Sun Peaks - Snowboarding xmas eve!

This morning we woke up, had a look out the window and it was snowing quite heavily! Not windy at all and temps had warmed right up to -16 degrees.

We unpacked all our snow gear, got the boards and headed out.

Neri had a quick look at the trail map but we really didn't know what to expect as we arrived at night and could not really see the mountain.

We got on the first lift we could find and made our way to the top... it was so exciting to see that below there was still a lot of untracked powder and not many people around. They had reported 3cm overnight, but this was very modest... on top of the big dump they had two days ago there was some very deep sections in amongst the trees and to the sides of the groomers.

We had a few runs, and quickly realised how unfit we were... we did one run which seemed like it went on for ever. Amazing groomer with an amazingly light and dry layer of powder snow on top. By the bottom we couldn't feel our faces or our legs but we had the biggest smiles!

We've seen the "best snow on the planet" in Utah, and also riden in Niseko but this stuff was just as light and dry (although nowhere near as deep yet). We were watching the perfect snowflakes build up on our jackets as we rode up the lifts, they were so light they were just stacking up like cotton wool.

Headed in for lunch early at around 11:30 and had a couple of "B52s" which is some kind of coffee with baileys and stuff in it... whatever it was it tasted really good and got us pumped to get back out there.

The afternoon was even better than the morning as we did some seriously leg burning runs... one in particular on Mt Morrissey i collapsed at the bottom after so many deep turns and could hardly breath as my bandana on my face froze solid from all the snow hitting it.

There were a few moments of getting stuck in flat spots but other than that we are both really impressed with the mountain.
It is not huge in terms of size, and it is not the steepest / most challenging but it is definitely fun and best of all there are no crowds at all!

Highlight for neri was seeing some deer eating in the snow right under the chairlift... for those of you who know neri and how she reacts to seeing animals in the wild... she was giggling for a good few minutes.

A few pics attached (neri is in dark jacket and i'm in white jacket)... still snowing outside so hopefully we get some more fresh pow to ride tomorrow.

Special note to Tim from heresy snowbarding - This snowboard is amazing in these conditions... loving it. Thanks again.

Hope you are all having happy holidays! We are ;)

-Jase

Niagara Falls

Sitting in our lodge in Sun Peaks at the moment, 8:00am 24 December... more on Sun Peaks later but first lets backtrack a few days...

We decided to spend our second day in Toronto going out to see Niagara Falls. We ordered a hire car for 9:30am in the morning. We had no idea what kind of car were were going to get, and the last thing we were expecting was a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which is what we got. Funny little car...

We headed to queen street to a nice little crépe cafe and had breakfast. We made sure to buy a parking ticket from the machine so that we weren't booked. Anyway we had a really nice breakfast, headed back out to the car where we found a little yellow ticket under the wiper!? Somehow we managed to get a ticket for $100.00 for parking in front of a fire hydrant that we couldn't even see because it was covered in about 1.5m of snow! Needless to say i was not happy and wanted to dispute the ticket but we had limited time and made the decision to press on for Niagara.

The drive was about 1.5 hours and there was not a whole lot to see so neri had a nap while a navigated the cruiser through the snowy highway. We arrived in Niagara and as we expected it was a tourist mecca. Casinos, billboards, hotels, tourists everywhere which was a shame because the natural beauty of the falls was amazing. We spent some time taking photos and throwing blocks of ice into the water to watch them go fall over the falls.

By this stage we were starving and there was a restaurant (imagine a Niagara RSL club) with waterfront views of the falls called Elements. We had lunch by the window which was nice, but unfortunately the food left a lot to be desired. -j

After checking out the cheesy souvenier shops we made the trek back home. We were both glad we saw the falls, it would be very different in summer with hundreds more tourists and many other attractions open (like the 'maid of the mist') but the ice covering the trees all around and the backdrop of ice and snow made for a beautiful sight.

