March at 'leventh

Today is my sisters birthday. It is the second birthday of hers i have missed while i have been away. I feel bad as out of my vast family, she is the one person i miss the most. I doubt any brother has the same sort of relationship with their sister as i do with mine. You could say i am a protective big brother but not in the traditional sense. I don't lord it over her and shield her from harm but i would gladly give my life if it meant she never felt an ounce of pain. We have been through so much together and there is no bigger sanctuary for me then in my sisters arms. She supports me without even realising. Yes she has her flaws, as does everyone but other than her addiction to catalogue shopping, pinot grigio and a penchant for rough sex (i saw that bruise on your bum!!), in my eyes she is truly amazing. When i think back to the things that i miss whilst i am on this huge adventure it's amazing to me just how many of them involve my little sister in some sort of way. It's simple things like just chatting in her kitchen, or watching her kids play football in the rain, or the numerous meals my soon to be brother in law cooks for us. Whether it's barbeque's in the sunshine with a cold beer or just rushed cups of tea, i love just being around my sister and her family. Since i moved to Northolt when Jodie lived near Charville, we have not really been more than a few miles apart. Considering that between the ages of 8 - 15 i hardly ever saw her. Those first few years though cemented a bond between us that is difficult to explain. All i know is that i am not afraid to say that i love my sister so much and i miss her all the time. I am so sorry sis that i have missed another birthday but i am sending you tons of love from the other side of the world and soon I'll be living in Harry Jacks room and you won't be able to get rid of me! XXXX

Right well, back to the issue of this blog thing. Vancouver produced some very unseasonable weather for us and it felt good to stroll around without a coat on. I met up with a friend from Queenstown too called Rob. He worked with me at Coronet Peak and we were on the same dodgeball team. I remember making him feel really bad when he accidentally hurled a dodgeball into the face of one of our female opponents. I knew he didn't mean it but i enjoyed winding him up. He left Qtown before the end of the season to get a jump start on his Canada trip and has been here for the last 5 months. As he missed the end of the season i had loads of gossip for him. I think Rob had only intended a quick drink and a catch up but we ended up getting quite a bit drunk. After he left me and Kate got down to the proper drinking back in our hotel bar. I woke the next day with a crushing headache! I had forgotten just how strong Canadian beer is. I have become accustomed to NZs smoother less powerful beers, which i prefer. We spent most of the day in bed but when we did eventually venture out to get some food we randomly bumped into Rob in our hotel lobby! He was there cashing a cheque as he had been working in the bar next door for the Olympics. He invited us out for another beer but we gracefully declined. He was quite interested in our travels across Canada as he is keen to get out on his snowboard. I emailed where we will be and when and left it up to him if he wants to meet anywhere. It was good seeing him again as he is a really nice guy.

We spent one of our last days there by going shopping. We travelled out to the Metrotown Mall on the train were i encountered a peculiar sign about pick pockets. I stated that you should beware as Vancouver has the best pick pockets in the world. A bold claim i thought. What, did they have some sort of college? The Artful dodger school of dipping? Or the Fagan institute? Have they not seen Oliver? London practically invented dipping!!

Oh another thing i have learnt to my peril - Never trust google! That website fucked me over so much in Vancouver. Lets say i fancied a burger king. I'd google it to find the nearest shop, get directions by google map, commit it to memory, walk miles to get there to find no frickin burger king! It fucked me over at least twice! Either that or Vancouver keeps changing and relocating stuff to keep one step ahead of them. Annoying.

So we left Vancouver and it's vast sprawl. It is such an amazing place. The downtown area is quite compact and some of the neighbouring districts are stunning. We drove through west and north vancouver on the other side of the harbour and those places have an amazing view and sunset out across the bay. From Vancouver we picked up our car for the next month and headed to Kamloops. Kamloops, according to numerous travel guides, has nowhere of any interest except the ski resort Sun Peaks. They are not lying! What a strange place. Driving from Vancouver you pass through valleys and mountains and huge pine forests which are beautiful before you get to the browny grey hole in the ground that is Kamloops. The hills and mountains would ordinarily be pretty impressive if you hadn't just drove through some stunning scenery. It's quite a small industrial town too so chimneys pop out all over the place and spew smoke up into the clean mountain air. The only reason we stopped there was for Sun Peaks and it didn't disappoint. The resort was huge, the second biggest in British Columbia to Whistler. It had just had a light dusting of snow and our first few runs of the day on the middle mountain were awesome. We then ventured over to the bigger mountain which had a bit more steeper terrain and had seemed to have missed the new snow. It was much icier too so we went back to the middle mountain before checking out the third mountain they have there. Yes, three mountains. The third mountain was good because no one was there and the fresh snow lay pretty much untouched. We had a really good day but it wasn't as good as the day we had back in Brighton in Utah. A close second.

We were quite keen to leave the grey brown Kamloops and head to our next stop, Kelowna. On the way we stopped for an afternoon at Silver Star which is another ski resort. We were a bit sketchy about the fact they hadn't had snow for over a week but this is Canada and they still had over 2 metres to ski on. It was a much smaller resort and we pretty much covered it all in just a few hours. It was surprisingly good considering the lack of fresh snow and was our first taste of Okanagan powder. The Okanagan Valley has world famous snow called champagne powder. It's some of the driest, lightest, fluffiest snow in the world and i have been waiting to get here for years. The snow was good but without fresh stuff it just felt like normal snow. The other resort in the Okanagen valley is Big White, which is just down the road from our Kelowna hotel. As i look out of my hotel window up to the hills it is dumping snow up there and I can't wait til tomorrow when we'll get up there.

Kelowna is called Canadas California. I can kind of see why. It sits low in the Okanagen valley and straddles both side of the long thin Okanagan Lake. The lake has beaches and the town has an active winter and summer season. There are beach volley ball and basketball courts dotted along the lake front. The town is over looked by snow capped hills and mountains and is the closest looking place we have seen to Qtown. Not as dramatic but close. It is one of the largest growing communities in Canada and with the gorgeous scenery, lake and ski resorts, it's easy to see why. It might help that Lake Okanagan has a loch ness type monster too, apparently. Don't know many facts and other than the loch ness monster statue down by the lakefront, it's not exactly a massively publicised thing. Not a souvenir shop in sight. I always imagine Loch Ness to have "Nessy" based souvenir shops and tourist havens everywhere. But hey, this is Canada after all. They are so modest here it's ridiculous. I guess when your nearest neighbours are brash, loud, smug Americans it's not difficult to see why though.

So far i have really liked Kelowna. I knew i would just because of it's similarities to Qtown but i am really looking forward to some okanagen powder tomorrow. Wow, that sounds a bit like a drug reference eh? We've only planned to stay a few days before heading southeast down to Rossland but i really wish we had planned a longer stay. I'll let you know how we get on.

Happy Birthday sis. I love and miss you millions. I hope you have an awesome birthday.

Peace

D

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