Well, it had to be done, so we bought tickets for the Kelowna Rockets vs Medicine Hat Tigers ice hockey match.

The teams are in the West Hockey League of Canada and, despite being under 21, are pretty much equivalent to division 1 UK football teams, in fact probably better as they are where the talent for the major teams comes from.

Anyway, Kim managed to land us rink-side tickets for an amazingly atmospheric game. The Rockets beat the Tigers 10-1.

The Rockets enter the rink

Best seats in the house! (if you want to see some violence)

Violence! Yay!

On the way to Big White is a frozen lake (well, in winter) that is used by snowmobilers, cross country skiers and snowkiters!

Naturally I dragged Kim up there 3 or 4 times chasing some non existant wind, but at least we had a bit of an explore

Pretty interesting roads on route

Prime snowkiting terrain. (see the kite in the background? this was the one time I didn't have my gear with me )

The coldest loo in the world.

Fashion in Canada

The facilities were amazing.

We had a bit of a cold Australia day this year, but that didn't stop us from having the obligatory BBQ and beers on the balcony.

I was stoked to find some Tusker lager at the local liquor shop, and we found the largest prawns I have ever seen!

Good food, good beer, cold weather

-9 on the balcony!

These are prawns?

Cooking our steaks

How's that for a feast!

(note the tusker lager!)

There's quite a few lakes around Kelowna, so we did a few road trips to take a look around. The drive north follows some fantasic lakes, some were frozen, some were not and some were frozen to the half way point.

Very bizarre.

The most boring sport in the world, ice fishing.

Kids playing hockey

The flat in Kelowna is awesome, it's ultra modern with two bedrooms, a balcony and BBQ.

Very quiet, relaxing and just what the doctor ordered.

Nice

Kim found us a flat in Kelowna to stay at for a month, even though Kelowna is a summer destination it is only 30 minutes from Big White ski resort and a sizeable town.

The trip was one that I will never forget. We didn't have any problems until, ironically, we hit a town called Hope. After this, (beyond Hope?), the main highway was closed due to a mudslide and we were advised to stay in Hope and wait for the road to be cleared. But we're the adventurour types and decided that a detour was in order over a mountain pass that was advised as being in "bad condition".

We'll be alright, we have snow tires right?

We drove for about 4 hours at 40kmh over the most amazing terrain, occasionally encountering lorries with enormous tire chains and repair crews trying to fix the downed power lines.

Finally, the other side of the mountain was beset with blizzards and icy highways, at one point Kim had to get out of the car in the middle of the highway, to scrape the windshield free of ice as the wipers just couldn't cope.

9 hours later we arrived in Kelowna, taking 5 hours longer than expected.

Simply, the most amazing drive ever and something I won't forget quickly.

Molly Moose and Peter Rabbit at the start of our journey. No snow!

The "Mountain Pass"

The side of the road, we stopped by a bunch of truckers putting on snow chains to ask what they knew of the conditions ahead. "You'll be fine" was the optimistic reply.

Night driving on the highway through snow.

James was gracious enough to take me up to Cypress mountain for some snowboarding action, I was a bit apprehensive as I know James is fanatical and I was worried I'd be spoiling his day. Luckily James was good enough to find some areas that we both enjoyed, the runs we were doing were generally thick with powder so I did feel that I could crash all day and not worry about it. In fact I was the source of some amusement at the lift queues as I looked like a living abominable snowman!

We ran into James' friend Mark towards the end of the morning, he uses telemark skis and is simply amazing to watch. He's a naturally modest guy, very easy going and fun to be with, so this was a fantastic day!

Mark and James

Powder! Powder!

About to run into half a dozen trees.....