After a pretty good (albeit drug assisted) sleep in premium economy, we landed safely in Vancouver, collected all three pieces of luggage plus the two bikes and headed out to arrivals where Sam awaited us.
The bikes fit in his car, the remainder went with us via taxi to our overnight accommodation. After a quick change of attire and footwear we headed off to find SIM cards and Victoria's Secret, exchanging news with Sam en route.
Robson street was resplendent with Christmas trees, lights and rugged up Christmas shoppers and after successful purchases we had dinner in Earls, a favourite from my previous trips with Rosey.
Sam's plan was to head off fairly early the next morning as snow was expected in Vancouver and we would leave for the airport soon after to meet Ben and then fly on to Kamloops.
A quick check of our original booking on the Qantas website showed our rescheduled Air Canada flight was Thursday the 22nd!
We waved Sam goodbye and caught a cab to the airport, lining up at several counters before being told to get in the ticketing queue to see what 'our options might be.' This then is the stuff of North American weather events that we see in movies and hope won't happen to us lol.
As we slowly advanced in the line we had word from Ben that he was below us on the Arrivals level and was waiting for his bag.
Finally we reached the understandably harrassed ticketing man who confirmed that we had indeed been rebooked for Thursday and Ben for Wednesday. Mmmmmm, I said, not really acceptable…. we were beginning to contemplate driving when he managed to secure three seats to Kelowna in the afternoon and we decided that was our best option.
The drive from Kelowna to Kamloops is a couple of hours and several phone calls to Zoe secured a rental car for the one way trip to collect our original booking.
Ben, meanwhile, had now been assured that his (as yet unseen) bag would re routed to Kelowna so we had lunch, watched snow falling outside and hoped we would get away on time at 2.55.
Eventually our flight was called and we hurried on board and then watched as our plane was sprayed with de-icing chemicals before takeoff – not something we are ever likely to see in Australia.
An uneventful flight saw us landing in Kelowna on schedule but evidently Ben's bag hadn't made it with us. Another lengthy wait in the lost luggage queue ( a family from Australia were missing seven bags!) meant it was nearly six pm by the time paperwork was completed. Give that sunset is at 3.56, Russell and I made the decision to stay in Kelowna rather than risk the drive in dark unfamiliar conditions and we checked in to the Sheraton conveniently across the road.
At the airport the next morning we were pleased to hear that Ben's bag was waiting for us at our Sun Peaks hotel.
The drive was easy enough in the daylight but it was approaching dusk again by the time we had swapped cars, completed grocery shopping in Kamloops and began the drive up the mountain to Sun Peaks.
Walking in to Zoe's workplace a little after 4.30pm and then a short while later checking in to our apartment and receiving Ben's bag was a great relief.
Not being the types to rest on our laurels however, we quickly spruced up and headed out to dinner and the famous Monday night trivia!
The four of us plus Zoe's friend's Andy and Lucy proved to be a winning combination and a good time was had by all.