After settling into our Vancouver hotel it was time to head out and start exploring the city before dinner, we'd just spent pretty much the best part of two days sitting on a train so the legs were starting to seize and the step count was way down. Navigating our way across the city we stumbled across the waterfront and 'Canada Place'. Canada Place is the home of the Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver's World Trade Centre, the Vancouver cruise ship terminal and 'FlyOver Canada', a virtual flight ride. The architecture of the building's exterior looks like huge sails with its roof covered in fabric. We decided to pay the $20 and take the FlyOver Canada ride. Standing in the queue waiting to head inside I read all the warning signs about 'vertigo, fear of heights, back problems' etc and wondered what I was letting myself into. The first part of the experience was watching a short movie, following a man as he 'ran across Canada, leaping tall city buildings, crossing rivers, plains and mountains and swimming in ocean tides. This was followed by a safety briefing, no loose clothing or shoes, do not undo your seatbelt etc, yikes, should I exit stage left now! Heading up some steps I was strapped in my seat before I had chance to give it a second thought, no going back now. The lights dimmed, the safety barrier in front of us dropped down out of sight as our seats moved forward leaving us dangling (in our seats) about two stories high. Then we were off, first flying over Toronto city, then literally flying over Canada, it was a 4D experience so we knew exactly what was about to happen as we approached the Niagara Falls. Flying over mountains and through some light clouds there was moisture in the air, farmland brought the smell of freshly mowed hay. Tony and I were like a couple of kids, 'ahh look at that', 'oh look been there' and a couple of 'arrrgggs' as we approached the top of mountains only to head steeply down the other side, yes the seats moved, up, down, sideways and tipped forward and back. The most exciting part was literally flying over the top of 'The Rocky Mountaineer' train, only a few hours after we had been on it ourselves. Flying to the far north we viewed the spectacular northern lights before 'landing' back in Canada Place. Definitely worth the $20 spent, so good in fact we bought tickets for a second half price ride that we did two days later.

Our first full day in Vancouver started having coffee with Ryan, our Vancouver based travel agent, from Canada Rail Vacations. Apart from our 'across Canada trip' we had done all our travel bookings ourselves online, however as this portion of our great adventure was able to be booked as an 'all inclusive package' we had left it up to the experts. Ryan was interested in hearing about our experiences on Via Rail and the Rocky Mountaineer and was able to share information on places to visit, things to do and most importantly recommend restaurants to eat at in Vancouver. The remainder of our day was spent exploring Vancouver on the hop on, hop off bus, which was the last thing included in our 'across Canada' package. Stopping first at Coal harbour, we walked part of the Seawall walk past 'Dead mans Island', the 'Totem poles', 'Brockton Point Lighthouse' and 'Lions Gate Bridge' before heading into Stanley Park and walking around Beaver Lake, then through the rose gardens back to the bus. While walking around the Seawall walk we saw a statue on a rock in the water, it reminded me of 'Pania of the Reef' in Napier, however this eternally young lady was less scantily clad and appropriately entitled 'Girl in a Wetsuit'. Heading past English Bay Beach and Sunset Beach park we 'hopped off' at the 'Ferry Dock' taking the False Creek Ferry firstly to Granville Island then onto BC Place, a huge sports stadium close to our Hotel. We were however changing hotels that day, so after collecting our bags we headed to the 'Auberge Hotel' on the other side of the city where we were to spend our remaining three nights in Vancouver. The Auberge is conveniently situated just a stones throw from the harbour and Canada Place and just a few minutes walk from Gastown, the historic area of Vancouver. Heading to Gastown for dinner we found a Spanish Tapas bar recommended to us by Ryan, the food was equally as good as in Spain and the service top notch.

Taking the ferry to the northern side of Vancouver harbour we headed to Grouse Mountain for the best part of a day. Grouse Mountain is a wildlife and adventure tourism area in the summer and a ski field in the winter months. It is also the home of two resident bears Coola and Grinder, both orphaned as young cubs and rescued in 2001, they now live in a five hectare habitat that includes a wooded area, two lakes and some open grassy land. We had booked to have 'Breakfast with the Bears' so arrived early meeting the ranger at the bottom of the mountain before taking the steep cable car ride to the top. It was a beautiful clear sunny day so the views from the cable car were spectacular looking back over the harbour towards Vancouver. After a short walk we reached the bear habitat, unfortunately no bears to be seen. Listening to the ranger talk we learned a little more about Grouse Mountain, it's wildlife and most importantly about Coola and Grinder who were still remaining elusive. Next step was to try and coax them out, so our group was given apples and sweet potato, throwing them into the grassy area next to the cafe where we were shorty to enjoy breakfast ourselves, disappointingly to no avail, still no bears. Heading into the cafe we sat down to enjoy coffee and an impressive buffet breakfast. Just as we had finished we heard a shriek from outside, yes the bears were heading out from the wooded area and straight towards the 'breakfast' we had left for them. Although on the other side of the fence, this was probably as up close and personal as we were ever going to get to a couple of grizzly bears. I could have watched Coola and Grinder for hours as they snacked on apples and sweet potato, basked in the sun, foraged in the grass, swam and splashed in their lake and sat and almost posed at the many camera lenses pointed towards them. While on Grouse Mountain we also watched the wild bird show, enjoyed the humour of the lumberjack show, went on a wildlife walk with one of the Rangers, where we learned about the local flora, fauna and wild animals seen in the area and watched other mountain visitors zip lining through the forest. We also rode the chairlift to the summit of the mountain where we took a lift to the top of a wind turbine to enjoy 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside.

We were lucky enough while visiting Vancouver to be able to spend a day on Vancouver Island. We first took a short monorail ride to the bus depot, then an hour on a coach took us to the ferry for the ninety minute trip to the Island. We stood outside on the front deck of the ferry for while looking for whales, apparently sometimes seen in the area, there were however non around but we did see a few seals and the view was beautiful, very similar to going through the Marlborough Sounds on the interislander in fact. Arriving at Schwartz Bay we were picked up by our friend Alison who currently lives Sidney, which is on the northern end of of the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island and just a few kilometres from the ferry.
We had a fantastic day, Alison became our personal tour guide driving us to various points of interest starting in Victoria, which is the capital of British Columbia. After walking around the waterfront area we walked past the British Columbia Parliament Building with its manicured gardens the building has a perfect view across Victoria's inner Harbour. Wandering through the grounds of the Fairmont Empress hotel we had a quick look inside. The Fairmont is a chain of upmarket hotels that as well as being very grand have top end boutique shops in their lobby areas that are open to the public.
Next stop was the floating village with its quirky colourful houses, restaurants and shops. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and a couple of wild seals (obviously very used the human presence) were popping their heads out of the water to accept fish treats from the gathering crowd. Continuing our 'tour' we drove through the suburb of Fairfield where we saw a reindeer just wandering down the footpath. Yes, you know you're in Canada when there in the middle of a residential area you see a wild deer wandering down the side of the street.
Parking the car in Oak Bay we headed to the Marina where wild spotted harbour seals were cruising amongst the moored boats and yachts. Different to New Zealand Fur seals 'harbour seals' are a silvery grey in colour with darker grey/black spots covering their bodies, a bit like the 'dalmatian' of the seal species . Alison bought a bag of frozen fish from the shop and like a big kid I fed the seals piece by piece as they lifted their heads and bodies out of the water, begging for the fish, literally like 'performing seals'. When all the fish was gone I went back to the shop and bought another bag, feeding these beautiful cheeky animals was definitely one of the highlights of my day.
Next on our itinerary was the Buchart gardens, they are beautiful and really have to be seen to be believed. This huge privately owned garden, which was the site of a limestone quarry until 1909 is now internationally renowned, receives almost a million visitors each year and has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada. The gardens comprise of several different garden areas that include an Italian garden, a Japanese garden and many other areas crammed with colourful flowers, ponds and fountains.
After wandering through a street market in Sidney with Alison and her daughter Kelsey, who is an old school friend of Sarah's, we had a look at their waterfront area before enjoying wood fired pizza at a local cafe and heading back to Schwartz bay for our return ferry trip to Vancouver.

Leaving our bags in storage at the hotel, we spent our last day in Vancouver looking around Granville Island and Gastown and partaking in a little retail therapy. Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping area located across False Creek from Downtown Vancouver. The peninsula was once an industrial manufacturing area, but is now a popular shopping and entertainment hotspot. There are many quirky art and craft shops as well as fashion stores, cafe's and a fish, meat and produce market. Gastown is the historic area of Vancouver and is crammed with cafes, restaurants and shops and is a great place to spend a few hours shopping. Gastown is also the home of the famous 'Gastown Steam Clock'. The clock is fully powered by steam which winds its weights and blows its whistle once every hour. Each quarter hour the clock sounds the Westminster chimes, playing the full tune on the hour. After collecting our bags from the hotel we headed to Vancouver Airport on the 'Air Train' (monorail), it was time to farewell Canada after a fantastic couple of weeks.