Making the Transition to Canuckland

 

Mom's 90th Birthday Dinner

The Journey

Let me start by saying that the penny-pinching, union-bashing Northern Irishman in charge of Qantas doesn't know how lucky he is to have such good employees working for him. More on that in a moment.

Day 1

Dianne and I got to the airport with plenty of time up our sleeves to make our connecting flight to Sydney. But there were two curve balls and the second came on a full count meaning our flight to Sydney was delayed, causing us to miss our onward flight to Vancouver.

But the first curve ball came in the form of a glitch in the Australian Immigration database, which had somehow assigned my Canadian passport number to my Aussie passport as well as the Canuck version. We stood at the check-in for 90 minutes while the hard-working staff behind the desk did all they could to sort the problem. Realising we were otherwise going to miss our flight, the fellow behind the counter checked our bags straight through to Vancouver and us to Sydney, having been assured that the problem would be sorted by the time we arrived. 

The second curveball came in the form of an airline employee on the turnaround flight from Sydney injuring herself while assisting a passenger off the plane. Hobart is a small place in the scheme of things as far as Qantas is concerned and it was going to take two hours for a replacement to be ready to step into the breech. 

Realising this meant we were going to miss our flight to Vancouver I went back to the check-in desk to discuss the situation. Bad news was that Qantas couldn't put us on the equivalent flight to Vancouver until three days later, meaning we'd miss my Mom's birthday celebrations - which was the impetus for deciding to undertake this trip in the first place. When I quietly explained (yes, I DID manage to keep my cool) that, and touched on the fact that we wouldn't be in the predicament we were if Qantas hadn't cancelled the earlier flight to Sydney that we'd originally been booked on, the lady behind the counter went to work.

Good news was that she was able to find a place for us on the Air Canada flight leaving the next morning at 9:30. Qantas organised for us to stay at an airport hotel only 300 metres to the entrance to the international terminal. Big kudos to the great work done by that employee!

Once underway all went smoothly. The Hobart-Sydney flight went smoothly, our luggage appeared promptly, the bikes arrived intact and the cab fare provided by Qantas made the trip across to the hotel nice and easy. 

Day 2-2 ½ 

After a relatively good night's sleep, albeit a little disturbed with uncertainty of my passport situation we made our way across good and early to check in at the Air Canada desk. So early in fact that they didn't wan us to enter the queuing area for another 20 minutes. When we did get to line up we were at the head of the queue.  And, YES! - my passport issues had been resolved and I was able to check in. Such a relief! 

The flight was excellent and we arrived in good shape. Immigration control proceeded swiftly but provided another little obstacle to negotiate: I was randomly selected for a COVID PCR test. It only meant another 15 minutes or so of delay. (Good news on that front was that I received my results within 24 hours and it came back negative: I was COVID-free and would not have to quarantine.) We collected our luggage, went across to AVIS, collected our rental car and set off for the ferry which would take us across to Vancouver Island.

Mom at her 90th birthday dinner

Our First Week

Settling In

Had we rushed straight up island after disembarking the ferry we could have made it to Comox in time for the all-comers party to celebrate Mom turning 90. Realising though that we were rapidly succumbing to jet lag, Di called and explained that we'd have to give it a miss and we'd see people the next day at Mom's dinner party. She'd stipulated that she just wanted a small affair of her and the kids and their partners for that part of the festivities. 

For most of this week we've had a fair bit of rain and cooler than normal weather. But we've caught up on sleep, and enjoyed the tail end of the cherry blossom, with some trees still well-laden with flowers:

Cherry blossom in "downtown" Comox

Also flowering profusely at the moment is the Pacific Dogwood, which is provincial emblem for British Columbia. Its range occurs from the southwest corner of the province to as far south as California. Blooms are usually a creamy colour in cultivation but can be pure white. 

Pacific Dogwood, or simply "Dogwood"

Anyone who follows me on Strava would know I am a passionate advocate for cycling in my adopted home of Tasmania. One of my regular themes is the way kunanyi/Mt Wellington, the peak that towers above the city of Hobart, providing a point of reference for southern Tasmanians. It is readily visible from points far and wide along the coast, and even further inland. Here in the Comox Valley, although not quite so widely visible, the Comox Glacier provides a similar sort of reference point for locals:

Comox Glacier

The photo above isn't mine, although I have a similar one on my computer back, which I took back in the days I was growing up here in "the valley". But this is the view from  the Comox waterfront and also which can be seen from the Dike Road between Comox and Courtenay. It's great to look at it in person once again, and I've taken a few photos of it from the saddle of my bike in various locations, like this one along Headquarters Road:

