Canada – Dale and Becca

Travel across the continent

4am does exist. I don’t think it should. Nor do I think I should have to get up then.

Up at 4, quick shower, dress, and lug all our stuff out the door. We booked our flights quite soon after we decided to go, so we booked an 8am flight. 8am seemed like a reasonable hour. Getting up to be at the airport 3 hours before for an 8am international flight is not so reasonable.

Waiting in the subway, with all our lovely bags

We managed to check in with the lady, after our online checkin didn’t work, then our kiosk check-in didn’t work. She took a while – the computer was going slow, but she was very lovely and helpful, especially for it being 5am in the morning. She even sorted our seats so we were sitting together instead of separate. I want to send her chocolates. After that, we had to go through security. Shoes off, belts off etc etc. Forgot that custard counts as liquid, found out after we had gone through security, so we had to go back one at a time and eat as much as we could, otherwise we would just have to throw it out. After eating, we then had to go through USA Customs. I was taking an orange through (I thought it would be ok, as it was an orange from the USA, but no siree, not good), so we ended up going through extra screening to make sure we didn’t have anything else. Also, because we had been on a farm, they had to go find our checked bags, get them from wherever they were waiting, bring them to the special screening place, then scan them again. We had to sit around a lot. Then they had to send the bags back off to the plane.

Finally made it through, to sit and wait for our plane. First flight was 3-4 hours. Tea and cookies, and we watched Top Gear.

Changeover in Minneapolis (everything was snowy), then onto a little plane to fly to Newark, New Jersey. It seems that so many planes go through Minneapolis on their way to other locations. On the plane I slept for a bit, coz just soooo tired (my travel pillow immediately proved its worth!). We arrived at Newark Airport on time. Dale’s bag arrived, my bag, and the snowboard bag didn’t. After being the only one waiting alone, forlornly, by the empty carousel, I asked baggage services. Luckily my bags were only an hour behind me, on the next flight. Better than the people ahead of us in line, whose bags weren’t arriving till the next day. The thought of wearing the same smelly travel clothes for a couple of days made me sad. They also gave us free food vouchers while we waited. I bought a salad, knowing I should eat some veges at some point. Bags finally arrived, and Dale got the snowboard bag and ran off with it, and some poor guy came and took it off us..coz it was actually his. Turns out we had exactly the same snowboard bag. Our one came out soon after

We had booked to fly into Newark when we thought we would be staying in Manhatan, which we didn’t; ended up staying in Brooklyn. It meant a bit of travel once we arrived. We caught a sky train, then another train, then another train, then another train, all the way through the city to Brooklyn, where we only had a 2 block walk to our hostel. We are staying at NY Loft Hostel, which is really quite nice, it is a bit more of an upmarket hostel, although the shower next to our room is a sad one.

We grabbed dinner from the mexican food cart around the corner, and it was filled with delishuz. We sat down to briefly plan the next day, before falling asleep.

We have 6 days in New York, and need to make sure we do all the things we want to!

Bonus pictures of messy poutine from Vancouver 😀

Hot mess II - Nacho version, with guacamole, sour cream, salsa — Hot mess II – Nacho version, with guacamole, sour cream, salsa

Hot mess - poutine with mushrooms, pork, peas, — Hot mess – poutine with caramelised onions, mushrooms, pork, peas,

Last Day In Canadia

I enjoyed Vancouver more this time. I think cause we weren’t trying to buy or sell a car.

Monday we slept in late, and eventually got up and went outside. It was quite nice, even occasionally sunny. Must be awsum type weather for Vancouver though, as we saw at least 3 convertibles with their tops down. I guess they have to make use of the sun when it comes out.

I got excited about one of the very few roundabouts in the American Continent.

We wandered down the road towards Stanley Park, and hired a tandem bike. Much hilarity ensued, and we cruised around the waterfront, checked out the totem poles, and the views along the waterfront.

On the back.. very tricky to take a photo

"A girl in a wetsuit", and two gulls — “A girl in a wetsuit”, and two gulls

We then went to Beaver Lake, then through all the red cedar trees. It was pretty. Near beaver lake, some birds sat on our hands. We talked to the park rangers, who were digging out a drain in the lake. Turns out they have to dig it out every day, due to the beavers that live on the lake. Every dawn and dusk, the beavers are out, filling up the drain and anywhere else they can hear running water.. We could see the beaver lodge out on the lake, but no beavers.

