Auckland

Arrived in Auckland NZ last week and have spent a few days trying to sort out our van for the next six months. We've been staying with some Kiwi's, (Graham & Cathy) who used to live in Bristol and knew our family, their hospitality and generosity has been amazing!

Graham has been showing us the sights and running us around to look at vans, this was the view from Mt Eden one of Auckland's many many Volcanoes. You can see Mt Rangitoto (another volcano) out in the harbour.

Summer hasn't quite started and the wind was blowing pretty strongly as we stood on the edge of the crater. The needle like building in the distance is the Auckland Sky Tower, our destination this afternoon.

The wind was so strong we nearly lost our feet!

Aitutaki - Cook Island Paradise

Kia Orana! Greetings  from Aitutaki! We didn't know if Rarotonga could be beaten... It turns out it could, this place was made in dreams! We were greeted at the airport with flower necklaces and coconut milk and taken to the most beautiful lagoon side beach huts we've ever seen.

Etu Moana (our accommodation) was paradise, our hut was backed by tropical jungle and looked out over the turquoise lagoon and the reef. The staff could do enough to make our 3 day stay special, and they really did.

Each night we wandered down to the beach with a glass of wine and watched some of the most incredible sunsets we've seen. Here are just two...

To coin a phrase from a famous film "I didn't know where the earth stopped and heaven began"... First one to guess the film wins a smile :-)

We visited the Island's lagoon to swim, snorkel and soak in the incredible colours (we promise these have not been through photoshop)

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Many of the smaller islands are totally uninhabited and were perfect places for us to unwind after so much hiking in Canada:

We are back in Rarotonga now for a couple of days before we head to Auckland to begin our adventure in Middle Earth!!! 

Rarotonga - Cook Islands

Wow! Paradise. Been in the Cook Islands for two days now after a long travel day from Vancouver via LA. The sea is as blue as I've seen it with the constant sound of waves breaking far out on the reef we are sheltered to swim and snorkel in the warm lagoon.

We are currently staying in Rarotonga, the largest of the 15 Islands in the cooks, we are due to be heading out to a small island called Aitutaki (apparently the most stunning island) tomorrow, I've no idea how it can beat this place but we'll see!

We're just enjoying not rushing around for a few days and topping up our sun tans, not hard, Mel's not been so brown in years! 

Last days in Canada

We've come to the final day in Canada, after a lengthy drive from Jasper to Vancouver we have had a couple of days to sort some things out (re-charge the batteries and do some much needed washing), and are just about ready to fly out to the Cook Islands tomorrow.

The drive back from the Rockies was pretty amazing with plenty of wildlife around as we left early. We saw several bull Elk strutting their stuff for the Autumn rutt (I think you'll agree they look pretty horny) and we even saw a Moose, albeit from afar!

Today with the Ice Hockey season about to start we managed to get into a free open training Scrimmage (training game) with the Vancouver Canucks, it was a really fast and brutal game (hard to believe they were on the same team!) 

All together we have had an incredible time in Canada and will be sorry to leave... Slightly less sorry not to be heading back to work and instead heading on to a beautiful chain of Islands :-)

Hope to catch up from the South Pacific xxx

Edith Cavell & the Path of the Glacier Trail

It's official! Jasper is our favourite place in Canada, and we have downgraded yesterday's hike to second place following the awesome views of today! We have had 3 back to back stunning days and the walk today has been a fantastic end to our exploration of the Rockies.

Today's walk had it all: mountains as far as you could see (and you could see a long way), hanging glaciers, water falling into a lake complete with icebergs, alpine meadows, wild flowers, wildlife, beautiful sunshine and as always great company! This is the life :) 

Heading back to Vancouver tomorrow (it's gonna be a monster drive) so this might be the last blog until the Cook Islands - where did that month go? Good fun times. 

Sulphur Skyline & Miette Hot Springs

Today we took on Sulphur Skyline, a spectacular high ridge over one of Jasper's more remote corners. The views from the top were 360 degree incredible!

It was an energetic scramble up to the 2050m summit but with not a cloud in the sky we both agreed it was our favourite hike so far.

We found a pretty good spot for lunch on the way down too...

Having made it back down we relaxed in Miette Hot Springs... And they were HOT! The water comes out of the earth at 56c and has to be cooled to 40c to make it bearable, still pretty warm after a long hike in the sun (even Mel said it was too hot!!!) 

Jasper - Icefields Parkway & Maligne Lake

Everywhere in Canada boasts they have the biggest, oldest or longest.... so when we read that the Icefields Parkway was the worlds most beautiful road we kept our expectations in check. This time the  accolade fits!!! Words don't really do it justice so here are some pics (it was like this for 244km):

We took some time over lunch to stretch our legs with a 2 hour hike up to a glacier tongue, climbing back down you can see the road winding through the mountains:

Our first day in Jasper NP; we headed for Maligne Lake. After a relaxed walk we caught a boat to Spirit Island, a spiritually significant location for Canada's First Nations (Native Indians).

Surrounded by mountains dripping with glaciers and on a bed of turquoise blue water the tiny outcrop of trees really did have a magical quality to it!

Lake Louise - Plain of Six Glaciers

It's was a wet one today! We travelled from Banff to Lake Louise and took on the Plain of Six Glaciers trail. Mel mentioned that we had not got as wet as the weather forecast predicted and guess what... The heavens opened! 

Still smiling it was a tough grind up through the terminal moraine to the trail end where, you guessed it, six glaciers spilled over the cliff tops. We sat and watched as several ice blocks crashed down the valley, Canada certainly makes a person feel small!

Banff - Biking and Hiking

We've been in Banff NP for two full days and we have packed in the activities. It started with a gentle but beautiful bike ride around the Bow River Valley trails, stunning weather and a really relaxing day.

Today we got up and caught the first gondola of the day up to Sulphur Mountain to take in the spectacular views of Banff as the early morning sun rays hit:

This afternoon we took on a beast of a walk - C-Level Cirque, it was very quiet and a bit steep in places but the views from the top were fantastic, we were in a rock amphitheatre which really produced a great echo (we only just had enough breath to discover this!)

Lake Moraine & Sentinel Pass

Another fantastic day: we drove to Lake Moraine and took on our biggest walk yet, Sentinel Pass. We hooked up with some Canadian locals as you have to walk in groups of 4 or more due to the fact we are deep in bear country! Happily we did not encounter any but had a lovely walk through forest to the highest trail pass in The Rockies.

A hard slog, but definitely worth it for the breathtaking views!

Dave in this photo shows the scale (no jokes about Dave and scale) don't worry Mum this was not as close as it looks :-)

Another out of this world colour in the lake: