Tag: mountains

Whistler, BC

Place 87 – Day 2: Whistler, BC – Train Wreck, Rainbow Park & Birthday Dinner

Kim & Curtis Hale

Birthday Present!

Kim was excited to give Curtis his birthday present, so she did that when we woke up.

The present was a bunch of snacks from all the other countries we have lived in or will live in, so the UK, New Zealand and Norway.

Curtis loved this gift so much and is looking forward to tucking into the snacks with Kim.

Breakfast!

We woke up around 10:00 and got ourselves ready.

We then headed down to a cafe we had walked past yesterday and got ourselves some breakfast.

Kim got herself a croissant with tomato and goats cheese along with an iced caramel latte. Curtis got a breakfast wrap and a flat white.

We headed back to the hotel to eat our breakfast and then finished getting ready to go out for the day.

Train Wreck

We drove for about 10 minutes to get to the Train Wreck, which is exactly what it sounds like! This is a train wreck from the 1950s which has been used a graffiti spot for artists as well as a trick/jump spot for mountain bikers!

We walked through a forest and across a cool suspension bridge to get to the wreck and a beautiful river to boot!

We got some great photos in and around the Train Wreck and learned a little about what happened and what they are used for now.

Rainbow Park

We left the wreck and took another drive to Rainbow Park.

We didn’t spent too long here, but we walked around for a bit and took in the peacefulness of the park and the beautiful (smokey) view.

Delicious Dinner!

We went out for a dinner at 17:00 to a restaurant not far from us.

This is the first time we have been in a proper restaurant for dinner together since COVID-19 hit the world, so it was a little strange but we were outside and very distanced.

We got some wine to share and then for food Kim got duck breast whilst Curtis got some venison!

For dessert, Curtis got a lemon tart and Kim got a chocolate fondant!

This arrived with a candle and ‘happy birthday’ on it from the staff at the hotel for Curtis’ birthday, which was very kind!

We finished our food and then headed back to the hotel. It turned out that we had been our for about 8 hours, though it didn’t feel like it!

When we got back, we watched The Social Dilemma and then played some Connect 4, which was included with Curtis’ birthday present.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Whistler, BC

Place 87 – Day 1: Whistler, BC🇨🇦 – Some Time Away!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast!

We finally managed to have some breakfast from Small Victory!

Kim had an appointment in the morning and then she picked up the breakfast.

We each had a normal croissant, which was amazingly flakey and buttery, and Kim had her usual coffee (Spanish latte) and Curtis had a terrific cappuccino.

We got ourselves ready and we managed to leave by around 12:00.

Off To Whistler!

The drive up to Whistler was really nice, but it was still smokey, so not too much could be seen.

We stopped in at Canadian Tire in Squamish and got some jump cables after our debacle the other week.

We grabbed a coffee too, of course.

We drop up to Whistler and the hotel was awesome!

We got upgraded to a suite, so we have a table and a sofa etc. Super nice!

Village Exploration

We got our stuff up to the room and then just went for a walk around to see different things around the village and different areas.

We walked through a small forest of sorts and saw a Blue Jay, which is cool!

We took a walk through the village area and spotted a few nice places for food!

Came across a nice bridge with an awesome river.

Dinner

Our legs got tired after a few hours and we began to get hungry, so we walked to a place we had seen earlier called Noodles and we grabbed ourselves a box of food each. Kim got a Korean chicken box and Curtis got crispy spicy beef with rice.

We went back to the hotel room and ate our food and chilled out in the room for a bit, then went out to get some things in the drug store. This meant we got to see the Village at night, which was dark for sure!

Drinks!

We went for a drink in the bar downstairs from our hotel room, which was a very empty bar, and then headed back upstairs to play some card games and watch TV.

We’ve planned the remainder of our time here, we’re here until Friday evening, so that’s great!

It’s Curtis’ birthday tomorrow, too!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 217: Vancouver, BC – Lynn Valley Walk, Again

Kim & Curtis Hale

Late Wake Up

We slept in a bit, but neither of us had a very good sleep anyway, so it was quite nice to sleep in.

We got up around 11:30 and had some scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast.

We both got showered and ready for the day and then we went out!

Lynn Valley Walk

We drove 30 minutes up to Lynn Valley and went for a walk around there.

When we arrived, there was very little parking, but we were able to find some eventually!

The weather was perfect for a walk – not too hot and not too cold, with sunshine so it was perfect!

We walked around for about 2 hours in total, even through snow and ice, too!

Our walk back was a bit quicker but we really enjoyed our walk and definitely needed it.

Blackened Chicken Salad

We got home and were pretty tired from our walk, but we did feel great!

Kim made blackened chicken Mexican salad, with black beans, sweetcorn, lime tortilla chips and Nando’s Chicken!

This food was SO GOOD!

We watched a bit of TV and ended up sleeping fairly early as we were tired.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 144: Vancouver, BC – Snow Prepared!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Snow Prepared

We got up and out fairly quickly this morning, to try and get ourselves prepared with snow clothes!

We plan to go skiing/snowboarding, so we needed to make sure we had the right clothing.

We started about a 20 minute walk from our house at a store called Sport Junkies.

This place is mostly a used sporting goods store, but it has been recommended to us by a few people so we checked it out.

Curtis successfully found some trousers for the snow, and pretty fast, but Kim was unable to find anything.

We left here and went to Winners to see if Kim could find anything for herself, which she did! She got some white Superdry snow trousers.

After this success, it certainly seemed that we deserved a reward, so we sat in Starbucks with a coffee for a bit.

After this, we did a larger shop at the supermarket as we needed a few general items that we don’t purchase too often.

We got these and then headed back home.

Homemade Thai Green Curry

Once we got back, it was time to make dinner!

Kim made a Thai green curry, which was terrific!

We ate this, watched some TV, did some laundry and cleaned the bathroom…because fun Sunday things!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Virgin, UT

Place 85: Day 1: Virgin, UT 🇺🇸 – Campervaning In Utah!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Leaving Vegas

We were up to get checked out and have some breakfast.

We checked out via mobile and queued up to get our bags in storage.

Once we got our bags checked, we headed over to McDonald’s for a quick easy breakfast and a sit down.

Once we finished our food, we went to the check in counter to ask a few questions we had and by the time that was done, we wanted to go and grab a taco from the place we had visited list time in Vegas.

We took Tom to the Mexican place and each had a carnitas taco, which is delicious pork and vegetables, which was perfect to tide us over.

That took us to the perfect time to go and grab our bags and head off.

We got them and jumped in a Lyft up to a house where we were pickup up a campervan.

Our Campervan

The couple we got the camper from were a lovely older French couple that rent out a few campervans.

We had a tour of it, they told us how to use different things and that was pretty much that.

It’s a perfect size for the 3 of us, too.

We got in it and hit the road, heading to rent a bike from Tom.

Bike Rental

We got to a bike rental place but it seemed that there isn’t actually a shop there. We called them and they said that there is no shop and they only deliver to hotels, so we canned that idea.

We found another place that was en route, so we stopped off there instead.

Tom got a bike for a good price which was nice and easy and we went to grab coffees for the journey.

To Utah!

We set off and up to Utah Tom drove.We had an uneventful drive really, just drove through Nevada, Arizona and finally into Utah.

We stopped off at Walmart once we got into Hurricane, Utah and got a few supplies for our 3 day campervan stay.

We drove the rest of the way, figuring out where to go and then driving down into the gravel roads and finally out into the campsite.

We were greeted and showed our spot, where we setup and got ready to hunker down.

We got a bit of food in us, just some frozen pasta stuff we bought, and then relaxed for a bit before we went to sleep, as we have to be up relatively early tomorrow.

It’s actually quite warm at the moment inside our camper, so that’s a win!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Hurricane,UT

Place 78 – Day 3: Hurricane,UT – Angels Landing & Weeping Rock Trails

Kim & Curtis Hale

Angels Landing

Today was another day of hiking in Zion National Park.

We were up early, at 06:30, to get to the park for a good time and hopefully park our car right there, rather than having to take an extra bus.

Luckily for us, we arrived around 08:10 and were able to get a space easily.

It was cold out, but we had a hike planned so got onto the bus to get us to stop #6, which was where we could hike to Angels Landing.

Angels Landing is one of the most difficult trails, mostly for its steep inclines and twists, but also due to the ending, which we will get back to shortly.

As you can see above, the sky was beautiful at the early time we got there and the sights helped us with our 2 hour upward hike.

Once we got to the top, there was the most infamous part of Angles Landing, which was the steep incline with 1000ft drops at each side with just a couple of chains to hold onto as you made your way up.

In 15 years, 7 people have died falling from this area!

This part was a full blown climb, which we started to ascend.

We quickly decided it wasn’t for us. Yhere were too many people coming down the mountain and not paying attention or moving, so as it was a dangerous area, we decided against climbing.

We sat for a little and then walked back down the mountain, which took us around an hour.

Lunch Break

We walked from stop 6 to stop 5 and sat and ate our lunch. We had bought sandwiches from Walmart, so we ate those and then Curtis got a coffee.

We saw a beautiful border collie mixed with a burmese mountain dog, too!

Riverside Walk

We took the bus all the way up to the last stop where we took the easy riverside walk. There wasn’t too much to look at, other than a naturally formed amphitheatre.

The Amphitheatre

Weeping Rock

We hopped back on the bus and went down to stop 7 where we walked up to Weeping Rock, which is a rock that spurts out water, similar to a waterfall.

We got some cool photos and slow mo videos!

Walking Back

We got the bus back to stop 3 and then walked back to stop 1 (the visitor centre) via a very hot but easy path, with some great views.

Long Day Out

We drove back to our airbnb, via the supermarket. We were going to get something to cook for dinner, but couldn’t be bothered so we bought a small suitcase, because that’s a normal thing to buy, and went back home.

We had showers and then ordered a domino’s which we went to pick up.

We ate our domino’s and spoke with our host some more and then chilled in bed watching TV as well as packing to head out tomorrow.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Hurricane,UT

Place 78 – Day 2: Hurricane,UT – Zion National Park Emerald Pool Trail

Kim & Curtis Hale

Alarm Fail

We had set an alarm, but incorrectly, so we didn’t wake up at the time we wanted.

We had breakfast and had a conversation with our host and then had showers getting ready to go out.

Finding Parking

We made our way to Zion National Park to go for a hike, but on the way the was a sign stating that the main carpark was full so we had to park in the town just before.

We were unsure where to park, so we stopped at the visitor centre and they said we can park there for $15.

We parked up and took the free shuttle to the park.

Emerald Pool Trail

We didn’t want to do a crazy hike today, and the weather wasn’t great either, so we found a short one called three Emerald Pool Trail.

We had to take the bus from the National Park entrance (where we had to pay $35 for entry in total, lasting us 7 days) up to stop 5 which was where our required trail was.

We began walking the trail and we noticed that the path wasn’t really wode enough for the amount of people, but we made it work.

We got up to the emerald pool section, which was a small waterfall and that was it. The higher section was closed, unfortunately.

We turned around and walked back to the area we got dropped off.

Horses

We saw a paddock full of horses, so we went to see them and say hello.

Walking Part Way Back

We didn’t want to take the bus back from this point as we wanted to explore more, so we asked the lodge nearby how we can walk to the next bus stop down the road and they told us.

We walked on a sand track which is used for the horse riding and this took us quite a bit of time but it was nice as there weren’t many people there, other than the horses we came across.

That being said, we did see some deer too!

We walked on and on and saw some tremendous mountains and rocks.

Arriving at the bridge we needed to cross, we has to get some photos as the were no people around.

We wanted to take the bus from this stop, but it was full on 2 attempts but on there 3rd the driver said she could fit 2 people on, so we squeezed in and rode the bus to the end of the park.

We decided against taking the bus from here to the car as it was set to be absolutely full again, so we walked for 30 minutes to get there instead.

Drive Back

We got the car and drove back home. On the way, the mountains looked crazy, with the contrast of the clouds, snow topped mountains and desert.

We got some more beautiful scenery and then arrived home.

