Chillin in Tofino

So I said Victoria was a little bit like Waiheke Island. I spoke too soon.

Whare on a beach near Tofino

 

 

The local bar where we ate dinner and then breakfast in Tofino was very much like Waiheke. Lots of locals would cruise in and chat away to the staff. As we ate our breakfast (at lunch time), lots of local tradesmen came in for lunch and a chin wag.

We looked out across the harbour at the houseboats shacked up against a little island. The clouds came in and we decided to check out the sights. Well, I’ve gotta say, they were so much like New Zealand’s West Coast that I needn’t say more. Pretty cool.

The beaches looked like a great spot to hang out in summer…

JK contemplating life

Victoria to Tofino

I decided not to take the rental car guy up on his offer to pick us up from the hotel, but after walking for half an hour down a main road lined with industry….. I blamed Nicole, for making us walk so far. But after a coffee stop and snack en route we finally picked up our Mazda 3, picked up our bags and then hit the highway for Tofino.

Half an hour out of Victoria, what seemed like a piece of foam blew across the highway in front of me, and swerved slightly so it would go in-between the cars wheels, but the resulted ca-thunk sound followed by a scrapping sound indicated that it was a tad more solid than foam. As I started to slow down I soon realised that I’d “cracked a flatty”.

Fixing a flatty en route to Tofino

 

As a result of a bogan youth, with far too many burn-outs resulting in broken axels etc, changing a tyre was no big deal, but driving all the way to Tofino on a space saver was not my ideal situation. Back on the road I instructed my trusty co-pilot to call the rental car company. We called into the Nanaimo depot and were upgraded to a Dodge Caravan (essentially what we’d call a People Mover in NZ). Nothing flash or particularly cool but as I been going on to Nicole so much about wanting a van of late, I was in my element.

After a quick feed in Nanaimo and a change of vehicle we got back on the road as dusk approached and the rain started. The road from Nanaimo to Tofino is reminiscent of the Karangahake Gorge in Aotearoa i.e narrow, windy roads with lots of trees and rivers along the side of the road. So although the road and conditions didn’t phase me it wasn’t what you’d consider ideal driving conditions.

Ideal driving conditions.

This is a paradigm that has often perplexed me. On a beautiful day when people are about to drive somewhere, the comment is often made: “well, it’s a great day for a drive”. But if it’s a beautiful day I’d rather be out there enjoying the beautiful day and not stuck in a stupid car. Sure, if you’ve you’re going on a “Sunday drive” and therefore specifically driving to check out some scenery, I can understand this point of view. 

But when you’re hung over and have to drive from Cambridge back to Wellington, I hate nice days. It makes me feel even more pissed off that I’m going to have a painful 7 or 8  hour drive ahead of me when practically everyone I know will be chillin in the sun.

We made it to Tofino, drove around bargaining hoteliers for a good room rate and settled in for two nights in Tofino.

Vancouver to Victoria

Feeling the most hung over I’ve felt since leaving New Zealand, we packed our bag and made our way to the bus stop. It was one of those days that would have been wasted laying around feeling sorry for ourselves and so it was good to have an excuse to get out and about.

The bus trip to the ferry at Tsawwassen was painless enough and once on board the ferry with a coffee in hand it was time to enjoy the fresh (and quite cool) air and admire the magnificent scenery.

Ferry to Victoria

 

 

We didn’t spot any whales or dolphins, but hey we’re from New Zealand – we see them all the time, right.

Once on shore in Victoria we bused into town and checked into our hotel. I rang an old school mate (Stewy) and arranged to meet for a catch up…. over a few beers.

After a quick bite to eat and a few drinks to rid any languishing signs of a hangover we made our way to Darcy’s to meet Stewy. It was good to get a fellow Kiwi’s perspective on island life and the low down on Victoria.

When walking home I took a self timer of us with the parliament buildings in the back ground. Touristy, but hey, we’re tourists.

Victorias Beehive

 

 

Nicole decided that we needed another drink back at the hotel bar which was strangely pretty cool (for a hotel bar especially). It was reminiscent of some of our old haunts back in Aotearoa – except for the random group of guys dressed in full cow boy regalia.

Out and about on the town

 

 

Monday morning was a chance for a short sleep in and a fleeting walk through town and the harbour before making our way to the car rental place to continue our whistle stop tour of Vancouver Island.

All in all we thought Victoria was a pretty cool place. A bit like Waiheke Island in NZ but a bit different, if ya know what I mean.

Road Trip #2 with a whole lot less road. Nanaimo, Newcastle Island and Gabriola Island

Newcastle Island campsite

Nanaimo is Vancouver Island’s “other metropolis”. 100km north of the regions capital Victoria, Nanaimo is a small city which we didn’t bother to explore. After waiting in the baking hot sun for about an hour – along with half a dozen other travelers – we finally caught a bus from the ferry terminal into town, and thanks to Nicole’s brochure reading on the ferry decided to skip over to Newcastle Island.

