short trip to Vancouver Island

Three cities, a total driving distance of 550 kms and two ferry rides each close to two hours and all that in not more than 4 days? You call that ambitious? Yes, that’s me!

My friend Amy, that I’ve met during my travels in New Zealand, lives and studies in Nanaimo and that made a visit to Vancouver Island (where Nanaimo is located) a must. We only had the Saturday as she had to work on Sunday and I made my way to Vancouver Island the conventional way, on board a BC Ferry, leaving Vancouver from Horsehoe Bay, approx. one hour north of Vancouver. The ferry ride only takes about one hour and forty minutes and you can either enjoy the views of the main land mountains, the declining skyline of Vancouver and lots of water or you line up at the buffet for an intake of calories.

After Amy had picked me up at the ferry terminal we dropped off my backpack and picked up her boyfriend Neil and sightseeing in Nanaimo started. It was more a photo session as Neil and I are both passionate photographers and Amy patiently followed the whole procedure. I can now claim I’ve seen Nanaimo’s beautiful waterfront with various little fishing boats, many inukshuk built of stones found nearby and Lantzville Beach that was particularly beautiful at sunset as all the taken pictures proof.

Next day Amy dropped me off at the Greyhound bus depot where I caught the bus to Tofino situated at Vancouver Island’s west coast that strongly reminded me of New Zealand’s south island and especially the Milford Road that I’d taken so many times to get to Milford Sound. High mountains covered my thick forest and beautiful lakes alongside the curvy and steep road, in need of some maintenance every now and then. Tofino is a laid back surfer’s paradise township at the end of the road. Whoever makes it here came for a reason: It might be the tranquillity of the many beaches, hiking or watching wildlife (whales, bears, birds).

Next morning I was back on the road with Greyhound. To make the whole trip a bit faster I changed buses in Port Alberni and boarded an Express Bus to Victoria, the provincial capital of British Columbia what saved me more than an hour. When I had arrived in Victoria I straight away set off to explore the city and to fill the memory card in my camera. Golden hour at Victoria’s picturesque Waterfront proved successful and I left with quite a few good shots.

Knowing the HI standards I was quite disappointed of the HI hostel in Victoria and I was wondering about two big dorms connected with each other (one room was a walk through), hardly any power points (where to plug in your laptop, camera chargers etc?) and just one light for the whole room making it a challenge late in the evening when everybody is going to bed at different times. Definitely not my port of call next time I’ll be in Victoria!
Early Tuesday morning I took the bus to Swartz Bay where the ferry would leave to go back to Vancouver. This time it would be going to Tsawwassen, what is about one hour south of Vancouver. Due to some problems with other ferries, my vessel had been delayed what made us miss the bus back into the city by approx. 15 minutes and a wait of another hour for the next bus. Back in Vancouver I caught up with Angela, my new flatmate, for a key hand over and I had officially moved in to my new place!