i’ve never done a trip report so here goes. Typing this as we approach Vancouver from Auckland.

2 years ago Nikki decided we should skip lady year because we couldnt really afford it so we missed a year.

The last year we realised how much of a mistake we made so we got stuck into planning an ‘18/‘19 trip about 12 months ago.

We like to book early as it means we get best choices for accommodation, car hire etc

We also managed to convince a bunch of friends to join us for a few weeks in Sun Peaks.

So off we went to the local travel expo to see what sort of discounts we could score on airfares.
We found a great deal one way premium economy via Auckland for $2100 each but the only downside was we had to travel before 6th December.

Because of our friends’ schedule we booked one way returns using Qanras FF points.

Booking one way out of Canada was quite easy because its not a blackout period on the Qantas Canada website.

So airfares booked for both of us premium economy all the way for $4800

This also meant we would be in Canada for almost 8 weeks so we started building an itinerary.

The plan is

6 days around Vancouver
15 days Sun Peaks
2 days Revelstoke
6 days Canmore
2 days Revelstoke
6 days Kelowna
15 days Sun Peaks (to show our friends around)

Return to Perth on the Australia Day Monday

 

interesting exercuse.

We were supposed to be travelling premium economy PER-AUK on the new Dreamliner, but the plane was taken out of service for unplanned maintanance, so they switched us to a much older, leased sopwith, but bumped us up to business class.

Whilst the seats were wider, you needed to have a decent kink in your spine to sit comfprtably and so wasnt as good as hoped for. Also, the food wasnt as nice as we have previously experienced from Qantas. Buiness Class had around 36 seats and we were only 20% full

The trip from AUK-YVR was on a 777-300 and we booked premium economy. We then decided to try our luck at upgrading using AirNZ's OneUp, where they auction the upgrades off. We put in an a bif of $700 each, and won, so scored the upgrade.

The flight had the herringbone setup and whilst very comfortble seating they were a bit narrower than the previous flight, and offered you very little privacy, so overall, probably not worth the extra cash we paid.

Having said that, $2800 each one way biz class from Perth to Vancouver is a bit of a bargain

 

and one suitcase damaged, so will be logging a claim and seeing if we can sort it before our trip home

 

this is our 5th trip to Vancouver, and we were totally shocked and surprised on arrival.

SUNSHINE!!!! - havent seen that in Vancouver before

 

Nikki's ex broken ankle swelled up on the plane (us usual), so hopefully it will settle over the next day or so before we hit SP.

 

Went for a wander around Stanley Park today, and the Granville Markets.

Very cold around the park, with large areas of frost on the ground still at noon.

Beatiful clear day though

 

made a new Canadian friend today

 

that's part of Canada's new surveillance laws, everyone has a bar code now

 

Yes

 

she's tried them previously and didn't rate them.

Having said that, her ankle swelled after we left Auckland, but with the lie flat beds and a pillow under her foot while she slept, the ankle went down again

 

Warm, wet and grey in Vancouver today

Went up to Grouse Mountain and turned straight back around

Then wrnt up to Cypress and the rain turned to slushy flurries because of the higher altitude.

A few desperate skiers/boarders but very few runs with mostly manmade and very wet.

Photo of Vancouver on the way back down showed an interesting cloud formation

 

Finally arrived in Sun Peaks after a looong drive.

Left Vancouver around 9 this morning to heavy rain, and the ferries weren't operating so the peak hour traffic was still at a bad crawl at that time.

It rained heavily for the first 200kms , well past Hope and good visibility was well under 50m.

We stopped in Kamloops for some shopping and eventually got up to SP at 6.30.

Only to find the elevator in fireside was not working and we had to cart all of our baggage and groceries up 3 flights of stairs - not happy

 

I think Nikki's suitcase may have been 300kg

 

While in Kelowna we will be catching up with Sly and with Main Street.

Will probably take a peek at Big White and Silver Star.


We had a bag previously damaged by qantas and they just bought us a new one. AirNZ have a baggage claims department, so hopefully they will come to the party also

 

Nikki brought 2 ski jackets and a big winter coat, and managed to purchase another winter coat before we'd even left Vancouver

Shoes aren't a problem

 

a ombination of annual leave, purchased leave, public holidays and a couple of leave without pays

 

just purchased a new pair of ski boots, got meself a pair of salamon xpro 100s