breakfast and met a young Kiwi couple who live in London, and were on their way to a wedding in Banff. The GPS got us out of Vancouver relatively easily, but once we were on the freeway we ran into trouble. There is a new toll bridge and motorway system and the directions took us around in circles trying to go over a non-toll bridge that is now being demolished. We eventually got back onto the freeway and instead of a toll plaza there is a system like the one on the Orewa bypass. It was a real maze driving around to find where to pay, but we were eventually on our way again.

The drive took us up through mountain passes and near Hope we pulled into a viewing point where there had been a massive landslide in the 1970’s. It was triggered by a small earthquake and millions of cubic metres of rock slid down into the river valley below the road. It forced the river bed and mudflats up the bank, over the road and several hundred metres up the other side of the gorge. Four cars were carried away and two were never found. The present road is built on the slip material, 40 metres above the original road.

Further along the road we stopped for a picnic lunch in the Sumallo Grove that has short walkways through 500 Year old Cedar, Douglas Fir and Western hemlock. These trees are extremely tall. When one falls due to old age and rotten base, it brings others down with it. Quite impressive.

We noticed that through this area that there were a lot of dying or dead trees. We found out later that there was a beetle infestation that was killing the older softer trees. This beetle has been with forest for thousands of years but due to the modern human intervention the life cycle of the trees has changed. In the past for the forest to regularly burn as a result of lightning strikes or native humans. The burning resulted in the trees cones to produce seeds, improved the soil and for a new forest to grow. Younger trees are not infested by the beetle as they are harder. So the cycle went on. Now there is to be introduced controlled burning to reproduce the cycle.

At the Manning Park Cascade area we drove up a ten km road towards the summit of the ranges at 2000 metres to a lookout over the whole valley, which in the years passed was carved by glaciers. Some of the peaks still have ice near the tops, well above the treeline. In the carpark we saw some cheeky little chipmunks and an inquisitive, unidentified bird.

As we came out of the mountain pass we entered the beginning of the Kootenay Rockies at Keremeos where we encountered a large number of roadside fruit stalls. One at which we purchases peaches and pears.The Okanagan Valley is the fruit bowl of Canada and also the beginning of the wine growing region. We drove into Penicton to find accommodation and found out that there was an ironman event on the next day with just on 1000 competitors. However we had no trouble finding a motel (Motel 5000) at what is a standard rate for this region of about $110.00 including taxes. Penticton is a tourist town situated between two of the lakes that dominate this region. We dined again in our room on oysters and tuna washed down with local beer and settled in for the night.

Day 14 -Sunday 25^th August 2013

We were up early to watch the cycle leg of the event come past our hotel before heading towards Kelowna for some wine tasting. The road along the lake is very picturesque and the hills are dotted with vineyards.

We stopped at Peachlands which is a pleasant village off the main road on the side of the lake. We walked around a farmers/craft market without spending any money and walked down a beach into the water. It was surprisingly temperate, but not warm enough to tempt us into having a swim.

We then stopped at West Kelowna and visited the Quails Gate Winery where the winemaker was a Kiwi. The winery has a large tasting/sales room and two restaurants with the vineyards running down towards the lake. The tasting room is very well organised, catering for tour buses and carloads of visitors. A bar is set out along a wall of windows looking out over the vineyard down the lake. There are about ten staff serving tastings with two free samples of a reasonable chenin blanc and an almost undrinkable red blend. For five dollars you had a choice of three other wines, and between us we had two chardonnays, a gewürztraminer, two pinot noir and a sauvignon blanc. The gewürztraminer  and the premium chardonnay were quite good, but at nearly $30.00 did not stack up against similarly priced NZ wines.

As I still had a long way to drive, we resisted the desire to visit more vineyards and drove onwards to Revelstoke through the Shuswap Highlands and Monashee Mountains. Nearing Revelstoke, we stopped at a small museum commemorating the last spike, which is the spot on the Canadian Pacific railway where the two sections of track finally met and the last spike on the railway line was ceremoniously driven into place. The photo of this act is one of the most well known in Canada and is seen as the point in time when Canada truly became one nation. While looking through this museum we saw up close our first CPR freight train. I only started to count the wagons well after the first ones had past, but there were still over a hundred more. Some of these wagons carry one forty foot container on top of another. (We later drove past a stationary train and it was 1.4km long).

Revelstoke is both a tourist town with winter skiing and summer boating and trekking, and an important railway junction. We checked into the Revelstoke Lodge and had dinner along the road at a local pub.

Day 15 – Monday 26^th August 2013

It rained during the night and into the morning. We crossed the road to see thee Revelstoke railway museum, that covers the history of the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway, including the huge contribution of Chinese labour. There are a huge steam engine and dining carriage on display inside the museum and several old trains and cars outside.

