British Columbia Roadtrip Part 1 (Montana - Vancouver)

We started our trip on Wednesday 22nd July, with Rangi full to the brim, stellar weather and the country music blasting out the speakers. We headed due south towards the US border into Montana. Here we hit the 'Road to the Sun', which had breathtaking landscapes and amazing views. This was where I proposed to Kirsten which also happened to be on our 5 year anniversary.

Day 2 we headed north back into Canada to the small alternative city of Nelson, British Columbia. We loved the quaint historic buildings and the evening festival where there seemed to be a constant aroma of BC bud. This is where we found the first pay phone and made some very important phone calls home.

Day 3 we hit up the Okanagan Valley for some incredible fresh produce and wine tastings. The weather caught us off guard reaching 35+ degrees. Due to Rangi's lack of air conditioning we had our heads out the windows to try and cool down. The beach at Kelowna was the place to be, where we swam until late in the evening.

Day 4 started with some premium wine tasting at Mission Hill Winery on top of a hill looking over the Okanagan Valley. We hit the road a little late, which made for a long drive to Robbie and Ed's in Vancouver. For the first time since leaving New Zealand we enjoyed fresh fish'n'chips on the Richmond Wharf, and Kirsten spotted her first Bald Eagles.

Road to the Sun, Montana USA

This is where I proposed to Kirsten

Rangi, the beast!

Nelson BC, Canada

Our henna tattoos

Kelowna, Okanagan Valley, BC

Mission Hill Winery

Richmond, Vancouver

Ed, Robbie, Kirsten and Myself

Calgary Stampede (Rodeo, Chuck Wagons, Night Show)

On Friday 9th July, we hit up the Calgary Stampede again for a day of bucking and broncing at the rodeo. We were up early and donned our western gear again for a ride on the C-Train to downtown. The day was another cracker with hot sunny weather and freshly squeezed lemonade was a must. In the early afternoon we hit the grandstand for the rodeo. Our seats were right in the mix of and we even had the good fortune of having a rich business man shout us drinks for the duration of the rodeo! The size of the bulls and power of the broncs was phenomenal.

In the late afternoon we had a few drinks in the Nashville North tent and enjoyed the live country music.

We also got our first taste of chuck wagon racing, which is far to complicated for us to work out, but entertaining nonetheless.The Night Show followed after and was another highlight for us with crazy stunts on bikes, drummers playing suspended 150ft in the air, and amazing dancing.

We were one of over 1 million visitors to the Stampede this year, we loved every minute of it and is one party we won't forget.

Cowboys standing for anthem.

Steer wrestling

Bareback

Saddle Bronc

Stampede

Native hoop dance

Barrel Racing

Bull Riding

Chuck Wagon Racing

Budweiser Wagon

Night Show glimpse

Calgary Stampede Day One

Friday saw us going to the Opening Parade for the Calgary Stampede 2010. We got downtown nice and early but found the streets already packed with multiple thousands of people all vouching for a good spot to watch.

The parade itself was quite impressive with a large number of cowboys, First Nations (Indians), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Army, etc. We loved seeing the huge wagon horses groomed in very intricate ways, as well as all the other quirky wagons, carts, cars, etc that went by. We even had a main battle tank from the Canadian Armed Forces pull a 360 right in front of us!

After the parade and a bit of a detour on the C-Train we made it to the Stampede Grounds. The day was warming up rapidly, and ended up being well over 30 degrees so we were throwing back the water, lemonade and the odd beer. There was sooo much to do and see in the grounds but I will run over a few of the highlights:

There was an Ice show in one of the stadiums which we watched, it was incredible! There was a band playing all old rock'n'roll while famous skaters did their thing on the ice; Winter Olympic gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir even skated.

Watching New Zealand compete in national blacksmith contests, seeing the miniature horse chuck wagon racing, being able to play with the Canadian Armed Forces toys: machine guns, torpedoes, even sit in the cockpit of an F18 Hornet fighter jet.

It was a full on day to say the least, but we cannot wait until this Friday when we do it all over again, but this time go into the Grandstand to watch the Rodeo and Night Show.

THE PARADE

Royal Canadian Mounted Police:

Budweiser Wagon:

Kirsten the Cowgirl:

Very well behaved bull:

First Nation Representative:

STAMPEDE:

Giddy'up:

Smartest idea saddling a torpedo? Hell yeah!:

See I'm not the only dummy:

Real rednecks:

One for home:

Airdrie Pro Rodeo

Last weekend Kirsten Graham and I went to the Airdrie Pro Rodeo, there was really no excuse not to go considering we were given free tickets and it was only 3 minutes down the road from home.

It was very impressive watching the high caliber of contestants on all the events. We sat on the hillside and watched for 6 hours and enjoyed the mid summer heat and very cold beer. Below are just a couple of pictures from the day:

Saddle Broncs:

Individual Calf Roping:

Kiwi Cowboy???:

Range Day With Graham & Graham

Last week on our day off, Graham had invited me and Graham (G-Ram) to join him at the range to play with some toys. This range was amazing, it had two parts, one was a 100/200/300yard paper target range for sighting in, the other a Silhouette range starting at 220yards and going out to 550yards.

I was like a kid in a candy shop with the rifles that we being pulled out of the truck, they were as follows: Ruger .22, Ruger .22magnum, H&K SL8 .223, Sako Finnlight 6.5x55mm, Remington Tactical 308, Weatherby .257 Weatherby Magnum, Sako TRG-42 .338 Lapua Magnum.

The morning was spent sighting in G-Ram's Remington .308 Tactical, the Ruger .22 & .22mag, and load testing  Graham's Sako 6.5x55mm on the 100 yard range. After that we moved to the long range steel silhouette range knocking over steel targets with all the big guns. Even after shooting for a few hours and a hundred or so rounds I was still not bored. 

Later in the afternoon Graham and I went to a farmers place and shot gophers for a few hours, but the sandflies finally got too much so we called it a day. 

Next time Graham is taking me out to the long distance range and we are going to hit targets out to 1km, its gonna be awesome!!! 

The Rosebud Range (closest silhouettes: 220 yards, farthest: 550yards) :

H&K SL8, .223 rem:

Weatherby, .257 Weatherby Magnum:

Sako TRG-42, .338 Lapua Magnum:

The Big Boys:

The Bullets: from left, .338lapua mag, .257wby mag, .308win, .223rem: