6th of May: We have arrived in Toronto, Canada! Hooorayyyyyy. And we can understand everything people are saying – what a bonus! As far as our blog goes, we won’t be doing daily updates for Canada, but we will do a monthly update. Sorry Jan & Lawry, I know you requested a fortnightly update!
Our first few days in Toronto we did a lot of jobs, ate bulk Poutine and successfully obtained our 2 year working VISAs (I got extra month on mine due to a typo ;)) And wowee, Canadians are so nice! On our first day after landing in Toronto, we were wandering up the street with our giant backpacks on, and this random guy came up to us and asked where we were from, and welcomed us to Toronto! Love it 😊
On our second day I went for a job interview (I used Toronto’s fantastic rail system to get there), the interview went really well and they said there would be a role for me in their Edmonton office. I even attended the interview in Jeans and Joggers… I came out pretty stoked after this and splashed out on some NBA tickets – the Raptors were playing that night in Toronto against the 76s. Game 5 of the playoffs wooooooo!! The Raptors won, unbelievable atmosphere, and we got free shirts! Stoked to be in Canada during the playoffs – The Raptors have a shot this year! I am jumping straight on the bandwagon.
Toronto is an awesome city, like Melbourne but a newer feel to it. If it had big mountains around it, we would want to stay here for sure!
After a few days in Toronto we went to pick up our truck that we were relocating across the country for a company, but we had an issue, I was pissed at the time but now I’m over it so no rant here, long story short:
- We arrive to pickup the truck
- We don’t have a credit card so they say they can’t take the deposit (I have done it with this card in America/UK/Bolivia)
- The guy says they can sometimes take a direct deposit and then mail a check. I said let’s do that. His manager says no, because apparently this situation is different because I am Australian lol Hate to see how the manager treats New Zealanders
- The manager needs to get approval from head office to proceed giving us the car without a credit card
- We wait 5.5 hours. The manager says head office just called and said no. This is BS they did not call at all!
Anyways, after a few months in South America we have gotten good at changing plans on the fly. I called another company before we left the car hire place and arranged for us to relocate a little Toyota Echo from Montreal to Kelowna in British Columbia. And the best thing about this is they are paying us to relocate it! So good! The robotic dumb-bum manager can keep her truck… ok, maybe I am still a little bit sour…
So we had another night in Toronto and caught a bus up to Montreal the next day. We were keen to check out Montreal as we have heard a lot of good things about it. Unfortunately when we were there it rained the WHOLE time! We did manage to hike up to the top of Mont Royal, but that was about it. We will definitely need to come back!
We picked up the little Toyota Echo from a really nice man named Gary on the outskirts of Montreal. He gave us a coffee and a huge travel mug to go, I love Canadians. The funniest thing about Gary’s place was the bathroom. Ellen went and took a photo. Next to the toilet was a table with; an ashtray with a lot of cigarette butts, an empty bottle of beer and an iPad. This guy is living the dream!
We said goodbye to our new mate Gazza and took off in our chariot towards Kelowna. The best thing about driving a really old banged up car is they can’t possibly prove we put more dings in it!
The first day was a 6 hour drive to a town called Sundridge, this is where the Howley clan lived for a year when Ellen was 8. We stayed with a lovely lady named Jean, and she treated us like royalty. After 3 months of South America, we were in heaven. We were cooked dinner and in the morning we were made waffles! Jean is a legend – we were even sent on our way with home made date slice, home made choc chip cookies and left over waffles!
We drove on to the eastern side of Lake Superior and camped at a place called Pancake Bay. It was very very beautiful but we still haven’t seen any moose! The next day we drove around the lake to Thunder Bay. The lake is sooooo big, it didn’t feel like we accomplished anything for the day but we drove over 7 hours! However, today we saw 5 moose! They are so big, as big as horses. Doctor google told us that moose shed their antlers during the winder and they re-grow them in the spring & summer – fascinating stuff!
The next day we drove through the rest of Ontario which was endless lakes, trees and rocks. I was in need for a much needed shower so went for a dip in one of the lakes. I think this lake recently melted because it was suuuuuper cold!
We made it to the province of Manitoba and had a break in the city of Winnipeg. Keen to move on, we headed about an hour west of Winnipeg to a town called Portage La Prairie. Ellen’s aunty Jen lived here once so we thought we may as well check it out! Not a bad place to live at all!
We had a quick breaky by the lake in Portage La Prairie and then we headed to a town called Moose Jaw, or otherwise known as little Chicago. During the Prohibition period they used to make alcohol here in the tunnels to hide from the cops. We did a tour of the tunnels here which was pretty cool.
The next day we drove all the way to Calgary. What a long boring drive this day was! Nothing but flat landscapes and very, very straight roads! We made it, and stayed with Danielle. Danielle did a teacher exchange to Corowa High last year. We were stoked to be able to shower again and sleep in a comfortable bed!