A real beaver lodge, made by real beavers!!!!

I wanted to see beavers. Even though it meant we would be up late packing. So we zoomed off around the rest of the park, then home, spent a wee bit of time planning our next city.

The leftovers of a really huge cedar tree

At about 6.30pm we caught the bus down to Stanley Park. There were already two people waiting, one with a MASSIVE camera, and one older guy on a bike. They were staring at the lake intently, so we joined them. With quiet conversations we learned that the beaver had poked his head out 10 minutes before, but had gone back inside. We were super excited. After 20mins of watching, no beavers. I was disappointed, but not particularly surprised. The moose didn’t come out when I wanted to see him either. We started talking to the guy, and suddenly I saw a little head bobbing in the water – Thats not a duck!! with his little nose poking above the water, and his body floating along behind, he took a lap around the front part of the lake near the drain. Very cute. He duck dived over by some reeds, and we didn’t’ see him again fro a bit. He came out again as it was nearly dark, took another lap, then cruised over to the far side of his lodge, and sat there digging up roots and eating them. So cute. Once it was nearly full dark, we could jsut see him on the other guys camera screen, even though he was just a black blob in reality. Amazing camera. The photographer was nice enough to offer us a copy of a photo he had taken. I personally didn’t get any photos of him, as it was pretty dark, and our little point-and-shoot just didn’t cut it.

We were just in time to catch the bus home again, where we quickly made dinner, made a variation of trifle for breakfast the next day (muffins, chopped up, mixed with jam, and then the whole lot smothered in custard…it was all left over food we were trying to eat), packed everything in our bags, and planned to get up at 4am the next day.

Don't actually need two people — Don’t actually need two people

A small house in amongst the massive apartment buildings

Vancouver Take 2

We got lost trying to leave Kamloops (gmaps doesn’t work well if you’re driving in anywhere that has highways and ramps, and you leave it on walking mode), then had lunch in the small town of Hope, before finding a place called Chilliwhack, where we examined a museum. Vancouver surprised us by being warm when we arrived, like 15 degrees, and a little bit sunny. has rained since then though. It likes to rain a lot in Vancouver.

The town of Hope is very specific about what goes on in its' parks. — The town of Hope is very specific about what goes on in its’ parks.

We spent Friday sorting out the car, which we sold and sorted that day. We also sorted our New York accommodation, and my flights back to NZ. A very productive day.

Saturday was time to see some more sights of Van, and we took a walking tour of Granville Street and Gastown. It was very interesting, and the tour guide was interesting and seemed to enjoy what he was doing. The main thing I took away from the tour was that Canadians like to drink, they like hockey, and they occasionally like to riot. Once, they rioted after they lost a hockey game (a very important one), but it is ok, because the next day they all helped clean up the mess. The town as a whole seems to like neon signs (they show up well in the rain).

The Art Museum. Protesters protesting outside

It was a bit chilly, and it rained a lot on the tour, but it was still good. We went out for good poutine with our roomate Emma, who was having her last poutine before heading back to Australia.
Sunday was just gonna be relaxy, but we heard bagpipes outside, and remembered that there was some sort of parade on, so we threw on some clothes and ran off down the street, where we watched the St Patricks Day Parade, (which had 6 different pipe bands playing!) and then wandered through the food stands and irish stands.. They had bands playing during the day, and people dancing in the streets (which were closed especially). The guy who was introducing the bands amused me greatly, by exclaiming that the weather was good! It was actually overcast, and the ground was wet.. but it wasn’t too cold, and most importantly, it wasn’t raining! The only sad thing about parades, as an adult, no one gives you candy or balloons. Even if you are wearing a fox hat :<

Unicycle bagpiping with flaming drones (not shown)

After lunch was stocking up on maple syrup, sorting photos for blog posts (boo), and discussing packing. I finally gave in and bought one of those bean filled travel pillows. The silly one you wrap around your neck. I’ve always thought they were a bit silly, and annoying. But in light of the last long flight I did, and knowing how much plane travel I’m doing in the next couple of months, I totally gave in and bought one. It has black plush on one side, and red and black smiley face Canada Maple leafs on the other. We have to pack tomorrow. Boo.