We then drove about 21km through the clouds, up Mt Revelstoke to an altitude of over 2000metres and walked around in the rain looking at wildflowers and trying to see the distant mountains. The weather cleared enough for us to have lunch near the summit, before driving down and continuing our trip.

We had a long drive through the Columbia and Purcell Mountains and stopped for lunch at Golden which is the turnoff for the road to Banff and Calgarry. The weather had improved, so we decided to carry on to Radium Hot Springs. The road was more like NZ roads, being single lane each way and following a river. There was almost no traffic so we made good time and covered the 110kms in just on one hour. We found a nice motel just off the main road (Cedar Motel for $75 plus taxes) and then drove up the road through the National Park to the Hot Springs. There are two large pools of thermal water, and lots of people. We soaked in the hot pool and I also had a swim in the moderate one. It was quite relaxing, but by the time we got back into radium, all the restaurants had closed (Radium Hot Springs is on Mountain Time, and hour ahead of Pacific Time) so we snacked in our room.

We awoke to a lovely sunrise across the bay and had breakfast on the deck of the Sunrise Motel, before driving around the shore of Puget Sound heading to Port Angeles. The GPS guided us straight into the ticket box (about $80.00) for the ferry across to Vancouver Island and we had 90 minutes to wander around town and eat before the sailing. We bought some steamed buns at a farmers’ market and an iced hot-chocolate at a fast food outlet.

The 90 minute ferry trip was calm with good views back to the Olympic Mountains in Washington and ahead to Vancouver Island. We saw some whale-watching boats ahead of the ferry and then a pod of four orcas across our bows. While on the ferry we tried to find a hotel on the internet, but the connection was too slow, so we noted one in a tourist pamphlet and entered the address into the GPS.

The entry into Victoria Harbour is spectacular, with seaplanes taking off and landing alongside the ferry. After clearing immigration, Pauls Hotel was only a five minute drive from the wharf and just on the edge of the main shopping/tourist area. It is an older, motel style hotel but has parking and the rooms are a good size with two queen beds, a microwave and coffee machine and cost $102 including GST and local taxes.

We walked through Chinatown on our way to the waterfront which puts Auckland to shame. It has been developed with pedestrian access right around in front of apartment buildings and hotels and with all the tourist attractions set out along the piers. We booked bikes for Friday and headed back to the hotel. We ate across the road at the White Spot restaurant that is part of a Canadian chain. They have a standard specials list that includes several lovely salads made with fresh local produce and roast turkey and other local dishes. The menu includes extras for $3.00 – an excellent Caesar salad and blueberry pie which is a good sized short pastry case filled with a huge amount of blueberries and topped with whipped cream. One of these was enough for the two of us. The cost including a beer and glass of wine was about $50.00.

Day 10 – Thursday 22^nd August 2013

We had breakfast in our room and walked into Cycle Tours on the pier and were fitted for our bikes and helmets. The bikes were loaded onto a van and along with three others we were driven out to the  Butchart Gardens at Saanich; about 30km from downtown Victoria. It cost $95.00 each which included transport, garden tour and 24 hour bike hire. The gardens are a must see, even for someone who is not much interested in flowers. They were developed as a private garden of about 200 acres in the early 20^th century and are absolutely magnificent. Apparently the display changes each season and people buy an annual pass to see the varied displays. We spent almost two hours walking through the various themed areas and then mounted our bikes for the return trip .mounted our bikes for the return trip

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The first half Km was the steepest part of our whole ride, but the bikes were good quality and it was not difficult. Most of the ride is on bike paths but even the sections on open road were not a problem, even for Carol, as drivers are very respectful of cyclists. We made one navigational error and almost ended up on a highway, but soon realised our error and had no problem from then on. The trail meandered through farmland, parks, beaches, lakes and residential areas and is almost flat. Victoria is a cyclist’s paradise, with cycle lanes on most main roads and cycle crossings at major intersections. Motorists give way to cyclists in all circumstances and it took a while for us Kiwis to realise that we don’t have to be quite as defensive as we do at home.

All along the trail, blackberries grow wild, as they do in Oregon and Washington, so we stopped several times for a feed. There are rest stations along the trails, with seats, route maps and water fountains that include a special tap for filling drink bottles. We crossed a walkway over a small lake and saw two large elks about 150metres away in a paddock.

We arrived at a junction heading back to town, earlier than we expected and so took the other branch (Galloping Goose trail), heading in the other direction for about 12 km. This followed a highway and took us past an inlet of the harbour, from where we had a view across the water to the snow-capped mountains of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA. We went through a rocky gorge out into the parklands, where we decided that it was time to head back into town. Once back in the city it was amazing just how easy it was to ride in the busy streets of downtown Victoria and we did a short tiki tour before returning the bikes. (Auckland City Planners should visit Victoria to see how to develop a pedestrian and cycle friendly city) – Anyone who visits the North-west of USA or Western Canada should include Vancouver Island in their itinerary.

