love & raindrops for christmas

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welcome to part trois of my december/january journey

monique and i melted down from the snow into the rainy days of vancouver.

we settled into the cambie - a backpackers in gastown (love!) - and soon became best buddies with all the staff at the bar downstairs...

the wintery rain that is vancouver in dec

our beloved hostel that became our home for xmas

at the cambie bar, rocking the canadian beer

iconic brick walls of the cambie bar - interesting reads

(love the hubert cumberdale signature)

when the rain did cease a little, we ventured outside to wander around the area of gastown. we fell in love with the cobbled pavements, vintage lamp posts and artsy stores. again - like most of the places we travel - we want to come back and live here for a year or so! just another awesome place to add onto our forever growing list of places to live...

the best antique store i have ever had the privilege of entering

filled with trinkets and truffles (serisouly, they were scrummy)

if only we had room in our suitcases to bring it all back home

umbrellas - essential goodness

we hid in the hostel a little more than we should have as it was hard to bear the windy rainy weather, and mons and i felt a little isolated with not knowing anyone in the city. however, we redeemed ourselves by randomly gaining a crew of aussie's and kiwi's on christmas eve in the cambie bar (plus a few others of various nationalities). at the end of the night it was as though we were all old friends. it's a christmas eve that will be hard to beat.

christmas day was an odd one for both of us. it wasn't our typical kiwi barbie on the beach surrounded by family day. i don't think it really registered that it was christmas day for us at all... we slept our hangovers off for the most part and wandered around the ghostly gastown streets of vancouver. mid afternoon we exchanged gifts and then had a quiet night in the cambie. it was different, but it was still nice. we were besties together again overseas and that's what made our christmas.

our assortment of pressies

love you sweet pea and thanks for the best christmas away from home

xxx

to the snow we go

this 2nd installment of my trip takes place in whistler, bc.

i met up with my bestie, monique, in vancouver after waiting hours in the bus station alone, not knowing where she was with no form of communication device to contact her. it was such a relief to finally see her cute face and hear that she was only late as her plane was delayed. however that delay stalled our plans a little as there were no more busses heading to whistler that night. we ended up having to shack up in a hostel which we both thought could have possibly been a half way house... the lock on the door didn't work, and after pushing the fridge and tele up against the door we huddled on top of one of the beds chatting and reminiscing all night - too scared to fall asleep.even though it didn't go as we had planned, i loved our first nights reunion in vancouver's most dodgy hostel!

the next day we sleepily sat on a bus heading up to whistler to meet matt and the crew up there for a few days. we stepped off the bus into a bustling beautiful little town... we instantly loved the vibe.

in the heart of the village

getting lost on the way to the village...

magical fairy lights of whistler square

wandering around the village was a favourite passtime for us...
so was drinking bailey's hot chocolates and planning our travels
around including a season back here in whistler

our gracious and generous host, matt, took us out to colour the town -
nightlife in whistler is lively to say the least!

causing all sorts of chaos

the three of us (mon, matt & me) found it hilarious that the cheapest beer you could buy was called 'lucky' and our joke for the night was that we got lucky. yes, a tad immature, but when in whistler....

xox0

during our 3 day stay i was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday...
a little different from my usual summery sunny birthday in new zed, but snowflakes and snowboarding suited me quite nicely.

teaching mons to board... she still looked like a pro
in matty's gangster gear even when the hill was getting the better of her.

alas, it was time to continue our journey... we also figured matt probably would have wanted his lounge, couch and armchair back (our crash spot for 3 nights - in which mons and i took turns to sleep on the armchair!) gotta love budget travels... it wouldn't have been the same otherwise.

much love to our host and all the beautiful people we met in whistler. we will be back,
that's a promise.

xxx