Canada is Melting…Also, Puppies!!

After being in Grande Prairie a few days, and with a few reasons we realised we wanted to change every plan we had already made.We wrapped up our trip to Grande Prairie much sooner than we intended, only staying a week. After a very busy few days planning, we changed all our plans. We leave Canada next week (cry!), flying out of Vancouver on Tuesday 18th March. We are heading to New York (exciting!!!), where we will prance around and see the sights for a week, before leaving on a Jet Plane, to London! Eeek!

My little brother Tommy, and his lovely fiancee Katharina, are getting married at the beginning of May, so that is kind of what threw us into alternate planning mode. Hopefully I will be flying back to NZ for a couple of weeks then.

The first few days in Grande Prairie were super cold, but then the last few, it warmed up a ton, and everything started melting. I am suspicious of this “Spring” that is happening, it is 10 degrees outside, and thoroughly balmy. I think it is a ruse, spring has just happened like someone flicked a switch. I’m sure it will get cold again… second winter!

We did our last few chores, and packed the car up again, and drove back to Jasper. Half of the snow was gone. Canada was no longer in black and white, but now had a range of colours, blue green in the rivers, tans and browns in the fields – we could actually see grass! – green and mossy on the trees, and grey and green of mossy rocks. Lovely! Some of the rivers have melted up tot he surface, so parts are visibly flowing again.

It is tricksy though, everything melts a little, then cools and freezes again overnight, so you now have to watch out for patches of ice, where before there was just lovely snow.

Today we did the best thing ever, husky dog sledding up a mountain valley… we went with Cold Fire Dog Sled Tours. They seemed to keep their dogs well, and mostly I think they were the only place around Jasper to do dog sledding. The dogs all seemed in fine form, all were SUPER EXCITED TO RUN< PLEASE LET US RUN, TIME TO RUN? IS IT TIME? TIME TO RUN? PLEASE OH PLEASE RUN, RUN< RUN, RUN, RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN…. They all caused quite a commotion when it got close to the time of the sleds leaving, barking and howling and carrying on Had to hold them back.

What was great on this tour, is that they let you steer a sled yourself if you want. They give you the basic instructions and commands- start, top, braking, parking), and the tour guide rides the sled in front of you, so you are limited to their speed, but you get to steer and command the puppies…It was awesum!!! I want to go back and do more. It was so much fun having them all so excited about running, and that you could tell them to stop and go, and steer your little sled, and stop them from pulling you off into the drifts at the side of the trail, (Stop? they didn’t like to stop, you had to put the brake on, and tell them a few times, and if you were stopping for any length of time, put the anchor down, and when we stopped for lunch, they tied the sleds up, so they couldn’t just keep on running..).

P1210652 — One person drives, one person gets to snuggle in the sled

We had lunch cooked over a little fire, snacks, and apple cider (Which in Canada is actually just warm spiced apple juice), before zooming off again. It was great fun 😀

P1210737 — Sled. Stand on the two outer poles, stand on the silver bar or black pad to slow the sled, stand with all your weight on the silver bar to stop, then put the anchor out!

Saw “Warning Moose Crossing” signs along the road, but unfortunately no moose. We drove on to Kamloops, where we stay the night.

The thing I am sad about is that I didn’t get tot see the northern lights. In Grande Prairie, I was finally at a latitude that was high enough to see them if they were just a bit active. However, they were not active this week. Incredibly quiet compared to the previous weeks. Or it was cloudy/snowing, so I couldn’t even see the sky. Disappoint!

Tomorrow we head for Vancouver, where we sort out the car, then make sure all our belongings can fit into our bags for the plane ride.

Grande Prairie Farmstay

We left Jasper smothered in snow, and drove off to Grande Prairie. I was concerned we wouldn’t get to see any wild mountain sheep, but no chance of that… barely out of Jasper, and there was a herd all over the road, and everyone had stopped to wait for them. Got to stop too, and take pictures, while the sheep just ambled across the road, unconcerned.

If you turn left here, then drive approximately 2600 km, then you will reach Alaska! (Which is longer than NZ).

