Lake Agnes
View down to Lake Louise and the chateau
Friday, 27 June 2014
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Cuba 2014
Monday, 16 September 2013
Moraine and Eiffel Lake
Eiffel Lake (hike around and above Moraine Lake)... we did this hike in June... I think!
Eiffel Lake
Eiffel Lake
Moraine Lake (from above)
Moraine Lake
Moraine Lake
Sorry.... no commentary.... I was taking too long to add commentary, but at least you can see some pics!
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Lake Louise
Hi all!
Sorry about the delay between posts...
Over the weekend, I went up to Lake Louise with a few friends.
We travelled into the mountains on Saturday and went skiing at the Lake Louise ski hill. We had good weather for most of the morning (not too cold or windy), but just before lunch it started to snow a little. But after lunch, it cleared and was even more gorgeous than the morning!! We had sunny blue skies and no wind. It was gorgeous!
A few of us booked ourselves into The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which is situated on the edge of the lake.
For those of you who don't know, there are a number of hotels that make up The Fairmont Hotel chain (and includes The Savoy in London). In Canada, the hotels were built close to the Canada Pacific railway. There are a number of them in Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Banff, Toronto, Montreal) and the hotels in the mountains were apparently built to attract tourists from the east to come to the Rockies. The Chateau Lake Louise opened in 1890.
It has beautiful decor and large windows that overlook the lake.
It is a fancy hotel, but we managed to get discounted rates for the rooms. It was lovely! I didn't want to leave my room! Except the hotel has gorgeous tea rooms, dining rooms and bar areas.
In Calgary, before Christmas, a group of friends and I had an afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel in Calgary. The food at these hotels is fantastic!!
Anyway! Sunday morning we went for an ice skate on the lake and had a look at the ice sculptures that are sculpted every winter and on display. The lake is a popular tourist destination, so it wasn't exactly quiet skating around and the area was smaller than expected, but it is now ticked off my list! It is a truly beautiful location too.
After a lazy cup of tea, a couple of us went to Johnston Canyon on the way back to Calgary. Johnston Canyon has an easily traversable pathway that follows the canyon and is accessible most of the year. The creek and falls freeze over in parts of the creek (and parts of the year), and when we were there, the face / outside of the falls were frozen, with water still falling / running behind the wall of frozen ice... it was incredible to see.
The Canyon is split into upper falls and lower falls, and at the upper falls, there is a wall of ice where a lot of people go ice climbing.
Once again, we were spoilt with beautiful sunny weather.
After a weekend like that, I didn't want to have to return to Calgary and the reality of work on Monday, but sadly, it was necessary!
This coming weekend will be very quiet in comparison! I will save up the adventures & site-seeing for another weekend.
Love Kate
xoxo
Photos below are of Johnston Canyon (playing with the settings of my new camera!)
More photos at Lake Louise...
Sorry about the delay between posts...
Over the weekend, I went up to Lake Louise with a few friends.
We travelled into the mountains on Saturday and went skiing at the Lake Louise ski hill. We had good weather for most of the morning (not too cold or windy), but just before lunch it started to snow a little. But after lunch, it cleared and was even more gorgeous than the morning!! We had sunny blue skies and no wind. It was gorgeous!
A few of us booked ourselves into The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which is situated on the edge of the lake.
For those of you who don't know, there are a number of hotels that make up The Fairmont Hotel chain (and includes The Savoy in London). In Canada, the hotels were built close to the Canada Pacific railway. There are a number of them in Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Banff, Toronto, Montreal) and the hotels in the mountains were apparently built to attract tourists from the east to come to the Rockies. The Chateau Lake Louise opened in 1890.
It has beautiful decor and large windows that overlook the lake.
It is a fancy hotel, but we managed to get discounted rates for the rooms. It was lovely! I didn't want to leave my room! Except the hotel has gorgeous tea rooms, dining rooms and bar areas.
In Calgary, before Christmas, a group of friends and I had an afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel in Calgary. The food at these hotels is fantastic!!
(Taken with my phone during the evening)
The Canyon is split into upper falls and lower falls, and at the upper falls, there is a wall of ice where a lot of people go ice climbing.
Once again, we were spoilt with beautiful sunny weather.
After a weekend like that, I didn't want to have to return to Calgary and the reality of work on Monday, but sadly, it was necessary!
This coming weekend will be very quiet in comparison! I will save up the adventures & site-seeing for another weekend.
Love Kate
xoxo
Photos below are of Johnston Canyon (playing with the settings of my new camera!)
Water falling behind frozen wall (Lower Falls)
Upper Falls
Upper Falls
People ice climbing at the upper falls
More photos at Lake Louise...