Comox Glacier and farm along Headquarters Road

Here are some other random photos from various rides in the past week:

View from Back Road, one of my favourite places to ride when I was a kid growing up in Comox

The Puntledge River, which flows from Comox Lake

A whimsical sculpture garden, which I think was on Piercy Road

On the way to Campbell River, 50 kms north of Comox

The view south from Point Holmes, just along the coast north from Comox

A rather nice expression of support for Ukraine

Today I made an early start to my ride in order to avoid the rain which had been forecast to start falling late morning (but which surprising hasn't yet arrived) and rode to Comox Lake via Cumberland, which is kind of Vancouver Island's equivalent of Derby in Tasmania. Both old mining towns that had almost died, they have become hotspots for mountain-biking. 

Comox Lake

It was interesting to ride through Cumberland, and see how the town has turned its fortunes around. The boom in mountain biking has been instrumental in this revival but its great to see that the town, whilst adding an element of sophistication, has retained a lot of its original character. The name of one of the bike shop gives a hint about Cumberland's rough and ready past:

Dodge City Cycles

Hostel accommodation catering (apparently) primarily for mountain bikers

Between Cumberland and Comox Lake is an historic Chinese settlement. I stopped on the way back from the lake for a quick look and to take a few photos:

Cumberland Chinatown was inhabited from 1888 until 1968

Another Curveball

We've only had three days where we've had enough hours without rain to contemplate an extended ride. Today was one, another was the day we rode to Campbell River, and the third was yesterday. Unfortunately, instead of going for a ride we had to make the 450 km return trip to Victoria to swap our rental car for a more suitable vehicle. We discovered a couple of days ago that our vacuum mounted bike rack wouldn't work on the corrugated roof of the Rav4 SUV we'd rented in Vancouver so the vehicle had to be changed if our touring around the southern part of BC was going to work as planned. When we arrived at AVIS in Victoria we discovered they didn't have an SUV they were. prepared to give us because, although there were a number waiting to be hired, they all had sunroofs and they didn't want to let us have one of those. (If you've looked at the link to the Treefrog bike rack website, you'll have noticed that the racks work perfectly well on sunroofs and back windows. 🤨) Instead, we opted for a Kia Kona, which isn't too dissimilar to the Golf Alltrack that we drive at home - and which we though would accommodate our bike bags and luggage without too much difficulty. It was reassuring to arrive back in Comox and discover that, yes, the Kona would work just fine - and a side benefit is that it will save us quite a lot of money in fuel costs.

For those who might wonder about the strength of a vacuum suction bike rack, you could have a look at this bizarre video ...

... or look at random bits of footage from this longer video of mountain bikes being carried on a bit of journey ...

We're very happy with our Elite 2 rack: it's very light and therefore easy to take on flights. (The main part of the rack fit in with my bike and all my cycling equipment and the the package still weighed in at under 23 kgs.) We've actually put it to use a number of times on a rental car that had a sunroof without any problems.

Dealing with the Rain

Who can resist a wine with a bike on the label?

An early strategy to cope with the rain was to buy some rosé to drink. applying the logic that it can be very very pleasant to imbibe a wine that reminds one of lovely warm sunny evenings, and perhaps the power of positive thinking might take effect. Not sure if that worked or not, but it was a very nice drop, and quite economical. We've also discovered there is a craft brewer only 500 metres or so from our door. "New Tradition"  do a very nice dark beer, which they call "Liquid Tuxedo Schwarzbier",  and provide two takeaway options: their small and large "growlers". Given that dark beer works very well soothing the psyche in cool and rainy weather we decided to sample the local product ...

The small growler: 32 ounces of dark goodness

While not deluding ourselves that drinking dark beer will dispel the rainy skies, it allows us to go with the flow, so to speak.

Besides the cycling, we've had some very nice short local walks, enjoying some lovely parkland close to our accommodation. I might do another blog post over the next few days after we've done a few more walks so that I can share some of the wonderful vegetation that thrives in this rather wet climate.

PS: I almost forgot to mention one of the dangerous joys of returning to Canada: sampling various iterations of the classic Canadian breakfast/morning coffee snack: cinnamon buns.

So far the best we've experienced is those at the Flying Apron Bakery on the corner of Anderton Road and Comox Avenue. Not bad:

Flying Apron Cinnamon Bun: sampled at the wet end of our ride to Campbell River. Perfect!

Oh, and for what it's worth, a map showing the locations of photos in this post: