CB - Vancouver to me means the end of our time in Canada. Arriving here, 9 weeks later, still talking to each other, 1200 miles cycled, no punctures, didn't get lost, a few minor cuts and bruises, sore knees and delicate backsides!!!! however all in all has given me a huge sense of achievement and something I will never forget. I am sure thought, I have still not been converted into a serious cyclist, as I have only been on the bike twice since spending over a week here!! Perhaps I will think differently by the end of the trip. Anyway, we now have the next few weeks off before we get to New Zealand and start cycling again, so I will enjoy the break.
Vancouver is definately our favourite city, there is so much to see and do. It's surrounded on all sides by sea and mountains and the people seem to take full advantage of the opportunities this presents. We have cycled round the sea wall of Stanley Park, avoiding the roller bladers!! (would definately get myself a pair of those if I lived here, not so sure about Dave though). We have crossed the water to North Vancouver twice and spent a few leisurely hours wandering around the market, which has the most fabulous fresh produce for sale, it's aslo a very nice place to stop for lunch and watch the Vancouver skyline from across the water, in the sunshine!!
We should have left Vancouver on Wednesday 12th September. We have just have confirmation this morning (15th September) that our flight to Rarotonga, via LA, will be departing and have to make our way to the airport. So we are on route there just now. Hopefully the next time we update the site, it will be from the sunkissed beaches of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands...........
(Some time later).... The journey to the cook islands was a bit painful:-
2.5 hours queueing in Vancouver going through 8 sets of security checks in total!! As we had to get rid of our luggage before our bikes we were left with (1) our bike tool and (2) a swiss army knife in our hand luggage. At the x-ray machine the Security Guard nearly had a fit and was ready to confiscate both! Luckily there was a Air Canada rep close by and she intervened, got them parceled up and put them through to the Cook islands. By this stage, it was all a bit too much stress and Caroline was very close to tears! All our luggage was only checked through to LA and so when we arrived there, 3 hours later, we had to retrieve everything and then got through the same process again! Surprisingly, this was hassle free (only two checks) and we got on a fairly empty flight to the Cook Islands and arrived at 6:00am Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the bikes had been badly treated and we had to do some running repairs at the airport before cycling to the accommodation. This is not what Caroline wanted to be doing after a long flight with no sleep, however it had to be fixed........
See Cook Islands