The Easter Bunny follows DnD to Mt Washington

DnD, with their great mates Czarina and Maarten, spent Easter 2006 at Mt Washington, on Vancouver Island, for some end-of-season "spring" skiing.
Expecting blue skies and icy snow (which greeted us on our first day) ... 50cm of new snow later and blizzards all Saturday - saw everyone pleasantly surprised (although a little cooler than hoped!)






Cute house covered in snow in the village!















Maarten's snowball in action! (That one was aimed at Dan!)






























Mt Washington map - kept us busy!!































Our ski in/out "Deer Lodge"

Mt Washington continued

Czarina putting on a show after a days skiing - doesn't she ever get tired!!!

















After a whole season's skiing, Dan finally learns how to put on her boots, without Dave's help! (Dave sighs in relief)




















Cz and M in our lounge room, overlooking the ski slopes!
















Some new snow from the afternoon's snow fall, on our balcony!















Dan's first fall off the day - lost in the powder! Maarten coming to the rescue - as usual!















Dave and Linton (the snowman), named after our favourite run "Linton's Loop". After surviving having his head being kicked off (and then replaced after scary Czarina had a few words!) by some young hooligan snowboarders (those snowboarders!), Linton ended up having a short life - after being run over by a snowmobile in the middle of the night. :(















Dan's snow angel....!

Heading down the slope - to the Comox Valley

After 2 days of skiing, we headed to the Comox Valley - just down from the slopes - comprising of a number of small communities.
This is Nymph Falls - just outside of a cute town called Courtenay. Very "Canadian" eh?





























Cz and M taking a walk near the river




















It was a little chilly in the forest!




















Dan in a holly bush, in Cumberland - another small Comox town















Cumberland




















Comox Lake




















Dan takes a break from all the activity




















Comox Lake - you can see the Comox Glacier from the end of the lake (not visible in the picture though)

Czarina and Maarten - What's all the hype??

Our newest friends, Czarina and Maarten, are people I would love all my friends and family at home to meet. These guys are inspiring and so much fun to be around. Czarina is from Sydney, Australia (born in India) and Maarten is from Holland. They met years ago whilst travelling and have lived in Holland together before moving to Canada a year ago, to do pretty much what we're doing - work and explore the country for a couple of years.
Czarina works in editing in Vancouver city - and is hilarious. She always makes you smile. She cooks an awesome gravy too!
Maarten works at the Dutch embassy here in Vancouver and is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. (He's also been my ski instructor for the entire Winter and my improved skiing is owed to him!) Maarten often has one too many red cordials however, and is known for doing head stands in knee-deep snow and instigating snowball fights at every opportunity!
We hope you all can meet them one day!!

Starting to look like Spring....

This is our cute little neighbourhood and Kitsilano beach - filled with blossoms!!! This is our favourite sushi place (taken from the patio of our favourite coffee shop!) and our gelato shop (very dangerous now it's getting warmer!)
Cute eh?!