So after making it back to downtown Toronto we wanted to try and dispute the parking ticket from that morning. Unfortunately we had no idea how the traffic would affect us (not to mention a few wrong turns slowing us down a bit) and we missed the 4.30pm deadline. We spoke to the hotel and hire car people but there was really nothing they could do. If we weren't leaving so early the next day we could have probably got out of it, but we were leaving at 7.30am so again would miss the timeframe as the office opened at 8.30. We bit the bullet and paid the ticket.

First task of the evening was upgrading our smaller luggage bag, as our big one was pushing the 50 pound (23 kg) weight limit. On our drive back to the hotel we drove through chinatown, and had noticed some shops had luggage bags out the front. We set out to walk from our hotel to pick one up. After the 15 min walk we found the shop and agreed to get one for $40. Jase was a bit dubious to the quality of the bag but we thought it couldn't be that bad..... Until we had walked all the way back to the hotel, and realised the handle had come apart from underneath and it was broken!! The shop was about to close so we caught a cab back down there for $10, and raced down the street to find our shop again... and almost ran straight past it! They had packed up almost everything and had just about locked the doors but we luckily recognised it and told them what had happened. They gladly swapped it with another, and for all our trouble they gave us a "gift" of two luggage locks. Wooooow.

After all the commotion we were looking forward to having dinner and enjoying our last night in Toronto. We walked up to a little place called 'John's Italian Caffe', on Derek's recommendation. The meals there were awesome, really good pasta and fresh veggies and flavours... AND also a really, really yummy apple pie with ice cream... Thanks Derek!

Even though were were tired we decided to head to al bar called the Bovine to check it out.... We couldn't remember the number but kept walking until we saw a place with junk stuck all over the front. We had found the right place. Inside was even weirder with many crazy things hanging from the ceiling and walls, and a few people sitting at the bar. For a monday night there wasn't much going on so after one drink we caught a cab home.

We had an early start the next morning, picked up at 7.30 to head for the airport. Due to delays the previous day our flight, which was originally scheduled for 9.25am didn't depart until 11.15. We finally boarded and got ready for the 4 1/2 flight across to British Columbia. -N


We were separated on the flight but someone was nice enough to swap seats with Neri so we ended up sitting next to each other. The woman sitting next to me had a cat on board in a carry on bag! It was apparently drugged up but kept waking up and crying. There was also a puppy on board... a lot of people traveling for Christmas so they bring their animals with them. I had no idea you could even take your pets on a plane but i don't think our Milly would handle it too well.


We landed in Kelowna BC amongst beautiful mountains, collected our luggage and hopped on the bus to Sun Peaks, another 3 hour drive...

The drive was long, but the scenery was mind blowing... as the sun went down we headed towards Sun Peaks, we turned off the highway and began the climb up narrow winding roads lined by tall trees covered in snow.

Neri spotted some deer playing in the snow on the way up... the natural beauty felt worlds away from the busy streets of Toronto.

In the distance we could see some houses covered in christmas lights and as we got closer we realised this was the village!


We checked in to our lodge, right in the centre of the village and a short walk to the lifts.

We had pizza for dinner, saw santa riding through the village on his sleigh (no sign of rudolf, just some cold horses) and got some things from the supermarket before we crashed early, exhausted from the long day of travel.

This morning it is snowing lightly, -16 degrees and we are headed up the mountain... can't wait to get back on the snowboard!

Toronto

Yesterday we caught the train from Montreal to Toronto... we thought we'd try the train so that we could take in some scenery on the way, but unfortunately the weather was really bad again and for most of the 5.5 hour trip all we could see was white out the windows. Other than that (and the delays) the train trip was not too bad.

Worst part was collecting the luggage. One thing we notice everywhere around the world is that people are the same when it comes to picking up their baggage. Everyone fights for a good viewing position thinking that surely their bags are going to be the first ones off the line. I was stuck behind "Mr giant shoulders with a cow skin poncho" and couldn't see a thing, but managed to spot our luggage through a gap and to his disgust I had to awkwardly fight to the front of the crowd to collect it.