We walked back to our hotel (about 1km) and Carol bought a pair of sandals; her fifth footwear purchase of our trip.

Day 11 – Friday 23^rd August 2013

Drove up the coast through forests and saw the islands that dot the coast of Vancouver Island as far as Nanaimo where we drove into the Departure Bay ferry terminal and had a 90 minute wait for the next ferry to North Vancouver. There are several different ferry routes and ours cost $82.55 for the 90 minute trip. On our deck of the ferry, we had a wildlife expert who gave an interesting lecture on the local whale population and the marine geology of the area.

The drive from the ferry, into downtown Vancouver was ok while we were on the highway, but once we reached the city the traffic was terrible. Vancouver prides itself on being one of the few cities in North America that does not have a motorway system in the city. It is a great example of why we need motorways. Even though it has a great subway and bus system, the streets are jammed with traffic and it is almost impossible to get anywhere at more than walking pace. We finally reached our B&B that is about three Km from downtown in an old three storied wooden villa. It is not cheap, at $145, including a very good breakfast, but it was hard to find hotel accommodation that had car parking.

We caught the subway downtown ($2.75 for Carol and $1.75 for the old man), and wandered around the streets, playing tourist. See the photo of the steam clock that tourists gathered around.

Vancouver did not seem to be the sort of city we would want to stay long; so after wandering the tourist traps we back on the subway and had a meal and drink down the road from our B&B, near the city hall. The bar was Original Joes and had a good atmosphere and good food. I had ribs, that filled my plate, and Carol had salmon that was tasty, if a bit dry. The beer was local and very good. The waitress commented on my Rugby World Cup volunteers’ shirt and said that she enjoyed the game and had some friends that played for Canada at the World Cup. We were in bed by 10.30 ready for a long drive into the Okanagan region on Saturday.

We visited the Astoria Column that commemorates Lewis and Clark who were the first to cross the continent to the West Coast and then drove over the Columbia River on a 4.1 mile long

At South Bend, we purchased a pound of oysters for $10.00 from a seafood shop on the north side of South Bend shops. They were medium sized, but as big as a large mussel at home. We had three each with some French bread at the side of the road for lunch. The lady in the Information shop in the South Bend shops recommended the take away bar across the road for batter cooked oysters. She was not keen on the raw type. I can see why ‘they’ call South Bendthe oyster capital of the world. These come highly recommended.

Our drive took us up through central Washington to the Puget Sound and we found a small motel on the shore at Hoodsport around the Olympic National Park. Our motel is quite small, but right on the edge of Puget sound with a balcony overlooking the water. We watched the indigenous locals netting for salmon just below us and they had a great catch with some almost a metre long. Fishing by net is restricted to Tuesdays and Thursdays for the native people only, which means fishing from the shore is not much good on those days.

We went to the Hoodsport winery, which is one of the longest established in the area. They specialise in fruit wines and I can understand why, as their merlot and pinot noir are not memorable. The winemaker is very hospitable and while tasting some interesting fruit wines we met some customers who had just visited NZ and had children who are working in Wanaka and had done a traverse of the South island on foot. While there we also met a guy, Tom, who had worked for 25 years for Air NZ at LA and new lots of aircrew. We bought a bottle of Rhubarb wine (believe it not) for $16.00 and really enjoyed it as we watched the moon rise over Puget Sound and ate the rest of our Oysters and marinated Tuna. It was a truly memorable meal and we are now relaxing before going to bed.

Day 9 – Wednesday 21^st August 2013

We awoke to a lovely sunrise across the bay and had breakfast on the deck of the Sunrise Motel, before driving around the shore of Puget Sound heading to Port Angeles. The GPS guided us straight into the ticket box (about $80.00) for the ferry across to Vancouver Island and we had 90 minutes to wander around town and eat before the sailing. We bought some steamed buns at a farmers’ market and an iced hot-chocolate at a fast food outlet.

The 90 minute ferry trip was calm with good views back to the Olympic Mountains in Washington and ahead to Vancouver Island. We saw some whale-watching boats ahead of the ferry and then a pod of four orcas across our bows. While on the ferry we tried to find a hotel on the internet, but the connection was too slow, so we noted one in a tourist pamphlet and entered the address into the GPS. The entry into Victoria Harbour is spectacular, with seaplanes taking off and landing alongside the ferry. After clearing immigration,

Pauls Hotel was only a five minute drive from the wharf and just on the edge of the main shopping/tourist area. It is an older, motel style hotel but has parking and the rooms are a good size with two queen beds, a microwave and coffee machine and cost $102 including GST and local taxes. We walked through Chinatown on our way to the waterfront which puts Auckland to shame. It has been developed with pedestrian access right around in front of apartment buildings and hotels and with all the tourist attractions set out along the piers. We booked bikes for Friday and headed back to the hotel

Peter, Triss, Carol and Dave drove up to the end of the beach and out to one of the oldest lighthouses on the coast, in a scenic reserve. There were dozens of seals in the water just off the beach and seabird colonies on the rocks just offshore. After lunch carol and I walked down the beach to the river mouth and up to the old bridge in Newport. Although it was sunny, the temp was only about 16 degrees and the water was freezing – no wonder nobody swims in the area. The four of us went to the supermarket to get supplies for dinner and were amazed by the specials and low prices for lots of the items.

