Vancouver

So I just realised that for some stupid reason I didn't post about our biggest vacation for a while, back to Vancouver. This vacation was Late May to Late June, about 5 weeks. We booked an air bNb in downtown Vancouver so we could relive the similar things we enjoyed when we were living in Vancouver a few years ago.

So this was a bad idea with a baby, we should have gone for a suburban lower density accommodation because we hit Vancouver during a "heat wave", so the apartment was in the high 20's all the time, and we couldn't cool the apartment as there was no A/C and the douche bags down stairs smoked 24/7 so when we opened the windows for cool air, we also got smoke which is not preferable with a baby. F$%k-wits!

Anyways, it was great catching up with all our friends again and revisiting favourite restaurants and sights. Morning runs and swimming in Kitsalano and Second Beach Pools was amazing!

We made it into the Oakanagen to see Heis, Dev and Becky. It as a great escape from downtown Vancouver.

Then unfortunately there was bad family news back home, so we had to change plans and return to Adelaide asap. Within a few days we had bailed on that shitty Vancouver apartment and were headed to cold Adelaide winter weather. Making the best of a shit situation, having parents around to look after Beau, the holiday actually got more relaxing upon returning home.

Anyways, I can't remember it all, but here's some pics.















And then Adelaide:

Wellington - our new home

Wow. What a whirlwind the last week and a half has been. We have done so much in such a short time, and we have loved every minute of it. Setting up again in a new country is always a hard task. This is our second time at it, and I do think it makes it a bit easier having done it before, but each country is different so there are always different curve balls that are sent your way.

However NZ has been really nice to us. I get this feeling, unlike in Australia, that everyone isn't out to screw you. It just seems a bit fairer here. This may be due to the smaller population, there's still a bit more personal care. I've found companies here really helpful and transparent, at least more so than their counterparts in Australia.

Anyways, we found a nice house. After being scared that we wouldn't find a dog friendly property, we really hit the rental market hard and got offered a few properties. In the end w chose the on that felt right, and in the end it ended up being perfect to split the difference between my work and Kates work! Some things just work out right.

We are now going through the painful task of finding a used car. I hate looking for cars. Anyways, we'll get there, but it is growing tiresome sifting through all the crap on trademe.

Kate has started working and is absolutely loving it which is just the best news, and we have been catching up with good friends from Vancouver which has been really nice.

What an life change Clooney has gone through! 8 months ago he was in a cage, no where to go. Fat forward 8 months and he's getting lots of walks and now has his own Wellington registration number. We have really given him a second look at life and it is just beautiful to have him around. Although he now associated plastic bags with walks (we always grab a few to collect his business). So now every time I grab an apple from a bag, he gets all excited and thinks it's time to go and starts whining, so that lucky dog is getting walked A LOT!

I start at Weta next Monday and am so excited. It's going to be so amazing to be part of a team that is creating such amazing work. I am feeling very inspired and pumped to create some amazing work.

Moving To Wellington

WOW. About a month ago Kate and I landed jobs in Wellington, NZ. It was such a bizarre scenario, that both parties of a relationship landed amazing opportunities in the same overseas city. We would have been stupid to not jump at the opportunity. And jump we did. From discovering we had jobs to leaving Adelaide it was literally 4.5 weeks. In that 4.5 weeks we had to get our house ready to rent, get our house rented, pack up everything in our house and store it somehow, deal with 2 cars, deal with a dog that had to somehow get to Wellington, resign from two jobs, tell our parents we'd be leaving...again, and leave the house we just bought and absolutely love.
Needless to say, that 4.5 weeks was brutally busy, but as Kate and I always do, we smashed it out and got everything done. I worked up to the friday (3 days before we left), which made it difficult to do a lot, so my weekends and after work hours got really busy, but it was fun and finally gave me something to do!
What helped....well, Go Box helped for storing our stuff. Pretty much Go Box delivers a shipping container to your door. You fill it with your stuff (see 3D Tetris Post), then they take it away. Filling that box sucked. I think I am looking forward to unpacking it even more. Gum Tree helped a lot. The amount of shit we sold / gave away is amazing. The saying "One mans trash is another mans treasure" is truly accurate. I feel sorry for the dude that took our lawn mower. That bad boy weighed about a tonne and would have cost a boat load to ditch. We stashed a shitty old clam babies bath on the footpath...it was gone in like 10 mins???
We smashed the cleaning, got the house looking gleaming and employed Toop and Toop to rent our beautiful house. They were onto it and found a tenant within a week of advertising it!
The last few nights in our house were spent on a blow up matress. We had to stay with the house as Clooney needed somewhere to stay up until his departure (about 5 hours after us) on Monday the 20th. So we vacated on the 20th at 3am to the airport and left Clooney in the backyard. Kates parents then came down to make sure that Dogtainers Adelaide picked him up at 9am and took him on his merry way. We arrived in Wellington later on the 20th, after some delays and running to the plane in Melbourne due to a huge delay due to iced up planes...yes, iced up planes in Melbs!
Koa from Weta was there to pick us up, hook us up with a car, take us to the phone dealership to get sim cards and then drop us to our accom. Clooney flew on Tues the 21st, spent the night in Auckland and then arrived in Wellington on Wed the 22nd in the afternoon to a relieved Kate. He's loving it and I don't think he misses Adelaide.
Now we have found a place and are searching for a car. I have another week off and Kate starts on Monday. It has been a hectic week and we have seen a lot of Wellington while looking for housing. This city rocks! It is so beautiful and vibrant. It feels way bigger than the population leads you to believe. I'm now eagerly awaiting starting at Weta. I am so pumped to do some amazing work and to work with an amazing team.
There have been some stressful times, but we are so stoked to be here. So far the move has been so worthwhile and has broken us out of a rut that we had got into in Adelaide. Good times!

Melrose

Wandering around the quaint little town of Melrose, SA. It is a beautiful location and was a really nice little town full of history to wander around and take photos :-)

Alligator Gorge

We were at a wedding last weekend in Melrose, SA. It is always a great opportunity to head to Alligator Gorge and get some photos. It is a truly beautiful part of the world to go hiking.

Hong Kong Day 5 Hong Kong Day 6

Finally I am finding the time to post about the final two days of our Hong Kong trip.
Day 5
I think day 5 was my favourite day in Hong Kong. We set out early for a run, and then headed for the MTR after a in room brekky of museli. The plan was to head to the New Territories. We decided to go to Tai Po as we read about some great little markets and a nice temple.
When we arrived after a quick MTR trip, the first thing we noticed was way less tourists. We were the only caucasians around, which was nice. We wandered the streets, checking out market stalls on the way to the Man Mo Yee Tai Temple. The Man Mo Yee Tai temple was probably my favourite experience of the whole trip. We just sat and took in the atmosphere which was very calming. Upon leaving a nice lady came up to me and urged me to hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. It was really nice for someone to involve us.


We wandered the streets a little more, and then headed to Sha Tin to see the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas. This was pretty spectacular however the stairs up to the Monastery were killer. We also saw some nice old buildings with a lot of character and loads of monkeys.


It was getting pretty hot at this stage, we were pretty hungry too, so we headed Mong Kok way to get some food. The Lonely Planet led us on a freaking wild goose chase to a road that just didn't appear to exist, so after some frustration and low glucose level jitters, we headed back to the Home Made Dim-Sum joint that we had eaten at a few days earlier. Once again, amazing Dim Sum, cheap as!
After this we headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and our accom at the Hyatt. The afternoon was spent chilling at the pool in the sun. I swam a few laps; the pool was one of those ozone treated pools, so no salt, no chlorine. It was like swimming in a lake.

That evening we decided to spoil ourselves and go to Ozone in the Ritz-Carlton, the highest bar in the world. The view was amazing, and a little bit off putting. Kate ordered a delicious cocktail and I got a craft brew from Italy. It was a strong beer, and 750ml so I managed to make it last a long time, and still ended up with a hangover. Anyways, $60 for two drinks and a few hours later, we headed for the Temple St Night Markets. It was super busy with people and I just had to try some seafood from one of the busy vendors. I got some strange crustaceans that I had never heard of, they were ok, but not much meat. Still the experience was well worth while.

Day 6
Day 6 was a fairly laid back day, preparing for our big flight back to Oz. Firstly, after our coffee run, we milked the late check out and hung out in the room till we were ready to venture out looking for lunch. En route to finding lunch we stumbled across a very cool dragon act with actors dressed as traditional dragons jumping around on top of pillars; it was very cool. We found a nice Chinese restaurant that did amazing roast meat. It sat on a nice public square so lunch was also great for people watching. I got goose and Kate got pork, both were amazing! We then treated ourselves to some delicious little Hong Kong desserts. It appears that Hong Kongers love dessert, and it shows with the amount of dessert places that are open. Each dessert was exquisitely made and tasted like no other dessert I have ever had. My dessert was a black sesame layered mousse, and kates was a similar chestnut layered dessert. We sat on the edge of Victoria Harbour and watched the boats sail by while enjoying them.


