Down By The Seaside

5/7/11

Twelve days and a fuel pump have passed since the last entry!

We write now from Sylvia's house in Port Alberni, where she very kindly invited us to stay. Sylvia's has been our home base, before we left for Tofino, then again when we got back. Tofino's a fun story...

A small traffic jam we encountered. There was no honking; everyone got out of their cars, walked around, and met their neighbours. Canadians are almost as good at queuing as New Zealanders!

...We thought we smelled gas the whole way there. We assumed that it was our little gas tank, which we bought to help us get up and over the Rockies in a few weeks. We strapped it to the roof and proceeded on our merry way, but the smell wouldn't go away. Once we arrived in Tofino, we stopped for lemon slices (as you do), and were horrified to find, on returning to the van, that we had a significant leak. It turns out that all those gravel roads aren't so great for your fuel pump...

Note the sign in the window...

So on our first day in Tofino, we sight-saw at the mechanic's. In fact, we also slept at the mechanic's (free camping, bonus!). One day and $300 later, we were back up and running. We splurged on a whale-watching tour with four Germans, one of whom lost his breakfast over the side, another of whom missed all the whales while trying to capture them on film. But we saw gray whales (young and old), a humpback repeatedly breaching, porpoises, Harbour seals (like the one we helped rescue), California sea lions, and Steller sea lions. Oh, and the bears. Three of them, black bears. And the bald eagles, building a nest atop a 700-year-old cedar. Definitely worth the splurge.

Steff and a California sea lion

That evening we watched the "Tuff City" skateboarding finals, and the fireworks for Canada Day, and Steff bought an awesome hat. In that order:

The kid in front of us break-danced through the entire competition! Dance, little boy, dance!

From the stoned teenagers in front of us: "Wow, this is unreal!! Can any of you guys believe this is actually happening?!"

Then Nancy got an awesome hat to match Steff's awesome hat:

Willie Westy's photobomb!

Oh, right, and the beach. The beach made us realise how we tend to take certain things for granted. We had had scores of people tell us about the wonders of Tofino beaches. Yet, after having seen the beaches, we maintained that it was the lakes that took our breath away. That's not to say that the beaches weren't incredible, but rather, that they're not as sacred for us, because they're not as rare. In North Auckland, we were minutes away from eleven or twelve beaches; in Canada, beaches are few and far between. Or apart, as it were. But lakes are in abundance, and many we spoke to were not nearly as impressed by them as we were. Decide for yourself. Behold, Long and Wick Beaches, BC:

Nancy learns about "Dangerous Currents at Wickaninnish!"

Nancy climbs the driftwood.

  

Miles upon miles of driftwood!

Steff is high on life!

Camera nose-dives into sand. Nancy inspects anxiously.

A bit of housekeeping:

1. This is a guinea fowl. It's a pretty fowl-looking bird! (Get it, get it? No? Never mind.)

2. For those of you who have been following Nancy's quest for the perfect pooch, he has been found! He's an Airedale-Irish Terrier cross, and here he is, in all his glory:

Next up! The Vancouver Island Musicfest! Your intrepid journeywomen stretch their volunteering muscles again, this time in the kitchens, feeding the masses. Stay tuned!



The Quest Quotient by Nancy Howie and Steff Werman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thequestquotient2011.blogspot.com.