Route of the cruise

A map of out cruise.
Sorry that the map is upside down

Cruise French Polynesian & Pacific Islands

Fly to Auckland and spend a night there before flying to Tahiti

Hawaii

have missed a few days. We didn’t do lot in Vancouver it did go to Granville Island market. This market has the usual fruit and verges etc butvalso has paintings, craft work jewellery if a very high standard. It was an interesting morning.

It was nice to get to Hawaii and feel the warmth which has been missing so far on our trip. Hawaii is buzzing. Without leaving our room we could sit on the balcony and watch the world go by.  In Vancouver we struck Canada Day - 1 July a public holiday. Today in Hawaii is 4 July celebrations. Fireworks tonight we understand. We have bee to the Ala Moana shopping centre twice. It is massive but not cheap like I remember from the last time we were there - 30 years ago.  It has been around 35 degrees most days. It’s great when a breeze come up. We are beachside which is lovely.
Another couple of days and we’ll be heading back to NZ.

           
     View from the balcony

                                                    3 friendly parrots

Banff to Calgary.

Today was a coach ride from Banff to Calgary. It was a wet cold day. The first stop was at the Banff gondola which we didn’t do as fog covered the mountain so there were no views to be had. We stopped downtown in Banff for lunch. It was a miserable day so when we found the Rose & Crown pub decided to go in as it would be warm & dry. It was all of theses and the food wasn’t bad either. After lunch on to a place where we were to have a 10 minute helicopter ride ove the Rockies. Malcolm & I we’re not going to participate but the weather was so bad it was all cancelled. It was a long boring day with nothing to see due to the lousy weather.
Today a stretch limo picked us up from our hotel and brought us to the airport. I thought the limo was a bit over the top but it got us to where we wanted to go. Presently in the Air Canada lounge. ANZ has a partnership with Air Canada. We should be gold KoruLive to qualify but because we are silver and I think the guy flet sorry for me he let us in. We should be back in Vancouver by lunchtime.
This hotel in Banff is fully booked for the next 2= years. People book to stay for the experience

Vancouver to Lake Louise

The Rocky Mountaineer was a visual and gourmet experience. First day too dud from Vancouver to Kamloops. We were about 12 hours on the train.  The early starts are due to fitting in on the lines with all the other trains that are travelling. Each day we would pass at least 20 other trains all with over 100 carriages. Most things are carried on train certainly in this part of Canada. Our train did not travel fast but at a speed where people could photo the scenery which changed every time we rounded a corner. Sometimes it was thick spruce forest, other times open flat farm land. Deep gorges and ravines. A carriage holds 40 people and the meals in the dining room are done in 2 sittings. They start serving alcohol at 10am which just seemed a bit early for me. Lunch was a 3 course meal with 6 choices for main. The food was exceptionally good but far too much of it.  Kamloops is a large city. We have very nice accommodation in new apartments opposite the park it is lovely to have daylight til about midnight. We couldn’t face any evening food so just a gourmet ice cream from an ice cream parlour.
Next day  6.15am start travelled Kamloops to Lake Louise. This was an interesting journey travelling alongside canyons huge and small rivers and finally climbing to 5800 feet above sea level. To do this we travelled through 3 mountains in a spiral fashion. Most impressive. Finally got to Lake Louise. Our hotel room looks directly out on the lake and the magnificent mountain. The sun was shining on it and it was awesome. This morning the cloud was hanging around so photos not so good. Lake Louise has a population of 1200 but 1000 multinational staff live in a complex behind our hotel.  In winter it is a ski resort.

 Our hote.  Beautiful gardens

 View from hotel window

Rocky Mountaineer

We flew from Fairbanks to Vancouver via Seattle. You have to pay $30US for each piece of checked in luggage. Needless to say we only checked in our suitcases and took everything else on board. Had one night in Vancouver then a 6.30 am pickup to the train. There were about 24 carriages on the train. The front 12 are single story. The passengers in these carriages eat their meals in their seats. The back 10 carriages are 2 levels. The bottom level has the dining room and the top level the very comfy seats and glass on the roof and all sides. We were in the first of the 2 level carriages so got superb views out front and all around. The food was excellent. Everttime you leave a station there is a great group of workers waving goodbye.

 Nibbles served with a drink

 Breakfast

Alaskan oil

Alaska is very rich in oil. The citizens of Alaska do not pay any tax. Each year they receive a payout from the government. The amount they receive is dependent on how well their sales of oil have been. They never receive less than around $2000 US.
The pipeline is 800 miles long and took 1000 days to complete. Quite impressive