I'd like to think that Vancouver Island is similar to Tasmania, except that it isn't it's own state, and Victoria is the capital of BC. Apparently Tassie is more like Newfoundland. I'm not sure if people are being kind or not.
We were on the Island for the Labour Day weekend, which I thought would mean it would be WILD with people. Luckily for us this wasn't the case, but unfortunately we still failed at the ferry. On the way over we had a reservation for 5pm on Friday, but O'Hara got stuck in Vancouver traffic so didn't arrive until 5. We'd heard that it can be impossible to catch the ferry on a busy weekend so in panic we reserved the 9pm ferry as well. When we arrived we slotted straight onto the 6pm.... On the way home we arrived an hour and a half before the ferry left. Fail squared.
We spent Saturday in Victoria, cycling to a castle (yep Canada has Castles?!), visiting some markets, eating oysters and checking out the waterfront. In the last week I think I've eaten more oysters than ever before. This is a great thing!
On Sunday we made the drive up to Nanaimo which is small town on the east coast. The drive up was impressive as we took most of the scenic sea routes along the water. We stopped for coffee and to pick up lunch in Cowichan Bay which is a cute coastal town half way between Nanaimo and Victoria.
We finally saw some giant trees in MacMillan Provincial Park. 5 months in Canada before we did this. Slack! They were pretty big, I want to say the ones at Tahune Airwalk are bigger but I have nothing to back that up. Anyone? The kayak managed to get a bit of a spin, but I've decided kayaking is a lot more fun when it involves drinking. I'm not great at just paddling for the sake of paddling.
We got barked (yes human barked) at from a moving car, and some Canadian bogans on a boat yelled at us. Brilliant! We were also lucky enough to see the WORLDS LARGEST HOCKEY STICK! If that's not a bucket list item right there. We couldn't get far enough back to get in in the photo. That. Big!
It was a successful long weekend, avoiding most of the crowds until the drive home (uuggghhhhhh I HATE driving on long weekends here. Awful). Next time we'll be testing out the west coast, and seeing some whales!!
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