Following this we wandered around kowloon, killing time really until out chauffeured vehicle departed to the airport. i bought the biggest carrot I have ever seen for dinner. It was gigantic - I woinder what made it grow that big :-). Our vehicle was already loaded when we got to the Hyatt carpark, and we got a super dirty look when we didn't tip, but I'd already paid $120 USD for a 40min ride which I think is sufficient compensation. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we got all our baggage on the plane with no hassles and only charged the excess baggage fee that we expected. Now the waiting period began, it was about 7pm by the time we cleared customs, and the plane left at 11:20. Surprisingly the time flew by and we were on the plane, headed home finally before we knew it. Only 8.5 hrs, which were sped up with a few movies and zoning to some good trance.

Hong Kong was a cool experience. It was so busy and different to Vancouver so was a bit of a shock to the system. The Hyatt was amazing and we were so glad that we stayed there. It was a really nice way to spend the end of our Honeymoon funds.
Adelaide airport customs went super smooth, and being citizens we were whisked through the e-customs, and didn't have to get our baggage searched, probably the easiest customs experience I've ever had. When we wandered out of customs to see all of our family waiting for us it was like a weight of the past 6 months was finally lifted. We were finally home.

Hong Kong Day 3 and Hong Kong Day 4

Day 3
Today was meant to be a chilled day. We had covered a lot of kms in the last few days so the idea was to take it easy. We started the day searching for a book for Kate and a trip to a Macau restaurant that was nearby for a cheap breakfast, followed with a Portuguese custard tart for dessert - which we took to kowloon park to devour (Macau was settled by Portugal, hence the Portuguese tart craze).

We chilled in Kowloon Park for some time. Being Lunar New Year, people were off work and out in the park enjoying themselves. It was really fun to just people watch. There were lots of family groups picknicking, soaking up the sun and enjoying the festive vibe that was going around. Some students were putting on a dragon show which was amazing, I guess to celebrate Lunar New Year. They ahd a whole lot of drums to which the dragon danced throughout the park. It was so vibrant and really made it feel like celebrations were taking place. At times the dragon would pause so people could line up to get photographed with the dragon for a small donation, I assume the students were raising money for their school or some worthy cause. Otherwise they were just ripping off the silly tourists. Needless to say, I didn't get my photo with the dragon :-).

We moped around, grabbed some dim sum and checked out the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui. We headed to the Victoria Harbour sea wall to check out the festivities, and ended up catching a Star Ferry to Wan Chi for a bit of a stroll, which ended up being a huge stroll on a fruitless mission to find food. This was a stroke of good luck, as when we got back downtown we stumbled across a small Dim Sum place that made great Dim Sum, and was super cheap.

After dinner it was time to check out the Lunar New Year parade which was OK, except for the 6 deep crowd, so we headed to the Hyatt rooftop garden to watch the Victoria Harbour Laser show and the Parade from a distance.
So in the end it was a pretty chilled day, but we still managed to cover a few Kms.
Day 4
Today was slight more eventful. We decided we were sick of the city so we decided to head out to Lantau Island. We figured there would be a bit of hiking and maybe a few less people. We got up nice and early for a run and then headed to the ferry by 10am. It seems Hong Kong is a pretty slow city to get started so we missed the crowd by getting to the ferry by 10.



The ferry ride out was a great way to see the harbour and all parts of the city. We were greeted at Lantau by a very colourful pier and a Croatia-esque feeling town. It was a fun town to explore, and we found a nice little vegan restaurant for lunch which was a sight for sore eyes after all the Chinese. Following lunch we headed out to some trails. To my dismay we found that the trail was paved the whole way, kinda ruining the natural feel of it all, plus it totally smelt like dog turd the whole time so I didn't really dig it at all. After a few hours on the Island we were ready to bail, head back to the Hyatt and chill before the fireworks.
Kate bought herself some Hong Kong gourmet desserts, and I settled for a salad again for dinner. We found an amazing spot to view the fireworks. They were unbelievable. Best firework display I've ever seen. We sat around by the harbour after they finished to let the 300k plus crowd disperse so that we wouldn't have to battle the hordes home.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, we covered a lot of ground and saw some sights that may have been slightly off the worn trail.