Saw another herd on the road 10 minutes along, then another herd a wee way after, up on the rocks. Saw a couple of eagles, and some mule deer peeping out of the trees, but that was pretty much it, and the rest of the drive was simply trees, trees, lakes and snow. For about four hours.
Grande Prairie is a sizeable town though, and we are staying on a cute little farm just north of it.

We get to help feed/clean/milk/move the numerous cows, calves,pigs, chickens, rabbits, emus, turkeys, geese, rabbits. Give food, hay, water, bottles of milk. The calves are the cutest.

Last night the heating system broke, so it was pretty cold inside, and even more so outside (-30). I had all the blankets I could find on the bed, which made it very cozy.

The geese were very excited to get out of their house

The first night working we froze, running around outside in the dark was pretty darn cold. Milking the cows by hand is nice though, very warm. Some of the cows live in a barn, and mostly we look after those, and the cows who are about to give birth, and mums and calves recently born. The barn is all steamy inside, with the breath and heat from the cows. There are often ice crystals growing all across the inside of the roof and doors. The cows that live outside often have ice crystals on them, or snow, if it has been snowing.

Bottle feeding the calves is fun. The next time outside, they provided us with quilted overalls, which are the most amazing snuggly things (like onesies, but are appropriate to wear outside). Keeps me nice and warm, and just have to have a scarf for over my face, and everything is good.

We have to give water to the cows twice a day, and only as much as they will drink; if we leave the water in their buckets, it is well frozen by the time we come back in the evening/morning. Chilly. If it freezes in the buckets, you have to spend a while getting the solid hunk of ice out.

The emus, chickens and geese provide eggs, but by the time we get them they are usually frozen. Still good for in pancakes though.

We always had lovely sunsets, with soft pastel colours, and occasional bright oranges.
I got very excited when we arrived, as there is a treadmill! The most exciting thing!!!! I got to run, which was fantastic, run without feeling like your insides are freezing every time you breathe. Never thought I’d see the day where I would be excited about a treadmill.

We have changed all our plans now, after a couple of crazy planning days, and are leaving Grande Prairie in a few days, to drive back to Vancouver.

Jasper – 3rd March

The cold snap was continuing, and it was again, freezing. I cannot stress how cold this day was. There is no other feeling like the insides of your nostrils freezing! My phone doesn’t like to operate in this cold, if I take it out for more than a minute, it has a hissy fit and turns off; it won’t turn back on until I have warmed it up again.

Our first day in Jasper we headed up the road, where you drive up a glacial valley, firstly to lovely views back over Jasper, then on to Maligne Canyon, to do the walkthrough.

We did the little walk down the way, and made our way to where the canyon opens out, and we climbed carefully down into it. The river was frozen mostly solid, with only a bit of water flowing right near the bottom. Water had flowed from the walls, and frozen, forming more walls of ice, ice all around! The floor was super slippery, what with being sheet ice, and parts of the floor had little ice terraces, where water had flowed over the top, but then frozen. It was very pretty, a bit otherworldly.
I wanted to spend longer down there, you can walk quite a way up teh canyon, but the lack of feeling on our feet made us leave. The walk back to the car was great, as it warmed us up a bit.

We then drove up past Medicine Lake to Maligne Lake, where we had lunch, then cruised back to town. This is an interesting area: Maligne Lake is a large glacier fed lake, the largest lake in Jasper National Park. It flows down to Medicine Lake, which was created when the river backs up, and disappears underground. It flows under and overground, and comes out furthur down in Maligne Canyon, where the walls are covered in fantastic ice sculptures, from the different springs and parts of the river that flow and emerge from underground.

After driving around some of the smaller lakes, we saw a squirrel, and another coyote, this one had some lunch in its mouth.

We watched a few squirrels, then headed back to town to get warm again.

The next day we had planned to drive to Valemont in BC, to get our licences sorted, but we gave them a call first, and I think we can use our NZ licenses for up to 6 months if just visiting. We are only here for a bit longer, so it seems a shame to have to drive so far and pay money to change our licenses when its only for a month or so.
We ended up with a day and not much to do. It was snowing, but a wee bit warmer, so we decided to walk the few blocks to town and check out the sights.

You can't see me, behind the couch! — You can’t see me, behind the couch!

