Butchart gardens and Chemainus

After dropping off our overnight gear and a small mountain of food onto Martin and Inge's boat, we went for a walk along the Nanaimo waterfront. Sometimes, in a foreign country, you think that you've entered a parallel universe. We felt that driving through the Rockies but it became even more obvious passing the local yacht club:

Somehow the space - time continuum seems to have been distorted there, allowing the club to boast that it has survived right up to 2031. We didn't feel any disturbances walking past and our watches / phones stayed on the current date so perhaps it was a temporary aberration. Once the club had the banner printed, maybe they thought they should use it?

A little overhead walkway to some buildings told you what you were heading for:

Seaplanes would not be a  typical mix in the UK of course. Restaurant, bar and probably tattoo parlour being more normal. Or Turkish barber shop with dubious ownership and merchandise. Still, they were right, the seaplane terminal amused us (well, the captain) a lot. This little video shows one of them taxiing around:

The video footage of take off and landings was not good enough to share - they carelessly did that beyond a sensible range for the phone camera's capabilities. Great to watch live though.

Back on board, we admired the Selene mugs that Martin and Inge had inherited with the boat:

bemoaning the lack of Nordhavn equivalents on our craft. We were then treated to dinner afloat and yet more of that excellent home made carrot cake. Being spoiled was getting to be the norm and, worryingly, we were getting too used to it.

The following day, we went by car and ferry to Butchart gardens. Martin had said "it sounds a bit lame but it isn't". Other friends had told us it was a must see. Bernie (remember him, the man with the Dunkirk little ship Mimosa?) even commented that we had to go. Wow. They were all totally right. Converting the old quarry into a riot of colour, ground levels and trees / shrubs / plants must have taken some vision:

and the instigators never got to see it as it matured either. Quite stunning in detail, size and scope:

with the flower beds being changed out for each season to give different colours and experiences. Amazing. We could post so many images but just go and look at their website for yourself. See, not everything is spoon fed these days.

The big fountain was a relatively recent (1964) addition but well worth it. Watch this video to see why:

Since Halloween was approaching (remember the Home Depot scary display?) there were plenty of pumpkins around, adding to the floral display adorning the old tractor:

The link to the indigenous people was displayed:

with impressive poles:

Being boating types, we had to walk down to the waterfront area and got this peek through the hedges to the small inlet and moorings:

It looked even more tempting as a spot to bring your boat to when we got down to the waterside itself:

An amazing place and we're so glad that our hosts made the big journey to take us there. It was a bigger one on the way back as the ferry that cuts out a big looped drive around Vancouver Island was going to be full. The wait time would have been excessive, so the big (but scenic) looped drive was the way home. We stopped in Chemainus for dinner and a look around. The town kind of reinvented itself after a huge sawmill closed by having artists produce lots of murals on the sides of local buildings. Look at this link - Wikipedia for more info.

the murals represent the history of the place and really are quite something to see in the flesh. You will just have to make do with images on a screen though:

This big panorama showed the logging and sawmill history very graphically: 

all the way through to shipping the lumber out by sea:

Before that, the indigenous people:

and grim reminders / commemoration of the local folks who fought in World Wars:

There were some old pictures of particular UK interest. This massive tree , requiring two trucks to transport it:

became a huge flagpole in Kew Gardens, London. After walking around the town admiring the many murals open mouthed, we visited a great Vietnamese restaurant that kept our mouths busy once more and rounded off the day rather nicely.