We then headed to the airport to pickup our bag that we sent over from home. Yay – more clothes, and no more interviews in Jeans and joggers! We then drove to Banff, which is in the heart of the rocky mountains and only 1 hour from Calgary! How good is that! We are very keen to try and land jobs in Calgary. It was very rainy when we arrived so we decided to look for a car to buy. We almost bought a banged up Ford Falcon for a steal! (The 3rd party insurance was going to cost us more lol) But someone else beat us to it. For the night we camped at Two Jack Lakeside campground which was really beautiful even though it was raining.
The next day it was still raining so we went and checked out a van which seemed like a very low price. We ended up buying it because it was already fully decked out with a bed, chairs, BBQ etc. It has done some kms, has a little bit of rust on it, but it has been well looked after and a mechanic looked over it the day before and gave it the thumbs up. So yeeeehaaaa we now have a van! It is officially under Ellen’s name so she is very excited her first official car is a big old rusted van. It is named Bertha, short for BIG Bertha!
We still need to drop the car off to Kelowna, so for the rest of the trip we would be both driving a car each. We headed to Lake Louise and did a 3 hour hike there. The lake was still frozen over but it starting to thaw out, showing some signs of the magical bright blue water. During out hike, we ended up going to the top which was still packed with snow, so we were the only ones around. We were trudging along in the snow, and then we heard a growl of some sort… I shat myself, but reassured Ellen (and me) by saying it is just a creaky tree. So we kept walking. About 100 metres along we came across some bear prints in the snow! Big bear prints and small bear prints – they looked super fresh too and were headed the way we had just came from. A little freaked out, we got out of there quick smart! We need to buy some bear spray before we go on another hike I think.
We kept driving that day to Revelstoke mountain to sleep. This is where Taity is getting married later in the year, not a bad choice at all!
20th of May: The next day we got up early to drive the final 3 hours to Kelowna. We arrived no problems at all and gave the car back to the owner! Wooohooo – in 10 days we drove a total of 44 hours and 4,437km’s! We will definitely go back to the east side and explore more of Ontario, it is a beautiful part of the world.
We spent our first day in Kelowna doing a hike of the Myra Canyon Trestles. This is an old abandoned railway line which has turned into a walkway. It was a nice walk – super flat, I reckon there would be a marathon race here!
The next day we did a little bit of exercise and had a bit of a rest day. Ellen got a #fresh haircut and spent all her money on new Lululemon activewear. The Kelowna area is packed with Wineries, so we headed up to the Summerhill Pyramid Winery – it had super nice views of the big lake Kelowna sits on. We could live here for sure! So many choicessssss!
The following day we left Kelowna and headed to the Wells Gray Provincial Park which is known for its many waterfalls. It is also a good place to see black bears… We saw THREE on the side of the road. A mum and two cubs! Thank goodness we were in our van. They were just chilling eating grass and yellow flowers – they didn’t seem worried about us at all. I’m sure their tune would change if I jumped out of the car. We stayed a night in the park, hopeful that no bears would attack our van in the night. We will definitely come back here in the winter, the waterfalls freeze over which would be amazing to see.
The next day we got up super early and drove to Jasper. After a cup of coffee first, look Di, I have a cactus mug ready for you when you visit.
We have no phone signal in the area we were, and I have a phone interview for a job in (or I thought was in) Calgary. So we drove to the town of Jasper – there was some unreal scenery on the way. Does the below photo frustrate anyone else? Look how Ellen is standing slightly off centre to the double lines – I am so stressed right now. More stressed than when someone puts the TV volume on 17, 23 or 27 – freakin psychopaths….
The interview went really well, the manager I spoke to was even going to send Ellen’s CV to the environmental manager as well, but the role is actually in Vancouver! I have no idea how I mixed that up – but anyways, he is getting back to me in 2 days. All sounds promising though – Vancouver could be fun!
For the rest of the day in Jasper we went and did a hike close-by called the 7 lakes trail. It was a super nice easy walk, the water was crystal clear and gives off the amazing blue colour. On the way back into the town of Jasper, we saw a black bear in a tree! Lol – I knew drop bears were real!
For the night we went to the pub to watch the Raptors play. They won Game 5 away from home!!!!!!!!!!! I am shaking as I write this, I love an underdog story. All they need to do is win at home on Saturday and they are going to the final!!! Being the only Canadian team in the NBA, a lot of atmosphere is in all the pubs we go to now when they are playing. Drake’s music sucks though, I seriously think they would have more supporters if he didn’t have ownership of the team.
Anyways, we are slowly organising ourselves to live here. This is our list below:
- Obtain our work VISAs – DONE
- Pickup our bag of clothes – DONE
- Get from Toronto to Alberta/BC – DONE
- Buy bear spray – DONE
- Buy car/van – DONE (love you Bertha)
- Get jobs – NOT DONE
- Find place to live – NOT DONE (there is too many nice places)
- Watch the Raptors win the championship – WILL BE DONE
More photos located here.
Justin & Ellen's travels 
Well worth the wait !! Quite a marathon trip. ✔️😉👍💚
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Good luck!
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