Sunday March 8
Wow - another wonderful sunny day but the conditions were deteriorating - we sprang forward to daylight saving time over night - caused a bit of confusion in the morning as some clocks moved forward automatically.
We skied in the morning again then had lunch at home as we were meeting up with John (Reed) who we met on the Antarctic cruise with his wife Moe who was away in Palm Dessert competing in various horse (riding/jumping) events. We went to John & Moe’s house on Blueberry Hill (close by suburb of Whistler) - great house with wonderful mountain views. We then has dinner at the Quattro - an Italian restaurant we had never tried before - had too much red wine.
Monday March 9
We started a bit slow this morning but still hit the slopes as cloudy skies gave way as the day went on to sunny skies. The snow had continued to deteriorate - not surprising given the mountain highs of 7C with 14C in the village. We only took a few runs then went to the Mallard to share our favourite - prime rib sandwich - even half is enough for a dinner.
We did a bit of grocery shopping then stayed home for sambos for dinner. We did not stock up too much as we were thinking we might go home a day or 2 (at the most) early if some *A FF seats open up at the 11th hour - looking very unlikely. Rain is forecast for the end of the week.
Tuesday March 10
Another sunny / partly cloudy day and warm day - amazing!! We headed up Blackcomb and had a run down Springboard (the ‘run of day’) - cripes it was as icy as all get out! I was ready to throw the towel in but Dieter insisted we try Whistler so over we went on the P-2-P - we tired the peak t-bar and low and behold the snow was very good. So even though the run is quite short we spent a couple of hours enjoying the sun and snow. We did a ‘walk-in’ at Steeps with no problems and had fish (ling cod) for lunch then back to Blackcomb for a final run down Springboard - now very slightly improved.
We decided to have dinner out and went to Wildflower at the Fairmont - for a very nice meal - shared salad, duck for Dieter and the crab cake entree for me.
Wednesday March 11
Well - the mountain forecast tells the story - snow today and tomorrow but verging on rain with temps barely below zero. We took a day off and spent it reading, doing a bit of shopping and having lunch at the Dub Lhin followed by dinner at home - which should have been mushroom pasta and salad however the salad was over the hill so it was pasta only.
Thursday March 12
Another gloomy day - not quite as bad as the forecast but yesterday’s forecast of snow never really eventuated. We went out anyway and lo and behold it cleared up - we skied on Springboard which was very icy then on Wishbone to the Honeycomb chairlift which was not too bad. It was so windy that the P-2-P was closed all day. After our ‘last’ lunch at Christine’s we skied to mid-station and downloaded. We had dinner at home - steak, grilled portobello mushrooms, green beaten and roast potatoes.
Friday March 13
Another surprise start to the day - after predicting rain and snow today it was a glorious sunny day. So my plan of using the day to pack and laze about was thwarted - we hit the slopes. After riding up the Wizard and Solar Coaster it was clear that the skiing on Blackcomb would not be good - looked very very icy. So we took the P-2-P and skied the Peak T-bar for a couple of hours - great conditions - amazing. We downloaded on the Whistler gondola and headed home for a late lunch followed by packing up.
I tried unsuccessfully to check-in online for our Air China flights home but struck a variety of web site issues so gave up - here’s hoping there’s no issue tomorrow at the airport as this booking has had a bit of a hex on it.
We finished off with a final dinner at Wildflower - excellent.
Saturday March 14
On the way home - we awoke to pouring rain - we got up early to finish off the packing etc in time for our re-booked taxi at 9:30am. We were ready early so got the taxi to come early just in case the bad weather slowed down the trip. Not to worry - we arrived at the airport in the record breaking of 2 hours - in plenty of time for our 13:50 Air China (CA) flight to Beijing (PEK). Unfortunately CA would not let us check our luggage all the to Sydney.
We spent our time waiting for our flight in the Star Alliance lounge - Air Canada no longer provide lounge services for other *A members; however, this lounge was pretty much the same - pretty boring with limited F&B offerings.
Our CA flight left right on time - chocker-blocker in both business and economy - but we had good seats near the front on a pretty newish 777-xyz. The 11.5 hour flight was uneventful - F&B was pretty average - the only real complaint was the Champagne was not cold but then I wasn’t even expecting Champagne. We arrived in PEK early, around 4:00pm local time - our exit through immigration and baggage was pretty swift - as usual the skis took a little longer than the regular luggage. Fortunately we were using the TVOA (transit visa on arrival) as there was no queue for this while the regular immigration queue for foreigners was a mile long - looked like about an hour wait for these unfortunately. Again we had hoped that once in PEK we could re-check our luggage for our flight to Sydney the following day at 17:00 but alas CA would have no part in this. So we lugged what seemed like our entire worldly possessions to the shuttle bus to our hotel - the Langham - only about a minute away - you can actually walk if you aren’t burdened with luggage.
Our overnight at the Langham was fine - we had booked a Club room so we could have a light dinner at the Club but Dieter was not too keen on the selection of canapés so we went to one of the restaurants for a light meal - we both choose the WonTon Soup - it was so terrible it will become a lasting memory of our overnight stay - needless to say neither of us ate it.
So the following morning we lazed around after breakfast in the lounge then headed back to the airport around 14:00 for our 17:00 flight - check-in and associated formalities went smoothly and we waited in the CA lounge for our flight. I had read some very uncomplimentary reviews of this lounge which did not prove quite true with the exception of the F&B offerings - pretty much not to our taste particularly the Chinese beer (not very cold) and the Great Wall wine - I managed to scrape together a G&T.
Our 17:00 flight pushed back from the gate on time but we ended up 30 minutes late due to runway delays. The flight was pleasant enough - the F&B unmemorable but at least the Champagne was a little bit colder. Even though our plane was an older model of 777 with previous generation lie-flat seats - we both found them more comfortable than the newer ones on the light from YVR. We both actually managed to get quite a bit of sleep. We landed in Sydney around 8:10 - but with tarmac delays, immigration queues, slow arrival of the skies and morning traffic we did not walk in the door until nearly 10am - so happy to be home.
The End