Canada 2009 - 18th July

There appeared to be a lot of aircraft arrivals overhead going into runway 28, so I got up and had a look. The first plane I saw (coming in from the east) was a red and white special paint scheme Air Canada Airbus A320, rego C-FFWN. Unfortunately the camera was still in the bedroom, so the only pic I have at present is off the website http://www.jetphotos.net/. I turned on the scanner, and the reason for the traffic was obvious: the main runway (16/34) was closed for maintenance and all traffic was using 28/10. When I finally got the camera out there was just a constant parade of Westjet B737s and Air Canada B737, A320 and Embraer RJs, plus a few smaller Jazz Bombardiers. One Westjet Boeing, flight 398 had a missed approach and had to go around again, something that took a further 22 minutes, before he passed me again.

After breakfast I walked to the train station (30 minutes). While walking to the station a warbird, possibly a Beech C-45H flew in, arriving on 28, plus a United Express (Sky West Airlines) CRJ-701, another new paint scheme for me. It is the story of my trip: The interesting aircraft only come in or go out when my camera is away; I seem to see only the regular commuter jets when I have my camera out. Nearly all the animals at the zoo turned their back to me or walked away when I raised the camera, and we saw the tail end of more trains than the front end.

Anyway, I took a train to the city. The Camera Store was very busy with about 30 customers in the store. I wondered how many were going to be on one of Calgary’s three Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walks later in the day. I purchased another two Wimberley lens plates (both P20) for the 400mm and 70-200mm, and then wandered back to 8th Aveneue, taking a few photographs of buildings and construction as I went.

The exhibition at The Art Gallery of Calgary (117 8th Avenue SW) looked interesting so I paid my $5 and ventured in. The main exhibit was by Donald Woodman and titled The Rodeo and the West, a series of large inkjet prints (most were 52” x 44”) from scans of Polaroid 4 x 5 (4” x 5”) type 55 p/n film. Most were recorded over 20 years ago, but they looked like they had come out of the current Lensbaby craze. Donald used an old Brownie box camera (not the roll film type that I grew up with but the original glass plate model), that he adapted to take a Polaroid back. The largest prints in the exhibition were 12’ x 14’.

I then checked out the shop at the Glenbow Museum and purchased a $5 book titled The Line that tells the story of the CP line from Calgary to Vancouver. Has some interesting facts about the names of all the rail locations between these two cities. One interesting fact that I did not know (I wonder how many do) is that Lake Louise and the province of Alberta are named after the same person: Princess Louise Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the then Governor General of Canada.

Leaving there, I wandered along Stephen Avenue (no vehicles allowed), and came to a square where there was a Latin festival underway, with music and heaps of food stalls.

I wandered back to 7th Avenue and collected a new ticket from the vending machine just as a McKnight-Westwinds train arrived heading east. Arriving back in the north east I headed into Tim Hortons and grabbed a coffee and a couple of Chicken Snacker Wraps (2 for $3.99), and after eating these wandered back to Falwood Way. Nearly there I saw Rozi and Shamina heading off to the supermarket.

Later in the day we went around the corner to Naushad’s brothers house where we had a lovo (hangi). Meat was well cooked but some of the vegetables, especially the kumara could have done with a bit more. Naushad and I were walking home about 10:20pm when I looked up and saw a very bright satellite travelling overhead. It had to be the space station, so once home I checked the Nasa site on the computer, and it advised that the station plus attached shuttle would be seen over Calgary at 10:22pm for about three minutes, and that it would be seen again, but lower in the southern part of the sky at 11:58pm, so we stayed up and saw it again an hour and a half later.

Canada 2009 - 17th July

A fairly quiet relaxing day, although I did get to Trains & Such on 4th Street NW, to see what sort of model railway gear they had. A good shop with friendly staff, a good selection of books, rolling stock, and accessories. I didn’t see too many modern CP locos, but did get a CN (Canadian National) Dash9-C44, a Canadian grain car (they are cylindrical, where the American grain cars are straight or curved sided). I also purchased a couple of books, one on the Western Pacific in Colour, and the other on Burlington Northern rolling stock colour.