We checked out the Den, a little corridor of native canadian scenes set up with stuffed animals. It was interesting to see, but it smelled a lot like dead animal.

We wanted to go to the museum, but that is only open Wednesday to Sunday. We wandered back home (after lunch at The Bears Paw bakery – delishuz), and started the car with only a little reluctance, and drove to the Athabasca Falls.

"Poor" road condition — “Poor” road condition

IT was very lovely, another frozen in time falls, with a bit of deep blue in the small patch of water that hadn’t frozen. We saw some squirrels playing near the car, and I got quite close to one who was just sitting there, eating his little nuts. Two of them had a bit of a fight while running up a tree.

P1210251 — I like it when I get to grow ice crystals on my face

This is how we drive in Canada when it is cold.

A quick drive back to home, and dinner at a yum pizza place. Also, we had dessert pizza that was filled with nutella, a dessert calzone, and it was delishuz.

This is what happens to mayo after it is frozen and unfrozen a couple of times

Icefields Parkway

We awoke bright and early in Banff, to a slightly chilly temp of around -30 degrees. From what I heard, Sunshine skifield was on hold due to it being too cold…. wtf!!! You know it’s pretty cold, when Canadians close their skifield. We stopped at the supermarket to get some lunch, then headed north, along the section of road called the Icefields Parkway. It is not a transit road, it is a scenery/tourist road, maintained by Parks Canada, and it one of the prettiest drives ever.

We stopped at all the places that were open. It was very, very cold, but it was perfectly clear and sunny, which is what we wanted. I will not go on about each place (hey look, another mountain!), but I do of course have pictures of each mountain. Well, most of them. There are more pictures than words in this post 🙂

My favourite bits were:

Weeping wall – an ice covered wall, frozen and blue. We stopped here for lunch, next to a very pretty little river.

Mistaya Canyon – very pretty! There was a raven sitting at the edge of the pull-out, and his feathers were fluffed out all over his feet, I assume to keep them warm. He didn’t want to move when I got close, but he eventually did, and looked a little put out.

Mistaya Canyon, Mount Sarbach in background

Athabasca Glacier – the glacier has retreated quite a way, but you can walk up almost to the face, to the frozen pool of water that sits in front of it. Down one side you can see the exposed glacier, a beautiful deep blue, with layers and lines. It was hidden away, most of the glacier is covered in snow. On the walk up, there are lateral moraines (scree piles), tall on either side, and you climb up a terminal moraine. Occasionally, the bedrock pokes through, and it is sleek and smooth to touch, slippery to walk on if wet, and you can see the lines scratched into it, from when the sheer mass of glacier was moving rocks across it. The glacier is part of the Colombia Icefield, which is over 300m2, and feeds at least 8 glaciers. It was pretty. They had plenty of signs telling tourists not to try and walk on it, as people fall in to crevices and die.

Wild coyotes – Dale spotted one walking down a river, so we screeched to a stop, and jumped out to watch it. It trotted down the river, peed on a rock, then continued on its way. We spotted another one crossing the road in front of us further down the river, and we stopped to watch that one too.

There are around 100+ accommodation places that are guesthouses, located in the basement of peoples houses, in Jasper, a bit like in Field. It seems to be a good way for people to make a bit extra from home. Warm and snuggly, if no view, and we found a relatively cheap one for our few days in Jasper. It was nice to have a lounge and space to ourselves.

The Badlands. Friday 28th Feb

We got up, briefly examined some shops, and then headed north. Once out of Calgary, it was straight roads and flat, flat, plains for a couple of hours drive. Flat As! The road you could see stretching out in front of you for ages and ages….. Flat plains, very little in the way of trees or fences, just flat snow covered flatness.

Cruise control was a great thing here. As we were driving, the wind was pushing snow across the road in a thin veil, it looked pretty cool, but kinda crazy driving through a horizontal snow curtain.

We saw a few oil wells, just pumping away in the middle of nowhere, in peoples paddocks. We travelled over the prairie until we came suddenly to a gorge, where the road dropped down to a river valley. We stopped in a town called Drumheller for lunch. The town is filled with model dinosaurs, in varying shades of paint. The whole Badlands area is in a valley, carved out of sedimentary rock by rivers. You can see the layers in the rock on the walls of the canyons, and for the most part, they are striped and vividly coloured. Reds, browns, black layers of coal. The area was known for its coal mining, and we checked out a river and a suspension bridge. From the looks of it, people had been driving up and down on the river on their snowmobiles.