34/365

Leaving Hong Kong, en route to the airport in our own private Limo - van. At this point I am stressing about the huge amount of luggage we have and hoping we have very small excess baggage fees, and pondering what the future holds for us back in Adelaide. Overall Kate and I are really excited to get home. In the end it cost what we expected, and we breezed through check in and customs.
A relatively long wait prevailed at the airport, however it did fly by, probably because we were so excited and I had an awesome book to read - "The Kite Runner".
Boarding the airplane back to Adelaide was an amazing experience, finally the last leg of our homeward journey is upon us, only 8.5 hours, a few movies and some delicious plane food down the track.

33/365

Today we ventured out into the Outer Territories. I wanted to head to Tai Po as the town sounded really interesting and the markets sounded like they would be fun to wander around. It was nice to be the only westerners around, this town did not feel anywhere near as touristy as downtown. The people were really nice and we received a few smiles our way.
The most memorable part of the day was visiting Man mo Yee Tai temple. The temples are busy places over the Lunar New Year with lots of worshipers making offerings to their gods. Kate and I just sat in the temple for a while, taking in the serene environment. It was so relaxing and peaceful, a great place to relax and reflect.
After Kate and I had been sitting for a while, the other worshipers in the temple realised we were not just there to snap a few photos and leave, so when we went to walk out, one very nice lady came up to me and in broken English, told me I should hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. The drum reverberated throughout the whole temple. It was a very wholesome moment and one of my favourite of the whole trip.

32/365

February the first. Today we headed out to Lantau Island to get away from the crowds. It was different. The island has a "quaint" / slummy little fishing village with some great food and cool stairwells and roads that run up the side of the hilly shoreline, somewhat reminding me of a ghetto version of Split, Croatia, in which they had decided to abandon all forms of hygiene and manners.
Anyways, the island was fun and it was good to avoid the crowds for the morning.
Afterwards we headed back to Kowloon so we could catch the Chinese New Year fireworks on Victoria Harbour. En route to our hotel I snapped this picture while waiting to cross Canton Road. I loved the vibrance of all the people in the shot. Everyone is posed differently, wearing different clothes, and I feel the photo really sums up the mixed bag of residents in Hong Kong and the attitude that they expel.

31/365

Today was the Lunar Chinese New Year. This meant that not much was open, but we still managed to find some fun stuff to do and some ok food to eat.
While walking around Kowloon Park, we saw a group of students playing drums and animating this large dragon puppet. It was super cool to see the dragon weave throughout the crowds of people.

30/365

Today we did an epic walking tour of Kowloon. Starting in Mong Kok, we wandered the many markets the whole way back down to Tsim Tsa Shui. There were bird markets, goldfish markets, flower markets, clothing markets and the Temple Street Markets. It was such a vibrant and bustling day.
While out at the flower markets we headed to a Dim Sum restaurant that we found inadvertently because the actual restaurant we wanted to go to was closed.
Anyways this place did outstanding dim sum. The highlights were a mango jelly roll and a pork bun called a snow bun or something like that. It was amazing. A mix of sweet and savoury like I have never had before. The bun was almost like a sweet coconut egg pastry, with a bbq pork bun style filling. Amazing!
That aside, on the huge walk we passed Tin Hau Temple. Inside there were these amazing spiral insence sticks that were burning away, filling the air with the most calming incense aroma. They made for an amazing pattern especially with the sun shining brightly through the spirals. I felt this summed up one of the most beautiful things we saw today, and makes for a rather interesting still life photograph.

29/365

Wan Chai Markets. What an amazing vibrant space. I loved walking around these markets. The streets were teeming with people madly rushing around seeking bargains or purchasing fresh produce.
The wet markets were unreal, I haven't seen anything like it since the Tokyo Fish Markets almost 10 years ago. So much fresh seafood, and such inhumanely treated fish. An eye opener to see, but I was glad to be spectating and not consuming. Kate saw an eel escape from a bucket, slide across a ridiculously busy side walk and try to bite someone before being scooped back into the bucket.
The meat stands had large portions of meat being butchered right there for you, thankfully those animals didn't start alive.
Coming up to the Chinese New Year there is loads of citrus available - not sure if this is all the time, or just at this time of year, but anyways, there is a lot of it available. Cumquats, mandarin, orange and these huge mandarin looking citrus that I just had to try. Way bigger than a soft ball! Anyways, it was delicious, just like someone crossed cumquat, grape fruit and mandarin.
The stall pictured here is one of the many roasted meat stalls. Vibrant, colourful and smelling amazing.