A note about Calgary streets. The city is divided into four quadrants; north west, north east, south east, and south west. There is a Centre Street running north-south through the city, basically in line with the Calgary Tower. This is the separation between east and west, while the Bow River is the north-south separator. Looking at the north section only the next street to the right of Centre Street (looking north) is 1st Street NE and the next 2nd Street NE. The first street to the west of Centre Street is 1st Street NW, and so on to the outskirts of the city. Same on the south side. The avenues run east-west, and again are numbered from the Bow River. Major roads are Boulevards, and more important roads (nearly motorways) are Trails. Trains & Such is at 2604 4th Street NW, so is between 25 and 26 Avenues, four streets west of Centre Street, and north of the river. There could well be similar addresses in the other three sectors, such as 2604 4th Street NE.

Shamina and Rozi went out shopping for a few hours, while I tried, with the assistance of Rizwan, to get the computer to talk to Alastair’s video camera, with no luck, although the computer temporarily recognises that something is attached via a USB connection.

Canada 2009 - 15th July

Mid-morning we packed the car heading south, with the possibility of reaching Montana (USA), but definitely going to Lethbridge. On Deerfoot Trail, one of the main north-south routes through the city, we encountered slow traffic, and the radio reported a multi-vehicle pile up and 300 litres spilt diesel on the road ahead. We were diverted off the motorway, but Naushad decided to try and get back on too soon and we were heading back north into the city. I had to use my map reading skills to get us back on a route south and out of the city. In all it took us about 90 minutes to leave Calgary, what should normally have been a 20 minute exercise.

We crossed over the southbound CP line from Calgary to Lethbridge and it disappeared off to the left, and would stay out of site, often 45 km east of the road, till we got near Lethbridge. Highway 2 follows a different, but closed CP rail route, that has had all the track removed, although the ballasted area still looks good, but not good enough for a bike or walking trail.

The first stop we made was in Nanton, to photograph a couple of ex Canadian Air Force jets, outside the Nanton Lancaster Society Air Museum. Directly across the road from this is Canada’s largest garden railway, although I didn’t get time to see this. More importantly there were a couple of Prairie Skyscrapers (grain elevators) in the town, so I asked if we could drive down by these. These were beside the old CP right of way, and on a short piece of track sat on old CP Rail stock car. I photographed the elevators and stock car (see photo previous page) while the others finished off their ice creams and we were back heading south.

While the main highway goes via Fort Macleod, the shortest route is to turn east about 15 km short of Fort Macleod and travel about 30 km east before turning south for a few kilometres. About 15km out of Lethbridge is the CP Rail yard, and there was a train sitting there, and it looked like it had just arrived, or was about to depart west. This section of CP line, comes from the east, and goes over the Rockies at Crows Nest Pass before travelling north-west up a river valley to meet the mainline (from Calgary) at Golden, for the run down to Vancouver. My main objective in Lethbridge was to see the big bridge over the Oldman River Valley and hopefully photograph a train on it. The bridge is 1.6km long and is 307 feet high, at it’s highest.

Lethbridge is on the flat land, but the road in drops down into the river valley before climbing back out and at this point you get your first glimpse of this impressive bridge, the longest and highest steel railroad trestle in the world. We set the GPS to Tim Hortons and the route took us under one end of the bridge and next to a small carpark and tourist information centre. We bought coffees and headed back to the carpark and decided to walk down one of the many tracks (trails in Canada), that abound the area. Part way down into the river valley we stopped at a lookout, and surveyed the scene. There were contrails everywhere going overhead and at one point we counted nine aircraft flying overhead. A couple were heading to Vancouver (from eastern Canada), one four-engine jet appeared to be heading to San Francisco or Los Angeles, and there was a couple of planes heading north from USA to Calgary or Edmonton.

Rozi spotted a train coming onto the bridge from the west, and Naushad grabbed the video camera, while I photographed it with the SLR. It was a open hopper train of 122 cars (about 2 -2.5km in length), led by two locomotives, with a third pushing on the rear. We were about 150 feet below the bridge and it looked impressive as the train travelled slowly across the bridge, until the lead locomotives were in Lethbridge proper and then the speed increased.