We joined the Banks family for a meal and had more time to get to know our Yank cuzzzies. They all had to leave early in the morning, so we were in bed by 11.00 pm.

Day 7 – Monday 19th August

We said our goodbyes to the family and Carol and I headed north towards Washington. We stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum, which is housed in a WW2 Blimp hangar that is supposedly the largest wooden building in the world. There is a fascinating display of aircraft from pre-war up to the last jet bombers to be decommissioned from the USAF. I received a 30 minute lesson from another museum visitor about the detailed workings of a Lycoming engine from a Vietnam era Huey helicopter. He had spent two year in Vietnam during the war and I now know how long it takes to undo the 128 bolts that support the crankcase and sundry other bits of useless information.

Photos include a ‘pregnant guppy’ that was used to carry things eg helicopters. It splits open from both the front and the back end.

We then drove into the Tillamook Forest and an interesting Forestry museum that had an interesting movie on the devastating forest fires that have hit the area. We then carried on through the forests that make Kaingaroa look small to Astoria on the south bank of the Columbia River and the border between Oregon and Washington We stayed in a cheap motel and ate at a local restaurant. We had a meal of Razor Clams and Halibut. The clams (3) were huge [photo below] and quite tough, but very tasty and the Halibut was quite dry, but also tasty. We drank a local Pinot Noir that was drinkable at $16, but not what we would accept at home. (Incidentally the local beers are really good with a huge range of craft breweries to choose from)

Three clams for dinner

We arrived at our hotel on the beach at about 3.00pm and were just getting out of the car when Triss and Peter pulled up in their new truck. They did not bring their fifth wheel camper with them as Peter wanted to get used to driving in the states before he hitched up the camper.

Our hotel room is huge, with two queen beds and a kitchen, a gas fireplace and a deck looking over the beach. The weather was lovely and sunny, but only about 18 degrees. Over the next hour we met up with several of our relatives and then went to the supermarket with T & P to stock up on food and drink. The local wine is very cheap, with only imported wine costing much more than $12.00, but it’s a bit of a lottery in terms of quality, although the bottle of Chardonnay last night was quite good. There is a huge selection of beer available with lots of craft breweries in the area. Several of them package four different beers in a mixed dozen, which is a great way to buy when you don’t know one from the other. We haven’t been disappointed so far!

The four of us had dinner and drinks on the deck, watching the sunset over the Pacific and at about 9.00pm, cousin Patti arrived and took us to a bar where all the bridal party and families had gathered. We met so many people whose names we promptly forgot and finally got to bed at about midnight.

Saturday 17th August.

This morning we didn’t get up until about 10.00 am and after breakfast in the room, went with T&P to have a look around town. The sea mist has come in and we can’t even see the water from our room. We visited the University of Oregon Marine Research visitor centre and a touristy area with small stalls and craft shops where Triss and I bought belts. We took some photos through the fog, of an interesting bridge, and then came back to the hotel for lunch and a rest before the wedding at 5.15.

Day 2. Caught the bus from Waikiki to Ala Moana [Hawaii largest shopping mall] then the number 55 bus to go clockwise around the island. Interesting a cheap way to travel. Cost was $2.50 each from Waikiki to Haleiwa. Need to ask for a transfer pass that allows you to take a bus trip then get off and catch one more bus [only one] within a 2 hour block otherwise you pay another $2.50. The intention was to stop on the North Shore where all those famous surf pipe lines are but the sea was flat calm. Disappointing but we did see turtles coming very close to shore with numerous tourists following them on the shoreline with their cameras. We didn’t even need to get off the bus.
The number 55 stopped at Haleiwa where we paid another $2.50 back to Ala Moana. Round trip 120 miles [180 km] for $5.00 each. Good views and plenty of tourists spots to stop at if you have the time. We were getting thirsty by the end. Plenty of food and drink in Ala Moana food hall.

The temperature here is 87 F [36 degrees] during the day. The same temperature day in day out. For the last and coming weeks the day time temperature is the same = nothing like NZ where it varies constantly. Makes sitting by the sea at Waikiki watching the crowds enjoying the evening sun and no surf, very pleasant.

Day 3 – last swim at Waikiki then to catch the 2:10pm flight to Portland, Oregon