Last days of the Malthus Adventure

We achieved our goal of riding on all the different forms of public transport in San Francisco - cable car, street car, trolley bus and subway/overhead train (Bart). I only got told off once, jumping onto a moving cable car like they do in the movies! We also drove down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, and a ferry to Alcatraz.

The Palace of Fine Arts and Exploratorium kept us amused for hours. Sue declined to crawl, climb and slide through the total darkness labyrinth of the Tactile Dome. I couldn't help but think that so many of the 100's of hands-on activities in the science area would be so useful in schools.

Libby has grown so much with the rich North American diet and lifestyle!

Whereas Katie now has aspirations of becoming a space astronaut.

And walking on the moon.

Our last meal in North America with the Somerville family, from the left - Fiona, Jamie, Katie, David, Sue, Joyce, David's mum Sue, Libby and Katie.

Flying Air New Zealand on our way home. Every one has their headsets on, chosen their movie to watch, have a pre-dinner drink and are excited at being almost home.

We have had a wonderful adventure, enjoyed our stay in Canada and have gained immensely from our experience both as a family and as individuals.

We hope you have also enjoyed viewing our adventure.

San Francisco

On route from Canada to New Zealand we had 5 lovely sunny days in San Francisco staying with David and Joyce Somerville and their family. Seen here at Crissy Field beach in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.



We had a lovely lunch and walk around in Sausalito on the north side of the bridge. Downtown San Francisco can be seen across the bay.

Monday was a pubic holiday so we all drove inland to Yosemite National Park hoping to see it in it's winter splendor. Half Dome is impressive any time of the year!

We had a good look around the village area and stopped at the Ahwahnee Hotel for lunch. This lovely stone and wood building was built in 1927.




We dined in the Great Lounge with it's high ceiling and stained glass windows looking out and upwards to the tall surrounding granite mountains. We arrived only minutes before they removed the lunch menu.

Just outside the village we found a nice incline to toboggan on.



A visit to San Francisco would be incomplete without a visit and tour of Alcatraz. A good education for the girls!


It was a maximum security prison from 1934 to 1963. It had a capacity of 336 prisoners but it rarely held more than 260. A total of 36 men tried to escape in 14 separate attempts - one reached San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge but was too tired to climb out so was immediately recaptured, one dressed as a guard and caught the boat leaving but the boat went on to another island and he was recaptured when his absence was noticed and 5 inmates escaped but were never seen or heard from again (presumed drowned).


The cells are 5 feet wide, 9 feet long and 7 feet high. The front walls were steel bars so there was no privacy or windows. Glimpses of San Francisco could be seen from windows in the corridors as a reminder/torture of life on the outside.
We had an excellent guided tour with headphone sets so you could walk at your own pace, and see and hear how it was for the inmates, including going into solitary confinement.

Last Night in Canada

For our last night in Canada, we all went to Grouse Mountain for the evening. Katie had spent all afternoon there with Judy, Ann, Dave and Chris. We joined them at 5pm for a few hours of night skiing.

Grouse Mountain is adjacent to Vancouver city and looks out over the city and the setting sun.

It's accessed by two gondolas which stop at a restaurant/bar adjacent to the fields.
Katie and Libby have now become quite confident and independent in their skiing. We'll have to buy them ski gear back in NZ!

Poor Sue with her sore knee declined the skiing and stayed in the cafe with Ann and Dave and enjoyed the pre-dinner drinks with the view over Vancouver.

Meanwhile, back at home, Tim cooked a sumptuous last supper for us all to enjoy. Our last night together with Sue's sisters for a few years I guess!

And I shouldn't forget Anubis and Rani
- we probably won't see them for a while either.

Big White

We met with Sue's sisters, Ann and Judy, Ann's husband, Dave, and friends Chris and Wayne and all went to the Big White ski resort near Kelowna, 4-5 hrs drive inland.

Anne, Dave, Chris, Steve and Judy. The sign behind shows you the marked trails and degree of difficulty.

There are 118 marked runs through the forest with a wide range of difficulty. Most slopes are groomed but some are left for the purists. There is always the option of making your own trail through the trees - as long as you can turn quickly and don't mind hugging the odd tree that gets in the way (just remember they are effectively frozen solid!).