The area around Lethbridge is semi chaparral country and is obviously drier and warmer than Calgary. There were many wildflowers and cactus plants growing alongside the track and I photographed some of these, but could have spent hours here photographing plants, butterflies and grass hoppers , right beside the bridge.

Lethbridge is also known for its Japanese gardens, so we consulted the map and worked out a route there. Arriving at the Nikka Yuko gardens, set in a section of a large city park, we paid the $7 head entrance price and walked in through the gated reception area, to be given our instructions (keep to paths, shoes off when going into the building etc), and we wandered around the tracks. Nothing spectacular but it was quiet and relaxing, with small waterfalls, ponds and Japanese style trees.

Leaving the Japanese Gardens we visited the rose gardens, and saw the horseshoe club area (similar to quoits), before deciding that Montana was still too far away and we would head back to Calgary. Naushad topped up the tank on the outskirts of town and soon we were heading north. At Claresholm, another town on old railway line, I spotted a CP Rail caboose in the yellow “Pac-man” paint scheme. “Stop here please”, I said and within seconds we were parked beside the old Canadian Pacific stone station, now home to the Claresholm museum and information centre.

We continued on the road, and just a few kilometres further on I saw a coyote looking for food beside the road.

The crops here are mainly wheat, maize (corn) and canola, and farms are different to New Zealand. With farmed animals in the minority, there are few or no fences between fields, and there is no need for shelter belts, although most farm houses were surrounded by trees and bushes.

Arriving back in Calgary, just before 9pm, we purchased pizza and headed back to Falconridge. A game of cricket, complete with boundary marker cones was underway on the school grounds across the road, and continued for a while after sunset.

Canada 2009 - 14th July

Apart from Rizwan (he had to go to work), I was first up, made a coffee, read a magazine and listened to action from Calgary International Airport on the scanner. At one point a pilot reported seeing a coyote near one of the runways.

After the others surfaced, we had pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast, and then headed to Sunridge Mall. Rozi dropped me outside Chapter’s bookstore. I spent more than an hour wandering around this very large bookshop, before purchasing a bird guide (with DVD containing MP3 files and images ready for an I-pod or similar), and wandered over to the main mall. By this time it was raining. After another 30 minutes Shamina called out to me, and after a bit more shopping we departed, not to home, but to Marlborough Mall a few kilometres away. This time I wandered around to see the Coles bookshop, HMV, electronics store (like a Dick Smith), and sat outside Sears for over an hour. Both of these malls also had Michael Hill jewellery stores. Finally they came out and we headed home picking up fried chicken (halal) and potato wedges on the way. By now it was 3pm, so it was a late lunch.

Shamina and Rozi were heading to a Hindi movie, so Naushad suggesting visiting an elderly friend in the nearby suburb of Temple. We went there and drank some kava and talked. This bloke is still a practising architect, and has travelled all over the world, after leaving Fiji in the early 1970s.

We came home about 10pm, and had stew and kasava. It was so good for a change not to have curry!

Canada 2009 - 13th July

Today I went to the city (alone), using a C-train from McKnight-Westwind to downtown (7th Avenue). The main objective was to go and see The Camera Store, on the corner of 7th Street and 11th Avenue SW. Leaving 7th Avenue, I headed south under the tracks of CP Rail and then right along 10th Avenue, hoping to see some rail action. But all I saw was some of Calgary’s “down and outers” queued up outside a recycling centre with their shopping trolleys of aluminium cans, and just across the road, others leaving a liquor store, obviously having already obtained some cash from their can collecting efforts. We have a couple of people in Christchurch who do this, but there was at least 50 here as I passed.

Just a few blocks away is The Camera Store, and I could have spent all day in there. About four times bigger than Photo & Video in Christchurch, this shop had everything for still and video photography, including a rental department. It was definitely not the “shopping mall photo store” but a serious store for advanced amateurs and professional people. I spent about 30 minutes wandering around, looking at the books section, the studio flash section etc, before checking out tripods and heads. They had the Wimberley Mark II head and various adaptor plates, so I bit the bullet and purchased one, along with a P-50 adaptor plate, for the 600mm f4 “bazooka” at home.

It had started to rain while I was in the shop so headed back towards 8th Avenue wearing my lightweight rain/wind jacket, but I soon had to find shelter in one of the shopping malls. I checked out HMV (again) Coles bookstore, before grabbing a coffee and a couple of chicken wraps at Tim Hortons, and then deciding that the rain was not going to abate, so headed back to one of the stations on 7th Avenue, and got a train back to McKnight-Westwind, and then a Falconridge bus (route #55), that took an age going through other areas (Castleridge and Coral Springs) before arriving in Falconridge. If it had not been raining I would have walked the 2+km – it would have been quicker!

The rain was heavier in the city than at Falconridge, but as I walked the short distance from the Falconridge Blvd bus stop, lightning flashes were seen and the thunder could be heard approaching so I was glad to be home at Rozi’s. Only Rizwan and Zaheer were home, Shamina and Rozi out shopping, as was Naushad.

I did another session on the treadmill clocking up a couple of miles. At 6:30pm we headed out to dinner at friends/relations of Zaida (Taki’s wife). There house is on the very eastern boundary of the city with farmland beyond, although some of this land has just been turned into the north east section of the yet to be opened Calgary ring route motorway.
While we were in Vancouver there was news (in amongst all the hype over Michael Jackson’s memorial service) that the local Indian tribe had voted against accepting the governments substantial financial offer for the land for the south east section of the ring road, so Calgary may end up with just a partial ring road. Highway 1 through Calgary is traffic light alley, and the ring route was planned to divert traffic around the city.

Canada 2009 - 12th July

Naushad wanted to be back in Calgary before 1:00pm (to play soccer), so after breakfast and a few photos with Jannifer, we headed away from north Edmonton, down through the city, including skirting China Town, and across the North Saskatchewan River (see photo), and onto Highway 2 south and out of town. We passed Edmonton International Airport, which is quite a way south of the city, near the town of Leduc, and continued on towards Red Deer. There are deer warning signs all along this stretch of highway and we spotted two that were victims of road vehicles before we got to Red Deer. There appears to be less road kill here than in New Zealand, apart from deer (have seen three in the 4,000 km we have driven) and the odd gopher.

Red Deer is the major refreshment stop between the two cities (Calgary and Edmonton), and employing the GPS again, we found the southbound Tim Horton’s and I joined the queue to order coffee. Took about 15 minutes! These are popular shops, often sharing the same building as Wendys.

We continued southbound finally arriving in north east Calgary about 12:30pm, too late for Naushad to get to the first game of soccer, but he would make the second game. Naushad, along with the three boys play for Rewa in the local Sunday Fiji league.

The afternoon was spent relaxing and the day was finished off with another kava session, initially sitting outside, but then moving to the garage when the temperature dropped.

Canada 2009 - 10th July

After a day (Thursday) doing nothing but relaxing and recuperating after the Vancouver trip, it was back into it on Friday.

We drove 2km to the McKnight – Westwind station (end of the north east line) on the Calgary C-Train Light Rail system and purchased tickets from the vending machine ($2.50 per person), and boarded the train waiting to depart for downtown. The trip took about 25 minutes with another seven station stops, before we arrived in 7th Avenue.

We headed directly to the Calgary Tower and joined the queue (not too long) to purchase our tickets ($12.95 + tax), and then went up in the high speed lift 525 feet to the viewing deck.

Here is what the website (http://www.calgarytower.com/) says about the tower:

