Mary and Maurice World Tour 2023

Vernon is in the heart of the Okanagan region, home to lakes, mountains, vineyards, distilleries, and a full range of outdoor pursuits. Basically, Queenstown enlarged. Cathy and Lee were our awesome hosts, and quickly ensured we got into the spirit of things. This included wine tasting, and the wine was naturally fabulous. What was even more fabulous was Mary's attention to detail.  One of the vineyards proudly displayed an award they won in 2014 for one of their white wines, which was a red glass ball sitting on what at first looked like tendrils, but was actually an artist's rendition of a hand holding a grape. Mary asked "If it is a white wine award then why is it red?"  Apparently that's the first time in 9 years that anyone had asked that question. Neither the vineyard staff nor any previous visitor seems to have noticed...  At the second vineyard, we were advised that to really taste the subtleties of the wine one should b...

Vancouver is very much about the ocean. Obviously, there's the biggest port in Canada, apparently bigger than the next 5 biggest Canadian ports combined. However, it also has numerous parks and beaches, which even on a busy weekend still were not packed.  True, the beaches are not what we're used to in New Zealand, but certainly welcome on a hot day. We can now tick 'swim in the North Pacific' off the bucket list.  I should also note that, despite the local heat wave, the water is not what one would categorise as  'tropical'. No wonder Arctic whales are a common sight...  As well as sampling the beaches, we popped into the Maritime Museum. This is quite compact with the main attraction being an historic ship, the St Roch.  Or that used to be the main attraction...  Getting back to the ship, it was originally built for the Mounties to service remote areas, but for a range of reasons ended up setting various records: first ...

Vancouver was basking in beautiful summer weather on our arrival. Perfect for catching up with Ben, Michelle, Chloe and Zach.  Given that Vancouver is a very green city, what better start to enjoying its charms than visiting Grouse Mountain? There are 2 ways to access the mountain top - by climbing the Grouse Grind, a famously steep and gruelling 800m ascent, or by a leisurely 6 minute cable car ride.  I admit it was tempting to do the climb as a challenge, even though I might then have to endure Grinder jokes. However, I still had a sore shin from the El Camino, so we all opted for the cable car.  The three main attractions included in the entry fee are the grizzly bears, the birds of prey display, and the lumberjack show. There are two bears in the sanctuary, both rescued as cubs. A vet was scheduled to put them down as there was no zoo able to accommodate extra bears at the time and the cubs were not in good condition. The vet campai...

It was 20 years since we last visited Peter and Sue in France. Last time we had Julia and Liz in tow, this time we were flying solo. Saying that Sainte Foy La Grande is 'another' medieval fortified town may be technically true however our enjoyment was not diminished by repetition. Each such town has its own character and quirky charm, to the extent I think we could be forgiven for wishing all of France was thus. In particular, the local church was again equal to many famous ones we had seen elsewhere in Europe.  Having rested enough from El Camino, we were looking for a bit of light exercise and the obvious choices were kayaking down or riding alongside the Dordogne. Genius Mary: "Let's do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon".  We duly drove to Canoe & Kayak in neighbouring Pessac, who also hired bikes. Very convenient... Sadly, by the time we arrived the forecast "light afternoon showers" had change...