View from my hotel room (ski runs in the distance)
At Lake Louise... thought that it looked cool with the sun behind the mountain
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Vancouver
Hi again,
We had a long weekend here in Canada recently for Thanksgiving (5-8 October), so a friend and I took the opportunity to fly over to Vancouver (Van) and check out the sites.
Before we left, I had people telling me that it rains all the time in Van and that even if the forecast was for good weather, that it will still rain at least once (kinda sounds like Melbourne! ?) :)
But we were blessed and had such PERFECT weather! It was sunny and 18 degrees all weekend, and the evenings were gorgeous too (not warm, but not too cold). The weather was perfect for walking the streets of Van, checking out the sites, etc, etc. I think we had just about every meal outside.
Vancouver reminded me of Sydney a little, actually.
I think it's because it is a city set on the water, many little coves & harbours, as well as lots of apartments on the water, with parks & paths along the edge. The streets and buildings also reminded me of Sydney - it felt pretty surreal.
It is a more lively city than Calgary - bigger, more restaurants, more shopping, more diversity, greener and beautifully situated with the mountains set close in the distance (closer than Calgary).
But I have heard that the people in Vancouver are not as open or friendly as people in Calgary.
I am happy in Calgary, but I could definitely live in Vancouver!!
(a quick apology to those who are on Facebook - you would have seen most of these photos already)
We had a long weekend here in Canada recently for Thanksgiving (5-8 October), so a friend and I took the opportunity to fly over to Vancouver (Van) and check out the sites.
Before we left, I had people telling me that it rains all the time in Van and that even if the forecast was for good weather, that it will still rain at least once (kinda sounds like Melbourne! ?) :)
But we were blessed and had such PERFECT weather! It was sunny and 18 degrees all weekend, and the evenings were gorgeous too (not warm, but not too cold). The weather was perfect for walking the streets of Van, checking out the sites, etc, etc. I think we had just about every meal outside.
Vancouver reminded me of Sydney a little, actually.
I think it's because it is a city set on the water, many little coves & harbours, as well as lots of apartments on the water, with parks & paths along the edge. The streets and buildings also reminded me of Sydney - it felt pretty surreal.
It is a more lively city than Calgary - bigger, more restaurants, more shopping, more diversity, greener and beautifully situated with the mountains set close in the distance (closer than Calgary).
But I have heard that the people in Vancouver are not as open or friendly as people in Calgary.
I am happy in Calgary, but I could definitely live in Vancouver!!
(a quick apology to those who are on Facebook - you would have seen most of these photos already)
Flight from Calgary to Vancouver over the Rocky Mountains
Vancouver Public Library
On the 'aquabus' to Granville Island
On the aquabus
A quick drink outside in a lovely old area called Gastown. I loved this area. It was the 'old' part of town and is the old port area (I guess Fremantle is an equivalent city). There are some great little shops, cafes, bars and eateries. We had dinner down here one night and loved it!
Autumn / Fall leaves (maple tree)
View from Stanley Park toward north Vancouver
Gastown again
Stanley Park - we cycled around the park, which is kind of a little peninsula off Vancouver, but right at the end of downtown. I absolutely loved the smell of the sea air when I got off the plane from Calgary! I actually couldn't quite work out what it was that was different and then when I realised, I was so excited! I kept taking big gulps of air over the weekend, just to get my fill!
Pretty street on the edge of downtown
Street art
More Autumn leaves - we found this amazing Wholefood Store where we could buy gluten free, cheap and tasty meals. We were pretty happy to find it!
Coal Harbour
So now I need to go back to Vancouver when the weather isn't so fine to see if I still love it as much. But because that was my first visit, I think that I will always think positively of Vancouver! Next trip will include a visit out to Vancouver Island, which is about 3hrs drive from Vancouver and is a fairly large, and apparently very beautiful island.
I will try to update again soon! We've had all sorts of beautiful changes to the scenery here around Calgary - with the colours of Autumn / Fall and a few snowy days. We're back to sunny weather (it's currently 16 degrees), but it's forecast to cool down and possibly more snow later this week.
And soon it'll be Halloween, which is a big deal here in Canada! Should be fun!
xoxoxoxo
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Whitewater Rafting
I have been waiting for someone to send me on their photos from a hike that I did before the whitewater rafting... but she has been sick and hasn't been able to bring it in for me.
So, I thought I had better post the whitewater rafting blog before I forget what I did!!
Over the weekend of 18th August, a group of us travelled to a camp site just out of Golden in British Columbia, situated on the Kicking Horse River.
We camped right next to the upper reaches of the river, next to some mountains on one side of the river and trees on the other side. It was a very beautiful campground and very different to the camp sites that I have stayed at in Australia!
