NZ2024 - Leg 1 - Toronto - Vancouver - Auckland

    Vancouver, you never disappoint - of course it was raining!  Our first full day away from home, after a very late night flight arrival, but we managed to get our butts out of bed, eat breakfast, and have enough time to take the train from the airport (where we dropped our bags at storage) to the downtown.  As we came out of the terminal to find the train, we saw a huge beautiful wall filled with potted plants in trays, all the way to the roof of the building, at least three stories.  In winter, most of the plants are not thriving, but in the summer, it's probably stunning.  And what a lovely way to offset carbon!  More buildings should do this.  

We are definitely out of practice at this travel thing.  At first we thought we would get off at the Downtown stop, but then got a bit confused in the tunnel as to which stop we were actually at, and thought we would get off at the Waterfront, and then the train was backing up and going toward the airport again, so we got off at downtown anyway.  

The first thing we did was find a map on a board - across the street but kind of under someone's big umbrella.  We were headed toward it when a voice from under the umbrella asked what we were doing.  Our response - "looking for something to do for 2-3 hours".  "Ah", said the nice young man under the umbrella, "have you see the steam clock?".  OMG, I had totally forgotten about it, although I had considered Gastown as a place to explore, for nothing else but that it's unique to Vancouver, has some lovely old architecture, some art galleries to explore, etc.  

Receiving our directions from the nice young man who was actually a hot dog vendor under the umbrella on how to get to the steam clock, off we went, in the rain, no umbrella or hat or rain coat.  And without a care in the world.  Our adventure had officially begun.  As we walked, we found a very cool art installation, and I stopped for a couple of images.  One thing about urban art installations/sculptures, is that the background is hardly ever considered as part of the overall scene, and this was no exception.  But the art itself was interesting, thought provoking, and recent, installed only in 2022.

We joked along the way that we were going downhill, and that we were hoping we could get the Waterfront station on the way back so we wouldn't have to climb back up the hill.  We're not quite that fit - yet.  Or anymore?  We found the street the hot dog vendor had directed us to, and noted that while it was raining, it wasn't raining hard, and we soon spotted the steam coming from the clock.  Without the cool weather and rain, it's possible we may not even have seen that much steam.

At any rate, we found a few amazing places along the way to tuck in and enjoy some dryness, and some amazing Indigenous art.  Truly spectacular, the first gallery was full of art of all media, sculpture, wall art, jewelry, tiny woven baskets, and carved masks, so much to see.  The kind of art that needs to be seen and appreciated by more than just the few people who might enter this store.  So if you're interested in exploring virtually, check out https://coastalpeoples.com/  for a visual treat.

We also found a couple of other interesting places, and learned about an extremely rare gemstone called Ammalite - which is incredibly beautiful and unique.  And expensive, so unfortunately it had to stay there - for now.  Who knows what might happen on the way home....

Finally we found - the steam clock!  It wasn't until I looked it up that I learned it was only built in 1977, so the last time I saw it, it was only a couple of years old - and here I thought all along it was a historic piece of marvelous engineering!  Now, of course, it is actually kind of historic....

As it had started to rain, and was about 11:40 a.m., we opted to see if we could get a table at the cafe across the street - which turned out to a very popular and somewhat famous place, the Water St. Cafe.  We made our selections - mimosas to start - and while Linda waited for the server to come and take our order, I went back over with the "big" camera to get some video and hopefully capture the clock striking noon.  Mission accomplished!  So we had a leisurely lunch - mine was West Coast Crab Cakes, and we split an "add-on" of asparagus and broccolini with salsa verde - so yummy!  Dessert and coffee - I had a Berry sorbet with raspberry coulis and oh it was just divine!  We lingered, enjoying the fact that we were in a very good place, and had a whole month ahead to do more of this.

After lunch, we wandered about Gastown a bit more, enjoying the ambiance and the fresh air, and finally turned around, noting we had to be back at the airport and needed to find the train station and give ourselves time to pick up our bags.  Another gemstone place was worth a stop, and a stop along the way to admire Canada Place from across the bay, an interesting view in the rain and fog.

Back at the airport, we noticed this globe in the building of stairs that led to and from the train and parking.  It seemed to point to our direction - New Zealand was right in the middle from our perspective.  And so it will be the center of our world for the next four weeks or so.

The flight to Auckland is relatively smooth and uneventful, and we arrive before 5 a.m. local time - the next day.  Crossing the International Date Line has always intrigued me.  No photos yet, but we managed to find our lodging and it's a lovely old colonial home that has been converted into rooms.  Will share more tomorrow.  Off we go, though, to find a proper flat white, and enjoy the 20C temps - and explore a bit of the Auckland area for the first time.  More later.