In Distant Lands - The Finale

Well our time in Whistler was short, just two nights and I was a little underwhelmed with the place if I am honest. The town is pretty enough and the village centre was certainly pumping, but it is a ski, mountain biking and hiking centre for which we are not really geared. That said, we found a couple of museums and galleries to visit, had a few drinks and some nice dinners.

A modern Thunderbird totem pole at the Squamish-Lil'wat cultural centre

Above and below, Whistler Village scenes

On Sunday morning we took to the road again, heading to another cousin in Langley, a satellite of Vancouver. There we handed back our rental car and met up with more second and third cousins, some we had met before, but still more that weren't even born when we were here previously.

The hot warm weather of the previous week was gone and we were under grey skies and temperatures in the mid-teens (C). On Tuesday we went to old Fort Langley. Built in 1827 the fort was built by the Hudson Bay Company during the Oregon border disputes as a sort of insurance policy...if the border was settled on the 49th parallel instead of the Columbia River it would secure the British claim to the Frazer River. Three years later it was a major trading post in the area and the primary export port for salted salmon to the Hawaiian Islands. After 1846 it became the provincial capital.

While much of the fort is a reconstruction (the white storehouse building is one of the few original structures) it was of great interest to me. I have a passion for the old west and this is the nearest I have come to an old west fort, even if it wasn't a military post. I was surprised how roomy the interior was - 180 meters on the long axis and 60 on the short. I chambered up onto the ramparts, through the blockhouses and among the buildings. A number of living history demonstrations were running - the blacksmith, the cooper and the yarn maker.

On Wednesday we went up to Harrison Hot Springs with my cousin and her husband. We set off on a cool grey morning but by the time we had had some lunch and "taken the waters" mid-afternoon the sun had returned and we had a pleasant evening meal with a view over the lake before briefly taking the waters again in the late evening then a nightcap.

It was dull when we arrived...

But soon brightened up

And there were some spectacular views at sunset (above and below).

The same view the next day...much sunnier and warmer.

The hot weather had returned and temperatures soared again to 32C. On the Friday we went out to White Rock, close to the US border, for a walk along the sea shore and lunch overlooking the Straight of Georgia with fabulous blue skies and dozens op people wading in the shallow water.

White Rock Pier - the longest in Canada

A look back at the shoreline

A pair of totems on the shore

This was our last activity on the trip and now we are sitting in the airline lounge waiting for our flight to be called. In another fifteen hours or so we will be in Auckland and fighting the traffic to get home...it has all gone so fast!