So who's this Theresa one then?

Seals
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Hello Theresa, friend of this lot but as far as I'm concerned kind stranger who has offered me a bed for the next week or so.  Well, it turns out that Theresa is ace, and a brilliant host.  That girl crammed more into three or four days than I had planned to do in the year!  Not only that, but you've seen the photo of the fridge we arrived to!!  She's so generous, she says that you call all stay with her next time you're in Canada.  (That bit might not be true, but I'd like to see her freak out when she starts getting requests - I think she would actually start planning an itinerary rather than telling you that she doesn't know you you big freak and you can't stay!)

Theresa and her well-stocked fridge
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First night, bbq and beer.  We sat around, they chatted about when Theresa used to lived in Didsbury, and I was wondering why I hadn't met this girl before, she's a right laugh!

No really, there are bears in Canada, honest.

The next day we were ready for some sightseeing Masi-stylee.  None of this 'walking round' carry on, we hired out kayaks for a proper view of Victoria.  It's a really beautiful city - have a look at the photos for yourself.  You can get actual boat-plane-taxi things as well, proper Flying Doctors-stylee!!!  All the paddling round was making us hungry, so we stopped off for lunch on the pier.  And here begins Rick's love affair... with clam chowder.  He actually had it for started and main that time, albeit unintentionally.

Dear god here goes...
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That evening Rick, Mike and I were lucky enought to be invited onto a private 'Hop-on, hop-off' tour of Victoria, courtesy of Joe, Theresa's brother. Apparently he gives these tours to all her friends who come to visit, so there've been quite a few!  He took us round to some of the beaches, and some of the most unbelievable houses I've ever seen - they were absolutely massive, and the view of the ocean and mountains was incredible.  I could definitely move to Canada.  We went down to another pier with a bit of a fancy boat club, and 'lucked out' again - just as we were leaving two (hot!) guys came out to feed some seals.  That was pretty cool.

I haven't done this since I was in school!
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That night was more bbq, a little more beer, and more of the Masi clan.  After a great dinner and a good laugh outside, Theresa decided it was a good idea to turn on the karaoke machine.  Mike and Rick singing 'Constant Sorrow' in a broad Southern drawl was funny, the rest - not so much!!!

Next day, 'going on a bear hunt..'  (Theresa, Nicky and I did actually sing that in the car.)  We set off pretty early for Port Renfrew, so see us some bears.  Now, let me fill you in.  There is some kind of ancient folklore tale about bears living in Canada.  According to Theresa, she sometimes used to 'see them on the side of the road'.  It's cute the way they perpetuate the myth, with pretend bear-proof bins and the like.  So anyways, that was our fun 'aim' for the day - to see some bears.

Sooke Potholes
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On the way we drove through a settlement of First Nations people, where the kids who Theresa used to teach lived.  It's a bit of a sad story, they used to own all this land in Canada, and then (remember Boston?), the good old English removed them (you should probably read the disclaimer I wrote after a similar comment about Boston Common).  Anyways, the Canadian government decided that they kinda owed them, so they gave them some land, and free housing, and a regular income.  Anyways, as a result very few of them work, and the settlement is something of a slum.  There are some very sad stories about life there, but I guess it's the same story all over the world, in any language.

We are real pilots!
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We drove for a few hours, all the time looking out for these 'bears'.  Luckily, Theresa had added in other attractions, like a trip to the beach for our lunch (the boys and I also did some rock pool exploring), and checked out the Sooke Pot Holes as well.  No, they're not just pot holes in the road.  There was a cool block stucture there, turns out some really rich dude wanted to build a massive resort, got as far as building the chimney and some walls, then ran out of money.  Turns out that rather than anyone buying it off him on the cheap, kids used to play in it, so they tore most of it down.  You would think the threat of all these dangerous bears in the woods would have kept the kids away, wouldn't you?  (Derv it's ace, I reckon we could set up our pub there.)

That evening, pilot Mike, RIck and I took to the skies in a cessna plane.  That was pretty cool, and we got a really brilliant view of the island.  Didn't see any bears though...

On day three we headed to the BC museum, which turned out to be less of a museum trip and more of a crazy golf competition.  It turned out the be a three-way tie between myself, Mike and Rick, but I got the most hole-in-ones, so I win, right??!  After that it was the IMAX, where Rick decided it was perfectly acceptable to stand at the door and have a conversation with myself and Theresa in the back row - apparently she still had his ticket - even though the movie had started.  At one stage I though he was gonna start into a stand-up routine, he was chatting for so long.  It only got funnier, Theresa got up to go down and talk to him, and climbed over the back of her chair.  When I heard the bang I turned round to see one leg and one hand frantically grabbing in the air.  I laughed so much I thought I'd have to leave the theatre too.

After that, it was finally time for one of these fishbowl frozen bellini things that Nicky had been going on about since we got here!  After a race with those (I won! - we weren't getting competitive or anything) we all had brain freeze, so took a quick walk in the sun to warm up.  We nipped into a 7-11 to buy call cards, where I found the conversation between the woman behind the counter and Mike highly amusing.

Woman: "What are you doing?"

MIke: "Hugging the coffee machine."

Woman: "Why?"

Mike: "Because I'm cold."

Anyways, after that we had the taste for another few bevvies, so we called into The Irish Times for a few.  On the taxi ride home, Mike and I discussed electric cars and dynamo brakes.  We really are the most exciting travellers.

Next morning, up and out - Vancouver here we come!

Click here for the Victoria photos

Click here for the take off video

Click here for the Cessna video (flying)

Click here for the video of Pilot Mike landing us to safety