Las Vegas

Last week Aleisha and I headed south of the boarder for a bit of a holiday. The main aim of the trip was to see the Rugby 7's tournament in Las Vegas, but we figured that while we were there we might as well see some of the sights. On the first day we met up Stefan and Claire in Vegas and drove out to the Grand Canyon. We timed the trip to perfection as a winter storm had just been through and dumped a foot of snow making for quite a surreal landscape. After a couple days exploring we headed back to Vegas for the 7's. The tournament had 44 games over 2 days so it was a non-stop rugby party which was a hell of a lot of fun. Unfortunately New Zealand lost to Samoa in the final but it was probably for the best as it keep the thousands of Samoan fans happy. After the rugby finished up we had a couple of days exploring the sights of Vegas, gambling and drinking $0.50 margaritas. The gambling worked out well for all of us as we all came home with more money than we spent. As a whole though Vegas left us with mixed feelings, its a fun place to be but in the end the excessiveness of it all becomes too much to bear and it was good to return to home.

Winter in the Grand Canyon

Team New Zealand exploring the worlds largest hole.

"The Strip" with the Eiffel tower in the background

Aleisha in Venice, well the fake Venice, complete with a canal system and fake ceiling all inside the Venetian hotel.

Samoa vs. New Zealand

Blueberry Hill

One of the most important lessons that we quickly learnt here is that just because its cold and miserable in Calgary doesnt mean there isnt blue sky 10 min down the road. So on Sunday when there was freezing fog and it was -15 C in Calgary we decided to head to the mountains. The move paid off and we were rewarded with blue sky and balmy -5 C temps.

Having lunch on Blueberry Hill, not a bad spot.

This cheeky bugger tried to steal my sandwich out of my hand.

The view from the top looking over the Kananaskis Lakes

Cross country madness

This weekends adventure was a couple of cross country ski trips to some new locations. The first was to the Mt. Shark area. The trip in was made a little more exciting when our car failed to make a corner and we ended up in a snow bank. Thankfully a friendly ranger passed by and gave us a tow out, hopefully the rental company will be none the wiser. The skiing was pretty good and we will certainly be heading back again soon, possibly for an overnight trip as we learnt that there is a hut further down the trail.
Sundays trip was to Lake Minnewanka and the Cascade Fire trail just out of Banff. After a few false starts and wrong turns we finally managed to find the trail head and start the day. While it was -15 C and snowing in Calgary it turned out to be a balmy -5 C with sun on the trail, perfect for cross country skiing. So all and all it was a pretty good weekend, although I think we will be a bit sore getting out of bed tomorrow.

A nice spot for lunch with Cone Mt. in the background.

Canadians