Day 4: It's snowing in Auckland?!

Five days after I leave the country, it snows for the first time in several decades. That's just typical. Nonetheless, I can't say I'm jealous of your weather on the whole - it's beautifully sunny here most of the time, and still cool enough that I'm able to walk around, which is good, because I'm not always so good at catching buses. Case in point: today I ended up walking for about 40 minutes to get home (after being on my feet most of the day). At least I'm getting to know my way around.

Honestly, I don't mind that much. It's so beautiful here that I enjoy pretty much every minute I spend here, even when I'm exhausted like I was today. I went out to Stanley Park, which is so beautiful that I think I'll make a facebook album of all the photos I took. Here's a taster in the meantime.

BAMF Tree: Falls over, continues growing sideways

I also saw my first squirrel. Little nutter ran across the road before I could get a picture, but here he is. Who knew there were black squirrels?

After exploring a bit (just a BIT - it's actually massive) of Stanley Park, I headed into downtown Vancouver, which is way bigger and more exciting than downtown Auckland. I walked along a single street in search of a mall for over an hour, and just when I was on the verge of giving up, it appeared!

It was big I guess, but it seemed like it had been designed to keep people out. Seriously everywhere I turned was another exit. I went into quite a lot of shops, but most of them were the kind where I look at the price on one item and then tiptoe out again, trying not to touch anything on my way out. I also had a BLT sub from... some sub place... for about $4. It was hands-down better than anything I've ever had at Subway. Yum.

I'm very tired after my long day out, so I'm probably going to have a quiet day tomorrow, maybe just go on a little walk or something. It'll probably be uninteresting, so I might not blog on it.

Enjoy your snow people! Take some photos and put them on facebook, and please keep commenting and keeping me updated. If you see me on facebook chat talk to me. I'm working on getting the sound on skype sorted out, and after that we can set up a mass skype session so I can see all your lovely faces.

Night :)
Claire