The Calgary Tower ensures all "Virtual Tourists" are treated as warmly and as openly as the half a million "Reality Based Tourists" who visit us each year!
Officially opened June 30th 1968, the 'Tower' has become the City of Calgary's most famous and identifiable physical landmark. One of the first Towers of its kind, the Calgary Tower offers the best view in Calgary and is a must-see on any tourist's itinerary.
Throughout the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, a flame burned at the top of the Tower, making the Calgary Tower the World's Largest Olympic Torch. The torch is still lit today for special occasions, like Canada Day and during the Calgary Flames race for the Stanley Cup, sparking fond memories as well as a certain civic pride in all Calgarians.
Dare to try something that will take your breath away?
Visitors to the Observation Deck are able to virtually "step out into" space on the glass floor experience. Imagine standing 525 feet above the ground in the heart of Calgary and being able to look straight down and directly out in front of you into the heart of the city. The experience is awe-inspiring and will challenge the emotions, but rest assured --- the thrill will be worth it.
The glass floor is 36 feet long and more than four feet wide, the glass panes that make up the floor can each hold the weight of a couple Hippos! With only a glass wall in front, you will be treated to the unusual experience of literally being suspended in mid-air. And don't forget to check out the optical illusion as the shaft on the Tower looks as though it bends away from you.

When we got out of the lift a staff member advised us to “lookout for the horse”, and sure enough there was a large live horse on the viewing floor, obviously as part of the Calgary Stampede promotions.

The view from the tower is amazing, with only two other buildings at the same level.
Directly below the tower to the south is the CP Rail mainline. We wandered around the circular viewing deck and I stepped out onto the glass floor extension and looked straight down.

Shot a few photos and some video with the small camera, and as we were just about to leave, Shamina told me a train was coming. It was a grain train heading west to Vancouver, so I took a couple of pics, and then I saw an eastbound stack (container) train. The headend power crossed each other just under a covered section, so the perfect “trains crossing below the tower” could not be achieved.

We finally left the tower and headed into a few shopping malls, grabbing Tim Horton’s coffee and chicken wraps for lunch. Most of the city malls are interconnected by walkways above road level, obviously so people can get about in the winter time without having to go outside too often. There is also a lot of construction going on both within malls, and new buildings being built.

Near the Hudson Bay Coy (large department store) I purchased a flag (Canadian) and Shamina purchased a few souvenirs, before we headed back to the C-Train and back to McKnight-Westwind station and home.

After a bit of exercise on the treadmill, we headed out to Naushad’s sisters place for dinner. She is married to an Algerian man. He has been in Canada for 14 years and was wanting to know about New Zealand and what were the main industries etc.

Canada 2009 - 7th July

Today was “visiting friends day”, first stop being Anu, a friend of Shamina's from Fiji in the 1960s and early 70s. After lunch Anu and her son took us to White Rock, a seaside town, very close to the USA border. It is also has railroad tracks along the foreshore, these tracks belonging to BNSF, and mainly used for coal trains going to Robert’s Bank. It may also be used by container traffic to and from Deltaport. The old Great Northern Railway (later Burlington Northern) depot has been preserved and is now the White Rock Museum.

Anu dropped us off at Munir’s place about 5:30pm. Munir, also known to us as Portable was a Halal slaughterman at Islington in the 1984-85 season. One of his sisters and her husband also came and after dinner his parents came around and another sister. His father has been in Canada for over 40 years. Munir dropped us off at Tamiq Hussain’s (Naushad’s brother-in-law) about 11:00pm, and we packed up for the trip home.

Photos show Shamina with Anu at White Rock, the old White Rock station and Munir with his parents.

Canada 2009 3rd July

Friday 3rd July

We left Falconridge heading towards Vancouver at 8:15am, with the temperature about 12 deg C. Going through the city on Hwy #1 there were a couple of helicopters and jets from CAF, obviously practising for the Stampede opening later that day. The trip through to Lake Louise saw no trains, apart from one across the valley at the LaFarge cement plant at Exeshaw.

Just passed the Lake Louise turnoff I spotted a short freight (17 cars) moving west,less than a kilometre from the Kicking Horse Pass Summit (Continental Divide, highest point on CP and highest point on Trans Canada Highway) so we stopped at Wapta Lake and took photos and video as the train went around the far side of the lake, but passed it again before it got to the Spiral Tunnels. We did not stop at the Spiral Tunnel lookout as the trees are so prolific it is often hard to see the rail line. Just a few kilometres further on is the town of Field, basically a railroad town and a large westbound trains was waiting in the yard. We passed another westbound stack train, but did not see the headend as it was deep in the river valley.