Saturday lunchtime we joined a group of people to do a whitewater rafting 'tour' down the Kicking Horse River. We did the middle and lower canyons. Below is a link to the website for the company that we did it with:
www.alpinerafting.com
It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I would go passing through the rapids, especially in the lower canyon (where is gets wilder), but it was GREAT!!
I was in a boat with 7 other people and our guide was the head guide for the day, so often we were at the front of the group.
Apparently the Kicking Horse River is the third best river in the world for rafting - so that's even better! (I am not sure what the other two rivers are)
The scenery down the river was gorgeous too.
Parts of the rafting were a little scary, I almost fell out very early in the piece, which freaked me a little (because they give you all sorts of scary safety talks before you hop in the boat), but it was fine. The guide calls out to you during the rafting (we had paddles) and would call "forward", "back", "stop", "hold on" and the scariest (at first)... "Get down!" where you have to drop into the middle of the boat to avoid falling out.
But once we got going and went through a few of the rapids, the fear goes and you start to feel safe. Toward the end a few of us jumped off the side of the boat into the river (we were wearing wetsuits, helmets and life jackets) and floated along beside the boat of a while - it was fun!
I would definitely do it again!
We had another night camped at the river's edge and then travelled to a nearby lake for a swim, before heading back to Calgary. We were the only ones at the lake and it was (again) in a gorgeous setting! I had been very keen to go for a swim (without a wetsuit!) before the summer ended and I missed out all together.
We came back with such good stories, on such a high and have now made a whole bunch more people keen to do it next year - so I'll be back there next summer with any luck!
It's also surprisingly reasonably priced. And the camping was free! Bargain!
Below are some photos (some of which were on facebook, so some of you have probably already seen them)
Winter is now on its way... We are in autumn and the days are shortening. I have booked myself a flight to Vancouver for 4th October for a long weekend (still to book the return flight though!) and will try to get a few other things in before winter. Apparently we should still be able to get a few hikes done before winter, so that's good.
I also realised that I have been here for 4 months and it's only 4 months until Christmas! The time has flown by, so I think (and hope) that the time will also fly by to Christmas when I can see all the family again!!
Much love
xoxo
So, I thought I had better post the whitewater rafting blog before I forget what I did!!
Over the weekend of 18th August, a group of us travelled to a camp site just out of Golden in British Columbia, situated on the Kicking Horse River.
We camped right next to the upper reaches of the river, next to some mountains on one side of the river and trees on the other side. It was a very beautiful campground and very different to the camp sites that I have stayed at in Australia!
Saturday lunchtime we joined a group of people to do a whitewater rafting 'tour' down the Kicking Horse River. We did the middle and lower canyons. Below is a link to the website for the company that we did it with:
www.alpinerafting.com
It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I would go passing through the rapids, especially in the lower canyon (where is gets wilder), but it was GREAT!!
I was in a boat with 7 other people and our guide was the head guide for the day, so often we were at the front of the group.
Apparently the Kicking Horse River is the third best river in the world for rafting - so that's even better! (I am not sure what the other two rivers are)
The scenery down the river was gorgeous too.
Parts of the rafting were a little scary, I almost fell out very early in the piece, which freaked me a little (because they give you all sorts of scary safety talks before you hop in the boat), but it was fine. The guide calls out to you during the rafting (we had paddles) and would call "forward", "back", "stop", "hold on" and the scariest (at first)... "Get down!" where you have to drop into the middle of the boat to avoid falling out.
But once we got going and went through a few of the rapids, the fear goes and you start to feel safe. Toward the end a few of us jumped off the side of the boat into the river (we were wearing wetsuits, helmets and life jackets) and floated along beside the boat of a while - it was fun!
I would definitely do it again!
We had another night camped at the river's edge and then travelled to a nearby lake for a swim, before heading back to Calgary. We were the only ones at the lake and it was (again) in a gorgeous setting! I had been very keen to go for a swim (without a wetsuit!) before the summer ended and I missed out all together.
We came back with such good stories, on such a high and have now made a whole bunch more people keen to do it next year - so I'll be back there next summer with any luck!
It's also surprisingly reasonably priced. And the camping was free! Bargain!
Below are some photos (some of which were on facebook, so some of you have probably already seen them)
Campsite!
Our group at the beginning of the day
Just out of a rapid
Our group!
River setting
Lake on the way home
Winter is now on its way... We are in autumn and the days are shortening. I have booked myself a flight to Vancouver for 4th October for a long weekend (still to book the return flight though!) and will try to get a few other things in before winter. Apparently we should still be able to get a few hikes done before winter, so that's good.
I also realised that I have been here for 4 months and it's only 4 months until Christmas! The time has flown by, so I think (and hope) that the time will also fly by to Christmas when I can see all the family again!!
Much love
xoxo
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