The slopes were never crowded and the lift queues were never long. Dave, a registered ski instructor, can be seen giving Ann a skiing lesson. One of those tracks through the snow are mine!

Libby and Katie had daily lessons from their Uncle Dave. We were very lucky because Dave was not so lucky. He had injured himself a few days earlier roller blading so he wasn't keen on hard fast downhill skiing so he was more than happy to ski slowly and carefully with the girls!

The weather wasn't always blue skys and usually -5 to -9 C but that didn't stop us skiing each day. We were well dressed for all conditions (they even had small heating pads to put inside their gloves for warmth!). The girls skied on virtually all the green and blue runs.

This was the view from our apartment. Each morning we would walk across the road, put on our skis and ski down to the bottom of the lift shown and then ride up to the resort village and all the other 15 lifts. We could easily ski back to our home for the 5 days.

At 3:30pm the lifts close for a couple of hours before the floodlit night skiing starts. So we would all squash into the hot tub for muscle therapy and cold ales! Wayne always seemed to be in the tub first! The overflow from the tub would freeze on the balcony and front entrance below making entry and exit rather precarious.

We had turns at cooking dinner so we lived a good life of skiing, eating, drinking and partying.

Apart from night skiing we also went mega snow coaster tube riding - sliding down iced slopes on inner tubes. A lift hooks onto your tube and tows you up the hill.

Sue and Libby are preparing themselves for their descent. We went down individually, in pairs, all 5(incl Judy) holding each other and/or spun on departure by the ski patrol guys. A real buzz!

New Year and Seattle

The girls had recovered from their ailments enough to stay up to midnight on New Years Eve, although they weren't overly keen on partying beyond the hour! A few strong drinks in the hot tub and family board games was all we needed to see in the new year.

Tim drove us across the border to America where we caught a bus down to Seattle to visit Steve's American cousins. In Seattle we had a fascinating tour of the Science Centre and Downtown. The girls commanded a space shuttle.

They played with the toys that questioned your understanding of relative size.

While Sue questioned her career in accountancy. Surely, anyone can forecast the weather more accurately.

In the heated butterfly enclosure we watched the beauty and colour of the vast family of butterflies.

You could get so close to these innocent creatures. Kajori, our guide and cousin from Bangladesh, enjoyed the heat and humidity (so distant from us from northern Canada!).

Downtown Seattle we had to visit the markets to see the sellers selling their product and putting on a show. Notice the fish flying from his hand.

Unfortunately I regret not taking a photo of my American relations meeting for dinner as a record of my time in North America.

Around Vancouver

Judy took us across the border to the US to go skiing at Mt Baker. However, the weather closed in and we met lots of cars driving down from the ski field, so we abandoned that idea and just went for a walk to the Nooksack Falls.

They are by an old hydro dam still working.

We caught the sky train into downtown Vancouver. They are fully computer automated so there is no driver at the front except for Sue and the girls. Why she is steering the train to the right when we approach a station, I don't know?

At the aquarium we saw a vast array of sea creatures including a Beluga whale from the Arctic.

This one has been in captivity for a while now I think.
It was fascinating to watch the various sea creatures swim around underwater.

This is Katie inside a dome looking at frogs from inside their tank.

Abbotsford for Christmas

We arrived in Abbotsford just before Christmas. We had sold to the girls the beauty of moving to Canada for a year would be in having a white Christmas but even though Vancouver had had snow on and off for weeks, the forecast for Christmas day was warm rain! Therefore, these photos at Judy's and Tim's were taken on Christmas Eve.

The girls enjoyed "horsing around" in the barn, helping Judy tend the horses, walk the dogs and generally enjoy doing things outside in temperatures above zero.

Fondues became a race to be in first followed by a fight for survival of your piece of bread on the prongs of your fondue stick.

Christmas dinner with Tim's brother-in-law Jim, a fellow New Zealander. Unfortunastely, (an apt spelling mistake), Tim's sister and family were terribly ill with a nasty bug so they couldn't make it to dinner. The next few days the bug went around everyone except Katie and Steve. It was the only time we were ill on our entire adventure!

Christmas day and Boxing day were in good health so we all had a wonderful time opening presents, eating too much, drinking and hot tubbing.

Libby found a kindred spirit. There are more similarities than can be mentioned.