Arriving in Golden we could see a couple of trains sitting in the yard across the other side of the town. Golden is the junction of CP’s Calgary mainline and the line that comes up the valley from Lethbridge, also known as the Crowsnest Pass line. Golden was our first petrol stop, also a Tim Hortons coffee stop. Between Golden and Revelstoke we passed over the famous Rogers Pass, but only saw a stationery coal train across the valley.
Shortly after leaving Golden we saw an eastbound grain (empties) rounding a point beside a lake at Three Valley.

I had already asked if we could make a stop at Craigellachie, the site of the Last Spike on the Canadian Pacific, and shortly after topping up the tank, Naushad wanted a lunch stop and pulled into a rest area, to find it was the Craigellachie memorial. I got out of the car and walked towards the monument to hear an approaching eastbound, so ran the remaining distance to photograph a stack train, and it was long! After a 30 minute stop (and a few purchases at the Last Spike Gift Shop) we resumed to see another eastbound grain (empties), and just behind that another eastbound stack train with a few auto racks at the rear, this time at Malakwa, just 5 or 6 km west of Craigellachie.

A few clicks further on at Shuswap Lake we encountered two trains, another eastbound (coal empties) and a westbound grain, moving slowly. Just behind the coal empties was another stack train (east bound) and this was recorded on video. Around the Salmon Arm area there are no good views of the rail line from the road, so the next train we saw was at Campbell Creek, about 15km short of Kamloops, and this was a coal empty with one head end loco, one mid train and one rear end helper.

The area around Kamloops is a lot drier and the temperature was now 33 C. Across the river and way below us we could see the CN yard. Another petrol, cold drink and coffee stop before we continued. The main road does not follow the rail line east of Kamloops, but shortly after leaving Kamloops I saw a couple of large eagles soaring over the road. Most likely Golden Eagles, or juvenile Bald eagles.

It is 341km from Kamloops to Vancouver and most is a series of up and downs, one downhill grade was 19km long!
We catch up with rail again at Hope on the banks of the Fraser River. This is CP/CN shared track here with westbounds on the south side and eastbounds on the north side of the river.
We arrived at Naushad’s sisters house at 8:15pm Calgary time (9:15pm BC time) so the trip of about 960km had taken nearly 13 hours with just a few short stops, mainly for petrol.

Canada 2009 - 30th June

Getting up late (after 8am) we had breakfast (pancakes and maple syrup) to a passing parade of Westjet B737 flights arriving from the east. We then packed up and headed out of Calgary east, then north-east the 135km to Drumheller in the Alberta Badlands, the dinosaur capital of Canada. On the way we passed a grain elevator with grain cars (mainly CN) being loaded.

Arriving in Drumheller we saw empty stack cars parked on a siding. Obviously the downturn in the economy meant that 40’ stack sets were not required. A few kilometres out of Drumheller is the Royal Tyrrell Museum, dedicated to dinosaurs. We parked the car and walked up to the viewing area, before going into the museum. The cost was reasonable ($10 adult, $6 youth), and the exhibits were amazing!

After spending a couple of hours viewing the exhibits, we had a picnic lunch and before heading back into Drumheller I snapped a few of the out of area number plates, including Wisconsin, Texas and other Canadian provinces. At Drumheller I photographed DTTX 742166, a 5 pack 40’ stack car. This one had some dinosaur graffiti on one end car. We returned back to Calgary stopping briefly at Horseshoe Canyon, and coffee (Tim Horton again) at Chestermere, an “on lake” town that looked like some of the canal areas of Surfers Paradise.

Arriving back in Calgary we went to Pacific Place, a Chinese dominated shopping mall to buy fresh fish and live crabs, and have had crab curry for dinner.

Canada 2009 - First full day

Surprising, that after a very long day we only slept about six hours, and then arose. After a large breakfast (for us at least), we went for a drive around Calgary with Naushad and Rozi, starting off heading east a couple of kilometres to pass their “rural” 2 acre section, covered in scrub. Then it was of heading south to see some life style blocks, mainly owned by Punjabis. There is a large Punjabi population in Calgary and Vancouver, which explains the signage in Punjabi at Vancouver airport.