It was lovely weather in terms of sun and blue skies, but the temperature was a bit chilly, and we were reluctant at times, to get out of the car. Dale didn’t want to be in any photos, he mostly wanted to stay in the car. Which is fair enough, in -25 with windchill (I think a windchill warning was issued, in some places, something silly like 10 mins till frostbite in exposed places). It was a: jump out of the car, run to the place, take a quick photo, run back to the car, turn the heater up High).

There are formations called Hoodoos, pillars that have formed, usually topped by harder sandstone, where the earth around it has been eroded away, leaving a flat topped pillar. The area is also rife with dinosaur bones, and I think they have pulled the most intact dinosaur bones from that area than any other in the world.

We checked out some hoodoos, and then the massive fiberglass t-rex that they have at the info centre. You can walk up inside it and look out over the town. We also went to check out horse thief canyon, which is very pretty, and then horseshoe Canyon just before the sun went down, then we drove back to Banff.

Dale is bravely standing on the foot of The Biggest Dinosaur

Sunset over the plains, such delicate pastel colours, so cold and pretty. It is currently -28 out, but windchill is a ***, I’m sure it makes it more like -40, which is just ridiculous, and just popping outside the car to take a couple of pictures is an ordeal!

We are travelling directly west, the sun set in a fiery golden ball. The sky behind is turning blue-grey, the snow covered fields stretch out in all directions, flat as far as the eye can see. They seem to glow, reflecting the aqua of the sky above. IN front,the sky descends from dusky blue through aqua, pale teal, blue-green, a touch of yellow, orange, and then salmon and coral at the horizon. I love this time of night in Canada, just after the sun has set, the light seems to linger for such a long time, everything looks just a little bit softer. In Field, with the mountains, the sun would set, and there would be a mix of blue and yellow lights reflected off the sky and surrounding mountains.

On the road again… 26th Feb

Wednesday we woke up pretty sore, but rolled out of bed, and proceeded to pack and fully clean the house. It was still freezing out, but by lunchtime and packing the car it was pretty warm in the sunshine.

We said goodbye to everyone, took a last walk to the hostel, a last hug of Yogi, and headed out of town via dropping off the recycling and rubbish (on the way to Revelstoke, we had our rubbish in the car to drop at the bin on the way, so it wouldn’t be sitting in the house for 3 days, but it was early in the morning, and we forgot, and ended up taking it to Revelstoke, not ideal!). A last view of the elk by the railroad tracks, then our final wait for the train to finish crossing the tracks.

Of course, a train, and elk to see us off.

It wouldn’t have been the same, leaving Field without having to wait for the train…the trains are kilometers long, and travel slowly through Field, usually stopping for a bit – I think it is a place where they switch shifts/drivers etc, and if you need to cross the road, you just have to wait till the train has passed. It usually takes 10-15 minutes for the whole train to pass, and so many times in or out of the town, we have encounterd the train. They also toot a lot if the elk won’t move off the tracks.

Anyway, after the train had finally left, we zoomed our way out of Field, and headed down to Banff. The day was amazing, clear blue skies, and not even the thought of a cloud.

We drove to Banff, where we stopped at the hot pools, and soaked until we were thoroughly warm, then drove on to Canmore, where we had delishuz curry for dinner (we haven’t had curry in many weeks, gasp!).

Then on to Calgary in the Very Dark, on the 110km max roads. The road was pretty straight from when it left the Rockies until it arrived in Calgary, and it was quite pretty to come up over the last rise and see the lights all spread out on the plains. It was a little scary to drive in a big city at night! Especially as the biggest towns we’ve seen in the last 6 weeks have less than 8000 people.

We made it to our backpackers – we are staying at Wicked Hostel, and it’s pretty good for a hostel. The only bad thing really is the noise, otherwise, they supply breakfast (pancakes!), towels, comfortable beds, free internet, nice showers, and good shower mats. Important things, these.

