Road Trip - Day 1-4

Hi all,
So we are FINALLY in Vancouver after a bit of a rocky start.

We made it to Kelowna fine and spent our 2 days there with a friend, which was great. Kelowna is beautiful and will be where we will eventually go back to after the trip. We also took the opportunity to get the car serviced. We ended up needing a few things done in the end (such as a new fuel filter, belt and some fluids topped up) so we were happy we had got that done.

The drive to Kelwona

So we left for Vancouver yesterday morning but after about 30 minutes on the road, the car just STOPPED!  We had no idea what to do or who to call.We eventually got towed to went to a mechanic who told us that we probably needed a new fuel pump. So after about 4 hours waiting around and $600 later we were back on the road.

 

We again got about 10 minutes out of town (literally within 100m of where we broke down the first time) when it happened AGAIN!!!

At this point we were angry and upset and called the mechanic back. He said to get back to the shop and that he would pay for the to this time.. so we got back eventually and he tells us he will need to look at the electrics in the car and the computer as he thought maybe that was what shut down and that he would need it over night... so by now we have missed a whole day in Vancouver and now the night too... and no where to stay in Kelowna.

We called some friends from work who were also passing through and they said they could come get us and we slept on the floor at their friends house (at least we didn't have to pay for more accommodation). The best part of this crappy situation was hanging out with some good friends overnight and going out for cheap wings ($8 for 20 wings - bargain!).

We got dropped off at the mechanic at about lunch time and finally we were back on the road, for the most nerve wrecking drive ever, thinking that the car might stop at any moment, He replaced the computer in the car (another $550) and all seems good.

So we are happy to say that we didn't break down and FINALLY made it to Vancouver. We are a bit upset that we lost most of our time here, but we went out and checked out down town, had some sushi and a walk. Tomorrow we will check out a couple of other sights before moving on to Seattle where we have accommodation booked for another 2 nights.

 
 Entering Vancouver

English Bay

In hindsight we probably should have held back on pre booking all of our accommodation as it makes for a very tight schedule, but at the same time we wanted to have the main cities (such as San Fran and Vegas) booked early as we were afraid they would book out, being summer and all.

If you havn't already, please check out our fuel our roadtrip project at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fuel-our-roadtrip 
We would be super appreciative for any small donation especially after the last 3 days :) Thank you Aunty Chris for raising our first $20.

Anyway, that's our updates for now..  more again soon, tomorrow we cross the US border. xx

Hiking in Kananaskis

Hi All,

Now that the snow has gone, it is feeling a lot like spring, well, it is spring..so we have been out enjoying the natural surroundings of Kananaskis before it is time to move on.

Kananaskis, as it turns out, isn't just mountains, there are also lots of beautiful lakes, ponds and falls.

Lately we have enjoyed exploring Mt Lorette ponds and Barrier Lake, both of which are very close by.

Barrier Lake

Hiking up to lookout over Barrier Lake

Lookout over Barrier Lake

Barrier Lake and Valley

Lorette Ponds

Lorette Ponds

Lorette Ponds

Lorette Ponds

Barrier Lake

Barrier Lake

Almost Time!

Hi All
We are so excited to be embarking on our next adventure, a month long road trip through the USA.
We will be driving the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway down the coast of California to San Diego, then up through the Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City and Yellowstone National Park.

These are some photos from the web of some of the places we will be visiting and roads we will be driving:

Photo: National Geographic

Bixby Bridge - Photo: LosApos.com

Grand Canyon- Photo: www.thecanyon.com

Yellowstone National Park - Geysers. Photo: National Geographic

You can view our itinerary here:

Part 1

Part 2

Fuel our Roadtrip

We have also started a crowd funding campaign to help us pay for fuel and car expenses along the way. View our campaign here: http://igg.me/p/fuel-our-roadtrip/x/10677739

Keep an eye on the blog as we leave in 2 days! and for my creative thank you notes :)

Road Trip!

Hi All

So the season is coming to an end and it's almost time for our next adventure... our eagerly awaited road trip in the USA.

We have been planning and planning and here is what we have so far,

We have built a bed in the back of our van and will be driving from Kananaskis to Vancouver – Seattle - Portland – Sacramento.

Along the Pacific Coast highway through, San Francisco – Santa Cruz – Big Sur - Santa Barbara – Malibu – Santa Monica – Los Angeles, all the way to San Diego. 

Then onto Pheonix – The Grand Canyon – Vegas  – Yosemite – Lake Tahoe – Salt Lake – Yellowstone and on to Canada

This is our map so far:

(pictures of the bed that Matt built coming soon...)

Troll Falls

Troll Falls is a beautiful hike right down the road from where we live and sort of joins up to the back side of the mountain that we work on.

We have now been twice. The first time Matt and I went and explored the trails closer to ground level and the second time we went with friends and hiked right up the mountain and came across some amazing views,

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

 

 

 

 

Love to you all xoxo

Australia Day and Snow Days!

Hi all

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while.

We have been having very strange weather here, they are saying it is the worst winter they have seen, with hot temps, rain and not a whole lot of snow.

Today, however, we woke up to a nice layer of snow on the ground. Me and some friends that I live with had the day off so we went for a walk around the village and hotel as it was too dangerous to drive and go out anywhere like we had planned.

The snow stopped and the sun came out which made for some spectacular photos at the lookout.

 

 

Other than our excitement today, we haven’t got much news. The only other event recently was Australia day. We wore Aussie flag tattoos on our face at work and had some drinks afterwards in the lounge including a “ski shot” which is 4 shot glasses attached to an old ski.

We also had a big party at residence (some of the boys have loud speakers and a strobe light) and we listened to the triple J hottest 100 (aired in Australia during the day) - this is the only photo from the night..

Most of us Aussies were given the following day off work and they had a room set up at the hill with snacks and drinks for us, as some of the others went for a snowboard in their Aussie ‘get ups’ (I was too tired and didn’t get up in time) but we did have some wonderful “hot” weather and they made us Aussie Burgers for lunch.

In the afternoon we watched the boys play cricket in the car park which was icy and slippery, but hilarious.

At this point we really have no idea when the season is actually going to finish as we thought it might finish up early due to having no snow, but we are in the process of organising our road trip down the west coast of the states for when it does.

That’s it for now, but here are some more photos..

                                                     Mikaela me and Vicky on the way to Calgary.

  Keeping our skin soft

A beautiful sun rise..