We then headed west towards the city, stopping at a mosque in a very expensive looking suburb, before heading into the city on 17th Avenue and then turning north. Crossed the C-Train tracks on 7th Avenue, shortly after passing under the CP mainline through Calgary. Some Herzog aggregate hoppers were stationary on the line. I don’t know if it was a stationery train or a ballast/work train.

Grabbing some takeaway coffees at Tim Horton’s near the airport we then parked at a viewing carpark while we had coffee and watched planes departing into the strong SE wind.

The carpark has identification boards for plane types and airlines that use Calgary, and the map there quoted that Calgary has the longest civil aviation runway in Canada.

Also saw a hawk that hovered over the carpark and then landed inside the airport boundary. I later identified it as a Swainson’s Hawk

We left here and headed to a large supermarket for some fresh produce. Interesting to see the range available, including live fish, crabs and crayfish, with just about every vegetable you could imagine. We had been told before leaving NZ that Canada was expensive, but what we have seen so far shows this not to be the case. The vegetables (those that we can get in NZ) were same or cheaper price, and milk is less than $1 per litre.

Then it was back home to lunch and a relaxing afternoon, before our travelling around starts in ernest.

Canada 2009 - Arriving

The flight from Vancouver to Calgary with Air Canada was on an A320 Airbus (plane on right of image at Gate C33), but with a screen, power socket and USD port in the back of each seat. Headphones were available but at a cost of $3 and you were encouraged to keep them and re-use them on other flights. Taxiing out I saw my first two Canadian birds; a swallow (looked like our Welcome Swallow) and a rook or crow, both on the airport grasslands. We took off to the west using the Left runway (Right was being used for arrivals) and headed out towards Vancouver Island before turning 180 deg (but staying outside of USA airspace) and headed east, with a slow drift to the north (Calgary is 52deg N while Vancouver is just above the 49th parallel). A great view of the coastal mountains and then the southern Canadian Rockies (still a lot of snow), before striking a little cloud and turbulence as we came off the mountains onto the plains. Skirting Calgary to the south we then turned north and had a great view of the city as we came into land.

It all felt very familiar, the view below us and I realised that Google Earth had made me too aware of what Calgary was like. I could see the twin bridges area, where CP Rail cross the Bow River as the railroad heads west out of Calgary, the large track of park and small river that stretches many kilometers across the southern boundary of the city, Ogden shops (saw my first CP locos, including a couple moving), Alyth rail yards (also CP) and the city and parklands. We landed early (20 minutes early after leaving Vancouver 5 minutes early), and exited the plane and waited for our baggage. Naushad and Rozi arrived and we headed off to Falconridge, just a few km east of the airport.

Arriving, we met the three boys (Rizwan, Shiraz and Zaheer) and had a look around the house and yard. Dinner (rice, dhal, chicken and prawn curry) was followed by a bit of unpacking, and sitting around talking to midnight, before having a shower and heading to bed.

Apart from a few short naps on the plane we had been up 36 hours.

Canada 2009 - Travelling

We checked in at Chc just after 4:00pm on Saturday and headed north to Akl, where Shamina's two sisters met us and drove over to International. It was raining! Said goodbye and headed in through security and into duty free to see Samantha (niece). Ordered our stuff to collect on return and went to the gate. The 747-400 was full. A lot of people travelling to Calgary for the Calgary Stampede. Departed Akl just after 8:30pm, and it was fairly bumpy for the first few hours, especially when the plane went over the dateline and equator!! After dinner the lights were turned don but it was difficult to sleep. Managed a few naps. We hit daylight again just east of Hawaii, but they kept all the shades down and served breakfast at 7:30am NZ time, although it was just after noon in Vancouver (19 hours behind NZ or 5 hours in front,BUT the previous day. Arrived in Vancouver after nearly 13 hours in the air, and went through immigration and baggage check. We thought we were going to get checked for the 2kg kava we declared, but we were whisked to the Air Canada transfer. I think they thought we were on the next flight to calgary, not the one after. It is nice and sunny, lots of planes from all over the place, and we are just having a cup of coffee. Another hour before our flight to Calgary.

