Capilano Suspension Bridge

While I was staying at the hostel in downtown Vancouver I met a bunch of awesome Aussies and we ended up at Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is one of Vancouver's most popular tourist attractions. It is just minutes from the bustle of downtown Vancouver and offers a unique mix of adventure, history and culture.

The bridge is actually Vancouver's oldest tourist attraction, originally built in 1889 it is 137m and 70m above the Capilano River. Surrounding the bridge is a a twenty-seven acre park, with a Totem Park, Treetop walk and tours. The gift shop also has some great homemade fudge.

Here are a few snaps we took on the bridge. ~ V

Whister-Blackcomb Mountain (Venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games)

There are multiple reasons why you should seriously plan on skiing or snowboarding whistler mountain, one being the 8000 acres of skiable terrain, rising a mile above the valley of Whistler.

Here are some points of why it is such an amazing destination:

• Greatest vertical, usable terrain for skiing and snowboarding in North America.
• Consistently ranked in the top 5 for North American resorts selected by industry magazines.
• Best parks and pipes in North America.
• Largest above tree line terrain and bowls in North America.
• Long ski season with skiing and riding into July.
• Amazing BC apres ski and nightlife.
• World class shopping and dining.
• Glacier skiing - the only resort in North America where you can ski or ride on a glacier, right in the heart of the BC mountains.

I have travelled to Whistler on many occasions, it makes for a great day trip from Vancouver. It has a pretty Australian feel, and is known for the place to go during Australia day. There are many bars and a great night life.

I added a few photos of my former coworker and I at the top of blackcomb and a chopper we snowboarded past! ~ V

Take a Road Trip with Friends

Big White Ski Resort, BC Canada

This is an extract from one of my travel journals while I was working in Canada at a ski field and the week I got back from Canada.

After finishing work at Grouse Mountain at 3pm our crew (known as work as A Crew) took two cars, a GPS, monster energy drinks and packed the car with snowboards and made the six hour trip to Big White, for an amazing two day road trip.

Big White Ski Resort, or Simply Big White, is a ski resort located 56 km southeast of Kelowna. It is the second largest resort in British Columbia after Whistler-Blackcomb and is the sister resort of Silver Star Mountain Resort. The resort is seriously recommended if your into knee deep POW POW and the tracks are some of 7km in length. Keep tabs on your buddies, because you will loose them sometimes in that big white fog.

There are some good bars, places to eat, night life and cheap ski in ski out hostels.

With this road trip, we found the road was quite dangerous, it was windy and there were a lot of semi trailers on the windy mountain highway.

Brisbane to Sydney

Brisbane to Sydney was another trip I made after getting back from Canada with a friend from university. It took us eleven hours straight, only stopping for petrol along the coastal road. We left on the Friday night and left Sydney on the Sunday morning to drive back to Brisbane for class on Monday. The trip definitely requires a lot of monster energy drinks, snacks and a good iPod playlist!

Also note, that if you are driving back to Brisbane through the night, keep an eye on the petrol gage! We realised on our way back that small country towns seem to close their petrol stations at night, we actually drove for 81km's with the fuel gage on empty. We actually pulled into a police station so they could direct us to the closest petrol station, so if this happens search for a police station where you could get help, especially safety is so important when its just you and one of your girlfriends travelling alone. I would also recommend taking more people for this trip so you can take it in turns to drive, and take rests as we didn't and we were exhausted in Sydney and after the drive back. ~ V