From San Francisco we headed up to Vancouver, where we had seven nights with my close friend Monica, who I worked with in New Zealand. It was awesome to see her life in Vancouver and explore there.  Some of our highlights were:

Eating Ethiopian food at one of the three nearby Ethiopian restaurants – I would so love to see an Ethiopian restaurant in Auckland!

 

 

• Going to the Trout Lake farmers’ market and eating fresh buckwheat crepes.
• Hiking in the UBC Forest (or the Vancouver jungle as Reuben liked to call it)

 

Visiting the local chocolate shop. Most important!
Watching Vietnam’s entry for the festival of light fireworks over Vancouver

 

 

 

Having a girls’ day with Monica where we went swimming in an open air salt water pool by the ocean (at 125 m long, length swimming takes on a whole new perspective), ate at an organic restaurant and lazed on the beach.

 

 

• Going to explore the markets and arts and crafts shops on Granville Island
• Hiking up to Quarry Rock (and eating great pizza afterwards)

 

Exploring the Musuem of Anthropology and doing a fascinating tour where we learned more about First Nations people

 

 

 

• Sharing a meal with Servants Vancouver – an organisation working in East Vancouver
• Eating award winning gelato and strolling back through Gastown
• Getting a haircut (it sounds funny but when we are travelling I am quite fussy about where I get my hair cut – consequently it was looking a little feral!)
• Trying Canadian specialties of Poutine (chips plus gravy plus cheese. Amazing.) and Tim Horton’s coffee.