After a 12 hour flight (very impressed with Air New Zealand), we landed in Vancouver. We made a swift baggage claim and exit, even after being quizzed why we were staying so long with no work plans from the border security staff. We jumped in a cab and headed to the hotel. The cab driver had great chat about VC and the changes it had gone over in the past 20 years. All checked in at the hotel that time forgot, we ventured out to buy Canadian sim cards before heading to a bar to see the Superbowl. We googled the rules of american football quickly as we ordered our first beer and burgers, Frankie chose to back the 49ers, and I backed the winning Kansas City Chiefs.

After the game we crashed out after our long 46 hour day (Vancouver is 22 hours behind Auckland), we woke early and quickly made our way to the bus stop, just in time. As luck would have it, the bus was delayed, which meant we could head to Starbucks for a coffee and a breakfast roll :-) before jumping on the 8 hour bus ride to Revelstoke.

We were dropped off in Revelstoke at the gas station and felt a bit unprepared for our first adventure, the 30 minute walk to our AirBnB, with 50kgs of luggage each, including an unwieldy ski bag and a wheely case, which didn't much like the snow. We made it and were relieved to be settling into the AirBnB of Emma and Sheldon. With welcome wine and info on the dresser, we felt at home straight away. After a quick unpack & we headed into town for pizza and a couple of drinks with Dan and Jen.

The first day in Revelstoke was an expensive, but very productive, sorting our resort shuttle, ski pass, swimming pool pass, groceries and new hiking boots (my 8 year old ones were thrown away at the end of the NZ trip, as their soles finally became detached). We even managed 3 ski runs, to remind us what it was like to be on skis.

Day two and we headed out with Jen, who after a couple of warm up runs took us through some trees and maybe the steepest drops we had seen before, to really get us working hard. Revelstoke is a great place to ski with very few people to be seen on the runs, lots of terrain, with runs from the very top to bottom taking around 15 minutes to complete, with no stopping. We finished the day with 5 pin bowling and a few games of pool with some other friends' of Dan and Jen

Day three had a similar agenda, head up the slopes but in the evening we hit the pool, where we floated our pains away in the lazy river and the hot tub.

Day four was more skiing. With rested legs, we did a full day of drills and skills to help with the technique. We finished the day with snow pouring down and us feeling excited about the following days skiing. We finished the night off by heading for dinner at the Village Idiot, to celebrate Friday night and finished off with a night cap in the Monashee Distillery.

Day five, we woke early to make sure we were at the first lift, only to find out, the whole of Canada must had had the same idea!! We couldn't work out where all the people had come from, but found out everyone else was excited for the fresh 15-20cm of fresh snow and as it was a Saturday, locals and people from other resorts had made the journey. Within 45 minutes we were up to the top. Once there we bumped into Dave, who we had met bowling night, who amazingly acted as our personal guide through the "Pow". Definitely the best day skiing for maybe ever!! Powder, trees, empty runs, a great guide and a beer at the bottom at the end of the day with friends. To top the day we headed to our first Ice Hokey game at the local arena, with Revelstoke Grizzlies beating the North Okanagan Knight 11-1

Day six, Sunday. We had a lazy morning to try and miss the crowds, we found out later most people had such a good day the day before they didn't head up anyway. We are glad we did, as this meant we got to ski one run with Sheldon, our host before treating ourselves to a double burger at the top of the gondola and an early finish.

Posts will be weekly while we are skiing, so as not to bore everyone with snow and skis.