28/365

Checking into the Hyatt late, not leaving much time for a fantastic photo of the day. The entrance foyer to level 14.
We had a long flight, 13 hrs, from Vancouver, finally landing in Hong Kong at about 7pm, the next day. This made my photo of the day a bit difficult as we crossed the international date line, all of the 28th of Jan was spent in a plane, except for the last few hours, which were spent feeling jet lagged, commuting via cab to The Hyatt and then checking in and zonking out. I quickly snapped this photo of the entrance foyer to our floor. The hotel is rad and very fancy.
Better photo to come tomorrow I promise.

27/365

Waiting at the airport - our spare Canadian cash was used to buy some fortune cookies. It was funny when we opened the first fortune cookie, as we got the fortune "Friends long absent are coming back to you". This seemed so fitting as we sat together in Vancouver airport, feeling a bit sad that we were leaving Canada, but also excited to be returning home to see family and friends.
I composed this photo of a few things to remind us of our last day in Canada. Spare change, ski magazines to kill time and the good fortune message.

Montana Ski Trip - Whitefish, Montata, Days 3 to 8

Today I sit in Melrichies Coffee house, Davie St, West End, Vancouver. I am unemployed and loving it. Preparation is well underway for our move back to Australia, and I have finally found some time to write my next installment on our Montana Trip. If you haven't read part 1, here it is :-)
We slept a little on the overnight train from Seattle to Whitefish after a decent train meal, and killing a lot of time playing Yahtzee (best $10 we've ever spent). I was so excited to be in a sleeper carriage, that I found it hard to settle. I was like a dog in the back of a car, running from window to window wanting to take everything in. It was a crystal clear night and there were amazing views of the stars. I have rarely seen that many stars in the sky;I couldn't stop watching them. Eventually breakfast summoned us to the dining car at about 6:30 am, we fueled up on rubbery omlettes and overcooked vegetables just in time to disembark into the pitch black morning at Whitefish Station; about 7am.
We had pre-organised a shuttle to the mountain so we had a fat American guy, wearing a cowboy hat calling our names at the Amtrack station. It was quite amusing being called over the room as "For - beees". Although they have "Forbes Magazine" and manage to pronounce that correctly? Anyways, we were whisked away from the station and dropped right at Whitefish reception to check in. It was announced by our driver that we wanted breakfast, although we had never uttered a word about this, but then it obviously came the single most important point of discussion as to where we could get breakfast. After explaining that we had already eaten a slow morning ensued. Room service took ages to clear our room for check in. Our room was finally ready by 11am. After a bit of a boring wait, we discovered it was well worth it. The hotel room was freaking massive. An ex club room, the owners of the building decided to renovate it and turn it into a hotel room. It was easily 3 times as large as out apartment, with a big king bed, enclosed balcony with dining table, lounge and an amazing view over the whole valley. The kitchen was huge and fully equipped, massive bathroom, fireplace...WOW. We felt ridiculously spoiled! Best part was it was cheap. We could not believe the price we paid for such amazing accommodation.
After settling in and making an essential coffee, we caught a free shuttle down to the town of Whitefish to check it out. It was a quick trip, some amazing chicken wings, a salad and a grocery shop later and we were back up at the mountain to chill in our amazing apartment. Dinner that night was the squid and scallops that we bought in Seattle - they were the most amazing scallops I've ever had, coupled with a Californian Chardonnay (Napa Valley), which was probably the best Chardonnay I have ever had.



Day 4 was our first day skiing, but first I had to start the day with a good old run around the ski resort. I love running in new places, and ski resorts are no different. The run was a bit difficult as due to the snow depth pedestrian access isn't great, but I made it work and had an amazing hour long run, getting me back with time for an epic brekky, coffee and a stretch before hitting the hill. Skiing wise, we were blown away by Whitefish. Firstly we got an amazing bluebird day which is always great for scoping out a new mountain. We rode a lot of fun terrain, found some dry pow even days after the last snow, but most of all killed the groomers. I have never ridden groomers like this, they were amazing. So fast and they were all interesting and different with cool rollers to hit and amazing views. The day ended with a dinner of fresh fish from Seattle market, and a relaxing hot tub that overlooked the ski resort! Amazing.