Next challenge is getting a large cab that takes our snowboards, which we did, but he wouldn't take us to our hotel without charging us an extra $10, meaning the 3 minute trip cost us $20.

Anyway enough complaining, we made it to the hotel and it is really nice, clean and modern. We can see the city ice skating rink from our window and are keen to try this out, even though i'm sure we'll come back cold and wet!

Last night, on Derek's recommendation, we went out to a restaurant / bar in Toronto called Rivoli. We were starving after a long day of travel and the food was great, not greasy or over cheesy and more like what we would expect to find at a good restaurant at home. Being a Sunday night it wasn't too busy but there were still quite a few of people around.

Upstairs they had Karaoke, run by some guy who looked like a failed lead singer from an 80's hair metal band. We had a few drinks and watched before heading down to another pub which was empty and then decided to head back to the hotel.

I thought that i had experienced cold before on this trip, but last night it was -12 with a windchill of -23, and we sure as hell weren't going to walk all the way back to the hotel so we caught a cab.

This morning we are getting a hire car and driving to Niagra Falls. Will probably head out again in the city tonight before we leave by plane for Sun Peaks tomorrow! I've had my share of seeing cities for the moment so can't wait to get to the mountains.

-J

Montreal comes to an end

Tonight is our last night in Montreal. We have an early train to Toronto in the morning so didn't want to have a big night, we just went to a little Mexican restaurant around the block from our hotel and then watched tonight's hockey match on the big screen at a sports bar close by.

The weather the last couple of days has been a shock to the system. Yesterday we were up early, and ready to go out and about by about 9.30. We were prepared for a big day walking around and seeing the sights, but we stepped outside and immediately were hit with extreme wind and snow and we looked at each other and ran back inside! We were going to have to add even more layers under our clothes in these conditions. After rugging up even more, we braved the elements for about 100 metres before we found a little cafe and grabbed some bagels & coffee for breakfast. We took our time as we weren't really that keen to get back outside. We noticed there was a metro station right across the road so we headed straight there and took the two stops to the Place De Arts, and headed for the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We enjoyed the warmness of the museum and browsed the exhibitions for a few hours. The most interesting focussed on experimental rock music and art over the past 40 years until now. After a quick lunch we took the metro further down to Notre Dame. The Basilica was absolutely beautiful, both of us were amazed by the interior decorations, the huge columns and ceiling painted in cobolt blue with gold patterns, and the woodwork carvings were incredible. We caught the end of a tour that was being conducted in English and followed them into the wedding chapel, le Sacre Cour - Sacred Heart. The chapel was partially destroyed by fire in the 90's and was restored using modern design and architecture. It didn't fit at all with the rest of the church, but they had decided it was going to be too costly and time consuming to restore it to its original design.... A shame.

After all the cold we both felt like having an early night so we had a nice meal down the street then headed home.

Today the weather was much the same as yesterday, same temp but a little less snowy. We decided to head to the underground shopping malls that run all through the city. The tunnels link the metro stations and go for 32 km under the main town, and if you don't know where you're going you wouldn't even know they were there! We spent the day (and some money) wandering these malls and tunnels.

Going to get a good night sleep now ready for our big train ride tomorrow... 6 hrs!

Bye for now..xxx


(Updated with some pics from Montreal including our overly decorated hotel!)

Quebec City - Montreal

In the last post i mentioned that we were going to have a big day checking out old Quebec city.

I must have jinxed myself or something because shortly after i started throwing up... and it didn't stop until 24 hours later. For no reason whatsoever, food poisoning? Virus? I don't know. I won't go into any more detail but lets just say that our only full day in Quebec City was spent with me lying in bed and poor neri running around trying to find anything to help me feel better. But let's be honest, what would a holiday be without me assaulting the bathroom. It was blizzarding outside so i guess there's not much we could have done but still I felt awful for wasting a day.

