Exploring Vancouver

While John was here we also used the time to explore the city a bit more and get out and see a bit more. The colours are beautiful in the Autumn/Fall - this is a photo of a Sugar Maple, taken from our balcony. They don't change colour evenly, before they lose their leaves, causing the traffic light effect - so pretty.

Luckily we had a beautiful day to explore - they're becoming few and far between now that the weather is cooling - it rains most days now, and apparently will do so for the next few months. I now own gumboots, as well as snow boots! So it was very nice to get some blue sky.

We came across this HUGE totem pole at Vanier Park, just over the bridge from downtown. I'm not sure if they're normally this big, but it was so tall - that's me standing at the bottom.

We also took in a hockey game - that's ice hockey for all you back in NZ. Hockey is to Canadians like rugby is to Kiwis - except even more so. The Vancouver NHL team are the Canucks - and they play around 3 times a week, so seeing as they're on so much, people live and breathe it. Whereas I guess with the All Blacks, they may only play every second weekend or something.

Tickets to the Canucks are around $70 per ticket for the basic tickets - sitting up in the gods - so we went to the Vancouver Giants, which is the next level down. Most of the players are around 16-19 years old, and still play around 3 times a week. We really enjoyed the game, and will go again at some point. There are quite a few fights - and the referees won't break them up until they hit the ice, so they can go on for a minute or two!