After a quick beer stop with a good view of the sea planes constantly taking off and landing we walked down to the dock and boarded our wee boat for the 10 minute ride across the bay.

Newcastle Island is only about 4kms long and has no cars, so it’s popular with campers and cyclists. We decided on a camp spot on the edge of a massive grass reserve and pitched our tent in a prime location to maximise the evening sun and minimise the morning sun. We ventured on a short walk and then cooked dinner before an early night.

In the morning we walked to the northern end of the island through the track up the spine of the island, checked out the lake and wandered back around the coast. We packed up the tent, packed our back packs and then made use of the islands café for brunch before sailing back to the mainland.

With a few groceries on board we caught another boat over to Gabriola Island – this time a car ferry. Upon disembarking we walked about 3kms up the road to a camping ground – past a static queue of cars waiting to board the returning ferry. Gabriola Island is reasonably big and would have been good to explore on bikes. But us on shanks ponies were limited in our exploring, although we did make it up to another bay in the heat.

In the evening we shared a bottle of wine on the edge of the island looking across the bay to the sunset – ah the serenity. The perfect environment for some deep cogitation.

With limited funds and a career in shoe sales awaiting back in Vancouver our short sojourn to the islands was a bit more of a reconnaissance mission than anything else. But it was great to be able to get out of the city for a pittance (a holiday budget to match my new wage rate), and so easy to do it without a car.

Don’t worry Vancouver Island – we’ll be back.

Road Trip #2 with a whole lot less road. Vancouver Island – setting sail

Ferry to Nanaimo

After a seemingly fruitless half-hearted job hunt upon arrival in Vancouver to find that “everyone” is on holiday (vacation) until September, we continued with our plan of a few tiki tours before settling down to the grind of nine to five. But with our optimism (and enthusiasm) waning I spotted a job ad at our local outdoors shop (Coast Mountain Sport) while getting more supplies for our next camping mission.

So I asked for a job application form, filled it our at home and adapted my cover letter to suit ie. less about juggling spreadsheets of roading projects at Transit (the agency formerly know as… FYI – now the New Zealand Transport Agency) and more about my unquenchable thirst for selling shoes – oh, I mean the outdoors!

Not surprisingly I dazzled the store manager at the interview and our trip to Vancouver Island was cut short so I could start earning the minimum wage asap. Our Vancouver Island mission coincided with a long weekend – well, a long weekend for people gainfully employed – all our weekends were “long” at this point in time.

We set off on Saturday morning using my philosophy of “don’t bother studying up how to get there and where to stay – just play it by ear”. With the usual ever so helpful bus drivers (seriously, after bussing in NZ, it takes a while to get used to helpful and friendly bus drivers) directing us exactly where to go, we made it to the ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay in an hour from home.

Having not consulted a ferry timetable we purchased our ferry tickets ($14 each one way) and had an hour or so to kill before departure. Horseshoe Bay is a bit like Picton (NZ) so we got a coffee (and I got a sausage roll), pulled up a park bench, sat and enjoyed some sun and people watching.

On board the ferry (much like the Cook Straight ferries) we went straight for the upper deck to enjoy the sun, fresh air and views. While perched near the smokers area, we were entertaining ourselves by watching a group of about 8 young blokes (17-19) who with their long hair and grunge look smoked cigarettes and joked about (made me think of the South Island mission me and the fellas did back in 1999 – ah, those were the days). They then claimed themselves a round table, and proceeded to set up an elaborate bong much like those huge Egyptian/Moroccan ones.

With great fascination I watched the bong owner assemble the several pieces until it stood about 2 feet high, pour some water into it, pass the hose and mouth piece to a mate to set up, full the cone with weed, cover the cone with tin foil, then carefully puncture a few holes in the tin foil before lighting a piece of charcoal to sit on top.

If this wasn’t intriguing enough, after a number of kids, parents and random people filed past without so much as battering an eye, as these lads chuffed away on their bong, eventually one of the ferry staff (in his white sailor uniform) approached the pot smoking lads. While I couldn’t catch everything he said, it was very funny to here him start off along the lines of: “Hey there fella’s, enjoying some of that good green stuff? I know it’s organic and herbal and better than smoking tobacco, and most people are fine with it, it’s just that some people aren’t fine with it so if you could maybe just finish up and put it away?” At this point the lads offered the ferry guy a toke, he reluctantly declined, made some other funny comments, while some tourists who were until now oblivious were taking photos of the lads, their massive bong and the ferry guy chatting to them – unfortunately I was too cool to look like I’d never seen a bong in action to take photos myself (okay so I tried to discretely take one, but it wasn’t very good).

Public transport Canadian style.