So i woke up today feeling much better... we had to check out by 12pm so quickly headed out to see as much as we could. Lightly snowing but not too cold, we had fun walking around the old city which was absolutely beautiful. To be honest the city is probably for an older crowd, there isn't all that much to do other than marvel at the architecture and walk in and out of the charming little shops. We didn't have time to visit any of the museums which was a bummer.

We did manage to get coated with snow by the guy riding the snow blower before we left.

At around 12 we checked out and started on our way to Montreal.

I'm tired of typing so i'm going to pass over to neri... -j

Well the car ride was pretty uneventful... some lovely snowy scenery along the way, but (gladly) there were no more spectacular lane change episodes or other near death experiences this time.

When we were nearly in Montreal I was looking at the map and realised that our hotel was right in the middle of the main downtown area, so we decided to part with our horrid mini-bus a day early. Jase shed a tear as he handed back the keys but I was happy to see it go. 

We walked back to our hotel to get ready for tonight's activity... our first ever ice hockey match! The stadium is just down the street from us so we walked down amongst all the die-hard fans singing their team's theme song - and this was before the game! The Philadelphia Flyers were playing the Canadien Habs (the google now tells us that Habs means 'Habitants', referring to french canadians, but we spent the whole game trying to figure our what their mascot had to do with anything). 

Very happy to report that our team won, 5-2. We had so much fun watching all the scuffles between the teams and really getting caught up 

in the whole atmosphere. There was a point where one of the glass panels shattered when the puck hit it, and they had to replace it, which took about 10 mins extra. It was an exciting game, and all the entertainment during the breaks kept us laughing - for example,  dance-offs, kiss-offs, and air canons shooting merchandise into the crowd. Unfortunately we were too high up in the stands to get involved in the fun. 

So hopefully Jase will be feeling back to 100% tomorrow and we will have more fun things to report next time! 

xx N. 

NYC-QUEBEC

Last night we went for dinner at the pub across the road from our NY hotel.

As usual the pub was busy, the streets full of people... even on a monday night. Something i love about new york is that there was always something happening, the sound of the city is even a bit relaxing as you go to sleep at night.

We booked a cab for 7:30 in the morning so decided to head home for an early night.

Woke up this morning, quickly packed and got our selves to the airport. On the way there it started to snow and we thought our flight might be delayed, but luckily it wasn't as we were flying north, away from the storm.

A short flight (1 hour) and we arrived in Montreal. Stepping of the plane it was instantly obvious that we were in a different country. No crowds in the airport, no line up for customs, staff more relaxed and smiling, and... speaking french.

We got our bags and collected our hire car for our 3 hour drive to quebec.

So Neri ordered a jeep Liberty (we call it a cherokee in aus) and somehow we ended up with this huge SUV, a Dodge Durnago, which is practically a mini bus on steroids.

Needless to say we had no trouble fitting in our luggage, in fact we could have fit 5 passengers as well as our luggage.

Driving on the wrong side of the road is funny at first, until you make your first left hand turn and almost turn into oncoming traffic. Thats what i did, and if it wasn't for neri screaming beside me, i probably wouldn't have noticed until i came face to face with the first car.

Shortly after, i performed a spectacular lane change and almost crashed into another car, with the lady beeping and yelling at us for a good minute.

But after about 20 mins i got the hang of it.

Turns out that our last minute decision to pay for the gps was worth it.

We made a stop for coffee and couldn't get back onto the main road as the access roads were closed ) i presume for repairs or covered in snow... not sure) and as a result we went on a scenic 45 minute detour through farmland, which wasn't so bad except for the black ice and risk of a moose or something stepping out in front of us.

Finally we got back on the freeway and made it to Quebec city.

First impressions are that this is a beautiful little rustic city. Our hotel (i mean manor) is this old building, fitted out with chandeliers, extravagant carpets and furniture... feels like we are in Europe and the complete opposite of our trendy lower east side hotel in new york.

