In 1989 I met Ang when we worked together in Palmerston North, so she’s one of my oldest friends. She was there the night I met Nigel and so he’s known her a pretty long time too. Ang married a Canadian and moved to Vancouver Island which is one of the nicest little islands you will ever find in Canada. Over the years any chance we had to get together either in NZ or on the island it’s always been so great to catch up. 

So after leaving Seattle we headed over to Vancouver Island and were greeted with huge hugs! We in had our first night at Wednesday Wings at the local pub with Ang’s beautiful daughter and her lovely partner. We had visited Ang when Melany was just a baby so it’s lovely to see the awesome human she has become.

Our next day we went on a full tour of some amazing sites around Victoria. We went to Malahat Skyway which is a cylindrical tower that you walk around and around on a slow incline up to the top for amazing views. There is also a slide back down for the adventurous ones (not me, I walked… Ang squealed the whole way down).

Vancouver island is incredibly beautiful and we got to see a lot of locals spots. That night we utilised one of Ang’s sons to drop us into central Victoria for drinks and dinner and then utilised her eldest Mel to come and pick us up. 

Before we left NZ Nigel had said “there is a possibility we will see the northern lights on this trip, either in Europe or Canada”. We have never seen them before and so we were very hopeful to tick it off the bucket list. There were some when we were in Sweden but we missed them as they were quite faint. So we were really hoping for some activity in Canada. Nigel got a notification from the Aurora app that we would get some good activity that night. So we messaged Mel to say would it be ok if she picked us up and went to the top of the mountains to see something amazing. She was all in and so we spent the evening with a whole bunch of other people in car parks across Victoria watching what has to be said is the most incredible natural phenomenon ever. We kept saying, “I can’t believe it”. The night sky dances with colour. It’s amazing in the photos but to see the movement and how spectacular it is in person was incredible. We ended up back at Ang’s house where we could sit in her backyard and watch the night sky. Needless to say it was a late night. 

The next day Ang had decided to bring forward Canadian thanksgiving a couple of nights so we could celebrate our first thanksgiving with her kids and their partners. But first we needed to go get some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch down the road. A bit early for Halloween but we wanted to carve them anyway. 

We went to the dollar store and got pumpkin carving tools and headed home. We had a lovely afternoon cooking the turkey and all the trimmings for thanksgiving. Mel arrived with mashed sweet potatoes that were covered with marshmallows and grilled. Odd, very sweet but kinda worked. 

Then we had a lovely dinner with all the kids and ended watching Ice Hockey (which in Canada you just call Hockey) and playing board games. Each one of Angs kids came in to say what they were thankful for. It was a really lovely evening. We were so grateful to have been a part of it all. Heart was full. 

Next thing you know we are on a long haul to Sydney. I had a great sleep, Nigel not so much. So when we arrived we had a very cruisy nap type day. Sometimes you just need to hang out and get into the time zone groove. 

Then we were off to see our besties in Byron Bay. Love that town. Great vibes, great food, great weather and great company. It was a really lovely way to finish our epic journey.

Then Sydney airport lounge and time to get back to NZ. Is it weird? Yes… Do we need to sort out life? Yes…

Have we had an amazing time? Yes…

Would we do it again? Yes…

What’s next? Not sure, but life is an adventure and we are all about having an adventure.