False Creek

I love getting up early in the morning. 6:15 and I was out the door, over to Safari Cafe for a couple of strong cups of steaming goodness adulterated with sugar.

Conrad? Not so much.

When I got back to the condo at about 8:30, he was getting up (and not even grudgingly so, surprisingly). His turn for coffee, then the two of us headed over to Science World and began walking along the southeast corner of False Creek.

First off: sunny! What an incredible May weekend in Vancouver.

Second: this is where the Olympic Village is going up. The project has the added bonus of filling in the missing 600 meter or so stretch that broke up the 22 km of waterfront path from Kitsilano, all around False Creek, out around Stanley Park, and on to Coal Harbour. About time. Many people were out taking advantage of it. More on that in a moment.

The Olympic Village has a typical Vancouver/City of Glass/West Coast look to it.



It's not everyone's taste, but I rather like it. The landscaping is interesting, too,



and nice to see the provincial flower (dogwoods) at the end of its bloom.
I can't wait to see the end result next February and then after that when summer is in swing here.

Speaking of everyone being out, it was a weekend of dragon boat races on the water, and we paused to watch a moment or two before continuing on our way.




We could have gone all the way to Granville Island, but we opted to cross over at Cambie Street and head into Yaletown for a simple brunch. After that we put the camera away for the rest of our ambling (and kept it at home for tonight's superb dining experience at Coast, where we had great food and exceptionally attentive service dining at the kitchen counter).

Scenes from a Vancouver weekend, then. Back to Chicago tomorrow, and no return west planned until September.

one goal

Conrad and I learned years back that we can travel well together. Though our friends tease us about our propensity for planning things well in advance, in fact, we don't do a lot more planning than booking necessities: transport, hotel, some restaurant reservations. Instead, when on holiday, we tend to take this approach:

• Set one goal for the day.
• Do anything else that comes along, so long as you can still reach that goal.

Case in point: 5 years back (wow, THAT long ago!), we spent two weeks in Spain. One day, in Granada (now there's a place to revisit!), we decided to drive down to the Mediterranean coast, about an hour away. En route, we let ourselves detour into Las Alpujarras, the mountain villages, and it wasn't until, oh, sunset, that we made it to the seashore. And yet, ask us about the best day on that vacation, and we will likely both point to that day of wandering through the little whitewashed villages.

Anyway, on to New Zealand where we took a similar set a goal and do everything else en route approach - for the most part. The day that we left Dion and Minna behind in Queenstown largely fit that.

Another thing about us: we love maps. We love to look at them and trace our routes and speculate and just admire the craft that goes into them. So it was that we found ourselves considering various routes to and through The Catlins, in the far southeast of the country. Sparsely populated, scenic. Oh, and home to the southernmost point on the South Island. When Conrad caught sight of that, it became (other than reaching our B&B) the goal for the day.

Here's how we went about it:

• Drive south, avoiding Invercargill and hitting the coast at Fortrose. Stop for a snack.




• Take photos of wind-sculpted trees.


• Park with the other vehicles by a paddock and walk through the pasture to Slope Point. Take photos. Check the goal off the list.





• Take more photos of trees.


• Stop at Curio Bay to see the ancient petrified forest remains.



• Stop for another snack, this time at Niagara Falls. Bluff oysters, in season and fried in batter.


• Find the falls, snicker at the joke.



• Stop to admire a bigger waterfall: Purakaunui.



• Get to the B&B, take the owners up on the offer of a pre-dinner drive over paddocks to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.



• Follow the owners' advice on visiting a cove to see the yellow-eyed penguins - and sea lions (we think).






• Enjoy a good and very generous dinner of venison at the B&B, washing it down with a bottle of Devil's Staircase Pinot Noir picked up two days before.


• Sleep well.

Not too bad, hmmm?

The next day our goal was to get to Dunedin Airport in time for a flight to Christchurch connecting to a flight to Auckland. Easy enough. Conrad and I had some good conversation with Helen-May over breakfast, said good-bye to her and her husband, Alan, then headed up the coast. On their advice, we veered off to see the lighthouse at Nugget Point. Sound advice: the fog rolled over the hills and humps and rocks,





clearing to give us a lovely view of the Nuggets and of the seal and sea lion colonies far below.
We made it to Dunedin in good time but with the additional memory of the sights along the way.

This is the point in the blog entry where if I haven't recommended a business enough, I will. We did a lot of hunting around the Web to settle on a Catlins accommodation before choosing the Greenwood Farmstay,
and we realize we shortchanged ourselves on its hospitality and on the Catlins itself by limiting ourselves to one sole night. Foolish us. We utterly recommend Helen-May and Alan and their B&B, and we suggest not rushing through the area, even if you have only one goal in mind.