All in a Day's Work

Andrew is on Easter break now and has about 1 week off. We are taking the time to explore a lot of the city and do some little outings. Yesterday we visited Hagley Park (which we frequent quite often). We like to hang out in the Botanical Gardens. It's absolutely massive. When we went with Sue in February, I didn't realize we didn't even explore the half of it. Here's some of my favourites from yesterday. It's Fall here and the leaves are beautiful.





Today we did a few things. We went to St. Albans Park and Logan played on the playground for a while and I went on the Flying Fox. Flying Foxes are sooo fun! Then we went to Spencer Beach. Spencer Beach is really neat because there's so much to do there. We actually went yesterday to the animal park at Spencer Beach, and today we decided to check out the actual beach. There's all kinds of trails and hikes through marshlands, forest, and beach. We will definitely have to go back and check out more of the park because there's so much to do.



Then after the kids naps, we headed up to Victoria Park in the Port Hills. It was absolutely magnificent. After you get past the drive which is reminiscent of the drive up to Abel Tasman and the vertigo, you land at a beautiful park (although I have a hard time calling it a park because the Toronto notion of park is very different than the Kiwi one. Think like Algonquin park maybe?). There is everything to do from downhill mountain biking to picnicking to hiking. There is even a children's playground at the top. We checked out the Visitor's centre in Victoria Park to get some info on the trails but unfortunately it was closed due to Earthquake damage. We decided to just hang out at the kids playground for a bit and just take in the magnificent view of the city, mountains, and ocean.




I almost can't comprehend that all in one day we hung out at the beach and chilled atop what I would say is a small mountain and that each was only a 15 minute drive from where we live. I am absolutely in love with this city. I can't believe how much there is to do and how much more we have to explore. We live in an absolutely stunning city (even though the Earthquake has damaged some of that). I can't believe how much there is to do for free and as we are becoming locals, we are learning about all kinds of spots and things to do that aren't in the tourist brochures.

For more pictures of Hagley Park and Victoria Park check out our albums on the right.