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 Hi Sarah

Vancouver: Fabulous city (as I am sure you know).We stayed at the hostel when we arrived which was a great idea as we got to mix and mingle with loads of other young Kiwis and Aussies (I think we only met a handful of Canadians the whole time we were in Canada). Granville St was interesting and the spare day we had it rained so we geared up and walked to Granville Island which was fantastic. The second time we were in Vancouver we stayed in Gastown which was good to see a different part of downtown (even though it was only 5 blocks away!) Gumboots are a must have (both for fashion and to combat the rain) and the concept of a 20% tip took us a while to get the hang of. The Moose Tour: Our tour guides were Matt Paugh and Sara Wyatt. They were both great, very different people which meant the two trips were a bit different but overall they made it go smoothly. We didn’t get one dump of snow the entire time we were on the ski tour which was extremely frustrating. On the up side it was so warm - about 0 to 5 degrees from Vancouver till we got to Banff which meant we had some great blue bird ski days. Banff was colder - about -10 the first time we were there and -30 the second time we were there (which made for great beer cooling conditions!). Fernie was the coldest skiing we encountered - even the heating tents didn’t help! The temperature gauge said it was only -10 but with the wind chill it felt more like -25.  Fernie was Ian’s favourite ski field and mine was Big White. The ski fields over all were impressive, amazing scenery, great facilities, such wide runs and each place had a great night life. We will have to go back to experience the fields with decent snow!Snow mobiling was great fun (Ian’s favourite activity) and I loved the snow tubing at Silverstar. The hot springs were lovely and perfectly placed to be able to relax. Ice Hockey in Fernie was one of the biggest highlights - AAA League so the boys were pretty violent (there was even blood on the ice at one point).  So overall it was a great trip, saw some amazing sights, got some great photos, met lots of people and drunk a little too much along the way.
Rebecca W. - Auckland

We arrived here in Fernie ( A little town with a big reputation and the curse of the Indian Ghostrider ) two days ago after a 4 hour drive from Nelson B.C, snow was falling as we crossed the Salmo/Creston Pass and continued throughout the night. We checked into our 2 bedroom condo at The Sanford Inn to find that we had been upgraded to a three bedroom place with both a pool table and a ping pong table, a nice surprise and a great location half way between town and the ski hill, plus believe it or not a fantastic Indian restaurant to top things off! We awoke the next morning to 17cm of fresh snow and snow still falling. We had the benefit of a personal guide to show us around the mountain, my old ski patrolling buddy Robin is now the mountain operations manager here at Fernie and after 35 years working on the hill we couldn’t be in better hands. We got to ski those secret lines that only those with local knowledge know about with repeats again today. Fernie is a fantastic, well run, well resourced, immaculately presented resort on a par with some of the better resorts in Europe and the US. With amazing skiing across 5 separate bowls, the in bounds terrain is steep and varied plus there’s plenty of groomed runs to keep everyone happy and a well laid out and very efficient lift system and friendly professional staff. The little things really make the difference to a great trip, and this resort has got the little things right, combined with Sarah’s attention to detail on the accommodation front this road trip has been a pleasure. With a week left and Banff in our sights tomorrow we’ll head north through Radium, a compulsory stop and a soak at the world renowned hot springs should fill the tanks for the upcoming encounter that Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and the local gang will no doubt have organized! The Goat.