We got home and relaxed for a while. Curtis watched hockey and Kim had a nap.

We went to the supermarket to get something for dinner and decided upon hot dogs with a side of caesar salad.

We are up early tomorrow to get parking at the park itself and to hike some more!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Christchurch

Place 54 – Day 12: Christchurch – Banks Peninsula, Akaroa & Christchurch Centre

Kim & Curtis Hale

We only left the apartment around 12:00 as we caught up on sleep from being awake late last night.

By the time we left, the weather had improved and we got into the car with some scorching sun!

We drove to Banks Peninsula which is around 1.5 hours away from Christchurch, up in the mountains. Google Maps took us to the top of a mountain, but we got exquisite views from there!

We drove from here down to Akaroa. Akaroa is a small french inspired town due to its 10th century French colonisation. Most of the shops and roads have French names and it felt just like being in France!

We needed some food, so found a cafe and got a coffee and cake. The coffee was pretty disappointing, but it was what we needed.

We left here and went to a shop where we got some ham and cheese and then went to a French bakery and got a baguette.

We sat on a park bench overlooking the harbour eating baguette with ham and cheese.

We walked around for a brief moment and then strolled back to the car.

We drove all the way back to Christchurch and got back to the apartment, briefly, and then got back outside and walked the 20 minutes to the city centre.

In the centre, we walked down a nice street which had a few shops on it, called New Regent Street.

We had the tram go past us, also. It was a nice old style tram!

Walking on from here, we went to the Botanic Gardens and saw a lot of big and unique trees.

We left the botanic garden and on the way back home, we came to one of the most affected areas from the 2011 earthquake.

There are few buildings here now, but there still stands the Christ Church Cathedral, which is one of New Zealand’s top historic buildings. Unfortunely, the earthquake tore large holes into this cathedral and so it is cordened off, though it is part of a restoration project, which is estimated to take 7-10 years.

We got back home via the supermarket and fish and chips shop (to get more chips) and we had some leftover chinese for dinner.

We sat and watched some TV before hitting the hay, with a long drive planned for tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Queenstown

Place 63 – Day 1: Queenstown 🇳🇿 – Car Pickup, Arrowtown & Luge!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up nice and early at 05:30 to get showered and ready to fly!

We booked an Uber and got to the airport with about 2 hours to spare. We went to check our bags but realised they were too heavy, so had to re-jig them to ensure they were of an acceptable weight.

We checked our bags and went to McDonald’s for a spot of breakfast and a coffee.

We breezed through security, waited briefly and went onto the plane! The flight was nice and easy, we listened to some music and before we knew it, we were there.

Queenstown is very mountainous, which is the first thing we noticed.

We all collected our bags and walked outside to the transfers area where we were to wait for our free shuttle to our car rental company. We had to wait for 45 minutes for the shuttle, but eventually got there.

The car was very dirty, but to be fair to them, they are currently working on a construction site! We have the car for a couple of weeks.

After picking up the car, we drove to Arrowtown for a look around and for some lunch. Our airbnb host was kind enough to recommend a nice pub to go to, so one we walked around, we went there for lunch. Curtis had fish and chips whilst Kim had a chicken wrap.

We walk around a bit more after lunch and then just before driving to our airbnb, we had a brief walk around the old chinese settlement.

We drove to the airbnb and met our host who was lovely! We are in our own apartment out in the back garden of the house and it is perfect! Exactly what we were looking for!

We relaxed a bit and then drove down to Queenstown’s Centre to see what all the fuss is about.

We found a parking spot and went for a wander. We sat on the pier and watched some boats and looked at the mountains. It was perfectly relaxing!

Kim got a crepe and then we walked up to the cable car to do the luge!

We got 5 rides each and it wasn’t too busy.

We attempted to race but it didn’t work too well, until the last run which was a really good battle, until Curtis got stuck!

The views were exceptional from the top of the mountain.

Once we finished this, we walked down to the car and stopped at a supermarket for dinner supplies before heading home.

We got back to the apartment and had some salad for dinner with some other things and then pretty much went to bed! We did a bit of admin but got too tired so went to sleep.

More fun things ahead!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale