Hey All!

We're writing this from the very impressive public library in Vancouver- we arrived here last night after another long bus journey (14 hours) and have been out exploring the city today which is really nice so far! Especially the waterfront.Tomorrow we will head to Victoria on Vancouver Island which is meant to be beautiful, stay for a couple of days, come back to Vancouver for a couple more days then get our last greyhound bus down to Seattle. We'll stay one night in Seattle before we do a 24 hour flight stint down to Quito in Ecuador. So we have one week left of Canada! Can't believe it!

Anyway, the last week has been amazing. After Winnipeg we got on a bus to go to Calgary. I thought this city was brilliant! It was built from oil money and you can tell- everything is so pristine! The city sits on the Bow River and the waterfront is just beautiful with natural and landscaped features parks. We spent a couple of nights in Calgary and did a mammoth bike ride one day and saw loads! We rode to a bird sanctuary out of town where we saw a family of Bald Eagles that flew right over us and into a tree. Totally amazing!

After Calgary we had a quick 1.5 hour Greyhound bus journey (which felt like 5 mins!) to Banff in the CANADIAN ROCKIES!The landscape in the Rockies is just totally unbelievable. Needless to say we did some hiking here! First was Tunnel Mountain (which was a breeze!) which offered amazing views overlooking Banff (Banff is very touristy but really well done with lots of cute touristy shops everywhere).Another day we did a walk along the Bow River to the Falls which were very impressive. Then we did a massive hike up Sulphur Mountian which is 2200m (approx) which took us a couple of hours (as Banff is 1500m asl anyway) but we were rewarded with absolutely stunning 360 degree views. The mountains here just go on and on and on. Breathtaking.

To break from the hiking we also went white water rafting one day. Unfortunately the weather was rubbish (thunder, lightning and heavy rain!) so it was pretty cold but it was still really good and we had a crazy kiwi as a guide! : )

After Banff we headed to a place called Lake Louise Village. The weather seriously took a turn for the worse and basically hacked it down all day so we couldn't go and see Moraine Lake which we were looking forward to. However, the next day, even though there was still low cloud, we went to Lake Louise which is a massive turquoise coloured lake high up in the Rockies. From here we went on a seriously long hike! So from Lake Louise we went higher to Lake Agnes where, upon our arrival, the cloud cleared and revealed a beautiful lake surrounded by jagged mountains. Stunning. We decided to go on further and do the 'big beehive' walk. This was a very steep climb to the top of one of the mountains overlooking Lake Agnes/Lake Louise. At the top we couldn't believe our eyes really! The cloud had cleared, the sun came out and down below we could see the glow of the turquoise Lake Louise with snow capped mountains all around us. Totally incredible and one of the best views we both have ever seen!

After lunch atop the mountain it was time to take the long walk down. By the time we got back to Lake Louise we had been walking for 6 hours! We rested our weary feet, had a look around the very plush Chateau which is on the lake, and then hiked another 4km down the road back to the village. We went to bed at 9pm that night!

Whilst in the Rockies we saw lots of birds and small mammals but we didn't manage to see any bears or moose or elk. Gutted. Maybe one day we'll come back and fulfill those wishes.

So now we're in the city. Even though we managed to do lots of hiking we did manage to rest a bit too in Banff which was much needed!

I'm hoping later this week to load up some photos to our blog so you can see where we've been.

Anyway, that's enough for now! We hope you're all well back home. We think of you lots and miss and love you all!

Us two.xxx P.S keep the messages up!!