Day 5 was a rest day. The forecast called for snow for the rest of the week, so we figured a day exploring Whitefish would be good. We headed down to the town of Whitefish soon after a delicious breakfast of home made muesli and the most amazing Montana Natural Yoghurt and Milk. Both were organic, no hormones, antibiotics etc. I haven't had dairy that good ever - Paris Creek may come close. Hats off to Montana for doing dairy right, the US was the last place I expected to get good dairy - BC has a bit to learn. Anyways, it snowed lightly all morning, making Whitefish so beautiful to walk around. We ventured out into the suburbs and just aimlessly wandered. I love getting into the suburbs of towns as you really get a sense for what makes up the community. When you get off the standard tourist route you can see the locals and how they conduct everyday life. We bumped into a lot of them and everyone was so friendly, including an elderly couple that reminisced on the time they saw a moose walk right through downtown. The suburbs were so quaint and typically American. I loved it.
We walked along an amazing trail network that hugged the Whitefish River, stopped in a snow covered park for lunch overlooking the river. Coincidence took us past an amazing little bike shop that also did espressos. Here I had a good chat with the guy that ran the place about cycling in Montana - sounds like it is really taking off, and that it would be worth visiting in summer.
After a good 3-4hrs of walking, Kate and I ended up at the Great Northern Brewing Company. This was hands down the best brew pub I've been to. I'd say 50% of the beer list was malt and yeast driven beers, that were super light on the hops, unlike every other North American brew pub I've been too, which has a beer list of IPA and that's it. What also made this brew pub unique was a good list of lagers, which were superb. I ended up getting a pint of their Steam Ale, which is a beer brewed with a larger yeast at room temperature. Malt driven, and delicious. Then I got a pint of their Amber Ale, once again malt driven in flavour. Delicious. Feeling a little tipsy as I don't often drink, we headed back up to our amazing mountain apartment to cook the most amazing steak from Seattle for dinner. My mind was blown by how amazing this steak was! Seared for a few minutes on each side then quickly finished off in the oven.





Day 6 was our first POW day for a while. I however was getting edgy about exercise and was up early, so I started the day with a good half hour core session and half an hour on the treadmill! Great way to start the day, then followed with a huge muesli meal to prepare for an amazing day of pow. We explored so much of the mountain. We hit up a few runs on groomers with half a foot of fresh for our first few runs. That was super fast and like riding in silk. Once these were tracked we headed for the steeps of Hellroaring Basin. We found one face that was a really steep black run, probably 30 turns in length, no tracks, blower face shots every turn! Made the whole trip worthwhile, not that it wasn't already worthwhile.
Kate was killing it, popping little ollies off everything and hauling ass on the groomers! I haven't seen her ride like this before, it was awesome. We were just shredding and having so much fun together. Once the legs were burning and saying no more, we retired to the hot tub, and then I cooked up an amazing bean chilli-con-carne and then celebrated our last North American holiday, and three years of good times and successes, by opening my Tasmanian Single Malt Whiskey. The best whiskey I've ever had! Sweet fruit driven flavours. Beautifully smooth and rounded with a very full mouth feel. If it weren't so ridiculously expensive I'd buy a bottle for those special occasions.


