Arrived into Calgary from Vancouver around 10am. The sight from the plane coming into Calgary was plain white, I know what Antarctica looks like now. As we got closer we could start to see the outlines of buildings and roads, but the rest was just snow!

The drive from calgary to banff was magic as we passed through the rockie mountains with snow everywhere. It is truly beautiful as were going to say many more times during our time in banff.

As we arrived into banff we were met by Riza and Tash and the took us back to their apartment which is only 2 blocks from the main strip. First things first it was off to the pub for a few beers and a good catchup and also plan what we were going to do the next week.

Banff is basically a tourist town, and a place to call home for all the transports who work on the mountains and in the shops. As they are paid really bad, it was obvious the two things you do in banff are ski and drink. That night Riza and Tash introduced us to nightlife in banff as we had a feed and met up with some of their friends for drinks.

The next day we did some sightseeing around town, went up the gondola for remarkable views around baff and also got kitted out with snowboards and gear.

That night was NYE in banff and as we are all old, we went to their friends house party which was good fun , a split of 70% Aussies and 30% rest of the world, saw Aussies dominate every drinking game they could think off, around 11:45 we all went to the main street and watched the fireworks, where they had closed off the entire main street so that everyone had a good view.

The next day was a bit of relax and catch up on washing and stuff, Riza and I went for a hike to the top of tunnel mountain for more spectacular views.

2nd of Jan we headed up to tash's work, Sunshine ski resort for a day of skiing, conditions were beautiful with blue sky and lots of snow. It is so different to home, where all the ski lifts at hotham joined together would still be shorter than the 1st gondola up to the base of the mountain, it is just massive!!

The next day, Tania and I went dog a
Sledding with a team of dogs. It was different being pulled along by 6 dogs over a 10km track. We stopped halfway and we got to walk out on the frozen lake.

We were meant to go to another resort, panorama to see another of tania's friends but all the busses were cancelled, so unfortunately we couldn't make it. Today, Riza and I went skiing at Lake Louise which was
Nice, but then snow cover was a bit thin as they have not had a good dump for a week or so.

Tomorrow we are catching a bus tons mountain called Kicking Horse in BC to ski for the last time before we head back to Calgary to catch our next flight across to europe.

Tonight we are also going out to catch a local ice hockey game in a neighbouring town, Canmore.

All in all, Banff is a beautiful town and nothing beats waking up and being surrounded by mountains bigger than I have ever seen and then streets covered in snow. Yes, it is also very cold, but not wet cold like home, more dry cold.

Ill put some photos up soon

Scotty and Tan xoxo