With great reluctance we left the beautiful scenery of the national parks with our next stop being vancouver island.The weather had turned a bit grey and gloomy so not such a bad day to travel.We had to catch the ferry across to victoria which took around 90 minutes and then the drive to our hotel was another 30 minutes.We arrived without a hitch and checked into our hotel. We then headed out in the car to get our bearings as to where we were and how far away we were from Victoria Town Centre.We were pleased to see that everything was rather conveniently on our doorstep so after a quick cruise around we headed to the local supermarket for some dinner supplies then back to the hotel to cook tea.

Day 2 and the plan for the day was to get the bus from outside the hotel to the town as it was a little too far to walk.When we arrived we spent the morning walking around the harbour area with all the wharfs and it is here that all the sea planes that do tours from the sky take of and land. Having never seen a sea plane before we were facinated for a good 15 minutes just watching their comings and goings.After the harbour we went to visit the famous Empress Hotel and it is just as grand and beautiful as everyone says.One of the things on our list of must dos in Canada was to have afternoon tea in the decadent tea room.Vancouver Island is known for its very british feel and afternoon tea is very much the done thing here so we decided to have a wander round the hotel, see how the other half live and also see how much they wanted to rip us off for afternoon tea in the Empress Hotel.After oooing and ahhing for a while we stumbled across the beautiful tea room and they had the menu outside.I already had a bad feeling when it didn't have a price at the bottom but the sound of sandwiches, trifles, cakes and scones had our mouths watering so we asked one of the staff how much it was and if we needed to book?It didn't come as much surprise that the Empress was looking for $120 for afternoon tea!!That's sixty quid for tea and cakes so we politely declined and finished our tour in the beautiful rose garden and headed on.Next we decided to do a scenic walk round the town which took in Trounce Alley, Bastion Square, Wharf Street, The Christmas Village then through a narrow alley called Fan Tan Alley to Chinatown.As if we hadnt done enough walking for the day we chose another scenic walk from the map which took us over the bridge to West Victoria for an up close look at the sea planes and all the luxury apartments build around the water.At this point we felt that was quite enough walking so it was time for a refreshment in one of the many "British Pubs".After our day walking around we soon realised that the rumours were true and that Vancouver Island is the Canadian interpretation of Britain and whilst I was very cynical about what it would be like I have to admit they did a pretty good job and it makes for a very pretty tour around Victoria.

Day 3 and when we pull back the curtains the heavens have opened and it is chucking it down boooo!We decide not to let it ruin our day and take the car to a place called the Butchart Gardens.We had been told by a few of the locals that it was well worth the visit and in our experience the locals are normally right.The Butchart Gardens are a series of themed gardens built by a wealthy lady called Mrs Butchart.I have to be honest at this point we were not really expecting much from a few plants put there by a wealthy Canadian woman and with the rain coming down in buckets it wasn't really a day to be walking around outside.It didn't take us long to change our mind when we got to the first garden, the walled garden and it was just beautiful.We have never seen so many plant and flowers so thoughtfully arranged, there was not one petal out of of place in the entire garden.There was a rose garden, a japanese garden, an italian garden and a mediterranean garden all as impressive as each other and they gave you an umbrella each to walk around with so you didn't get soaked!We then spent the afternoon in the car on the scenic coastal road back to Victoria stopping at the seaside town of Sydney and taking in a funky little market in the middle of nowhere before heading back to the hotel for some dinner.This was our last day in Vancouver Island and whilst we had enjoyed it we were starting to find Canada to be very expensive and Vancouver Island was no exception so we were happy to leave and head back over on the boat to the mainland for our last 4 nights in Vancouver.