Day 7 was another amazing Pow Day! About a foot of snow had fallen at the top of the resort. We headed straight for a run we ended the day with the day before. We knew it would be epic if we got first tracks; and we did! Super dry pow, really steep gladed run. Blower face shots every turn! Amazing. We then tracked a few other zones, and just so happened to be at the top as Hellroaring Basin was cleared of Avvy danger. You best believe we headed straight to the same steeps as the day before and shredded it like there was no tomorrow. I saw Kate make some of her deepest turns ever, and once again, I was getting blower face shot after blower face shot. What a day.
We returned to the lodge, super pooched, but loving it. This is where it all gets interesting. We had an inkling that trains were running late due to the cold weather in Chicago - just from the odd comment that people had been making. So, being my overly cautious self, I contacted Amtrack to discover that Friday nights train was running 10 hrs late. Based on this, I assumed that our train for Saturday night will also run just as late (it was already 3 hours behind and hadn't even left Chicago yet), so we changed our reservation from the Saturday night train to the Friday night train, which was now so late that it was actually Saturday mornings train, it got slightly confusing at this point dealing with people about this Friday / Saturday train. This delay and train change suited us perfectly though. It removed the risk of missing Monday for Kates work in Vancouver, and meant that we would get to see the country side by daylight! Turning a annoying situation into a good situation :-) I feel that many people on the train that had traveled the whole way from Chicago would not have shared my enthusiasm for the delay.
We arose on Day 8 after a sleepless night. We had to get up so early to make sure that if the train had made up time overnight, we wouldn't miss it. However when we get to the train station we find that the train had been delayed a further two hours overnight, meaning we could have slept in a little more....oh well, such is life, at least we hadn't missed it. In the end, the delay at the station wasn't all bad as I found an amazing coffee shop that did great lattes and great muffins. This made my morning.
The train finally arrived and we settled in for the next 14 hours. Now, we had a connecting bus in Seattle that was departing the Seattle train station at 9:30pm. As it was, the train was going to get us to the station at 9:30 pm, so we were starting to look at another night in Seattle. Oh well. We figured we'd make a nice night of it and spend the following day at the market.
As the day ground on, the views continued to be amazing, but the train continued to run later and later. Super high winds were limiting the trains speed, and we just continued to see the arrival time grow later and later, to the point where it was starting to get pointless to pay for a nights accommodation in Seattle.
I decided to talk to the conductor when we realised that the arrival time was getting ridiculously late and that we would definitely miss our connecting bus. The conductor told me that she would try to work something out and get back to me. About fifteen minutes later she returned to our cabin with the news that they had arranged for the bus to stop by Everett after leaving Seattle (which it doesn't normally do), so that the train could drop us there, and we could jump on the bus when it came through. This worked perfectly as the bus didn't have to leave later, and we could get off the train earlier. I was so stoked that they had been able to organise it. Amtrack offered amazing service I have to say.
We disembarked at Everett and jumped on the bus 30 minutes later. In the meantime we had an interesting conversation with a nice Japanese girl who was living in Victoria, BC. The bus driver drove like a mad man! He killed it up the I-5, making it to Canada in record time. En route we drove past a massive factory fire! Never seen anything like that before, but the stupid thing was that morons were actually stopping on the I-5, getting out of their car and taking pictures. What is society coming to. Anyways, I fell asleep for a bit which is rare on buses, but I could not believe how quick we were at the border. Funnily enough the border guard kinda gave me shit when I told him we were returning to Australia while we still had time a valid work permit. It's not often that a border guard hassles you about leaving the country :-) Next thing we knew we were at Vancouver Central Station, hailing a cab home, and then finally in bed by 1am! Not bad really; we woke up in Whitefish at 4am on Saturday, and in bed in Vancouver by 1am on Sunday. Everything definitely fell into place for us on this bit of travel. The cold snap has wrought chaos for travelers on the East Coast, and we could have easily had a few days of delays and lots of travel expenses, but instead we managed to turn it onto a very scenic daytime train trip, and avoided any extra accommodation expenses :-)
The trip was so amazing. Kate and I have been spoiled for the last few weeks that's for sure, but we want to make the most of North America while we are here. Whitefish, Montana is a beautiful little town and an amazing ski resort well worth checking out if you have the time. Just be wary of train delays :-)

Montana Ski Trip - Seattle Days 1 and 2

The last 8 days has been quite amazing. A while ago Kate and I organised a ski trip to Montana. We chose Whitefish, Montana, because the Amtrack train passed through the town, making it very convenient to get to without a car. A positive to this was also that we had to go through Seattle, so we decided to stop off in Seattle and explore there one last time.
We departed early on Saturday the 4th of January for the 6am train from Vancouver to Seattle. We were super excited, and it was great to be traveling by train as buses generally suck and are uncomfortable. Being able to get up and move around made the trip so much nicer. The train trip from Van to Seattle was amazing. It was so much more picturesque than I expected. We saw lots of beautiful farm land and coast line throughout the 4 hr trip.
We arrived in Seattle and checked into our downtown accommodation. It was nice for the price, well located and had free apples. You best believe I made the most of these, stashing up a good 10 or so apples to take to Montana with us. After settling into the room, we headed for Capitol Hill for some coffee, food and exploring. It is really quite close to downtown, you could walk it no worries. We spent all afternoon out there, and after chatting with the locals decided that Seattle is rad and super friendly. People recommended that we go and check out different things so our day spontaneously evolved based on locals advice. We hit up an amazing coffee shop called "Vivace", a great little cookie and ice cream shop called "Hello Robin" and was directed to an amazing park that we never would have known about without speaking with the residents that had an old water tower that offered amazing views of downtown.



