After an early breakfast on Wednesday 3rd June 2009 we drove to Tsawwassen, after a coffee in the ferry terminal we boarded the ferry for the one and a half journey sailing between lots of small islands before landing at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. 

Vancouver Island is located in the north eastern Pacific Ocean, just off the west coast of Canada, It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 460 kilometres in length, 100 kilometres in width at its widest point, and 32,134 km² in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of North America.

One of our first ports of call was the iconic Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. Completed in 1905 to a Francis Rattenbury design, the Empress is one of Victoria’s best known sights. Close to the Parliament building the hotel overlooks the inner harbour and quite literally dominates the skyline with its ivy covered Gothic splendour. During the summer months the hotel serves over 800 afternoon tea’s each day to guests from all over the world.

A statue in one of the gardens is that of Terry Fox, born July 28th 1958 – June 28th 1981, he was a Canadian athlete and cancer treatment activist who became famous for the ‘Marathon of Hope’ a cross Canada run to raise money for Cancer research, which Fox ran with one prosthetic leg. He is considered one of Canada’s greatest heroes of the 20th century.

Another prominent statue in the harbour area is that of Captain James Cook. In 1776 he set sail from England in the ‘Resolution’ , his mission, to find a sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778 he became the first known European to reach the Hawaiian Islands, he went on to sail up the northwest coast of North America and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island. He continued up the coast through the Bering Strait and entered the Atlantic Ocean, unfortunately ice blocked his passage so he headed back to the warmth of the Hawaiian Islands.