We have two irish room-mates, arrived from Ireland 2 days ago, who seem lovely, but one has the most broad accent, and it is fun talking to him, but I think I need a translator…

Lake Ohara. Tues 25th Feb

Tuesday we were up nice and early for cross country skiing, fully bundled up in all the clothes, and we were on the trail by 8.10am. It was freezing. Absolutely literally. About -22 degrees. We got our gear on and got moving as quick as possible; if you sat around for any length of time, all your bits started to freeze. The first few kms were pretty easy, getting used to up and downhill, and trying to make the skis slide nicely. It took 3kms for my hands to unfreeze, and another before I could feel my toes – it was a good incentive to keep right on moving.

Just a fraction of what we can do with icicles

We stopped after a couple of hours, at 6km, for a hastily munched snack of solid muesli bars (sorry, granola bars) and chocolate. They were not quite frozen solid, but pretty close. Had to be careful to blow the water out of the drinking tubes so they wouldn’t freeze. With mine, the plastic had frozen, but was able to drink easily. We only stopped for about 5 mins, but our fingers started freezing again, so we had to keep going. We both had grown ice forests, with icicles hanging from the sides of the hats. I didn’t get any pictures of the ice farms at their peak, though, unfortunately. They dripped everywhere during lunch.

Another couple of hours got us to the campground, where tent sites were a metre deep squares dug out of the snow.

Don't leave your food our for the bears — Don’t leave your food our for the bears

Furthur on took us past the lodge (I’m not sure if it operates during winter, but it is super expensive to stay there. An incredible location, but I think it was something like $300 a night). Must be fantastic in summer, they have a whole pile of cute little log houses on the edge of the lake. They were all closed up for winter, but we found one in the sun to perch on the deck and eat lunch, as the snow was too deep to do it anywhere else. It was another ridiculously pretty place to eat lunch, with the white covered lake in front of us, and the high peaks all around.

Lunch was interesting. We had the cooker to make noodles and soup, which was great.. However, our egg sandwiches had somehow manage to freeze a fair amount. Especially the egg bit. Frozen egg is not delishuz, not even a little bit. Dale tried warming his up on top of the pot, and I stuck mine down the front of my jersey. It took a couple of hours to thaw enough to eat ><
After lunch we traipsed across the lake (you can’t climb to a frozen solid alpine lake and then not walk across the middle of it!), to the deep blue of the waterfall we could see on the other side. I’m not sure if it is even a massive waterfall in summer, but in winter it is a great, pretty wall of blue blue ice.

Sharks teeth in the upper left corner, sticky out cube rock in the left lower

We took our skis off at the edge of the lake, and climbed up to the falls. It was lovely, we stopped to take a few photos and videos, and saw a couple of squirrels in the trees around, and a flock of little dark coloured birds who would keep flying to the bit of the waterfall that was still flowing, and hop around in the water. Weirdos, its cold! I think they might be called Dippers.

By this time it was about 2.30pm, and we needed to get going, so we could make it out by dark. Starts getting cold again when the sun goes down. We swooshed across the lake, then started the interesting part of cross country skiing, that is going downhill!

Cross country skis are meant for traveling long distances, not for downhill skiing! They are very thin, and do not have metal edges, the whole thing is plastic. There are funny bits on the bottom, like fish scales, that help stop them from sliding backwards when going uphill. When going downhill, you have to stick your foot out and snow plow, and you can’t steer very well because of the no edges. I fell over a few times on the steep downhills, before I figured out how to slow myself properly with the skis.

Dale didn't do well in powder — Dale didn’t do well in powder

Heading down was much quicker than going up, most downhills meant you could just cruise, and try not to fall over. You sound like a train when you’re going fast with your skis stuck in the ski tracks. Feel a bit like a train too. Easy to derail! It was much more fun going downhill, but by halfway back I was ridiculously exhausted. We stopped for a snack – I had been keeping my food down my top to keep it warm, and the rest of my egg sandwich was finally unfrozen, so I got to finish that. The last 3 kms were very hard, only because we were so tired. We finally made it back to the car, going out took us just over 2 hours.

Light and shadow over the top of the mountain

Back home to Field, where we went to the local restaurant, Truffle Pigs, for dinner, to celebrate our last night (and we were also too tired to bother cooking). Food was delishuz.