After a full afternoon we headed back downtown and quickly dashed to Pike Place Market to stock up on french baguette, washed rind cheese, and "Sound Brewing" beer. Some of the most amazing beer I have ever had. A quick relax and a few beers at the hotel, than back to "Long" Thai restaurant for an amazing dinner.

The next day was another day spent in Seattle. This was an amazing day. Firstly Kate and I went for a good hour long run along Seattle's waterfront running trail. It was a beautiful clear morning. An amazing way to see a lot of the city. We followed the run with a market shop at Pike Place Market. This was such a great experience. The market was still quiet and not full of tourists so we were able to speak with a lot of the vendors. We visited the seafood place that is known for throwing fish. Here the fish monger gave us so much great information on what was fresh and where all the seafood came from. We got some amazing scallops, squid and sole. He also shucked the most amazing oysters I have ever had right there for me.
We next hit up a fruit and veg stand where we got amazing service from the owner, making sure we only bought what was in season. The we were off to a butcher that was recommended by the fishmonger. This butcher was amazing, 25 day dry hung beef. We bought the Rolls Royce of meat. One huge steak for $25, but as we found out later in the trip - it was worth every cent. Probably the best steak I've ever eaten.



The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around, getting coffees and finding some cool places for lunch. We were due for the train at 4, so we headed that way a bit earlier to make sure we had time for a beer at Elysian brewpub. After the brew pub it was time head to the train station.
Seattle's King Street station is beautiful, so we had a bit of time there to check it out, and then got on our train, and settled into our sleeper car. The train was pretty empty so we were treated to some champagne, and included with the sleeper car was dinner, so we had a nice big steak for dinner. We then settled into a long 14hr train trip across the USA. Washington to Montana. We were really glad we got a sleeper carriage. Next stop Whitefish, Montana.

11/365

Today was an interesting day - our return voyage from Montana. We ended changing our Amtrack reservation to jump on the earlier train (Friday the 10th instead of Sat the 11th), that was actually running 12hrs late (so it was due to leave 9am Sat 11th), but we worked out that this would work best for us, as the train we were meant to be on would also be 12 hours late, thus meaning we would arrive in Vancouver super late on Sunday, and possibly have to stay in Seattle overnight, therefore missing Monday in Vancouver too.
Anyways, the best part about all these changes is that we would now get to do the return trip during daylight hours and get to see the amazing scenery - and it was. So varying. The most vibrant landscape for me was this rural area in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains, Washington. It reminded me so much of Australia. The US is really so large and varying - such an amazing country, and what a way to wrap up our epic Montana trip.

10/365

I woke up to 5 inches of fresh snow. We fell asleep early the night before and I was therefore wide awake at about 5:30. I git up early to make a coffee and read my book, the whole time I was able to hear snow clearing machinery outside working away.
I finally decided to check out the window and saw this military style operation going on. The three vehicles had the technique to clear a road very quickly down.
I decided it would make a unique photo so I headed downstairs to capture the scene. The white blur you can see in the photo is the snow being projected from a funnel into a large bin that moves along with it. I thought this photo captured the motion of the whole scenario quite well.
The rest of the day was amazing to say the least. Deep dry pow, shredding with Kate and lots of face shots. Loving Hellroaring Basin steeps. A great way to finish out Montana Ski Trip.

9/365

Today was an amazing day at Whitefish skiing with Kate. There had been a decent amount of snow overnight, and with the help of the wind, some aspects had become quite snow loaded.
The day started with an early morning visit to the fitness room for core, legs and a 30 min treadmill session. An amazing breakfast followed and then hit the slopes for almost first chair (we were about 10 chairs back).
The day started with amazing groomers with a few inches of fresh, followed with some of my best steep open tree runs. Face shots every turn!
At the top of the mountain the fog had set in well and truly. Kate noticed that this unused chairlift looked eerie in the fog - immediately I thought it would make a great still life image. The lifeless lift encrusted in ice had a solemn creepy feel about it, almost like a deserted ski resort. The real story is this chair only works when the resort is busy enough to require it - all the terrain is still accessible without it.
Another amazing day riding fresh Montana pow with Kate.