Haven't had much of a chance to check out the city, but we went for a stroll and had dinner at what we thought was an italian restaurant down the street.

We braved the -15 degree temps, had dinner, then braved the weather again as we walked back to our hotel.

As we were getting in the elevator to our room we noticed that there was a bar / restaurant in our own hotel. We both felt like idiots when we realised the very same place we walked around the block to have dinner at was actually attached to our hotel!

Now back in the room and i'm catching up on some work.

Big day tomorrow as we are going to see what this city has to offer.

(i've uploaded some pics from neris cam)

-Jase

last day in NYC

Our last day here and the weather was much warmer than the last few days... up to about 16 deg C. On Saturday the temps stayed below zero all day so it was a nice change not to have to layer up so much and actually take off our jackets while walking around the streets.

Last night we went to a little south american restaurant right next door to our hotel. It was tapas style food to share and we were both really looking forward to it. Unfortunately I copped a huge chunk of the strongest blue vein cheese I have ever experienced and that ruined the rest of the meal for me... Jase liked it though, he was fortunate to only get a small dose of the killer cheese and wasn't deterred.

So after a so-so dinner we hopped on the subway up to 5th ave to have a look around. The shops were mostly closed but they still looked absolutely amazing all done up with their Christmas decorations. We saw some of the ice skating show under the huge Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Centre, the tree is decorated with a huge Swarovski Crystal star on top, and 5 miles of coloured lights... So beautiful. 

We also caught some of a recording that MTV were doing of the Ting Tings, they looked very cold up on the stage and weren't really there for the crowd, only for the cameras.

After subway-ing back towards home so Jase could check his emails, we then decided to go back out to find somewhere local for a drink. We walked a couple of blocks and found this little club called the Slipper Room, we were told that a band were about to play, and then a dj was to follow, and the password was "patrick swayze". It sounded good so we payed the $5 and went in... A really cosy place with an eclectic mix of New Yorkers all waiting for the band to start. They were called "Bugs in the Dark" and sounded pretty good so we bought their EP for $5.

One of the bartenders took a liking to us, so when the bar (as they always seem to do) runs out of Canadian Club, he went into a mad panic. His search for a new bottle consisted of first standing on the bar to check what was on top... no CC there. Then he ran down this tiny staircase to the basement and was searching around for a while... and eventually he found it! As a result of his happiness in finding a new bottle, he poured us triple the normal amount, and finished it off with the tiniest splash of coke. Whoa. That last one was enough for both of us so we decided to call it a night. We had made some great friends there though... between our happy bartender, and some guy who we met waiting for the restroom, a lot of funny moments. (Jase can elaborate on that one...)

So, today we were both feeling a bit tired but still managed to get out and about by about 9. We first visited Bryant Park and watched the people ice skating (no funniest home video moments though), then we headed up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building for a great view of the entire city and surrounds.

We walked from there up to Central Park, and checked out some of the touristy market stalls at the southern end. The wintery feel of the park was really peaceful, lots of squirrels running all over the place and lots of people walking dogs or hanging out. We walked all the way through the park to the Metropolitan Museum, which was closed today, so we went a little further up to the Guggenheim. We were both so tired by this stage... we'd had a late night and walked so much, but we had free tickets with our Citypass, so decided to check it out. The architecture of the museum is amazing, and we saw some more famous works from picasso, manet, kandinski, cezanne, van gogh, degas....  Very glad we went in but SO tired afterwards. Hopped back on the subway for the long ride home and here we are.... 

I had a quick nap which has refreshed me enough to go out to grab some dinner, but then it will definitely be early to bed tonight as we are getting picked up at 7.30 in the morning to go to the airport. 

We are on standby with Air Canada to Montreal but the flight had 25 seats available this morning so should be fine. We pick up our hire car from the airport in Montreal and will drive straight to Quebec City for the next leg of our trip. I'm sure it's going to be colder up there so back to layering up for us! 

Hope everyone is doing well and not missing us too much. 

xx N.