Whistler, also known as "little Australia" due to the hordes of Australian tourists, was our next destination in Canada. It's a skiing and snowboarding mecca in Winter, but in Summer it's all about downhill mountain biking so we felt like the only chumps in town who didn't get the memo and had to rely on our two feet instead of wheels. Nonetheless, we set about thoroughly getting into the spirit of the great outdoors.

With a range of picturesque hikes to choose from, one minor problem became apparent to us, our lack of a transport. Unless you are willing to fork out $55 each to take a gondola up the mountains, getting to the start of most of the hikes isn't practical without a car, and the buses didn't help, so we decided to try hitchhiking for the first time since Asia (which put us off the idea). We figured there was probably no better place to give it a try than Whistler, and the results were better than we could have expected. With our strategy of Sonja being the "thumb girl" we never had to wait more than a minute or two for some kind soul to pull over and give us a lift along the way to our destination - that was if a car was travelling down the road we were on at all which is another story in itself.

We had two full days of hiking a few of the most recommended trails by locals, Cheakamus Lake and Rainbow Lake, which didn't disappoint.

Our accommodation in Whistler was excellent value for money, the only downside being its slightly inconvenient location for those without a car. We stayed in a 16 bed dormitory, which was designed so well that we felt like we had a room to ourselves, in a ski lodge owned and run by a members club. The club aspect gave it all the homely touches you could possibly want as it is pretty much owned by the guests. The facilities, wooden loft style architecture and lounge rooms areas made it a pleasure to stay.

We enjoyed all that Whistler had to offer. It's easy to see why it's so popular with Australians to visit and live - and why the locals seemed to cringe every time we told them our nationality.