Brisbane, QLD


Showing posts with label Whistler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whistler. Show all posts

Saturday, September 11, 2010

SWINGING FROM PEAK TO PEAK

Yippee, we had a sleep in this morning. After another delicious breakfast it was Free Choice Activity time. We chose the Peak2Peak Gondola ride. The gondola swings from Blackburn Mountain to Whistler Mountain but first we must get to the top of the mountain on a chairlift.
I was a little apprehensive but I was so excited to be here, that I didn't care anymore and just looked out for bears and the beautiful scenery.

There was a fabulous 360* view at the top of Blackcomb peak, however the pink haze in the sky was to haunt us for the next few days. It was smoke from numerous forest fires in BC.

My stomach did a flip when I saw how far down the Gondola falls before it rises again to Whistler peak. There are no more pylons after this one until the other side of the ravine. Bill relaxed when he saw that it was made in Switzerland.

There was a glass floor just to give you a bit more of an adrenalin rush. It was very hard to get shots of the magic view due to the reflections on the windows, but I managed this one. We stopped at the top for a coffee on the terrace. Bill's foot was sore so he stayed there with a friend while I and a two others walked to another chairlift which took us even higher to the summit.

This one really took your breath away. It felt like we were going to splat into this wall of rock.

Now we were really on top of the world with this Inukshuk. Originally these  symbols were created by the Inuit people to show 'someone has been here' or 'you are on the right path'. However it can have a variety of meanings today. It was the logo for the Winter Olympics meaning 'welcome'.

This fellow was trying a one legged meditation pose for a photographer. He kept losing his balance. I expected him to topple over the edge at any minute and take a short cut down the mountain.

Then it was time to take the chairlift down to pick up Bill and then swing in the gondola back to the other peak and then down, down, down again in two more chairlifts to Whistler, which you can see at the bottom here. Look at that smoke blowing in and starting to hide the mountains. We had the afternoon to ourselves, I explored the village while Bill checked out the doctor's surgery and then the pharmacy. A few hundred dollars later he had some antibiotic tablets. Thank goodness for travel insurance.