Canada 2009 - Preparing 4

Now about 30 hours before we leave to go to the airport. It is 0 deg C outside, so we are looking forward to a month of "summer".

Canada 2009 - Preparing 3

Went to Photo & Video today to pick up Tim's new Lowepro Flipside 400AW (camera bag), and discussed with Alastair K whether to take (my) Alastair's digital video camera or get a new HD SD/memory stick video camera. As video will be number two after still photography, I settled on using the existing camera, so purchased a box (5) of Panasonic DV cassettes for use in Alastair's Sony mini DV camera.

Spent the rest of the day sorting things out at work for the staff that will pick up parts of my job. Jobs creation has gone to Joanna in Dunedin, while production reports will be done by Stuart, but he is also on holiday for two weeks. Cleaned the desk and helped produce some board reports late in the afternoon.

Didn't win $36,000,000 in Big Wednesday so looks like I will have to pay for the vacation. Just as well the Bonus Bonds have had a good return this year, especially the first draw that they were active in!

Canada 2009 - Preparing 2

Final things purchased - another power adaptor (for North American to NZ 3 pin plug) and a third TSA approved baggage padlock.

Canada 2009 - Preparing 1

Starting to sort out what to take and what not to take. After travelling around the NZ/Australia/Fiji area with the 20kg baggage allowance, it will be a luxury have 46kg each (as we are flying to North America). I wish the airlines would standardise on what the baggage allowance is. Within NZ, Air New Zealand now allow 25kg, but to Australia and the local Pacific islands (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu etc) the limit is just 20kg.

Thirteen plus hours non stop is also a bit daunting, the longest we have ever flown before is around four hours. Add to the 4:30pm Sunday check in at Christchurch and 8:50pm arrival time (also Sunday) in Calgary (18 hours behind Christchurch) it makes for over 22 hours of travelling and sitting at airports (Christchurch, Auckland and Vancouver).

On the photography front, I am taking two Canon digital SLRs (a 10 megapixel 1DMkIII and a 6mp 10D as a backup) with a few lenses (17-40mmL f4.0, 24-105mmL f4.0, 70-200mm f2.8L, 400mm f5.6 L and 100mm f2.8 macro) and maybe a video camera. I would love the Canon 5D MkII as a HD video camera (and backup SLR), but that expense is just too great at this time. 24Gb of compact flash and 18Gb of SD (the 1D accepts both) should be enough memory (hopefully), but with a laptop and 320Gb USB travel drive, I should not have any trouble with image retention/backup.

The basic SLR gear (with either the 70-200mm or the 400mm, but not both) fits in the new Lowepro Flipside 400AW bag, that is airline cabin compliant (and just 7kg), and I will also take a "personal" slimline laptop bag with the laptop and a couple of magazines. The photo jacket will contain all the rest (passport, small binoculas, pens, a couple of books, suduko book, ipod and noise cancelling headhones). Shamina will also take a smaller back pack with the other lens and the 10D body.

In the checked luggage will be the tripod (maybe monopod as well), along with all the power supplies/chargers (cameras, ipod, laptop etc), multi-box and adaptor plugs, along with clothes (summer) and a couple of rail atlases, and FieldGuide to the Birds of North America.

Canada 2009 - Thinking

In less than seven days we (Shamina and me) will be in Calgary, after 24 hours travelling (about 16 hours in the air) after leaving Christchurch.

What is planned? I don't actually know apart from being told to have a visa for USA. We will be staying with Shamina's niece and her husband in Calgary, and they have a large caravan, so hopefully we will get over to Vancouver, and maybe down to Marias Pass on the BNSF in Montana.

I hope to spend a couple of days railfanning, but just looking at the DVD "Canadian Pacific - Heart of the Rockies", the trans Canada highway seems to be close to the CP mainline. Then there is the CN railroad that runs northeast out of Calgary, plus the Lethbridge Viaduct a couple of hours south of Calgary.

Tim has told me to come back with at least one image of a BN Green Machine, but that maybe a hard task this many years after the Burlington Northern (BN) and Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF) merger.