A year in BC

Sun Apr 3rd

Howe Sound

Catchy title for a book don't you think? Maybe not.

Easter Saturday 3rd April 2021

A year ago today we arrived in Canada. Departing an empty Heathrow airport, on a near empty Air Canada aircraft to Toronto. International flights to Vancouver had all been cancelled. All incoming international flight passengers were being ‘processed’ in Ontario. Queuing for a passport check, immigration discussion, Covid tests and then a bus to our quarantine hotel. Hotel room OK, food well off the bottom of the scale.

Two days later after negative Covid tests we were on our way to Vancouver and the final eleven days of our quarantine in North Van. Our garden suite was great, our host welcoming and Jack arriving midway through our quarantine, the icing on the cake.

Our house search started over a year ago, before we left the UK. Tentative offers made no progress. On Thursday last, we closed (completed) on a purchase and now have our own small piece of Canada. A very, very small piece according to Nick. In fact, assuming we have circa ½ acre, it’s 1/4,932,590,000th of Canada - roughly! Well Canada is big! It’s only four years old, has a warranty through to 2028 and will require little maintenance in the short term. We loved our 300 year old Eastcourt House but it did need looking after.

A Choice of seats!

We’re thrilled. We will move in on May 19th, the house is being rented back to the current owners, while they finalise their move to a house on Vancouver Island on May 18th. Purchase rent-backs are now very common, allowing house vendors to become cash buyers in a sellers’ market. It’s a very competitive housing sector. Not much different to the UK.

Our Visitor Records (IMM 1442) arrive early next week so we are off to sort out local driving licenses and a bank account. The £ is still going down against the CA$, so we need to work out when we move money to a local account. Despite my dislike at the idea of being a currency trader, I am looking at the rates daily!

I am relieved we managed to move the house purchase money across from the UK when we did.

We can’t believe how quickly the last year has flown by.

We’re starting to think about longer term plans and exploring the rest of Canada. It could take a lifetime to take it all in, so we have a lot to cram in. We are looking at hiring/acquiring an RV to spend several months next year driving up to the top of BC, then across to Newfoundland.

So if any friends or family are interested in coming out to Canada for a few weeks and using our house as a base, do let us know. It will probably be May, June, July time. A chance to explore the Sunshine Coast part of BC in a cost effective way! Of course if you want to come before, we have plenty of space.

Howe Sound tug

We started exploring Canada in 2000 when we spent a couple of weeks in the Muskoka region of Ontario. We rented a ‘cottage’ (six beds and several acres) on Lake Vernon, near Huntsville. The lakes, Algonquin National Park and Niagara Falls were beautiful. Rugged rural Canada. Actually we’d planned to spend a week in Muskoka and then drive to Vancouver to spend a second week there, until we realised it would take a week to get there! It reinforced the Cronk travel bug, which until then had been limited to Europe and my work travel.

In 2006, after A levels, Nick headed off to Nepal for six weeks to trek to Everest base camp. The stage was set.

2010 was a momentous year. I left the BBC in March. Ros and Tom headed off on a world tour in July. Just over a month later Tom was medivac’d back to the UK after breaking both feet in a cliff fall on

Ros on the Rocks

Lombok, in Indonesia. Undeterred they headed back to Aus and NZ the following Jan. They moved to Canada in Jan 2013 as part of a job transfer, returning to the UK In Oct 2013. Nick moved to Canada in July 2013. The Cronks had gone global.

Nick and Ros both enjoy an outdoor life and adventures. Wanderlust returned and Ros and Tom returned to NZ just after Christmas 2018. Multiple wedding dates for both Nick and Ros have been cancelled due to Covid. Life goes on and enjoying it is far more important. Nick and Lizzie are expecting our first grandchild in less than a month.

And then a year ago today, Easter Saturday, we headed to Canada having packed up our house and said goodbye to good friends and family. Nick and Ros have been our inspiration to take a risk. We have close friends who have lost partners far too early. We are all only here once. It was time for a change.

What a year. It has had many highs and few lows. It has been an adventure, we’ve walked, climbed, paddled, avoided bears, watched Bald Eagles and otters and explored. Despite some of the uncertainties we’d do it again. We miss our UK friends, though keep up to date with emails and Zoom calls. But it’s not the same as chatting over the garden gate or an impromptu BBQ, when weather and Covid allowed.

Nick (& Fred) usually found up an alp

In a few weeks we move into our new house in Canada. We expect to be here for the foreseeable future. It still has its risks. We’re here for ten years but do not have Permanent Residency, though we hope that may change in the years to come. If nothing else we can look back and say we tried. We will make the most of it.

Nick and Ros remain our inspiration, we are hugely proud of them both. They have, unknown to them, pushed our boundaries.

We’ve been planning a family visit from the UK in June and another in July and some very close friends at the beginning of August. Ros, we hope, will be heading to Canada in July having been restricted within NZ’s borders because of NZ travel bans. We have not seen her since she left for NZ, early 2018. It’s going to be a busy few months.

Van Island

In other news ……

Furniture for pending grandchild is now all made, ready for its final spray lacquer and delivery after the delivery of said grandchild. Exciting!

Our shipping container has arrived in BC and has gone into storage until we press the button to move it into the new house.

Gibsons, has been knocked out of the best small town in BC by Saltspring Island. Disappointed for Gibsons, but it might send grockles off elsewhere! :-)

Gibsons from the harbour

We have a final few days in Whistler next week as Nick and Lizzie have decided they’d prefer to be closer to home for the next few weeks, so they won’t be using their loft apartment. Apparently Whistler can have some of its best snow in April, though we have never skied that late in the year. Here’s hoping for powder and blueskies!

Some memories from the last year.